Managing quality: critical links and a contingency model

Addresses quality management issues of both conceptual and practical significance. The contribution is twofold: first, conceptual issues and critical relationships which have been overlooked in the current literature are discussed, as well as their policy implications. Second, a contingency approach for managing quality is proposed to guide implementation, and to help reduce the deviations between the desired and the actual outcomes of quality programs. The contingency model developed provides a basis for advancing both theory and practice.