The customer focus as a factor of institutionalization of quality, a study in different types of organizations

Abstract

This paper contains partial information from a doctoral thesis that studies the process of institutionalization quality practices, specifically the ISO 9001 standard in organizations of San Nicolás Local Economic Region, with the aim of facilitating the process of implementing a quality management system and achieve its sustainability over time. This article shows an analysis model of customer focus in two case studies built by organizations immersed in different types of environments or context. The customer focus constitutes the fundamental basis of a quality-oriented organizational culture and depends on concrete actions carried out by senior management. This principle of quality implies a change in orientation from traditional organizations focused on costs and efficiency, towards organizations oriented to providing a rapid response to customer demand with new ideas and technologies. The context or external environment that surrounds the organizations is a combination of technical and institutional environments, where the distinctive characteristics present in these environments consist of the fact that the institutional elements encompass the most symbolic and cultural factors that arise in the organizations, while the technical elements comprise the more materialistic resource-based features.