Is Quality off the agenda?

Modern Quality Management appeared in the 1920s and was particularly developed from the 1950s to the 1990s with quality control, quality assurance, Total Quality and eventually Business Excellence. First designed for industrial activities, it expanded into services from the 1970s. Thanks to a number of standards and management models, it enjoyed a fast growth from the 1960s to the early 2000s. Since the mid-2000s, it has, however, lost in popularity and been increasingly abandoned by companies. The key reason for that evolution seems to be that the various quality standards and models on the one hand no longer provide a competitive advantage to companies and on the other hand do not offer management principles and tools for companies to take up the challenges that have arisen in the economic, managerial, social and natural environments. This study first proposes an overview of Quality Management’s development since its inception and second an analysis of its decline examining possible reasons for it. Finally, in a prospective manner, it proposes ways thanks to which Quality Management could be rethought and revived