What is this “quality” that we’re being asked to sell? Using the word as a noun implies that it is concrete—a product that you can package and put on the shelf. “I’ll have three pounds of quality, please.” More frequently, it’s used as an adjective, as in “quality service” or “quality products.” It’s common to see a mission statement profess to provide “The highest quality healthcare,” whatever that means.
The term has become a slang expression, having no intrinsic meaning, and some organizations have dropped it. “Quality” appears only once in a footnote on the Baldrige Award web site. The American Society for Quality is now known as ASQ, and you won’t find a translation of those letters on their web site. It is possible to go thru the ISO 9001 standards and remove the word “quality” entirely, without altering the meaning of any sentence.
So then, what is it we’re being asked to sell?
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