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Textbook Site for:
Management , Seventh Edition
Ricky W. Griffin - Texas A&M University
Self-Assessments

Defining Quality and Productivity




Introduction: Quality is a complex term whose meaning has no doubt changed over time. The following assessment surveys your ideas about quality and approaches to quality.

Instructions: You will agree with some of the statements and disagree with others. In some cases, making a decision may be difficult, but you should force a choice. Record your answers next to each statement according to the following scale:
+2 = Strongly Agree
+1 = Somewhat Agree
-1 = Somewhat Disagree
-2 = Strongly Disagree


1. Quality refers to a product's or service's ability to fulfill its primary operating characteristics such as providing a sharp picture for a television set.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
2. Quality is an absolute, measurable aspect of a product or service.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
3. The concept of quality includes supplemental aspects of a product or service such as the remote control for a television set.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
4. Productivity and quality are inversely related so that to get one you must sacrifice the other.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
5. The concept of quality refers to the extent to which a product's design and operating characteristics conform to certain set standards.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
6. Productivity refers to what is created relative to what it takes to create it.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
7. Quality means that a product will not malfunction during a specified period of time.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
8. Quality refers only to products; it is immeasurable for services.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
9. The length of time that a product or service will function is what is known as quality.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
10. Everyone uses exactly the same definition of quality.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
11. Quality refers to the repair ease and speed of a product or service.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
12. Being treated courteously has nothing to do with the quality of anything.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
13. How a product looks, feels, tastes, and/or smells is what is meant by quality.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
14. Price, not quality, is what determines the ultimate value or service.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
15. Quality refers to what customers think of a product or service.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 
16. Productivity and quality cannot both increase at the same time.
Strongly Agree  +2  +1  -1  -2  Strongly Disagree
 



Source: Adapted from Chapter 21, especially pp. 473-474, in David D. Van Fleet and Tim O. Peterson, Contemporary Management.


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