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RESEARCH PRODUCT

In Search of a Quality Culture: The Awkward Truths of an Indeterminate Maxim

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Abstract The paper explores the evolutions and realities of institutional “Quality Culture” (QC) and unpicks blurred definitions of QC that are to determine whether it has a valid voice in the modern quality assurance vernacular. The authors question whether QC is a practical and achievable goal, or if it is little less than a theoretical conceptual buzz-term that ignores the realities of existing impregnable structures or individual malaise barring real progress towards a process of quality enhancement. It queries whether a QC is equally achievable in the private sector and public sectors. Taking a tertiary educational institution and a cultural institution (opera company) as examples, the authors demonstrate how a culture of quality can be bread via a process that is at once both systematic and organic, individual and inclusive, guided yet self-monitored.