Assessing the actuality and relevant importance of Deming’s 14 points

Abstract

Deming’s 14 points summarize the main challenges of corporate management to change for the 1980s, but the teaching may still be actual. Recent crises have drawn attention to the need to rethink and refine business. Leadership and organization have a crucial role in responding appropriately to environmental changes. The study uses an online survey to assess the relative importance of 14 points among higher education students. The analysis used the Q-methodology. The results suggest competing opinion patterns about the importance of the points. Still, there is an agreement about the key relevance of constantly improving every process for planning, production, and service as well as instituting training on the job. At the same time, the respondents significantly agreed that eliminating numerical quotas cannot be considered indispensable.