Striving for quality: The key role of internal and external customers

This research suggests that the concept of customer orientation is at the core of a successful quality program. Based both on a series of interviews conducted at a Baldridge Award winning company and on past literature support, it is shown that in addition to an external customer orientation, an internal customer orientation plays a strategic role in the achievement of high quality standards throughout the organization. Several recommendations are proposed to foster the development of an internal customer orientation—a concept which has been largely neglected in the quality management literature.