Quality management in South African architectural practices

The building and construction industries worldwide are experiencing ever closer scrutiny of their operations as pressure mounts from clients to address the inefficiencies inherent therein. The issue of quality is of pivotal concern in this regard and this paper examines the status quo of a number of South African architectural practices with respect to how they are managing quality, and tests their opinions with regard to ISO 9000 certification as a means of addressing the issue. The results indicate that the architects in question generally have a poor grasp of quality management theory, although many of the eight main principles required for its implementation are already intrinsically present in the way they manage their practices; probably as a result of the small size of the average practice. A systematic and documented approach to quality management is however largely lacking in the profession and a great deal of negativity exists with regard to ISO 9000 certification.