Evaluation of quality policy of selected companies in the context of quality management independence

Purpose: The primary purpose of the article is to present a study whose subject was the assessment of the quality policies implementation in selected enterprises. Design/methodology/approach: The deliberations are based on the related subject literature and an analysis of the long-term survey results. The practical results of the research described in this article are based on a survey of supervisory employees and middle managers, who represented the enterprise by filling out a single survey sheet. The survey was conducted in 2015-2022 among 240. enterprises operating in Poland. During the survey, independence in setting quality policy was identified for 237. enterprises. These were manufacturing and service enterprises from various industries. Enterprises were selected on the basis of proposals issued to conduct a survey. The surveyed group does not have the character of a research sample. When analyzing the survey results, no parameter estimation was made on the population of Polish enterprises. The quality policy survey sheet described 35. aspects (behaviors) characteristic of a strongly quality-oriented organization, close to the TQM philosophy (The article contains results for only 10 aspects). Respondents indicated how the behavior described in the survey is characteristic of the organization where they work. The described aspects were rated by respondents on a scale of 1 to 5. The scale adopted reflects the strength of the similarity of the behavior described in the survey to the situation in each organization. Findings: In close to every studied Quality Policy aspects, higher score was received by companies where the standards are imposed by foreign management boards. This is connected obviously not just with standards but also with the governance. The reasons for this should become a subject of further analyses. A certain potential can be observed for national companies relating to the foreign good practice implementation. Originality/value: Knowledge of quality management issues has been increased. The article raises the issue of implementing quality policies in companies. The quality policy was characterized by selected aspects. An evaluation of these aspects in selected enterprises was carried out, and differences dividing quality policies among independent and dependent enterprises in the implementation and supervision of quality standards were identified.