Quality management: A new challenge for the Greek construction industry

This paper focuses on the meaning of quality and the structure of a quality assurance system in a very important business sector like the construction industry. Traditional quality control techniques seem today to be unable to ensure construction firms a competitive position in the emerging international market with the fierce competition and demanding customers. We present the results of a survey conducted among leading companies from the Greek construction industry. The survey examined the status of quality management and quality assurance system elements in these firms. The purpose of this examination was to investigate the main barriers that Greek managers and consultants face in their eff ort to introduce quality assurance successfully in this leading sector of the national economy in the context of the European market.