Equality, Participation, Transition: Essays in Honour of Branko Horvat

educing waste and work in progress, just in time operations management,
flexible specialization and inter-firm relationship, networking
and benchmarking (Spendolini, 1992; Watson, 1993; Cox, Wolfram,
Mann, and Samson, 1997).
Numerous successful firms have implemented such systems. Moreover,
all major consulting companies have helped to develop consulting programs
for the introduction of quality approach to management.
In Europe, the quality movement is primarily associated with the
introduction of ISO 9 000. These quality focused management systems
were initially associated with operations management and manufacturing
systems. It is now increasingly recognized that the general principles
of the new approach can be applied through the whole
organization, including administration and management. The introduction
of this system requires a total change in attitude. It can only
be implemented as a long run and continuous project.
Because these systems were historically implemented on the shop
floor, the technology of introducing and implementing them was primarily
developed by engineers (Deming, 1982; Shingo, 1983, 1985;
Kobayashi, 1995). Eventually, academics in the field of management
started to appreciate the cost reduction and productivity gains resulting
from these systems, but only after a substantial delay. The new
management system was running contrary to the practice of traditional
departmentalized organizations.
7.4 Lessons from Slovenia
Tea Petrin and Alesa Vahcaica 107
As already mentioned, the practical purpose of the study of economics
is to develop a foundation for policy advice. Already during the mid-
1980s, it was felt in Slovenia that something would have to be done to
increase the efficiency of a stagnating economy. In the liberal circles of
the Communist Party, there was also a readiness to discuss major
changes. In Slovenia as well as the rest of Yugoslavia, the marketoriented
economists started to gain influence over the direction of
structural change in the economy.
One of the ideas that became widely accepted was to speed up entry of
new firms, to boost the number of entrepreneurs in order to dynamize
the highly concentrated and stagnant industrial structure. The theoretical
basis for this was the Marshallian concept of competition, where the
entry of new firms is a necessary condition for efficiency. A further theoretical
impetus came from the economics of self-management, where
entry was crucial for ensuring allocative efficiency (Vanek, 1972).