TY - JOUR AB - The ever‐changing global environment that is more and more quality driven demands a new vision of the role of corporate culture in the implementation of total quality in a manufacturing company. This study of three manufacturing companies in Slovenia shows that only an open and human oriented corporate culture that is based on the autonomy of the workplace and human resource management can be successful in implementing the total quality management (TQM) in all working processes in the company. Employees are empowered and intrinsically motivated for quality work when they have internal justification for taking actions that are supported by corporate culture. They definitely play an active role in the TQM environment. VL - 16 IS - 2 SN - 0954-478X DO - 10.1108/09544780410522982 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780410522982 AU - Ambroz˘ Milan AU - Ambroz˘ Milan AU - Ambroz˘ Milan PY - 2004 Y1 - 2004/01/01 TI - Total quality system as a product of the empowered corporate culture T2 - The TQM Magazine PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 93 EP - 104 Y2 - 2024/04/20 ER -