Sustaining total quality management: what are the key issues?

Abstract

From both fieldwork and the academic literature a number of issues have been identified which impact negatively on the sustaining of TQM in manufacturing organizations. The issues reflect a variety of business operations perspectives including continuous improvement, organizational behaviour, human resources management, industrial relations and the labour process. They have been grouped into a five‐part categorization of internal/external environment, management style, policies, organization structure, and the process of change and configured into a TQM sustaining audit tool. Describes, in brief, these categories and issues and presents some of the findings from their examination, using the audit tool, at six manufacturing sites.

Citation

Dale, B.G., Boaden, R.J., Wilcox, M. and McQuater, R.E. (1997), "Sustaining total quality management: what are the key issues?", The TQM Magazine, Vol. 9 No. 5, pp. 372-380. https://doi.org/10.1108/09544789710178668