Given the indicated concerns of both public and private organ izations over such integral issues as the need to increase produc tivity, employee morale, and employee feelings of belongingness, while concurrently enhancing organizational efficiency and effec tiveness, the use of Total Quality Management (TQM) proves highly relevant. Despite the fact that TQM is quite a popular concept among both private industry and governmental organizations, and that it has been written about by a number of workers, there is lacking a definitive definition of this construct. In support of this lack, Neave (1990) reports that TQM is a derivative of Contin ual Quality Improvement (CQI). This author notes that there are 14 points that comprise the CQI theory of management, which are de rived from the work of W. Edward Deming, the renown organizational developmentalist and Father of the Third Wave of the Industrial Revolution. These points, all of which are designed to facilitate the management of quality, are: instituting a constancy of purpose; developing and instituting the new philosophy; ceasing dependence on mass inspection; ending lowest-tender contracts; instituting training on the job; instituting leadership that is facilitative of TQM; driving out fear; breaking down barriers; eliminating exhortations; permitting pride of workmanship; encouraging education; and, the demonstration of top management commitment and action (39-48).
In contrast, Barrier (1992) defines TQM as " . . . an umbrella term for the quality programs that have spread through U. S. busi ness in the past dozen years" (22). Thus, this definition excludes the utilization of TQM within the public sector, as well as the quasi-public sector. The "essential elements" of TQM, as per this author, consist of intense focus on gaining and sustaining customer satisfaction, the accurate measurement of business operations and outputs, continuous improvement of products and service...