lure. Since TQM represents a major shift in the way that most organizations operate, it is not an inexpensive process, nor is it a short-term program. Effective TQM programs will have a long-term effect on the way that the organization works on a day-to-day basis.
Deming focuses on concrete changes which can take place in an organization that is committed to quality. Where other contributors to the TQM movement (such as Crosby) encouraged companies to focus on zero defects; Deming provided the tools which enabled companies to accomplish those goals that. Spurned by American companies, Deming took his ideas to Japan where they were eagerly embraced decades before they took hold in the United States. Quality circles, for example, came from Deming, although they are now generally attributed to the Japanese (O'Connor, 1995, p. 69).
There are several factors which contributed to Deming's acceptance in Japan while he was largely ignored within the United States. The innovations that he recommended can be difficult to implement in a society that is used to hierarchical management, such as the United States was at the time Deming was performing his research. In Japan, however, where there is a stronger sense of community in the culture, these approaches worked, and worked well, with the result that Japanese factories are able to turn out products that exhibit high quality characteristics at lower cost than American factories, even when working on products developed originally in the United States.
In addition, consensual decision making is based on bottom-up practices rather than the top-down style favored in the West, and some companies in Japan offered lifelong employment (generally to the time that employees reach their mid-50s) so that employees had a strong sense of loyalty to the organization. Shame, or losing face, is also a strong motivating cultural factor in Japan which has no real counterpart in the United States; al...