CRITIQUE OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

The last quarter of the twentieth century saw a significant increase in the attention paid to quality. With the success of Tom Peter's In Search of Excellence in the early 1980s, managers began to reconsider how they measured quality and how they managed to maximize quality. Total Quality Management (TQM) and quality circles (QCs) became popular programs that were implemented in many organizations, but there were implementation problems. In some cases, TQM and QCs were not implemented completely, or the corporate culture was unable to adapt to these new techniques. Some employees considered these innovations little more than the latest management fad which, if ignored, would be replaced shortly by a new management fad. Some organizations realized substantial gains by implementing these techniques; others abandoned them while others maintained the names, but reverted to traditional Western approaches to quality management. This research considers the management of quality in Western organizations, how TQM has been co-opted, and techniques that might improve quality management in service industries.

Early twentieth century industrialists took an engineering approach to management called scientific management. This approach was developed by Frederick Taylor and called for the careful analysis of tasks and time-and-motion studies in conjunction with piece-rate pay schemes

. . .
hierarchy plays a role in quality management in both Western organizations and Japanese organizations. In Western organizations, hierarchy is typically based on specialization while Japanese organizations base hierarchy on generalization and seniority. Japanese unions do not represent labor against management by type of labor, for example, but instead work to prevent strikes and work stoppages. Consensus is more important in Japanese organizations than in American organizations, with the result that quality circles, which originated with an American quality researcher but gained widespread acceptance in Japan, are more suited to the Japanese culture than to Western organizational cultures (Strach & Everett 2004). Individuals in Western organizations tend to associate the hierarchy within the organizational structure with power, control, coordination and responsibility within the organization. While so-called "flat" organizational structures have been implemented at newer, high-technology firms, older organizations tend to continue to operate within a hierarchical structure. This can lead to traditional management techniquesùincluding quantitative quality measuringùas well, since managers in these organizations are intereste
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
BENEFITS BUDGETS/TARGETS, Traditional Western, SERVICE WORKERS, Successful Organization, Frederick Taylor, QUALITY MANAGEMENT, War II, Ashmos Nathan, Japanese O'Connor, Quality Management, quality management, total quality management, total quality, scientific management, western organizations, review vol, approach quality, corporate culture, quality circles, approaches quality, approaches quality management, quality guru analysis, western approaches quality, guru analysis, traditional western approaches,
Approximate Word count = 3048
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

More Essays on CRITIQUE OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT