Top Management: A Threat or an Opportunity to TQM?

Authors: Soltani Ebrahim, van der Meer Robert, Williams Terry

Management Science Working Paper No. 15 (2004)

This working paper has been published as Top Management: a Threat or an Opportunity to TQM? Total Quality Management (2005) Vol. 16 No. 4 pp. 465-478

Abstract

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In line with the proposed precepts and deadly diseases of TQM by Deming (1986) and other quality management scholars, the academic literature on the role of top management in quality improvement programmes suggests a fundamental question: ?why does the commitment from top management appear to have dropped off so dramatically?? On a theoretical level, a review of the relevant literature reveals a strong consensus that top management commitment is essential for successful TQM implementation. However, whether this commitment actually exists in practice, is an empirical question that has received much less attention. In addressing these issues towards filling this void, this paper aims to generate preliminary observations on the various factors affecting the role played by top management in organisational environments with a TQM orientation. Implications are discussed to generate research propositions that focus on the interplay of upper and middle level management and employees commitment.