Although much has been written about TQM, little attention has been paid to the potential effects of contextual factors on TQM and TQM-performance relationships. The use of organizational theory to formulate propositions regarding the effects of such factors is especially scarce in the TQM literature. This study uses institutional theory and contingency theory as the basis to test a number of such propositions. First, a model of TQM and organizational performance is developed. Then using survey data, the effects of five contextual factors -three institutional factors and two contingency factors -on the implementation of TQM practices and on the impact of TQM on key organizational performance measures are analyzed within a TQM-performance relationships model framework. The three institutional factors include TQM implementation, ISO 9000 registration, and country of origin, and the two contingency factors include company size and scope of operations. The results show that the implementation of all TQM practices is similar across subgroups of companies within each contextual factor. In addition, the effects of TQM on four performance measures, as well as the relationships among these measures, are generally similar across subgroup companies. Thus, for the five contextual factors analyzed, the overall findings do not provide support for the argument that TQM and TQMperformance relationships are context-dependent. The implications of the study for managers and researchers, as well as study limitations, are also discussed. #

Purpose -To empirically investigate the relationships among critical TQM factors and business results. Design/methodology/approach -Twenty-three hypotheses regarding the relationships among TQM factors and business results have been developed through literature review and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The study utilized survey data obtained from US manufacturing companies.Findings -Provides information about the results of each hypothesis, their implications, and how these findings compare to previous studies. Pays special attention to the relationships between TQM factors and business results and discusses findings in this area by offering insights from 22 previous studies that analyzed TQM-performance relationships.Research limitations/implications -Researchers could use the results of this study to explore various related hypotheses in more detail and improve the accuracy of future empirical quality management studies. The study makes specific recommendations for such future studies. There were also some research limitations. For instance, the data were obtained through mail survey and relied on the perceptions of the respondents. Practical implications -The results of this study can be used by managers to prioritize the implementation of TQM practices. For instance, those practices that are found to have a positive impact on business results can be recommended to managers so that they can allocate resources to improve these practices to get the best results. Originality/value -This study conducts a comprehensive review of the literature to develop factors of critical TQM practices and business results, and unlike most previous studies, it uses multiple, distinct indicators for each factor to test an elaborate SEM model of the relationships among these factors.

There has been a plethora of published research related to total quality management (TQM) in the last few decades. However, very few studies focused on cataloging critical factors of TQM. One of the objectives of this literature review was to investigate the state of TQM by examining and listing various TQM factors identified based on survey studies conducted in different countries and published in a variety of journals over the past decade. An examination of 76 survey studies that used an integrated approach to TQM showed that the TQM factors could be grouped under 25 categories. An analysis of the 347 survey based research articles published between 1989 and 2000 using these 25 factors as a framework revealed the most frequently covered TQM factors in the literature. Another goal of the paper was to analyse the objectives of these articles by year and type of journal they were published in to determine the trends in TQM survey based studies and recommend future direction for research. The analysis showed that the objectives of the 347 studies could be grouped under six categories.

No abstract

No abstract