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Total Quality Management, Vol. 15, No. 4, 411–422, June 2004

The Future of TQM is Past. Can TQM be Resurrected?
SHAMS-UR RAHMAN
Institute of Transport Studies, School of Business, The University of Sydney, Australia A Over the last two decades, many organizations around the world have adopted Total Quality Management (TQM) in some form. Rigorous attempts have been made to identifycritical elements of TQM. These elements can be classified into two broad categories: soft TQM and hard TQM. Empirical studies indicated that only a handful of the soft aspects of TQM dimensions contribute to organizational performance. The elements of soft TQM, such as training and education, loyalty, leadership, teamwork and empowerment are essentially ‘people’ aspects. The coverage of such elementsin the management literature is high and, in fact, broadly, management theory and soft TQM are identical. With rapid change and uncertainty in the market and greater emphasis on core competencies, organizations are transforming themselves into modular corporations, and thus the importance of the elements of traditional soft TQM is rapidly diminishing. This paper therefore raises a fundamentalquestion: what is the future of TQM? K W: Soft TQM, hard TQM, organizational performance, modulatization, innovation

What constitutes TQM? Over the last two decades, many organizations around the world have adopted Total Quality Management (TQM) in some form. For instance, companies such as Motorola, Ford, Xerox, Federal Express, Proctor and Gamble and others have adopted corporatestrategies with TQM as the guiding principle. In an open letter send to Harvard Business Review (1991) the CEOs of some of these companies emphasized that ‘We are absolutely convinced that TQM is a fundamentally better way to conduct business and is necessary for the economic wellbeing of America. TQM results in higher quality, lower cost products and services that respond faster to the needs of thecustomer.’ What is TQM and what constitutes TQM? The literature suggests that TQM is a management approach for improving organizational performance that encompasses a variety of topics both technical and behavioural. For instance, Deming (1986, pp. 23–24) prescribed TQM in 14 points, which he claimed to be a set of principles (of transformation) to remain competitive in providing products and services.Anderson et al. (1994) studied these principles and developed a conceptual framework for TQM using seven concepts, which include
Correspondence Address: Shams-ur Rahman, Institute of Transport Studies, School of Business, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Email: shamsr@its.usyd.edu.au 1478-3363 Print/ 1478-3371 Online/04/040411-12 © 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI:10.1080/1478336042000183550

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visionary leadership, internal and external cooperation, learning, process management, continuous improvement, employee fulfilment, and customer satisfaction. Based on this framework, Anderson et al. (1994, pp. 479–480) proposed a theoretical statement of TQM: ‘The effectiveness of the Deming management method arises from leadership efforts toward the simultaneouscreation of a cooperative and learning organization to facilitate the implementation of processmanagement practices, which, when implemented, support customer satisfaction and organisational survival through sustained employee fulfilment and continuous improvement of processes, products, and services.’ This study is the only known effort of synthesizing a theory of quality management; however, it lacksa systematic scale development through statistical tests such as reliability and validity. Juran (1992, p. 14) described his version of TQM through a ‘trilogy’ of management processes: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. Many companies have adopted Juran’s approach to TQM; however, it is the quality control programme that received top priority (Evan & Lindsay, 1999)....