Total Quality Management (TQM) and Organizational Performance: An Exploration of Issues

Abstract

This paper explores critical issues of Total Quality Management (TQM) and how it is associated with organizational performance. It relies on the international body of literature and case-based experiences to focus on the essence of TQM as a systemic and strategic philosophy relying on leadership commitment, quality-culture driven, data-driven in decision making, and continuous improvement. The review reveals that TQM has a dual dimension consisting of soft and hard dimensions including leadership, culture and employee empowerment on one hand and process management, measurement, supplier relations on the other hand that interacts to achieve sustainable performance outcomes. In spite of the demonstrated advantages, organizations are still confronted by difficulties related to leaders disengaging, culture defiance, inadequate measurement system, and poor digital preparedness. As the recent empirical research notes, the effects of TQM on performance are usually indirect, mediated through such constructs as organizational learning, social responsibility, organizational agility and sustainability practices. By combining TQM with other complementary systems like digital transformation and environmental management, enterprises have an ideal opportunity to unlock its potential in terms of providing competitiveness, and long-term excellence within the organizations. The study finds that in order to define TQM it is important to see it not as a stagnant tool but as an organizational capability that evolves and has to adjust to changing situations continuously, which makes the study valuable both to scholars and practitioners.