Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of total quality management (TQM) practices at the small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) level within the under‐researched context of the Malaysian economy. Design/methodology/approach – Malaysia is an economy...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the various contributions made by Gurus who have impacted significantly on the theory and practice of total quality management (TQM) over the past 100 years. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the solid foundation created by the...

Purpose – The food industry in Saudi Arabia is continually challenged by fierce competition from giant international food processing firms. In spite of that, it constantly shows signs of growth as reflected in its exports. The competition is expected to propagate after joining the World Trade...

Argues that root cause analysis as it is often used is grounded on tools which are weak and confusing. Illustrates this discussion on root cause analysis with examples. Reviews policy and risk in the light of the discussion. Counsels avoidance of the “mythological absolute” of root cause...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the reasons why introducing a “fixed” management accounting technique, such as Juran's cost of quality technique, results in different, rather than similar outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Actor‐Network Theory (ANT) was used to examine events...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to examine how organisational experimenting with total quality management (TQM) and the balanced scorecard affects the bundling of design characteristics associated with these innovations in a Swedish central government agency. Design/methodology/approach...

Aims to examine the state of leadership and HR focus in TQM research in Australia from published literature and to determine areas for future research. The literature search covered 31 reputable referred journals over the years 1985‐1999 and identified 90 articles which focused on aspects of...

This paper examines and compares the total quality management (TQM) practices and organizational performances of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with and without ISO 9000 certification in Malaysia. A quality measurement framework is developed for this paper based on the critical success...

Outsourcing is a management approach by which an organization delegates some non‐core functions to specialized and efficient service providers. In the era of “global market” and “e‐economy”, outsourcing is one of the main pillars of the new way to conceive the relationships among...

The total quality index (TQI) proposed in this study is an information technology‐supported benchmarking tool that helps managers assess a total quality management program by enabling the cost‐effective measurement of key organizational processes. TQI utilizes the analytic hierarchy process...