The TQM literature suggests that success comes to organizations ready for a change in climate. Perceptions of management and employees are important to assess because these groups function as if perceptions are real. Determining levels of readiness or conversely resistance to change is an...

Describes how two US hospitals, members of an integrated health system, took different routes to achieve radical constructive change, one of them ‐ an urban community hospital ‐ through what is described in detail as core process redesign; the other ‐ a full‐service, research and...

Describes the implementation, over a two‐year period, of total quality management (TQM) in a design and manufacturing organization managed by traditional methods. Demonstrates the importance of ensuring that the statements made and signals given by a quality improvement team must be correctly...

Notes that many companies have abandoned total quality management (TQM) implementation efforts and that a few have even dismantled TQM after winning major quality awards. Points out that this is generally blamed on changes in top management, financial pressures or the bureaucracy of TQM. Focuses...

Describes research being carried out into the effects of introducing quality initiatives such as ISO 9000 (formerly BS 5750) and TQM (total quality management) in large contracting firms. Suggests that the context in which they operate is confrontational and adversarial. This makes the...

Utilizes benchmarking as an effective and efficient way to manage the change process for quality transformation in schools. Originally conceptualized as competitive intelligence gathering, benchmarking can also be a vehicle for planned, orderly change. Discusses the practices of generic and...

Provides a case study of total quality implementation at a company which designs, manufactures and installs safety and control systems, employing over 1,000 staff worldwide. Reports on each stage of the implementation, noting the involvement of a university in the cultural analysis of the...

The vital factor in any of the “re‐” strategies (reinvention, re‐engineering, realignment, re…) is people’s personal capacity for accommodating change. The most successful organizational transformations include a focus on the readiness of the people as the real source of change....

Compares the organization improvement effort in two US companies, one which partially empowered its employees and one which fully empowered them, and concludes that although positive results are possible with partial empowerment they take longer to materialize and are often different from the...

Looks at the development of producing organizations, stretching from the earliest sole craftsman through to the modern day. Notes that “two‐dimensional” organizations have evolved over the last 200‐300 years ‐ the dimensions representing hierarchical and process elements. Suggests that...