The Value Dynamics of Total Quality Management: Ethics and the Foundations of TQM

Abstract: Total Quality Management (TQM) has been the object of extensive discussion within the popular literature and is increasingly of interest among management scholars. Recent scholarship has focused on the theoretical foundations of TQM, particularly what makes it work, why so many firms have had problems implementing it, and under what circumstances it may create a sustainable advantage for individual firms. This paper extends the work in theory development regarding TQM and offers an empirically testable theoretical model of its function. The central claim of the paper is that embedded within TQM there are a set of moral values (“value dynamics”) that must be developed and maintained if it is to work, and that seeing them as moral values has significant theoretical and practical implications. That is, how TQM is understood and “enacted” (Weick 1979) by managers plays a significant role in determining its success. The discussion is linked to the ethics literature, normative implications of the model are explored, and directions for future research are outlined.

[1]  R. Freeman,et al.  Corporate Strategy and the Search for Ethics , 1988 .

[2]  T. Mitchell,et al.  Individual and group goals when workers are interdependent: Effects on task strategies and performance. , 1990 .

[3]  Marilyn E. Gist,et al.  Self-Efficacy: A Theoretical Analysis of Its Determinants and Malleability , 1992 .

[4]  R. Freeman.  The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions , 1994, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[5]  S. Snell,et al.  Integrated Manufacturing and Human Resource Management: A Human Capital Perspective , 1992 .

[6]  Judy C. Shetler,et al.  Building Cooperation in a Competitive Industry: Sematech and the Semiconductor Industry , 1995 .

[7]  Jeffrey B. Arthur,et al.  Effects of human resource systems on manufacturing performance and turnover , 1994 .

[8]  T. Wall,et al.  Operator work design and robotics system performance:a serendipitous field study , 1992 .

[9]  J. Dean,et al.  MANAGEMENT THEORY AND TOTAL QUALITY: IMPROVING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE THROUGH THEORY DEVELOPMENT , 1994 .

[10]  W. Frederick.  Anchoring Values In Nature: Toward A Theory of Business Values , 1992, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[11]  G. Farris,et al.  Effects of performance on leadership, cohesiveness, influence, satisfaction, and subsequent performance. , 2011, The Journal of applied psychology.

[12]  Steven E. Deutsch,et al.  Mental Health of the Industrial Worker: A Detroit Study by Arthur Kornhauser (review) , 1965 .

[13]  Productivity effects of worker participation in management, profit-sharing, worker ownership of assets and unionization in U.S. firms , 1988 .

[14]  J. L. Pierce,et al.  EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF PROCESS AND EFFECTS , 1991 .

[15]  J. E. Butler,et al.  The History of Progress Functions as a Managerial Technology , 1984, Business History Review.

[16]  Attitudes, Behavior, and Employee Ownership: Some Preliminary Data , 1985 .

[17]  C. O'Reilly,et al.  Measuring organizational communication. , 1974 .

[18]  E. Lawler.  Total Quality Management and employee involvement: Are they compatible? , 1994 .

[19]  S. Sitkin,et al.  DISTINGUISHING CONTROL FROM LEARNING IN TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A CONTINGENCY PERSPECTIVE , 1994 .

[20]  J. Pfeffer.  Competitive Advantage Through People , 1994 .

[21]  P. Werhane.  Adam Smith and his legacy for modern capitalism , 1991 .

[22]  W. Edwards Deming,et al.  Out of the Crisis , 1982 .

[23]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[24]  Roderick M. Kramer,et al.  When in Doubt... , 1991 .

[25]  J. H. Davis,et al.  An Integrative Model Of Organizational Trust , 1995 .

[26]  Joseph Moses Juran.  Juran on Leadership For Quality , 1989 .

[27]  J. Rost.  Leadership: A Discussion About Ethics , 1995, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[28]  Donald R. Lehmann,et al.  Economic consequences of providing quality and customer satisfaction , 1993 .

[29]  T. C. Powell.  Total Quality Management as Competitive Advantage , 1995 .

[30]  Edwin A. Locke,et al.  The essence of leadership : the four keys to leading successfully , 1991 .

[31]  Nehemia Friedland,et al.  Attribution of Control as a Determinant of Cooperation in Exchange Interactions , 1990 .

[32]  Barrie Dale,et al.  Quality management: The chief executive's perception and role , 1990 .

[33]  D. Vollrath,et al.  Employee Participation: Diverse Forms and Different Outcomes , 1988 .

[34]  Carol Reeves,et al.  DEFINING QUALITY: ALTERNATIVES AND IMPLICATIONS , 1994 .

[35]  R. Frank.  Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions , 1990 .

[36]  F. Fukuyama.  Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity Penguin London , 1995 .

[37]  L. Offermann,et al.  Power and leadership in organizations: Relationships in transition. , 1990 .

[38]  R. Freeman.  Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[39]  R. Wageman.  Interdependence and Group Effectiveness , 1995 .

[40]  J. Brehm.  A theory of psychological reactance. , 1981 .

[41]  A. Baier.  Trust and Antitrust , 1986, Ethics.

[42]  Donald J. Pierce,et al.  Democracy in America , 2018, Princeton Readings in Political Thought.

[43]  Abraham K. Korman,et al.  Expectancies as Determinants of Performance. , 1971 .

[44]  Marilyn E. Gist,et al.  Self-Efficacy: Implications for Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management , 1987 .

[45]  B. Bass.  LEADERSHIP AND PERFORMANCE BEYOND EXPECTATIONS , 1985 .

[46]  R. Rosenthal,et al.  Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils' Intellectual Development , 1968 .

[47]  A. Wicks,et al.  Convergent Stakeholder Theory , 1999 .

[48]  P. Wilton,et al.  Models of Consumer Satisfaction Formation : An Extension , 1988 .

[49]  M. Argyle.  Cooperation, the basis of sociability , 1991 .

[50]  L. Hosmer.  TRUST: THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS , 1995 .

[51]  Mark A. Huselid.  The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Performance , 1995 .

[52]  Joanne B. Ciulla.  Leadership Ethics: Mapping the Territory , 1995, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[53]  C. Hill.  Cooperation, Opportunism, and the Invisible Hand: Implications for Transaction Cost Theory , 1990 .

[54]  R. Folger,et al.  Effects of Procedural and Distributive Justice on Reactions to Pay Raise Decisions , 1989 .

[55]  C. Hill.  National Institutional Structures, Transaction Cost Economizing and Competitive Advantage: The Case of Japan , 1995 .

[56]  Sung-Kuon Chi,et al.  Ethics and agency theory , 1989 .

[57]  D. Schweiger,et al.  Building Commitment, Attachment, and Trust in Strategic Decision-Making Teams: The Role of Procedural Justice , 1995 .

[58]  Ann Swidler,et al.  Habits of the Heart , 1986 .

[59]  Thomas Donaldson,et al.  The ethics of international business , 1989 .

[60]  Work: The process and the person , 1987 .

[61]  D. Wood,et al.  STAKEHOLDER MISMATCHING: A THEORETICAL PROBLEM IN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON CORPORATE SOCIAL PERFORMANCE , 1995 .

[62]  A. Zauberman,et al.  The new economics , 1965 .

[63]  Benson Rosen,et al.  Total quality and human resources management: lessons learned from Baldrige Award-winning companies , 1993 .

[64]  An Evaluation of Journal Quality: The Perspective of Business Ethics Researchers , 1996, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[65]  Edwin A. Locke,et al.  Fact and Fiction in Analyzing Research on Participative Decision Making: A Critique of Cotton, Vollrath, Froggatt, Lengnick-Hall, and Jennings , 1990 .

[66]  Rhonda K. Reger,et al.  REFRAMING THE ORGANIZATION: WHY IMPLEMENTING TOTAL QUALITY IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE , 1994 .

[67]  Gervase R. Bushe,et al.  Cultural Contradictions of Statistical Process Control In American Manufacturing Organizations , 1988 .

[68]  ETHICS, INCENTIVES, AND ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN , 1994 .

[69]  R. Schroeder,et al.  A THEORY OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT UNDERLYING THE DEMING MANAGEMENT METHOD , 1994 .

[70]  W. Starbuck.  Learning by Knowledge-Intensive Firms , 1992 .

[71]  Thomas B. Cochran,et al.  Planning production costs: using the improvement curve , 1968 .

[72]  R. Edward Freeman,et al.  Divergent Stakeholder Theory , 1999 .

[73]  E. Lawler,et al.  The empowerment of service workers: what, why, how, and when. , 1992, Sloan management review.

[74]  David J. Lemak,et al.  Beyond Process: TQM Content and Firm Performance , 1996 .

[75]  R. Gulati.  Does Familiarity Breed Trust? The Implications of Repeated Ties for Contractual Choice in Alliances , 1995 .

[76]  Amartya Sen,et al.  On Ethics and Economics , 1988 .

[77]  David W. Johnson,et al.  Cooperation and Competition: Theory and Research , 1989 .

[78]  G. Huber.  Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures , 1991 .

[79]  L. Preston,et al.  The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications , 1995 .

[80]  David A. Waldman,et al.  THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT TO A THEORY OF WORK PERFORMANCE , 1994 .

[81]  Barbara A. Spencer,et al.  MODELS OF ORGANIZATION AND TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A COMPARISON AND CRITICAL EVALUATION , 1994 .

[82]  P. Rooney.  ESOPS, Producer Co-ops, and Traditional Firms: Are They Different? , 1992 .

[83]  O. Williamson.  Markets and Hierarchies , 1975 .

[84]  C. K. Hahn,et al.  Costs of Competition: Implications for Purchasing Strategy , 1986 .

[85]  Carmi Schooler,et al.  The Reciprocal Effects of the Substantive Complexity of Work and Intellectual Flexibility: A Longitudinal Assessment , 1978, American Journal of Sociology.

[86]  John F. Muth,et al.  Search Theory and the Manufacturing Progress Function , 1986 .

[87]  T. Jones.  INSTRUMENTAL STAKEHOLDER THEORY: A SYNTHESIS OF ETHICS AND ECONOMICS , 1995 .

[88]  T. Donaldson.  Making Stakeholder Theory Whole , 1999 .

[89]  K. Arrow.  The limits of organization , 1974 .

[90]  Dean Tjosvold,et al.  Effects of controversy within a cooperative or competitive context on organizational decision making. , 1980 .

[91]  Daniel J. McAllister.  Affect- and Cognition-Based Trust as Foundations for Interpersonal Cooperation in Organizations , 1995 .

[92]  Leon C. Megginson.  The Pressure for Principles: A Challenge to Management Professors , 1958 .

[93]  Victor E. Sower.  The Consequences of Implementing Statistical Process Control , 1990 .

[94]  Sherwood C. Frey,et al.  ABB AND FORD -- CREATING VALUE THROUGH COOPERATION. , 1993 .

[95]  John A. Wagner,et al.  Participation's Effects On Performance and Satisfaction: A Reconsideration Of Research Evidence , 1994 .

[96]  Randall B. Dunham,et al.  The impact of personal control on performance and satisfaction , 1989 .

[97]  A. Wicks,et al.  A Feminist Reinterpretation of The Stakeholder Concept , 1994, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[98]  Eric W. Noreen,et al.  THE ECONOMICS OF ETHICS: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON AGENCY THEORY. , 1988 .

[99]  G. Spreitzer.  PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT IN THE WORKPLACE: DIMENSIONS, MEASUREMENT, AND VALIDATION , 1995 .

[100]  A. Wicks.  Overcoming the Separation Thesis , 1996 .

[101]  J. Barney,et al.  Trustworthiness as a Source of Competitive Advantage , 1994 .

[102]  R. N. Kanungo,et al.  The Empowerment Process: Integrating Theory and Practice , 1988 .

[103]  Jane M. Howell,et al.  Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, locus of control, and support for innovation: key predictors of consolidated-business-unit performance , 1993 .

[104]  Ken G. Smith,et al.  Intra- and Interorganizational Cooperation: Toward a Research Agenda , 1995 .

[105]  J. W. Graham.  Leadership, Moral Development, and Citizenship Behavior , 1995, Business Ethics Quarterly.