Role of human factors in TQM: a graph theoretic approach

Purpose – To represent the effect of ‘human factors in total quality management (TQM) environment’ in terms of a single numerical index by considering their inheritances and interactions.Design/methodology/approach – Various human factors affecting the TQM culture in an organization are identified and discussed for the sub factors affecting them. These factors are interacting with each other and their overall effect helps an organization in attaining TQM enabled needs. The paper attempts to represent the overall effect of human factors quantitatively by developing a mathematical model using graph theoretic approach. In this approach, interaction among identified human factors is represented through digraph, matrix model and a multinomial.Findings – The extent of human aspects present in an organization, conducive to TQM culture is represented in terms of the “human index”. It provides an insight into the human factors at system and subsystem level. The developed procedure may be useful for self‐analysis a...

[1]  François Sainfort,et al.  Quality management and the work environment: an empirical investigation in a public sector organization. , 2003, Applied ergonomics.

[2]  Katerina Gotzamani,et al.  An empirical study of the ISO 9000 standards’ contribution towards total quality management , 2001 .

[3]  K. Legge.  Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities , 1995 .

[4]  Nabil Tamimi,et al.  An empirical investigation of critical TQM factors using exploratory factor analysis , 1995 .

[5]  Bo Bergman,et al.  Proceedings of the International Conference on TQM and Human Factors - Towards a Succsessful Integration , 1999 .

[6]  I. Sila,et al.  Examination and comparison of the critical factors of total quality management (TQM) across countries , 2003 .

[7]  Marilyn M. Helms,et al.  Is your organization ready for TQM? An assessment methodology , 1995 .

[8]  O. P. Gandhi,et al.  Failure Cause Analysis—A Structural Approach , 1996 .

[9]  Germaine H. Saad,et al.  Managing quality: critical links and a contingency model , 2000 .

[10]  N. Logothetis,et al.  Managing for total quality : from Deming to Taguchi and SPC , 1992 .

[11]  W. A. Taylor,et al.  Leadership challenges for smaller organisations: Self-perceptions of TQM implementation , 1997 .

[12]  A. Gunasekaran,et al.  Improving operations performance in a small company: a case study , 2000 .

[13]  S. G. Deshmukh,et al.  Multi-attribute decision model for assessing components of total quality management , 2002 .

[14]  Sanjay L. Ahire,et al.  Development and Validation of TQM Implementation Constructs , 1996 .

[15]  Stephen L. Mueller,et al.  Cultural Fit and Job Satisfaction in a Global Service Environment , 2003 .

[16]  J. M. Hoffman,et al.  TQM as a management strategy for the next millennia , 2001 .

[17]  Narsingh Deo,et al.  Graph Theory with Applications to Engineering and Computer Science , 1975, Networks.