The Adoption of Total Quality Management in Scotland

Many organizations and companies claim to “have TQM”. Details a collaboration between Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Quality Network and the Centre for Quality and Organization Change at Durham University Business School to assess the extent to which companies in Scotland indeed “have TQM”. The survey took place in 1993, covering 1,500 organizations and producing a 43 per cent response rate. Presents the results of the survey in detail and concludes that a TQM approach is now the rule rather than the exception for most organizations but that TQM has not as yet developed to its full potential. Expresses some doubts about TQM’s external focus and suggests that organizations need to organize TQM more round the needs of external customers.