Adapting Total Quality Management (TQM) to Government

Item

Title

Adapting Total Quality Management (TQM) to Government

Abstract/Description

Is total quality management (TQM) useful for public sector organizations? James E. Swiss argues that the orthodox form of TQM expressed in the works of W. Edwards Deming and others will not work well in government agencies for a variety of reasons. Among other factors limiting the usefulness of orthodox TQM for public sector agencies is the stress on products rather than services, on well defined consumer groups, on inputs and processes rather than results, and on an organization culture with a single-minded preoccupation with quality. Swiss does, however, see more hope for a contribution if a limited "reform TQM" approach is adopted. Adopting major features of the more orthodox approach, reform TQM would emphasize client feedback, performance monitoring, continuous improvement, and worker participation.

Author/creator

Swiss, James E.

Date

1992

In publication

Public Administration Review

Volume

52

Issue

4

Pages

356-62

Resource type

en Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Synthesis/Overview

Language

en

Open access/full-text available

en No

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0033-3352

DOI

10.2307/3110395

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (JSTOR)

Citation

Swiss, J. E. (1992). Adapting Total Quality Management (TQM) to Government. Public Administration Review, 52(4), 356–362.

Cited in

Cross-Sector Research on Continuous Learning and Improvement

Item sets

OB Citations - Cross-Sector Research on Learning and Improvement

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