The Rhetoric and Reality of Total Quality Management

Item

Title: The Rhetoric and Reality of Total Quality Management
Abstract/Description: This article induces a model of the evolving rhetoric and reality of total quality management (TQM) in five organizations to show how institutional forces can distort the technical reality of TQM. Using interviews, organizational documents, and observation, I follow the social construction of TQM in these organizations to trace the relationship between the technical practices and rhetoric of TQM. The model shows that managers consume a rhetoric of success about TQM, use that rhetoric to develop their TQM program, and then filter their experiences to present their own rhetoric of success. Consequently, the discourse on TQM develops an overly optimistic view of TQM. The models demonstrate how individual actions and discourse shape TQM and fuel institutional forces.
Author/creator: Zbaracki, Mark J.
Date: 1998
In publication: Administrative Science Quarterly
Volume: 43
Issue: 3
Pages: 602-636
Resource type: en Research/Scholarly Media
Resource status/form: en Published Text
Scholarship genre: en Empirical
Open access/full-text available: en No
Peer reviewed: en Yes
ISSN: 0001-8392
DOI: 10.2307/2393677
URL: Official Publisher's Webpage (JSTOR)
Citation: Zbaracki, M. J. (1998). The Rhetoric and Reality of Total Quality Management. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43(3), 602–636. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393677
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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