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TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AN ARTICLE

Bilal

Topic of research: The article selected for critical review is “Total Quality Management and Employee Involvement: Similarities, Differences and Future Directions” by Edward E. Lawler of University of Southern California. The date of publication is September 1992.

The intended area of research or research question is that how “total quality management” and “employee involvement” are related to each other. Are these two terms different or similar to each other? Are they interrelated or complement each other? Which of these two terms are more important?

The article speaks about how TQM, Employee involvement and the clear similarities and differences between these two terms. It also states how these two are important for the organization and what would be the management approach in future. We have studied in Total Quality Management course how employees are imperative for an organization to maintain quality and how significant their roles are in three levels of organization. Probably the most important part of maintain quality is employee involvement, empowerment and motivation. However the article discuss whether these two terms are equally important or not. The typical TQM tools for problem solving and quality issue identification and accurate production are used by employees working in the organizations, whereas employee involvement talks about involving all employees on all levels in the organizational processes to ensure continuous improvement and join efforts to do the work right. The argument is on which of these two ways are better to ensure the quality.

TQM is a system that amalgamates functional areas across an organization to increase customer satisfaction and achieve continuous improvement (Crosby, 1979; Deming, 1986; Feigenbaum, 1991; Ishikawa, 1985; Juran, 1988; Juran and

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