Total quality and the shifting management paradigm.

The concepts at the heart of total quality management (TQM) have existed for several decades, resurfacing every few years with variations, each time under a new name. Most efforts at incorporating these concepts into the operation of a business organization have failed, but each time the concepts come back, they meet with incrementally greater success than the previous time. This increasing rate of success is due largely to the shifting management paradigm. What we think and believe about management is making the gradual transition from strict authoritarianism, far more of an influence than we readily recognize, toward a practiced belief in true participative management. The closer the shifting management paradigm moves to open participation, the more success will accrue to total quality implementations.