Total quality management and work organization: Relationship between quality management strategies and work organization in Swedish industrial companies

✍ Scribed by Lars Bengtsson; Martin Ljungström

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 110 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1090-8471
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6564(199823)8:4<351::aid-hfm5>3.0.co;2-2

✦ Synopsis

This article examines the relationship between quality management strategies and changes of work and work organization in industrial companies. Nine case studies in Sweden show that companies whose aim is total quality practice three different quality strategies characterized by detailed control, motivation of employees, and reorganization. It is argued that total quality management should include redesign of the work processes, combining decentralization, group work, goal-oriented control, and skill development. This reorganization strategy not only offers a greater potential for improvement of work, but it also seems essential for improving quality and productivity in the long run.