The experience developed by a lot of companies with regard to Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation has proved, according to Professor María del Mar Fuentes Fuentes in her book “Total quality management”, that applying TQM principles does not guarantee success. “More and more experts –says María del Mar Fuentes—think that it is not a recipe to be taken by all the organizations in the same way.”
According to the UGR Professor, “discussion on the effectiveness of Total Quality Management (TQM) has been focused, so far, on its appropriate implantation. But, accepting that a correct implementation is essential to obtain results, variability according to the company could be justified on certain interaction of the companies in their environment.”
Quality definition is still very ambiguous despite the literature on the subject, which contributes to make TQM more complex. According to the author, “deep down, the purest quality concept underlies TQM: excellence. It involves being above management problems of the companies, such as the lack of communication, motivation, commitment, self-improvement mind and, in short, self-confidence.
Always according to Professor María del Mar Fuentes, Total Quality Management grows in importance when all the parts of the company are in a perfect equilibrium, this is to say, when there is an interfunctional collaboration, real employees´ participation, mutual confidence between workers and managers and the staff feels an important piece to the organization. The aim is to achieve a common objective, this is, exceed customers´ expectations of the products and services offered by the company.
Further information: Prof. Mª del Mar Fuentes Fuentes
Faculty of Economic and Business Studies
Phone numbers: 958 243879 y 958 242885.
E-mail: mfuentes@ugr.es
