Total Quality Management
Quality has been a concern of management and workers in factories for as long as factories
have existed. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the great minister of King Louis XIV, wrote in 1664,
If our factories could, through care, impose the superior quality of our products, foreigners
would see the advantage of purchasing French goods and money would flow to our
kingdom (Burrill & Ledolter, 1999, p. 26). What Jean-Baptiste Colbert wrote in 1664 still
holds true today: Consumers and company seek to purchase products of high quality.
Though industries and management role within organizations have changed dramatically
through the centuries, all organizations still strive to be known for producing high quality
products and service. One of the methods that management in many organizations have
taken is to implement top quality management. In this paper, we will define total quality
management, examine the impact of globalization on quality, compare and contrast
traditional management styles with quality focused management styles.
First, we will define total quality management. According to Burrill and Ledolter (1999),
total quality management is a [holistic] business management methodology that aligns the
activities of all employees in an organization with common focus of customer satisfaction
[to be achieved] through continuous improvement in the quality of all activities
[processes], goods and services. Total quality management is basically a focus of all
employees from the CEO to the warehouse laborer, toward the common goal of providing
the best serviceand best products possible to customers.
How has globalization affected quality? Different countries have different standards of
