Literature Review Of Total Quality Management

Berry, L. L. (2000). Cultivating service brand equity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(1), 128-137. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1177/0092070300281012

Employee empowerment, teamwork, process control, continuous improvement, customer focused management, and statistical methods and techniques are instrumental in successfully implementing total quality management (TQM) (Evans, & Lindsay, 2007). These concepts as well as many others such as; Deming’s 14 Points and Theory of Profound Knowledge are key components to the BEHS training symposiums.

In healthcare settings a multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach is required to provide a safe and quality holistic care for patients. To achieve this, the different healthcare professionals must work together in order to achieve their goals and promote patient safety. This assignment aims to explore the importance of team work in healthcare. In addition it will consider the qualities and behaviours of a team leader as well as the team behaviours necessary for effective team performance.

al., 2012). Trying to get the leadership motivated with adapting to TQM was a challenge in the beginning. The enthusiasm of top leaders has caused the TQM process to become effective. Although Health care has a complex adaptive system, leadership is crucial in implementing an improvement system (Sollecito & Johnson, 2013). The strengths of the TQM process were the support of the chamber of commerce, implementation of a quality improvement plan, adapting a successful way to measure improvement and development of cost effective techniques (McLaughlin, et. al., 2012). Corporate headquarters was totally involved in the TQM program with the CEO John Kausch as an active member of the Total Quality Council of the Pensacola, Area Chamber of Commerce (McLaughlin, et. al., 2012)

Teamwork is vital in healthcare.  When all participants are engaged in a program, goals are successfully achieved. Being able to communicate and work collectively as a team requires an appreciation for each other’s area of practice.  Every team member has an important role and being acknowledged provides a sense of responsibility and accountability. Essentially, inter-professional collaboration helps ensure that the patient is getting care that is not only accessible but also comprehensive.  The plan of a patients’ care includes active participation by all health care professionals working interdependently in accordance to the patient’s preferences, values and beliefs. The health care team accomplishes the goal of meeting the patient’s medical needs by delivering evidence-based practice.   To deliver quality care, the patient should always be involved.

Healthcare providers strive to improve service quality by implementing various quality management programs. Customers tend to seek for higher quality of care when choosing treatments, providers, and health plans. For healthcare organizations that desire to provide high quality care and compete in the global market, choosing a quality management program to implement is critical for performance and efficiency. Many studies have been conducted to analyze the effectiveness of such programs. Lean, Six Sigma and Total Quality Management (TQM) are three programs that will reviewed by three different case studies in efforts to understand them and to compare and contrast their capabilities.

The primary purpose of quality management is to beat the competition. It does this by improving the services, products, and enhance safety to achieve maximum customer satisfaction and better performance. Quality management makes all employees responsible for patient satisfaction. Internally, it creates a sense of communication and effectiveness. Every care service we provide should be based on quality, by defining issues in the organization, find solutions to improve patients’ satisfaction and increase the quality. Healthcare organizations need the quality management to track effectiveness and performance through different measurement tools to collect information about the patient satisfaction and evaluate the outcomes by comparing collected information to the performance expectation.

“In recent years, there is an increasing interest in the healthcare industry to apply total quality management (TQM) principles and practices to improve customers’ quality of service and care. The most influencing reason behind this is increased competitive market, advancement of medical technology, high quality healthcare service at reasonable costs, and proactive consumer culture. Therefore, the healthcare managers begin to find new ways to provide services to meet customers’ requirement and TQM best fits to them as this concept had success thus far (Academia.edu,

The concept of quality assurance has been around a while, however, the major urge to improve it has only been around the past few years. According to Stanhope & Lancaster (2014), quality assurance (QA) is one of the evaluative steps in the nursing process. It uses analytic methods to monitor and detect errors in client standards of safety and care. Another evaluative step in the nursing process is quality improvement (QI). QI evaluates evidence-based practice and analyzed information in order to make improvements in quality healthcare. Total quality management (TQM) is a philosophy that focuses on client satisfaction, teamwork, and continuous quality improvement (CQI). Outcomes of quality healthcare are improved due to TQM.

From an early age we are instilled the importance of teamwork. The lessons may come from a soccer field, a classroom group project, or even a song on Sesame Street. Regardless of our future careers, we are all likely to experience some sort of teamwork requirement, even if it is as simple as getting along with your co-workers.

Teams are often depicted as a group of people sharing leadership of and working together on a specific project, whereas a group (but not a team) consists of individuals who work independently and are led by a strong, focused individual (Erofeev, Glazer, & Ivanitskaya, 2009). In the health care organization, it is important to have a group of people working together as a well a team. Each person individually need to fully understand what his or her role is in a group or team, if not there will be conflicts.

Abstract: This paper focuses on the important elements of Total Quality Management (TQM) and deals with the generic models for implementing TQM with five strategies to develop the TQM Process. Deming’s 14 Points on Quality Management, a core concept on implementing Total quality management is also discussed in this study with the benefits of TQM. A case study of SFIMAR Business School that Improved Learning, Research, and Placement Measures with TQM implementation has been examined in this paper.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an improvement tool that is widely used in many companies. It consists of many aspects including Managing people as well as business processes in order to maintain customer satisfaction. With TQM, Businesses starts to do the right thing from the start and to ensure zero error. Therefore, it is important to learn the principle of TQM and how it acts in organizations with its advantages and disadvantages.

The fact that globalization has expanded the market for organizations means that TQM is more important than ever before. Customer demands are higher and if a company does not create products and services that meet their expectations they can easily access the same or similar products and services from another company. If managers do not implement TQM into their company procedure then they will fail to meet the high standards of customers all over the world and eventually lose their business. When it comes to implementing TQM, it’s the mangers responsibility to create an environment where people can work together to improve their work processes. If the ownership or senior management does not buy into this concept you will never succeed. Many people in leadership roles are either too set in their ways or closed minded to the necessary change needed to really improve the way things get done. You have to buy into the concept that there is always a better way to do something. By tapping into all the knowledge and experience your employees possess, you develop solutions that not only improve your execution, you provide everyone with a sense of accomplishment.. These "process improvement teams" give employees a chance to help steer the future direction

For TQM to be successful, all workers in the organization have to be clear and focus on its vision and intentionally align themselves with the TQM strategies to produce quality products and services that satisfy their client’s needs and requirements. Some of the benefits gained from successful TQM implementation include fewer customer complaints, cost reduction in the long term, elimination of waste and mistakes, and boost in employee morale by empowering them by encouraging their participation in decision making and communication.