The evolution of strategic quality management

Strategic quality management represents a state wherein the organization’s total quality management (TQM) system is tightly interwoven with the strategy formulation process, thereby contributing to a sustainable competitive advantage. Numerous models have been proposed to describe how organizations can fully integrate strategy and TQM. Proposes that organizations undergo evolutionary stages on the way to full integration of strategy and TQM. The conceptual bases of the proposed model consist of organizational life cycles, stages of quality maturity and models describing the evolution of strategic management. Gives examples of corporations in the USA and the Asia‐Pacific region which provide preliminary support for the model’s validity.