Quality Management and the Process of Change Available to Purchase

The implementation of quality programmes often leads to major change within an organization. However, the nature and causes of such change are not yet understood. There is need for much more research to help determine how to implement and manage major change. Traces the development and evolution of the quality management paradigm, including the resistance of the academic community to it. This evolution was not typical of a traditional organizational research issue in two ways. First, quality programme research occurred outside areas familiar to the organizational behaviour researcher. Second, pressure was exerted by the business community to influence the business school curricula to include quality management. Research on quality management was inhibited by the major paradigmatic shift required within organizations to implement quality programmes. Lack of commonly understood definitions of quality programmes has hindered research by organizational behaviour researchers. However, by relating, even redefining, quality management as a form of organizational change, seeks to encourage organizational behaviour professionals to add their own research to this exciting field. Three subject areas, addressed in five articles in this issue,serve as examples. They include quality as a strategic choice, the team concept, and implementation of quality programmes.