Description
There is a need for an appropriate culture to support the scope of Total Quality Management (TQM). Customer focus, systems approach, teamwork, involved management and continuous improvement are the aspects of TQM that facilitate improved organisational success, growth, and competitiveness.
Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
www.elsevier.com/locate/technovation
Total quality management and corporate culture: constructs of
organisational excellence
Z. Irani
a,?
, A. Beskese
b
, P.E.D. Love
c
a
Information Systems Evaluation and Integration Network Group (ISEing), Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel
University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK
b
Department of Industrial Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, 80680, Macka, Istanbul, Turkey
c
School of Management Information Systems, Edith Cowan University, Churchlands Campus, Perth, WA 6018, Australia
Abstract
There is a need for an appropriate culture to support the scope of Total Quality Management (TQM). Customer focus, systems
approach, teamwork, involved management and continuous improvement are the aspects of TQM that facilitate improved organis-
ational success, growth, and competitiveness. Many companies are now complementing continuous improvement with innovation,
which is seen as the successful exploitation of new ideas. A clear synergy appears between these two corporate success factors as
they are often integrated under an appropriate corporate culture for exploitation. The results of this can support substantial improve-
ments in business performance and competitiveness of the company. With this in mind, this paper discusses the concept of corporate
culture, places this social construct within the arena of TQM, and highlights the relationships that exist among culture, quality, and
competitiveness using a case study.
© 2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Corporate culture; TQM; Continuous improvement; Case study.
1. Introduction
In order to be a competitor in the global market, com-
panies must study the leading examples of quality. The
key to success as identi?ed by these examples is to
recognise the importance of innovation and quality; thus,
the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) should
be the driving force behind the changes taking place
within today’s organisations. There is no single best
approach to implementing the TQM philosophy. An
approach unique to the needs and culture of the organis-
ation must be developed. (Sohal and Terziovski, 2000)
Many researchers, if not all, agree that Total Quality
is somehow linked to organisational culture. The term
“Total Quality Culture” is frequently used in the litera-
ture, but there still exists a disagreement on whether
TQM involves changing a culture to achieve total quality
or whether it means using the existing culture. Many
companies undertaking TQM programmes have, in
?
Corresponding author. Fax: +44 1895 816 242.
E-mail address: [email protected] (Z. Irani).
0166-4972/$ - see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0166-4972(02)00128-1
recent times, switched their attention from applying the
tools and techniques of TQM to attempting to align their
TQM programme with their prevailing organisational
culture (Maull et al., 2001). Advocates of organisational
excellence eschew the problems associated with achiev-
ing a ?exible, adaptable and committed workforce in
organisations (Reeves and Bednar, 1994). This is
because they lack a dominant and coherent culture, in
which values, commitments and approaches are likely to
diverge, which can present a barrier to co-operation,
joint action and problem solving across the organisation.
Thus, managers should periodically analyse the rel-
evance of corporate values to the evolving organisational
environment. As a result, enabling managers to adapt
and nurture the constructs that support the development
of an aspired organisational culture.
This paper discusses the concept of corporate culture,
and places this social construct within the arena of Total
Quality Management (TQM). Using a case study from
Velden Engineering Ltd, an award-winning UK com-
pany, the relationship between culture and strategy are
discussed. In addition, the paper identi?es individual and
organisational characteristics that facilitated best practice
644 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
through the adoption of strong leadership and organis-
ational management.
2. Total quality management
TQM can be de?ned as the agreed company-wide and
plant-wide operating work structure, documented in
effective, integrated technical and managerial pro-
cedures, for guiding the co-ordinated actions of the
people, the machines, and the information of the com-
pany and plant in the best and most practical ways to
assure customer quality satisfaction and economical
costs of quality (Zairi, 1991). Thus, it can be concluded
that TQM itself, is the desired culture of an organisation
committed to customer satisfaction through continuous
improvement. Many organisations have already realised
that their only way of surviving in today’s competitive
global market is to become a successful “total quality
organisation” (Bohoris, 1995). Similarly, it is noted in
the literature that there is signi?cant association between
TQM activities and organisational competitiveness.
(Corbett and Rastrick, 2000; Najmi and Kehoe, 2000;
Pool, 2000; Prabhu et al., 2000; Terziovski and Samson,
2000; Zairi and Whymark, 2000a; Zairi and Whymark,
2000b; Zairi et al., 1994) Since Total Quality Manage-
ment calls for continuous improvement, it will be inevi-
table that new concepts for maintaining innovation and
quality will emerge to lead organisations to the next cen-
tury and beyond (Liu and Kleiner, 2001).
Research undertaken by Corbett and Rastrick (2000)
suggests that most quality tools associated with TQM do
not generally produce advantage, but certain tacit behav-
ioural features—such as open culture, employee
empowerment, and executive commitment—can pro-
duce advantage.
3. Corporate culture
Hofstede (1991) states that corporate culture has been
a fashionable topic since the early 1980s. At a time when
the management literature began to popularise the claim
that the excellence of an organisation is contained in the
common ways by which its members have learned to
think, feel and act. For many years, especially during the
last two decades, corporate culture has been acknowl-
edged as an important component of organisational suc-
cess. (Gore Jr, 1999; Corbett and Rastrick, 2000)
The term corporate culture is one of the most fre-
quently used cliche´s, with precise de?nitions varying
within the normative literature. Johnson and Scholes
(1984) de?ne corporate culture as being ‘the deeper level
of basic values, assumptions and beliefs, that are shared
by members of an organisation’. These values, assump-
tions, attitudes and beliefs are re?ected within an organ-
isational culture. In fact, they are manifested in many
ways such as the rites, rituals and routines that take place
within an organisation, the language used, the stories,
legends and myths that are told and re-told, the symbols,
logos and artefacts that are found throughout the com-
pany. Therefore, an organisational culture is considered
to be a set of collective norms that govern the behaviour
of people within the company. An organisational culture
is characterised by members’ shared ability to under-
stand speci?c concepts within the organisation
(Karathanos, 1998).
At a basic level, culture may be de?ned as “the way
we do things around here” or “the way we think about
things around here” (Williams et al., 1994). The key fea-
ture is that culture is taught to new members as the cor-
rect way to behave, thus perpetuating organisational sur-
vival and growth. (Maull et al., 2001) A widely accepted
de?nition of culture including this feature is:
“The pattern of basic assumptions that a given group
has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to
cope with its problems of external adaption and
internal integration, and that have worked well
enough to be considered valid, and, therefore to be
taught to new members as the correct way to perceive,
think, and feel in relation to those problems.”
Schein (1984)
Essentially, corporate culture is a soft, holistic concept
with, however, presumed hard consequences. Hofstede
(1991
18) refers to such culture as “the psychological
assets of an organisation, which can be used to predict
what will happen to its ?nancial assets in ?ve years
time”.
Several researchers, such as Kotter and Heskett (1992)
have concluded that corporate culture may hurt or help
a ?rm’s performance. For example, in Fortune’s all star
ranking, General Electric earned the highest honour in
1998 since it has spent years developing a corporate cul-
ture in which executives have the autonomy to swoop
in and take advantage of sudden shifts in markets
(Kahn, 1998).
A strong organisational culture enables the smooth
?ow of information and nurtures harmony among its
members (Karathanos, 1998). Improvements in work
culture and internal communication thus improve cus-
tomer (internal and external) satisfaction, which is essen-
tial for market growth and pro?tability in the long term
(Lakhe and Mohanty, 1994). A strong corporate culture
will assist members of a diverse workforce in estab-
lishing a super-ordinate organisational identity, and in
identifying shared, super-ordinate goals. Noteworthy,
however, Schneider and Northcraft (1999) suggest that
such cultures may be dif?cult to cultivate.
Successfully reacting to changes in the global market-
place requires a ?exible and adaptable corporate culture
645 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
(Elashmawi, 2000). Yet, advocates of organisational
excellence tend to obscure the problems associated with
achieving a ?exible, adaptable and committed workforce
in organisations. This is because they seem to lack a
dominant and coherent culture, where values, commit-
ments and approaches are likely to diverge and where
the divergence seems likely to present a barrier to
cooperation, joint action and problem solving across the
organisation (Barratt, 1992). Thus, according to Kara-
thanos, (1998) managers should periodically analyse the
relevance of corporate values within their organisations
to examine how adaptive it is to environmental changes.
With this in mind, managers need to gain an understand-
ing about how they can promote a culture that is adept
to learning on how to change through participation,
teamwork and empowerment of workers–all of which
are considered necessary for effective quality manage-
ment.
4. TQM and corporate culture
While TQM has separate origins from the culture
movement, the two ?elds have recently converged with
the idea that to achieve “excellence” and “quality”, it is
necessary either to change or work with the culture of
an organisation (Lewis, 1996). Implementation of TQM
requires changes to the shared assumptions, frames of
reference, and understanding that most organisations
have developed through interaction with their environ-
ment. These changes will impact basic beliefs and values
that employees hold about work. (Ngowi, 2000) This is
why many companies are now attempting to identify
their organisational culture prior to implementing their
TQM programme. (Maull et al., 2001)
Organisational culture in?uences people’s actions and
behaviours. It also alters their actions in the perceptions
of all aspects of their work including quality (Reeves and
Bednar, 1994). Consequently, Calori and Sarnin (1991);
Sinclair and Arthur (1994); Klein et al. (1995); Lewis
(1996), and Corbett and Rastrick (2000) have proffered
a relationship that exists between the constructs of qual-
ity and organisational culture. Research undertaken by
Klein et al. (1995), for example, demonstrated that cul-
ture has a direct impact on service quality. This research
used Cooke and Lafferty’s Organisational Culture Inven-
tory scale to quantitatively measure culture and found a
positive correlation between perceived levels of quality
and the constructive and aggressive/defensive styles of
culture (see Cooke and Rosseau, 1988). However,
changing to a genuine focus on quality is usually a trans-
formation that involves a radical readjustment of a com-
pany’s internal culture. (Sandholm, 1999)
The implementation of TQM is not an easy task, as
it requires a total change in organisational culture, shift-
ing of responsibility to management, and continuous par-
ticipation of all in the quality improvement process
(Lakhe and Mohanty, 1994). In a study undertaken by
Sluti et al. (1995), it was shown that a strong corporate
culture could improve quality, and operational and busi-
ness performance. Mandal et al. (1999) identi?es the cul-
tural change as the single most important inhibitor of
quality policy implementation. Samson (1997), on the
other hand, states:
“Many organizations had previously attempted qual-
ity circles, as in parts of Europe and the USA, because
these had been interpreted as being the answer to ris-
ing levels of manufacturing competitiveness in
Japanese companies. History has told us that the
majority of these initiatives either did not work at all
or fell away after achieving some successes. One of
the reasons for this is the lack of appropriate human
resource and cultural policies and encouragement.”
It is argued that the major problems associated with
the TQM adoption have been lack of understanding
about the degree of organisational commitment required.
In addition, Reavill (1999) suggests that organisations
need to also take into account the signi?cant time scale
involved for the organisation’s culture to adjust to the
underpinning philosophy of TQM.
An organisation that is committed to TQM has a cul-
ture based on commitment to customer satisfaction
through continuous improvement. Such a culture can
vary between organisations but nevertheless has certain
fundamental principles that can be implemented to
secure a greater market share, increased pro?ts and
reduced cost. In the UK for example, business excellence
has been used to develop the quality culture, which is
also embedded in the TQM philosophy (Kanji and Yui,
1997). Examples of the successful implementation of
TQM by best practice organisations can be found in Zairi
and Whymark (2000a,b).
TQM is a philosophy that organisations can use to
improve their performance but, often there is an over-
emphasis on its tools and techniques, which may take
precedence over the need to create a culture, that is open
to change (Page and Curry, 2000). Lakhe and Mohanty
(1994) claims that the following measures are essential
to obtaining cultural change:
? the organisations policies, procedures and processes
must emphasise quality;
? everyone in the organisation must have a clear under-
standing of the importance of quality in achieving
their business objectives;
? people at all levels must be aware of the requirements
and needs of the customer;
? the structure of the organisation should allow for con-
tinuous improvement;
? there should be integration of internal and external
customer requirements in the business plan;
646 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
? use of customer-based measures of performance is
important;
? there is a need to develop strong communication
lines;
? customer commitment should be fostered; and
? emphasis on customer-oriented values and beliefs
must be supported by top management.
5. Culture and strategy
The impact of a corporate culture on a strategy has
long been recognised (Hofstede, 1991). Much of the
literature suggests that employees in a strong organis-
ational culture have a sense of mission, which may in
turn improve productivity. In essence, individuals within
a strong organisational culture know what is expected
of them and thus react positively when confronted with
change. Conversely, employees involved with a weak
organisational culture tend to spend a great deal of time
deciding what they should do and how they should do it.
A culture is good only if it ?ts its context, i.e. the
objective conditions of the industry or the business strat-
egy itself. In other words, the better the ?t, the better
the performance, and a changing environment can under-
mine a good ?t. (Corbett and Rastrick, 2000) The notion
of a culture-strategy ?t holds for a strategy to be success-
ful in a strong culture, as it must be formulated in
accordance with the existing culture. A strategy regard-
less of its strengths will not be successfully accepted, if
it is outside the bounds of the culture. On the other hand,
if the culture is weak, it can easily adapt to any type of
strategy, with success in this case depending solely on
the strength of the strategy. Clearly, the most effective
combination is a strong strategy matched by a strong
culture. Furthermore, it can be postulated that if a strat-
egy and culture ?t together, the resulting success will
strengthen the culture, which in turn enforces the stra-
tegic ?t. Sandholm (1999) claims that an effective stra-
tegic quality plan is reliant on cultural change. It is this
change that may provide the required ?t.
According to the ?ndings from several research
reports, quality management is likely to remain as an
important corporate strategy in the days to come (Liu
and Kleiner, 2001). A corporate culture aiming at con-
tinuous improvement and TQM is mentioned as an
important factor that enhances the companies’ capabili-
ties, especially for innovation. (Zwetsloot, 2001).
Emphasising and rewarding a super-ordinate goal like
quality within a diverse organisation may not only
improve quality, but also reduce con?icts and misunder-
standings among diverse employees by providing them
a unifying purpose, language, and culture, where none
previously existed (Schneider and Northcraft, 1999). The
experiences of a best practice UK organisation in
implementing a TQM strategy and developing a strong
corporate culture are now presented and discussed.
6. Research methodology
The research reported in this paper required a method-
ology that captured the thoughts and actions of all the
people within an organisation and, in doing so, supported
an investigation into the social constructs of a company’s
culture. A case study was considered to be the most
appropriate research strategy, which according to Bon-
oma (1985) makes use of interviews, and relies heavily
on verbal reports and unobtrusive observation as primary
data sources. As a result, a case study tends to make use
of research methods that provide qualitative rather than
quantitative data, which enabled the researchers to cap-
ture the complexity and dynamism of organisational set-
tings.
The research design phase involved reviewing the nor-
mative literature on TQM and organisational culture.
This was then followed by the identi?cation of a suitable
research strategy. The strategy adopted during this
empirical enquiry was that of a single ?eldwork case
study. The second and third phases concerned the case
study data collection, and the subsequent analysis of
data. A questionnaire served to provide a semi-structured
interview agenda for use in discussions with directors,
managers and shop-?oor operatives. It also enabled the
researcher to ask standardised questions of the inter-
viewees. All interviews were tape recorded and later
transcribed. In an attempt to counteract any bias, which
may have affected the accuracy of the qualitative data
collected, a process of data triangulation was adopted
(Jick, 1979).
7. Case study experiences at Velden Engineering
(UK) Ltd
Velden Engineering (UK) Ltd is a dynamic, ambitious
company, with best practice ideals and world-class
aspirations. Velden’s core business is precision subcon-
tract engineering, which primarily involves manufactur-
ing a wide variety of parts, products and assemblies, for
a large number of customers, in diverse industries.
Velden remains a privately owned company, whose rad-
ical ideas on employee empowerment, and the
implementation of continuous improvement makes them
stand out from the crowd.
The company appears to be ahead of the competition
in many ways, especially when benchmarked against tra-
ditional British subcontract companies. The evidence is
that Velden is an award winning Inside (UK) Enterprise
Demonstration Company, for the UK Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI, 1993), and was described as an
exemplar company when awarded an Investors in People
(Donnelly, 1995).
Velden’s culture and philosophy is one that has been
nurtured and developed over the last 20 years, and has
647 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
not needed to undergo any major cultural changes (Irani
et al., 1997a; Irani and Sharp, 1997). However, it has
not been without its problems and sceptics. Culture in
any company is the underlying belief that pervades the
organisation about how business should be conducted,
and about how employees should behave and be treated
(Love et al., 1998).
Velden’s cultural framework includes its guiding
philosophy, and core values and beliefs, which are com-
bined into a mission statement. The mission statement
should act as a concise development from core values
and beliefs, and should convey what the organisation’s
role in society. Velden’s mission statement clearly trans-
lates its philosophy into tangible goals that will move
the organisation forward and make them perform to their
optimum. Their mission is to survive, expand, and pros-
per by developing people to provide a professional,
responsive, ef?cient, ?exible, green, total quality service,
with absolute commitment to the customer and supplier.
The company’s guiding philosophy forms an integral
part of their culture, and drives the organisation forward.
The leaders within Velden through their thoughts and
actions subsequently shape this. The company culture
re?ects the vision of the organisation rather than the
vision of a single leader, and has evolved over time,
although core elements have been maintained. The com-
pany’s core values and beliefs represent the organis-
ation’s basic principles, about what is important in busi-
ness, its conduct, its social responsibility and its response
to changes in today’s competitive environment. It acts
as a guiding force, with clear and authentic values, which
are focused on employees, suppliers, customers, and
society at large and stakeholders.
The success of Velden’s corporate culture can be attri-
buted to a number of key enablers, which have proven
to be ingredients for success for organisational excel-
lence in both Velden’s core and non-core business activi-
ties. Continuous improvement and innovation as noted
in Fig. 1 form the genesis of these enablers.
The success of Velden has been based on its proactive
application of TQM principles and the development of
an open culture that is able to adapt to changes imposed
on its internal and external environment. Velden’s
organisational structure is horizontal and is used to sup-
port its Self-Directed Work Teams (SDWT) (Irani et al.,
1997b), which form the basis of the organisation’s
ability to learn and be innovative in its
manufacture/service/product delivery (Irani et al.,
1997c).
At the heart of Velden’s strategy is that of a customer-
supplier focus thus, strategic alliances (SA) with its cus-
tomers and suppliers are fundamental to achieving
organisational excellence. The SAs are integral part of
the Velden’s approach to organisational learning and
knowledge management. The company differentiates
between training and education (education is seen as
broadening one’s sights and vision, whereas training is
seen as skills based). The bene?ts of this have cascaded
down the supply chain with Velden operating an open
door policy in support of developing the intellectual
assets of its SA.
7.1. Continuous improvement and innovation
Innovation is not a new concept and is not synony-
mous with invention, although invention may be part of
the innovation process. It is synonymous with the good
management of all the company functions. It is a
dynamic process and should be an essential part of any
business strategy and everyday practice. The UK based
Board Room report of April 1993 suggests that innovat-
ing ?rms tend to have a larger market share, higher
growth rates and pro?t, than none innovators. In today’s
highly competitive market, delighting customers is most
important (Grif?n et al., 1995). Markets for products are
now characterised by a far greater ability to ‘shop
around’ and choose preferred suppliers. This applies
whether the buyer is an individual customer, small busi-
ness or a major enterprise. As a consequence, the
requirement for a business to be competitive and satisfy
its customers as well as, or better than its rivals is funda-
mental to the success and growth of the business. There-
fore resulting in the need to ‘innovate’ or face the alter-
native, liquidate. However, such might only be possible
if within an organisational setting there is commitment
by the workforce that often stems from an appropriate
culture.
Continuous improvement and innovation are con-
sidered to be the life-blood of many companies, and
there is nothing so stultifying to those companies—or to
the people in it—as a belief that the old ways must be
the best ways. An organisation that tries to stand still
may not survive. The implementations of these concepts
require a blend of creativity, clear thinking, and the
ability to get things done. It requires thinkers and doers
to work closely together.
Such an environment has been created within Velden
and forms an integral part of the company culture. The
success of Velden’s approach to continuous improve-
ment and innovation has been dependent on the charac-
teristics of the individuals employed within the com-
pany, which have developed and nurtured by
management over several years. These factors ultimately
re?ect the corporate culture and are summarised below:
7.2. Individual characteristics
Individual characteristics that encourage innovation
and continuous improvement include:
? a clear initial view of the results that are desired—
648 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
Fig. 1. The Interaction of Business Activities at Velden Engineering
The ability to clearly de?ne the aims and bene?ts of
the project being considered;
? the ability to get support not only from management
but also from their colleagues; there is a need to build
a coalition in which everyone shares equally in the
belief that the project is worthwhile;
? courageous employees—take calculated risks when
setbacks occur;
? the ability to handle interference or opposition to the
project—resistance can be open but it often takes a
passive or covert form: criticism of the plans, foot
dragging, late responses to questions, or arguments
over allocation of time and resources amongst pro-
jects. Covert resistance can be the most dangerous;
? leaders who are good at getting people into action—to
mobilise and contribute fully to the project, by using a
participative management style; and
? the force of character to maintain the momentum of
the project, especially after the initial enthusiasm for
the project has waned.
7.3. Organisational characteristics
Organisational characteristics that encourage inno-
vation and continuous improvement include:
? a free ?ow of information that allows managers to
?nd ideas in unexpected places and pushes them to
combine fragments of information;
? close and frequent contact between work sections and
an emphasis on lateral as well as vertical relation-
ships;
? a tradition of working in teams and sharing credit; and
? managers who believe in innovation and provide the
necessary resources and support.
8. Conclusions
This paper stresses the importance of a strong total
quality culture as a key element of improving organis-
ational competitiveness. To survive in a rapidly evolving
global market, customers and their needs should govern
all the activities within an organisation. For most organ-
isations this will require a change in their internal cul-
ture. The core concept of TQM, that is the customer
focus, linked with a continuous improvement plan that
is supported by innovation can build a strong culture,
which can positively improve an organisation’s competi-
tiveness and performance. Velden Engineering (UK)
Ltd. is an award winning and outstanding subcontract
organisation which has realised this long before. Their
story of success through the development of a Total
Quality Culture told in this article can be used by other
organisations as a model in the attainment of organis-
ational excellence. Characteristics of the individuals
employed within the company and the general organis-
ational characteristics are listed as a key to success for
the companies desiring to be successful in the quest
for quality.
References
Barratt, E., 1992. The strengths and weaknesses of the corporate cul-
ture analogy “The Glue That Doesn’t Stick”. Henley the Manage-
ment College, Working Paper Series, Oxon, UK.
Bohoris, G.A., 1995. A comparative assessment of some major quality
awards. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Manage-
ment 12 (7), 30–43.
Bonoma, T.V., 1985. Case research in marketing: Opportunities, prob-
lems, and a process. Journal of Marketing Research 12, 199–208.
Calori, R., Sarnin, P., 1991. Corporate culture and economic perform-
ance: A French study. Organisation Studies 12 (1), 49–74.
649 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
Cooke, R., Rosseau, D., 1988. Behavioural norms and expectations: a
quantitative approach to the assessment of organisational culture.
Group and Organisation Studies 13 (3), 245–273.
Corbett, L.M., Rastrick, K.N., 2000. Quality performance and organi-
zational culture: A New Zealand study. International Journal of
Quality & Reliability Management 17 (1), 14–26.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), 1993. Inside UK Enterprise:
Managing in the ‘90’s, C/O Status Meeting Limited, Festival Hall,
Hampshire, UK, p.53.
Donnelly, W., 1995. Success Through People. In: Proceings of the
30th Annual Conference of the British Production and Inventory
Control Society., pp. 185–190.
Elashmawi, F., 2000. Creating a winning corporate culture: Experience
inside the Asian telecommunications industry. European Business
Review 12 (3), 148–156.
Gore, E.W. Jr, 1999. Organizational culture, TQM, and business pro-
cess reengineering: An empirical comparison. Team Performance
Management: An International Journal 5 (5), 164–170.
Grif?n, A., Gleason, G., Preiss, R., Shevenaugh, D., 1995. Best prac-
tice for customer satisfaction in manufacturing ?rms. Sloan Man-
agement Review 36 (2), 87–98.
Hofstede, G., 1991. Cultures and Organisations: Software of the Mind.
McGraw-Hill.
Johnson, G., Scholes, K., 1984. Exploring Corporate Strategy. Pren-
tice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA.
Irani, Z., Sharp, J.M., 1997. Integrating continuous improvement and
innovation into a corporate culture: A case study. The International
Journal of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Tech-
nology Management (Technovation) 17 (4), 199–206.
Irani, Z., Sharp, J.M., Kagioglou, M., 1997a. Improving business per-
formance through developing a corporate culture. The International
Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Management: The TQM Magazine 9
(3), 206–216.
Irani, Z., Sharp, J.M., Kagioglou, M., 1997b. Communicating through
self-directed work teams in a manufacturing environment. The
Journal of Workplace Learning 9 (6), 199–205.
Irani, Z., Sharp, J.M., Race, P., 1997c. A case experience of new pro-
duct introduction within a once traditional subcontract manufactur-
ing environment. Production and Inventory Management Journal
38 (2), 47–51.
Jick, T.D., 1979. Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: triangu-
lation in accumulation. Administrative Science Quarterly 24,
602–611.
Kahn, J., 1998. The World’s most admired companies, Fortune of 26
October, p. 206.
Kanji, G.K., Yui, H., 1997. Total quality culture. Total Quality Man-
agement 8 (6), 417–428.
Karathanos, P., 1998. Crafting corporate meaning (developing corpor-
ate culture). Management Decision 36 (2), 123–132.
Klein, R.G.L., Bigley, G.A., Roberts, K.H., 1995. Organisational cul-
ture in high reliability organisations. Human Relations 48 (7),
771–793.
Kotter, J.P., Heskett, J.L., 1992. Corporate Culture and Performance.
MacMillan International, Oxford, UK.
Lakhe, R.R., Mohanty, R.P., 1994. Total quality management: con-
cepts, evolution and acceptability in developing economies. Inter-
national Journal of Quality & Reliability Management 11 (9), 9–33.
Lewis, D., 1996. The organizational culture saga—from OD to TQM:
A critical review of the literature. Part 2—applications. Leader-
ship & Organization Development Journal 17 (2), 9–16.
Liu, V.C., Kleiner, B.H., 2001. Global trends in managing innovation
and quality. Management Research News 24 (3/4), 13–16.
Love, P.E.D., Gunasekaran, A., Li, H., 1998. Improving the competi-
tiveness of manufacturing companies through continuous incremen-
tal change. The International Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Man-
agement: TQM Magazine 10 (3), 177–185.
Mandal, P., Shah, K., Love, P.E.D., Li, H., 1999. The diffusion of
quality in Australian manufacturing. International Journal of Qual-
ity & Reliability Management 16 (6), 575–590.
Maull, R., Brown, P., Cliffe, R., 2001. Organisational culture and qual-
ity improvement. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management 21 (3), 302–326.
Najmi, M., Kehoe, D.F., 2000. An integrated framework for post-ISO
9000 quality development. International Journal of Quality &
Reliability Management 17 (33), 226–258.
Ngowi, A.B., 2000. Impact of culture on the application of TQM in
the construction industry in Botswana. International Journal of
Quality & Reliability Management 17 (4/5), 442–452.
Page, R., Curry, A., 2000. TQM—a holistic view. The International
Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Management: The TQM Magazine
12 (1), 11–17.
Pool, S.W., 2000. The learning organization: Motivating employees by
integrating TQM philosophy in a supportive organizational culture.
Leadership & Organization Development Journal 21 (8), 373–378.
Prabhu, V., Appleby, A., Yarrow, D., Mitchell, E., 2000. The impact
of ISO 9000 and TQM on best practice / performance. The Inter-
national Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Management: The TQM
Magazine 12 (2), 84–91.
Reavill, L.R.P., 1999. What is the future direction of TQM develop-
ment? The International Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Manage-
ment: The TQM Magazine 11 (5), 291–298.
Reeves, C., Bednar, D., 1994. De?ning quality: Alternatives and impli-
cations. Academy of Management Review 19 (3), 419–445.
Samson, D., 1997. Progress in total quality management: Evidence
from Australasia. International Journal of Quality Science 2 (4),
214–235.
Sandholm, L., 1999. Trendy versus effective quality strategies. The
International Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Management: The TQM
Magazine 11 (6), 437–444.
Schein, E., 1984. Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture.
Sloan Management Review, Winter.
Schneider, S.K., Northcraft, G.B., 1999. Three social dilemmas of
workforce diversity in organisations: A social identity perspective.
Human Relations 52 (11), 1445.
Sinclair, J., Arthur, A., 1994. Inhospitable cultures and continuous
improvement. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management 6 (12), 30–36.
Sluti, D.G., Manni, K.E., Putterill, M.S., 1995. Empirical analysis of
quality improvement in manufacturing: a survey instrument devel-
opment and preliminary results. Asia Paci?c Journal of Quality
Management 4 (1), 47–52.
Sohal, A.S., Terziovski, M., 2000. TQM in Australian manufacturing:
Factors critical to success. International Journal of Quality &
Reliability Management 17 (2), 158–167.
Terziovski, M., Samson, D., 2000. The effect of company size on the
relationship between TQM strategy and organisational perform-
ance. The TQM Magazine 12 (2), 144–148.
Williams, A., Dobson, P., Walters, M., 1994. Changing Culture: New
Organisational Approaches, , 2nd edition. Institute of Personnel
Management, Cromwell Press, Wiltshire, UK.
Zairi, M., 1991. Total Quality Management for Engineers. Woodhead
Publishing Limited, Cambridge, UK.
Zairi, M., Letza, S.R., Oakland, J.S., 1994. Does TQM impact on bot-
tom-line results? The TQM Magazine 6 (1), 38–43.
Zairi, M., Whymark, J., 2000a. The transfer of best practices: How to
build a culture of benchmarking and continuous learning—part 1.
Benchmarking: An international Journal 7 (1), 62–78.
Zairi, M., Whymark, J., 2000b. The transfer of best practices: How to
build a culture of benchmarking and continuous learning—part 2.
Benchmarking: An international Journal 7 (2), 146–167.
Zwetsloot, G., 2001. The management of innovation by frontrunner
companies in environmental management and health and safety.
Environmental Management and Health 12 (2), 207–214.
650 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
Professor Zahir Irani has a chair in Information Systems Evaluation and
the Director of Postgraduate Studies in the Department of Information
Systems and Computing, Brunel University (UK). Having worked for sev-
eral years as a project manager, Dr Irani retains close links with industry,
and is a non-executive director to a leading engineering company. He
consults for international organisations such as Royal Dutch Shell Pet-
roleum, DERA, BMW and Adidas, and has taken part in UK-Government
funded trade missions to the Middle East and Gulf region. Dr Irani reviews
research proposals submitted to both the European Commission and the
National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA.Dr Zahir Irani leads a
multi-disciplinary group of International PhD students that research infor-
mation systems evaluation and application integration. He is a Visiting
Scholar to the University of Salford (UK) and a Visiting Professor at
Deakin University (Australia) and Arab Academy of Science and Tech-
nology (Egypt). He is the editor-in-chief of the established Journal of
Logistics Information Management and European Editor of the Business
Process Management Journal. He has co-authored a teaching text-book
on information systems evaluation, and written over 100 internationally
refereed papers and received ANBAR citations of research excellence. He
has spoken at conferences and guest seminars world wide, and is inter-
nationally known for his scholarly work in the area of information systems
evaluation and application integration. Dr Irani is on the editorial-board
of several journals, as well as co-and-mini-track chair to international con-
ferences such as ICSTM-2002, ECITE, AMICS and HICSS. He has edited
special issue journals, and publishes in leading international scholarly jour-
nals that include: Journal of Management Information Systems, European
Journal of Information Systems, Information & Management, Inter-
national Journal of Production Economics, to name but a few. Dr Irani
has received numerous grants and awards from funding bodies that include
the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Royal
Academy of Engineering, Australian Research Council (ARC), DERA,
Dept of Trade and Industry and European Commission. Further details are
available at:http://www.brunel.ac.uk/~csstzni/
Dr. Ahmet Beskese is an Assistant Professor at Istanbul Technical Uni-
versity Management Faculty, Department of Industrial Engineering
(Turkey). He is an industrial engineer and holds higher degrees in Engin-
eering Management. He also gives courses on Quality Management and
Logistics Information Systems at the Continuous Education Centre of
Istanbul Technical University. He visited the Centre for Quality and Pro-
ductivity Improvement, University of Wisconsin—Madison (USA) as an
honorary associate in 1999, and the Department of Information Systems
and Computing, Brunel University (UK) as a research fellow in 1999–
2000. He gave lectures on Information Systems Management, and
Decision Support and Executive Information Systems at Goldsmiths Col-
lege, University of London, as a visiting tutor during his visit to UK in
2000.He is a member of International Ergonomics Association, and
National Institution of Ergonomics (founding member). He held several
projects especially on Quality Management and Reorganisation. He par-
ticipated in the organisation committees for some congresses, and on the
editorial board of a book on various topics of Industrial Engineering. He
has several refereed conference papers and articles especially on Total
Quality Management and Quality Assurance Systems.
Dr. Peter Love is an Associate Professor in the School of Management
Information Systems at Edith Cowan University (Australia) and Asia
Paci?c Editor for Logistics Information Management and Business Pro-
cess Management Journals. He retains close links with industry, and serves
on several government working committees. He has an M.Sc in Construc-
tion Project Management from the University of Bath in the UK and a
Ph.D in Operations Management from Monash University in Australia.
He has a wide range of industry experience, which he gained in the UK
and Australia working as consultant project manager and a commercial
manager for a multi-national contracting organization. Dr Love’s research
interests include supply chain management, quality management, IS pro-
ject management and strategic information systems evaluation. He has co-
authored/edited four books and has authored/co-authored over 200 inter-
nationally refereed research papers and received ANBAR citations of
research excellence.
doc_981470087.pdf
There is a need for an appropriate culture to support the scope of Total Quality Management (TQM). Customer focus, systems approach, teamwork, involved management and continuous improvement are the aspects of TQM that facilitate improved organisational success, growth, and competitiveness.
Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
www.elsevier.com/locate/technovation
Total quality management and corporate culture: constructs of
organisational excellence
Z. Irani
a,?
, A. Beskese
b
, P.E.D. Love
c
a
Information Systems Evaluation and Integration Network Group (ISEing), Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel
University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK
b
Department of Industrial Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, 80680, Macka, Istanbul, Turkey
c
School of Management Information Systems, Edith Cowan University, Churchlands Campus, Perth, WA 6018, Australia
Abstract
There is a need for an appropriate culture to support the scope of Total Quality Management (TQM). Customer focus, systems
approach, teamwork, involved management and continuous improvement are the aspects of TQM that facilitate improved organis-
ational success, growth, and competitiveness. Many companies are now complementing continuous improvement with innovation,
which is seen as the successful exploitation of new ideas. A clear synergy appears between these two corporate success factors as
they are often integrated under an appropriate corporate culture for exploitation. The results of this can support substantial improve-
ments in business performance and competitiveness of the company. With this in mind, this paper discusses the concept of corporate
culture, places this social construct within the arena of TQM, and highlights the relationships that exist among culture, quality, and
competitiveness using a case study.
© 2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Corporate culture; TQM; Continuous improvement; Case study.
1. Introduction
In order to be a competitor in the global market, com-
panies must study the leading examples of quality. The
key to success as identi?ed by these examples is to
recognise the importance of innovation and quality; thus,
the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) should
be the driving force behind the changes taking place
within today’s organisations. There is no single best
approach to implementing the TQM philosophy. An
approach unique to the needs and culture of the organis-
ation must be developed. (Sohal and Terziovski, 2000)
Many researchers, if not all, agree that Total Quality
is somehow linked to organisational culture. The term
“Total Quality Culture” is frequently used in the litera-
ture, but there still exists a disagreement on whether
TQM involves changing a culture to achieve total quality
or whether it means using the existing culture. Many
companies undertaking TQM programmes have, in
?
Corresponding author. Fax: +44 1895 816 242.
E-mail address: [email protected] (Z. Irani).
0166-4972/$ - see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0166-4972(02)00128-1
recent times, switched their attention from applying the
tools and techniques of TQM to attempting to align their
TQM programme with their prevailing organisational
culture (Maull et al., 2001). Advocates of organisational
excellence eschew the problems associated with achiev-
ing a ?exible, adaptable and committed workforce in
organisations (Reeves and Bednar, 1994). This is
because they lack a dominant and coherent culture, in
which values, commitments and approaches are likely to
diverge, which can present a barrier to co-operation,
joint action and problem solving across the organisation.
Thus, managers should periodically analyse the rel-
evance of corporate values to the evolving organisational
environment. As a result, enabling managers to adapt
and nurture the constructs that support the development
of an aspired organisational culture.
This paper discusses the concept of corporate culture,
and places this social construct within the arena of Total
Quality Management (TQM). Using a case study from
Velden Engineering Ltd, an award-winning UK com-
pany, the relationship between culture and strategy are
discussed. In addition, the paper identi?es individual and
organisational characteristics that facilitated best practice
644 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
through the adoption of strong leadership and organis-
ational management.
2. Total quality management
TQM can be de?ned as the agreed company-wide and
plant-wide operating work structure, documented in
effective, integrated technical and managerial pro-
cedures, for guiding the co-ordinated actions of the
people, the machines, and the information of the com-
pany and plant in the best and most practical ways to
assure customer quality satisfaction and economical
costs of quality (Zairi, 1991). Thus, it can be concluded
that TQM itself, is the desired culture of an organisation
committed to customer satisfaction through continuous
improvement. Many organisations have already realised
that their only way of surviving in today’s competitive
global market is to become a successful “total quality
organisation” (Bohoris, 1995). Similarly, it is noted in
the literature that there is signi?cant association between
TQM activities and organisational competitiveness.
(Corbett and Rastrick, 2000; Najmi and Kehoe, 2000;
Pool, 2000; Prabhu et al., 2000; Terziovski and Samson,
2000; Zairi and Whymark, 2000a; Zairi and Whymark,
2000b; Zairi et al., 1994) Since Total Quality Manage-
ment calls for continuous improvement, it will be inevi-
table that new concepts for maintaining innovation and
quality will emerge to lead organisations to the next cen-
tury and beyond (Liu and Kleiner, 2001).
Research undertaken by Corbett and Rastrick (2000)
suggests that most quality tools associated with TQM do
not generally produce advantage, but certain tacit behav-
ioural features—such as open culture, employee
empowerment, and executive commitment—can pro-
duce advantage.
3. Corporate culture
Hofstede (1991) states that corporate culture has been
a fashionable topic since the early 1980s. At a time when
the management literature began to popularise the claim
that the excellence of an organisation is contained in the
common ways by which its members have learned to
think, feel and act. For many years, especially during the
last two decades, corporate culture has been acknowl-
edged as an important component of organisational suc-
cess. (Gore Jr, 1999; Corbett and Rastrick, 2000)
The term corporate culture is one of the most fre-
quently used cliche´s, with precise de?nitions varying
within the normative literature. Johnson and Scholes
(1984) de?ne corporate culture as being ‘the deeper level
of basic values, assumptions and beliefs, that are shared
by members of an organisation’. These values, assump-
tions, attitudes and beliefs are re?ected within an organ-
isational culture. In fact, they are manifested in many
ways such as the rites, rituals and routines that take place
within an organisation, the language used, the stories,
legends and myths that are told and re-told, the symbols,
logos and artefacts that are found throughout the com-
pany. Therefore, an organisational culture is considered
to be a set of collective norms that govern the behaviour
of people within the company. An organisational culture
is characterised by members’ shared ability to under-
stand speci?c concepts within the organisation
(Karathanos, 1998).
At a basic level, culture may be de?ned as “the way
we do things around here” or “the way we think about
things around here” (Williams et al., 1994). The key fea-
ture is that culture is taught to new members as the cor-
rect way to behave, thus perpetuating organisational sur-
vival and growth. (Maull et al., 2001) A widely accepted
de?nition of culture including this feature is:
“The pattern of basic assumptions that a given group
has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to
cope with its problems of external adaption and
internal integration, and that have worked well
enough to be considered valid, and, therefore to be
taught to new members as the correct way to perceive,
think, and feel in relation to those problems.”
Schein (1984)
Essentially, corporate culture is a soft, holistic concept
with, however, presumed hard consequences. Hofstede
(1991
18) refers to such culture as “the psychologicalassets of an organisation, which can be used to predict
what will happen to its ?nancial assets in ?ve years
time”.
Several researchers, such as Kotter and Heskett (1992)
have concluded that corporate culture may hurt or help
a ?rm’s performance. For example, in Fortune’s all star
ranking, General Electric earned the highest honour in
1998 since it has spent years developing a corporate cul-
ture in which executives have the autonomy to swoop
in and take advantage of sudden shifts in markets
(Kahn, 1998).
A strong organisational culture enables the smooth
?ow of information and nurtures harmony among its
members (Karathanos, 1998). Improvements in work
culture and internal communication thus improve cus-
tomer (internal and external) satisfaction, which is essen-
tial for market growth and pro?tability in the long term
(Lakhe and Mohanty, 1994). A strong corporate culture
will assist members of a diverse workforce in estab-
lishing a super-ordinate organisational identity, and in
identifying shared, super-ordinate goals. Noteworthy,
however, Schneider and Northcraft (1999) suggest that
such cultures may be dif?cult to cultivate.
Successfully reacting to changes in the global market-
place requires a ?exible and adaptable corporate culture
645 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
(Elashmawi, 2000). Yet, advocates of organisational
excellence tend to obscure the problems associated with
achieving a ?exible, adaptable and committed workforce
in organisations. This is because they seem to lack a
dominant and coherent culture, where values, commit-
ments and approaches are likely to diverge and where
the divergence seems likely to present a barrier to
cooperation, joint action and problem solving across the
organisation (Barratt, 1992). Thus, according to Kara-
thanos, (1998) managers should periodically analyse the
relevance of corporate values within their organisations
to examine how adaptive it is to environmental changes.
With this in mind, managers need to gain an understand-
ing about how they can promote a culture that is adept
to learning on how to change through participation,
teamwork and empowerment of workers–all of which
are considered necessary for effective quality manage-
ment.
4. TQM and corporate culture
While TQM has separate origins from the culture
movement, the two ?elds have recently converged with
the idea that to achieve “excellence” and “quality”, it is
necessary either to change or work with the culture of
an organisation (Lewis, 1996). Implementation of TQM
requires changes to the shared assumptions, frames of
reference, and understanding that most organisations
have developed through interaction with their environ-
ment. These changes will impact basic beliefs and values
that employees hold about work. (Ngowi, 2000) This is
why many companies are now attempting to identify
their organisational culture prior to implementing their
TQM programme. (Maull et al., 2001)
Organisational culture in?uences people’s actions and
behaviours. It also alters their actions in the perceptions
of all aspects of their work including quality (Reeves and
Bednar, 1994). Consequently, Calori and Sarnin (1991);
Sinclair and Arthur (1994); Klein et al. (1995); Lewis
(1996), and Corbett and Rastrick (2000) have proffered
a relationship that exists between the constructs of qual-
ity and organisational culture. Research undertaken by
Klein et al. (1995), for example, demonstrated that cul-
ture has a direct impact on service quality. This research
used Cooke and Lafferty’s Organisational Culture Inven-
tory scale to quantitatively measure culture and found a
positive correlation between perceived levels of quality
and the constructive and aggressive/defensive styles of
culture (see Cooke and Rosseau, 1988). However,
changing to a genuine focus on quality is usually a trans-
formation that involves a radical readjustment of a com-
pany’s internal culture. (Sandholm, 1999)
The implementation of TQM is not an easy task, as
it requires a total change in organisational culture, shift-
ing of responsibility to management, and continuous par-
ticipation of all in the quality improvement process
(Lakhe and Mohanty, 1994). In a study undertaken by
Sluti et al. (1995), it was shown that a strong corporate
culture could improve quality, and operational and busi-
ness performance. Mandal et al. (1999) identi?es the cul-
tural change as the single most important inhibitor of
quality policy implementation. Samson (1997), on the
other hand, states:
“Many organizations had previously attempted qual-
ity circles, as in parts of Europe and the USA, because
these had been interpreted as being the answer to ris-
ing levels of manufacturing competitiveness in
Japanese companies. History has told us that the
majority of these initiatives either did not work at all
or fell away after achieving some successes. One of
the reasons for this is the lack of appropriate human
resource and cultural policies and encouragement.”
It is argued that the major problems associated with
the TQM adoption have been lack of understanding
about the degree of organisational commitment required.
In addition, Reavill (1999) suggests that organisations
need to also take into account the signi?cant time scale
involved for the organisation’s culture to adjust to the
underpinning philosophy of TQM.
An organisation that is committed to TQM has a cul-
ture based on commitment to customer satisfaction
through continuous improvement. Such a culture can
vary between organisations but nevertheless has certain
fundamental principles that can be implemented to
secure a greater market share, increased pro?ts and
reduced cost. In the UK for example, business excellence
has been used to develop the quality culture, which is
also embedded in the TQM philosophy (Kanji and Yui,
1997). Examples of the successful implementation of
TQM by best practice organisations can be found in Zairi
and Whymark (2000a,b).
TQM is a philosophy that organisations can use to
improve their performance but, often there is an over-
emphasis on its tools and techniques, which may take
precedence over the need to create a culture, that is open
to change (Page and Curry, 2000). Lakhe and Mohanty
(1994) claims that the following measures are essential
to obtaining cultural change:
? the organisations policies, procedures and processes
must emphasise quality;
? everyone in the organisation must have a clear under-
standing of the importance of quality in achieving
their business objectives;
? people at all levels must be aware of the requirements
and needs of the customer;
? the structure of the organisation should allow for con-
tinuous improvement;
? there should be integration of internal and external
customer requirements in the business plan;
646 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
? use of customer-based measures of performance is
important;
? there is a need to develop strong communication
lines;
? customer commitment should be fostered; and
? emphasis on customer-oriented values and beliefs
must be supported by top management.
5. Culture and strategy
The impact of a corporate culture on a strategy has
long been recognised (Hofstede, 1991). Much of the
literature suggests that employees in a strong organis-
ational culture have a sense of mission, which may in
turn improve productivity. In essence, individuals within
a strong organisational culture know what is expected
of them and thus react positively when confronted with
change. Conversely, employees involved with a weak
organisational culture tend to spend a great deal of time
deciding what they should do and how they should do it.
A culture is good only if it ?ts its context, i.e. the
objective conditions of the industry or the business strat-
egy itself. In other words, the better the ?t, the better
the performance, and a changing environment can under-
mine a good ?t. (Corbett and Rastrick, 2000) The notion
of a culture-strategy ?t holds for a strategy to be success-
ful in a strong culture, as it must be formulated in
accordance with the existing culture. A strategy regard-
less of its strengths will not be successfully accepted, if
it is outside the bounds of the culture. On the other hand,
if the culture is weak, it can easily adapt to any type of
strategy, with success in this case depending solely on
the strength of the strategy. Clearly, the most effective
combination is a strong strategy matched by a strong
culture. Furthermore, it can be postulated that if a strat-
egy and culture ?t together, the resulting success will
strengthen the culture, which in turn enforces the stra-
tegic ?t. Sandholm (1999) claims that an effective stra-
tegic quality plan is reliant on cultural change. It is this
change that may provide the required ?t.
According to the ?ndings from several research
reports, quality management is likely to remain as an
important corporate strategy in the days to come (Liu
and Kleiner, 2001). A corporate culture aiming at con-
tinuous improvement and TQM is mentioned as an
important factor that enhances the companies’ capabili-
ties, especially for innovation. (Zwetsloot, 2001).
Emphasising and rewarding a super-ordinate goal like
quality within a diverse organisation may not only
improve quality, but also reduce con?icts and misunder-
standings among diverse employees by providing them
a unifying purpose, language, and culture, where none
previously existed (Schneider and Northcraft, 1999). The
experiences of a best practice UK organisation in
implementing a TQM strategy and developing a strong
corporate culture are now presented and discussed.
6. Research methodology
The research reported in this paper required a method-
ology that captured the thoughts and actions of all the
people within an organisation and, in doing so, supported
an investigation into the social constructs of a company’s
culture. A case study was considered to be the most
appropriate research strategy, which according to Bon-
oma (1985) makes use of interviews, and relies heavily
on verbal reports and unobtrusive observation as primary
data sources. As a result, a case study tends to make use
of research methods that provide qualitative rather than
quantitative data, which enabled the researchers to cap-
ture the complexity and dynamism of organisational set-
tings.
The research design phase involved reviewing the nor-
mative literature on TQM and organisational culture.
This was then followed by the identi?cation of a suitable
research strategy. The strategy adopted during this
empirical enquiry was that of a single ?eldwork case
study. The second and third phases concerned the case
study data collection, and the subsequent analysis of
data. A questionnaire served to provide a semi-structured
interview agenda for use in discussions with directors,
managers and shop-?oor operatives. It also enabled the
researcher to ask standardised questions of the inter-
viewees. All interviews were tape recorded and later
transcribed. In an attempt to counteract any bias, which
may have affected the accuracy of the qualitative data
collected, a process of data triangulation was adopted
(Jick, 1979).
7. Case study experiences at Velden Engineering
(UK) Ltd
Velden Engineering (UK) Ltd is a dynamic, ambitious
company, with best practice ideals and world-class
aspirations. Velden’s core business is precision subcon-
tract engineering, which primarily involves manufactur-
ing a wide variety of parts, products and assemblies, for
a large number of customers, in diverse industries.
Velden remains a privately owned company, whose rad-
ical ideas on employee empowerment, and the
implementation of continuous improvement makes them
stand out from the crowd.
The company appears to be ahead of the competition
in many ways, especially when benchmarked against tra-
ditional British subcontract companies. The evidence is
that Velden is an award winning Inside (UK) Enterprise
Demonstration Company, for the UK Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI, 1993), and was described as an
exemplar company when awarded an Investors in People
(Donnelly, 1995).
Velden’s culture and philosophy is one that has been
nurtured and developed over the last 20 years, and has
647 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
not needed to undergo any major cultural changes (Irani
et al., 1997a; Irani and Sharp, 1997). However, it has
not been without its problems and sceptics. Culture in
any company is the underlying belief that pervades the
organisation about how business should be conducted,
and about how employees should behave and be treated
(Love et al., 1998).
Velden’s cultural framework includes its guiding
philosophy, and core values and beliefs, which are com-
bined into a mission statement. The mission statement
should act as a concise development from core values
and beliefs, and should convey what the organisation’s
role in society. Velden’s mission statement clearly trans-
lates its philosophy into tangible goals that will move
the organisation forward and make them perform to their
optimum. Their mission is to survive, expand, and pros-
per by developing people to provide a professional,
responsive, ef?cient, ?exible, green, total quality service,
with absolute commitment to the customer and supplier.
The company’s guiding philosophy forms an integral
part of their culture, and drives the organisation forward.
The leaders within Velden through their thoughts and
actions subsequently shape this. The company culture
re?ects the vision of the organisation rather than the
vision of a single leader, and has evolved over time,
although core elements have been maintained. The com-
pany’s core values and beliefs represent the organis-
ation’s basic principles, about what is important in busi-
ness, its conduct, its social responsibility and its response
to changes in today’s competitive environment. It acts
as a guiding force, with clear and authentic values, which
are focused on employees, suppliers, customers, and
society at large and stakeholders.
The success of Velden’s corporate culture can be attri-
buted to a number of key enablers, which have proven
to be ingredients for success for organisational excel-
lence in both Velden’s core and non-core business activi-
ties. Continuous improvement and innovation as noted
in Fig. 1 form the genesis of these enablers.
The success of Velden has been based on its proactive
application of TQM principles and the development of
an open culture that is able to adapt to changes imposed
on its internal and external environment. Velden’s
organisational structure is horizontal and is used to sup-
port its Self-Directed Work Teams (SDWT) (Irani et al.,
1997b), which form the basis of the organisation’s
ability to learn and be innovative in its
manufacture/service/product delivery (Irani et al.,
1997c).
At the heart of Velden’s strategy is that of a customer-
supplier focus thus, strategic alliances (SA) with its cus-
tomers and suppliers are fundamental to achieving
organisational excellence. The SAs are integral part of
the Velden’s approach to organisational learning and
knowledge management. The company differentiates
between training and education (education is seen as
broadening one’s sights and vision, whereas training is
seen as skills based). The bene?ts of this have cascaded
down the supply chain with Velden operating an open
door policy in support of developing the intellectual
assets of its SA.
7.1. Continuous improvement and innovation
Innovation is not a new concept and is not synony-
mous with invention, although invention may be part of
the innovation process. It is synonymous with the good
management of all the company functions. It is a
dynamic process and should be an essential part of any
business strategy and everyday practice. The UK based
Board Room report of April 1993 suggests that innovat-
ing ?rms tend to have a larger market share, higher
growth rates and pro?t, than none innovators. In today’s
highly competitive market, delighting customers is most
important (Grif?n et al., 1995). Markets for products are
now characterised by a far greater ability to ‘shop
around’ and choose preferred suppliers. This applies
whether the buyer is an individual customer, small busi-
ness or a major enterprise. As a consequence, the
requirement for a business to be competitive and satisfy
its customers as well as, or better than its rivals is funda-
mental to the success and growth of the business. There-
fore resulting in the need to ‘innovate’ or face the alter-
native, liquidate. However, such might only be possible
if within an organisational setting there is commitment
by the workforce that often stems from an appropriate
culture.
Continuous improvement and innovation are con-
sidered to be the life-blood of many companies, and
there is nothing so stultifying to those companies—or to
the people in it—as a belief that the old ways must be
the best ways. An organisation that tries to stand still
may not survive. The implementations of these concepts
require a blend of creativity, clear thinking, and the
ability to get things done. It requires thinkers and doers
to work closely together.
Such an environment has been created within Velden
and forms an integral part of the company culture. The
success of Velden’s approach to continuous improve-
ment and innovation has been dependent on the charac-
teristics of the individuals employed within the com-
pany, which have developed and nurtured by
management over several years. These factors ultimately
re?ect the corporate culture and are summarised below:
7.2. Individual characteristics
Individual characteristics that encourage innovation
and continuous improvement include:
? a clear initial view of the results that are desired—
648 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
Fig. 1. The Interaction of Business Activities at Velden Engineering
The ability to clearly de?ne the aims and bene?ts of
the project being considered;
? the ability to get support not only from management
but also from their colleagues; there is a need to build
a coalition in which everyone shares equally in the
belief that the project is worthwhile;
? courageous employees—take calculated risks when
setbacks occur;
? the ability to handle interference or opposition to the
project—resistance can be open but it often takes a
passive or covert form: criticism of the plans, foot
dragging, late responses to questions, or arguments
over allocation of time and resources amongst pro-
jects. Covert resistance can be the most dangerous;
? leaders who are good at getting people into action—to
mobilise and contribute fully to the project, by using a
participative management style; and
? the force of character to maintain the momentum of
the project, especially after the initial enthusiasm for
the project has waned.
7.3. Organisational characteristics
Organisational characteristics that encourage inno-
vation and continuous improvement include:
? a free ?ow of information that allows managers to
?nd ideas in unexpected places and pushes them to
combine fragments of information;
? close and frequent contact between work sections and
an emphasis on lateral as well as vertical relation-
ships;
? a tradition of working in teams and sharing credit; and
? managers who believe in innovation and provide the
necessary resources and support.
8. Conclusions
This paper stresses the importance of a strong total
quality culture as a key element of improving organis-
ational competitiveness. To survive in a rapidly evolving
global market, customers and their needs should govern
all the activities within an organisation. For most organ-
isations this will require a change in their internal cul-
ture. The core concept of TQM, that is the customer
focus, linked with a continuous improvement plan that
is supported by innovation can build a strong culture,
which can positively improve an organisation’s competi-
tiveness and performance. Velden Engineering (UK)
Ltd. is an award winning and outstanding subcontract
organisation which has realised this long before. Their
story of success through the development of a Total
Quality Culture told in this article can be used by other
organisations as a model in the attainment of organis-
ational excellence. Characteristics of the individuals
employed within the company and the general organis-
ational characteristics are listed as a key to success for
the companies desiring to be successful in the quest
for quality.
References
Barratt, E., 1992. The strengths and weaknesses of the corporate cul-
ture analogy “The Glue That Doesn’t Stick”. Henley the Manage-
ment College, Working Paper Series, Oxon, UK.
Bohoris, G.A., 1995. A comparative assessment of some major quality
awards. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Manage-
ment 12 (7), 30–43.
Bonoma, T.V., 1985. Case research in marketing: Opportunities, prob-
lems, and a process. Journal of Marketing Research 12, 199–208.
Calori, R., Sarnin, P., 1991. Corporate culture and economic perform-
ance: A French study. Organisation Studies 12 (1), 49–74.
649 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
Cooke, R., Rosseau, D., 1988. Behavioural norms and expectations: a
quantitative approach to the assessment of organisational culture.
Group and Organisation Studies 13 (3), 245–273.
Corbett, L.M., Rastrick, K.N., 2000. Quality performance and organi-
zational culture: A New Zealand study. International Journal of
Quality & Reliability Management 17 (1), 14–26.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), 1993. Inside UK Enterprise:
Managing in the ‘90’s, C/O Status Meeting Limited, Festival Hall,
Hampshire, UK, p.53.
Donnelly, W., 1995. Success Through People. In: Proceings of the
30th Annual Conference of the British Production and Inventory
Control Society., pp. 185–190.
Elashmawi, F., 2000. Creating a winning corporate culture: Experience
inside the Asian telecommunications industry. European Business
Review 12 (3), 148–156.
Gore, E.W. Jr, 1999. Organizational culture, TQM, and business pro-
cess reengineering: An empirical comparison. Team Performance
Management: An International Journal 5 (5), 164–170.
Grif?n, A., Gleason, G., Preiss, R., Shevenaugh, D., 1995. Best prac-
tice for customer satisfaction in manufacturing ?rms. Sloan Man-
agement Review 36 (2), 87–98.
Hofstede, G., 1991. Cultures and Organisations: Software of the Mind.
McGraw-Hill.
Johnson, G., Scholes, K., 1984. Exploring Corporate Strategy. Pren-
tice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA.
Irani, Z., Sharp, J.M., 1997. Integrating continuous improvement and
innovation into a corporate culture: A case study. The International
Journal of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Tech-
nology Management (Technovation) 17 (4), 199–206.
Irani, Z., Sharp, J.M., Kagioglou, M., 1997a. Improving business per-
formance through developing a corporate culture. The International
Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Management: The TQM Magazine 9
(3), 206–216.
Irani, Z., Sharp, J.M., Kagioglou, M., 1997b. Communicating through
self-directed work teams in a manufacturing environment. The
Journal of Workplace Learning 9 (6), 199–205.
Irani, Z., Sharp, J.M., Race, P., 1997c. A case experience of new pro-
duct introduction within a once traditional subcontract manufactur-
ing environment. Production and Inventory Management Journal
38 (2), 47–51.
Jick, T.D., 1979. Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: triangu-
lation in accumulation. Administrative Science Quarterly 24,
602–611.
Kahn, J., 1998. The World’s most admired companies, Fortune of 26
October, p. 206.
Kanji, G.K., Yui, H., 1997. Total quality culture. Total Quality Man-
agement 8 (6), 417–428.
Karathanos, P., 1998. Crafting corporate meaning (developing corpor-
ate culture). Management Decision 36 (2), 123–132.
Klein, R.G.L., Bigley, G.A., Roberts, K.H., 1995. Organisational cul-
ture in high reliability organisations. Human Relations 48 (7),
771–793.
Kotter, J.P., Heskett, J.L., 1992. Corporate Culture and Performance.
MacMillan International, Oxford, UK.
Lakhe, R.R., Mohanty, R.P., 1994. Total quality management: con-
cepts, evolution and acceptability in developing economies. Inter-
national Journal of Quality & Reliability Management 11 (9), 9–33.
Lewis, D., 1996. The organizational culture saga—from OD to TQM:
A critical review of the literature. Part 2—applications. Leader-
ship & Organization Development Journal 17 (2), 9–16.
Liu, V.C., Kleiner, B.H., 2001. Global trends in managing innovation
and quality. Management Research News 24 (3/4), 13–16.
Love, P.E.D., Gunasekaran, A., Li, H., 1998. Improving the competi-
tiveness of manufacturing companies through continuous incremen-
tal change. The International Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Man-
agement: TQM Magazine 10 (3), 177–185.
Mandal, P., Shah, K., Love, P.E.D., Li, H., 1999. The diffusion of
quality in Australian manufacturing. International Journal of Qual-
ity & Reliability Management 16 (6), 575–590.
Maull, R., Brown, P., Cliffe, R., 2001. Organisational culture and qual-
ity improvement. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management 21 (3), 302–326.
Najmi, M., Kehoe, D.F., 2000. An integrated framework for post-ISO
9000 quality development. International Journal of Quality &
Reliability Management 17 (33), 226–258.
Ngowi, A.B., 2000. Impact of culture on the application of TQM in
the construction industry in Botswana. International Journal of
Quality & Reliability Management 17 (4/5), 442–452.
Page, R., Curry, A., 2000. TQM—a holistic view. The International
Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Management: The TQM Magazine
12 (1), 11–17.
Pool, S.W., 2000. The learning organization: Motivating employees by
integrating TQM philosophy in a supportive organizational culture.
Leadership & Organization Development Journal 21 (8), 373–378.
Prabhu, V., Appleby, A., Yarrow, D., Mitchell, E., 2000. The impact
of ISO 9000 and TQM on best practice / performance. The Inter-
national Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Management: The TQM
Magazine 12 (2), 84–91.
Reavill, L.R.P., 1999. What is the future direction of TQM develop-
ment? The International Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Manage-
ment: The TQM Magazine 11 (5), 291–298.
Reeves, C., Bednar, D., 1994. De?ning quality: Alternatives and impli-
cations. Academy of Management Review 19 (3), 419–445.
Samson, D., 1997. Progress in total quality management: Evidence
from Australasia. International Journal of Quality Science 2 (4),
214–235.
Sandholm, L., 1999. Trendy versus effective quality strategies. The
International Bi-Monthly for Total Quality Management: The TQM
Magazine 11 (6), 437–444.
Schein, E., 1984. Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture.
Sloan Management Review, Winter.
Schneider, S.K., Northcraft, G.B., 1999. Three social dilemmas of
workforce diversity in organisations: A social identity perspective.
Human Relations 52 (11), 1445.
Sinclair, J., Arthur, A., 1994. Inhospitable cultures and continuous
improvement. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management 6 (12), 30–36.
Sluti, D.G., Manni, K.E., Putterill, M.S., 1995. Empirical analysis of
quality improvement in manufacturing: a survey instrument devel-
opment and preliminary results. Asia Paci?c Journal of Quality
Management 4 (1), 47–52.
Sohal, A.S., Terziovski, M., 2000. TQM in Australian manufacturing:
Factors critical to success. International Journal of Quality &
Reliability Management 17 (2), 158–167.
Terziovski, M., Samson, D., 2000. The effect of company size on the
relationship between TQM strategy and organisational perform-
ance. The TQM Magazine 12 (2), 144–148.
Williams, A., Dobson, P., Walters, M., 1994. Changing Culture: New
Organisational Approaches, , 2nd edition. Institute of Personnel
Management, Cromwell Press, Wiltshire, UK.
Zairi, M., 1991. Total Quality Management for Engineers. Woodhead
Publishing Limited, Cambridge, UK.
Zairi, M., Letza, S.R., Oakland, J.S., 1994. Does TQM impact on bot-
tom-line results? The TQM Magazine 6 (1), 38–43.
Zairi, M., Whymark, J., 2000a. The transfer of best practices: How to
build a culture of benchmarking and continuous learning—part 1.
Benchmarking: An international Journal 7 (1), 62–78.
Zairi, M., Whymark, J., 2000b. The transfer of best practices: How to
build a culture of benchmarking and continuous learning—part 2.
Benchmarking: An international Journal 7 (2), 146–167.
Zwetsloot, G., 2001. The management of innovation by frontrunner
companies in environmental management and health and safety.
Environmental Management and Health 12 (2), 207–214.
650 Z. Irani et al. / Technovation 24 (2004) 643–650
Professor Zahir Irani has a chair in Information Systems Evaluation and
the Director of Postgraduate Studies in the Department of Information
Systems and Computing, Brunel University (UK). Having worked for sev-
eral years as a project manager, Dr Irani retains close links with industry,
and is a non-executive director to a leading engineering company. He
consults for international organisations such as Royal Dutch Shell Pet-
roleum, DERA, BMW and Adidas, and has taken part in UK-Government
funded trade missions to the Middle East and Gulf region. Dr Irani reviews
research proposals submitted to both the European Commission and the
National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA.Dr Zahir Irani leads a
multi-disciplinary group of International PhD students that research infor-
mation systems evaluation and application integration. He is a Visiting
Scholar to the University of Salford (UK) and a Visiting Professor at
Deakin University (Australia) and Arab Academy of Science and Tech-
nology (Egypt). He is the editor-in-chief of the established Journal of
Logistics Information Management and European Editor of the Business
Process Management Journal. He has co-authored a teaching text-book
on information systems evaluation, and written over 100 internationally
refereed papers and received ANBAR citations of research excellence. He
has spoken at conferences and guest seminars world wide, and is inter-
nationally known for his scholarly work in the area of information systems
evaluation and application integration. Dr Irani is on the editorial-board
of several journals, as well as co-and-mini-track chair to international con-
ferences such as ICSTM-2002, ECITE, AMICS and HICSS. He has edited
special issue journals, and publishes in leading international scholarly jour-
nals that include: Journal of Management Information Systems, European
Journal of Information Systems, Information & Management, Inter-
national Journal of Production Economics, to name but a few. Dr Irani
has received numerous grants and awards from funding bodies that include
the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Royal
Academy of Engineering, Australian Research Council (ARC), DERA,
Dept of Trade and Industry and European Commission. Further details are
available at:http://www.brunel.ac.uk/~csstzni/
Dr. Ahmet Beskese is an Assistant Professor at Istanbul Technical Uni-
versity Management Faculty, Department of Industrial Engineering
(Turkey). He is an industrial engineer and holds higher degrees in Engin-
eering Management. He also gives courses on Quality Management and
Logistics Information Systems at the Continuous Education Centre of
Istanbul Technical University. He visited the Centre for Quality and Pro-
ductivity Improvement, University of Wisconsin—Madison (USA) as an
honorary associate in 1999, and the Department of Information Systems
and Computing, Brunel University (UK) as a research fellow in 1999–
2000. He gave lectures on Information Systems Management, and
Decision Support and Executive Information Systems at Goldsmiths Col-
lege, University of London, as a visiting tutor during his visit to UK in
2000.He is a member of International Ergonomics Association, and
National Institution of Ergonomics (founding member). He held several
projects especially on Quality Management and Reorganisation. He par-
ticipated in the organisation committees for some congresses, and on the
editorial board of a book on various topics of Industrial Engineering. He
has several refereed conference papers and articles especially on Total
Quality Management and Quality Assurance Systems.
Dr. Peter Love is an Associate Professor in the School of Management
Information Systems at Edith Cowan University (Australia) and Asia
Paci?c Editor for Logistics Information Management and Business Pro-
cess Management Journals. He retains close links with industry, and serves
on several government working committees. He has an M.Sc in Construc-
tion Project Management from the University of Bath in the UK and a
Ph.D in Operations Management from Monash University in Australia.
He has a wide range of industry experience, which he gained in the UK
and Australia working as consultant project manager and a commercial
manager for a multi-national contracting organization. Dr Love’s research
interests include supply chain management, quality management, IS pro-
ject management and strategic information systems evaluation. He has co-
authored/edited four books and has authored/co-authored over 200 inter-
nationally refereed research papers and received ANBAR citations of
research excellence.
doc_981470087.pdf