Awareness and Perceptions of Managers in a Manufacturing Organization Regarding Total Quality Management (TQM)

A survey concerning managers’ awareness and perception of TQM was carried out in a manufacturing organization to examine: the awareness of managers regarding TQM; the perception of managers regarding the Critical Success Factors; and the difficulties perceived by managers in
getting commitment to TQM. The awareness and perception of TQM are based on two models - Model for TQM implementation and Critical Hierarchy Model.The sample comprised of 261 top, middle and lower managers from 13 departments (Personnel and General Affairs, Cost Control, Accounts, Purchasing, Shipping, Electronic Data Processing, Value Engineering, Engineering, Production/ Operations, Production Control, Production Engineering, Quality Control, and Parts Control). The alternative hypotheses developed for this research are: Awareness of managers regarding TQM differ according to level of management
and departments; Perception of managers regarding the critical success factors differ according to level of management and departments; and The difficulties perceived by managers in getting commitment to TQM differ according to level of management and departments. Findings revealed that no statistical significant differences exists for:
managers’ awareness regarding TQM among levels of management; managers’ perception regarding the CSF among levels of management; and managers’ perception of difficulties/barriers among levels of management and departments. Findings revealed that statistically
significant differences exists for: managers’ awareness regarding TQM among departments and managers’ perception regarding CSF among departments. Satisfying external customers/clients is what TQM means to most managers. Managers considered necessary management behaviors as the most critical factor in TQM implementation. Results
reflect that TQM is partially practiced in the organization. Findings of this study were discussed in relation to previous research and literature on TQM.