Credit Hours: 5.0 Units

Description:
Quality became an important business issue because of the fall of American competitiveness in world markets. No management issues since the Scientific Management has had the impact of the quality movement. The total quality management (TQM) approach is increasingly used by organizations to improve their operations and the processes used in all functional areas of their organizations. TQM has become popular because it attempts to improve product/service quality, productivity, and competitiveness by improving communications with customers and suppliers and within organizations.

The need for learning and understanding the principles of total quality has become increasingly obvious in recent years. TQM is a comprehensive approach requiring lengthy and extensive education and training programs within organizations. This course takes an in-depth approach in order to teach students the basic principles and tools associated with TQM. The course also provides many cases that focus on large and small companies in manufacturing and service industries in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

This course is organized according to traditional management topics. This organization helps students to see the parallels between TQM and management theories. The course is divided into four sections. In the first part of the course students are introduced to core principles of TQM, the most common TQM techniques and how they relates to familiar management concepts. In the second section we turn our attention to the idea of customer-supplier relations and how TQM relates to topics such as organizational design and change. Section 3 presents the themes of teamwork and empowerment and relates TQM to the topics of groups, leadership, and motivation. In the final section, we discuss the impact of TQM on both the content and process of competitive strategy.

1. Develop a conceptual understanding of the basic principles and methods associated with TQM;
2. Develop an understanding of how these principles and methods have been put into effect in a variety of organizations;
3. Develop an understanding of the relationship between TQM principles and the theories and models studied in traditional management;

Read the assigned chapters and answer discussion questions prepared for each one. To see questions for each reading and for further instructions on how to post your answers, click on one of the the book icons in the following table.

Journals:
The following journals contain material on the subject:

1. Harvard Business Review
2. Sloan Management Review
3. Academy of Management Executive
4. The Columbia Journal of World Business
5. Quality Progress
6. Business Horizons
7. Human Resource Planning
8. Planning Review

1. TQM Magazine
2. The Economist
3. Business Week
4. Fortune

1. Wall Street Journal
2. Financial Times

Additional Information

The following items are linkages to WWW sites that are integral to this course. Visit often as this list expands: