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Foreign manufacturing firms operating in mainland China face an adverse operational environment caused by poor quality management staff and the undereducated workforce. The implementation of TQM is particularly difficult in this environment. Based on case studies of 20 TQM firms and practical consultancy experience in mainland China, this paper analyses the difficulties in implementing quality management and offers a number of suggestions for step by step implementation of TQM. As found in our studies, manufacturers may institute the necessary changes in both organizational quality culture and management systems progressively by assessing their unique operational environment and the practical improvements achieved on a continuous basis. Matrix organizations with project teams may provide them with a smoother transition from traditional organizational structure to team based structures in TQM. Those changes in management systems and organizational cultures may be supported by the necessary organizational policies, further instituted and sustained by the adoption of the ISO 9000 quality management system.

Describes the process and outcomes of operationalizing the 14 dimensions underlying the SPC implementation/practice construct. Employs a standard procedure to create a measurement instrument comprising 14 measurement scales, with the number of constituent measurement items ranging from one to four, that correspond to the 14 dimensions underlying the SPC implementation/practice construct. Reports the results of assessing three properties of measurement quality for these newly‐created measurement scales, namely: face validity, internal consistency reliability and uni‐dimensionality. Such a measurement instrument can then be applied to examine antecedents and consequences of SPC implementation/practice and to diagnose existing organizational efforts at implementing and practicing SPC and to identify opportunities to improve organizational implementation and practice of this quality improvement intervention. Demonstrates the application and interpretation of the SPC implementation/practice measurement instrument within one organizational setting. Concludes by identifying future research needs.

This paper aims to explore how the entertainment economy excludes individuals and facilitates private investment, the problematic shift towards a “creative economy” and increased regulations within Sydney’s entertainment sector. It also examines how a grass-roots, rural festival can be regarded as an extension of the urban context. It discusses the alternative counterculture(s) that exist despite (or perhaps because of) increasing inaccessibility and regulation, using as a case study an activist collective created in this climate, the Marrickville Warehouse Alliance, focusing specifically on its Star Shitty River Retreat festival.

A phenomenological, mixed-method approach is used with a focus on qualitative in-depth interviews with festival organisers.

This paper demonstrates how politics, embedded within urban place, can be transported to a rural festival site. The phenomenological accounts recorded with the festival organisers, paired with key theories within the literature, demonstrate how organising committees can shape the understanding of place and politics in grass-roots festival environments.

By leaving “no trace” on the site and engaging with and contributing to the indigenous community, the Star Shitty River Retreat festival can be categorised as a type of “creative enhancement”, in which a shared environment of political and communal understanding creates a unique, yet temporary, sense of place within a rural setting.

There is limited literature on the Australian festival context. The finding that rural festival sites can be regarded as an extension of the urban context lends itself to the concept of de-territorialisation or blurring of city boundaries, reinforcing how a festival’s geographical location is of little significance when supported by “portable communities”.

Soft total quality management (TQM) aspects are the facets of TQM that mainly concern with the management of human resource in a way to achieve the results of employees' job satisfaction. Based on this approach, the objective of this research is to examine the relationship between the most popular five soft TQM aspects and employees' job satisfaction in “ISO 9001” certified Sudanese oil companies.

Data were collected through questionnaires from employees across a total of five Sudanese oil companies owned by the government, and adopting an ISO-9001 quality program. The total population of the study consists of 1,505 permanent employees, while the sample size was 253 employees, determined by adopting a stratified random sampling technique. The multiple regression model was adopted for data analysis.

The results showed that the construct of soft TQM aspects including “top management commitment”, “employee empowerment”, “teamwork”, “training and education” and “employee involvement” explain 74% in the variance of employees' job satisfaction. Results showed positive association between soft TQM aspects and employees' job satisfaction at the 5% significance level. It was also found that each individual variable of the five soft TQM aspects has a significant positive association with employees' job satisfaction. Meanwhile, the results indicated that the most important soft TQM aspect in explaining the variability of employees' job satisfaction was the “employee empowerment” with the highest correlation coefficient (β) of (0.189).

The study recommends that in order to achieve their primary goal of employees' satisfaction, HR practitioners within organizations adopting total quality programs should align their practice in such a way to enhance soft aspects of TQM. Policy makers and top management in order to gain long-term infrastructural benefits obtained from employees' job satisfaction should show a visible support to TQM programs and allocate necessary resources to train their staff in the quality management system that enhance their empowerment and involvement. The study also recommends that since soft aspects of TQM raise their job satisfaction, employees should support and conform to quality management systems within their organizations.

The paper focuses on soft TQM aspects’ practical implementation. The findings make a significant contribution by using ISO-certified governmental Sudanese oil companies and tested the hypothesized model entails the impact of soft TQM implementation and employees' job satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a relationship between the leader’s management problem-solving styles (MPSS) and total quality management (TQM) focus.

The study is based on C.G. Jung’s (1923) four psychological functions or cognitive styles, which are involved in information gathering and evaluation by sensing, intuitive, thinking, and feeling. The combination of these psychological functions makes possible ways of results: sensing-thinking (ST), sensing-feeling (SF), intuitive-thinking (NT), and intuitive-feeling (NF) for management problem solving. The empirical data for this study were drawn from a survey of 111 firms in India. A one-way analysis of variance approach has been applied for analysis in this study.

The authors review the extant literature and present a conceptual framework to establish the relationship between different management problem-solving styles and TQM focus. The literature on TQM shows two distinct achievable results: continuous improvement and innovation. The findings of the study support all the hypotheses and the results show that leaders with ST and SF profile are comfortable with the continuous improvement while leaders with NT and NF profile focus on innovation in the organization.

The results of this study emphasize the importance of knowing the appropriate MPSS to TQM focus. The results will help leaders in continuous improvement and innovation to make proper decisions and smooth functions to achieve maximum performance.

This paper can be useful for the organizations to achieve more effective leadership in decision making and improve perception-information model as a leader’s cognitive style. Moreover, this paper also attempts to inspire researchers to include the cognitive styles in studying the effect of the leaders on TQM focus while implementing it effectively in the organizations.

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of implementing Six Sigma system on job satisfaction and employee morale, and how job satisfaction, employee morale and Six Sigma implementation are to support each other.

The paper builds a research framework which includes the variables of Six Sigma, job satisfaction, and employee morale. The research methodology is the use of a field survey questionnaire of a Taiwanese company.

The paper finds that the method of Six Sigma implementation in Taiwanese company was by a top‐down approach, where is the managers received the training and then were expected to pass on the relevant knowledge to their subordinates. It also reveals that one key issue in Six Sigma implementation is which organizational departments should first receive the Six Sigma training. the field study found that the first departments related to logistics management, and then onto production line departments. Implementing Six Sigma training has impact on organizational job satisfaction and employee morale. The performance of Six Sigma training was able to achieve job satisfaction and employee morale, but the employees who participated in Six Sigma training were more positive with regard to job satisfaction and employee morale.

Every organization has their special characteristics in relation to the Six Sigma system, job satisfaction and employee morale. The organization should aim to better understand the relationship and content of job satisfaction and employee morale with regard to successful Six Sigma implementation.

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria provide key competitive requirements of any business. However, many individuals perceive the criteria as being too complex or impractical to implement. Views the criteria as a basic set of management processes and casts these into the classical framework of managerial roles: planning, organizational, co‐ordinating, directing, and controlling. A sixth category, continuous improvement, extends the classical framework and redefines the role of a manager in the total quality environment.

The purpose of the paper is to determine the impact of cultural values on the success of TQM implementation in Isfahan University Hospitals (IUHs), Iran, 2004.

In this paper survey questionnaires were used to elicit responses from hospital managers and employees. Data collected included the characteristics of organizational culture in IUHs and the degree of TQM success and its implementation problems in these hospitals.

The paper finds that TQM success in IUHs was medium. Implementation of TQM was very low, low, medium and highly successful respectively in 16.7, 16.7, 58.3 and 8.3 percent of hospitals. TQM had the most effect on process management, focus on customers and leadership and management and less effect on focus on suppliers, performance results, strategic planning and focus on material resources. Human resource problems, performance appraisal and strategic problems were the most important obstacles to TQM success respectively. A total of 75 and 25 percent of hospitals had mechanistic and organic structure respectively. In total 41.6 percent of hospitals had weak organizational culture versus 58.4 percent medium culture. The success of TQM in hospitals with organic organizational structure and medium organizational culture was higher than mechanistic and bureaucratic hospitals with weak organizational culture (p<0.05).

The paper shows that TQM requires a quality‐oriented organizational culture supported by senior management commitment and involvement, organizational learning and entrepreneurship, team working and collaboration, risk taking, open communication, continuous improvement, customers focus (both internal and external), partnership with suppliers, and monitoring and evaluation of quality. By replicating this study in different countries and contexts the results could be very helpful for developing a model of TQM that can be implemented successfully in a cross‐cultural context.

This paper proposes and tests a set of measures to operationalize customer value in a business-to-business context. A classification of 13 drivers encapsulating the two dimensions of customer perceived value, benefit, and sacrifice is suggested which can act as the basis for the measurement of customer perceived value relevant to most business-to-business environments involving products, services, and relationships. First, the construct is circumscribed by raising five theoretical questions; then, it is conceptualized in terms of two dimensions, benefit and sacrifice, and 13 product-, service- and relationship-related drivers. Operational indicators are developed for each driver and tested with 209 organizational customers. An evaluation of the measurement properties within an analysis of covariance structure framework reveals that the operational measures developed satisfy to a high degree the criteria for unidimensionality, reliability and validity. Results suggest that 13 drivers underpin an understanding of the customer's value requirements in a business exchange.

The purpose of this paper is to examine leadership styles and their impact on TQM focus within Indian firms.

The empirical data for this study were drawn from a survey of 111 firms in India to examine the validity and reliability of the independent constructs (leadership styles: transformational, servant, adaptive, rational and kinesthetic); and two dependent constructs (TQM focus: continuous improvement and innovation). The data were analyzed employing correlation and multiple regression analysis to identify the influence of leadership styles on TQM focus.

The results of the study revealed that six of the nine hypotheses have a significant and positive relationship with TQM focus; one hypothesis is partial while rest two hypotheses are not associated with TQM focus. It is also found that leadership styles are more inclined to continuous improvement and perceived as dominant TQM practices than innovation.

This study used only two major variables, continuous improvement and innovation, as the outcome of TQM focus, but the outcomes are not limited. TQM focus is also related to other variables such as customer focus, product quality, employee involvement, benchmarking, etc. Future research should be extended by using other variables as the outcome of TQM focus.

The results can be beneficial for the current organization’s leaders to achieve appropriate leadership styles for effective and TQM focus. Moreover, this paper also attempts to inspire researchers to include the TQM focus in studying the effect of the leaders on TQM focus while implementing it effectively in the organizations.