Ebrahim Soltani - Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK
Pei-Chun Lai - Department of Hospitality Management, School of Tourism Ming Chuan University, Taoyuan County, Taiwan
Naser Shams Gharneh - Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Quality management gurus and other organisational scholars have emphasised that TQM initiatives should be management-led if these initiatives are meant to be the solution to recession, heightened and global competition and a means to business excellence. In so doing, TQM gives way to senior management as the primary internal change agent for quality improvement and, thereby, promises a shift from traditional management styles towards a context-dependent and humanistic-oriented approach to managing organisations. But whereas that shift reflected some changes in the literature on management of TQM organisations can the same be said of such shift in the practice of managing TQM? Is managing TQM different in substance or emphasis from non -TQM organisations? This paper proposes critically to consider this question. In doing so, it examines not only the nature and elements of TQM but to explore the potentia l barriers to a stable TQM through analyzing the findings of a survey of quality-driven organizations in the UK. The question will also be posed as to whether senior management team offer a new management style that might tackle the TQM failures or whether it is merely a new rhetoric aimed at masking classic management in the language of today.

Total Quality Management (TQM); CEO Commitment; Literature & Survey Research