Anglo-Saxon change in a non-Anglo-Saxon cultural context: lessons from TQM application in Greek public organisations

Total Quality Management (TQM), as a new management philosophy with a set of 'soft' and 'hard' aspects, challenges public domain agendas. However, most of the studies concerning the application of TQM have been conducted in Anglo-Saxon systems. Less has been written about the specific conditions that affect the application of TQM in other national contexts. In this respect, the purpose of this article is to explore the cultural factors that seem to determine public managers' attitudes towards the adoption of TQM in non-Anglo-Saxon civil services, in this study the Greek one. Based on a combination of quantitative (survey-questionnaire) and qualitative (follow-up explanatory interviews) research methods, this study expands the theoretical understanding of the application of TQM by offering an enhanced framework under which it should be seen. There are two antithetical factors of the Greek national civil service culture that seem to affect the application of TQM: the traditional and the modern.