Making total quality work: Aligning organizational processes, performance measures, and stakeholders

Abstract Total quality is increasingly used by companies as an organization‐wide system to achieve fully satisfied customers through the delivery of the highest quality in products and services. The goals of total quality can be achieved only if organizations entirely reform their cultures. Traditional management, operations, finance and accounting systems are reviewed against changes that are needed in organizational processes, measurement systems, and the values and behaviors of key stakeholders to overpower the status quo and shift to a total quality culture that permeates every facet of the organization. Specific company illustrations are drawn upon to show the inadequacies of these traditional areas under the new imperatives for total quality.