Rethinking total quality management

Since the 1980s, total quality management (TQM) has become one of the most commonly used management acronyms. As a change management tool, TQM has been well-accepted by managers as it is seen as providing a ''unified set of principles which can guide them through numerous choices or might even make choosing unnecessary'' (Huczynski, 1993, Management Gurus: What Makes Them and How to Become One (London, Routledge), p. 289). Although the management of quality has often been identified as a key to business success in the highly competitive climate of the 1990s, this is not to say that TQM is without its critics.