Customer Reviews

Beyond TQM

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I thought i understood all the basic fundamentals of tqm. But after reading this book, i have, for the irst time, really come to know of tqm, its basics and its workings. A must for every manager in any organisation... two thumbs up!

Most books about TQM either ignore the world of organizational politics, or they claim that TQM will not succeed unless certain key success factors are being met, such as management commitment, customer focus, training of employees etc. Often it is beyond the reach of the TQM consultant to make sure the factors are met, so what should he do? Give up? Spend all time on getting management commitment before starting QMS design and audits? This book fills an important gap in TQM literature in showing how problems can be fundamentally different and do not only need different solutions but different ways of thinking about how to design solutions. Total systems intervention (TSI) is the method used for analysing the nature of problems the organization is fading and how to find suitable methods for dealing with such problems. By this approach, TQM and quality engineering in general goes far beyond traditional TQM literature and into the world of organizational theory in general. Although referencing the works of people like Parsons, Habermas and Foucault, the way the ideas of these sociologists and academics are being put to use is extremely practical, as they are all interpreted through the lens of systems theory, which makes it immediately applicable for systems engineers. In such terms, the book is outstanding. The case studies in the second part of the book could perhaps have focused more on problems of the complex-coercive kind, in order to illustrate some of the more challenging aspects of the book more clearly, but nevertheless I have never seen anything this book. Absolutely fantastic.