Total Quality Management

2.2.2.1 The growing literature on total quality management stresses the importance of TQM to organizational performance and has repeatedly stressed the lack of leadership support for the failure of many TQM initiatives. Some investigators have examined the implemen-tation of total quality management and its impact on organizational performance (e.g. Douglas & Judge, 2001; Jayaram et al., 1999), with both sets of researchers identifying strong positive relationships between the implementation of total quality management and performance (see also Hendricks & Singhal, 1997).

2.2.2.2 The three core principles of total quality management, namely, customer focus, team-work & participation, and continuous improvement (Dean & Bowen, 1994), provide

This defi-nition draws on the trait, behavioural, contingency, and other macro approaches to the study of leadership. Whereas Kotter (1990) separates the concepts of leadership and man-agement, the perspective taken here is that leaders are first and foremost managers and thus have the responsibilities of both management and of leadership. The similarity with Kotter’s view is that not all people in positions of leadership actually provide leadership. More specifically, all leaders need to be managers but not all managers are necessarily leaders. Thus, both (seemingly) routine behaviours, such as team design and structuring behaviours, and ultimate leadership behaviours (Kotter, 1990), such as institutionalizing a culture of quality, and continuous improvement and customer focus behaviours, are included in the realm of leadership

They found that both transactional contingent-reward leadership and transformational leadership lead to a quality environment in the R&D section of a telecommunications firm, but in the latter case, it is not significant. The role of contingent reward leadership is less important than that of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership also leads to employee satisfaction. Leaders have to deal with uncertain goals and performance targets. Transformational leadership, which comprises inspirational leadership, can lead to multiple outcomes in technology environments and have an extraordinary impact on the employees, thereby impacting quality. Another related study by Laohavichien et al. (2009) tested the influence of both transactional and transformational leadership on a firm’s quality improvement. Through a study of quality managers in the United States, the study found that although transformational leadership affects infrastructure and core quality management, transactional leadership does not affect either. To date, no studies have used leadership theories to determine the impact on quality management practices; hence, Laohavichien et al.’s study is significant. Leaders influence employees and this enhances quality performance or processes and products. The study also