Overcoming Barriers to Total Quality Management's Success

During the past two decades, Total Quality Management (TQM) programs have been implemented in many organizations. The barriers to implementing TQM show up in all sectors-manufacturing, services, government, education, etc. Therefore, it is important for all organizations to understand and avoid these barriers both before and during TQM implementation. This article focuses on the barrier factors of TQM implementation and the causes of its failure that are common to all types of organizations and within all management levels , and discusses the ways and means to overcoming these barriers. The article also presents a model of TQM for its successful implementation, which incorporates the critical success factors of TQM, identification and overcoming the barrier factors of TQM implementation, managerial tools and techniques to overcome these barriers including the quality initiatives and performance measures. The ways and means to overcoming barriers described in this paper can be equally useful to the organizations going in for other quality initiatives. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]