Yin-yang: A dialectical approach to total quality management

摘要

The goal of the paper is stated as: To illustrate that the paradoxical nature of management can be revealed in the realm of quality.That an effort to synthesize notions that are traditionally seen as antagonistic can provide a new vision, which holds a potential for practice. The paper presents a list of five principles to better synthesize the inherent contradictions in quality management (QM) (even though insufficiently as a first attempt and not necessarily exhaustive, but can be improved by subsequent theoretical/empirical research): P1: Less inspection in order to promote quality. P2: Control to promote autonomy. P3: Authoritative leadership to promote participation. P4: Doubt to promote trust. P5: Routine planning to promote creativity. A summary of arguments on the five principles is given in Table 1 for the information of our readers. The paper concludes that the dialectical synthesis resulting from confrontation between traditional and critical versions of QM promotes a refreshing view of quality.