Increasing the organisational performance benefits of TQM: an approach based on organisational design

摘要

Adopting total quality management can improve firms' organisational performance. The current work examines how firms can increase the benefits traditionally linked to this approach to management. Under the theoretical and conceptual framework of transaction cost theory, we study the economic capacity of total quality management to efficiently manage the organisational design problems arising in firms. The empirical results show that adopting total quality management in a way that is consistent with organisational design postulates increases the organisational performance benefits of TQM, because firms can exploit the complementarities between total quality management and organisational design.