روش پژوهش تئوری پایه در ایجاد و آزمایش تئوری مدیریت کیفیت جامع (TQM) در مدیریت عملیات

Total quality management (TQM) has continued to develop as a strategic business improvement approach in organisations and within the Operations Management literature. Strategic TQM is a dynamic phenomenon, reflecting the complexity and technology development in the business environment. Therefore, this conception of TQM has led to significant challenges with regards to developing suitable models and research methodology where traditional, and normative research data, includes survey responses associated with deductive theory and testing. Such data, and its use, is often premised on cause and effect rationality and fails to supply deep rich data to address meanings, phenomena and complex socio-political events, which is a feature of strategic TQM. The primary aim of this paper is to develop strategic TQM models which are representative of the dynamic and complex elements of organisations and their environments. A secondary aim is to examine theory building in relation to TQM by using Grounded Theory research methods to fulfil the primary aim of the paper. The data includes longitudinal interviews; practitioner reflexivity; social constructionist groups; critical action learning teams and multiple and longitudinal cases, which was analysed and integrated using quality-based rules within Grounded Theory.

Increasing competition, complexity and technology development in the business environment has led to significant challenges within the field of total quality management (TQM) [1]. Traditional TQM approaches and resultant models (e.g. Business Excellence Model (BEM) and the Baldridge Model) are often based on rational paradigms, where traditional and normative, research data, includes survey responses associated with deductive theory and testing [2]. At least two key issues arise in relation to TQM research. Firstly, TQM research data and its use is often premised on cause and effect rationality and fails to supply deep rich data to address meanings, phenomena and complex socio-technical and political events that are prevalent in the current and rapidly changing business environment. This approach can lead to prescriptive solutions to well defined problems, rather than addressing dynamic and emergent issues, such as knowledge workers 3 and 2. Secondly, those working in the field have expended considerable effort and resources in developing and refining deductive research methodology [4]. However, there has been relatively little development of inductive approaches in TQM research which inquire into more complex and dynamic phenomena associated with rapidly changing market conditions. A number of writers suggest that the area of TQM most challenged by rapid environmental change and increased complexity is that of strategic TQM 1, 3, 5 and 6. They contend that strategic TQM theory and practice must be developed in a contingent manner to address these challenges rather than relying on “universalistic statements” and models [3]. The primary aim of this paper is to develop strategic TQM models which are representative of the dynamic and complex elements of organisations and their environments. A secondary aim is to examine theory building in relation to TQM by using inductive Grounded Theory research methods to fulfil the primary aim of the paper. The next sections cover strategic TQM; issues in theory and model building within strategic TQM; followed by sections on the research methodology and results and discussion. Finally, there is a section on conclusions.

If TQM s to become effective at strategic and operational levels then it must be used to shape organisational strategy (e.g. strategic benchmarking). Moreover, such a strategic approach to TQM can be sustained by developing concurrent and successive TQM initiatives that span the operational-strategic divide (Fig. 5). From the grounded models (Figs. 4 and 5), it can be concluded that TQM must also be tactically developed to overcome the operational-strategic divide. Moreover, as shown in Fig. 5, strategic TQM should be treated a dynamic phenomenon that is dynamically responsive to changing markets rather than a quasi-static auditable mechanism [6]. This finding presents a challenge to organizations, which are seeking increased competitiveness, to continually renew their TQM efforts and to introduce a range of TQM efforts to address the complexity and dynamics of the changing organisational environment. It is concluded, that the models, based on the integrated research data, adds to the understanding of TQM operational and strategic dynamics by showing the non sequential and complex nature and interaction of TQM initiatives at different levels. As suggested by Yin [25], the results outline a framework, which can be applied to analyse the longitudinal development and dynamics of a range of TQM initiatives within a given organisational context, at operational, tactical and strategic levels. This paper also presents a challenge to that of solely relying on deductive data and research methodology in TQM, by showing that a credible and rigorous inductive alternative exists, namely Grounded Theory, which was operationalised in Critical Action Research in this study. It was found that Grounded Theory could be used with a number of integrated data sources to build theory and thus meet the challenge of theory driven empirical research grounded in deep rich data. Strategic TQM was found to be a suitable and “substantive” [34] area of investigation for Grounded Theory as it is holistic, integrative and closely alined to praxis [39].