TQM and Organizational Development

Abstract

Today, there is only one certain thing in the life of organizations and corporations, being challenged by continuous change. It is much better to participate in these changes with awareness than just suffer them passively. One of the possible answers to the changes is TQM that is rather a management than a quality philosophy. The main issue of this article is that implementing TQM entails a major organizational change and if we do not consider it, it will lead to failure. Leaders, organizational culture, empowerment and their development play an especially important role to achieve the objectives we set. The hundred-year-old practice of management (organizing and leadership) has justified that there are no present general organization-transformational principles and this view has gained greater attention in the literature since the 50s. `Basic truth´ is usually trivial or they express general principles that do not really help in solving real problems. It does not necessarily mean that this theory is useless in sciences but it does not fit the applications of management. There are no general `recipes´ for applying change processes, they have to be established and carried out `then and there´ by leadership and management.