Quality Management as an Outcome of Management Field Evolution: A Review

Abstract

The interest in Quality Management since its entry into the management arena has grown unabated despite the controversies, criticisms and dismissive labels. There are those who have dismissed it as a fad. Enthusiastic proponents too have done it disservice through hypes and selling it as a quick fix for the org anizational problems arising from lack of organization - environment fit . There are situations where operational performance improvements have been attributed to the approach and there are others where such improvements have not been apparent. In this review , a perspective is presented based on current knowledge in management and taking into consideration the various viewpoints in the subject. From the analysis of the literature, it is concluded that management field is evolving and new methods and constructs are expected to emerge and focusing on labels is very likely to result in practitioners and researchers missing opportunity to evaluate and correctly apply new and emerging knowledge required to improve the situation for mankind