Total Quality Management: A critical analysis from a complexity approach

Abstract

This article examines the effects of the adoption and implementation of typical Total Quality Management in an airline as an adaptive complex system. Our results, as they emerged from an in-depth case study in VARIG Brazilian Airlines, suggest that the specific TQM methods and procedures seem to be too mechanistic for such a complex environment. Based on our findings we propose that an adaptation of the typical TQM concepts and tools considering the paradigm of complexity with an organic approach may be more effective and produce actual and lasting changes in this kind of organisation.

Keywords:

• airlines
• case study
• complexity theory
• organic approach
• Total Quality Management

Notes