TQM and Organizational Culture: A Case Study

Abstract

This article presents a case study of the total quality management (TQM) implementation process in a local church. The case focuses on the organizational culture emerging from the application of TQM principles over a period of seven years. The case examines the transformation effort through the lens of the competing values framework (CVF) of organizational culture. The article presents theoretical propositions based on the CVF and the concepts of TQM. ft then tests and revises the propositions using evidence from the case study, including a CVF survey of church leaders. The case study concludes that TQM implementation can lead to a balanced CVF profile and that both TQM principles and managerial ideology of TQM implementation can influence specific changes in the culture profile.

• adhocracy culture
• clan culture
• competing values framework
• hierarchy culture
• management ideology
• market culture
• organizational transformation
• total quality management implementation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

W. Brady Boggs

W. Brady Boggs currently serves as executive director of administration and ministry development for Crossroads Assembly in Asheville, N.C. He also serves as an adjunct professor for the Regent University School of Leadership Studies in Virginia Beach, Va., and as an adjunct faculty member for Montreal College School of Professional and Adult Studies in Asheville, N.C. He has extensive experience in management and consulting in both business and nonprofit organizations. Boggs is a Senior member of ASQ and serves on the editorial review board administrative committee of Quality Progress magazine. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].