Critical success factors in Total Quality Management systems: A practitioner-based study of United States quality programs

The present study attempted to determine if the TQM Critical Success Factors identified in a 1996 European study were pertinent to U.S. quality assurance professionals. The survey tool was sent to approximately 1,000 members of the American Society of Quality and 402 useable responses were obtained. Three hypotheses were addressed in the present study. It was predicted in hypothesis one that all ten TQM Critical Success Factors would be rated as important by the present population. Hypothesis one was tested using descriptive summary statistics. Null hypothesis number one was rejected. Hypothesis number two stated that TQM Critical Factor number six, "Strategic Quality Management" (emphasizing management commitment), would be rated as the most important TQM Critical Success Factor. Hypothesis number two was tested using a MANOVA procedure to indicate whether there were main effects for factor (TQM), business sector, number of employees, and annual revenue, and to determine whether there were statistically significant interactions between factors and sectors, factors and number of employees, and factors and annual revenue. Null hypothesis number two was rejected. Hypothesis three stated that analysis of the demographic data will demonstrate that business sector and company resources (number of employees and annual revenue), contribute to quality assurance professionals, determination of the level of importance of TQM Critical Success Factors. This hypothesis was tested using an ANCOVA procedure in order to assess the relative impact of the covariates, and to determine the interactions between factor and sector. Null hypothesis number three was also rejected.;The analysis of the data in the present study revealed then, that all of the TQM Critical Success Factors identified in the 1996 Black and Porter study were also seen as important to the U.S. quality assurance professionals. The factor stressing management commitment was seen as the most important for U.S. quality assurance professionals. Demographic factors (sector and company resources) also appeared to contribute to quality assurance professionals, perceptions of which TQM Critical Success Factors were rated as the most important.