Bouquets, Brickbats and Blinkers: Total Quality Management and Employee Involvement in Practice

Abstract

To its advocates, TQM is unequivocally good and leads to the empowerment of employees and deservedly attracts bouquets. Alternatively, those from a labour-process perspective hurl brickbats, arguing that it represents an intensification of work, shifting the frontier of control firmly in management's favour. We argue, however, that both of these perspectives are blinkered and that the reality is more dependent on local circumstances and motives.