From Statistical Quality Control, over Quality Systems to Total Quality Management - The Institutionalization of a New Management Approach

Quality management has become a prominent issue in management practice. In general the management literature presents management knowledge, such as quality management techniques and practices, as a technical tool and as a vehicle for improving the efficiency of organizations. The implicit assumption is that organizations adopt certain management practices because they are technically superior. An assumption which, according to many empirical studies does not hold water. Therefore, institutionalists argue that the adoption of general management techniques and practices by organizations is predominantly the result of rules and expectations within the environment of organizations, which are binding or obligatory. However, the process of institutionalization itself is still a white spot in the theory. The paper aims to develop a contribution to solving this problem. Based on the framework of Resource-Mobilization-Theory the strategies and activities of the quality engineering profession in Germany from the early 50s onwards are analyzed with the help of qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings show that the diffusion of quality management techniques may best be understood as a successful institutionalization of the belief-system of a social movement - the quality movement.