TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND AN AGENDA FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Total quality management (TQM) is a revolutionary approach to effective management. The research in TQM has emerged from practical needs of organizations embracing this philosophy, and the literature is mostly conceptual and practitioner-oriented. There is a lack of sound theoretical framework classifying past efforts and guiding future research. To fill the void, a study of the published TQM literature is undertaken. A review, classification, and analysis of the research in TQM spanning the last two decades is presented. A total of 226 TQM-related articles are identified from 44 refereed management journals published from 1970 to 1993. These articles are then classified and analyzed using the following two-dimensional scheme: (1) article orientation (conceptual, case study, empirical, analytical, simulation, and overview) and (2) article focus using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria. The analysis of the literature presents pertinent developments in each of the seven criteria. In addition, it provides future research directions as well as a ready reference of the TQM literature. The suggestions for research should guide future developments in the TQM field and help transform it into a formal discipline.     

《常言道》别具一格的讽刺艺术

《常言道》为清落魄道人所编,通篇以金银钱为线索,串引出无数人事来,摹尽世态,写足人情,展现了一幅封建社会末期的风俗图,寄托了作者对黑暗现实的愤激之情。     

Multi‐sited accumulation of capital: Cape Verdean returnees and small‐scale business

In recent years, policymakers have portrayed return migration as positive for development. In both migrant sending and migrant receiving countries, policymakers expect the transfer of economic, cultural and social capital by returnees to stimulate economic growth. Inherent in these assumptions is the idea of a unidirectional flow of capital from northern countries of immigration to the countries of return. The objective of this article is to contest this idea of a one‐way transfer of capital through a case study of Cape Verdean returnee business owners. To what extent have they accumulated their various forms of capital before emigration, during their sojourn abroad or after return? In this article, I examine the returnees' multi‐sited accumulation of capital and how it corresponds to the resources they need to run a sustainable business. In addition, I analyse how they adapt capital accumulated abroad to the conditions in Cape Verde.     

从《资本论》看公平与效率的辩证关系

马克思在《资本论》中指出,对于资本主义制度来说,“国民财富和人民贫困是一回事。”从而在资本主义制度下,效率即国民财富与公平即人民不贫困,是直接对立的。其原因就在于,这里的效率只是少数人的效率,对大多数人来说,这一效率甚至是负的。只有当效率是最广大人民群众的效率时,这个效率才与公平是一致的。而要构建和谐社会,就必须把握公平与效率的辩证关系,以更加注重公平的方式来提升真正属于最广大人民群众的效率,让最广大的人民群众共享改革开放的成果。     

Frank Capra and Leni Riefenstahl: Politics,Propaganda and the Personal

Abstract

The circumstances that led Frank Capra to view Leni Riefenstahl's notorious documentary of the 1934 Nuremberg rallies, Triumph of the Will, is well-known. What is less known is the extent to which the themes inherent in Capra's filmmaking through the 1930s, and Riefenstahl's own interest in ideas of national identity, social commentary and romanticism in her fictional and documentary films, mapped out a set of cinematic coincidences between the two little discussed in the body of literature devoted to these directors. This article lays out a number of those coincidences and, in the process, compares the theoretical strain of political romanticism that winds its way through Capra and Riefenstahl's work. The iconic and symbolic imagery in their films suggests interesting and important comparative aspects to their canon, but also that a fascination in political romanticism led them to differing conclusions about the impact and threat of media and propaganda forces lined up in alliance with totalitarian powers during the 1930s and '40s.     

Recovering the social: globalization,football and transnationalism

Abstract In this article, we place the social and football (as a sporting realm) at the heart of social scientific analysis of globalization processes. Our theoretical framework sets out, in turn, the concepts of glocalization, with particular reference to what we term the ‘duality of glocality’; transnationalism, notably its socio‐historical aspects; connectivity, with particular reference to its antonym, ‘disconnectivity’; and cosmopolitanism, with strong focus on what we term its ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ variants. We explore the interplay of these concepts and processes within three broad domains of the ‘football world’: supporter subcultures, sport journalism, and Japanese football culture. We conclude in part by arguing for greater exploration of sport's role in regard to global processes and of the interrelationships between the duality of glocality and the thick/thin variants of cosmopolitanism.     

Is the locus of class development of the transnational capitalist class situated within nation‐states or in the emergent transnational space?

The rise of the modern corporation has disrupted the class structures of nation‐states because, in the era of globalization, such reorganization now occurs across borders. Yet, has globalization been deep enough to facilitate the emergence of a transnational capitalist class (TCC) in which both class formation and consolidation processes are located in the transnational space itself? I contribute to our understanding of the TCC by contrasting the personal characteristics, life histories and capital endowments of members of the British corporate elite with and without transnational board appointments. The existence of the honours system in the UK allows us to compare individuals objectively in terms of their symbolic capital and to link this trait to embeddedness in the TCC. By studying 448 directors from the 100 largest firms in the UK in 2011, I find evidence of a TCC with a class consolidation process that is located within transnational space, but whose class formation dynamics are still tethered to national processes of elite production and reproduction.     

A Case Against Making the Control of Clients a Negotiable Contingency for Interdisciplinary Teams

Most discussions of interdisciplinary teamsassume that cross-functional teams are desirable.Critical analyses of the fundamental contradictionsinherent in bringing together professionals with diverse ideologies, interests, contingencies, andtechnologies are rare. Even less common are discussionsof the negative consequences of these contradictions forclients. Based on observations in an institution for youth-in-trouble, this paper argues thatthe control of clients is one key process underlyingconflicts and dilemmas in interdisciplinary teams; itbuilds a case against making the control of clients a negotiable contingency for teams. Given theuniversal nature of control mechanisms, those mostdirectly responsible for control have a superiorbargaining position because, in order to be effective,their control routines must be consistent. Althoughthese workers may yield to other treatment ideologiesregarding particular clients, the overall outcome is theenhancement of their interests. Moreover, the outcome of negotiations may generate confusionfor clients because of inconsistencies in theapplication of control mechanisms. Three strategies tominimize interprofessional negotiations regarding the control of clients are discussed: theformulation of clear boundaries between thoseresponsible for control and those who are not; theestablishment of policies to address conflicts betweencontrol and competing treatments; and, client determinationof differential levels of interprofessional coordinationand cooperation.     

LINKING PROCESS CHOICE WITH PLANT-LEVEL DECISIONS ABOUT CAPITAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES

We examine how process choice links with design decisions about capital and human resources. Our analysis confirms empirically most expected differences between process- and product-focused plants for these decisions. What is unexpected is how top-performing plants resemble other plants within the same process choice category in most respects, while distinguishing themselves on a few selected process attributes. For example, better performing process-focused plants not only achieve higher machine flexibility levels and lower overhead costs as expected, but also have more intensive preventive maintenance programs. Similarly, product-focused plants that achieve certain hallmarks of process-focused plants also enjoy superior performance.     

Transnational social capital: the socio‐spatialities of civil society

Civil society remains a contested concept, but one that is widely embedded in global development processes. Transnationalism within civil society scholarship is often described dichotomously, either through hierarchical dependency relations or as a more amorphous networked global civil society. These two contrasting spatial imaginaries produce very particular ideas about how transnational relations contribute to civil society. Drawing on empirical material from research with civil society organizations in Barbados and Grenada, in this article I contend that civil society groups use forms of transnational social capital in their work. This does not, however, resonate with the horizontal relations associated with grassroots globalization or vertical chains of dependence. These social relations are imbued with power and agency and are entangled in situated historical, geographical and personal contexts. I conclude that the diverse transnational social relations that are part of civil society activity offer hope and possibilities for continued civil society action in these unexpected spatial arrangements.