yes they would help, towards both TQM and innovation.

infact innovation is an implied prerequisite for TQM. Without out of box thinking TQM will be taken as a fad and appear as a boring rigour.

Hi Priyavrat,

We aim to show that TQM increases innovation capacity , especially if its implementation reinforces job satisfaction.

The incremental innovations are improvements of existing products, services and processes followin the PDCA-cycle. See the attached paper.

Kettunen, Juha (2012). Integrated higher education management: Summary of management approaches. In Mehmet Savsar (ed.), Quality Assurance and Management. Rijeka, Croatia: InTech, 193-208.

you could identify innovations consumated, and TQM initiatives / TQM achievements carried out in any organisation. May seek to find correlation . if it is high then in latter what all contributed and how much was innovation.

In former if correlation  innovations  Vs TQM initiatives is high then a qualitative (interviewing can also help). cause & effect relationships.

May see my following works available for download, on innovation:

1.  Thareja, Priyavrat; (2013) Innovative process renovation in Phosphating for Corrosion (resistance), Energy & Quality Improvement, Journal of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2013, Pages 23-30. Available at 

2. Thareja, Priyavrat, Competitive Foundry Through Integration of TIPS, {Technology, Innovation, Product Design, Process Systems} Indian Foundry Journal, Vol 58, No. 1, p. 37, January 2012. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2015296

3. Thareja, Priyavrat, Innovation, Being Futuristic, and Challenge is the Way (Part 31 of Total Quality Organization Through People) FOUNDRY Journal of Progressive Metal Casters, Vol. XXII, No. 1, 2011. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1948997,http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1948997

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1948997

http://ssrn.com/abstract=2481792

http://ssrn.com/abstract=2015296

Thank you Priyavrat. Thank you Juha

I use leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, people management, process management, information & analysis, and supplier relationship. My conference paper Impact of Quality Management Practices on Firm Performance: The Research Evolution discusses about your question in more detail. Good luck for your research.

Thank you Didik, very interesting and useful.

I think I should orient my research to soft TQM. In fact, TQM dimensions I have chosen are more relevant to Soft TQM in the sens that they are all related to human resources.

If you are interested in "soft" TQM then please take a look at the definition presented in that attached paper; which suggests management- and worker-side parameters of kaizen in genba.

Article An Examination of Kaizen Drift in Japanese Genba

You can read

Kaynak, H. 2003. “The Relationship between Total Quality Management Practices and Their Effects on Firm Performance.” Journal of Operations Management 21: 405–435.

It is a very good paper that contain TQM dimensions. Revise also last papers of "Total Quality Management & Business Excellence" journal. Criteria of Excellence Models such as EFQM, can be interested for your investigation. They can also resume TQM dimensions.

  QMS standard ISO 9001:2008 is a good recommendations, but it is quite mature, with  ISO 9001:2015 on the verge of being launched.

in the meanwhile I attempted a relationship between TQM and ISO 9001:2008

Thareja, Priyavrat, The Survival - Path on a Spiral (December, 23 2011). eMag Chandigarh Management Association. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1976198

Employee satisfaction might be another measure

@Waleed and Mahmoud

I concur with Waleed's recommendation of having raised the option of ISO 9000 series QMS.

However I warned that one has to think ahead, from merely considering ISO 9000 as aconstruct. Those who apply ISO 9000 are deemed to have complied with say 60% of process requirements. .

TQM is a philosophy, difficult to visualise and implemen; whereas a standard is explicit in its requirements. I have over a 1000 audit experience, along with my decade long study in saying this. being a Lead auditor,  a certified lean six sigma black belt, and a tutor equipped me to advise (concuring with Waleed).

Anyway, to extrapolative thinking the tolerance is dichotomic

Did you consider the dimensions "customer's satisfaction"? Because this is one of the basic principles of TQM.

Best regards to all of you.

Hi Denise,

Indeed, Customer orientation is a basic principle of TQM; but it isn't considered because the study is oriented "Soft TQM" with principles related to Human resources.

organisational commitment, quality conscious manpower, employee training, quality policy,

employee empowerment are some of the important dimensions of TQM.

5 point interval scale can be used for measuring the level of quality management practices in

an organisation.

@ Mahmoud

Training and compensation are themselves are  Hard elements, While you claim "because the study is oriented "Soft TQM" with principles related to Human resources."

Any clarification?

Hi Priyavrat,

Look at the article of W. Lewis, K. Pun, and T. Lalla, "Empirical investigation of the hard and soft criteria of TQM in ISO 9001 certified small and medium-sized enterprises.," International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, vol. 23.

They consider training, leadership, teamwork and performance award as Soft factors of TQM.

According to them, Hard factors of TQM are system-oriented. It generally deals with benchmarking, flexibility, quality systems, quality assurance, just-in-time, zero defect, continuous improvement and innovation, ...

Thank you Mahmoud,

There is some subjectivity, as I see it now vis-a-vis when during my Ph.D work, when I was scanning several previous Ph.D theses 

Could I request you for a copy of this paper by Lewis et al at [email protected].

Then I shall get back to you.

qip-journal.eu  considers Benchmarking as soft element. Thus one can say there is extensive subjectivity. Further while training is soft if training is poised as a system component affecting ,,. or,"deal[ing] with benchmarking, flexibility, quality systems, quality assurance, just-in-time, zero defect, continuous improvement and innovation," what would we call it?

I would appreciate a copy of this paper as you suggested, through RG or privately to respond with a more affirmative principle of classification.

t

I'm sorry  Priyavrat, the article isn't available for free. You can get it from Emerald site (http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/02656710610688167).

Another article using the same conception:"The Influence of Soft and Hard TQM Factors on Knowledge Management: Perspective from Malaysia", is available at (http://www.ipedr.com/vol8/4-H00184.pdf).

Do you think these four dimensions reflect the TQM philosophy?

Good question Abbas; but we don't aim to study TQM philosophy, our purpose is to show the rôle of job satisfaction as intermediary between TQM and innovation. These four dimensions were chosen because we think that they better reflect human resources aspects of TQM.

There are many indicators of TQM in the literature on the subject but it is not possible to be a benchmark in the field if the level of participation has not exceeded 80% of staff. Another important indicator, if measured well, is the level of overall satisfaction in the survey of internal climate. If these indicators do not measure well, everything else becomes superficial.

Best regards

A good measurement are the Price-of-conformance ( POC) and  Price -of-non conformance ( PONC)

Dear Mahmoud,

Hi.

The article below might be of help for your research on the impact of TQM on Innovation, the role of employee job satisfaction.

Best

Luis

- Sadikoglu E. , Zehir C., 2010, Investigating the effects of innovation and employee performance on the relationship between total quality management practices and firm performance:An empirical study of Turkish firms, Int. J. Production Economics, 127, 13–26.

Hi

I would like to get free documentation about TQM measurement scale in Higher Education.

Best regards