Exploring a variety of methods for improving the economic performance of organizations, this multidisciplinary text covers macro- and micro-perspectives while considering strategic planning, systematic process analysis, leadership studies, group dynamics, and human motivation theories. It highlights "quality of relationships" as a guiding principle within the framework of public administration and stresses customer, client, and stakeholder satisfaction. With over 1000 literature references, tables, drawings, and equations, and appendices of laws and regulations, the book responds to the mandate for high performance and increased productivity.

Table of Contents:
1: Introduction; Quality Improvement; Total Quality Management: Its Relationship to Administrative Theory and Organizational Behavior in the Public Sector; Cardiovascular Leaders Moving Beyond Logic: An Active Strategy for Advancing Cardiac Services; 2: Historical Development; TQM Apostles; William Edwards Deming: The Man; W. Edwards Deming's Mentor and Others Who Made a Significant Impact on His Views During the 1920s and 1930s; 6: Origins of the Postwar Economic Success of Japan: Deming, Quality, and Contextual Realities; 3: Theoretical Structure; Changing Concepts, Goals, and Methods in Improving Customer Service Quality; 6: The Current State of Design Craft: Borrowing, Tinkering, and Problem Solving; Progress on the Journey to Total Quality Management: Using The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and The Adjective Check List in Management Development; Applications of Boundary Theory to Organizational and Interorganizational Culture; Public Management, TQM, and Quality Improvement: Toward a Contingency Strategy; A Holistic Approach to Productivity; Evaluating TQM: The Case for a Theory-Driven Approach; Strategic Management and Total Quality Management: Challenges and Choices; 4: Quality Management and Organizational Culture; Symposium on Organizational Culture: Theory, Practice, and Cases; Total Quality Management in an R&D Environment; TQM and Organization Size; The Role of Assumptions in Implementing Management Practices Across Cultural Boundaries; Struggles in Transformation: A Study in TQM, Leadership, and Organizational Culture in a Government Agency; Managing Concurrent Change Initiatives: Integrating Quality and Work/Family Strategies; 5: Quality Management: Measuring Effectiveness; Measuring Productivity in Federal Agencies: Does Total Quality Management Make a Difference?; Improving Performance Through Benchmarking; Serving the American Public: Best Practices in Performance Measurement; Using 360-Degree Feedback in Performance Appraisal; Overcoming the Inadequacies of Performance Measurements in Local Government: The Case of Libraries and Leisure Services; Best Practices: Successful Application to Weapon Acquisitions Requires Changes in DOD's Environment; Primer on Performance Measurement; Inventory Management: The Army Could Reduce Logistics Costs for Aviation Parts by Adopting Best Practices; Assessing Fundamental Science; Developing a Strategic Plan and Performance Measures; Guidelines for Performance Measurement; The Application of Information Systems in Measuring Performance and Implementing the Government Performance and Results Act; 6: Customers Of Quality Management; Customer Contributions to Quality: A Different View of the Customer-Oriented Firm; The Decision to Participate in Quality Circles; Labor-Management Relations and Participative Decision Making: Toward a New Paradigm; Managing for Results: Analytic Challenges in Measuring Performance; 7: Leadership And Teams In Quality Organizations; Administrative Man Faces the Quality Transformation: Comparing the Ideas of Herbert A. Simon and W. Edwards Deming; Top Managers and TQM Success: One More Look After All These Years; Cutting Waste with Employee Involvement Teams (Total Quality Waste Minimization); Discipline and Deselection in the TQM Environment; 8: Implementing Quality Management: Practices, Cases, And Experiences; 8: Municipal Commitment to Total Quality Management: A Survey of Recent Progress; Total Quality Management Issues in Managed Care; When It Comes to “Best Practices”—Why Do Smart Organizations Occasionally Do Dumb Things?; Old Wine in New Bottles Tastes Better: A Case Study of TQM Implementation in the IRS; The Impact of TQM on Highway Maintenance: Benefit/Cost Implications; Implementing TQM in the Health Care Sector; Strategic Relationship Between Quality Management and Product Innovation; The Information Age and Total Quality Management: The Facilitation of TQM in the 1990s Through Information Systems; 9: The Future Of Quality Management; Keeping Quality Alive (Training 101); Is Total Quality Fading as a Strategy?; TQM: Core Paradigm Changes; 10: Critiques Of Quality Management; Ten Reasons Total Quality Management (TQM) Doesn't Work; Adapting Total Quality Management (TQM) to Government; Total Quality Management: A Selective Commentary on Its Human Dimensions, with Special Reference to Its Downside; A Critique of TQM: Problems of Implementation in the Public Sector; Government Performance and Results Act of 1993; Government Management Reform Act of 1994; Performance-Based Management: Eight Steps to Develop and Use Information Technology Performance Measures Effectively; Review of Agency Annual Performance Plans; Utah Tomorrow; Selected On-Line Resources for Quality Management