TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT - THE NEED TO UNCOUPLE EMPOWERMENT

Employee empowerment has been widely acclaimed as the tool which bring s democracy to work environments. Ever since total quality management (TQM) was recognized as a novel management technique to achieve greate r organizational competitiveness, empowerment has been incorporated in to the TQM model, while quality circles, which were tailor-made to sec ure greater employee involvement in producing quality products, have b een reduced to mere bystander status. The creation of democracy within the workplace may result in organizational disruption. Empowerment, w hich has its origins in labour politics, is identified as a leading ca use for the failure of many TQM programmes. When it is practised, the quality aspect departs from the management's agenda. This paper recomm ends that in order to revive TQM, organizations should uncouple empowe rment and turn to quality circles which achieve both quality and emplo yee participation.