Title: Clustering employees on the basis of their perception from critical success factors of total quality management and its influence on customer focus

Authors: Mohammad Hosein Karimi Gavareshki; Reza Dabestani; Arman Safar Oghli Azar

Addresses: Industrial Engineering Department, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Jalal Ale Ahmad Ave., P.O. Box 14115-337, Tehran, Iran ' Civil Engineering Department, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: Companies' urge to maximise their profits and their attempts to remain in the highly competitive globalised market gave birth to the TQM concept and have kept it alive. TQM is a comprehensive look which encompasses virtually every aspect of the value chain as well as the human resource and customer satisfaction. Therefore, a great number of companies feel obliged to implement its rules, and procedures. However, the concept is rather complicated and culture-bound, and calls for further research in new settings. The aim of this study is to examine the influences of critical success factors of TQM on customer focus therefore, employees are classified based on their perceptions from critical success factors of total quality management and consequently the level of customer focus is compared between the different classifications. The findings reveal that there is significant difference on the level of the customer focus between the established groups of employees.

Keywords: total quality management; TQM; clustering; critical success factors; customer focus; classification.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2019.099324

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2019 Vol.12 No.2, pp.103 - 116

Received: 19 Jan 2018
Accepted: 10 Aug 2018
Published online: 26 Apr 2019 *

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