Confucius and Total Quality Management


Journal of Management Research

ISSN: 0972-5814 Online ISSN: 0974-455X

Confucius and Total Quality Management


Charles A Gallagher and Charles A Rarick


Abstract

With the rise of China as a key economic partner for the Western world, questions of the compatibility of managerial philosophies between East and West arose. In an effort to explore this issue, the authors take the sayings of Confucius as representative of Chinese managerial
philosophy and Total Quality Management (TQM) as representative of the best in current western
management thought. To operationalize TQM, the framework of the US Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award is used. The authors find considerable agreement between the thinking of Confucius
and TQM.


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