Total quality management and organizational learning in service organizations

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of Total Quality Management on Organizational learning in service organizations. The focus was on the examination of organizations with both successful and unsuccessful learning attributes to identify service organization total quality management systems that discriminate service organizations at either end of the success continuum. Data was collected through a survey sent to Ugandan service organizations certified to quality standard ISO9000. The findings suggest that service organizations that have a total quality management program that has exceeded expectations have been able to develop and encourage the attributes necessary for organization learning. It would appear that learning has been an important aspect for these service organizations to succeed in the quality endeavors. The findings of this study provides further empirical evidence of the role total quality management has in improving organizational outcomes especially in relation to organizational learning.