The impact of organizational culture on the successful implementation of total quality management

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to determine the impact of cultural values on the success of TQM implementation in Isfahan University Hospitals (IUHs), Iran, 2004.Design/methodology/approach – In this paper survey questionnaires were used to elicit responses from hospital managers and employees. Data collected included the characteristics of organizational culture in IUHs and the degree of TQM success and its implementation problems in these hospitals.Findings – The paper finds that TQM success in IUHs was medium. Implementation of TQM was very low, low, medium and highly successful respectively in 16.7, 16.7, 58.3 and 8.3 percent of hospitals. TQM had the most effect on process management, focus on customers and leadership and management and less effect on focus on suppliers, performance results, strategic planning and focus on material resources. Human resource problems, performance appraisal and strategic problems were the most important obstacles to TQM success respectively. A total of 75 and 25...