A guide to the eight elements of TQM

There are eight basic elements for the TQM or Total Quality Management. TQM is an approach to management which began in 1950 and has slowly became more popular since the 1980's. Total Quality Management is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that aims to provide customers with products and services that satisfy that customers needs. For a company to be successful in implementing TQM they need to concentrate on these eight key elements. These eight elements include ethics, integrity, trust, training, teamwork, leadership, recognition, and communication.

TQM can be further described as a philosophy for management that makes quality the number one goal for leadership, design, planning, and improvement initiatives. To eet this goal TQM requires the help of the eight elements of TQM. You can then divide these eight elements into four main groups according to their functions. The first group would be the Foundation including ethics, integrity, and trust. The second group would be the building bricks and it includes training, teamwork, and leadership. Binding mortar is the third group including communication. Last you have the roof and it includes recognition. Here we will take a look at the four groups and the elements they include in this guide to the eight elements of TQM.

The TQM philosophy is built on the foundation of ethics, integrity, and trust. This foundation promotes openness, fairness, and sincerity. It also allows for involvement by everyone. This group is seen as the key to unlocking the great potential of TQM.


• Ethics is the discipline concerned with the good and bad in any situation. Ethics includes both the organizational and individual ethics. The organizational ethics establishes a business code that is a guideline for the employees to adhere to in their work performance. The individual ethics include their personal rights or wrongs.


•  Integrity implies honesty, morals, values, fairness and sincerity. This is the characteristic that customers expect and deserve.


•  Trust is seen as the by-product of integrity and ethical conduct. Trust encourages pride in ownership and commitment. Trust will allow for decision making at the correct levels, it will foster continuous improvement and help ensure that the focus remains on improvement of the process and not to contend its people. Trust is an essential part to ensure customer satisfaction. Trust will build the cooperative environment that is a must for TQM without trust the framework for TQM is non-existent.

The next group is the building bricks of TQM. They are based on the strong foundation of trust, ethics, and integrity.


• Training is a must for you employees to be highly productive. Your employees will need to be trained in interpersonal skills, ability to function in teams, problem solving, decision making, job performance and improvement, business economics and technical skills. Employees are trained by supervisors of each department so that they can become effective employees for the company.


•  Teamwork gives the business a quicker and better solution to the problems that may arise. Teams will provide a permanent improvement in processes and operations. Teamwork helps employees to feel more comfortable allowing for problems and solutions to be worked out easily.


•  Leadership could be the most important element in TQM. Leadership is found everywhere requiring managers to provide inspiring visions and directions that are understood by all employees. The supervisor must be dedicated in leading the employees for TQM to be a success. TQM needs to be introduced and led by the top management in order for it to work in the manner it is supposed to.


• The next group in the key eight elements of TQM is called the binding mortar and includes communication.


•  Communication binds everything together. This is the vital link between all the TQM elements. Communication is vital among all the organizations members in order for TQM to work the way it should. The communications needs to be credible and easily interpreted for all members of the organization.

Finally you have the roof which includes recognition.
 Recognition should be provided for both suggestions and achievements for both teams and individuals. The most important job of a supervisor could be the recognition of their employees. With recognition of employees you can get a change in self-esteem, productivity, and quality.

The eight elements of TQM are ethics, integrity, trust, training, teamwork, leadership, recognition, and communication. You need to have all these elements in order for the process of TQM to work well.

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