Leadership performance in Greek enterprises using the EQA framework

Abstract

Leadership effectiveness is considered to be a key factor for the implementation of TQM. Although companies worldwide are increasingly adopting TQM, Greek companies have not taken major steps towards this concept. Research was organised by the Chemical Engineering Department of the NTU Athens in order to investigate leadership performance in Greek enterprises using the framework of the European Quality Award. The results of the research show that Greek leadership has generally not embraced the principles of quality so as to be able to drive the process of change towards total quality. Important factors with a double, positive and negative, influence on the leadership performance of Greek enterprises are the existence of a quality assurance system in accordance with ISO 9000 on one hand and the existence of a mother company on the other. Major weaknesses of leadership in the sample enterprises refer to inadequate communication at intra‐ and inter‐departmental level, to lack of organised and intensive training and to a rather formal commitment to total quality, just covering the requirements of the quality assurance system. However, an élite of four to five enterprises covering some of the leadership requirements of the EQA model at a degree of more than 60 per cent proves that TQM can be realised in Greece.