Updating Our TQM Thinking for a Knowledge and Service Economy

Abstract

There are a series of Knowledge Revolutions driving rapid change in a globalizing economy. These Knowledge Revolutions include: The ICT Revolution; The Genetic Engineering Revolution; The Long Cycle Systems Revolution, The Advanced Materials Revolution and the Nanotechnology Revolution. These ‘new style’ Knowledge tools are in turn creating new types of jobs and activities and relationships, and the implications of these changes for Total Quality Management thinking will be explored in this paper. In addition, the paper will address the inadequacies of our existing measurement systems in establishing the net worth of our organizations in a new-style economy, to illustrate the very large challenges to our TQM thinking and practices that these new developments actually present.