2.3.

Total Quality Management Total Quality Management (TQM) according to Oakland (Oakland, 2003) is an approac h to improving the effectiveness and flexibility of business as a whole, meeting customer requirements both external and internal to the organisation. It is ess entially a way of organising and involving the whole organisation, every departm ent, every single person at every level. TQM emphasises the integration of operat ions/process management with people management and according to Oakland it place s a lot of emphasis on quality, scientific approach, insistence in involving emp loyees in process review and implementation with five distinct components: manag ement commitment, customer-supplier chain, quality systems, statistical process control (SPC) tools, and teamwork. In fact Garvins (Garvin, 1986) has likened TQMs function as that of total quality control and quality management. Management has long since been recognised as an important process within an orga nisation or company. Management had previously been based on industry structure and on competitiveness. However, according to Powell (Powell, 1995) management h as evolved to encompass internal and specific processes which include strategy, culture, administration, know-how, process and organisational structure. Powel a rgues that it is no coincidence that TQM has been widely used and implemented gi ven the all encompassing nature of management. As far back as 1993, Benson (Ben son, 1993: 48) wrote that in 10 short years, TQM has become as pervasive a part of business thinking as quarterly financial results, and a 1992 study showed that 93% of Americas top 500 firms had adopted TQM as their management philosophy (Li ttle, 1992). Grayson et al (Grayson, et al., 1988) and Imai (Imai, 1986) both a ccredit Japans economic success to TQM and it is also credited by Americas economi c competitiveness in the early 1990s (Juran, 1993). The importance therefore of TQM cannot be overemphasised. Total Quality Manageme nt (TQM) is an amalgamation or integration of management philosophises and pract ices that are targeted at the permanent and continuous improvement, involvement of employees and performance enhancement, gauging results and performance levels and on a close relationship with customers (Ross, 1993). Walton (Walton, 1986) argues that the application of TQM has no restrictions in terms of organisation or company type, and that its benefits are all encompassing and range from impro ved service delivery at a reduced cost with a resultant improvement in financial performance which all leads to increased competitiveness. Although this optimistic view or assessment of TQM makes it very attractive for use in the oil industry of Niger Delta, there are critics of TQM who are not so sure about all the virtues of TQM. These criticisms have tended to be based on t he significant cost and obstacles to its implementation. The costs that have bee n cited are the training, increased paperwork and some critics such as Naj ( (Na j, 1993); (Fucshberg, 1993); (Fucshberg, 1993); (Schaffer, et al., 1992)) have a ll argued that TQM promotes procedure over results and that it does not meet the needs of small companies. As an example, the critics claim that there is not en ough evidence to show that companies that use TQM are better off than if they ha ve not used it (Powell, 1995). Notwithstanding some of the criticisms of TQM, it has continued to be used and h as become embedded in firms and companies globally. Its impact is pervasive and all encompassing which makes it difficult to gauge its performance. Perhaps the impact of TQM can best be gauged with a targeted outcome such as on employee per formance. This is a reason why it is imperative to study TQM performance in term s of employee performance in the oil industry of Nigeria. 2.3.1. Overview of TQM Total quality management according to (Powell, 1995)was developed by a union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUST) whose objective was improving productiv ity (Walton, 1986). TQM was used comprehensively in many domains in Japan. But w ith TQMs pervasive use, it quickly became evident that there are limitations of T QM ( (Ishikawa, 1985); (Akao, 1991)). American firms became interested in TQM wh en they were surpassed performance-wise by Japanese firms by 1980 (Hayes, et al. , 1980) and by 1992 most if not all of the big firms in America had begun to use TQM as a management tool (Little, 1992). But although it has undoubtedly been u sed extensively especially in Japan and USA, its value has been hotly debated as

it has led to spectacular success and also to some bankruptcies (Powell, 1995). The question that this research work set out to ask therefore is this what im pact, positive or otherwise, does TQM has on employee performance in the oil ind ustry of Nigeria? This is paramount given the mixed successes that one sees in t he literature in the implementation of TQM. Powell (Powell, 1995) claims that al though most studies have concluded that TQM is beneficial, most of these studies were biased as they were sanctioned by companies who would like to view TQM in a good light. It is therefore important to provide anecdotal if not empirical ev idence of the impact of TQM as is the main objective of this work. Table 1 gives the 12 factors of TQM.