| The trend toward globalization has challenged management thinking, organizational practices, and the ways companies interact with their customers and suppliers as well as with other segments of society. One such practice, Total Quality Management (TQM), has emerged as a management paradigm for enhancing organizational performance and profitability, to the extent that it has been regarded as "the second industrial revolution" (Kanji, 1990).; Despite extensive research in quality management, little empirical research has been done on this in an international context, especially in the Middle East. This study attempts to investigate: (1) the relationship among quality management constructs based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award; and (2) the effect of quality management practices on operational and business results in the petroleum industry. A validated and reliable survey instrument was used for the study to collect data from 31 project managers/consultants in the petroleum industry in Iran.; The results of the correlation analysis show that top management support is the major driver of quality management, which significantly correlates with other quality management practices. It was also found that customer orientation is not significantly correlated with external quality results (profitability). A regression analysis indicated top management support, employee training, and employee involvement as the three statistically significant variables in explaining the variability in internal quality results. Furthermore, it was found that internal quality results was statistically significant in explaining the variability of external quality results. |
