Towards business excellence: aligning total quality management and information technology management

Abstract

The strategic importance of Information Technology (IT) is well accepted by most organisations, and many studies have already been undertaken on how best to implement and manage IT in organisations, in particular when aligned with business strategy.

However, organisations still do not appreciate or take full advantage of their implementation and application of IT in an optimal and strategic manner that will serve the overall strategic direction of the organisation. This is shown in the results of the research described here with respect to New Zealand organisations. There remains a need to strategically, properly, and practically implement IT in organisations, a need to align IT with the strategies of the organisation, a need to link and align the diverse processes of the organisation, and a need to deploy and translate the organisation's objectives into plans, all satisfying customer expectations, as a business strategy striving to achieve excellent performance in quality.

The research reported here suggests that IT and Total Quality Management (TQM) are of strategic importance to the well being and success of an organisation, just as strategy management is crucial to overall success. The research further suggests that IT is most effectively implemented when aligned with TQM. This has the potential to lead to the best organisational performance results. The need and importance of TQM and IT in the organisation is confirmed in the results obtained through an extensive survey addressing IT, TQM, and strategy management, addressed to New Zealand organisations.

The research then proposes a novel framework that incorporates four vital dimensions: TQM, IT, Policy Deployment, and Strategy Management. These four dimensions are said to be necessary to the success of organisations in general and in New Zealand in particular. Each of the four dimensions is composed of other elements essential to the framework. The framework focuses on IT deployment throughout the organisation using the Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment) Method, an internationally recognised and respected method not previously used with respect to IT. Hoshin, being itself a dimension of the framework, is the vehicle for deploying IT and other processes in the organisation. Hoshin will also safeguard the principles of TQM and Strategy Management and facilitate achieving and preserving such principles.

The framework is verified through a process which included the development of a set of hypotheses formally tested and validated by a questionnaire (validation questionnaire). The results verify the feasibility, acceptability, and applicable nature of the framework with its dimensions and elements. The framework is also validated through a focused analysis and assessment against the criteria used in Malcolm Baldrige Award, the same quality award used by the New Zealand industry.

It is therefore recommended that the results be acted upon by New Zealand organisations as a framework and method for achieving business success through its integration and alignment of TQM, IT, Hoshin and Strategy Management.