Clashing Paradigms? Total Quality, Financial Restructuring and Theories of the Firm.

The American corporate sector saw major reform movements during the 1980s. Despite frequent admixture in practice, two key movements can be singled out as analytically distinct: financial restructuring (generally debt-financed, often involving mergers), and total quality management (a particular approach to productive restructuring). Unfortunately the precepts and practices of these movements often clashed. This paper examines these tension and explores them by reference to economic theories of the firm associated with each movement. While financial restructuring has been interpreted through the lens of neoclassical agency theory, total quality management has strong links with alternative approaches that can be grouped under the heading 'capabilities theory'. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.