The relationship between total quality management and the focus of project management practices

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore the influence of a total quality management (TQM) programme on the level of focus in project management practices. Design/methodology/approach – Prior literature was used to develop a construct indicating the degree of focus on customers, time/cost/quality (iron/golden triangle) and other stakeholders. A questionnaire was mailed to a random selection of UK organizations to obtain data on the degree of focus and on whether a TQM programme existed. Findings – The results from an analysis of completed questionnaires show that those in organizations with a TQM programme in place are more customer‐focused in their project management practices than those in organizations with no TQM programme. No such relationship was found between the level of iron/golden triangle and other stakeholder focus and a TQM programme. Research limitations/implications – Given the exploratory nature of the research reported in this paper there is the opportunity for further work on larger populations to confirm the generalizability of the findings. Also, this research has highlighted an association between the level of focus of project management practice and the existence of a TQM programme, and this requires further investigation in terms of confirming suggested cause and effect relationships. Practical implications – The existence of a link between a TQM programme and customer‐focused project management practice provides a potential route for those looking to improve project performance through placing a greater emphasis on satisfying the customer. The absence of a link between TQM and a focus on other stakeholders suggest that the elements of TQM that facilitate an increase in customer‐focus are not able to overcome the barriers to high levels of stakeholder‐focus on project management practice. Originality/value – The exploratory research in this paper focuses on the link between TQM and an area of operational practices, namely, project management‐related, that has received limited attention in prior studies.