TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM): PAVING THE WAY FOR FUTURE TRAINING?

Britain must develop its human resources: that is the clear lesson from our overseas competitors who regard the development of their workforces as an investment rather than an overhead. Many organizations′ competitiveness is seriously damaged by the lack of training, even though many experts advocate comprehensive training to be the foundation on which essential improvement programmes should be built. Reports on a survey of small and medium‐sized manufacturing firms in the north of England which shows that the attitude to training has been short‐sighted and only a minority of firms have adopted a total quality management (TQM) strategy within their organizations. Defines and identifies the relationship to training. Fully explores the survey′s questions ranging from perceived need of TQM, commitment to training, benefits of and obstacles to TQM.