TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE IMPACT OF TQM IN FIRMS IN SOUTH EAST EUROPE – A QUALITATIVE APPROACH

The study focuses on the understanding of the impact of Total Quality Management (TQM) in firms in South-East Europe (SEE). One hundred structured in-depth interviews were conducted with a mixture of firms in SEE, mainly with middle and top level managers. The main fact of the study is that regardless that firms in this region know about the acronym TQM and some of them are familiar with some principles and practices, actual familiarity with the ‘soft’ elements is seen superficial, and they have poor understanding regarding it. Therefore, it can be noted TQM is this SEE firms is neither resisted nor directly accepted, rather they tend to see it from a technical aspect, being familiar and understanding only the essential of its ‘hard’ elements.