An evaluation of the problems associated with the implementation of total quality management in Oman and U.A.E
[Thesis]
al-Sabahy, Abdullah Saif Ahmed
University of Wolverhampton
1999
Thesis (Ph.D.)
1999
The thesis examines issues associated with the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the financial sector in the Sultanate of Oman and the United Arab Emirates. An assumption in this study is that Total Quality Management implementation' is a development from the ISO 9000 quality system registration. It has been widely reported that a large percentage of TQM initiatives fail to achieve their full potential. There is reason to believe that similar difficulties will be faced by companies implementing TQM in the Sultanate of Oman, as the people who are currently implementing TQM in the Sultanate of Oman are imported Western management consultants. While business is becoming more global, the transfer of management concepts across cultures has not received enough attention and certainly not within the Arab world. A common criticism is that management and theories have been developed primarily in North America, and therefore framed by cultural values specific to that context. This thesis addresses all those issues by investigating the implementation of TQM using an Islamic framework and a triangulated qualitative and quantitative methodology. The finding of this thesis suggest that TQM implementation should be framed within both the organisational and the national culture. The research evaluates the impact of imported management concepts in the Sultanate of Oman as compared with the United Arab Emirates.