Autobiographical internal dialogue on TQM

A reprise of TQM practices among construction enterprises in Nigeria

Purpose

Studies on total quality management (TQM) implementation among construction enterprises in Nigeria have used few TQM constructs and variables and yielded fragmented results. This study adopts comprehensive TQM constructs and variables for comparison with the previous studies to establish the critical variables for effective TQM practices in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

Data collection from a stratified sample of Nigerian construction practitioners with practical or theoretical knowledge of TQM, using web-based questionnaires consisting of twelve validated TQM implementation constructs and 65 variables. 72 home and overseas practicing professionals participated (21% response rate) using nonprobability sampling techniques. Following acceptable Cronbach's alpha reliability values equal to 0.7, the author/s rank-ordered the twelve TQM constructs and 65 TQM variables. Then, they computed the z-scores and the percentiles to identify the TQM critical variables – 75th percentiles and above, contrasted with the threshold normalized values equal to 0.5. Furthermore, Pareto analysis determined the 20% “vital many” responsible for 80% of the problem.

Findings

Customer focus, top management commitment and supplier quality management were the top-25% constructs, while employee involvement, statistical process control and design quality management were the bottom-25% constructs. Thirteen TQM critical variables emerged from the top-25% constructs.

Practical implications

Top management to involve employees to be customer-focused and driven toward suppliers' quality management system. Priority should be given to implementing the critical variables advanced in this study.

Originality/value

This study juxtaposes the results of similar studies for consistency to advance the critical success factors.