Soft TQM for Sustainability: An Empirical Study on Indian Cement Industry and Its Impact on Organizational Performance

Firms gained advantage dramatically from the quality revolution, such as Toyota and Motorola, treated quality as an opportunity for process improvements rather than as a cost (Fust and Walker, Corporate sustainability initiatives: the next TQM [white paper]. Executive Insight, pp 1–8. Available at: http://​www.​kornferryinstitu​te.​com/​about_​us/​by_​industry/​industrial/​publication/​620/​Corporate_​Sustainability_​Initiatives_​The_​Next_​TQM, 2007). However, to survive in intense worse era, companies are beginning to embrace sustainability as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage. As we embark into new era which has witnessed global slowdown and intense competition to survive, it is quite appropriate to revisit the role of total quality management (TQM) in enabling and supporting firm to sustain superior performance. This chapter is concerned with soft dimensions of TQM which not only help it in successful implementation but also provide sustainable competitive advantage. Sustainability can perhaps be correlated with the principle of excellence which is now gaining wider acceptance in the business community (Zairi, TQM sustainability: how to maintain it gains through transformational change. Unpublished manuscript, School of Management, University of Bradford, 2005). The present research proposes a soft TQM framework and empirically tested the impact of soft dimensions of TQM on its performance in context to Indian cement industry to understand how soft TQM can help Indian cement industry to sustain competitive advantage in long term. The chapter concludes with a statement that soft dimensions of TQM are critical for sustainability which enable cement firms to achieve superior performance.