Total Quality Management is a management philosophy that seeks to integrate all organizational functions (marketing, finance, design, engineering, and production, customer service, etc.) to focus on meeting customer needs and organizational objectives (Ishikawa, K, 1985). It propagates that organizations must strive to continuously improve these processes by incorporating the knowledge and experiences of workers. According to Smith, although originally applied to manufacturing operations, and for a number of years only used in that area, total quality management is now becoming recognized as a generic management tool, just as applicable in service and public sector organizations (1993). As a first point, one major factor that gave rise to the TQM was the principles of scientific management which swept through U.S industry.
The Hawthorne experiment in the late 1920s was another factor that gave rise to the TQM.