Using critical systems thinking to compensate for lack of management commitment in the implementation of TQM- based organisational learning

There is an 80% failure rate for organisational development programmes like total quality management (TQM). Scholars and practitioners agree that success and failure of TQM and other organisational learning programmes depend on having strong management commitment. As this may not always be possible to obtain, one might ask whether good implementation methods based on systems thinking could compensate for lack of management commitment. An action research study spanning twenty years and three research cycles in different organisational settings has been used for investigating the question. Although the evidence is not conclusive, the findings indicate that implementation methods based on critical systems thinking (CST) may compensate for lack of management commitment by bootstrapping a solution that takes advantage of system complexity and political tension among actors. Key to the bootstrapping method is the development of a network of super users (expert users of quality management systems) whose informal power and authority may compensate for lack of involvement from formal management.