Sverker Alänge
Quality Sciences, Dept. Of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden
Annika Steiber
Quality Sciences, Dept. of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden
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Published in: 10th QMOD Conference. Quality Management and Organiqatinal Development. Our Dreams of Excellence; 18-20 June; 2007 in Helsingborg; Sweden
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 26:106, p.
Published: 2008-02-15
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
New management knowledge and practices do not take root easily and the success rate for implementation of some well known approaches such as TQM; reengineering and balanced scorecards has been fairly low (Beer 2001). According to Spector& Beer (1994); 70% of corporations studied were disappointed with the effectiveness of total quality management. However; as was pointed out by Book et al. (2004) and Book (2006); one factor making it harder to research the effectiveness of quality management was that when fully implemented; quality becomes part of the daily work and hence; risks becoming an ‘invisible success’ both for practitioners and for the researcher.
Regardless of the perceived difficulties in implementing new practices; organizations need to develop new ways in order to meet ever changing demands. Hence; there is a need to develop a deeper understanding of how new management practices and organizational innovations diffuse and what are the factors hindering or facilitating this diffusion. Alänge et al. (1998) presented a tentative analytical framework for studying the diffusion of organizational innovations; based on the developments in recent literature on technical innovation and their diffusion.
