Total quality is increasingly used by companies as an organization‐wide system to achieve fully satisfied customers through the delivery of the highest quality in products and services. The goals of total quality can be achieved only if organizations entirely reform their cultures. Traditional management, operations, finance and accounting systems are reviewed against changes that are needed in organizational processes, measurement systems, and the values and behaviors of key stakeholders to overpower the status quo and shift to a total quality culture that permeates every facet of the organization. Specific company illustrations are drawn upon to show the inadequacies of these traditional areas under the new imperatives for total quality.

Recent research has emphasized the strategic focus that human resource management must have in order for an organization to fully utilize its human resources in a competitive market. However, few empirical studies have been done to date regarding how human resource planning should be linked to strategy. An extensive in‐depth study of four large, complex, and very successful companies supports the widespread belief that human resource management can be a powerful tool to enhance competitiveness when policies and practices are logically driven by a firm's strategy and by the key environmental factors it faces. This article describes that study and looks at how the areas of selection, appraisal, reward, and development are handled by these firms. Based on both the specific policies and the actual practices as perceived by middle managers (those that implement the policies), the article presents a contingency framework which offers guidelines as to how certain HRM practices should be implemented to gain competitive advantage.

Stringent corporate controls on employee moonlighting and/or overtime are not uncommon. But are they necessary? Even the concept of overtime may need to be rethought—what about the “normal working hours” of managers and professionals who work hours at home or on the road—hours typically uncompensated?