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.

This article examines the life and work attitudes of a national sample of the US workforce surveyed in 1990. It presents a model of work‐ and nonwork‐related factors impinging on attitudes and the impact of these factors on high levels of cynicism found in the workforce today. The survey results show a strong correspondence between people's general perceptions of society, leadership, and the motives of other people and more specific views of their own organization, managers, and co‐workers. Analyses detail the spread of cynicism among demographic segments of the workforce, considering age, race, social class, gender, occupation, and organization type. Concluding sections highlight strategies that companies such as Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Caterpillar Tractor, and others have followed to counter cynicism in their workforce.

This study empirically examines organizational barriers to delivering high‐quality service performance as measured by customer perceptions and expectations. Using the extended service‐quality model developed by Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman ( Journal of Marketing , 52, 35–48) as a conceptual framework, five specific propositions implied by the model and by earlier studies contributing to its development were tested. Such testing required a complex research design involving five service companies as well as samples of customers, contact employees, and managers from each company. The results have practical implications and suggest an agenda for future organizational research.

This article examines the impact of computer technology on the workforce and workplace. It summarizes research and examines in practice the implementation and adoption of new technology in companies. Two cases are presented: a metal fabrication factory and a professional publishing company. Results of a pre‐implementation survey given to personnel in the factory highlight how a top‐down change strategy and worker's sense of mistrust and inequity, led to problems with the introduction of computerized machinery and control systems. Surveys taken one and three years after the introduction of word processing and data‐based management tools in the publishing company, by comparison, show how a more participatory change strategy coupled with extensive user training and support, contribute to success with technological change and alter perceptions of the company culture.