The Legal Environment as a Nonissue for TQM Organizational Transformations

Abstract

The article presents a response to an earlier article published in a 1995 issue of “Academy of Management Review” by Yitzak Fried. The author takes issue with Fried's claim that the legal environment is not conducive to total quality management (TQM), and feels that Fried does not make a convincing argument. Rather than lay the resistance to TQM adoption at the door of the legal environment, the author argues that TQM or systems-based approaches are usually rejected because organizations are resistant to change.