An Analysis of the Impact of Total Quality Management on Employees

: Ireland Army Community Hospital (IACH) began to transition from a traditionally organized facility to a nontraditionally organized facility under the auspices of TQM in 1992. Traditional departments were dissolved and reorganized under functional teams who reported to an executive team. The teams were designed to be self managed and empowered to improve patient care processes. The results of the study indicate that the TQM program is not having a positive impact on the employees' attitude. There were few statistically significant (p<.01) differences in the bivariate and multivariate analyses. The bivariate analysis identified only three (of thirteen) statistically significant (p<.05) items. These results should not be an indictment of the TQM program but an indication of the direction of the current program. The implementation of a TQM program can take years to be fully realized and other internal and external forces have bearing on the impact of the implementation of TQM. IACH can pursue several options ranging from staying with the status quo, dedicating more resources to the program, or reorganizing the current organizational structure.