Managing Performance Improvement

From TQM to Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard, there appears to be no end to the "revolutionary" approaches proposed to improve business performance. However, on closer inspection, most new performance improvement approaches offer few differences from their predecessors.

This thought-provoking book provides a critical perspective on the management of performance improvement initiatives by relating major theories to practical examples from a wide range of organizations. Baxter and MacLeod analyze ideas on performance improvement and discuss how these concepts might not make any impact on organizations, using cases as diverse as telecommunications, cement manufacturing, a major airport, and an economic development organization. In their critique of popular performance improvement "innovations," the authors highlight the possible damage to organizations they can cause. In response to prevailing performance improvement practices, the authors put forth the concept of repair as a way to rescue these efforts. Working from the authors' extensive research, they present alternative perspectives on improvement that shifts forward the stagnant debates on these processes.

Offering a needed alternative perspective and real insights into the process of implementing performance improvements, this book will prove invaluable to advanced students and MBAs studying quality, performance improvement, operations management, and HRM.

Lynne F. Baxter is Senior Lecturer in Management Information Systems at The York Management School.

Alasdair MacLeod is an Honorary Research Fellow at Heriot-Watt University.