TQL in the Department of the Navy's operating forces and shore establishment : does it differ?

Abstract

This thesis makes available to DON TQL educators and practitioners data gathered about differences between DON operating force and shore establishment organizations in the conduct of TQL. A survey was conducted to assess what TQL tools and processes were used by the two organization types, and statistical testing was used to determine how the organizations differed in the use of TQL tools and processes. The results of the statistical testing indicate that although there were some significant differences found when the compared organization types had less than one year of TQL exposure, the compared organizations with at least one year of TQL exposure were generally similar in their conduct of TQL. Components of an Open Systems model of organizations: "culture", "behavior and processes", "inputs", and "purposes" were used to explain the differences in TQL conduct by the two organization types, and form the basis for recommendations on how to reduce differences between them.