In this article I will discuss the roles and responsibilities of management and leadership as they relate to total quality management. Over the past two decades, total quality management represents one of the most profound changes in the way companies are now managed. According to Biech (1994), “Quality improvement (TQM) is a customer-centric, quality-centered, fact-based, team-driven, senior management-driven process to achieve the organization's strategic imperative through continuous improvement of the process" (pp. 1 -2). Benefits associated with TQM include higher quality, lower cost products and services in line with customer demands (Zbaracki, 1998). A company's ability to respond to the needs of its customers measures the overall success of that company. Many organizations may ask the question: what is quality? As Hick (1998) explains, “quality means meeting or exceeding customer needs and expectations” (p.1). What exactly are customers' expectations? It is now the organization's responsibility to define those needs. Perhaps Biech (1994) provides a simpler picture: "Quality is the measure of satisfaction that occurs between a customer and a supplier that only they can define. In other words, quality is what the customer says it is" ( p.25). However, according to Perigord (1987), “Total quality means that all participants in a company are involved regardless of their position in the hierarchy” (p.7). Basically it seems impossible for quality to be successful if all members do not share the same vision and/or goals. W. Edwards Deming i...... middle of paper ......ReferencesAllen, R. (2001, May). Aligning reward practices to support total quality management. Corporate horizons. Retrieved September 3, 2004, from the World Wide Web: http://www. findarticles.com/cf_0/m1038/3_44/75645904/print.jhtmlBiech, E. (1994). TQM for training. New York: McGraw-Hill.Gitlow, H.S., & Gitlow, S.J. (1994). Total quality management in action. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Hick, M. (1998). Quality management. Mike Hicks Eagle. Retrieved September 3, 2004, from the World Wide Web: http://www.eagle.ca/~mikehick/quality.htmlPerigord, M. (1987). Achieving total quality management: A program of action. Maryland: Productivity Press.Zbarack, M.J. (1998). The rhetoric and reality of total quality management. Administrative science quarterly. Retrieved September 3, 2004, from the World Wide Web: http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m4035/3_43/53392848/print.jhtml