The following are the key assumptions on which total quality management (TQM) systems are based:

The costs of poor quality exceed the costs of developing processes that produce high quality products and services (in other words, it is less costly to do things right the first time).

Employees care about their work and will take the initiative to improve it (but only if the firm provides the resources, tools, and training necessary and management listens to their ideas).

Since organizations are systems of highly interdependent parts, decision processes must be integrated and include participation from all affected functional areas.

Responsibility for effective TQM rests with top-level managers who must support TQM processes and appropriately design the firm so that employees can function effectively.

Do these assumptions urge top-level managers to maintain higher ethical standards than they now have? If so, how?