Total quality management and drinking water quality: The Waikato experience

Drinking water quality is a matter of concern in New Zealand. The quality of many New Zealand water supplies has been unsatisfactory as shown by the grading conducted since 1960 by the former Board of Health. In 1991, a quarter of the supplies surveyed failed to meet the Department of Health's microbiological standards. Since 1992, the Ministry of Health has undertaken a programme to improve water quality management. Hence, the achievement of high quality of drinking water requires the implementation of some form of quality management system (QMS) (e.g. Total Quality Management and its models i.e. ISO 9000 / ISO 14000 Standards, Quality Awards). This thesis examines the managerial practices related to the supply of drinking water in water utilities within the Waikato Region and the role of Total Quality Management (TQM) and its models (i.e. ISO 9000 Series Standards, ISO 14000 Series Standards, and the different Quality Awards like The Deming Prize and the Malcolm Baldrige Award and its New Zealand equivalent the National Business Excellence Award) (Refer to Chapter One, Section 1.6 Definition of Terms Used in Research). The use of QMS is now an established part of management practice in most water utilities in New Zealand, having been introduced since 1995 as part of the reforms to public water supply management. The thesis uses case studies to gain an in-depth understanding of quality management practices in the water utilities, the perceptions of water quality managers in relation to the adoption and adaptation of quality management systems. This is a descriptive and interpretive study of the existing quality systems in water supply organizations of the different Territorial Local Authorities of the Waikato Region. The aim is to unravel the managerial practices as a means of answering the research's four sub-research questions: 1) What perceptions do water utilities managers have about quality management in general and TQM in particular? 2) To what extent are TQM