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UK healthcare is currently experiencing an unprecedented quality crisis, especially in the face of budget constraints and growing demands. This predicament calls for a totally new approach to healthcare improvement, fit for the 21st century. Although past efforts to adopt Total Quality Management (TQM) failed to produce desired results, this thesis investigates the development and adoption of an innovative and sustainable TQM model. By integrating TQM with concepts from corporate social responsibility, complexity theory and knowledge management, a novel TQM conceptual framework, called EALIM - Ethical, Adaptive, Learning and Improvement Model - was devised. Using an action research study, EALIM was implemented within a private UK healthcare firm over a period of twelve months. Findings indicated that EALIM´s adoption generated a moral perception of the organisation, a learning culture, increased organisational commitment and an improvement in patient care. The development of EALIM presents an exciting prospect for researchers and practitioners elsewhere, to explore its use within a wide range of healthcare contexts.

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James D. Sideras is an independent researcher and quality consultant. He received his professional doctorate at the University of Hertfordshire, England. His research interests include business ethics, quality management, healthcare improvement, and change management.

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