When TQM Professionals Want to Identify as Scientists: SWEAT Principles and Self-Worth Theory

The plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle in Total Quality Management (TQM) is derived from the observation of how industrial quality control compares with the hypothesis testing in scientific experiments, meaning that it can be natural for quality management professionals to identify as scientists engaged in action research. However, when doing action research in one’s own organisation, the researcher becomes a political actor, which can be challenging in an oppressive public sector bureaucracy. To prevent problems from escalating, studies have shown that a survival strategy based on the so-called SWEAT principles can be useful, but the SWEAT principles are founded on values like self-respect, and trying to identify as a scientist in a culture where positional power is used to humiliate and harass people of knowledge can have a negative impact on self-respect and self-worth. The remedy suggested in this study is to ask the action researcher to reframe his identity into that of an artist, asking to consider the scientific method as a way of self-expression. An eighteen-month case study of self-image experiments suggests that the remedy may be worthwhile. Adopting the identity of an artist may shift the perspective from external drama toward inner empowerment.