Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002) analysed survey-based research on TQM conducted in different countries that was published in a variety of journals between 1989-2000. They found that the empirically researched TQM practices could be grouped under 25 categories. The first seven factors are considered to be the major elements of TQM and Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002) say this concurs with many authors' ideas. It is not surprising that issues related to customer focus and satisfaction received the most attention in the TQM survey literature because of the major push toward a customer satisfaction orientation in virtually all types of businesses. Two of the seven practices that received the highest coverage (training and employee involvement) relate to human resource management, and assign human resources a critical role in the implementation of TQM In addition, great attention was paid to the role of leadership and top management commit- ment as well as to giving authority to employees that is, empowerment to make their own decisions (Spreitzer, 1995; Ahire et al., 1996; Ahmed, 1998; Motwani, 2001). Furthermore, issues related to quality information and performance measurement were also embraced by most studies.