A survey instrument created by Grandzol and Gershon (1998) was used to collect data for the hypotheses under evaluation. In the analysis of a study conducted by The Conference Board, Boaden (1997) identified several common themes within 20 studies of TQM. These were very important, as several of the themes that arose in this study were included in the survey instrument chosen (leadership, learning, customer focus/satisfaction, continuous improvement, process management, public responsibility/corporate citizenship). The fact that these areas were incorporated in the chosen survey helped demonstrate that the survey was relevant for the research and the concepts explored are ones that have been researched in other studies.