This paper presents an exploratory research carried out in four manufacturing companies (large to medium size) located in the central region of São Paulo State, Brazil. The research was conducted aiming at characterising the companies in regarding to quality and human resource management practices. The results evidence that inclusion of human resource management in the entrepreneurial strategic management may co-operate with the success of total quality programmes, emphasising the competitive advantages which can be created from this partnership, namely organisational learning, organisational culture management and team-based management. The main elements of human resource and quality management had both their rate of importance to the consecution of business strategy and intensity of application analysed.
total quality management; human resource management; organisational learning; manufacturing
