من طرف امير الحب الأحد نوفمبر 29, 2009 1:11 am | |
Quality Management is a management approach that originated in the
1950's and has steadily become more popular since the early 1980's.
Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and
organization of a company that strives to provide customers with
products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires
quality in all aspects of the company's operations, with processes
being done right the first time and defects and waste eradicated from
operations.To be successful implementing TQM, an organization must concentrate on the eight key elements:
- Ethics
- Integrity
- Trust
- Training
- Teamwork
- Leadership
- Recognition
- Communication
TQMhas been coined to describe a philosophy that makes quality the driving
force behind leadership, design, planning, and improvement initiatives.
For this, TQM requires the help of those eight key elements. These
elements can be divided into four groups according to their function.
The groups are:
I. Foundation - It includes: Ethics, Integrity and Trust.
II. Building Bricks - It includes: Training, Teamwork and Leadership.
III. Binding Mortar - It includes: Communication.
IV. Roof - It includes: Recognition.I. Foundation
TQM
is built on a foundation of ethics, integrity and trust. It fosters
openness, fairness and sincerity and allows involvement by everyone.
This is the key to unlocking the ultimate potential of TQM. These three
elements move together, however, each element offers something
different to the TQM concept.1.
Ethics - Ethics is the discipline concerned with good and bad in any
situation. It is a two-faceted subject represented by organizational
and individual ethics. Organizational ethics establish a business code
of ethics that outlines guidelines that all employees are to adhere to
in the performance of their work. Individual ethics include personal
rights or wrongs.2.
Integrity - Integrity implies honesty, morals, values, fairness, and
adherence to the facts and sincerity. The characteristic is what
customers (internal or external) expect and deserve to receive. People
see the opposite of integrity as duplicity. TQM will not work in an
atmosphere of duplicity.3.
Trust - Trust is a by-product of integrity and ethical conduct. Without
trust, the framework of TQM cannot be built. Trust fosters full
participation of all members. It allows empowerment that encourages
pride ownership and it encourages commitment. It allows decision making
at appropriate levels in the organization, fosters individual
risk-taking for continuous improvement and helps to ensure that
measurements focus on improvement of process and are not used to
contend people. Trust is essential to ensure customer satisfaction. So,
trust builds the cooperative environment essential for TQM.II. Bricks
Basing on the strong foundation of trust, ethics and integrity, bricks are placed to reach the roof of recognition. It includes:4.
Training - Training is very important for employees to be highly
productive. Supervisors are solely responsible for implementing TQM
within their departments, and teaching their employees the philosophies
of TQM. Training that employees require are interpersonal skills, the
ability to function within teams, problem solving, decision making, job
management performance analysis and improvement, business economics and
technical skills. During the creation and formation of TQM, employees
are trained so that they can become effective employees for the company.5.
Teamwork - To become successful in business, teamwork is also a key
element of TQM. With the use of teams, the business will receive
quicker and better solutions to problems. Teams also provide more
permanent improvements in processes and operations. In teams, people
feel more comfortable bringing up problems that may occur, and can get
help from other workers to find a solution and put into place. There
are mainly three types of teams that TQM organizations adopt:<blockquote>A.
Quality Improvement Teams or Excellence Teams (QITS) - These are
temporary teams with the purpose of dealing with specific problems that
often re-occur. These teams are set up for period of three to twelve
months.
B. Problem Solving Teams (PSTs) - These are temporary teams
to solve certain problems and also to identify and overcome causes of
problems. They generally last from one week to three months.
C.
Natural Work Teams (NWTs) - These teams consist of small groups of
skilled workers who share tasks and responsibilities. These teams use
concepts such as employee involvement teams, self-managing teams and
quality circles. These teams generally work for one to two hours a week.</blockquote>6.
Leadership - It is possibly the most important element in TQM. It
appears everywhere in organization. Leadership in TQM requires the
manager to provide an inspiring vision, make strategic directions that
are understood by all and to instill values that guide subordinates.
For TQM to be successful in the business, the supervisor must be
committed in leading his employees. A supervisor must understand TQM,
believe in it and then demonstrate their belief and commitment through
their daily practices of TQM. The supervisor makes sure that
strategies, philosophies, values and goals are transmitted down through
out the organization to provide focus, clarity and direction. A key
point is that TQM has to be introduced and led by top management.
Commitment and personal involvement is required from top management in
creating and deploying clear quality values and goals consistent with
the objectives of the company and in creating and deploying well
defined systems, methods and performance measures for achieving those
goals.III. Binding Mortar
7.
Communication - It binds everything together. Starting from foundation
to roof of the TQM house, everything is bound by strong mortar of
communication. It acts as a vital link between all elements of TQM.
Communication means a common understanding of ideas between the sender
and the receiver. The success of TQM demands communication with and
among all the organization members, suppliers and customers.
Supervisors must keep open airways where employees can send and receive
information about the TQM process. Communication coupled with the
sharing of correct information is vital. For communication to be
credible the message must be clear and receiver must interpret in the
way the sender intended.There are different ways of communication such as:
A.
Downward communication - This is the dominant form of communication in
an organization. Presentations and discussions basically do it. By this
the supervisors are able to make the employees clear about TQM.
B.
Upward communication - By this the lower level of employees are able to
provide suggestions to upper management of the affects of TQM. As
employees provide insight and constructive criticism, supervisors must
listen effectively to correct the situation that comes about through
the use of TQM. This forms a level of trust between supervisors and
employees. This is also similar to empowering communication, where
supervisors keep open ears and listen to others.
C. Sideways
communication - This type of communication is important because it
breaks down barriers between departments. It also allows dealing with
customers and suppliers in a more professional manner.IV. Roof
8.
Recognition - Recognition is the last and final element in the entire
system. It should be provided for both suggestions and achievements for
teams as well as individuals. Employees strive to receive recognition
for themselves and their teams. Detecting and recognizing contributors
is the most important job of a supervisor. As people are recognized,
there can be huge changes in self-esteem, productivity, quality and the
amount of effort exhorted to the task at hand. Recognition comes in its
best form when it is immediately following an action that an employee
has performed. Recognition comes in different ways, places and time
such as, Ways - It can be by way of personal letter from top management. Also by award banquets, plaques, trophies etc.
Places - Good performers can be recognized in front of departments, on performance boards and also in front of top management.
Time - Recognition can given at any time like in staff meeting, annual award banquets, etc.
Conclusion
We
can conclude that these eight elements are key in ensuring the success
of TQM in an organization and that the supervisor is a huge part in
developing these elements in the work place. Without these elements,
the business entities cannot be successful TQM implementers. It is very
clear from the above discussion that TQM without involving integrity,
ethics and trust would be a great remiss, in fact it would be
incomplete. Training is the key by which the organization creates a TQM
environment. Leadership and teamwork go hand in hand. Lack of
communication between departments, supervisors and employees create a
burden on the whole TQM process. Last but not the least, recognition
should be given to people who contributed to the overall completed
task. Hence, lead by example, train employees to provide a quality
product, create an environment where there is no fear to share
knowledge, and give credit where credit is due is the motto of a
successful TQM organization.About The Author
Nayantara
Padhi is an HR Executive in an Indian Steel Industry, and is pursuing a
Ph.D. on "The Human Dimension Of TQM". Mr. Padhi has published numerous
articles in different national and international journals, and has
completed a P.G. in Industrial Relations And Personnel Management.
