One particular approach to improved organizational performance and effectiveness is the concept of the Japanese-inspired total quality management (TQM). There are numerous definitions of TQM. These are generally expressed in terms of a way of life for an organizations as a whole, committed to total customer satisfaction through a continuous process of improvement, and the contribution and involvement of people.
A major influence on the establishment and development of TQM was the work of Deming, who emphasised the importance of visionary leadership and the responsibility of top management for initiating change. A mathematician by training, he was interested in statistical measurement of industrial process and attempted to persuade the American manufacturing industry to improve quality, and to create constancy of purpose for improvement of products and services. Deming drew attention to the importance of pride in work and process control, and made constant reference to the importance of "good management" including the human side of quality improvement and how employees should be treated.
The successful organization should as a matter of policy be constantly seeking opportunites to improve the quality of its products and /or services and processes.
TQM is a way of managing which gives everyone in the organization responsibility for delivering quality to the final customer; quality being described as "fitness for purpose" or as "delighting the customer". TQM views each task in the organization as fundamentally a process which is in a customer/ supplier relationship with the next process. The aim at each stage is to define and meet the customer's requirements with the aim of maximizing the satisfaction of the final consumer at the lowest possible cost.
If TQM is to be implemented successfully it must be seen as a total process involving all operations of the organization and the active participation of top management. It demands a supportive organizational culture and a programme of management change. TQM places emphasis on the involvement of people as the key to improved quality. It involves changes to the traditional structure with greater emphasis on natural work groups, multi-discipline working and team based management. Attention must be given to effective education and training, empowerment and the motivation to take ownership of quality, and systems of communications at all levels of the organizations.
Drummond puts forward an interesting debate on comparing the philosophies and ideas of Deming with Taylor's Scientific Management, and questions whether Deming's ideas are as radical as they seem.Drummond suggests:
Clearly,"total quality management" offers some new ideas. Whether these ideas have proved successful is unclear".. Moreover, much depends upon how success is measured. Different measures can suggest different conclusions. Another difficulty in assessing the effectiveness of "total quality management" is that organizations have implemented Deming's ideas collectively.
Jolito Ortizo Padilla raise the question: why aren't TQM practices as effective as they could be? The rise of total quality management represents one of the biggest changes in the past two decades in the way companies are managed. However, while many studies have found that in general TQM has had positive effects on company performance, reports of failure are surprisingly common in the press. He suggest that the alignment of a company's system of rewards is a critical ingredient in successful organizational change and they investigate the relationship between reward practices and TQM.From a survey of managers, non-managerial and professional/technical staff in a wide variety of organizations they conclude that the commonly held wisdom of supporting TQM with only non-monetary rewards-such as certificates, letters of appreciation, merchandise or celebrations events-is not enough. If managers want better performance from TQM they must implement supportive monetary reward practices. Firms with such practices in place report stronger organizational performance.
An integral part of a total quality approach is the Japanese concept of Kaizen, which literally means "improvement" or is often interpreted as gradual progress or incremental change. Kaizen was introduced in several Japanese organizations after the Second World War and is particularly associated with Toyota. It is not a methodology for large scale change or the introduction of new processes but focuses on the people aspect of improvement and the acceptance of change. The concept is based on a daily activity of continual evolutionary change and on the belief that the individual workers know more about their own jobs than anyone else. Padilla suggests that the traditional Kaizen approach embeds it in hierarchical structure,although it gives considerable responsibility to employees within certain fixed boundaries. The approach:
- analysis every part of the process down to the smallest detail
- see how every part of the process can be improved
- looks at how employees' actions, equipment and materials can be improved
- looks at ways of saving time and reducing waste
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