What makes tqm

Magazines and Journals search. Total Quality Management Resources. Total Quality Management Related Topics. Quality Glossary Definition: Total quality management A core definition of total quality management TQM describes a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. Here are the 8 principles of total quality management: Customer-focused: The customer ultimately determines the level of quality.

No matter what an organization does to foster quality improvement—training employees, integrating quality into the design process, or upgrading computers or software—the customer determines whether the efforts were worthwhile. Total employee involvement: All employees participate in working toward common goals. Total employee commitment can only be obtained after fear has been driven from the workplace, when empowerment has occurred, and when management has provided the proper environment.

High-performance work systems integrate continuous improvement efforts with normal business operations. Self-managed work teams are one form of empowerment. Process-centered: A fundamental part of TQM is a focus on process thinking.

A process is a series of steps that take inputs from suppliers internal or external and transforms them into outputs that are delivered to customers internal or external. QAD Blog. There are three Total Quality Management components that work toward achieving customer satisfaction: It requires that your business understand what customers typically expect in a field, industry, or product line, It ensures your business has the expertise and the resources to consistently deliver the expected product or service, and It emphasizes the need for your business to clearly communicate to the customers exactly what you will deliver to avoid misunderstandings.

Total Quality Management places a focus on internal processes, including How processes align to produce desired outcomes to satisfy customers How consistently processes deliver desired outcomes effectiveness The productivity of a process compared the resources used efficiency Being able to consistently produce desired outcomes without wasting resources like time, material, and money is critical for a business to make it over the long haul.

TQM Provides Long Term Competitiveness Being able to satisfy customers while operating effectively and efficiency is truly the recipe for financial success and stability.

Emerging Lithium Battery Titans. Enabling Adaptive Manufacturing Enterprises. Caleb Finch - November 11, Send this to a friend. Based on the above introduction, we can define three conditions for a successful TQM process:.

Consistent input To make data-driven decisions consistent input is essential. This means that every quality measurement must be completed the same. You can only achieve this if you digitize all measurements. Entering data manually or using Excel is very error prone and also takes a lot of time. Digitizing audits and checks is a precondition for being able to rely on your data. Combining data Another important condition for data-driven Total Quality Management is combining data. As a quality manager, you are responsible for multiple audits, multiple databases, and perhaps even multiple locations.

And, you want to be able to compare the results of all measurements across all locations, without having to fill in the background variables, such as location data, for each audit. By combining data from different sources , you can automatically link background variables to the results of every new audit. And when these change, they are automatically adjusted everywhere. To be able to implement quality improvements continuously, it is not only important to continuously collect insights, but also to report relevant insights.

Relevant means: information that is interesting at that moment. This could be an overview of aggregated results, but it could also be an individual report per location or focus area.

Fear plays an important role in TQM. Therefore, it deserves to be researched carefully. Consequently, the primary objective of the paper was to present the role and meaning of fear in organizations implementing TQM. The author's intention was to identify the causes of fear in the TQM components, its main types, consequences and reduction methods. This section presents an outline of the issue of fear as addressed in publications on TQM.

The conducted analysis of the literature concerning the problem of fear in TQM allowed the author to distinguish several thematic areas. The first thematic area concerns the general causes of the fear of changes.

It refers in particular to E. Deming's views on the causes of fear Deming, ; Sadikoglu, , the fear of changes Stabler, ; Kolodny, , the fear of losing power in an organization Waller and Ahire, , a lack of support and situations of uncertainty e. Jacokes, Deming claimed that all quotas, standards, numerical goals and management by objectives were counter to constant improvement, undermined cooperation and teamwork in a company and caused fear Deming, Empirical research proves, however, that time-based standards do not have to increase fear and distrust Sadikoglu, The literature on the subject shows that in the initial stage of TQM implementation people are afraid of changes e.

Stabler, Fear increases when they perform tasks in a new work environment Kolodny, One factor making the implementation of TQM difficult is the fear of losing one's position, power or perhaps even employment Waller and Ahire, The implementation of TQM and many other management concepts such as re-engineering or knowledge management generates a sense of threat and fear Gordon, ; Pastore, In the course of implementing all changes oriented towards the improvement of productivity, attention is paid to not only organizational transformations, but mainly the necessity of changing the organizational culture and eliminating fear or anxiety connected with the change process Carmody, The fear of changes is not only caused by apprehension of novelty and the unknown but also results from uncertainty and a lack of support from management Jacokes, ; The antidote to fear-driven management, The second thematic area focuses on deliberations concerning the two opposite concepts: Drive in Fear and Drive out Fear e.

Repenning, ; Wicks, These deliberations are connected with providing an answer to the following question: What is the role of fear in quality improvement and does it play a negative role only? Undoubtedly, the implementation of Total Quality Management or any other new management concept causes fear which can be more intense if the scope and impact of changes is large enough.

The literature presents two opposite theories concerning the influence of work safety on the ability of companies to implement changes. Some researchers and management consultants stress the positive role played by the fear of losing employment in motivating people to implement changes. For instance, Kotter discusses cases in which managers deliberately highlight poor business results, and the probability of future losses motivates people to implement changes and improvement processes.

Bailey also claims that the fear of losing employment is a valuable ally for managers intending to implement a serious organizational transformation. Such views are contrary to TQM ideas, however, because, first of all, they refer to financial results only and disregard social results.

Secondly, they put emphasis on motivation oriented towards short-term objectives, which was rejected by Deming. Fear may force organizations to take up pro-quality activities. Referring to organizations implementing quality management systems and TQM, Naveh et al.

Conducting benchmarking analyses may also be caused by the fear of losing the ability to compete with others Panwar et al. The third thematic area focuses on the consequences of fear Craig and Lemon, , Bloom et al. In organizations dominated by a culture of fear, where employees are punished, the acquisition of information of the true causes of failures in quality improvement is very difficult Craig and Lemon, Not only efficiency but also quality suffers on account of fear.

Employees of many companies do not suggest any corrective measures in fear of punishment. Consequently, such companies have no opportunity to improve quality, and top-down initiatives bring no results Bugdol and Bortniczuk, Researchers agree that higher competition results in higher management quality. Yet, when fear dominates, decision-making processes are considerably more difficult cf. Bloom et al. Previous publications described the notion of fear and its role in quality management in a rather general manner.

They claimed that fear should be eliminated as its presence hindered quality improvement. But they failed to describe fear in the particular components of TQM such as commitment, leadership, empowerment or teamwork.

Identifying the types of fear, their causes as well as consequences not only in the general TQM principles but also in the particular components of TQM e. Commitment was found to be one of the TQM principles and its role was described in many works e. Oakland, ; Arunachalam and Palanichamy, ; Soltani et al.

Leadership plays a special role in TQM, which has been proved in many researches e. Oakland, ; Roberts, ; Calvo-Mora et al. Empowerment plays an equally significant role Randeniya et al. Many authors emphasize the importance of teams, particularly quality circles, in both the implementation and the maintenance of TQM Brockner and Hess, ; Oakland, ; Jajoo and Kakkad, Obviously, various publications mentioned many other components of TQM such as teamwork, leadership, pursuing lower costs of quality, following the process-based approach, using statistical methods, satisfaction of internal and external customers, influence on the environment, self-assessment, resources management, quality policy and quality strategy.

They can be divided into hard and soft elements. Nevertheless, even the four selected elements can constitute a sufficient basis for identifying the sources and consequences of fear in TQM. Various publications present evidence indicating that fear plays a significant role in these particular components e.

There is also a lack of publications focusing on the types, causes and consequences of fear that can be distinguished within the TQM concept. The literature not related to TQM also distinguishes various types of fear. For example the fear of changes Stabler, ; Kolodny, ; Soltani et al. Babalola et al. Taking into consideration the unique character of TQM and its components indicated above, it can be assumed that there exist types of fear that can be attributed to each of them.

This means that, for instance, the fear of exclusion may be experienced by people strongly attached to their work teams, and the fear spreading to employees due to improper management styles results from inappropriate leadership, etc.

There is also a shortage of publications showing how fear can be alleviated and conquered in TQM. The methods of reducing the fear of changes are described most extensively Stabler, ; Kolodny, ; Soltani et al. Taking into consideration the identified publication gap, the following questions can be posed: What types of fear can be distinguished within the TQM concept? Based on previous literature studies, the following types of fear can be listed:: the fear of changes Stabler, ; Kolodny, ; Soltani et al.

The fear of change is associated with the fear of losing power in an organization, a lack of support, and situations of uncertainty. Usually these types of fear are noticeable at the beginning of implementing various management concepts — not just TQM.

These types of fear are best described in the literature. The fear experienced by employees due to improper management styles appears at various stages of the implementation, maintenance and improvement of the TQM concept. It is associated with the fear of punishment that both employees and managers can feel even CEOs may be afraid of shareholders, owner.

Further types of fear, that is fear from others and of exclusion, are also interrelated and result from the presence of other people in the organization. Due to the fact that TQM uses different forms of teamwork, it could be thought that this kind of fear is also character-specific for TQM, but actually, it can occur in any other organization.

The literature so far does not indicate which sources and consequences of fear we are dealing with in the components of TQM, and therefore an attempt was made to answer this question in the next part of the article. This section discusses probable causes of fear connected with the four selected components of TQM, i. The selection of these particular components is justified in the description below. The paper uses some basic definitions of TQM e. Oakland, In his research, the author refers to the classical approach to TQM, especially the views of E.

Deming mainly the idea of the deadly diseases in organizations , and the concepts aimed at distinguishing the particular components of TQM. Fear is presented the most often as the cause of a lack of commitment Tsai and Young, , and rightly so, but the perverse question could be asked whether commitment itself triggers fear. Researchers agree that commitment is one of the most important principles of TQM Arunachalam and Palanichamy, Its absence is said to be the cause of failure of TQM program implementation.

The commitment of top management is particularly significant because connections among the commitment of top managers and employees, as well as the effectiveness of TQM programs are usually very close and linear Soltani et al. However, in order to diagnose the problem of commitment properly, one should pay attention to not only the existence of linear relations even though they are very important. It is worth mentioning that there are many types of commitment, which is not taken into account in many researches.

The following authors introduced their own typologies of commitment: Mayer and Schoorman , p. A review of these typologies shows that, in TQM, value-based commitment e. This is only an ideal, though. Meanwhile, practical experience indicates that fear causes anticipative and excessive commitment in individuals, and not commitment itself, but uncontrolled emphasis put on commitment.

Fear also triggers anticipative commitment, i. This statement caused anxiety in the managerial staff. None of them had ever heard of TQM before.

There had been no training or meeting dedicated to it before. Excessive commitment of individuals causes suspicion and fear. A company owned by the town X employed a quality system representative who imposed very ambitious targets on himself.

He wanted the company to become one of the best in the industry. Therefore, he developed various methods for measuring system effectiveness. The company promptly implemented an integrated system, the employees used the EFQM-consistent self-assessment model, and the balanced scorecard method. Rigorous process management principles were implemented. The personnel's competences were also assessed and quality training events were organized regularly. The representative was doing much more than he was required to do in accordance with his job description.

Yet, in time, the representative's commitment was no longer respected; the employees were fed up with new tasks and the company management stopped supporting him. When an external benchmarking group was established, the representative's activity was categorized as a threat to the authority. He was perceived as someone aiming to promote themselves rather than to improve quality. He was very soon given a notice of termination.

Current research results concerning citizenship behavior constitute indirect evidence confirming that excessive commitment of individuals causes unnecessary tension Klotz and Bolino, Excessive emphasis put on commitment makes employees come up with fictitious solutions. Such a situation occurs where there is strong and completely unjustified pressure for quality improvement and changes.

In a certain organization which was a Polish Quality Award winner, productiveness improvement groups were introduced. Commitment is one of the quality improvement methods used in TQM. Employees were expected to present ideas concerning improvements in the workplace and technological processes.

An analysis of documents and their confrontation with actually implemented activities showed that huge pressure for commitment led to unethical behaviors. After some time employees started to put forward fictitious ideas, pretending their interest and commitment.

Emphasis on commitment has to be adjusted to an organization's needs Bugdol, Leadership is another principle of TQM. It is highlighted in very many publications e. Leadership is believed to consist in an ability to not only motivate people and determine targets, but also eliminate fear Zhao et al.

Consequently, the question arises whether leadership is related to fear and if so, in what way. Firstly, opinions presented by consultants and based on interviews prove that leadership is full of fear Crosby, High quality in TQM very often results from leaders' commitment, from strong leadership. High quality is sometimes achieved under immense pressure which intensifies fear, conformity and suspicion. Fear exists when expectations are high of leaders who are thrown into their new role Conquering Leadership Fears, Secondly, besides being leaders, some superiors also manifest authoritarian behaviors.

And authoritarian leadership causes fear, a sense of absence of self-confidence, which does not foster creativity because employees adopt various defensive attitudes, including employee defensive silence Guo et al. Thirdly, individuals appointed to be leaders may have to deal with persons who are much more competent in certain management areas, and this may result in anxiety and fear cf.

Grenny, Fourthly, when people deal with a very strong leader, a situation of uncertainty and fear can occur. Investors and employees are convinced that such a leader's absence is a risk to the organization's existence. This happens not only in the case of charismatic leaders, but also when such leaders control enterprises which are very complex in terms of their structure or objectives of business activities.

There are many definitions of empowerment; according to one of them, empowerment is the process of eliminating fear and all bureaucratic obstacles that make the decision process difficult Hochman, Empowerment manifests itself in superiors demonstrating their belief that employee empowerment and the elimination of organizational and psycho-social barriers exert a positive influence on management effectiveness and efficiency.

Various researches indicate that empowerment has a favorable impact on employees' trust in managers, reduces the costs of internal and external control, as well as transaction costs Moye and Henkin, However, not all empowerment programs are successful, which was shown in the research conducted by Edward and Collinson Why can empowerment cause fear?

Firstly, because empowerment can be interpreted differently by employees and superiors. Superiors do not want to lose their power and demand increased efforts and responsibility from their subordinates. Employees want to have autonomy and freedom, but they also fear losing support Hill and Huq, Secondly, empowerment has various dimensions: the structural dimension e.

It is emphasized that structural empowerment needs to be supported by mental empowerment. Structural empowerment without any preparation of employees causes apprehension and anxiety. And as various researches prove, empowerment can be connected with nothing else but delegating new responsibilities Korukonda et al.

Summing up, in the initial stage of TQM and implementation of empowerment, fear results from apprehension of changes. It is caused by uncertainty concerning a new division of power and is connected with a low level of competence-based trust.

The need for teamwork is emphasized by many researchers Oakland, , p. It is not the author's intention to undermine this need, but merely to indicate the risks connected with teamwork and the relations between this organizational form and fear. Let us take a look at quality circles.