Total Quality Management example essay topic

Quality Decision Making in Management The overall purpose of this research paper is to define and assess decision making in management as well as the need for alternatives to use in the decision making processes. Management is concerned with combining all of the inputs of production. Managers decide what to make and how to make it. They chose from the available inputs and work out the right mix.

Management must organize production to meet the goals of the company, which normally include keeping manufacturing costs low and producing a profit. The first industrial managers were men like Richard Arkwright and Thomas Edison, both inventors and businessmen. They own their companies and made all the management decisions. As the scale of production increased in the 19th century, ownership of companies was divided among shareholders. Management gradually became separated from ownership and a class of professional managers emerged. Although this emphasis is on industry, the principles of management are strongly illuminated herein, in my opinion.

The division of labor has been successfully applied to management. In the modern factory, managers specialize in one function; production, finance, marketing, personnel or public affairs. Management is a skilled occupation, and the amount of education needed to become a professional manager is increasing. Managers are schooled in all aspects of production and business. (The Learning Store). At this point, I would like to address the need for alternatives, as well as factors operating within an organization which shape individual decisions and encourage individual initiatives.

"Sometimes courage is more critical than judgment in making a decision". This, as a belief of mine ties in with factors operating within an organization. It also deals with conviction, courage, value, truth, as well as individual initiatives. For example, Total Quality Management represents an excellent example. Total Quality Management, by definition, encompasses teamwork and thus, gives new meaning to the decision making process.

Individuals must make decisions on their own, and as well, be willing to participate with other team members. Total Quality Management has everything to do with decision making in management. It is my opinion that there exists many dimensions and aspects to TQM and in the new global environment where environmental issues are one of the more prominent on the agenda of many. Many of the labels on products produced worldwide are carrying postings which state "recyclable" or "ecologically friendly" which has become a strong marketing point.

Marketers have increasingly realized that consumers will more likely and quickly opt for the ecologically friendly package rather than not. Also, the public is more educated as to various environmental issues, thanks to high profile celebrities and media attention. Indeed, quality control is a responsibility and as the word implies, it is also a total responsibility. Total Quality Management (TQM), is a philosophy which states that the goal is "to meet customer expectations 100 percent of the time.

It is through the internal chain of supplies and customers that the expectations of internal customers are met. Just as the concept is the fact that TQM is a process for continued improvement through change, we as suppliers will find that meeting our customers' expectations needs and wants will require changes and / or improvements to the system with which we work. We need to first determine what our customers' expectations are. Then we need to commit to eliminate the barriers, solving the problems, making the improvements or initiating the changes that allow us to meet these expectations. The process is continual because; 1) the goal is 100 percent conformance and 2) customer expectations will change over time.

(Food Engineering, p. 30). To a large extent, this is certainly a mindset that not only to TQM but as well to its multi-faceted components. It is a necessity to pull together as a team for the purpose of total quality performance. This however, may be easier said than done. It is also my opinion that the system which America has inherited by virtue of its framers, their philosophies and ideologies to some extent works to our own detriment. For example, it is difficult for me and others to comprehend the implementation of TQM and all its dimensions without the complete involvement and cooperation of labor.

In terms of human resources, I believe that TQM can well be applied to forces outside the immediate working environment, such as schools, parental guidance, businesses, civic organizations, and the general informed populace to a great extent. We can realize a demonstration of alternative organizations models through TQM as they relate to decision making, problem solving and logic. I would like to focus on objectives in one alternative regarding decision making i.e. TQM. TQM reflects many dimensions and contains a complex composition and does strife from specific common denominators. The achievement of high quality, sustainable economic growth for poor throughout the world will require credible national economic policies promoting reforms for the poor. Countries must support carefully designed economic programs that address the problems at the root of poverty.

The programs must involve the reduction of fiscal deficits and monetary measures, focusing on achieving price stability and realistic exchange rates. Reform policies involving social safety nets and ecological safeguards, must be implemented to serve the poor. The financing of high quality growth is best accomplished by increasing the taxes of the rich and by promoting national savings. Macroeconomic discipline goes hand in hand with structural reforms that are designed to promote efficient resource use and to remove the most rooted obstacles of growth. Here I refer to reforms that eliminate damages distortions in both industry as well as human resources such as the accent is on industry. However, TQM is applicable to virtually all organizations.

Within the global market place, quality is an issue of paramount concern. During the 1980's, when "In Search of Excellence" and other books about well managed companies were published, corporate executives began talking about quality. Subsequently, they began doing something about improving quality of products and services. The Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award established in 1987 by Congress has become a standard of excellence in corporate America. (LeMoine, p. 10).

Throughout the course of this research paper, I have attempted to identify the many facets of teamwork as well as to illustrate them in practice. As indicated, TQM reflects a total commitment in terms of management and quality. TQM does, in fact reflect the need for team operation and a sense of working togetherness, particularly in today's fast moving global economy and with intrusion of the U.S. along with other countries in the global market arena. The U.S. most continuously operates as a team and when assessing the gains as well as losses throughout the corporate workplace. Invariably the many facets of TQM as I have attempted to point out will be seen evident to some but not all. The question has been raised as to the need for alternatives, disagreement and time in decision making.

Personally, I am partial to TQM, in this as a multi-dimensional approach and ideology, in terms of business. I sincerely believe that this is important. Researchers in a variety of disciplines have long been interested in identifying conditions that facilitate the spread of technological and administrative innovations. Early studies in this area sought to identify economic and organizational factors that encouraged or hindered innovation adoption by individuals or organizations.

Researchers examined the relationship between adoption and such variables as firm size, performance, functional differentiation, slack, and leader characteristics. More recent empirical research has explored the role of macro-social factors in facilitating the spread of innovations some of which are from an institutional perspective. Institutional perspectives generally emphasize the role of social factors rather than economic or efficiency factors. These include external conformity pressures from regulatory bodies or parent organizations, social pressures from other organizations as well as collective, social construction processes. In institutional environments, these normative pressures contribute to isomorphism, or the emergence of common organizational practices overtime. Several recent studies have demonstrated how inter-organizational and macro social factors such as regulatory pressure, as well as more traditional intra-organizational factors like performance, influence the likelihood of adopting organizational innovations.

While researchers have made significant advances in identifying behavioral determinants of innovation adoption at the organizational and macro social levels, several important issues remain largely unexplored. First, researchers have typically treated innovation as a discrete phenomenon, neglecting to examine variation in the form of adoption itself or in implementation. While some innovations are inherently discrete, most can vary appreciably in form. When the particular definition or content of an innovation is open to interpretation such as re engineering, matrix management, zero-based budgeting, or Total Classifying adoption as an either or proposition becomes somewhat arbitrary. In such cases, it may be more appropriate to explore how organizations define and implement an innovation, rather than simply to predict whether organizations will adopt it at all. The importance of this issue is indicated by anecdotal evidence that the success of administrative innovations depends on how they are conceived and implemented.

(Westphal, p. 27). Decision making and management go hand in hand. We have gone from the autocratic way of management and decision making to new strategic alliances. Amongst the best mindset in these many strategic alliances, in my view is Total Quality Management. Total Quality Management ties hand in hand with decision making processes, as well as allows room for the individual. Herein, we realize such virtues as knowledge, conviction, courage, value, truth and overall, team work.

I believe that TQM can function in any organization, and is not only functional but necessary. To this extent, I believe that it requires much courage in terms of making the leap from the old to the new. Many people are thoroughly satisfied and possibly complacent even, within their own responsibility. They come in and punch a clock, exit, and receive a check. This is not decision making at its finest, particularly within the pale of management.

It is for these and related reasons which I have proposed TQM and those related vagaries which accompany TQM.

Bibliography

Food Engineering, "TQM at McCormick", October, 1992, Volume 62 Learning Store, The, Mindscape, 1999, "Management " LeMoine, David Hardly, "Quality a priority issue", Healthcare Financial Management, September 1992, Volume 44 Westphal, James D.
et. al., "Customization or Conformity? An institutional and network perspective on the content and consequences of TQM adoption", , Administrative Science Quarterly, June 1, 1997.