CREATING BUSINESS EXCELLENCE:Elements of a Total Quality Culture

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Total Quality Management MGT510

Lesson # 30

CREATING BUSINESS EXCELLENCE

Before we look at excellence models, let us see why sometime these initiatives fail.

There are many reasons for Quality Programs failures, including the following:

The efforts were too narrowly focused, as with statistical applications on the shop floor.

The efforts were misfocused, limited to improving only "quality of work life" issues for

employees rather than also addressing issues of strategic concern.

The managers relied on traditional methods and assumptions, ad were not equipped with the

right tools, techniques, and theory to improve quality.

The managers were too focused on tools and techniques, and did not understand how to

transform themselves, their employees, and the organization.

The managers were too impatient, with a short-term focus, and unwilling to stay the course,

overcome initial barriers, and wait for long-term gains.

The managers never care for the culture change in organization.

Consider the following ten reasons why TQM "programs" do not work for many companies:

TQM focuses people's attention on internal processes rather than on external results An

asset of TQM is that it gets managers to attend to internal processes. But taken to an

extreme, managers can get too preoccupied with internal issues such as the controversial

issue of performance measurement and ignore shifting perceptions and preferences of

customers.

TQM focuses on minimum standards. Zero defects and no rework efficiency distract people

form adding value and excitement to customers' lives.

TQM develops its own cumbersome bureaucracy. Organizational charts and reporting

systems with interlocking committees, councils, and improvement teams imply a linear and

predictable improvement process, rather than the chaotic and disruptive rebuilding that is

often necessary.

TQM delegates quality to quality "experts" rather than to "real" people. Quality shouldn't

be delegated, but lived in the strategy of the company and roles of the managers.

TQM does not demand radical organizational reform. Real quality improvement requires

structural change (perhaps flattened structures), and liberation of people from stifling

control systems and the tyranny of functionalism which precludes teamwork.

TQM does not demand changes in management compensation. If rewarded on short-term

financial gains, managers will not be likely to attend t quality measures.

TQM appeals to faddism, egotism, and quick-fixism. Although they will not admit it, many

managers have applied for awards, like the ISO, EQA, Baldrige, for reasons of personal

aggrandizement and corporate public relations, or for quick and painless profitability. In

reality, quality requires a never ending pursuit of improvement.

TQM drains entrepreneurship and innovation from corporate culture. Too much emphasis

on standardization and routine precludes the constant shifting needed t keep up with

external changes.

TQM has no place for love and passion. Though this comment seems a bit precious, it

means that the analytical, detached, and sterile programs put in place to ensure quality are

often devoid of the human emotion and soul that inspire attachment to the company by

employees and to the products by customers

Certainly, no all TQM programs are characterized by all of these deficiencies. But many of the TQM

failures suffer at least a few of these major problems. The underlying cause of all these TQM

deficiencies is that managers failed to understand the concept of quality. Some managers define quality

too narrowly as "meeting specifications." Others do not define quality at all, but rely on the claim, "I

know it when I see it." We define quality too narrowly as "meeting specifications." Others do not define

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quality at all, but rely on the claim, "I know it when I see it." We define quality as a principle that

encourages excellence in everything: products, strategies, systems, processes, and people. As you will

see, there are many ways that quality can be pursued and realized. Some of the specific approaches that

help managers realize the general principle of excellence are presented below.

To inspire purposeful change for improvement, managers must have a clear understanding of quality.

They must understand how it relates to their roles, and how it must be integrated and connected to the

organization's strategy for providing value to customers. This integrated approach brings quality into

the mainstream of managerial practice.

Psychologists suggest that individuals go through four stages of learning:

Unconscious in competence: You don't know that you don't know.

Conscious incompetence: You realize that you don't know.

Conscious competence: You learn to do, but with conscious effort.

Unconscious competence: Performance comes effortlessly.

Organizations seem to follow the same paradigm.

For organizations committed to pursuing total quality, change is a way of life. Organizational change is

needed in implementing TQ and constantly there after. In the initial stage, an effort must be mounted to

begin to change the culture of the organization. Unless a culture based on customer satisfaction,

continuous improvement, and teamwork is established, TQ will belittle more than "just another one of

management's programs." Indeed, this is often the cause of failure of TQ initiatives.

Once TQ is underway in an organization, continuous improvement efforts will relentlessly create

changes in product designs, standard operating procedures, and virtually every other aspect of

organizations. One important aspect of continuous improvement is reengineering, in which the

processes by which the organization operates are reexamined and redesigned to provide higher quality at

lower cost.

Elements of a Total Quality Culture

The organizational culture needed to support TQ is one that values customers, improvement, and

teamwork. In an organization with a TQ-friendly culture, everyone believes that customers are the key

to the organization's future and that their needed must come first. If two employees are having a

conversation and a customer enters the shop, the conversation ends until the customer is served.

Employees in a quality oriented culture instinctively act as a team. If someone is away from her desk

and her phone rings, another employee will answer it rather than leave a customer hanging.

Organizations where a focus on customers, continuous improvement, and teamwork are taken for

granted have a good chance of succeeding at total quality. Most organizations do not have such a culture

prior to exposure to TQ; some degree of cultural change is necessary.

These elements, along with several others, are reflected clearly in the Baldrige, EFMD and other

National Quality Program Criteria for Performance Excellence. The criteria are built upon a set of "core

values and concepts".

Visionary leadership.

Customer-driven excellence,

Organizational and personal learning,

Valuing employees and partners,

Agility,

Focus on the future,

Managing for innovation,

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Total Quality Management MGT510

Management by fact,

Public responsibility and citizenship.

Focus on results and creating value, and systems perspective.

These values provide a good summary of the cultural elements necessary to sustain a total quality

environment and are embedded in the beliefs and behaviors of high-performing organizations.

The existence of a set of cultural values necessary for successful TQ does not mean that all organization

that wish to practice total quality must have the same culture. Many aspects of culture differ greatly

from one quality oriented company to another. Company personnel may prefer to communicate in

person or in writing; they may wear uniforms, gray flannel suits, or jeans. As long as they hold the core

values of TQ, quality can find a home in their organization.

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