Quality management focuses attention on continuous improvement Essay Example for Free

Quality management focuses attention on continuous improvement EssayTh e work of W. Edwards Deming is a cornerstone of the quality movement in management. 27 His story began in 1951, when he was invited to Japan to explain quality control techniques that had been developed in the United States. When Deming spoke, we might say, the Nipponese listened. Th e principles he taught the Japanese were straightforward, and they worked Tally defects, analyze and trace them to the source, make corrections, and keep a record of what happens afterward. Demings approach to quality emphasizes constant innovation, use of statistical methods, and perpetration to training in the fundamentals of quality assurance. One outgrowth of Demings work was the emergence of total quality management, or TQM. Th is process makes quality principles part of the organizations strategic objectives, hold ining them to all aspects of operations and nisus to meet guests needs by doing things right the fi rst ti me. Most TQM approaches begin with an insistence that the total quality commitment applies to everyone in an organization, from resource acquisition and supply chain management, through production and into the distribution of fi nished goods and services, and ultimately to customer relationship management.The search for and commitment to quality is now tied to the emphasis modern management gives to the conceit of continuous improvementalways looking for new ways to improve on current performance. 29 Th e goal is that one batch never be satisfi ed virtuallything always can and should be improved upon. Evidence-based management seeks hard facts about what really works. Looking back on the historic foundations of management, one thing that stands out is criticism by todays scholars of the scientifi c rigor of some historical cornerstones, among them Taylors scientifi c management approach and the Hawthorne studies.The worry is that we may be too fast(a) in accepting as factual the results of studies that are based on weak or eventide shoddy empirical evidence. And if the studies are fl awed, perhaps more care needs to be exercised when difficult to apply their insights to improve management practices. Th is problem isnt limited to the distant past. 30 A platter by Jim collins, Good to Great, get tod great acclaim and best-seller status for its depiction of spunkyly successful organizations.But Collinss methods and fi ndings have since been criticized by researchers. 32 And after problems appeared at many fi rms previously considered by him to be great, he wrote a follow-up book called How the Mighty Fall. 33 Th e point hither is not to discredit what keen observers of management practice like Collins and others report. But it is meant to make you vigilant and a bit skeptical when it comes to separating fads from facts and conjecture from informed insight.Todays management scholars are trying to move beyond generalized impressions of excellence to under stand more empirically the characteristics of high-performance organizationsones that consistently achieve highperformance results spot also creating high quality-of-work-life environments for their employees. Following this line of thinking, Jeff rey Pfeff er and Robert Sutton make the case for evidence-based management, or EBM. Th is is the process of making management decisions on hard factsthat is, about what really worksrather than on dangerous half-truthsthings that sound good but lack empirical substantiation.Using data from a strain of some 1,000 fi rms, for example, Pfeff er and a colleague found that fi rms using a mix of well selected merciful resource management practices had more sales and higher profi ts per employee than those that didnt. 35 Th ose practices included employment security, discriminating hiring, self-managed teams, high wages based on performance merit, training and skill development, minimal status diff erences, and shared out information.Examples of other EBM fi ndings include challenging goals accepted by an employee are likely to result in high performance, and that unstructured employment interviews are unlikely to result in the best person being employ to fi ll a vacant position. 36 Scholars pursue a variety of solid empirical studies using proved scientifi c methods in many areas of management research. Some carve out new and innovative territories, while others build upon and extend knowledge that has come down through the history of management thought. By staying au courant of such