Total Quality Management: Human Resources

Total Quality Management

The Role of Leadership in Total Quality Management

Total quality management (TQM) refers to the procedure involved in the integration of the processes, people, and customers of an organization, with the aim of ensuring that customer needs and expectations are met (Sallis, 2004). To this end, TQM can be described as an integrative management philosophy that seeks to continually improve the quality of the processes and products of an organization. In a competitive marketplace, quality is paramount, which is why TQM has shifted from being a mere responsibility of specialists to being a crucial leadership function. A leader has to identify opportunities for quality improvement and act on them, failure to which they risk losing TQM implementation responsibilities to departments with less expertise in development and training, and as a result, hampering the smooth flow of the TQM strategy. In this regard, leadership acts as the pivotal change agent, ensuring the successful implementation of TQM strategy in two significant ways; first, by incorporating the TQM principles and philosophy into their departmental operations; and secondly, by availing the development and training necessary for a shift of organizational culture and for the adoption of TQM as a company-wide process (Sallis, 2004).

The role of leadership in TQM can be better studied under three categories; involvement, interest, and monitoring.

Involvement: TQM programs require the participation of all departments likely to be affected. The leader's role in this regard is to identify those departments, put in place an implementation team consisting of representatives from each group, and then create an accountability system to gauge the performance of the team and ensure that it operates within its specified timeframe (Sallis, 2001).

Interest: TQM implementation requires a feeling of urgency in all departments of the organization (Sallis, 2004). It is the leader's duty to create this feeling of urgency by explaining to the staff why the implementation is important, demonstrating how the company stands to benefit from the change, and making employees understand the costs that would accrue if the status quo is maintained (Sallis, 2004).

Monitoring: TQM is not a spontaneous process; rather, it is a dynamic process that ought to be continually monitored and corrected where necessary (Sallis, 2004). It is the leader's job to put in place a monitoring system, analyze the data generated from the implementation process, and make relevant changes to ensure higher levels of efficiency (Sallis, 2004).

TQM implementation is done in phases, and it is the duty of the leader to establish when a phase is complete, and hence, when another should begin (Sallis, 2004). Take, for instance, a company that is introducing new software for customer management in its sales department; it is the leader's job to identify when the necessary alterations that would allow for the adoption of the same in the rest of the organization are in place. To ensure the successful diffusion of the same in other departments, leadership has to act as the role model - demonstrating commitment by soliciting feedback from customer groups and using these to set objective performance measures and standards (Sallis, 2004). To enable the organization to effectively meet these objectives, the leadership should advance training and development to its staff to enable them cope with changes and to adequately respond to any unforeseen challenges. Incentive programs could be used to boost staff performance and morale, and reduce resistance to change.

Importance of the Concept of "Quality Ownership" Throughout the Organization