3.6 Implementing TQM
We can see from the foregoing that TQM can be a major change in the culture of an organisation. Indeed, it is not free (with due respect to Crosby ). The costs are in the form of commitment, time, effort and often discomfort for some managers who may not want to give up the control function to their subordinates. It is a different way of managing that needs a different set of skills and trust in the people that form the organisation. It involves learning a new set of skills, redefining customers and their requirements, openness, working with real information to make informed decisions, and developing an attitude of life-long learning.
For these, and more, reasons, TQM has not had a very high success rate, particularly in the west. Most western organisations that have started on this road have experienced the cost but not the benefits of TQM. This is different in Japan , where the levels of implementation and success have been quite high. In the main, the differences have been in the level and extent of capturing employee feedback and suggestions, recording and follow-up on customer complaints, and the role of quality in performance appraisal of senior managers. The overarching reason for the failure has been the implementing of quality as a programme rather than as a corporate philosophy. The difference is that a programme implies a life of what is implemented while a philosophy is a continuum. When a programme is implemented, the quality department is seen as being responsible for it; quality then becomes extrinsic to the process. A philosophy subsumes quality into the fundamentals of what the corporation does and how it does it; quality then becomes ingrained into the business.
Back Page