CHAPTER 2

LEADERSHIP FOR TQM

Getting quality results is not a short term,
instant-pudding way to improve
competitiveness: implementing total quality
management requires hand-on, continuous
leadership.

Armand V. Feigenbaum
CHARACTERISTICS OF EXELLENT
LEADERSHIP
 Visible, committed and knowledgeable.
 A missionary zeal
 Aggressive targets
 Strong drivers
 Communication of values
 Organization
 Customer contact
 COMMUNICATION

 Communication is defined as the exchange of

information and understanding between two or more
persons or groups. Note the emphasis on exchange
and understanding. Without understanding between
sender the receiver concerning the message, there is
no communication.
 The simple model is as follows:

Sender Message Receiver

Feedback
 Unless sender gets feedback that receiver understands the message, no
communication takes place. Yet most of us send messages with no
feed back to indicate that the recipient has understood the message.

 Larry Appley, chairman emeritus of the American management

association, has developed a company-wide productivity
improvement program that has the model in figure 2-3 as a center
piece. Note the direction of the communication is upward. Recipient
(subordinate) becomes sender, and sender (boss) becomes recipient.
The message is specific and measurable, and the subordinate has
ownership because he or she originated the message. Both parties can
henceforth communicate about a message on which there is prior
agreement. The Appley Approach is therefore consistent with
Ducker’s ideas and sound principles of communication. A
modification tailored for a specific firm may be used as a vehicle for
TQM implementation.

 These concepts of effective communication can provide a practical

approach for communicating about quality in the organization. It only
remain to encode the message (s) in terms of recipient understanding.
THE VEHICLE FOR COMMUNICATING ABOUT QUALITY
ARE SELECTED COMPONENT OF THE TQM SYSTEM
 Training and development for both managers and
employees. Managers must understand the process they
manage as well as the basic concept of system
optimization. Employee training should focus on the
integration and appropriate use of statistical tools and
problem-solving methods.
 Participator at all levels in establishing benchmarks and
measures of process quality. Involvement is both vertical
in the hierarchy as well as horizontal by cross-functional
teams.
 Empowerment of employees by delegating authority to
make decisions regarding process improvement within
individual areas of responsibilities, so that the individual
“owns” the particular process step.
 Continue………………
 Quality assurance in all organization process,
not only in manufacturing or operations but in
business and supporting process as well. The
objective throughout is continuous
improvement.

 Human resource management systems that

facilitate contributions at all levels (up and
down and across) the organizational chart.
 EMBEDDING A CULTURE OF QUALITY

 It is one thing for top management to state a

commitment to quality but quiet another for this
commitment to be accepted or embedded in the
company. The basic vehicle for embedding an
organizational culture is a teaching process in
which desired behaviors and activities are learned
through experience, symbols and explicit
behavior.
 TABLE 2.1
CULTURAL CHANGE MECHANISMS
Focus From traditional To quality

Plan Short-range budgets Future strategic issues

Organize Hierarchy-chain of participation/empowerment
commands
Control Variance reporting Quality measures and
information for self-control
Communication Top down Top down and Bottom down
Decision Ad hoc/crises Planned change
management
Functional Parochial, competitive Cross-function, integrative
management
Quality Fixing/one-shot Preventive/continuous all
management manufacturing functions and processes
 CATAGORIES OF BEHAVIOR
1. SIGNALING. Making statement or taking actions that
support the vision of quality, such as mission
statements, creeds, or character toward customer
satisfaction. Public supermarket “where shopping is a
pleasure" and JC Penney’s “the customer is always
right” are examples of such statements.

2. Focus every employee must know the mission, his or her

part in it, and what has to be done to achieve it. What
management pays attention to and how they react to
crisis is indicative of this focus. When all functions and
systems are aligned and when practice supports the
culture, everyone is more likely to support the vision.
Johnson and Johnson’s cool reaction to the Tylenol
scare is such an example.
3. Employee policies. These may be the clearest
expression of culture, at least from the viewpoint of the
employee. A culture of quality can be easily
demonstrated in such policies as the reward and
promotion system, status symbols, and other human
resource action.