Communication:

Communication is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior. Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the message of the sender.

Total Quality Management:

Total Quality Management or TQM is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes. QM functions on the premise that the quality of products and processes is the responsibility of everyone who is involved with the creation or consumption of the products or services offered by an organization. In other words, TQM requires the involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and customers, in order to meet or exceed customer expectations.

1. Importance of communication in TQM:

It binds everything together. Starting from foundation to roof of the TQM house, everything is bound by strong mortar of communication. It acts as a vital link between all elements of TQM. Communication means a common understanding of ideas between the sender and the receiver. The success of TQM demands communication with and among all the organization members, suppliers and customers. Supervisors must keep open airways where employees can send and receive information about the TQM process. Communication coupled with the sharing of correct information is vital. For communication to be credible the message must be clear and receiver must interpret in the way the sender intended. There are different ways of communication such as:

Downward

communication This is the dominant form of communication in an organization. Presentations and discussions basically do it. By this the supervisors are able to make the employees clear about TQM.

Upward

communication By this the lower level of employees are able to provide suggestions to upper management of the affects of TQM. As employees provide insight and constructive criticism, supervisors must listen effectively to correct the situation that comes about through the use of TQM. This forms a level of trust between supervisors and employees. This is also similar to empowering communication, where supervisors keep open ears and listen to others.

 Sideways communication - This type of communication is important because it breaks

down barriers between departments. It also allows dealing with customers and suppliers in a more professional manner. 1.1. Customer Focus & Communication: Quality is seen as, meeting the customers requirements" and sometimes exceeding it. Therefore, in TQM customers set the ultimate criteria for quality. The quality guru Edward Demings sees the customer as the most important part of the quality process. To understand what their customers need and want, managers and employees should continuously work hard to stay up to date since customers needs change with technology. As stated by Shores, A customer focus keeps the business aware of the changes taking place in its environment and provides the knowledge needed to change the product or service." It is important for a quality organization that its employees see their work through the eyes of their customers and know how to satisfy them. As explained by Tom Peters, organizations should see every customer as a lifetime customer who brings family and friends." Moreover, the founder of WalMart stores, Sam Walton, taught his employees a philosophy of treating the customer like a king or queen, empowering the worker to do what is right, and sharing the rewards of hard work with everyone who contributes." Therefore, organizations should find ways of better serving their customers. One way of delivering a quality service is improving the communication between the customer and the organization. This could be either in the form of two way communication such as openly discussing their concerns together, and finding solutions to their problems, or it could be in the form of one way communication, such as receiving feedback about a product or service, making surveys to assess their satisfaction, and solving their complaints to retain customers. 1.2. Culture & Communication:
To create a TQM environment, managers should change cultural problems, such as the mindsets and daily practices of people. Also, the cultural view helps managers understand the causes of human behavior. To change the way people think and act, managers must understand how the thoughts, interpretations, expectations, and habits that people have are developed and maintained" As a result of such an understanding, managers can have insight about how to change the culture of workplace.

1.3. Resistance to change and culture:

Resistance to change is one of the important barriers when organizations try to implement new techniques and projects. Especially, changing the culture of the federal government is more difficult than changing federal rules and regulations. Because of its bureaucratic structure, changes in the public sector are even slower than those in private sector. For example, when the Internal Revenue service of the USA (IRS) first began the quality and customer focus training, the resistance was apparent. Some employees and managers tried to find out reasons not to attend the meetings. Some simply did not believe that this would work. Other employees saw the TQM just another effort that top-level management would support and then give it up to implement another project. And, some others believed that since their goal has always been quality service, TQM would not make any difference in their works. However, if the ultimate reasons are explained and communicated, and people affected by a change participate

in decision making and application processes, the acceptance of change will be more valuable to them and resistance to change will be less apparent.

1.4. Teamwork, Employee Empowerment & Communication:

In the teams, members should be able to express themselves freely, without fear. They should develop a trust environment in which everybody feel secure. Individuals should be able to find help whenever they need it. they should have a sense of being a member of group. Open communication is an important part of the teams. Team members should be able to explain their ideas and concerns about the issues. All these are possible through Effective Communication.

1.5. Productivity and communication:

Improving productivity as a result of TQM activities is an issue that has a communication aspect. In order to have a high level of productivity, organizations need to focus on communication. According to a survey, made by Lull, Frank, and Piersol, among presidents of the biggest 100 U.S. corporations 96 percent believed in a definite relationship" between communication and productivity. Another investigation was conducted in two business organizations and the results showed that communication was perceived to have an impact on productivity that varied in both kind and magnitude." As a result, communication is a vital issue in this area, as well, thus it needs to be treated as such.