Professional Documents
Culture Documents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Management Presentation & Quality Circle ....................................................................... 3
Importance .......................................................................................................................... 4
Empowerment ............................................................................................................... 15
Learning ........................................................................................................................ 15
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 17
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Management Presentation Guideline
A quality circle is a group of workers who do the same or similar work, who meet regularly
to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems.[1] Normally small in size, the group is
usually led by a supervisor or manager and presents its solutions to management; where
possible, workers implement the solutions themselves in order to improve the performance of
the organization and motivate employees. Quality circles were at their most popular during
the 1980s, but continue to exist in the form of Kaizen groups and similar worker participation
schemes
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Management Presentation Guideline
Organizational Communication
Studies show that managers spend over 70% of their time communicating. A manager
should focuses:
on getting work done and meeting organizational goals
on change and adaptation
on social aspects and motivation of individuals
Importance
In addition to all the members of the circle and their leader, there may be guests to
attend the presentation. Guests might include such individuals as Facilitator, Members of
Steering Committee, Representatives of Middle and Higher Management and Technical
Specialists who have associated with the circle activities.
Circles are encouraged to highlight the results that are important to management such
as improvement in quality, reduction in rejection rates, cost savings, improvement in
delivery etc. A management presentation is made to give the details of a completed
project, make recommendations for the implementation of projects and provide status
report on long-term projects. It is done, preferably once in three months.
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Management Presentation Guideline
Research shows that the organizations with poor communication between management
and employees, also have poor communication between customer and organization.
Conflict often arises from lack of communication, hence good communication between
management and employees is essential.
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Management Presentation Guideline
Improve communication climate and relationships with publics; and enhance quality,
revenues and earnings. Managers need to create an environment where two way
communication is appreciated and welcomed.
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Management Presentation Guideline
To summarize Management should consider and discover the factors that really
motivate employees to communicate effectively because motivation factor for every
employee is different.
Regular workshops enhance further this effort but the shared understanding must be on
the continuous discussions of strategy between management and employees. Emphasis
should be given on the daily, two-way communication, which should involve a wide
range of managers and employees.
Managers should take into account that modern organizations consist of two systems:
the legitimate system that involves the formal hierarchy, rules and communication
patterns within the organization and the shadow system that consists of talk in the
canteen, hallway conversations, grapevines, and informal procedures for getting things
done.
Effective communication must be present even in states of crisis. Crisis states create
business opportunities, because they shift organizational goals to a new perspective. To
anticipate a crisis, management needs to figure out new solutions that would be
accepted by employees.
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Management Presentation Guideline
Communication helps individuals and groups coordinate activities to achieve goals, and
it’s vital in socialization, decision-making, problem-solving and change-management
processes. Internal communication also provides employees with important information
about their jobs, organization, environment and each other. Communication can help
motivate, build trust, create shared identity and spur engagement; it provides a way for
individuals to express emotions, share hopes and ambitions and celebrate and
remember accomplishments.
Communication is the basis for individuals and groups to make sense of their
organization, what it is and what it means.
Internal communication is a complex and dynamic process, but early models focused on
a one-way transmission of messages. Previous models assumed that if the information
is received then it must be understood.
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Management Presentation Guideline
The modern models are more complex due to new media and high-speed, multi-
directional communications. However, the core components live on informal
communications planning and implementation. Organizational leaders and
communication specialists first develop strategies to achieve objectives, construct
relevant messages and then transmit them through diverse channels to stimulate
conversations with employees and members.
Increasingly, formal communications are grounded in receiver’s needs and concerns.
Employees communicate informally with others inside and outside the organization
through high-speed communications, too.
Communication Levels
Organizational-level communications
Focus on such matters as vision and mission, policies, new initiatives and organizational
knowledge and performance. These formal communications often follow a cascade
approach where leaders at hierarchical levels communicate with their respective
employees, though social media are changing communications at this level.
Measureable Benefits
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Management Presentation Guideline
Some even argue that internal communication is the most fundamental driver of
business performance. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that effective internal
communications help increase employee job satisfaction, morale, productivity,
commitment, trust and learning; improve communication climate and relationships with
publics; and enhance quality, revenues and earnings.
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Management Presentation Guideline
Thus, implemented correctly, quality circles can help a small business reduce costs,
increase productivity, and improve employee morale. Other potential benefits that may
be realized by a small business include greater operational efficiency, reduced
absenteeism, improved employee health and safety, and an overall better working
climate. In their book Production and Operations Management, Howard J. Weiss and
Mark E. Gershon called quality circles “the best means today for meeting the goal of
designing quality into a product.”
The interest of U.S. manufacturers in quality circles was sparked by dramatic
improvements in the quality and economic competitiveness of Japanese goods in the
post-World War II years.
The emphasis of Japanese quality circles was on preventing defects from occurring
rather than inspecting products for defects following a manufacturing process. Japanese
quality circles also attempted to minimize the scrap and downtime that resulted from part
and product defects. In the United States, the quality circle movement evolved to
encompass the broader goals of cost reduction, productivity improvement, employee
involvement, and problem-solving activities.
The introduction of quality circles in Japan in the postwar years was inspired by the
lectures of W. Edwards Deming, a statistician for the U.S. government. Deming based
his proposals on the experience of U.S. firms operating under wartime industrial
standards. Noting that American management had typically given line managers and
engineers about 85 percent of the responsibility for quality control and line workers only
about 15 percent, Deming argued that these shares should be reversed. He suggested
redesigning production processes to more fully account for quality control, and
continuously educating all employees in a firm—from the top down—in quality control
techniques and statistical control technologies. Quality circles were the means by which
this continuous education was to take place for production workers.
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Management Presentation Guideline
Deming predicted that if Japanese firms adopted the system of quality controls he
advocated, nations around the world would be imposing import quotas on Japanese
products within five years. His prediction was vindicated. Deming’s ideas became very
influential in Japan, and he received several prestigious awards for his contributions to
the Japanese economy.
The principles of Deming’s quality circles simply moved quality control to an earlier
position in the production process. Rather than relying upon post-production inspections
to catch errors and defects, quality circles attempted to prevent defects from occurring in
the first place. As an added bonus, machine downtime and scrap materials that formerly
occurred due to product defects were minimized. Deming’s idea that improving quality
could increase productivity led to the development in Japan of the Total Quality Control
(TQC) concept, in which quality and productivity are viewed as two sides of a coin.
TQC also required that a manufacturer’s suppliers make use of quality circles.
Active American interest in Japanese quality control began in the early 1970s, when the
U.S. aerospace manufacturer Lockheed organized a tour of Japanese industrial plants.
This trip marked a turning point in the previously established pattern, in which Japanese
managers had made educational tours of industrial plants in the United States.
Lockheed’s visit resulted in the gradual establishment of quality circles in its factories
beginning in 1974. Within two years, Lockheed estimated that its fifteen quality circles
had saved nearly $3 million, with a ratio of savings to cost of six to one. As Lockheed’s
successes became known, other firms in the aerospace industry began adopting quality
circles.
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Management Presentation Guideline
Thereafter quality circles spread rapidly throughout the U.S. economy; by 1980, over
one-half of firms in the Fortune 500 had implemented or were planning on implementing
quality circles.
In the early 1990s, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made several
important rulings regarding the legality of certain forms of quality circles. These rulings
were based on the 1935 Wagner Act, which prohibited company unions and
management-dominated labor organizations.
One NLRB ruling found quality programs unlawful that were established by the firm, that
featured agendas dominated by the firm, and addressed the conditions of employment
within the firm. Another ruling held that a company’s labor-management committees
were in effect labor organizations used to bypass negotiations with a labor union. As a
result of these rulings, a number of employer representatives expressed their concern
that quality circles, as well as other kinds of labor-management cooperation programs,
would be hindered. However, the NLRB stated that these rulings were not general
indictments against quality circles and labor-management cooperation programs, but
were aimed specifically at the practices of the companies in question.
In his book Productivity Improvement: A Guide for Small Business, Ira B. Gregerman
outlined a number of requirements for a small business contemplating the use of quality
circles. First, the small business owner should be comfortable with a participative
management approach. It is also important that the small business have good,
cooperative labor-management relations, as well as the support of middle managers for
the quality circle program. The small business owner must be willing and able to commit
the time and resources needed to train the employees who will participate in the
program, particularly the quality circle leaders and facilitators. It may even be necessary
to hire outside facilitators if the time and expertise does not exist in-house. Some small
businesses may find it helpful to establish a steering committee to provide direction and
guidance for quality circle activities.
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Management Presentation Guideline
Even if all these requirements are met, the small business will only benefit from quality
circles if employee participation is voluntary, and if employees are allowed some input
into the selection of problems to be addressed. Finally, the small business owner must
allow time for the quality circles to begin achieving desired results; in some cases, it can
take more than a year for expectations to be met. But successful quality circles offer a
wide variety of benefits for small businesses. For example, THey serve to increase
management’s awareness of employee ideas, as well as employee awareness of the
need for innovation within the company.
Quality circles also serve to facilitate communication and increase commitment among
both labor and management. In enhancing employee satisfaction through participation in
decision-making, such initiatives may also improve a small business’s ability to recruit
and retain qualified employees. In addition, many companies find that quality circles
further teamwork and reduce employee resistance to change. Finally, quality circles can
improve a small business’s overall competitiveness by reducing costs, improving quality,
and promoting innovation.
Employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a company’s
workers apply to their jobs. In the increasingly competitive business environment of
recent years, finding ways to motivate employees has become a pressing concern for
many managers. A number of different theories and methods of employee motivation
have emerged, ranging from monetary incentives to increased involvement and
empowerment. The effects of low employee motivation on small businesses can be
devastating. Some of the problems associated with unmotivated workers include
complacency, declining morale, and widespread discouragement. If allowed to continue,
these problems can reduce productivity, earnings, and competitiveness in a small
business.
Empowerment gives autonomy and allows an employee to have ownership of ideas and
accomplishments, whether acting alone or in teams. Quality circles and the increasing
occurrence of teams in today’s work environments give employees opportunities to
reinforce the importance of the work accomplished by members as well as receive
feedback on the efficacy of that work.
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Management Presentation Guideline
MOTIVATION METHODS
Empowerment
At many companies, employees with creative ideas do not express them to management
for fear that their input will be ignored or ridiculed. Company approval and toeing the
company line have become so ingrained in some working environments that both the
employee and the organization suffer. When the power to create in the organization is
pushed down from the top to line personnel, employees who know a job, product, or
service best are given the opportunity to use their ideas to improve it. The power to
create motivates employees and benefits the organization in having a more flexible work
force, using more wisely the experience of its employees, and increasing the exchange
of ideas and information among employees and departments. These improvements also
create an openness to change that can give a company the ability to respond quickly to
market changes and sustain a first mover advantage in the marketplace.
Learning
If employees are given the tools and the opportunities to accomplish more, most will take
on the challenge. Companies can motivate employees to achieve more by committing to
perpetual enhancement of employee skills. Accreditation and licensing programs for
employees are an increasingly popular and effective way to bring about growth in
employee knowledge and motivation. Often, these programs improve employees’
attitudes toward the client and the company, while bolstering self-confidence.
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Management Presentation Guideline
such participation will affect their job or career utility. In other words, if the body of
knowledge gained can be applied to the work to be accomplished, then the acquisition of
that knowledge will be a worthwhile event for the employee and employer.
Quality Of Life
The number of hours worked each week by American workers is on the rise, and many
families have two adults working those increased hours. Under these circumstances,
many workers are left wondering how to meet the demands of their lives beyond the
workplace. Often, this concern occurs while at work and may reduce an employee’s
productivity and morale.
Companies that have instituted flexible employee arrangements have gained motivated
employees whose productivity has increased. Programs incorporating flextime,
condensed workweeks, or job sharing, for example, have been successful in focusing
overwhelmed employees toward the work to be done and away from the demands of
their private lives.
Monetary Incentive
For all the championing of alternative motivators, money still occupies a major place in
the mix of motivators. The sharing of a company’s profits gives incentive to employees to
produce a quality product, perform a quality service, or improve the quality of a process
within the company. What benefits the company directly benefits the employee.
Monetary and other rewards are being given to employees for generating cost-savings
or process-improving ideas, to boost productivity and reduce absenteeism. Money is
effective when it is directly tied to an employee’s ideas or accomplishments.
Nevertheless, if not coupled with other, non-monetary motivators, its motivating effects
are short-lived. Further, monetary incentives can prove counterproductive if not made
available to all members of the organization.
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Management Presentation Guideline
Other Incentives
Many studies have found that the most effective motivators of workers are non-
monetary. Monetary systems are insufficient motivators, in part because expectations
often exceed results and because disparity between salaried individuals may divide
rather than unite employees. Proven non-monetary positive motivators foster team spirit
and include recognition, responsibility, and advancement. Managers who recognize the
“small wins” of employees, promote participatory environments, and treat employees
with fairness and respect will find their employees to be more highly motivated. One
company’s managers brainstormed to come up with 30 powerful rewards that cost little
or nothing to implement. The most effective rewards, such as letters of commendation
and time off from work, enhanced personal fulfillment and self-respect. Over the longer
term, sincere praise and personal gestures are far more effective and more economical
than awards of money alone. A program that combines monetary reward systems and
satisfies intrinsic, self-actualizing needs may be the most potent employee motivator.
Conclusion
The success of individual circles seems to depend greatly on how well their members
work and integrate together, and how well the circle philosophy has been evolved to fit
the company's style. A circle will only work as part of a policy of worker involvement and
open management and if it is coupled with a specific long-term company-wide
commitment to quality. Management support also is critical and will help ensure that
organizations benefit from such initiatives.
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Management Presentation Guideline
REFERENCE
1. Edward E. Lawler III and Susan A. Mohrman, "Quality Circles After the
Fad", Harvard Business Review, January 1985. Accessed 17 November 2014
2. Ishikawa, K., "What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way", Prentice Hall,
1985
3. Montana, Patrick J.; Bruce H. Charnov (2008). Management (4th ed.). Barron's.
4. Hutchins, David C. (1985). The Quality Circles Handbook. New York: Pitman
Press.
6. Juran, Joseph M. (1992). Juran on quality by design : the new steps for planning
quality into goods and services. New York: Free Press.
7. Allender, Hans D. "Using Quality Circles to Develop an Action Plan Required for
Leading Organizations." Industrial Management. September-October 1992.
11. Noble, Barbara Presley. "Worker-Participation Programs are Found Illegal." New
York Times. June 8, 1993.
12. Ross, Joel E., and William C. Ross. Japanese Quality Circles and Productivity .
Reston Publishing Company, 1982.
13. Uchitelle, Louis. "Workers Seek Executive Role, Study Says." New York
Times. December 5, 1994.
14. Weiss, Howard J., and Mark E. Gershon. Production and Operations
Management. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1989.
16. The Economist Guide to Management Ideas and Gurus”, by Tim Hindle
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