The Management and Control of Quality

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Discuss the above statement, feel free to agree or disagree with it. How can you relate Deming’s theory of profound management, called the system of profound knowledge in your discussion?

The above statement is not correct given the context of management in the contemporary world. Various scholars around the world have come up with theories stating the drastic changes that have taken place resulting in a transformed society. These theories have challenged some of the existing beliefs, coming up with radical ideas of how the world has changed. This may, however, not hold some truth given the above assumptions.

The first assumption of reward and punishment has been one of the best managerial tools for centuries, and it is still very relevant. People work because they need to get rewarded. The reward may come in various fronts which include a rise in rank, direct financial benefits, a fully paid holiday, or a vocational tour to a desirable location. These are still what employees are looking for even in the contemporary world.

They work hard with the aim of getting the notice of the top management hoping that the hard work will be rewarded. Given the nature of human beings, this may not change any time soon. On the other hand, it is still important to make employees realize that for every action they take, there is a consequence that is attached (Pike & Barnes, 1996).

Employees must be responsible for their actions in order to make them achieve the best of results. This does not involve instilling fear but making employees feel responsible. Managers in the contemporary world know that it is important to ensure that make sure that every process within the organization is successful because it is the individual processes that make up the entire system. Every process in the system has a role that must be fulfilled in order to ensure that there is an overall success of the system. When any part of the system fails, the entire system will fail because there will be a lack of coordination in the components of the system.

Deming’s theory of profound management confirms the fact that results are achieved by setting objectives. In Deming’s 14 points, the first point is about setting up a mission statement and committing to it. This is a clear demonstration that there is a need to define the path to be taken clearly before embarking on the journey (Grady, 2010). The setting of the objectives enables all the components within the system to know what is expected in order to realize the overall goal. Every component within the system will, therefore, have a set target that should be achieved within a specified period of time.

It is generally believed, and it is a fact that when given a smaller task to perform with ample time, then chances are always high that the task will always be a success. Quality and quantity are inversely related. When the management of a firm gives focus to quantity, then quality may be compromised. This is because every single unit within the system will struggle to increase the rate of production using the same apparatus that were used before to produce lesser products.

The reduced time on a single product will result in incomplete products in the market. When the focus is turned into quality, then there may be a need to reduce production quantity because each product may need to take a longer time at every single unit of production. Although the current society may not work well with guess works, it is a fact that at times management may be forced to work with opinions and guesswork and opinions because of lack of knowledge.

Fighting fires is always undesirable to an organization. It is important to note, however, that this cannot be completely avoided within an organization. The best that management can do is to ensure that it uses such occurrences to learn and improve the system in order to be able to deal with future challenges. This is in line with Deming’s theory of encouraging education and improvement of self.

Lastly, it is obvious that competition is a necessary aspect of life. Life is full of competition, both from the individual level to the organizational level. Within the firm, individual employees will be competing amongst themselves in order to deliver the best results or to rise to the position of top command. At the organizational level, competition is everywhere. According to Charantimath (2006), over half of the mission statements of firms around the world have the statement, “to be the best, or the leading…” this means that they believe that there are others that exist, and among the portfolio, the vision is to be the best.

The best firms in the world can attribute their success to the competition. They use technology in order to come up with products that are unique to the market, and which outsmarts the competitors’ products. Through this constant need to outsmart others, they end up becoming giant firms with uniquely beautiful products. This competition has brought about globalization. I, therefore, refute the claim that the current managers who use the above assumptions are lost in the twenty-first century. The fact is that the assumptions still hold a lot of truth.

Summarize Deming’s 14 points. How does each point relate to the four components of profound knowledge?

Deming’s theory of profound knowledge is one of the widely used theories in the management of systems. Deming gave 14 points in managing people within an organization. These fourteen points are directly related to the four components of profound knowledge. The following are the points.

The first point is on the creation and publishing of a mission statement of a company and then committing to it. This is based on the theory of knowledge. Every member of the organization should have knowledge of where the firm is headed, and this is always found in the mission statement. The second point is learning the new philosophy. This is based on knowledge about variation. It is an appreciation of the fact that there will always be variations within the environment within which the firm operates. The third point is on an understanding of the purpose of inspection. In a system, there will be regular inspections by various authorities.

This is based on the facet of appreciating a system. The fourth point is the ending of all practices that are only driven by price. Price is a short term factor and should not always be used as a factor that brings a competitive edge. This point emphasizes the psychology of change. The fifth point is on constant improvement of the system of production. The world is dynamic and the system should reflect this. The basis of this point is on knowledge about variations. The sixth point is on instituting training. This will ensure that employees understand the current dynamics in the market in order to be in a position to deliver desirable profits.

The seventh point is on instituting leadership while the eighth points are on driving out fear and developing trust. In the current society, leadership through fear may not work. It is through proper leadership and trust that success can be achieved. This is based on the appreciation of the system. The ninth and tenth points respectively focus on optimizing of teams and efforts of individuals; and elimination of exhortation for the workforce. Teamwork in the current society is very important. Individuals should come together to form a formidable force that is able to meet challenges in life. The two points are based on the appreciation of the system.

The individuals should appreciate that there is a way in which various activities should be done within a system. Elimination of numerical quotas and removal of barriers is the eleventh and twelfth points respectively. In current society, barriers may not act as a means of achieving success. It is therefore important to eliminate them in the spirit of the psychology of change. Encouraging education and self-improvement, and taking actions to accomplish transformation are the thirteenth and fourteenth points respectively. They are based on the theory of knowledge.

Explain the implications of not understanding the component of profound knowledge as suggested by Peter Scholtes?

Peter Scholtes explained the implications of not understanding the components of profound knowledge. The following are some of the implications. The first implication is that events will be seen as individual accidents. This can be destructive to the management because the approach that will be given is not holistic. The second implication is that it will be possible to see the symptoms but not the root cause. The management will be able to see the consequences of a failure of a system or part of a system, but fail to see the reason behind it.

This would mean that the management will not be in a position to solve the problem because it does not know the cause of the problem. Another implication is that intervention and implications on the entire system may not be understood. This makes the situation even worse because the management lacks the knowledge of the implication the incident have on the firm. Given that there is a lack of knowledge of the implication of the firm, it is clear that there will be no basis for looking for intervention measures.

As Evans and Lindsay (2008) say, it is only a factor whose implication to a firm is known that a remedy to it will be developed. However, it is complex to convince an individual to develop intervention measures while they lack the knowledge of the factor. This is made worse by the fact that there is a lack of knowledge of an intervention. Another implication is on blaming individuals and not the system. Personalizing blames may have serious negative consequences on the firm.

This is because every individual will abandon the system and make an effort to defend themself. The system will further get negatively affected. It is always important to understand the responsibility of the community and its accountability. It is only through this that the management will be in a position to integrate such a community into the system. However, another implication of not understanding the components of profound knowledge is a lack of understanding of the responsibility and accountability of the community.

References

Charantimath, P. M. (2006). Total quality management. New Delhi: Pearson Education.

Evans, J. R., & Lindsay, W. M. (2008). The management and control of quality. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.

Grady, J. O. (2010). System management: Planning, enterprise identity, and deployment. Boca Raton: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis.

Pike, J., & Barnes, R. (1996). TQM in action: A practical approach to continuous performance improvement. London: Chapman & Hall.

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The Management and Control of Quality

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