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Introduction
Improvement in the productivity and performance of many organizations in both public and private sectors remains to be a desirable goal. Over the decades, many scholars have attempted to come up with ideas that can assist organizations to systematically and sustainably improve their performance. One American scholar who has made a major contribution in the field of management is William Deming. This statistician and theorist came up with a management method that placed great emphasis on quality management through constant improvement efforts. Deming encouraged the use of analytical tools in the quality management process. The positive impact of his work on organizations has made Deming to be considered as one of the most influential management theorists. This paper will set out to provide a brief overview on William Deming and highlight his contribution to public administration.
Brief Overview of William Deming
William Deming was born in October 1900 to well-educated parents who stressed on the importance of a good education to the young Deming. Deming completed his high school education and joined the University of Wyoming, where he studied electrical engineering. By 1928, Deming had completed his Doctorate program in mathematics and physics at the Yale University. Deming started applying statistical methods to management in the late 1920s following his association with Walter Andrew Shewhart, who was a renowned statistician (Wolf 211). The statistical process employed by Deming was first tried out on a large scale in Japan. After the Second World War, Deming visited Japan as part of the American led reconstruction effort. He taught statistical control to engineers, managers, and scholars and these methods were implemented with great success in the country (Wolf 212)
By applying Deming’s techniques, Japanese manufacturers were able to produce products of high quality leading to global demand for these products. This led to Japan emerging as a global leader in manufacturing. Many Western countries were eager to try out these methods for themselves. As such, Deming’s ideas on quality management have been tested in many organizations in Western countries. Prakash declares that results of these empirical tests are overwhelmingly positive thus supporting Deming’s quality management theory (41). Deming proclaimed that his theory of Quality Management can “apply to a service organization with little modification” (49). The Service organizations that Deming had in mind included public sector organizations. Prakash confirms that while manufacturing companies were the first to exploit Deming’s ideas to respond to competitive challenges, many service organizations and government departments have tried to use these ideas (42).
Contribution to Public Administration
Interpretations of Deming’s work have been used in a wide array of organizational settings. His works have also been used successfully in public sector organizations. For this reason Deming, though his 14 points of management, has made significant contributions to public administration. The first major contribution by Deming is from his emphasis on Quality Management. Deming promoted Total Quality Management (TQM) as the primary means through which an organization can reach excellent results in its operations (Matei 47). Deming’s theories on management had a number of TQM principles and techniques that have been adopted by many public organizations.
TQM can be achieved by constantly improving the operations in the organization. A significant argument made by Deming was that “85% of the problem is in the system and 15% in the people” (Wolf 220). This observation recognized that in most cases it is the system, and not the workers, that is responsible for the problems being experienced. As such, the only way to make improvements is by uncovering the mistakes in the system and then working on improving them. Deming emphasizes on the importance of the system in the overall working of any sector. He declares that managers must always strive to constantly improve the system (Wolf 211). These improvement efforts should focus on the work processes.
Change is necessary for TQM efforts in both the public and the private sector. However, there is a significant disparity in the view of change by actors in the public and private sector. Mcnary states that while the private sector is eager to embrace change and gain a competitive advantage, the public sector demonstrates less enthusiasm for change processes. The major reason for this is that there is no competition and profit motive in the public sector. This provides little incentive to overcome the status quo. Deming demonstrates that the public sector also has reason to promote change. Most public sectors have scarce resources meaning that the available resources have to be utilized in the most efficient manner. Through change, the system can adapt itself to address old processes more efficiently and deal with new processes. Deming understood that changes have to be undertaken from the system level (Matei 44). The changes must address the root causes of current problems.
Deming offered a cycle of transformational efforts that can be used to implement change in Public Administration. Management should begin by planning and then follow up by doing. After this, checks should be made to review the progress of the transformational efforts. Finally, management should act in response to the findings of the check. In the act stage, standardization and improvements are made to the process. To ensure continual improvement of the process, the Deming’s PDCA cycle is repeated at a future date for additional improvement of the process. A key requirement in Deming’s cycle is that the individuals involved in the problems have to take part in the change implementation (Prakash 46). Managers cannot unilaterally make decisions on the transformational efforts and implement them. Instead, they must elicit the participation of the workers Wolf declares that from a practical standpoint, “the key to improvement of system processes is to involve workers at all levels in the improvement processes” (218). Statistical analysis techniques are important in gauging the impact of the change efforts. Deming’s cycle is therefore followed by training personnel in techniques for performing statistical analysis. Deming proposed the development of analytical tools and methods that workers could use to gather data on the effectiveness of current work practices. Analysis of this data could help to determine where improvement efforts could be targeted. Wolf notes that the statistical analysis methods proposed by Deming are simple enough to ensure that all workers in the organization can use them (212).
Deming noted that there are situations in an organization that require the input of managers in order to improve the situation. The situations are caused by multiple underlying forces in people and the environment. The underlying forces compel movement to a different level while at the same time some of the forces might be acting as restraints. To improve the situation, the manager needs to understand the character of the current situation and then address the underlying forces in order to produce the desired outcomes. Deming described a line of action as the starting point for determining the next step in a series of steps to be taken to improve the current situation (Wolf 210). Deming asserts that managers and workers must avoid the temptation to work with abstract improvement goals for the system in mind (Wolf 211). Instead, they should start with the system as it is in the current situation and then take actions to constantly improve it. In public administration, Deming encourages the workers to begin from the situation at hand and proceed to take the actions needed to move to higher levels of performance.
Deming highlighted the importance of quality assurance in all industries including service provision. He claimed that the success of an organization could only be ensured if the products made are consistently of a high quality. To realize this consistency, there needs to be some form of statistical control of the production methods. Without statistical control of the work processes, there is bound to be a variance in the quality of the goods or services produced (Matei 45). Deming asserted that all efforts must be made to reduce variation in system performance and therefore achieve the production of uniform output.
Another contribution by Deming to public administration was about the kind of relationship for working with contractors. Public administration often requires working with contractors to accomplish certain tasks. The manner in which the public administration officials select the contractors has an impact on the performance of the organization. Traditionally, PA officials placed a great emphasis on cost when awarding contracts. Specifically, most awards were won by contractors who offered the least cost for providing services or delivering goods. Deming condemns this approach of giving primacy to cost considerations (Matei 46). Instead, he states that Public Administrators should endeavor to develop long-term relationships with their contractors. This long-term relationship makes it possible for the administration to foster an attitude of working together with the contractor and therefore provide the opportunity to improve services. This is based on the concept that for service improvement to occur there was to be a dedicated working relationship and trust between the parties involved. Long-term arrangements provide the opportunity for this kind of relationship to be developed.
Deming stressed on the importance of education in improving performance. According to him one of the main methods through which management could ensure continuous improvement of the system was by constantly training and retraining workers. Education has an impact on the individual and the organization as a whole. At the personal level, constant learning increases the proficiency of the individual since learning is a staff development strategy. The individual has a positive predisposition to change because of the constant learning efforts. The system is impacted on by learning since education fosters change in how processes are carried out (Mcnary 289). Trainers play an integral role in the implementation of any TQM program. Deming asserted that an organization that desired to engage in TQM needed to train a number of individuals who would serve as trainers for the rest of the organization. These trainers would receive training in both theory and tools. Mcnary documents that the training includes background information on Quality Management practices, specialized courses in sampling development of proficiency in using various statistical quality tools (288).
Deming asserts that managers must have a long-term focus instead of seeking quick results at whatever cost. The people in charge need to make bold decisions with the long-term success of projects in mind. Focus on long-term results might be hard in public administration. Most politically elected and appointed officials who are in charge of the resources seek quick and short-term results, which are needed to help them stay in office (Mcnary 284). Deming’s warning that managers should focus on long-term results has influenced public administration since officials who follow Deming’s teachings avoid the temptation to seek quick and short-term results.
Deming supported the empowerment of employees in the organization. Public administration suffers from the bureaucratic organizational structure typical of the government. This structure makes it hard to incorporate quality principles in the delivery of services to the public (Prakash 46). Due to Deming’s contributions, many public administration offices have redesigned their organizational structures. Instead of the traditional bureaucratic organizational structure, new structures that alter authority lines have been implemented. These new structures increase employee empowerment and streamline the processes leading to increased efficiency.
Conclusion
This paper set out to highlight Deming’s contribution to public administration. It began by providing an overview of William Deming and his contribution to management theory. The paper noted how Deming was able to apply the statistical methods learnt from his engineering background to management. He was able to come up with management theories that emphasized on the importance of TQM. This paper has highlighted the contributions that Deming made to Public Administration. His concepts have become accepted as crucial management tools that enable administrators to improve efficiency and effectiveness of their processes.
Works Cited
Matei, Ani. “Convergence of the Policies for Promoting Total Quality Management in the Public Administrations of Balkan States – European Union Member States.” Theoretical and Applied Economics 18.3 (2011): 41-76. Web.
Mcnary, Lisa. “Quality Management in the Public Sector: Applying Lean Concepts to Customer Service in a Consolidated Government Office.” Public Administration Quarterly 32.2 (2008): 282-301. Web.
Prakash, Singh. “Deming Management Method: Subjecting Theory to Moderating and Contextual Effects.” Quality Management Journal 20.3 (2013): 41-69. Print.
Wolf, James. “Neely Gardner and Deming’s Total Quality Management: Parallels and Connections.” Public Administration Quarterly 16.2(2000): 209-221. Web. 10 April. 2014.
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