Managing Quality

Chapter 2. The Role of Management in TQM

B. G. Dale, A. van der Wiele and J. D. van Iwaarden

Introduction

It is the responsibility of the senior management team to create the strategic dialogue, organizational environment, atmosphere, values and behaviour in which TQM can achieve its potential. This has been well articulated by the international authorities on quality management (e.g. Crosby, Deming, Feigenbaum and Juran), who typically point out that the leadership provided in these matters is the key to the success or failure of the initiatives. This requires changing, through a deliberate, structured and systematic process, the behaviour and attitudes of people at all levels in the organization hierarchy. People who, because of the respective cultures of the organizations in which they have worked, lack of TQM education and training, lack of opportunity, neglect, mistreatment, etc. have, in manufacturing industry, regarded quality as a means of sorting conforming from non-conforming product and of reworking product to prevent nonconforming goods being passed to customers and who, in service situations and public services, have sometimes adopted a 'take it or leave it' attitude to the consumer and the public.

It is not an easy task to create an organizational culture in which each person in every department is fully committed to improving their own performance and is dedicated to satisfying their internal customers' needs and future expectations. This takes many years and requires ...