Total Quality of Management

94 PHILOSOPHIES AND CONCEPTS

to a manageable position compatible with delivering quality outputs. However

this requires lot of perseverance and patience.

A FEW OTHER FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS OF TQM

Adoption of a philosophy provides intrinsic motivation, guidance, and a mission-

ary zeal. One must be able to differentiate between a philosophy, concept, and

methodology. Philosophy involves a set of principles and beliefs while a concept

means a generalized notion and a methodology is set of orderly procedures for an

activity. An organization without any philosophical motif is on a journey towards

the wilderness, almost like a rudderless voyage. The true power of a radical phi-

losophy cannot be captured or leveraged if only those points liked by management

are adopted and those that clash with the old, conventional or traditional view are

discarded or avoided. For a philosophy to take root, percolate and yield desired

results, the owner or top man of the organization has to go beyond merely patron-

izing the philosophy; he must become a disciple of total quality. The vision

emanating from a noble and exalted philosophical doctrine must be shared by all

to induce ownership. A shared vision induces purpose and values, which give the

organization conviction and character to face the hurdles and climb towards

success. Vision must be followed up by appropriate action.

‘Mindset’ is a form of negative bias that is an impediment to quality and change

management initiatives. The shifts in the real world have to be recognized and

conscious effort is required to ensure that one is not saddled with the old paradigm.

‘Quality starts with self’, hence, conscious effort towards self-development is

essential. One must comprehend the imperatives and change one’s own attitude

and behaviour.

Management of change implies total transformation. A company or organization

that wants to transform has to change completely and revalidate its fundamental

belief and practices. Provision for wastages and poor quality at the planning stage

as practiced by traditional management is in reality institutionalising inefficiency,

and perpetuating wasteful performance by giving allowance to chronic quality

problems. Poor quality is not inevitable; unfortunately it is planned for short-term

gains. Excellent quality does not mean great expense. Unlike the conventional

thinking quality improvement and cost reductions are not contradictory or to be

achieved at the expense of the other. The costs continue to accelerate if a defective

reaches the customer. Apart from other costs, no one really knows the ramifications

and cost of a disgruntled customer. Cost control or cost cutting are actions taken

in desperation and cannot provide permanent solutions. Organizations have to

work towards cost-effectiveness, which is a win-win situation for both the customer

and supplier. Cost-effectiveness, like quality, is also a moving target; it is a great

challenge that can only be met by proper deployment of TQM philosophies and

ensuring total quality of management.

Anybody who is impacted by the processes and products is a customer and may

be internal or external to the organization. In order to bring in the personalized