Quality Decision Making in Management

The overall purpose of this research paper is to define and assess decision making in management as well as the need for alternatives to use in the decision making processes. Management is concerned with combining all of the inputs of production. Managers decide what to make and how to make it. They chose from the available inputs and work out the right mix. Management must organize production to meet the goals of the company, which normally include keeping manufacturing costs low and producing a profit. The first industrial managers were men like Richard Arkwright and Thomas Edison, both inventors and businessmen. They own their companies and made all the management decisions. As the scale of production increased in the 19th century, ownership of companies was divided among shareholders. Management gradually became separated from ownership and a class of professional managers emerged. Although this emphasis is on industry, the principles of management are strongly illuminated herein, in my opinion. The division of labor has been successfully applied to management.

In the modern factory, managers specialize in one function; production, finance, marketing, personnel or public affairs. Management is a skilled occupation, and the amount of education needed to become a professional manager is increasing. Managers are schooled in all aspects of production and business. (The Learning Store).

At this point, I would like to address the need for alternatives, as well as factors operating within an organization which shape individual decisions and encourage individual initiatives.

“Sometimes courage is more critical than judgment in making a decision.” This, as a belief of mine ties in with factors operating within an organization. It also deals with conviction, courage, value, truth, as well as individual initiatives. For example, Total Quality Management represents an excellent example. Total Quality Management, by definition, encompasses teamwork and thus, gives new meaning to the decision making process. Individuals must make decisions on their own, and as well, be willing to participate with other team members.

Total Quality Management has everything to do with decision making in management. It is my opinion that there exists many dimensions and aspects to TQM and in the new global environment where environmental issues are one of the more prominent ...

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...s well as allows room for the individual. Herein, we realize such virtues as knowledge, conviction, courage, value, truth and overall, team work. I believe that TQM can function in any organization, and is not only functional but necessary. To this extent, I believe that it requires much courage in terms of making the leap from the old to the new. Many people are thoroughly satisfied and possibly complacent even, within their own responsibility. They come in and punch a clock, exit, and receive a check. This is not decision making at its finest, particularly within the pale of management. It is for these and related reasons which I have proposed TQM and those related vagaries which accompany TQM.

WORKS CITED

Food Engineering, “TQM at McCormick,” October, 1992, Volume 62

Learning Store, The, Mindscape, 1999, “Management”

LeMoine, David Hartly, “Quality a priority issue,” Healthcare Financial Management, September 1992, Volume 44

Westphal, James D., et. al., “Customization or Conformity? An institutional and network perspective on the content and consequences of TQM adoption,”, Administrative Science Quarterly, June 1, 1997