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Organizational Management And Leadership

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In this paper I will discuss the management and leadership roles and responsibilities in relation to Total Quality Management.

Within the past two decades, total quality management represents one of the most profound changes in the way companies are now being managed. According to Biech (1994), "Quality improvement (TQM) is a customer-focused, quality-centered, fact-based, team driven, senior management-led process to achieve an organizations strategic imperative through continuous process improvement" (pp. 1-2). The benefits associated with TQM includes higher quality, lower cost products and services that aligns with customer demands (Zbaracki, 1998). The ability of a company to respond to the needs of its customers measures the overall success of that company. Many organizations may ask the question, what is quality? As Hick (1998) explains, "quality is meeting or exceeding the needs and expectations of the customer" (p.1). What exactly are the expectations of the customers? It is now the responsibility of the organization to define those needs. Perhaps Biech (1994) provides a simpler picture, "Quality is the measure of satisfaction that occurs between a customer and supplier that only they can define. In other words, quality is what the customer says it is" (p.25). Yet according to Perigord (1987), "Total quality means that all participants in a company are involved regardless of their position in the hierarchy" (p.7). Basically making it seem impossible for quality to be successful if all members are not sharing in the same vision and/or goals.

Dr. W. Edwards Deming i...

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References

Allen, R. (2001, May). Aligning Reward Practices in Support of Total Quality Management. Business Horizons. Retrieved Sep 3, 2004 from the World Wide Web: http://www. findarticles.com/cf_0/m1038/3_44/75645904/print.jhtml

Biech, E. (1994). TQM For Training. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Gitlow, H. S., & Gitlow, S. J. (1994). Total Quality Management In Action. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Hick, M. (1998). Quality Management. Mike Hicks Eagle. Retrieved Sep 3, 2004 from the World Wide Web: http://www.eagle.ca/~mikehick/quality.html

Perigord, M. (1987). Achieving Total Quality Management: A Program For Action. Maryland: Productivity Press.

Zbarack, M. J. (1998). The Rhetoric and Reality of Total Quality Management. Administrative Science Quarterly. Retrieved Sep 3, 2004 from the World Wide Web: http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m4035/3_43/53392848/print.jhtml
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