total quality management

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Overcoming the Improvement Paradox

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Institutional Affiliation Goes Here Quality improvement programs are designed based on research , a company 's needs and the promise of improving the functioning of a business , both from a management standpoint and in the eyes of the employee . Research proves that they are not only productive , but necessary . In fact it is suggested that without a quality improvement program , businesses may fail . The reality is that most programs end in failure . The European Management Journal

br has termed this the Improvement Paradox ' They have identified an inability of management to implement an improvement program as a dynamic process is the main reason for that failure . The term dynamic is used to identify a process that is ever changing , ongoing , and responsive to the needs of the company and to the needs of the employee . The process must identify issues and concerns and then be implement changes based on those issues and concerns . This is where the process falls short Failure to monitor the feedback of employees and make necessary changes can lead to unanticipated and even harmful side effects (2

The internal dynamics of an organization will impact the success or failure of an improvement program . Management needs to recognize three issues prior to implementation of a quality improvement program what will the trade off be between current performance levels and future performance levels , managers need to ensure that their level of commitment is passed on to employees , and finally , as the program improves , managers will need to shift their focus and adapt for further gains

As stated previously , any improvement effort may have unanticipated events . The first effect noted may be a decrease in production or the time that employees have to focus on output . To overcome this problem it is recommended that employees not focus on a numerical production quota , but rather devote a certain percentage of each day to working on quality improvement . Without allowing for the change in production processes will be overlooked and may create a crisis . Managers need to allocate a portion of employee time to improvement efforts , separate of what they need for production

The second challenge is in initiating and sustaining employee commitment to the improvement process . There are two sources of commitment for improvement programs managerial push and employee pull Managerial push is the effort to promote improvement efforts of mandate employees to participate . Employee pull refers to an employee 's understanding of the need for improvement and commitment to the process Employee pull will have the greatest impact on the success of the improvement process . The tendency is for managers to be very enthusiastic initially , but sustaining the enthusiasm becomes difficult If employees are located in an area that is separate from management or one that is difficult to supervise , the challenge becomes even greater Self-reinforcing feedback will have the greatest impact on sustaining the improvement process

Employees need to perceive that improvement efforts will...