What is Total Quality Management?
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a structured approach to organizational management that focuses on improving the quality of goods and services by continually enhancing internal processes.
- Origin: The concept emerged in the 1950s and was developed by William Deming, a management consultant who greatly influenced Japanese manufacturing practices.
- Definition: TQM involves the entire organization—every department and function—in quality management efforts.
- Objective: To detect and eliminate errors, streamline the supply chain, enhance customer experience, and ensure employee training.
7 Principles of Total Quality Management
- Customer Focused
- The ultimate measure of quality is customer feedback.
- Efforts like employee training, quality design, and software upgrades are validated by customer satisfaction.
- Total Employee Involvement
- Engaging all employees in achieving organizational goals.
- Requires eliminating fear and fostering an empowering environment.
- Process Centered
- Focus on defining, monitoring, and continuously improving processes.
- Emphasizes minimizing unexpected variations.
- Integrated System
- Establishing an effective quality system like ISO 9001.
- This system should align across all functions and divisions.
- Decision-Making Based on Facts
- Frequent data collection and analysis for informed decision-making.
- Strategic and Systematic Approach
- Incorporating quality into strategic planning for achieving organizational goals.
- Effective Communication
- Essential for maintaining morale and motivation during operations or organizational changes.
Advantages of Total Quality Management
- Defect Reduction
- Focus on improving processes rather than merely inspecting outcomes.
- Productivity Improvement
- Reduced error rates lead to significant productivity increases.
- Cost Reduction
- Fewer defects lower costs related to customer support, product fixes, and replacements.
- Customer Satisfaction
- Better products and services ensure minimal complaints, enhancing market share.
- Improved Employee Morale
- Success in TQM boosts morale and reduces employee turnover.
Disadvantages of Total Quality Management
- Training Period
- Initial training can disrupt daily operations, increasing short-term costs.
- Resistance to Change
- Continuous incremental changes may lead to resistance from employees who prefer the existing system or fear job insecurity.
Coordination in Management
What is Coordination?
Coordination is an invisible cord that runs through all the activities of the organization and binds them together. It is the essence of management, which is needed at all levels and at each step to achieve the objectives of the organization.
Coordination is the glue that holds everything together in the world of management. In simple words, it is the integration and synchronization of activities, resources, and efforts of the people working in the organization. This integration leads to unity of action in the pursuit of organizational objectives.
It is a hidden force that links all the functions of management, such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Coordination also facilitates a smooth flow of information to achieve the desired outcomes. It aligns activities to avoid chaos, hustle, disorder, and conflict, ensuring harmony in organizational tasks. Hence, it’s rightly said that with coordination comes harmony in performance.
Objectives of Coordination
- Avoiding Conflicts
- Conflicts arise when individual goals differ from organizational goals. Coordination prevents such clashes by maintaining a balance in activities, ensuring proper task allocation, and realizing organizational objectives.
- Goal Achievement
- Although everyone aims for organizational success, individual efforts often surpass expectations. Coordination ensures clear reporting systems and defined business objectives to achieve overall goals effectively.
- Harmonious Relationships
- Coordination fosters harmony between individuals and the organization. Clear structures reduce conflicts, boost morale, and encourage strong relationships, ultimately reducing employee turnover.
- Enhancing Unity
- Better communication and personal contacts minimize conflicts, fostering unity and commitment to organizational goals.
- Economy and Efficiency
- Coordination ensures efficient operations by syncing activities, minimizing resource wastage, reducing delays, and promoting overall efficiency in the organization.
Characteristics of Coordination
- Integrates Efforts of Employees
- Coordination integrates employees’ efforts into a unified direction to ensure results align with organizational plans.
- Unity of Action
- It binds various departments, divisions, and units, ensuring they work with a single focus to accomplish organizational objectives.
- Continuous Process
- Coordination begins with planning and continues through controlling. It is implied in all management functions and ensures employee efforts are not wasted.
- Pervasive Function
- Coordination is essential at all organizational levels as they are interlinked and interdependent.
- Deliberate Activity
- Organizational activities and efforts are coordinated thoughtfully and carefully to ensure success.
Importance of Coordination
- Growth of Organization
- As organizations grow in size, coordination becomes vital to unify employees and departments to focus on the ultimate goal.
- Locational Differences
- Large corporations often have offices in different locations or countries. Coordination helps keep all units aligned despite geographical separation.
- Diversification of Business
- When companies diversify their business with new products or markets, coordination ensures all divisions work harmoniously to achieve organizational goals.
- Specialization
- With employees specializing in different fields, coordination helps bring them together and maintain harmonious relationships between groups.
- Synergy
- The combined effort of individuals working together achieves more than separate efforts. Coordination enhances this synergy, leading to better outcomes.