MBA, Total Quality Management - Essay Example

The process of driving the organization towards realization of these goals entails among other things proper planning. Management undertakes the planning in terms of short-term vision as well as long-term vision; whenever an organization adopts either short-term goals or the long-range vision, continuous improvement is vital in order to realize that long-term objective. Nevertheless, changes in management practices have seen a substantial shift of the management practices from long range planning to more simplified planning structures, which concentrate on very short term goals that are easy to achieve and evaluate.

In order for any business to remain relevant and objective, the periodical evaluation and analysis of performance is critical. This paper therefore intends to critically analyze the existence of the short-term goals as well as the continuous improvement. It shall evaluate the threat posed by short term goals to the process of continuous improvement and if there be any, evaluate by what ways are the short terms planning overtaking the long term planning. Moreover, this study will verify the proposition that the continuous improvement strategies are being eroded for the sake of the short-term goals within organizations. . Most management carries out their tasks with the short, achievable and evaluative goals, which in many cases are not long term.

This may be necessitated by the prevailing frameworks through which the organization is working as well as the economic frameworks within the global perspective. Continuous Improvement is one of the best-acknowledged measures in total quality management practices within the globe and has indeed been seen to lead companies to realize high performances and quality production by firms (Zangwill and Kantor, 1998, p.910). It sets an outline of programs through which the performance of the firms may be evaluated over time.

It is thus seen to form a basis of linking short-term goals as well as the long-term goals of an organization. However, an emergent concern whether the practice is under threat by the short-term goals as our study is investigating. The management of firms and other organizations are usually seen to be guided by frameworks of goals and objectives. The goals that take longer to be realized and which require greater efforts are the so called the long-term goals while those that are more immediate, the short term ones.

Firms usually have a clear distinction of these goals for the ease of evaluation and performance. Nevertheless, the ‘length’ of these goals depends on the nature of the company as well as the time frame that is so called short term or long term. In many cases, what may be short-term for one company may be very different and be referred to as long term for the case of another company; there is therefore no clear cut point as to the time frame within which the objectives