Discussion of Quality Control - Essay Example

Wk 9 – Discussion Questions Quality control question: Q1. What distinguishes quality initiatives like ISO 9000 and the Baldridge National Quality Program from Total Quality Management (TQM) and similar managerial commitments? TQM and other quality improvement programs are related to the basic ideology of business excellence. ISO 9000 and the Baldrige certifications are used to specifically measure the business performance. They are the standards that have to be fulfilled by an organization and inspected by third party evaluators.  Q2. There is some evidence that in the years immediately following Baldridge or ISO certification/accreditation, performance standards and attention to quality actually decline to levels below the build up to accreditation review. What might explain this result? How can managers guard against this kind of ‘relapse’? In order to get certification, companies work hard and spend lot of money and resources to meet the set standards. But this process always has the risk of being mistaken as an obligation only upto the moment when the company gets certification. It is often forgotten that quality has to be a constant concern. Once the company gets the certification, there is a tendency to relapse into the old pattern. To guard against this kind of relapse, managers have to always keep an alert atmosphere in the company. There should always be a thrust towards improvement. There should be routine reviews, documentation and updation. When the quality is continuously maintained through these measures, there will be no fear of relapse. Q3. If you have been employed in an organization that has gone through the Baldridge or ISO process, share your experiences. What challenges did you face? Was the payoff to the organization worth the effort? My company had gone through all important accreditation processes. The employees were also fine tuned to the needs of maintaining high quality. At middle manager level, there were routine review meetings. For the certification process, we were maintaining large amount of documents. The process of documentation was a continuous process. But these documents helped us to show case our organization in a candid way before our prospective partner organizations. Risk management question: Q4. What risks does your organization face with respect to your areas of responsibility? The risks that my organization faces related to my area of responsibility are primarily lack of coordination because I am entrusted with channnelizing information up and down the middle manager level. If I am absent or fail to do my work properly, there will be lot of confusion both for the clients and the senior managers. Also I have to maintain a client profile so that at any point, every minute information is available regarding each client. Q5. How do you and your organization assess and mitigate these risks? My management is fully aware of these risks. They have provided me with all the infrastructure to even coordinate urgent matters right from my home or from wherever I am on my holidays. I have been given a good subordinate staff team so that I can entrust many tasks to them by merely giving guidance. Also they have made it mandatory that I inform my higher officials one week beforehand to take an unscheduled day off. Middle managers as innovators question: Q6. Does Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s article resonate in your experience? How? Q7. Do you feel empowered and able to innovate in the organization in which you work? To what extent? Yes. I have given innovation, a great place in all my work. I have also encouraged my subordinates to do the same. Every time a new method is thought of, I discuss them with my superiors and get their feed back also. Q8. What limits your ability to innovate? As a manager, how do you empower your subordinates to be innovators? Does your organization support these efforts? I have an above average ability to innovate. The only limitation is the time it takes to convince my subordinates and superiors about the necessity of these steps. But I feel that process is worth going through as it becomes easier to implement the new ideas once you have everybody convinced. Management theory and practice question: Q9. Have you encountered situations that you would describe as examples of Ghosal’s allegation that “bad management theories are destroying good management practices?” By contrast, can you recall situations where management theories have assisted managers in making good decisions? I don’t buy Ghosal’s allegation. Each Theory is an attempt to make clarity of the peactical situations. There is no sense in alleging that theories can destroy good management practices. Unadvisable management practices are there to prevail to an extent even if all the theories are good and perfect.  Q10. Roxburgh identifies some ‘hidden flaws in strategy.” Give examples from your own experience. Have you encountered strategic flaws that do not fit into the categories that Roxburgh identifies? Roxburgh has listed eight poor decision behaviors that fails a strategy. These are commonly seen phenomena. For, example, I have seen herding instinct among the people which adversely affects real team work. Similarly, there is a tendency to do what is followed by majority so as to avoid taking a risk. This behavior will limit innovations. One strategic flaw that Roxburgh has not identified is the blind optimism present in every business venture. Another is the hesitation to tell the truth in a critical juncture and resorting to lies, as a temporary relief. Once when my organization was going through an economic down slide, the middle managers were trying to paint a rosy picture before the employees. But this eventually did not help prevent the down fall. But if at least a slight idea of the real situation was given to the employees, they would have been more alert to maintain quality and improve production. Most practical and most provocative articles question: Q11. Reviewing the theories of strategy that we have discussed in this course, which seem to you most practical? Most provocative? Why? Reviewing the theories of strategy that we have discussed in this course, I think the most practical theory is the one based on core competence. Core competence is very important because everything else could be built upon that. Most provocative theory that I found was the Blue Ocean theory. Putting demand as a manufactured thing was provocative indeed. Even a product that has no demand in the existing market could be launched based on this theory and a need created. This is a brave approach and yet down to earth also. Read More