Information Sheets > Total Quality Management and Effective Leadership

Instead of emphasis on controlling people, which has been the hallmark since the 1950s, we now need management style and methods based on Effective Leadership and Total Quality Management.

In many organisations a 'traditional' management style is practised, based on:

• Short-term profitability
• Having no clear strategic position (target sectors and competitive position)
• Reducing costs whilst tolerating high levels of waste
• A 'take it or leave it' attitude to customers
• Buying at the lowest price irrespective of other relevant factors
• Discouraging change - but changing arbitrarily when forced to
• Firefighting management - the troubleshooter

This management style was successful only as long as:

• Employees would do as they were told
• Customers' expectations increased or changed only slowly
• Demand frequently exceeded supply

In order that organisations can again compete successfully in the current environment, they must eliminate some of the main weaknesses:

• Doing what they have always done:One form of managerial madness is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting to get different results'. The management methods which were appropriate for the '80s and '90s are not appropriate in the new millennium.
• Not understanding or ignoring competitive positioning: some industries are profitable, others are not. Some competitive positions lead to above average performance, others to below average. Competitive positioning is one of the most important management decisions a company or organisation will ever make.
• Compartmentalisation: where each department or function works for itself. Each does not properly understand the needs and expectations of the other departments or functions - their internal customers. This causes problems which the 'customers' then have to solve before they can do their own work. The hospital consultant or medical secretary, for example, may cause great difficulties for the matron or ward sister by scheduling operations, requiring varied and sophisticated nursing support, without adequate consultation.
• Trying to control people through systems: and treating people as robots causes two things to happen:
  • people will get round the system
  • it will seem that the system is working

Of course we need systems, but they will work only if people make them work.

• Firefighting is macho!: many managers feel good if they have worked hard all day, solving problems and keeping the job moving. They enjoy firefighting - it makes them feel good. This can make it difficult to persuade them that their job is really to make things happen right first time.
• The 'not my problem' syndrome: two thirds of all problems are caused at a different point from where the problems occur, and by different people. If the post is delivered late, the problem may have been caused by the sorter, the van driver or even by the sender's accounts department who put the wrong address on the invoice. The person who caused the problem does not suffer the problem, but someone else does. By failing to eliminate the cause of the problems, at source, we perpetuate the situations in which we have to keep solving the same problems over and over again.

The cost of mismanaging quality is enormous and can be measured

Failing to satisfy the customers' needs and expectations, or failing to do so right first time, costs the average company between 15 and 30 per cent of sales revenue. It costs the average service organisation up to 40 per cent. These costs arise from the interactions between people in their day to day work. All companies and organisations employ people, so all incur quality mismanagement costs.

In a major UK service organisation the level of firefighting - doing extra work to 'fix' problems - was found to be more than 2 hours 35 minutes per person per seven-hour day. In one of the most successful British companies it was found to be between 20 and 95 per cent of each employees' time. Even the lower end of the range, 20 per cent is equal to one day of everyone's time wasted each week.

Company culture is all important: the need to develop an open, egalitarian team approach, where ideas are welcome and initiative encouraged at every level.

It is crucially important to have an outside consultant with an independent viewpoint. Resist the temptation to go for ready-made solutions. There is no one way to do it; every company is different. But every company can do it. Planning is the only worthwhile management activity, because it eliminates personal control (failure to delegate effectively) and firefighting (reacting to crises as they break).

In addition to the management commitment required there are three major components of TQM:

• A quality assurance system
• Quality tools and techniques
• Teamwork