Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Excellence
Business management has been a controversial topic for a long time. There are a lot of different approaches, which various management styles may offer. However, the role of a manager is widely debated. Soltani and Lai (2007) even raised the question of whether a manager can control an organization or not. The authors analyzed a system, known as Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, to answer this question, but the task was not too easy. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the implementation of TQM using an example of the United Arab Emirates company, General Civil Aviation Authority.
There is a complex theory relating to management. It includes various systems, ideas and terms. Process-oriented quality management is a broad concept, which incorporates, among other principles, Total Quality Management (Stracke, 2006). However, TQM itself is a comprehensive system, which has practical value. It is based on different principles, and one of them is employee focus. This concept implies the improvement of working conditions without compromising the quality of customer service (Yeh, 2003). Employee focus takes several directions. First, training programs for current and new employees raise professional competence and help them adapt to different circumstances (Yeh, 2003). Experience, which personnel gets from the training, increases the confidence to carry out challenging tasks. Such practices should engage workers in active cooperation in different projects to make their influence on the implementation of TQM greater. The principle of the involvement of people is also described by Evans and Lindsay (2013). General Civil Aviation Authority widely applies this measure. The company provides the opportunity for its specialists to undergo training courses on innovation tools aimed to develop professional skills (General Civil Aviation Authority, 2017). Second, the structure of an organization should be flat. The fewer management levels in a company, the better working conditions are. “Less management control also increases the flexibility to adapt to a changing environment” (Yeh, 2003, p. 258). In addition, the properly organized workflow, which is based on standards and common rules, masters worker skills. The GCAA’s organizational structure has only a few management levels (General Civil Aviation Authority, 2017). However, the flexibility of the company’s system is not very high due to the clear division of responsibilities. Third, a supportive environment increases job satisfaction and leadership skills (Yeh, 2003). It is one of the main concepts of Total Quality Management. There are several departments in GCAA like corporate development or information technology, which serve to create a safe environment and support ongoing projects.
In conclusion, it is important to say that various management approaches contribute to the efficiency of a work process, but every case should be considered individually. The main features, which characterize a successfully performing system, are balance and stability. All methods are to be applied in a complex manner. Hence, it is necessary to control that one process does not hinder the other but supports it contributing to positive outcomes.
Reference List
Evans, J.R. and Lindsay, W.M. (2013) Managing for quality and performance excellence. Cengage Learning.
General Civil Aviation Authority. (2017) Home page. Web.
Soltani, E. and Lai, P.C. (2007) (Process) Control and Total Quality Management: a qualitative study of three manufacturing organizations. POMs 18th Annual Conference Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.
Stracke, C. M. (2006) Process-oriented Quality Management. In Ehlers, U. & Pawlowski, J. M. (eds.). Handbook on Quality and Standardisation in E-Learning. Berlin: Springer.
Yeh, Y.J. (2003). Implementing a sustainable TQM system: employee focus. The TQM Magazine, 15(4), pp.257-265.