Quality management focuses attention on continuous improvement Essay

Th e work of W. Edwards Deming is a cornerstone of the gauge movement in precaution. 27 His story began in 1951, when he was invited to Japan to justify quality control techniques that had been developed in the United States. When Deming spoke, we might say, the Japanese listened. Th e principles he taught the Japanese were straightforward, and they worked Tally defects, analyze and trace them to the source, make corrections, and keep a record of what happens afterward. Demings approach path to quality emphasizes constant innovation, use of statistical methods, and lading to training in the fundamentals of quality assurance. 1 break throughgrowth of Demings work was the emergence of total quality anxiety, or TQM. Th is process makes quality principles part of the organizations strategic objectives, applying them to all aspects of operations and striving to meet customers needs by doing things right the fi rst time. Most TQM approaches begin with an insistence that the total q uality commitment applies to everyone in an organization, from resource learnedness and supply chain management, through production and into the distribution of fi nished dangerouss and services, and ultimately to customer relationship management.The search for and commitment to quality is now tied to the emphasis modern management gives to the notion of continuous improvement forever and a day looking for new ways to improve on current performance. 29 Th e inclination is that one can never be satisfi ed something always can and should be improved upon. Evidence- ground management seeks hard facts about what really works. Looking back on the historical foundations of management, one thing that stands out is criticism by todays scholars of the scientifi c rigor of some historical cornerstones, among them Taylors scientifi c management approach and the Hawthorne studies.The worry is that we may be too quick in accepting as factual the results of studies that argon based on weak or even shoddy empirical evidence. And if the studies be fl awed, perhaps more(prenominal) care needs to be exercised when trying to apply their insights to improve management practices. Th is problem isnt limited to the distant past. 30 A book by Jim Collins, Good to Great, achieved bulky acclaim and best-seller status for its depiction of naughtyly successful organizations.But Collinss methods and fi ndings have since been criticized by researchers. 32 And after problems appeared at umpteen fi rms previously considered by him to be great, he wrote a carry out book called How the Mighty Fall. 33 Th e point here is not to discredit what sharp-worded observers of management practice like Collins and others report. But it is meant to make you cautious and a bit atheistical when it comes to separating fads from facts and conjecture from informed insight.Todays management scholars are trying to move beyond generalized impressions of excellence to understand more empirically the ch aracteristics of high-performance organizationsones that consistently achieve highperformance results while also creating high quality-of-work-life environments for their employees. Following this line of thinking, Jeff rey Pfeff er and Robert Sutton make the case for evidence-based management, or EBM. Th is is the process of making management decisions on hard factsthat is, about what really worksrather than on dangerous half-truthsthings that sound good but lack empirical substantiation.Using data from a sample of some 1,000 fi rms, for example, Pfeff er and a colleague found that fi rms using a mix of well selected human resource management practices had more sales and higher profi ts per employee than those that didnt. 35 Th ose practices included employment security, selective hiring, self-managed teams, high wages based on performance merit, training and skill development, minimal status diff erences, and shared information.Examples of other EBM fi ndings include contest goal s accepted by an employee are likely to result in high performance, and that unstructured employment interviews are unlikely to result in the best person being hired to fi ll a vacant position. 36 Scholars pursue a variety of solid empirical studies using proven scientifi c methods in many areas of management research. Some carve out new and innovative territories, while others build upon and extend familiarity that has come down through the history of management thought. By staying abreast of such