Profit making organizations use the quality of their services as a marketing strategy, whereby consumers would identify a given brand owing to its quality and after sale services. Total quality management is a framework that enables companies to prioritize quality in the day-to-day operations of the companies to the extent that the said companies are able to produce high quality products while delivering top quality services during and after the sale period (Gupta, Garg & Kumar, 2014). Accordingly, organizations management and employees continuously formulate sound approaches that make it possible for them to improve their products and services. Organizations can only achieve total quality management (TQM) if the said organizations are able to combine management and quality tools as a means of realizing business growth and eliminating wastes while strategizing on how to up surge productivity and profits.
The history of total quality management (TQM) began formerly as a term created to describe the Japanese-style management methodology to improvement of quality. The naval air systems command came up with the term as an approach to enhance continuous quality improvement of all the organizational processes and as such, it encompassed practices and principles such as behavioral sciences, economics theories, the analysis of the none-quantitative and quantitative data, and process analysis. By 1990, total quality management evolved to incorporate the principles of scientific management in United States industries. In the same period, many businesses were able to demarcate the approaches of carrying out plans and the process of planning. Further, the same period oversaw the rise of the trade unions while the Hawthorne experiment provided an exposition on how to improve the productivity of workers through participation.
The decade of the 1930s witnessed the development of methods for quality control and statistical analysis by Walter Shewhart. In the same decade, Edwards Deming taught the Japanese executives and engineers about the methods of quality control and statistical analysis while Joseph Juran taught the model of managerial breakthrough and quality control. Armand Feigenbaum wrote the first book on the total quality control during the 1950s while Phillip Crosby expounded the promotion of zero defects, which enhanced the breakthrough in many companies endeavor to achieve improved quality.
In 1968, the Japanese named their methodologies to quality control as companywide quality control while Kaoru Ishikawas contributions led to the ascendancy of Japan as the leader in the provision of quality. In the contemporary society, total quality management (TQM) refers to the systematic and broad approaches that organizations employ as a mechanism of achieving quality.
The effectiveness of total quality management (TQM) enables profit-making organizations to realize competitive advantage over their business rivals. Accordingly, the effectiveness of total quality management (TQM) has been instrumental in making it possible for companies to foster quality practices, which lead to the creation of crucial knowledge that enhances continuous improvement in the provision of quality products and services (Prajogo & Sohal, 2006). Therefore, total quality management is an essential business factor that determines the long-term ability of organizations to realize their long-term goals because it enhances and promotes significant aspects for improving efficiency and effectiveness of organizations (Yadav, 2015). In this respect, the main effectiveness of total quality management is its ability to enable companies to focus on continuous processes of improving the products and services, as they enhance the said companies to meet customer needs.
Comparisons of Total Quality Management
Before the innovation of the total quality management (TQM) in Japan, most industries in the country did not have scientific approaches that could enable them to provide top-notch services to the customers. In other words, companies did not focus on providing essential services to customers owing to the lack of well-though systematic strategies to enhance superior customer values. In this respect, Japan became the first country to discover the essentials of total quality management to the extent that most of her industries have been able to blossom each year. For instance, the manufacture and assembling of motor vehicles in Japan has been enhanced by the principles of total quality management and as such, the industries are able to customize goods during the production process (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
Before the existence of total quality management (TQM) in the United States, the country did not have specific approaches to enhance management of the industries to the extent that the factories in the country produced goods as a means of making profits. Moreover, before the discovery of total quality management (TQM) in the United States, the owners of the means of production exploited the working class, whereby the workers only owned their labor (Gupta, Garg & Kumar, 2014). However, with the revolution of total quality management (TQM), the United States companies were able to integrate the ideals of scientific management, which enables the said companies to prosper while maintaining decent customer relations (Prajogo & Sohal, 2006). Moreover, the model total quality management (TQM) made it possible for industries to adopt the appropriate man management skills because of the Hawthorn discoveries and the rise of the trade unions.
Barriers of Implementing Total Quality Management in GCC countries
There are various barriers to the implementation of total quality management in Gulf Cooperation countries (GCC), which include but not limited to lack of knowledge, focus on profits as opposed to quality, limitation of resources, culture, high cost, depending on foreign labor, and over-reliance on oil production to the extent of negating other industrial sectors (Konecny & Thun, 2011). The GCC countries include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait. In this respect, the barriers to implementation of total quality management in the GCC countries differ from one country to another as appraised below.
Lack of knowledge is the biggest impediment to the implementation of total quality management in the GCC countries and this is mainly because the owners of the industries do not have adequate knowledge in relation to the provision of quality products and services. Most of the industries in the Middle East do not have managers with the experience of managing large corporations, in which quality supersedes all other functions of the production.
For instance, the implementation of total quality management in Saudi Arabia has been facing various huddles, as total quality management (TQM) is relatives new to the country. In addition, the country has been in the process of integrating the total quality management in the health sector; however, most of the work force in Saudi Arabias health care sector does not have the appropriate skills and knowledge in total quality management (Wang, Chen & Chen, 2012). As such, the above developments need soundly formulated approaches that can enhance the implementation of total quality management in all the sectors of Saudi Arabias industries.
Limited resources negatively affect the implementation of total quality management as most of the countries in Middle East and indeed in the rest of the world do not have enough financial and human resources that can promote the implementation of the total quality management (Wiengarten et al., 2013). Accordingly, most of these countries are unable to conduct evidence-based research activities, which can promote the translation of research results into practice and policy (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
The culture of most of the GCC countries does not promote the implementation of total quality management (TQM) because most of the industries have an operational culture of over-emphasizing on profits as opposed to instilling quality in their day-to-day operations. Moreover, the middle countries have certain cultures that affect their willingness to embrace the implementation of total quality management such as over-dependence on the foreign labor and their questionable history of human rights (Konecny & Thun, 2011). These factors combined lead to go a slow for the concerned government agencies to implement total quality management, as it may conflict with the ways and beliefs of the people.
Further to the above, lack of adequate training among the many personnel working in various sectors of the GCC countries predisposes the said countries to go slow efforts in the implementation of the total quality management (Pal & Jasial, 2015). For instance, the implementation of total quality management to the international levels in Saudi Arabia faces the drawback because of lack of proper training and development of the human resource to the extent that the individuals who are charged with the responsibility of implementing the total quality management do not have the appropriate skills to effect the required changes. Total quality management (TQM) entails a soundly educated workforce characterized by a solid comprehension of communication, reading, and writing skills (Jaeger & Adair, 2016). Therefore, the work force in most of the GCC countries does not possess the appropriate implementation skills such as statistical process control, quality awareness, and quality circles and as such, this limits their capability to undertake the implementation plan.
Over-emphasis on profits as opposed to quality waters down the implementation of total quality management (TQM). For instance, many oil companies in the Middle East are preoccupied with making profits to the extent that they do not uphold quality such as treatment of their employees, as an organization cannot blossom without the input of both the management and the employees. Moreover, the contemporary market economy constrains firms to constantly struggle as a mechanism of realizing sustainable competitive advantage over their business competitors to the extent that the said companies are unable to sustain the required quality standards. Therefore, total quality management requires a change in the culture of an organization with an intention of involving the organizations work force while meeting the expectations of the customers (Punnakitikashem et al., 2010). Essentially, most of the companies do not possess the research capacity, which would enable them to understand the significance of maintaining quality as a long-term marketing strategy that would promote the identification of their brand image.
Further to the above, most of the labor force in the GCC countries comes from a wide array of nationalities to the extent that it leads to cultural conflict, as the employees have different exposures in relation to their cultural background and ways of life. In this respect, people from different nationalities and ethnic background speak different languages and as such, organizations in the GCC countries are bound to face the challenge of language barrier to an extent that the relationship between the workers or between the workers and the supervisors may be counterproductive (Jaeger & Adair, 2016). Thus, the GCC countries should formulate approaches that can enhance the implementation of total quality management such as encouraging the employees to learn how to speak the same language.
Lack of integrity and professionalism predisposes many organizations in GCC countries and indeed the rest of the world to employ individuals who do not have qu...
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