Management Leadership:
Without the whole hearted involvement and commitment of management, at all levels, total quality can just not happen. Management leadership is also discernible when top management performs the following actions:
Formulates strategy
Develops vision
States clearly the mission
Clarifies organizational goals and objectives
Plans and converts Vision to reality
Develops culture for TQM
Involves all organization-wide
Formulates Strategy: Strategy facilitates organizational growth by way of exploring and exploiting opportunities. Once the basic mission and objectives of an organization are set, a strategy is required and a process through which the organization uses its resources to achieve its objectives.
Develops vision: Develops a vision of what the business can and will be in future. Vision captures the worth of business, integrating the goals, strategies and action plans. A vision statement is expected to build an emotional climate of commitment and togetherness in an organization. It is expected to cover the market environment, competitive and economic positions that an organization is expected to encounter.
States clearly the mission: Mission is the character, identify and reason for the existence of an organization. A mission statement is complementary to vision and it states the basic purpose of the business by clearly defining a company's relationship to other organizations including its competitors.
A mission statement is expected to set a general objective of what a business is and what the management philosophy is in achieving the mission. It helps in articulating corporate values, which are guiding principles for corporate actions and ethical behaviors.
Clarifies organizational goals and objectives: Communicates unambiguously what it wants the organization to achieve. In doing so it provides an inspiring leadership which promotes organization-wide alignment and a wholehearted involvement and contribution by all. The leadership's main function is to motivate i.e.; draw from each of its people their fullest potentialities. Clarity of goals helps an organization to focus on critical and key success factors.
Plans and Converts Vision in to reality: Plans suitable for the actions that must be taken to convert the vision into o reality. By doing this, management ensures that there are no surprises that disorient people in their quest and in that of the organization for total quality. Without effectiveness there are only dreams. Effectiveness means setting out to do something and doing it. It apparently is easy to confuse decision with carrying out a decision in to action. The action involves both decision and its implementation. If the management is to have influence over what goes on, it must have influence on not only on the decisions, but also on the motivation and skill with which the decisions are carries out.
Develops culture for TQM: Total Quality is synonymous with a change in culture. A culture compatible with concepts of total quality. The creation of a total quality culture has to be the task of top management. Culture is th4e integral pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech and action, and depends on man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. Most elements of culture take a long time in their evolution and equally as long to change. An organization has a mission when its culture fits with strategy. Culture enables organizations to function as a collective unit. The cultural glue consists of strong norms and values that heavily influence the way people behave how they work together and how they pursue the goals of the organization. To strengthen the organization's culture a set of values, behavioral characteristics, procedural rituals and role models for professionals working in the organization should be identified.
Involves all organization-wide: Total quality requires organization-wide participation at all levels. Participation leads to involvement which is a precondition to commitment. People become involved through seeing their ideas become part of their work and work environment. This can only happen when management instills a feeling of responsibility in everyone and also delegates authority to employees to fulfill their responsibilities. This implies that people are empowered to take action as and when required and also made accountable. Management leadership implies that anyone in a leadership position has this vital role to play.
