After World War II, American industry returned to the production of peacetime consumer goods, for which there was unprecedented and uncompetitive demand. On the fringes of the war, the industrial heartland produced cars, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, mixers, lawn mowers, refrigerators, furniture, carpets, and all the goods for the burgeoning post-war suburbs inhabited by a generation of prosperous Americans.
The American corporation had fulfilled the promise of “scientific management,” formulated by an influential industrial engineer named Frederick Winslow Taylor more than three decades earlier. Taylor had argued that human performance could be defined and controlled through work norms and rules. He advocated the use of time and motion studies to break down jobs into separate, simple steps to be performed repeatedly without deviation by different workers. Minimizing complexity would maximize efficiency, although it was just as bad to overperform as it was to underperform in a Taylor-style system.
Scientific management evolved during a period of mass immigration, when the workplace was inundated with uneducated and unskilled workers, and it was an efficient way to employ them in large numbers. This was also a period of labor struggle, and Taylor believed that his system would reduce conflict and eliminate arbitrary uses of power because it would leave very little discretion to workers or supervisors. Hence the evolution of the American corporate governance structure, bound by rules and overloaded.
Quality in these post-war years took a backseat to production. Quality control cam to mean end of line inspection. If there were defects and reworks, there would be enough profit to cover them. Although some quality control persisted for a time, particularly in the defense industries, for the most part, the techniques taught by Dr. Deming were deemed unnecessary and time-consuming, and faded away. By 1949, Dr. Deming sadly says, “there was nothing, not even smoke.” This setback only served to strengthen Dr. Deming’s conviction as he considered what had gone wrong.
Purpose of Dr. Deming’s Management Theory
As a statistician, Dr. Deming’s lifelong mission had been to search for sources of improvement. World War II had accelerated the pace of quality technology, but when World War II ended, progress in quality control began to slow down. Many companies saw it as a wartime effort and felt it was no longer needed in a booming market. Given the failure of statistical methods for quality control, he discovered what might have caused the failure and how to avoid it in the future. Gradually he came to the conclusion that what was needed was a basic management philosophy, with which statistical methods were consistent. He was ready with new principles to teach when the Japanese called on him in 1950 to help rebuild their country.
The goal of Dr. Deming’s management theory, also known as “Deep Knowledge System”, challenges leaders to adopt a new paradigm based on the following three main points:
The purpose of the new paradigm transformation is to ‘unleash the power of human resources contained in intrinsic motivation’ and foster an environment of full cooperation between people, departments, companies, governments and countries to achieve win-win scenarios through process improvement. , teamwork and innovation.
The system of deep knowledge is a suitable theory for leadership in any culture or business. In some circles, people incorrectly think of Total Quality Management with industrial connotations. For example, in health care, the customer is the patient, and production could be equated with the quality of patient care. In fact, many of the concepts adopted by TQM relate to both interpersonal interaction and other more production-oriented criteria.
Therefore, the key dimensions of TQM can be identified as: team development, statistical quality control, process management, customer needs assessment, fact-based decision making, continuous quality improvement, and benchmarking. The application of this management theory requires a focus on the new kind of world of interdependence that we now find ourselves in. The predominant paradigm in the western world is not based on any holistic or integral theory; it is just the cumulative result of a variety of experiences and reactive methods:
Managers who base their leadership on the paradigms listed above will be lost in the new economic age. Such leaders need to open their minds and change in order to learn the new paradigms of Total Quality Management (TQM).
Assumptions of Dr. Deming’s Management Theory
Dr. Deming’s management theory is based on four assumptions:
1. The role of management is to optimize the entire system, not just its components
For example, Western-style management: Reward and punishment performance appraisal systems optimize system components.
For example, Deming-style management: a better way is to evaluate an individual virtue in the long term, to know if it is inside or outside the system and to understand performance problems as special or common cause. According to statistical research by Deming, Ishikawa, and Juran, more than 80% of problems are related to common causes or organizational system problems.
2. Cooperation works better than competition
For example, Western-style management: Internal competition to recognize the top 10% of salespeople in an organization creates a system where 90% of the population is labeled as underperformers or, worse, losers to managers. that are in the lower half.
For example, Deming-style management: on any distribution curve, 50% of the population will be below average and only 10% will be superior performers. There is no point in growing an organization out of malcontents because no one wants to be labeled a loser. If the system is stable and has good hiring policies, a better way to manage is to have the goal of shifting the distribution curve to the right through continual improvement and elimination of common causes of variation. All employees in the system should be recognized for company achievements, rather than just the top 10%.
3. Manage using both a process and a results orientation, not just a results orientation
For example, Western-style management: asking to sell 30% more (for an MBO goal) without understanding the process to achieve that goal, or providing a process to achieve the goal, creates a failure syndrome (demanding unreasonable higher outputs). has the opposite effect that contradicts the Pygmalion effect).
For example, Deming-style management: A better way is to analyze historical performance using statistics. Then base the sales growth targets within +/- 3 standard deviations of the mean, where 99% of the sample population is predicted to reach the target, and shift the curve to the right by improving the sales process . If a stable system is pushed beyond its limits, the system usually breaks down.
4. People are motivated by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
For example, Western-style management: recognizing people solely through extrinsic motivation by handing out plaques, letters of recommendation, bonuses, and pats on the back to motivate employees.
For example, Deming-style management: A better way is for management to combine extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to increase quality and pride in work. Intrinsic motivation is the excitement and positive stimulation an individual experiences for the sheer joy of an effort. Management can unleash intrinsic motivation by creating a culture that encourages employee involvement in using process improvement tools like Deming’s Wheel (SDSA and PDSA) to innovate and improve quality.
Each of these assumptions is directly associated with the interrelationships between people. All of them revolve around a key concept, the receptivity of the management style on the part of those who not only direct but also those who are directed. The implementation of management philosophies obviously revolves around employee motivation, and not all employees are easily motivated or receptive to management styles that differ from those of which they have been accused.
What motivates an individual, therefore, is at the core of the Total Quality Management philosophy. Motivational theory itself has a long history of direct and indirect applicability to many aspects of management in general and Total Quality Management in particular. In fact, the importance of teamwork in the organizational environment cannot be underestimated. However, before employees can interact effectively as a team, they must be able to function independently efficiently and productively.
Such independence revolves around numerous factors, some of which were learned in childhood and others that can be instilled in the professional environment. An important part of this independence is being able to relate to colleagues and turn criticism and resistance, which exists on the part of some colleagues, into a positive factor that influences team performance.
Leaders who apply Deming-style management must be adept at shaping independent workers and teams. A high-performing team is to some extent the product of the personalities of the individual players, personalities that have roots going back to childhood. Deming’s teachings recognize that an individual’s qualities or lack thereof can be refined in the professional workplace. Finally, Deming has influenced my way of thinking in various ways. What stands out is the wisdom behind the value of teamwork, process improvement, individual vs. systemic problems, and the pervasive power of continuous improvement.
