The current business environment is highly competitive and the best method in determining productivity is through creating an ultimate TQM environment as Daft suggests. The approach proposes that the management should not make employees feel they are competing amongst each other instead they should view each other as members who should work closely to achieve organizational values and goals.
Therefore, the main role of the management is to instill a sense of pride am0ong employees, which is known to create cross-functional teams. In this regard, the leadership of the organization should try as much as possible to avoid evaluating workers based on merit increases and statistical achievements. In other words, the contributions of workers should be taken into consideration irrespective of their positions in the organization.
Therefore, rewarding workers based on their efforts is suggested under the approach in case the management intends to increase productivity. This approach is different from ISO, which entails setting standards for consistency. The ISO approach has been applied since 1947, but its effectiveness is limited since employees are expected to follow the laid down procedures yet they might be defective.
The management of any organization can only apply the approach if it employs a modern leadership style that value democracy, openness, and equality. Based on this, each person should be consulted adequately before introducing change. The approach entails empowering employees by recognizing their efforts in the organization meaning the management to encourage innovation, creativity, and inventiveness.
In many organizations, the culture does not allow workers to come up with new things since they are expected to follow the rules strictly. In the new approach, a leader should align his or her expectations to those of the followers instead of developing principles and forcing his or her juniors to adopt them.
In other words, the approach is compatible with the situational leadership style that values the principles of each worker. The solution lies with the leadership style employed.
Organizations are faced with a massive challenge of keeping in touch with clients and customers to determine whether they are performing in the market. In fact, high sales and huge profits are not signs of better performance because the company might be sitting on the time-bomb that might explode any time.
Again, the challenge of monitoring is difficult to deal with since the management has to ensure that each department, section, and individual is assessed frequently to determine productivity.
In fact, the organization might be forced to set up an entire department charged with the role of collecting and analyzing data to establish the performance. Once employees realize that their performance is being monitored, they might end up doing the job only if pushed to do so. The problem could be overcome through the adoption of democratic leadership style that appreciates the efforts of each worker.
Companies have various quality and performance management approaches at their disposal, including benchmarking, continuous improvement, failure and effects analysis approach, ISO9000, and six sigma method. These approaches are effective in ensuring that the organization achieves its desired goals, but the management has to identify the indicators for change.
For instance, improved sales and high profitability are some of the indicators. Again, the organization is said to be in a better position in case creativity and innovativeness are witnessed frequently. A well-performing company should be ahead in terms of technology.