TQM Questions and Answers – Unit 2

from Yogeesha H.C.AP/Mech, NCET

1. Define Leadership and Discuss the characteristics of quality leaders - 10 marks

Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the
organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. The activity of leading a group of people
or an organization or the ability to do this.
Leadership involves
(1) establishing a clear vision,
(2) sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly,
(3) providing the information, knowledge and methods to realize that vision, and
(4) coordinating and balancing the conflicting interests of all members and stakeholders.
A leader steps up in times of crisis, and is able to think and act creatively in difficult situations. Unlike
management, leadership cannot be taught, although it may be learned and enhanced through coaching or
mentoring. Someone with great leadership skills today is Bill Gates who, despite early failures, with
continued passion and innovation has driven Microsoft and the software industry to success.

There are 12 behaviors or characteristics that successful quality leaders demonstrate.

1. They give priority attention to external and internal customers and their needs. Leaders place
themselves in the customers’ shoes and service their needs from that perspective. They continually
evaluate the customers’ changing requirements.
2. They empower, rather than control, subordinates. Leaders have trust and confidence in the performance
of their subordinates. They provide the resources, training, and work environment to help subordinates
do their jobs. However, the decision to accept responsibility lies with the individual.
3. They emphasize improvement rather than maintenance. Leader use the phrase “If it isn’t perfect,
improve it” rather than “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” There is always room for improvement, ever if
the improvement is small. Major breakthroughs sometimes happen, but it’s the little ones that keep the
continuous process improvement on a positive track.
4. They emphasize prevention. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is certainly true. It is
also true that perfection can be the enemy of creativity. We can’t always wait until we have created the
perfect process or product. There must be a balance between preventing problems and developing
better, but no perfect, processes.
5. They encourage collaboration rather than competition. When functional areas, departments, or work
groups are in competition, they may find subtle ways of working against each other or withholding
information. Instead, there must be collaboration among and within units.
6. They train and coach, rather than direct and supervise. Leaders know that the development of the
human resource is a necessity. As coaches, they help their subordinates learn to do a better job.
7. They learn from problems. When a problem exists, it is treated as an opportunity rather than something
to be minimized or covered up. “What caused it?” and “How can we prevent it in the future?” are the
questions quality leaders ask.
8. They continually try to improve communications. Leaders continually disseminate information about
the TQM effort. They make it evident that TQM is not just a slogan. Communication is two way—
ideas will be generated by people when leaders encourage them and act upon them. For example, on
the eve of Desert Storm, General Colin Powell solicited enlisted men and women for advice on
winning the war. Communication is the glue that holds a TQM organization together.
9. They continually demonstrate their commitment to quality. Leaders walk their talk—their actions,
rather than their words, communicate their level of commitment. They let the quality statements be
their decision-making guide.
10. They choose suppliers on the basis of quality, not price. Suppliers are encouraged to participate on
project teams and become involved. Leaders know that quality begins with quality materials and the
true measure is the life-cycle cost.
11. They establish organizational systems to support the quality effort. At the senior management level a
quality council is provided, and at the first-line supervisor level, work groups and project teams are
organized to improve the process.
12. They encourage and recognize team effort. They encourage, provide recognition, and reward
individuals and teams. Leaders know that people like to know that their contributions are appreciated
and important. This action is one of the leader’s most powerful tools.

2. Discuss leadership concepts. - 03 marks

In order to be successful, leadership requires an intuitive understanding of human nature – the basic needs,
wants, and the abilities of people. To be effective, a leader understands that:
1. People need security and independence at the same time
2. People are sensitive to external rewards and punishments and yet are also strongly motivated.
3. People like to hear a kind word of praise. Catch people doing something right, so you can pat
them on the back.
4. People can process only a few facts at a time. Thus, a leader needs to keep things simple.
5. People trust their gut reaction more than statistical data.
6. People distrust a leader’s rhetoric if the words are inconsistent with the leader’s actions.

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 TQM Questions and Answers – Unit 2
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3. Explain the seven habits of quality leaders - 07 marks
1) Habit 1: Be Proactive : Take initiative in life by realizing that your decisions (and how they align with
life's principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Take responsibility
for your choices and the consequences that follow.
2) Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind “ Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values
and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life.
3) Habit 3: Put First Things First : A manager must manage his own person. Personally. And managers
should implement activities that aim to reach the second habit. Covey says that rule two is the mental
creation; rule three is the physical creation.
4) Habit 4: Think Win-Win : Genuinely strive for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your
relationships. Value and respect people by understanding a "win" for all is ultimately a better long-term
resolution than if only one person in the situation had got his way.
5) Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood : Use empathic listening to be genuinely
influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to
being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, and positive problem solving.
6) Habit 6: Synergize : Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals
no one person could have done alone.
7) Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw : Balance and renew your resources, energy, and health to create a
sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle. It primarily emphasizes exercise for physical renewal, prayer
(meditation, yoga, etc.) and good reading for mental renewal. It also mentions service to society for
spiritual renewal.

4. Explain Deming’s 14 points - 10 marks

1) Constancy of purpose: Create constancy of purpose for continual improvement of products and service to society,
allocating resources to provide for long range needs rather than only short term profitability, with a plan to
become competitive, to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2) The new philosophy: Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age, created in Japan. We can no
longer live with commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes, defective materials and defective workmanship.
Transformation of Western management style is necessary to halt the continued decline of business and industry.
3) Cease dependence on mass inspection: Eliminate the need for mass inspection as the way of life to achieve
quality by building quality into the product in the first place. Require statistical evidence of built in quality in
both manufacturing and purchasing functions.
4) End lowest tender contracts: End the practice of awarding business solely on the basis of price tag. Instead
require meaningful measures of quality along with price. Reduce the number of suppliers for the same item by
eliminating those that do not qualify with statistical and other evidence of quality. The aim is to minimize total
cost, not merely initial cost, by minimizing variation. This may be achieved by moving toward a single supplier
for any one item, on a long term relationship of loyalty and trust. Purchasing managers have a new job, and must
learn it.
5) Improve every process: Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production, and service.
Search continually for problems in order to improve every activity in the company, to improve quality and
productivity, and thus to constantly decrease costs. Institute innovation and constant improvement of product,
service, and process. It is management's job to work continually on the system (design, incoming materials,
maintenance, improvement of machines, supervision, training, retraining).
6) Institute training on the job: Institute modern methods of training on the job for all, including management, to
make better use of every employee. New skills are required to keep up with changes in materials, methods,
product and service design, machinery, techniques, and service.
7) Institute leadership: Adopt and institute leadership aimed at helping people do a better job. The responsibility of
managers and supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality. Improvement of quality will
automatically improve productivity. Management must ensure that immediate action is taken on reports of
inherited defects, maintenance requirements, poor tools, fuzzy operational definitions, and all conditions
detrimental to quality.
8) Drive out fear: Encourage effective two way communication and other means to drive out fear throughout the
organization so that everybody may work effectively and more productively for the company.
9) Break down barriers: Break down barriers between departments and staff areas. People in different areas, such as
Leasing, Maintenance, Administration, must work in teams to tackle problems that may be encountered with
products or service.
10) Eliminate exhortations: Eliminate the use of slogans, posters and exhortations for the work force, demanding
Zero Defects and new levels of productivity, without providing methods. Such exhortations only create
adversarial relationships; the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system, and
thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
11) Eliminate arbitrary numerical targets: Eliminate work standards that prescribe quotas for the work force and
numerical goals for people in management. Substitute aids and helpful leadership in order to achieve continual
improvement of quality and productivity.
12) Permit pride of workmanship: Remove the barriers that rob hourly workers, and people in management, of their
right to pride of workmanship. This implies, among other things, abolition of the annual merit rating (appraisal of
performance) and of Management by Objective. Again, the responsibility of managers, supervisors, foremen must
be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
13) Encourage education: Institute a vigorous program of education, and encourage self improvement for everyone.
What an organization needs is not just good people; it needs people that are improving with education. Advances
in competitive position will have their roots in knowledge.
14) Top management commitment and action: Clearly define top management's permanent commitment to ever
improving quality and productivity, and their obligation to implement all of these principles. Indeed, it is not

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 TQM Questions and Answers – Unit 2
enough that top management commit themselves for life to quality and productivity. They must know what it is
that they are committed to-that is, what they must do. Create a structure in top management that will push every
day on the preceding 13 Points, and take action in order to accomplish the transformation. Support is not enough:
action is required!
5. Mention the differences between leaders and managers
Leaders
Vision oriented: the leaders are vision oriented
and think about future.
Protects staff: leaders always protect their staff
and motivate them towards achievement of
organizational goals.
Approaches decisions actively: the leaders are
decision makers and do not hesitate to take
decisions in any respect.
Staff oriented: leaders are staff oriented.
Listens actively: leaders always involve his staff in
decision making and listen every body and get the
suggestions from employees seriously.
Deals with conflict: leader always deal with
conflict as they are critical analyst in the positive
way.
Trusted: leaders always trust on his
employees/staff and vice versa.
6. Mention the differences between leadership and management
Leadership
Set overall & future direction: they set the overall
organization direction and give the vision.
Focuses on results: A leader always focuses on
output.
Mostly external: leaders mostly keep the close
eyes on external environment.
Concern=effectiveness: his concern on
effectiveness
Stakeholder focused: Leaders focused on stake
holder’s interest and strive for the satisfactions of
stakeholders.
Customer needs/capacities: thinks about
customers demand
Embodies mission/vision: sets the mission and
vision
Gets more resources: gets more recourse to
accomplish the mission. They always try to look
for other opportunities.
Secures technologies: they protect the
technologies. Always keep their eyes open and try
to secure new technologies essential to create
competitive advantages.
Seeks to create needed change: they always seek
to create the needed change and believe on
“Change as the environment change”.
from Yogeesha H.C.AP/Mech, NCET
Managers
Process oriented: managers always think
about process that how the organization
works in efficient manner
Protects self: Managers always protect
himself.
Approaches decisions cautiously: Managers
always depends on his superiors and others
to take decisions.
Career oriented: managers always think
about his career that how he/she moves up
or develop his/her career.
Listens selectively: managers always listen
and involve selective staff/employees
during decision making.
Avoids conflict: Managers always avoids
being involved in conflicts.
Unclear regarding trust: he is unclear
regarding trust.
Management
Set day-day direction: Mangers sets day by
day direction to organization as per
circumstances.
Focuses on processes: Managers always
focuses on processes that how to gets the
maximum output by utilization of minimum
resources through reducing in processes of
the organization.
Mostly internal: Managers always keep the
close eyes on internal environment.
Concern=efficiency: his concern on
efficiency
Personnel focused: Here the focus is
personal and not on the stakeholders.
Worker needs/capacities: thinks about
organization capacity for customers
demand
Embodies goals/objectives: sets the goals
and objectives to achieve the mission.
Manages resources: a manager always
manages the resources.
Applies technologies: managers always
apply technologies available to them and
will not strive for change.
Seek stability/Manage change:
management will try to manage the change
and prefer to maintain the stability in the
organization.
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Create teams’ esp. top teams: Leadership is Manage teamwork: Management focus is
always focused on creating a team especially top to get things done from people/team and
performing team. Leader role is act as a coach and they will try for this.
convert individual working into teams.

7. Explain the role of TQM leaders

Leadership can act as senior management's tool in implementing TQM in two fundamental ways. First, by
modeling the TQM philosophy and principles within its departmental operations, leadership can serve as a
beachhead for the TQM process throughout the company. Second, leadership, with senior management's
support, can take the TQM process company-wide by developing and delivering the long-term training and
development necessary for the major organizational culture shift required by TQM.

Implementing TQM requires a team effort headed by your organization's leadership team. Each person
involved in change management has their responsibilities, and it is important for the entire organization to
understand the role of leadership in TQM to make delegating responsibility more effective.
1) Involvement
TQM of any kind of new company policy or program requires participation from all of the departments that
will be affected. Company leadership needs to identify what those departments are and create an
implementation team that consists of representatives from each affected group. Management needs to create a
structure that identifies various group leaders, the responsibilities of those group leaders and an accountability
system that insures that the implementation team meets its timetable for getting the new program or policy in
place.
2) Interest
Implementing TQM within a company requires a feeling of urgency on the part of the entire company. It is the
job of management to create that urgency by explaining to the staff why the implementation is necessary.
Leadership needs to help the employees understand how the company benefits from the new implementation,
but it also needs to get the organization to see the setbacks of not making a change.
3) Monitoring
TQM within a company is not an exact process. It is a dynamic procedure that needs to be monitored by
management and altered to meet implementation goals. it is the responsibility of leadership to put a monitoring
system in place, analyze the data that is being generated during the implementation and make any necessary
changes to make the implementation more efficient.
4) Next step
Implementing TQM is often done in phases. The company leadership needs to be able to identify when each
phase of TQM is complete and be ready to transition the company to the next phase. For example, if the
company is bringing in a new software program for customer management, then the first phase of the program
may be to implement it in the sales department. Management needs to identify when the proper alterations to
the software have been made that will allow it to be implemented in other parts of the company.
Implementing a TQM system has become the preferred approach for improving quality and productivity in
organizations. TQM, which has been adopted by leading industrial companies, is a participative system
empowering all employees to take responsibility for improving quality within the organization. Instead of using
traditional bureaucratic rule enforcement, TQM calls for a change in the corporate culture, where the new work
climate has the following characteristics:
(i) an open, problem-solving atmosphere;
(ii) participatory design making;
(iii) trust among all employees (staff, line, workers, managers);
(iv) a sense of ownership and responsibility for goal achievement and problems solving; and,
(v) Self-motivation and self-control by all employees.

The TQM approach involves more than simply meeting traditional rejection rate standards. The end result of
TQM is the efficient and effective use of all organizational processes in providing consistent quality at a
competitive price. The TQM philosophy is a long-term endeavor that links people and processes in a system
that alters the corporate culture to become one where quality is the core aspect of business strategy.

In cultivating the TQM philosophy, strategy implementation must involve a focused effort on the part of every
employee within the organization. It cannot be applied successfully on a piecemeal basis. TQM requires that
management, and eventually every member of the organization, commit to the need for continual improvement
in the way work is accomplished. Business plans, strategies, and management actions require continual
rethinking in order to develop a culture that reinforces the TQM perspective. The challenge is to develop a
robust culture where the idea of quality improvement is not only widely understood across departments, but
becomes a fundamental, deep-seated value within each function area as well.

Leadership therefore can jumpstart the TQM process by becoming a role model. This means that leadership has
two specific tasks: "serving our customers, and making a significant contribution to running the business." this
emphasis on customer oriented service means that leadership must see other departments in the firm as their
customer groups for whom making continuing improvements in service becomes a way of life.

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In their efforts to achieve TQM, leadership can demonstrate commitment to TQM principles by soliciting
feedback from its internal customer groups on current hr services. Leadership should include suggestions from
its customers in setting objective performance standards and measures. In other words, there are a number of
specific TQM principles that leadership can model.

The current emphasis on quality as a competitive strategy has produced many views regarding the actions
necessary to achieve it. Leaders in the quality movement (Deming, Juran, Crosby, Feigenbaum have proposed
similar approaches which share certain themes. these themes can be summarized as five basic principles:
• focus on customers' needs;
• focus on problem prevention, not correction;
• make continuous improvements: seek to meet customers' requirements on time, the first time, every
time;
• train employees in ways to improve quality; and,
• Apply the team approach to problem solving.
To institute TQM as a philosophy within an organization, all employees must come to realize that satisfying
customers is essential to the long-run well-being of the firm and their jobs. No longer is the customer-driven
focus exclusive to the marketing department. But customer satisfaction can only be achieved after first defining
the customer groups. The new perspective here is that all employees exist to serve their customer groups, some
internal and some external to the firm. The organisation has internal customers to satisfy, which indirectly
provides ultimate satisfaction to external customers.

The TQM approach entails identifying the wants and needs of customer groups and then propelling the entire
organization toward fulfilling these needs. A customer's concerns must be taken seriously, and organizations
should make certain that its employees are empowered to make decisions that will ensure a high level of
customer satisfaction. This can be achieved by promoting an environment of self-initiative and by not creating
a quagmire of standard operating procedures and company policies. Flexibility is the key, especially in a
business environment that is diverse and constantly changing, as most are today. In modeling these aspects of
the TQM process, leadership would need to identify human resource concerns of other departments and
undertake to continually improve its performance, especially in any trouble areas that come to light.

Based on this "customer first" orientation, organizational members are constantly seeking to improve products
or services. Employees are encouraged to work together across organizational boundaries. Underlying these
cooperative efforts are two crucial ideas. One is that the initial contact with the customer is critical and
influences all future association with that customer. The other idea is that it is more costly to acquire new
customers than to keep the customers you already have. Exemplifying TQM here would mean that leadership
would need to train itself, focusing on being customer-driven toward other departments.

Quality improvement programs typically involve the directed efforts of quality improvement (QI) teams. Using
teams and empowering employees to solve quality-related issues using such tools as statistical process control
(SPC) represent fundamental changes in how many businesses operate. The focus of SPC, also known as
statistical quality control (SQC), is defect prevention as opposed to defect correction. Defect prevention results
from continuously monitoring and improving the process. In this context "process" refers to service delivery as
well as manufacturing. To ensure that output meets quality specifications, monitoring is performed by
periodically inspecting small samples of the product. SPC alone will not ensure quality improvement; rather, it
is a tool for monitoring and identifying quality problems.

The effective use of quality improvement teams, and the TQM system as a whole, can be reinforced by
applying basic principles of motivation. In particular, the recognition of team accomplishments as opposed to
those of individuals, and the effective use of goal setting for group efforts, are important in driving the TQM
system. Leadership is in a position to help institutionalize team approaches to TQM by designing appraisal and
reward systems that focus on team performance.

In summary, leadership’s role in the TQM implementation process include:

1. Initiating agreement on goals and measures that cascade throughout the organization;
2. Providing the agreed resources (people, money, training, machines, etc.);
3. Assigning authority and establish deadlines to put resources into motion;
4. Monitoring progress in achieving goals, not to apportion blame, but to aim for improvement; and,
5. Measuring improvement and reward both the achievement of goals and the ways they are achieved.

8. Discuss the issues in the implementation of TQM in an organization

The TQM implementation process begins with senior management and most importantly CEO’s
commitment. Leadership is essential during every phase of the implementation process and particularly at
the start. In fact, indifference and lack of involvement by senior management are frequently cited as the
principle reasons for failure of TQM.
Senior management needs to be educated in the TQM concepts. In addition, they must visit successful
TQM organizations. The next step is for senior managers to develop an implementation plan. Timing of the
implementation process can be very important.

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The next step is the formation of quality council. Initiation of these duties is a substantial part of the
implementation of TQM. The development of core values, a vision statement, a mission statement and a
quality policy statement should be completed first.
The active involvement of the middle managers and first line supervisors is essential to the success of
TQM effort. They are accountable for achieving many of the organization’s performance goals and
objectives.
At this stage, it is important to communicate TQM to the entire organization. Communication is important
throughout the implementation stage. It is necessary to create awareness, interest, desire and action.
Everyone needs to be trained in quality awareness and problem solving.
Customer, employee and supplier surveys must be conducted to bench mark the attitude of these three
stake holders.

9. Write a note on Quality Council - 04 marks

In order to build quality in the culture, a quality council is established to provide overall direction. It is the
driver for the TQM engine.

In a typical organization the quality council is composed of the chief executive officer (CEO); the senior
managers of the functional areas, such as design, marketing, finance, production, and quality; and a
Coordinator or consultant.

Duties of the quality council:

a) To develop the vision, mission and quality statement of the organization, with the input from all the
personnel.
b) To develop strategic long-term plan with goals and annual quality improvement program with objectives.
c) Create a total education and training plan.
d) Determine and continuously monitor the cost of poor quality.
e) Determine the performance measures of the organization and monitor.
f) Continuously determine those projects that improves and affect external and internal customer satisfaction.
g) Establish multifunctional project and work group teams and monitor their progress.
h) Establish and revise the recognition and reward system to account for the new way of doing business.

The typical quality council meeting agenda of a well established TQM organization :

a) Progress reports on teams

b) Customer satisfaction report
c) Progress on meeting goals
d) New project teams
e) Recognition dinner
f) Benchmarking report

10. Explain the quality statements – 10 marks

Quality statements are part of strategic planning process and once developed, are occasionally
reviewed and updated. There are three types of quality statements:
1. Vision statement 2. Mission statement 3. Quality policy statement
The utilization of these statements varies from organization to organization. Small organization may
use only the quality policy statement
1. Vision Statement: The vision statement is a short declaration what an organization aspires to be
tomorrow. A vision statement, on the other hand, describes how the future will look if the
organization achieves its mission.

It is a short declaration of what an organization aspires to be tomorrow. It is an ideal state which may
never be achieved.
Example:
“To continuously enrich knowledge base of practioners in mobility industry and institutions in the
service of humanity” -
Successful visions are timeless, inspirational, and become deeply shared within the organization,
such as:
o IBM’s Service
o Apple’s Computing for the masses
o Disney theme park’s the happiest place on the earth, and
o Polaroid’s instant photography

2. Mission Statement: A mission statement concerns what an organization is all about. The
statement answers the questions such as: who we are, who are our customers, what do we do and
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how do we do it. This statement is usually one paragraph or less in length, easy to understand, and
describes the function of the organization. It provides clear statement of purpose for employees,
customers, and suppliers. It describes the function of the organization. It provides the clear
statement of purpose for the employees, customers and suppliers.
An example of mission statement is:
-Ford Motor Company is a worldwide leader in automatic and automotive related products and
services as well as the newer industries such as aerospace, communications, and financial services.
Our mission is to improve continually our products and services to meet our customers’ needs,
allowing us to prosper as a business and to provide a reasonable return on to our shareholders, the
owners of our business.
-Facilitating world class technical education through high quality institutions, academic excellence
and innovative research and development programmes, technology forecasting and global
manpower planning, promoting industry institute interaction, inculcating entrepreneurship”

3. Quality Policy Statement: The quality policy is a guide for everyone in the organization as to how
they should provide products and services to the customers. It should be written by the CEO with
feedback from the workforce and be approved by the quality council. A quality policy is a
requirement of ISO 9000.
It is a guide for everyone in the organization as to how they provide products and services to the
customer. Written by the CEO feedback from workforce and approved by quality council.
A simple quality policy is:
Xerox is a quality company. Quality is the basic business principle for Xerox. Quality means
providing our external and internal customers with innovative products and services that fully satisfy
their requirements. Quality is the job of every employee.

11. Mention the quality statement with respect to an educational institution – 04 marks

We at Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology (NCET) are committed to making the institute a centre
of excellence in technological learning and to carrying out research, consultancy and training for fulfilling the needs
and expectations of students, parents, business and society at large. We aim to do this with a high degree of social
sensitivity through innovation and continual:
• Nurturing of talent and building a learning environment, to promote creativity and leadership;

• Improvement of course curriculum through educational research and dialogue with business enterprises
characterized by significance, relevance, excellence and rigour;

• Building of international linkages with business, Universities and Institutes of repute for global perspectives and
standards;

• Commitment to personal and professional development of individual (staff, students and faculties) over their
entire career;

• Imbibing of state-of-the-art technology and improvement of infrastructure conducive to excellence in learning;

• Reviewing of institutional processes by involvement of faculty, students and staff.

• We develop policy by working closely with practicing managers. Our views are based on the findings from our
leading-edge research carried out among our membership of more than 35,000 managers drawn from all sectors
and management levels right across the Globe.

• Our policy positions also draw on our practical experience of developing management training and
qualifications, enabling us to promote the art and science of management with credibility to a wide range of
audiences.

12. Define strategic planning. Explain briefly seven steps towards strategic planning – 07 marks

It sets the long term direction of the organization in which it wants to proceed in future. It can be
defined "as the process of deciding on objectives of the organization, on changes on this objective, on
the resource used to obtain these objectives and on the policies that are to govern the acquisition use
and disposition of these resources".
The process starts with the principles that quality and customer satisfaction are the center of an
organization’s future. It brings together all the key stakeholders. The strategic planning can be
performed by any organization. It can be highly effective, allowing the organizations to do the right
thing at the right time, every time.
There are seven standard steps to strategic Quality Planning:
1. Discover customer needs
2. Customer positioning
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3. Predict the future
4. Gap analysis
5. Closing the gap
6. Alignment
7. Implementation
1. Customer Needs: The first step is to discover the future needs of the customers. Who will they be?
Will your customer base change? What will they want? How will they want? How will the
organization meet and exceed expectations?
2. Customer Positioning: Next, the planners determine where organization wants to be in relation to
the customers. Do they want to retain, reduce, or expand the customer base? Product or services
with poor quality performance should be targeted for breakthrough or eliminated. The organization
needs to concentrate its efforts on areas of excellence.
3. Predict the future: Next planners must look into their crystal balls to predict the future conditions
that will affect their product or service. Demographics, economics forecasts, and technical
assessments or projections are tools that help predict the future.
4. Gap Analysis : This step requires the planner to identify the gaps between the current state and
the future state of the organization. An analysis of the core values and concepts is an excellent
technique for pinpointing gaps.
5. Closing the Gap: The plan can now be developed to close the gap by establishing goals and
responsibilities. All stakeholders should be included in the development of the plan.
6. Alignment: As the plan is developed, it must be aligned with the mission, vision, and core values
and concepts of the organization. Without this alignment, the plan will have little chance of success.
7. Implementation: This last step is frequently the most difficult. Resources must be allocated to
collecting data, designing changes, and overcoming resistance to change. Also part of this step is the
monitoring activity to ensure that progress is being made. The planning group should meet at least
once a year to assess progress and take any corrective action.

13. Discuss the core values, concepts and framework

Core values and concepts provides the unity of purpose. The core values and concepts enables a framework
for leaders throughout the organizations to make right decisions. They foster TQM behavior and define the
culture. Each organization will need to develop its own values. Following are some the core values,
concepts and framework that can be used as a starting point for any organization as it develops its own.
1) Visionary leadership
2) Customer driven excellence
3) Organizational and personal learning
4) Valuing employees and partners
5) Agility
6) Focus on the future
7) Managing for innovation
8) Management by fact
9) Public responsibility and citizenship
10) Focus on results and creating values
11) Systems perspective
14. Write a note on communication in organizations. - 05 marks
All organizations communicate with their employees in one manner or the other. Communication deliver
the organization’s values, expectations, and directions. They provide information about corporate
developments and allow feedback from all levels. It is very important to keep information flowing back
and forth between employees and various levels of management. The culture must encourage two-way
communication so that information flows up the ladder as well as down. Communication barriers in
organizations need to be removed. Communication must be effective and not information overload. The
purpose of communication is to influence attitudes and behavior to attain goals and objectives. Different
communication methods are better for different communication needs. There are two basic communication
techniques. They are:
i) Interactive :
It is the most effective communication technique which allows for discussion between the
employees and their supervisor, not just management talking to employees. The immediate
supervisor is in the best position to initiate the transfer of information and create discussion on
what needs to be improved, how to do it, and why it needs to be done. Managers can
communicate one-on-one or in a group setting.
ii) Formal :
Formal communication can occur using the printed page or electronics. The most common
printed communications are periodic publications such as email or weekly newsletters. The
internet can be used for external communication and the intranet can be used for internal
communication. Video is becoming more and more important.

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