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What is Corporate social responsibility (#CSR) ?

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9 Characteristics of Globalization Article

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9 Characteristics of Globalization Article

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Globalization is geographic distribution and scattering of business, service, and or industrial activities by various means of an association like collaboration, joint venture, partnerships, or any such relevant partnership or by venturing solely in a different territory. The activities may include production and distribution, research and development, etc. You can check this main article on What is Globalization - Its Benefits and Limitations.

Financial markets, commodity markets, insurance markets are few of the markets where globalization plays a crucial role. The globalization of the art and entertainment industry is one of the key features of the 21st century. Because of globalization, different economics integrate and become inter-dependent. Rather than considering globalization as an end process, it is considered as dynamic. Globalization can always be reversed, and it is considered as a non-inevitable process.

There are many reasons for the growth of globalization, like proliferation in communication and transportation. Because the global interactions increased, there was an exchange of ideas, and this paved the path for globalization.

According to the International Monetary Fund or IMF, there are four primary factors related to globalization, which are Trade and Transactions, Migration of people, Capital and Investment movements and dissemination of knowledge.

The primary characteristics of globalisation are as follows

1. Free Trade

Globalization allows free trade between countries without government interference. Micromanagement of trade by the government is absent in case of free trade. This enables the growth of trade between the countries. As trade flourished, the economies of related countries, associated with trade, also grew. There is an overall growth in the gross domestic product of the nation, which is directly linked with the growth of trade.

Free trade not only grows the company or organization which is involved in free trade but also increases cooperation between countries. The mutual support will automatically build the associated businesses with the trade. For example, if a particular business is included in free trade, then the related business which supplies raw material or which markets the finished product will also grow along with it.

The cascading effect of the growth of associated business percolates down to the related business that they are involved in, and this, in turn, grows or impacts the entire economy.

2. Liberalization

Liberalization is defined as the freedom for business people or industrialists to incept or establish a business, commerce, or trade anywhere in his country of origin or a different country abroad. Globalization results in the liberalisation of business people and allows them to start their businesses in different geographies. For example, Apple, Google, Kellogs, Nestle, Pfizer, Medtronic are few established companies in almost every part of the world, and it is possible because of liberalisation and globalization.

Liberalization is a result of globalisation, and both of them are interdependent. The more liberal a country is, the better is their trading. Liberalization and globalization. One cannot grow without the support of the other, and if one is restricted, the other will fail to grow. Investors and companies are attracted to more liberal countries rather than any other country.

Countries like Germany, China, France, and many other developed nations are considered as liberal for their trading policies, and on the other hand, countries like India are considered as a challenging trading place and not a very preferred destination for foreign investors because of its non-trade-friendly policies. In liberalisation, there is a free exchange of goods and capital is along with service and technology between different countries.

This allows the country to flourish and prosper by growing its trade and economy.

3. Connectivity

One of the important Characteristics of Globalization is that it helps different countries and places to be connected. Similarly, people from all over the world are connected, there is a free exchange of ideas, where is the use and culture amongst people. Many prosperous bonds and agreements are forged between different societies and countries, which are beneficial for both of the participating parties.

There is an international exchange of technology, literature, and culture knowledge information and treatment. As the connectivity increases, the business between the countries prospers, which adds to the national revenue of the respective country. People are exposed to different communities and new cultures around the world, which positively changes their lifestyle. Connectivity affects society directly and also affects the standard of living of people.

Better connectivity is not only good for society but also for businesses and industries. Industrialization is highly dependent on good connectivity, and many jobs are dependent on industrialization. So if there is excellent connectivity, then it will boost industrialization, and there will be more jobs for people, which will improve their standard of living since more money will flow.

4. Economic globalization

The increasing economic interdependence of different economies of nations throughout the world as a result of globalisation. There has been an increase in the exchange of services goods technology and capital as well as a culture among different countries, which has impacted the economies of respective countries as well as the global economy as a whole.

Globalization in business aims to have regulated tariffs and taxes for the traders. The economic globalization consists of globalization of production, which is nothing but obtaining raw materials and goods from a particular source from different countries to benefit the cost difference. Similarly, globalization of markets is a merger of how are the union of different markets into a global market place. Competition, corporations technology in industries are also part of economic globalization.

The involvement of international standards has made cricketing more efficient and more accessible. One of the examples of such a standard is the intermodal container. Containerisation has dramatically decreased the cost of transportation and also supported the boom in international trade. MNC or a multinational corporation, which is also known as the worldwide enterprise, is an organization that controls or owns the production of goods and services in multiple countries, which does not include their home country.

Trade facilitation is used to see how controls and procedures are governing the transportation of goods across international borders. Trade facilitation also looks at how this transportation can be improved to reduce the costs and associated burdens by maximizing efficiency. The current trends of globalization can be accounted for by developed economies with the help of integration with less developed economies by way of FDI foreign direct investment.

FTI aims at reducing the trade barriers and economic reforms. Because of globalization, many other countries like Japan FTI aims at reducing the trade barriers and the economic reforms. Because of globalisation, many other countries like Japan Germany, China, and South Korea have become challenging counterparts and a trade threat to once economic superpower United States.

5. Cultural globalization

The transmission of ideas, values, and meanings throughout the world, which is aimed to extend and intensify the present relations, is called cultural globalisation. The process is characterized by common mixings of cultures that have been developed by the Internet and popular culture media along with international travel and is an important characteristic of Globaliztion. The circulation of culture across the globe has enabled exchanges of social behavior across national and regional borders. Cross-cultural relations and communications bring together people from different backgrounds and cultures and help to contribute more towards cultural globalisation. Cultural diffusion is a part of cultural globalization in which different styles of religions, ideas, technologies, and languages are diffused and spread in different cultures.

Cross-cultural contacts have been drastically increased because of cultural globalisation. This has resulted in a decrease in the uniqueness of the isolated communities; for example, an Indian dish is available in remote restaurants of the United States, and as well as a burger is now available in African McDonald's. Globalisation has also helped to expand the recreational opportunities by prospering and glorifying the pop culture with the help of satellite television as well as the internet.

The person sitting in any corner of the world with decent Internet speed and a device can stream any channel or a movie and understand the different cultures. Globalization has also influenced sports; for example, the Olympic games now includes participants from more than 200 countries for many competitions. The FIFA World Cup is considered as one of the most followed events in the world and exceeds even the Olympic Games.

Different music genres from the world such as jazz and reggae have begun mixing and interconnecting with each other because of globalisation. Globalisation has increased the political, cultural, personal and economic interdependence of factors on each other. Some people say that globalisation can harm the diversity of culture.

For example, westernization or a make Americanisation of culture can lead to the diminishing of local culture. It can be a threat to the local culture since it can be limited or wiped out completely because of the dominant western culture.

6. Political globalisation

It refers to the growth and prosperity of the political system worldwide in both complexities as well as in size. It may include national governments and their governments as well as intergovernmental organisations along with independent as in men's, which are associated with politics such as global service Society or non-governmental organisations along with social moment organisations.

The primary aspect of political globalisation is the reducing importance of the nation as a state and the increase of other factors on the political front. The globalisation of politics is one of the primary characteristics of globalisation found in academic literature. Multilevel governance is a process in which public administration theory and political science which have originated in Europe in integration.

Multilevel governance expresses the idea that many authorities are interacting at work in the global political economy. Multilevel government highlights the relation between international and domestic levels of authority. It is because of globalisation that many people today are citizens of multiple nations and the concept of multiple citizenships which is also called as dual citizenship or dual nationality is the status of citizenship of a person in which a person is a citizen of more than one state under the law of those particular nations.

Many of the non-governmental organizations have started global missions and performance charities in abundances, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation or Greenpeace society. One of the projects of bills and Melinda Gates foundation include a multibillion-dollar commitment and funding to some of the word's most impoverished and rapidly growing countries.

On the other hand, there are few countries which have embraced the isolationist policies such as North Korea. The government of North Korea makes it almost impossible for foreigners to enter their country. The government also monitors strictly all the activities that are done by their citizens as well as foreigners.

7. Opportunity

Globalisation is an opportunity for everyone to prosper. It can be a developing country or a developed country, but globalisation provides opportunities for both equally. Globalisation helps both the parties involved to grow by presenting almost equal opportunities. A developed country is the one in which the growth opportunities have come to a stagnancy because the country is developed, and there may not be any more business opportunities.

On the other hand, a developing country is the one in which there are multiple opportunities, but the country me that the required technology and monetary support. With globalization, the developed country can approach the developing country were sharing their knowledge experience and technological advancement, which will help the developing country to grow, and in return, the developing countries can support by purchasing the goods and products or services produced by developed countries.

This will ensure that the developing country's mood towards progress and the developed country gets more business opportunities and scope for growth. Globalisation brings opportunities in almost every aspect, including cultural political and social aspects.

8. Learning

Globalisation opens doors for abundant knowledge and experience from different countries. Globalization helps in understanding something new that was not present in the country earlier, and that may be true. In the case of both developed and developing countries, there are many things which one may understand from exploring different countries and their cultures because some of the things may be good in their countries which may not be propagated well in your country. Globalization ensures there is learning for both the participating countries.

For example, Chinese food is very popular across the world, which was unknown in the early 1800s. It is because of the globalisation that the United States adopted the Chinese cuisine and is probably now a part of many Americans every day. Similarly, there was no concept of burger in China during the 1800s, and because of globalization, The American McDonald's and Wendy's burgers made their way to the far east in China.

It provided as learning to both United States as well as China that things have to be explored and tried and tested, and sometimes they can be a hit with people. There is tremendous learning involved in globalisation. Exposure to rich and new cultures is helpful for the development of societies because new things are incorporated, and some old things are probably discarded. It is a part maker to success and exploring new horizons.

9. Production advantage

One of the characteristics of globalisation is that it provides a production advantage to the companies. Because many countries are open for trading, the companies can set up their manufacturing plant where the availability of labor and land is relatively economical. This brings down the production cost of the company even lower, and they gain a competitive advantage. This also helps them to procure raw materials from the country of the factory at a lower rate, which further pushes down the cost. Having a production advantage is one of the primary goals of any business.

On the other hand, this also increases employment opportunities in the country where the factory is set up. This may also increase the standard of living of people working in factories. Soon the company can have economies of scale and also leads to higher demands globally owing to the low cost of the product.

One such example is that of Apple and Google mobile phones. While Apple mobile phones are manufactured earlier in China and since 2019 in India, Google phones are manufactured in Taiwan.

Both the manufacturers get brands and advantage economically because their factories were set up in a developing country and the respective countries get employment opportunities because of the factory set up in the country. While iPhones are considered to be expensive, the production cost of the phone is over.

On the other hand, pixel phones of Google are priced relatively lower than the iPhone, and the price benefit is passed on to the customers which are not in the case of Apple. But surely Apple did not become a trillion-dollar company by giving discounts to customers.

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9 Characteristics Of Globalisation which define Global Business

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Globalization is geographic distribution and scattering of business, service, and or industrial activities by various means of an association like collaboration, joint venture, partnerships, or any such relevant partnership or by venturing solely in a different territory. The activities may include production and distribution, research and development, etc.

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The 3 Most Common International Business Strategies

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7 Types of Organizational Structures Article

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7 Types of Organizational Structures Article

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What is an organizational structure?

At some point, you have likely seen an organizational chart for your company. And we can probably guess what it looked like.

The typical org chart looks like a pyramid, your C-level executives at the top with lines stretching down to middle management and finally staff-level employees.

But not every company functions best with a hierarchical organizational structure. Many types of organizational charts exist because many types of organizational structures exist.

In this post, we go through the 10 common types of org structures and reasons why you might consider each of them.

1. Hierarchical org structure

The pyramid-shaped organizational chart we referred to earlier is known as a hierarchical org chart. It's the most common type of organizational structure-the chain of command goes from the top (e.g., the CEO or manager) down (e.g., entry-level and lower-level employees), and each employee has a supervisor.

Pros

Better defines levels of authority and responsibility

Shows who each person reports to or who to talk to about specific projects

Motivates employees with clear career paths and chances for promotion

Gives each employee a specialty

Creates camaraderie between employees within the same department

Cons

2. Functional org structure

Similar to a hierarchical organizational structure, a functional org structure starts with positions with the highest levels of responsibility at the top and goes down from there. Primarily, though, employees are organized according to their specific skills and their corresponding function in the company. Each separate department is managed independently.

Pros

Allows employees to focus on their role

Encourages specialization

Help teams and departments feel self-determined

Is easily scalable in any sized company

Cons

3. Horizontal or flat org structure

A horizontal or flat organizational structure fits companies with few levels between upper management and staff-level employees. Many startup businesses use a horizontal org structure before they grow large enough to build out different departments, but some organizations maintain this structure since it encourages less supervision and more involvement from all employees.

Pros
Cons
4. Divisional org structure

In divisional organizational structures, a company's divisions have control over their own resources, essentially operating like their own company within the larger organization. Each division can have its own marketing team, sales team, IT team, etc. This structure works well for large companies as it empowers the various divisions to make decisions without everyone having to report to just a few executives.

Depending on your organization's focus, there are a few variations to consider.

Market-based divisional org structure

Divisions are separated by market, industry, or customer type. A large consumer goods company, like Target or Walmart, might separate its durable goods (clothing, electronics, furniture, etc.) from its food or logistics divisions.

Product-based divisional org structure

Divisions are separated by product line. For example, a tech company might have a division dedicated to its cloud offerings, while the rest of the divisions focus on the different software offerings-e.g., Adobe and its creative suite of Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc.

Geographic divisional org structure

Divisions are separated by region, territories, or districts, offering more effective localization and logistics. Companies might establish satellite offices across the country or the globe in order to stay close to their customers.

5. Matrix org structure

A matrix organizational chart looks like a grid, and it shows cross-functional teams that form for special projects. For example, an engineer may regularly belong to the engineering department (led by an engineering director) but work on a temporary project (led by a project manager). The matrix org chart accounts for both of these roles and reporting relationships.
Pros Cons
6. Team-based org structure

It'll come as no surprise that a team-based organizational structure groups employees according to teams-think Scrum teams or tiger teams. A team organizational structure is meant to disrupt the traditional hierarchy, focusing more on problem-solving, cooperation, and giving employees more control.
Pros

Increases productivity, performance, and transparency by breaking down silo mentality

Promotes a growth mindset

Changes the traditional career models by getting people to move laterally

Values experience rather than seniority

Requires minimal management

Fits well with agile companies with Scrum or tiger teams

Cons

Goes against many companies' natural inclination of a purely hierarchical structure

Might make promotional paths less clear for employees

See why forming tiger teams is a smart move for your organization.

7. Network org structure

These days, few businesses have all their services under one roof, and juggling the multitudes of vendors, subcontractors, freelancers, offsite locations, and satellite offices can get confusing. A network organizational structure makes sense of the spread of resources. It can also describe an internal structure that focuses more on open communication and relationships rather than hierarchy.
Pros

Visualizes the complex web of onsite and offsite relationships in companies

Allows companies to be more flexible and agile

Give more power to all employees to collaborate, take initiative, and make decisions

Helps employees and stakeholders understand workflows and processes

Cons

Can quickly become overly complex when dealing with lots of offsite processes

Can make it more difficult for employees to know who has final say

Consider the needs of your organization, including the company culture that you want to develop, and choose one of these organizational structures.

8. Process-based structure

A process-based structure organizes employees into groups or departments based on steps of a process. The leader of the company is listed at the top, as they oversee all processes. Each step of the process has a supervisor and employees who do work in that process. The chart reads from left to right. One process can not begin until the process before it is completed.

Pros

Can lead to faster and more efficient processes

Promotes teamwork within departments and across departments

Cons

Can lead to barriers between departments

Can lead to miscommunication between departments, especially during handoffs

9. Circular structure

A circular organizational structure puts leaders of the organization at the center rather than the top so they can share information outward rather than pass it down a chain of command. Employees in different departments are also seen as part of a larger whole rather than siloed off by department.

Pros

Promotes the flow of information across the organization

Promotes communication and collaboration between employees and departments

Cons

Can cause confusion around who to report to, especially for new employees

Can take longer to make decisions

10. Line structure

A line structure is one of the simplest organizational structures as authority flows from top to bottom. Each department is ran by a manager and works toward a common organizational goal.

Pros

Reporting structure is clear

Stable environment

Cons

Can be inflexible

Can limit innovation and specialization

Can lead to managers having a lot of power

Once you've chosen the right org structure to pursue, learn the steps in the company reorganization process.

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The typical org chart looks like a pyramid, but not every company functions along a hierarchical organizational structure. Let's go through the seven common types of org structures and reasons why you might consider each of them.

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Process of Recruitment and Selection Model

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Process of Recruitment and Selection Model

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In preparing for my Fall course: Communications for Professionals, I've been thinking more and more about the different types of communication. In previous years, I have outlined four types of communication, but I believe there are actually five types of communication: verbal, non-verbal, written, listening, and visual.

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication occurs when we engage in speaking with others. It can be face-to-face, over the telephone, via Skype or Zoom, etc. Some verbal engagements are informal, such as chatting with a friend over coffee or in the office kitchen, while others are more formal, such as a scheduled meeting. Regardless of the type, it is not just about the words, it is also about the caliber and complexity of those words, how we string those words together to create an overarching message, as well as the intonation (pitch, tone, cadence, etc.) used while speaking. And when occurring face-to-face, while the words are important, they cannot be separated from non-verbal communication.

Non-Verbal Communication

What we do while we speak often says more than the actual words. Non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, posture, eye contact, hand movements, and touch. For example, if you're engaged in a conversation with your boss about your cost-saving idea, it is important to pay attention to both the their words and their non-verbal communication. Your boss might be in agreement with your idea verbally, but their nonverbal cues: avoiding eye contact, sighing, scrunched up face, etc. indicate something different.

Written Communication

Whether it is an email, a memo, a report, a Facebook post, a Tweet, a contract, etc. all forms of written communication have the same goal to disseminate information in a clear and concise manner - though that objective is often not achieved. In fact, poor writing skills often lead to confusion and embarrassment, and even potential legal jeopardy. One important thing to remember about written communication, especially in the digital age, is the message lives on, perhaps in perpetuity. Thus, there are two things to remember: first, write well - poorly constructed sentences and careless errors make you look bad; and second, ensure the content of the message is something you want to promote or be associated with for the long haul.

Listening

The act of listening does not often make its way onto the list of types of communication. Active listening, however, is perhaps one of the most important types of communication because if we cannot listen to the person sitting across from us, we cannot effectively engage with them. Think about a negotiation - part of the process is to assess what the opposition wants and needs. Without listening, it is impossible to assess that, which makes it difficult to achieve a win/win outcome.

Visual Communication

We are a visual society. Think about it, televisions are running 24/7, Facebook is visual with memes, videos, images, etc., Instagram is an image-only platform, and advertisers use imagery to sell products and ideas. Think about from a personal perspective - the images we post on social media are meant to convey meaning - to communicate a message. In some cases that message might be, look at me, I'm in Italy or I just won an award. Others are carefully curated to tug on our heartstrings - injured animals, crying children, etc.

We communicate continually throughout each and every day. We do it without thinking - we operate on communication autopilot. However, I encourage you to think about how you communicate. How do you communicate verbally? What nonverbal cues do you use when you are disinterested? Excited? Nervous? Are you a good listener? Can you write a concise, clearly articulated message? Are there barriers to how you communicate effectively?

Understanding how you communicate is the first step to communicating more effectively. You can easily look online for communication courses. There are a variety of credit and non-credit course available to help you improve your communication skills, including our non-credit series.

Best,
Anne Converse Willkomm
Assistant Clinical Professor
Department Head of Graduate Studies
Goodwin College
Drexel University

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Five Types of Communication - Graduate College of Drexel University

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In preparing for my Fall course: Communications for Professionals, I've been thinking more and more about the different types of communication. In previous years, I have outlined four types of communication, but I believe there are actually five types of communication: verbal, non-verbal, written, listening, and visual.

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Multipart article

Today, we take for granted that the items and services we consume should work well as soon as we purchase them. In fact, many Industrial and post-industrial societies have simply discarded what doesn't work. However, there was a time when quality and effectiveness were not always the priority for goods and service providers. The intense focus on quality developed largely after World War II, in particular in the 1980s, in response to a marketplace that rejected cheap workmanship and consumer demand increased for durable products that considered the user's needs.

In this article, we'll discuss the history of one of the preeminent quality management philosophies, total quality management (TQM). We'll learn how it can help for profits and nonprofits become more effective and cost-efficient. In addition, industry experts discuss how TQM compares to other quality philosophies and methodologies, such as Six Sigma and Kaizen.

What Is Total Quality Management?

Total quality management (TQM) describes a management system wherein a company attains organizational advancement through a commitment to customer requirements. A company meets those requirements when it empowers every employee in every department to maintain high standards and strive for continuous improvement. Total quality management is the predecessor of many quality management systems, such as Six Sigma, Lean, and ISO.

What Is Quality Management?

First, what is quality? It is a measure of the level of acceptability of a product or service. The ASQ Quality Glossary defines quality management as "the application of a quality management system in managing a process to achieve maximum customer satisfaction at the lowest overall cost to the organization while continuing to improve the process." Quality management has four parts: quality planning, quality assurance (defect prevention), quality control (which includes product inspection and other elements, such as competence), and quality improvement.

Why would it take until the 20th century to apply such seemingly obvious principles like product goals and parts inspection? Perhaps the right historical circumstances didn't present themselves until the 20th century. Nichols credits new mass-production techniques, such as Ford's assembly line, and the urgent demand for materials during two world wars for this particular innovation. "The US military demanded to some extent that every product they purchased be good because soldiers lives literally depended on the quality of the products they handled," says Nichols. "Whether it was for K rations or bullets, these wars spurred a manufacturing revolution to focus on the idea of getting things right every time."

Statistics play an integral part in quality management because being able to predict accuracy through numbers is much less expensive than inspecting parts. Moreover, sometimes inspection is simply inconvenient. "McDonald's needs to know that every burger is right without having to take a bite out of each one," says Nichols.

Total Quality Management Principles

No single accepted body of knowledge exists for total quality management, as does, for example, the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) for the Project Management Institute. Similarly, no prescribed actions exist for implementing TQM methods and tools. Organizations have been free to deploy and adapt TQM as they see fit, giving way to many definitions of the methodology. Despite these challenges to standardization, it's possible to describe generally accepted principles:

Customer Satisfaction

Employee Commitment: This creates empowerment through training and suggestion mechanisms.

Fact-Based Decision Making: Teams collect data and process statistics to ensure that work meets specifications.

Effective Communications: There should be an open dialogue throughout an organization.

Strategic Thinking: Quality must be part of an organization's long-term vision.

Integrated System: A shared vision, including knowledge of and commitment to principles of quality, keep everyone in a company connected. Taiichi Ohno recognized that even suppliers are an important part of the system.

Process-Centered: You can deconstruct every activity into processes, and, therefore, locate and repeat the best process.

Continuous Improvement: Every employee should always be thinking about how to better perform their job.

You could sum up the goal of TQM in this way: "Do things right the first time, every time."

The History of Total Quality Management

There is no single, agreed-upon source for the phrase total quality management. Some experts believe it came from two books by seminal quality management thinkers: Armand Feigenbaum's Total Quality Control and Kaoru Ishikawa's What Is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way. Others say the terminology arose from an initiative in the United States Navy to adopt quality management guru William Deming's recommendations, which they termed total quality management. TQM did not enjoy widespread acceptance until the 1980s.

The roots of the principles and practice of TQM extend back to the early 20th century and Frederick Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management, which advocated a consistent way of performing tasks and inspecting finished work to prevent defective products from leaving the shop. Further innovation came in the 1920s with Walter Shewhart's elaboration of statistical process controls, which one could apply at any point in the production process to predict quality levels. It was Shewhart who developed the control chart, used today for managing with Kanban and Agile.

Throughout the 20s and 30s, Shewhart's friend and mentee, William Deming, developed statistical process control theories that he would eventually use to help the US Census department in the early 1940s. This was the first use of statistical process control in a non-manufacturing field.

The Beginning of the Quality Era in Japan

After the war, other American quality theorists, including Deming, who would achieve hero status in Japan, advised Japanese industry on how to improve processes and output to rebuild their war-shattered economy. At the time, the term made in Japan was synonymous with shoddy craftsmanship. As early as 1945, such visionaries as electrical engineer Homer Sarasohn spoke about controlling variation and monitoring process to produce better deliverables.

As a result, in the 1950s, quality became the byword for Japanese manufacturing. Quality concerned not just management, but all levels of a company. In the 1960s, quality circles began appearing in Japanese workplaces to allow employees the opportunity to discuss problems and consider solutions, which they then presented to management. Starting on the factory floor, quality circles spread to other functional departments. The company-wide focus on quality may also provide a clue to the origin of the phrase total quality.

Total Quality Management in the USA

By the 1970s, the term made in the USA was no longer a badge of pride. Since the end of WWII, the main effort in American factories was to produce a large quantity of items, maintain the production schedule, and save money. Usability and durability seldom mattered until concerns about lack of product quality reached a fever pitch. As Japan successfully challenged the United States for industrial leadership, US industry now took a page from Japan's quality-improvement book. A new interest in quality management took hold, building on the work of Shewhart's disciples, such as Deming, Josef Juran, and Kaoru Ishikawa in Japan. Influential businessmen like Philip Crosby championed the trend.

Although the growth of TQM seems to have occurred exclusively within the precincts of industry, the basic outlines of the concept owe much to a 1980s US Navy project that used Shewhart and Deming's PDCA (plan, do, check, act) model. Navy guidelines articulated the principles that customer requirements should define quality and continuous improvement should pervade an entire organization. Navy success with the methodology led to TQM's adoption by other armed services, such as the army and coast guard, and eventually the rest of the US government. Congress established the Federal Quality Institute in 1988 to highlight the need for quality management in business and reward organizations for successful implementations.

Total Quality Management Meets the World

Quality management began in manufacturing, and TQM, like it's subsequent methodologies, adapted well to finance, healthcare, and other fields. Some of the landmark companies to adopt TQM include Toyota, Ford, and Philips Semiconductors.

Worldwide, countries such as Germany, France, the UK, and Turkey established TQM standards. But by the 1990s, TQM was superseded by ISO (International Standards Organization), which became the standard for much of continental Europe, and by another methodological response of the 1980s to quality concerns, Six Sigma. Nevertheless, TQM principles form the basis for much of ISO and Six Sigma. For example, PDCA appears under the Six Sigma method DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control). And in the 2000s, the ISO governing body recognized TQM as a foundational philosophy. TQM lives on in data-driven methods for a data-driven age.

William Deming and the Origin of Total Quality Management

Much of our current understanding of the value and pursuit of quality traces back to William Deming. This American statistician, engineer, and management consultant laid many foundations for the use of statistics in production and work management. He introduced statistical process methods to the US Census Bureau in the early 1940s, marking the first time they were used in the business or service sector. During WWII, he advised US business and government on statistical methods to help with planning for wartime manufacturing. After the war, Deming was recruited by no less than General Douglas MacArthur to advise Japanese officials on census models to assess war damage and plan for rebuilding.

Deming distinguished himself among many of the occupying forces by showing a genuine interest in Japan and its culture. Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that the Japanese revere him for his role in midwifing the Japanese economic miracle.

Because Japan lacked abundant natural resources, Japanese leaders viewed the exportation of goods worldwide as their main path to financial success. Their post-war reputation for low-quality products posed a particular challenge to this goal. Deming was invited back to Japan by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), whose president was Kaoru Ishikawa, to discuss quality management, ideas that formed the basis for what later became known as TQM. Japanese products were gradually recognized for usability and durability. In 1960, for his efforts on behalf of Japanese industry, Deming received the Second Order Medal of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor of Japan. By the 1970s, Japanese exports surpassed those of the United States.

By contrast, American goods gained a reputation for poor design and defects. As early as 1940, Juran remarked that producing goods and meeting deadlines took priority, with quality being relegated to the final inspection. Deming believed that as soon as the war was over, US industry lost interest in statistical methods for pursuing quality. Ironically, it was Deming who, in the late 70s and early 80s, introduced the US and the UK to the quality management principles he'd taught in Japan 30 years earlier. In 1967, he published the article "What Happened In Japan?" in the journal Industrial Quality Control. Professionals consider it to be an early version of his famous 14 Points and PDCA cycle.

Although well-known in academic quality control circles, he achieved greater prominence when he was interviewed for the 1980 NBC documentary "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?" In the program, Deming emphasized that, "If you get gains in productivity, it is only because people work smarter, not harder. That is total profit, and it multiplies several times." The documentary revealed another act in Deming's life, that of a sought-after quality consultant to American business. He gained a reputation for bluntness and fearlessness in the presence of senior executives. Legend has it he told senior Ford staff that 85 percent of quality issues resulted from poor management decisions. Some companies rejected him. However, on his advice, Ford conducted user surveys before designing and building the Ford Taurus. In 1992, the Taurus became the number one selling car in the US.

In his 1986 book, Out of the Crisis, he discussed his 14 Points for Management. The following year, at the age of 87, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology. In 1993, the year of his death, he established the Deming Institute.

Why Is Total Quality Management Important to an Organization?

Nichols says that TQM tools and principles acquire power not when an organization creates a dedicated quality department, but when it includes the whole company in the pursuit of high quality. An example is the quality circle, in which workers directly involved in a process brainstorm to discover solutions. "People are a fabulous resource that is frequently underutilized. The leadership often doesn't recognize the value that they bring to the everyday workplace. Employees know how to fix problems," asserts Nichols. In addition to tapping a native resource, implementing a TQM philosophy can help an organization:

Ensure customer satisfaction and customer loyalty

Ensure increased revenues and higher productivity

Reduce waste and inventory

Improve design

Adapt to changing markets and regulatory environments

Increase productivity

Enhance market image

Eliminate defects and waste

Increase job security

Improve employee morale

Reduce costs

Increase profitability

What Are the Costs of Quality?

A fundamental tenet of TQM is that the cost of doing things right the first time is far less than the potential cost of re-doing things. There are also residual losses when customers abandon products and brands for quality reasons. Some schools of thought view quality as having a cost which cannot be recouped. Juran, Deming, and Feigenbaum held a different view. For advocates of TQM, the cost of quality really describes the cost of not creating a quality deliverable. There are four primary cost categories:

Appraisal Costs: Appraisal costs cover inspection and testing throughout the production cycle. This includes verifying that the materials received from the supplier meet specifications and ensuring that products are acceptable at each stage of production.

Prevention Costs: Prevention costs include proper setup of work areas for efficiency and safety, and proper training and planning. This type of cost also includes conducting reviews. Prevention-related activities often receive the smallest allocation of a company's budget.

External Failure Costs: This category concerns the cost of issues following a product's market release. They may include warranty issues, product recalls, returns, and repairs.

Internal Failure Costs: Internal failures are the costs of problems before products reach customers. Examples of internal failures include broken machines, which cause delay and downtime, poor materials, scrapped product runs, and designs that require rework.

Total Quality Management Models

Although TQM does not possess one universally recognized body of knowledge, organizations do pattern their efforts after a few formal models, including several industry entities and awards.

The Deming Application Prize was created in Japan in 1950 by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) to acknowledge companies and individuals from around the world for their successful efforts at implementing TQM. Winners have included Ricoh, Toyota, Bridgestone Tire, and many others.

Congress established The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) in 1987 to raise awareness of quality and reward US companies who pursue it. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) administers the award. It is given to large and small companies and nonprofit entities that demonstrate excellent performance in the following areas:

Delivery of increasing value to customers and stakeholders, contributing to organizational sustainability

Improvement of overall organizational effectiveness and capabilities

Implementation of organizational and personal learning

Past winners have included the Chugach School District, Concordia Publishing House, and Boeing Mobility.

The nonprofit European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) was established in 1989 to provide a quality framework for organizations throughout Europe. They maintain the EFQM excellence model, which embraces the following precepts:

Adding value for customers

Creating a sustainable future

Developing organizational capability

Harnessing creativity and innovation

Leading with vision, inspiration, and integrity

Managing with agility

Succeeding through the talent of people

Sustaining outstanding results

Participating organizations can partake of training and assessment tools and may apply for the EFQM Excellence Award.

The International Organization for Standards (ISO 9000) publishes guidelines and specifications for parts, processes, and even documentation to ensure that quality is consistent across companies, organizations, and borders.

How Do You Implement Total Quality Management?

PDCA lies at the core of many 20th century quality efforts. PDCA began in the 1920s as a conception by engineer and statistician Walter Shewhart. It was originally called PDSA (plan, do, study, act). Widely disseminated by Deming, who referred to it as the Shewhart cycle, it is now often referred to as the Deming cycle.

" Plan: The planning phase is the most important. That's where management, along with the associates, identify the problems to see what really needs to be addressed - the day-to-day things that may be happening on the productivity side that management is not aware of. So they're trying to determine a root cause. Sometimes, employees do research or high-level tracking to narrow down where an issue may originate.

Do: The doing phase is the solution phase. Strategies are developed to try to fix those problems identified in the planning phase. Employees may implement solutions and if a solution doesn't appear to work, it's back to the drawing board. In contrast to Six Sigma, it's less about measuring gains and more about whether the employees judge the solution to be working.

Check: The checking phase is the before and after. So after you've made these changes, you see how they're doing.

Act: The acting phase is the presentation or the documentation of the results to let everybody know, 'Hey, here's how we were doing it. Here's how it is now. This is the new way, and this is what this should address going forward.'"

Nichols says that in 2000, ISO acknowledged PDCA as a foundational method. It appears again in Six Sigma as the DMAIC method (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control). Walters notes that TQM is much more people oriented, while Six Sigma is process based. He sees, for example, that the term define "takes the human element out" and the term measure focuses on data.

Total Quality Management, Kaizen, and Six Sigma: Which One When?

While TQM's method of using employees as a source of ideas and solutions can help companies, Six Sigma's process and measurement focus - which promotes data-driven decisions - offers compelling benefits. Walters uses the example of producing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"We'd start out with two pieces of bread, add the peanut butter, add the jelly, and put the two pieces of bread together. But, maybe the edges are smashed together. Maybe the corners are damaged. Or, when our customers get it, they say the bread is soggy. Within that process, we're not sure whether we're putting on too much jelly or whether we're using the wrong type of peanut butter. You just don't know what it is, so you have these group meetings and brainstorm until your customer response is what you want, and the level of acceptance of your quote unquote quality product is where you desire it to be," says Walters.

With Six Sigma, however, the questioning process would drill down to the details. What kind of bread were you using? What kind of peanut butter? What kind of jelly?

"That to me is the benefit because it takes the onus off the people and focuses strictly on the process," asserts Walters. "So, if we tighten up the process, we can feel like we already have quality people. And after the process is repeating in the same manner, even if there are other performance issues, that automatically sets you back to the human side. But then you can manage the human issue properly because you don't have to worry about your processes. Your numbers aren't changing."

Walters states further that most companies want to develop brand loyalty, even if their product is essentially the same as a competitor's. "If we use TQM, we hope a product is of better quality, so you'll come back. With TQM, you have to wait for your customers to confirm that it's good. With Six Sigma, at the end of the day, you don't guess if your product is better. You know it. If you properly identify your market and your product has the best fit for the niche, you know you have the best product from a process perspective. That leads to the deeper relationships," he says.

If Six Sigma can offer definitive results for an existing process and TQM can help achieve results over time, where does Kaizen fit? Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning philosophy of improvement. It includes the 5 Ss, seiri, seiton, seiso, Seiketsu, and shitsuke, translated loosely into English as sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. Kaizen is considered more of a philosophy for how to organize your workspace and the larger workplace and how to have the right attitude toward your work and coworkers.

Kaizen events are improvement efforts that involve small teams that spend a short time, usually about a week, considering and testing improvements. The team then presents its findings to management. Management periodically reviews the solutions to make sure that they continue to benefit the team.

Like TQM, Kaizen approaches efforts from the perspective that the whole company is responsible for quality and that improvement must be continuous. It is generally less methodological than Six Sigma, although Kaizen may inform the lean aspect of Lean Six Sigma.

The Seven Basic Tools of Total Quality Management

According to the experts, the basic tools of TQM allow anyone - even someone without statistical training - to gather data to illuminate most problems and reveal possible solutions. Here are the seven basic tools of TQM:

Check Sheet: This is a pre-made form for gathering one type of data over time, so it's only useful for frequently recurring data.

Pareto Chart: The chart posits that 80 percent of problems are linked to 20 percent of causes. It helps you identify which problems fall into which categories.

Cause and Effect Diagram or Ishikawa Diagram: This diagram allows you to visualize all possible causes of a problem or effect and then categorize them.

Control Chart: This chart is a graphical description of how processes and results change over time.

Histogram Bar Chart: This shows the frequency of a problem's cause, as well as how and where results cluster.

Scatter Diagram: This diagram plots data on the x and y axes to determine how results change as the variables change.

Flow Chart or Stratification Diagram: This represents how different factors join in a process.

The Key Players in Total Quality Management: Customers, Suppliers, and Employees

To achieve success with a total quality management program or any other improvement methodology, managers must understand the quality goals for their product or company. They must then communicate those goals, in addition to the benefits of TQM, to the company, as employees play a vital role by contributing their intimate, day-to-day knowledge of product creation and processes.

TQM is a philosophy that values comprehensiveness. Therefore, suppliers are a crucial part of TQM execution. Companies must vet new suppliers and regularly audit existing suppliers to guarantee that materials meet standards. Communication with suppliers about TQM goals is also essential.

Customers are the most significant part of the TQM equation. After all, they're the reason for TQM's existence. Aside from the obvious feedback the sales team provides, customers - product or service users - give information about what they want from the deliverable, whether that deliverable is tangible or a service.

Certifications in Total Quality Management

Since its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, TQM has been largely superseded by Six Sigma and ISO 9000. "The thing about Lean and Six Sigma is that they have a very definite set of methods to achieve these goals effectively. You go do x, y, and z," explains Nichols. "ISO is a universal standard, and it's clear what you have to do.Of course, what goes along with that is that you can be certified, which is outside the scope or remit of TQM," concludes Nichols. He suggests that TQM lost traction in the UK because Europe adopted ISO in the 1990s. Today, formal TQM training is rare. Nichols suggests that companies with interest in pure TQM may pursue something like the Baldrige award.

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All About Total Quality Management (TQM) | Smartsheet

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Multipart article Today, we take for granted that the items and services we consume should work well as soon as we purchase them. In fact, many Industrial and post-industrial societies have simply discarded what doesn't work. However, there was a time when quality and effectiveness were not always the priority for goods and service providers.