Speaker(s): Michael Beer (HBS)
Title:
Abstract
Top down TQM programs often fail to create deep and sustained change in
organizations. They become a fad soon replaced by another fad. Failure to
institutionalize TQM can be attributed to a gap between top management's
rhetoric about their intentions for TQM and the reality of implementation in
various sub-units of the organization. The gap varies from sub-unit to sub-unit
due to the quality of management in each. By quality of management is meant the
capacity of senior team to 1) develop commitment to the new TQM direction and
behave and make decisions that are consistent with it, 2) develop the
cross-functional mechanisms, leadership skills and team culture needed for TQM
implementation, and 3) to create a climate of open dialogues about progress in
the TQM transformation that will enable learning and further change. TQM
transformations will persist only if top management requires and ultimately
institutionalizes an honest organizational wide conversation that surfaces valid
data about the quality of management in each sub-unit of the firm and leads to
changes in management quality or replacement of managers.
Subject Areas
Total Quality Management, Organizational Change, Strategy Implementation,
Leadership and Organizational Learning