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What is the purpose of Dr. Deming’s management theory?

After World War II, American industry returned to the production of consumer goods in peacetime, for which there was unmatched demand and without competition. On the fringes of the war, the industrial heartland produced automobiles, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, mixers, lawn mowers, refrigerators, furniture, carpets, and all the goods for the growing postwar suburbs inhabited by a generation of prosperous Americans.

The American corporation had delivered on the promise of “scientific management” made by an influential industrial engineer named Frederick Winslow Taylor more than three decades earlier. Taylor had argued that human performance could be defined and controlled through work rules and regulations. He advocated the use of time and motion studies to break jobs down into simple, separate steps that would be performed repeatedly without deviation by different workers. Minimizing complexity would maximize efficiency, although superior performance was just as bad as inferior performance in a Taylor-style system.

Scientific management evolved during a period of mass immigration, when the workplace was flooded with unskilled and uneducated workers, and it was an efficient way to employ them in large numbers. This was also a period of labor conflict, and Taylor believed that his system would reduce conflicts and eliminate arbitrary uses of power because very little discretion would be left to workers or supervisors. Hence the evolution of the American corporate governance structure, which is governed by rules and is very heavy.

Quality in these postwar years took a back seat in production. Quality control came to mean an inspection at the end of the line. If there were defects and rework, there would be enough profit to cover them. Although some quality control was delayed for a time, particularly in the defense industries, for the most part the techniques taught by Dr. Deming were viewed as unnecessary and time-consuming, and faded away. In 1949, says Dr. Deming sadly, “there was nothing, not even smoke.” This setback only served to strengthen Dr. Deming’s conviction as he considered what had gone wrong.

Purpose of Dr. Deming’s management theory

As a statistician, Dr. Deming’s lifelong mission had been to seek sources of improvement. World War II had accelerated the pace of quality technology, but when World War II ended, progress in quality control began to wane. Many companies saw it as a wartime effort and felt it was no longer necessary in a booming market. Given the failure of statistical methods for quality control to endure, he discovered what might have caused the failure and how to avoid it in the future. He gradually came to the conclusion that what was needed was a fundamental management philosophy, with which the statistical methods were consistent. He was ready with new principles to teach when the Japanese called him in 1950 to help rebuild their country.

The goal of Dr. Deming’s management theory, also known as ‘Deep Knowledge System’, challenges leaders to adopt a new paradigm based on the following three main points:

  • Create an environment that allows everyone to experience “joy in their work” and pride in the result.
  • Optimize the interdependent stakeholder system so that everyone wins. Avoid optimizing the welfare of one stakeholder at the expense of another.
  • Improve and innovate the condition of society.
  • The purpose of the transformation of the new paradigm is to ‘unleash the power of the human resource contained in intrinsic motivation’ and foster an environment of total cooperation between people, departments, companies, governments and countries to achieve mutually beneficial scenarios through improvement. of processes. , teamwork and innovation.

    The deep knowledge system is a suitable theory for leadership in any culture or business. In some circles, people incorrectly think of Total Quality Management with industrial overtones. For example, in healthcare, the customer is the patient, and production could match the quality of patient care. In fact, many of the concepts proposed by TQM are related both to interpersonal interaction and to other more production-oriented criteria.

    Therefore, the key dimensions of TQM can be identified as: team development, statistical quality control, process management, customer needs assessment, fact-based decision making, continuous quality improvement, and benchmarking. Applying this management theory requires focusing on the new kind of world of interdependence in which we now find ourselves. The prevailing paradigm in the Western world is not based on any holistic or comprehensive theory; it is just the cumulative result of a variety of reactive experiences and methods:

  • Reward and punishment are the most important motivators.
  • Winners and losers are necessary in most interactions between people.
  • Results are achieved by focusing on productivity, rather than quality.
  • Your superiors are your most important customers.
  • Competition is a necessary aspect of personal and organizational life.
  • Management by objectives (MBO)
  • Managers who base their leadership on the paradigms listed above will be lost in the new economic era. These leaders need to open their minds and change in order to learn the new paradigms of Total Quality Management (TQM).

    Assumptions of Dr. Deming’s Management Theory

    Dr. Deming’s management theory is based on four assumptions:

    1. The role of management is to optimize the entire system, not just its components

    For example, Western-style management: reward and punishment performance appraisal systems optimize system components.

    For example, Deming-style management: a better way is to evaluate an individual virtue in the long term, to know if it is in the system or outside the system, and to understand performance problems as a special or common cause. According to statistical research by Deming, Ishikawa, and Juran, more than 80% of problems are related to common causes or organizational system problems.

    2. Cooperation works better than competition

    For example, Western-style management: Internal competition to recognize the top 10% of the top salespeople in an organization creates a system in which 90% of the population is labeled underperforming or worse, losers to top performers. the lower half.

    For example, Deming-style management: on any distribution curve, 50% of the population will be below average and only 10% will perform best. There is no point in growing a disgruntled organization because no one wants to label a loser. If the system is stable and has good hiring policies, a better way to manage it is to aim to shift the distribution curve to the right by continually improving and eliminating common causes of variation. All employees in the system should be recognized for company achievements, rather than just the top 10%.

    3. Manage using an orientation to both processes and results, not just results.

    For example, Western-style management: asking to sell 30% more (for an MBO goal) without understanding the process to achieve that goal, or providing a process for achieving the goal, creates a failure syndrome (demanding results unreasonable superiors has the opposite effect that contradicts the Pygmalion effect).

    For example, Deming-style management: a better way is to analyze historical performance using statistics. Then base the sales growth targets within +/- 3 standard deviations from the mean, where 99% of the sample population is predicted to meet the target, and shift the curve to the right improving the sales process. . If a stable system is pushed beyond its limits, the system usually breaks down.

    4. People are motivated by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

    For example, Western-style management: recognizing people solely through extrinsic motivation by giving plaques, letters of praise, bonuses, and pats on the back to motivate employees.

    For example, Deming-style management: A better way is for management to combine extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to increase quality and pride in work. Intrinsic motivation is the enthusiasm and positive stimulation that an individual experiences for the sheer joy of an effort. Management can unleash intrinsic motivation by creating a culture that encourages employee engagement in using process improvement tools such as the Deming Wheel (SDSA and PDSA) to innovate and improve quality.

    Each of these assumptions is directly associated with the interrelationships between people. They all revolve around a key concept, the responsiveness of the management style by those who not only lead, but also those in charge. The implementation of management philosophies obviously revolves around employee motivation, and not all employees are easily motivated or receptive to management styles that differ from those they are used to.

    What motivates an individual, therefore, is at the center of the Total Quality Management philosophy. The theory of motivation itself has a long history of direct and indirect applicability to many aspects of management in general and Total Quality Management in particular. In fact, the importance of teamwork in the organizational environment cannot be underestimated. However, before employees can interact effectively as a team, they must be able to function independently in an efficient and productive manner.

    This independence revolves around numerous factors, some of which were learned in childhood and others can be instilled in the professional sphere. An important part of this independence is being able to relate to colleagues and turn criticism and resistance, which exists from some colleagues, into a positive factor to influence team performance.

    Leaders who apply Deming-style management must be adept at shaping teams and freelancers. A high-performance team is, to some extent, the product of the player’s individual personalities, personalities that have roots from childhood. Deming’s teachings recognize that an individual’s qualities or lack thereof can be refined in the professional workplace. Finally, Deming has influenced my thinking in a number of ways. What stands out is the wisdom behind the value of teamwork, process improvement, individual versus systemic issues, and the ubiquitous power of continuous improvement.

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