The Role of Quality Managers in Contemporary Organizations, Article Critique Example

Within this article, Elg, Gremyr, Hellstrom, and Witell (2011) discuss the importance of the role of quality managers in contemporary organizations. The purpose of this article was to contribute to the understanding of how management of quality is practiced and designed within contemporary organizations. It is common that in business quality serves as the essential focus of competitiveness. This economy is allows for greater opportunity for incoming and sustaining businesses, and provides great distress. After decades of research of work conducted by Deming, Juran Crosby, and Ishikawa (2001) they define quality management as, states that quality management is a ‘philosophy or an approach to management that can be characterized by its principles, practices and techniques’ (Elg, Gremyr, Hellstrom, Witell 2011) The problem lies with few studies being conducted on how quality management could be put into organizations.

The present study within the article using the usual management systems such as, ISO 9000, Benchmarking, Six Sigma, and TQM in order to enhance organizational performances. While these have been the typical mechanisms use they have also contributed to the failures of quality management in organizations. The study was designed to explore the landscape of the quality manager. (Elg, Gremyr, Hellstrom, Witell 2011) They developed a survey and received 212 responses out of the 800 surveys sent. The response rate of 32 percent, from quality managers at Swedish organizations. The survey included various manufacturing industries, including mechanical engineering, electronic and optical equipment, mechanical equipment, and others. The results of the study concluded that the companies that adopted a wide range of quality initiatives, and while the quality managers can have various roles in organizations, the operational responsibility of quality managers are specifically defined.

The team relied on previous research of quality management where they concluded that must be considered. The question that the review of literature raises is that if quality in the organization is everyone’s responsibility or if it is the function within the organization. The second focus is that different quality programmers can generate different roles for the quality manager. The third aspect is the responsibility can be focus of implemented a profession of quality that is integrated with business management. The fourth aspect is that quality manager should be specialized in the organizations quality initiatives and aspects of technology. The last focus is on the consideration of formal and informal networks externally and internally of the organization. The survey developed was based on the intention of capturing the practical experiences about quality management from the respondents. The survey was 28 questions base don discussions from professionals, literature reviews, and scholars within the field of quality management.

This article was well formulated with the purpose of exploring the significance of applying the practice of quality management in organizations. The research showed that in 48 percent of the cases reviewed that the quality manager was responsible for the organization unit of quality management (Elg, Gremyr, Hellstrom, Witell 2011). This article is right in pointing out the roles and responsibility of quality management. The outdated mechanisms used to measure the quality performance failed at quality management within organizations. The role of the quality manager varies between different organizations and the definition that the quality managers hold themselves also varies. The roles includes; educator, trainer, analyst, developer of methods, and a strategist (Elg, Gremyr, Hellstrom, Witell 2011). The entire unit role is based on the operative functions that work to improve the product quality and represent the wants of the organization’s customers. According to the article an is right in their assessment is that the work of quality management is focus on the customers and the involvement of everyone in the organization, with the main focus on cost, standardization, competence development, and product management.

What can be taking away from this article is through all the empirical studies and research conducted that practice of quality management is not accurately defined. The problem with this article is that it doesn’t place the accurate review on Total Quality Management (TQM) that has been proven to be an efficient process of organization functioning and advancement. It has worked universally in different organizations, and through a well justified implementation process. (Boljevic, 2007) TQM like the other system is customer focused, employment involvement from all employees, take into account the process externally and internally, and integrated systems. (ASQ, n.d) What is pointed out is that the role of quality management it is limited based on the organizations studied. The ways that this study can be improved on expanding how different organizations view the roles of quality management is including different organizations. This study is limited to the research conducted and the organizations that are included. A broader view must be presented on how quality management is implemented in organizations, and the roles of quality managers in its operative approach.

The conclusion of this study resulted in the team finding that the responsibility of quality managers are narrowly defined, and that the previous quality standards do not focus on all the operative services, and the role of the quality manager does not include being a strategist. The definition of the quality manager is a, “long term company man who often has been recruited internally” (Elg, Gremyr, Hellstrom, Witell 2011). In their conclusion they believe that quality management research has excluded the understanding and evaluating of how quality should be managed in organizations. The questions include, the status of ISO certificate, alternative ways quality is managed, and that the research needs to be more sensitive and create questions that are valid and relevant for the organizations. The evidence of the research that is presented from the study is put forward in the conclusion. The recommendations that are present are also in agreement with the problems presented in this paper. To narrow of organizations are presented in this study, and the quality of questions needs to be developed based on the organizations that are being surveyed. Having a 32 percent response is not accurate in given a measurable response of how quality management and quality managers are used in the contemporary organization. The roles of both generally will differ based on the organization, industry, and he country that is being surveyed. The opinion of the paper is relevant with the conclusion of the results of the study. The conclusions drawn are important and useful in the few research that has been conducted on the subject. However Grigorios Kyriakopoulus (2011) also conducted research on the role of quality management implementation based on customer satisfaction, customer consultation, and self-assessment. (Kyriakopoulos, 2011) Their results that with an efficient implantation where proposed modifications applied to the existing systems can help improve service quality schemes.

In conclusion the flow of the paper is well formulated that presents the results, the design, and the purpose of the study was provided at the beginning of the research. The flow then went to previous research that was conducted in order to provide the team with various questions to aid in their design of the questionnaires for the Swedish organization. The method as noted earlier can be improved on in increasing the response rate, changing different methods in contacting responders, and sending out to several different organizations in more diverse industries. The article is able to flow in an coherent, and intelligible voice that allows the reader to assess the purpose and importance of applying correct practices of quality management.

References

Boljevic, A. (2007). The Importance of Top Quality Management in Contemporary Management. Serbian Journal of Management 2 (2) pp 217-226. Retrieved from http://www.sjm06.com/SJM%20ISSN1452-4864/2_2_2007_November_101-280/2_2_217-226.pdf

Elg, Mattais, Gremyr, Ida, Hellstrom,Andreas, Witell, Lars.(2011). Total Quality Management & Business Excellence. Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ctqm20

Kelemen, Mihaela. (2006). Managing Quality: Managerial and Critical Perspectives. Sage Knowledge. Retrieved from http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/managing-quality/n4.xml

Kyriakopoulos, Grigorios L. (2011). The role of quality management for effective implementation of customer satisfaction, customer consultation, and self-assessment, within service quality schemes: A Review. African Journal of Business Management Vol 5(12) pp 4901-4915. Retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/ajbm/pdf/pdf2011/18June/Kyriakopoulos.pdf

Nasir, Jamal Abdul. (2013)The Role of Organizational Learning in the Relationship Between Quality Management Practices and Organizational Performance. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business Vol. 4 No.9. Retrieved from http://journal-archieves27.webs.com/72-92.pdf

Total Quality Management (TQM). (n.d). ASQ. Retrieved from http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/total-quality-management/overview/overview.html