Total Quality Management

Five deadly diseases

There are five deadly diseases that must be eliminated from an organization before TQM implementation may be successful. If not eliminated, they may not only prevent the TQM transformation but may gradually destroy the organization. The five deadly diseases are described as follows.

1. Bottom-line management. An organization that is only concerned with the bottom line and manages solely by-the-numbers is doomed to failure. Management is difficult work; a manager who relies heavily on numerical objectives is taking the easy way out. Managers must know the process, get involved in the process, understand the issues, and set examples for their subordinates to follow.
2. Evaluation using organized by-the-numbers performance appraisals. Evaluation using organized performance appraisals, merit ratings, or annual reviews of performance sometimes result in rankings, forced quotas, and many grading categories that act to create competition, which causes a breakdown of teamwork within an organization. Instead of using performance appraisals, managers should provide individual, personal comments to employees to help them improve.
3. Emphasis on short-term gains. When the workforce has had short-term gains rewarded in the past, there is the tendency for employees only to work toward short-term gains. Management must act to ensure employees believe the organization will give priority to long-term improvement over short-term gains.
4. Lack of consistency of purpose. When an organization has no consistency of purpose, the workers are unsure as to their continued evolvement in the organization. An organization must have a constantly pursued long-range plan that promises attention to quality.
5. Mobility of the work force. When employees are constantly leaving an organization, it is indicative of serious problems within the organization. Curing the other deadly diseases may help eliminate this disease. Management must take steps to ensure all employees feel they are an integral part of the organization.