Quality Control Revolution, The
In recent decades, the concept of control, especially quality control, has been undergoing a revolution of sorts. To some extent this has been driven by innovative organizational and management techniques first utilized within Japanese industry. In ...
Productivity and Quality
At one time in industrial America, quality and productivity were considered almost mutually exclusive. Today that is not the case, thanks in part to very different attitudes about the role of workers. American managers today are much less likely to ...
Origins of Total Quality Management
The origins of the Total Quality Management philosophy can be traced back more than half a century to the work of W. Edwards Deming. In working with Japanese engineers and scientists to rebuild Japan's industrial capacity following World War Two, De...
Organizational Culture and Quality
In the 1980's, the issue of quality became so critical that an entire philosophy of management--known as total quality management, or "TQM,"--evolved. It was based on the notion that, ultimately, corporate success rests on quality. The impact of thi...
Organizational Culture: Manager's Role, The
A company's culture is much like the culture of a society. It is the sum total of that organization's behaviors, beliefs, and values. One outgrowth of a firm's culture is the environment or "climate" that exists within the organization. Along with w...
Organizational Structure
Organizing, as the word suggests, is the phase of management that defines the structure of an organization. It lays out a set of parts and coordinates efforts to achieve goals developed in the planning phase. In practice, however, many organizations...
Employee Involvement and Empowerment
As many companies increasingly recognize the value of employee involvement, the number of programs designed to encourage this involvement has steadily grown.
Management Revolution, The
While the five management functions continue to be as important as ever, sweeping changes in the business environment threaten many of the basic assumptions and practices that have characterized management over the years.
Management Style and Employee Morale
In any organization, the style of supervision can have a tremendous impact on morale. An autocratic, punitive management style tends to cause many employees to simply do what they're told, often with great resentment. A more participative management...