Total Quality Management Based on Deming's Principles

1. The effects that the style of management will have on the operation of a Quality Circle are vast but it is easy to figure out which styles are best for the productivity of the team. Participative management is the opposite of the autocratic leadership style. It involves all employees in the management process and decision making by having managers set policies to move the group towards consensus and make key decisions based upon the advice and ideas of subordinates. This method provides management with more information from the front line and motivates the workers as they have some control of the decisions. This involves patience on the part of management. The style of management can also effect the encouragement of employees to tell management about obstacles they face in trying to meet quality goals. For example, theory X managers tend to make the employees nervous and stressed, by using threats, fear, and “carrot and stick” methods to achieve performance. Therefore employees are more reluctant to approach the manager about the problems they are having meeting the quality goals. Theory Y managers differ from theory X managers in their social relationship with their subordinates. They use this relationship to satisfy their created desires and to achieve job satisfaction. Theory Y managers make the work of their subordinates rewarding and interesting in such a way that will give them what they want which usually results in their response giving the managers what they need.

2. The purposes that Quality Circles serve in a Total Quality Management system is to blend participative management approaches, classical problem solving, work simplification, and statistical control to improve quality. Quality circles make management easier because the teams are put together with respect to what department the employees are involved in thus making problem solving much faster. To help explain how management can benefit from this take the production department as an