The modern business world is characterized by stiff competition, so organizations need effective strategies to maintain their competitive advantage. The use of total quality management (TQM) approach is now seen as one of the ways to attain this goal (van Kemenade and Hardjono, 2019). This model was developed in the middle of the twentieth century and is still common in manufacturing as well as other industries (Bouranta et al., 2019; Saleh, Sweis and Saleh, 2018). This brief report includes a description of the benefits of TQM compared to the utilization of the traditional management paradigm.
The major emphasis of TQM is on customers, teamwork, and continuous improvement (Dean and Bowen, 1994). Although traditional management systems also encompass these aspects, TQM is characterized by a greater precision and focus on improvement (Dahlgaard-Park, Reyes and Chen, 2018). The company has a set of goals that address strategic development and all major operations, and employees are encouraged to achieve the established goals. The empowerment of the personnel is another substantial difference as traditional management systems tend to lack the necessary levels of employee empowerment (Aquilani et al., 2017). At that, this feature of TQM contributes to the development of high morale as people are motivated to participate in decision making and the formulation of objectives, as well as exploring their creativity to reach the goals (Sahoo and Yadav, 2017; Antunes, Quirós and Justino, 2017). People’s entrepreneurial orientation is enhanced due to empowerment, which has a positive impact on TQM implementation and the company’s performance (Saleh, Sweis and Saleh, 2018). A high degree of collaboration among employees is another peculiarity of TQM that favorably affects the development of the company.
The focus on continuous improvement is deeply rooted in the assumption that organizations consist of interdependent parts, so comprehensive approaches should be utilized to improve performance or certain operations (Hackman and Wageman, 1995). Traditional management systems mainly focus on specific issues and areas of concern without implementing changes to a wide range of practices. TQM, on the contrary, implies the focus on all aspects related to an issue and the use of an evidence-based approach (Pambreni et al., 2019). Employees are motivated to identify possible flaws in the current operations and come up with effective solutions. Effective knowledge management is an important framework that can facilitate the use of TQM (Honarpour, Jusoh and Nor, 2017). The development of detailed instructions and sound standards is another peculiarity of TQM. These guidelines and policies are evidence-based and often related to the work of diverse parts of the organization. Traditional management systems often lack such comprehensive standards, and the process of their development is often associated with resistance to change and low compliance. TQM encompasses employees’ active participation in the decision-making process, so the change is accepted without meaningful resistance.
In conclusion, it is necessary to note that total quality management is a preferable approach, especially when it comes to manufacturing although companies providing services also benefit from the use of this paradigm. The three pillars of TQM are continuous improvement, employee empowerment, and teamwork. One of the basic differences between TQM and traditional management systems is that the change occurs at different levels, and the introduced improvements affect many processes. Although the implementation of TQM requires certain investment and staff training, it has considerable positive effects on organizations’ performance, so modern businesses often choose this model.
Reference List
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