Globalization in the business theater is driving companies toward a new view of quality as a necessary tool to compete successfully in worldwide markets. A direct outcome of this new emphasis is the philosophy of total quality management (TQM). In essence, TQM is a company-wide perspective that strives for customer satisfaction by seeking zero defects in products and services.
TQM functions on the premise that the quality of products and processes is the responsibility of everyone who is involved with the creation or consumption of the products or services offered by an organization. In other words, TQM capitalizes on the involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and even customers, in order to meet or exceed customer expectations.
Making quality improvements was once thought to be the sole responsibility of specialists (quality engineers, product designers, and process engineers). Today, developing quality across the entire firm can be an important function of leadership. a failure on leadership's part to recognize this opportunity and act on it may result in the loss of TQM implementation responsibilities to other departments with less expertise in training and development. The ultimate consequence of this loss is an ineffective piecemealing of the TQM strategy. Thus, leadership should act as the pivotal change agent necessary for the successful implementation of TQM.
Leadership is considered as doing right things while management is doing things right. Hence for a manager, efficiency is the criteria while effectiveness is the criteria for a leader.
Leadership is influencing the people so that all of them do the right things, the right way at the right time willing, on their own, so that the organization grows and the purpose fulfilled
What is the role of leadership in TQM Implementation?
Leadership can act as senior management's tool in