I feel it’s important to learn about the subject of total quality management (TQM) when dealing with operations management. Total Quality Management and continuous improvement put tremendous emphasize on the importance of empowering employees within an organization. When managers give employees certain freedom such as to think and take action on given situations, this act gives employees a sense of power which will make them feel closer to an organization. With empowerment, managers must also accept new responsibilities emerging from implementing this new approach.
Organizations have to realize by allowing employees to take corrective action when customers are satisfied, this will lead to improvement in customer service, speedy business transactions, and possibly increases in quality of products. On the other hand, problems can arise if manager fail to combine technical skills with personal skills to manage their human resources. Unproductive decisions, lack of communications, and legal actions are some problems relating to TQM and empowering employees. But to make decision you have to understand there are potential of making errors.
The best way to overcome such problems is with a concise training procedure. Each employee that is given responsibility should be properly trained to make such decisions. If an employee does not have knowledge to make proper decision, the organization could have some problems. If employees are properly trained, empowering employee can be a cost effective tool for an organization.
The positives of empowering employees and the TQM process clearly outweigh its negatives. Word Count: 243
