A new concept : Total Quality Management

Lunminthang Haokip *

Total Quality Management, shortened as TQM, of late, has become an interesting subject of study in Public Service Organizations which are motivated to learn more about, in management of accessing services to the public. Administrative Training Institutions have made it a part and parcel of their highest-level programs. Quality in anything, reassures the customer's trust and endorsement in a product, brand or service.

TQM has become the buzzword in GoI Ministries, Corporate houses and in the circles of Public Utility Service Providers. When it comes to facilitating good service, the best definition came from Philip Crosby, "Getting everyone to do what they have agreed to do and to do it right the first time is the skeletal structure of an organization, finance is the nourishment and relationships are the soul."

Lack of Quality Causes Regret : A power-bank pack purchased from the electronic shops of Nehru Place, South Delhi, for example, takes longer time to recharge itself, but gives the confidence in the owner that low-battery will give no worry to his hand phone in sojourns where power supply may not be there.

You may get similarly packaged replicas at a cheaper rate at the sprawling Namphalong market located on the fringe of Indian border, adjacent to Moreh town. When the inferior copy fails to deliver the desired results, the customer would rather wish to have a costlier one for better effect. The same logic goes in the tastes of guests in hospitality services.

Services of day-to-day application like electrical and water supplies, mobile network providers, solid waste disposal and sewerage systems etc need to continually get better in maintenance to avoid complaints from users. The process of staying on par on the part of an agency may succinctly be defined by 5Ss – Sort (clearing the clutter), Systematize (a place for everything), Sanitize, Standardize, and Self-discipline (habit to follow the above 4S).

TQM for Offices: One common sight in our offices is piles of voluminous old files dumped close to the desks of lower-level functionaries. The stacks of papers turning brownish gather dust because they are hardly touched. Private Companies, NGOs and Banks are a lot saner in maintaining old files and orderliness in office-run. Many of the assistants are low on information because age had rendered them too clumsy to handle computers.

Our average record management, work environment and incumbents' morale calls for periodical up-gradation. Add to this the need to address long and opaque processes that we follow. An employee narrated in good humour as to how an electric heater demanded in the chill of winter was delivered to him in the heat of summer. In this area, diligent application of TQM's 5C principles – Conception, Commitment, Competence, Communication and Continuous Improvement, will recharge the scene

People Management : Background, upbringing and capacity of the rank and file working together under the same office-head differ. The first category of workforce know their responsibilities pretty well with a penchant to work hard. They are the faithful group who are trusted most and who save the boss' skin when urgent matters are to be dispatched. The second ilk of personnel know things in their mind but lack the will to deliver the goods.

This type of employees who slow down the overall performance of the office, are not given much work. The third breed of file-pushers are full of zeal to put in inputs but do not know how to execute them. They are the best candidates for training and capacity-building invites.

Most Colourful Category: The fourth category who give the boss nightmares are those who do not know and do not want to work. This variety of 'office visitors' do nothing in the morning and take rest for doing nothing in the afternoon. They are most visible in the gossip corners of office canteen. One such grade III staff happened to talk ill about his all-knowing Officer to later get a degrading ACR with the remark: "Cannot control his mouth."

To unleash full potential of people, TQM calls for Planning and improvement of resources, Development and sustenance of capabilities, To agree on targets and review performances, To involve, empower, and recognize merits of rank and file, and have effective dialogue with them.

Quality Control: Human nature being what it is, the determination to control the will comes easy to many persons along with every New Year resolution vow. But the 'resistance' without 'penitence' go weak, week after week, to finally crumble down by the fall of Spring. Scoring self-goals on one's characteristic hold takes the guilty dude back to square one.

Thereafter, self-control goes out of control. Jesus put the carnal 'majboori' beautifully in Matthew 26:41, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." If the flesh conquers its tussle with the spirit, the suffering conscience of the host (man) teeters in guilt. Quality of life lies in heeding to the diktats of the head at the expense of snubbing one's inner man at all cost. If a pet sin is won over, tackling lesser temptations will be no great deal. The Bible, the revealed Word of God, is the guideline for living a contented life with no regrets.

The Divine Call to be Holy: "For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy (Leviticus 11:45)."

Quality Emerges out of Holiness God created men after his own image. The entry of sin robbed the first parents of that heavenly likeness of the Almighty. The succeeding generations of fallen generations fell far short of the yardsticks of God's desired righteousness in His creation.

But Jehovah did not want human beings He pinned His hopes on to reclaim the defiled world which was poised to be ruined by the adversary, to rot in hellfire. So, using His Prophets in OT days and His own Son, Jesus, in NT times, we sin-stained humans were beseeched to return to His holy fold.

The main wish Jehovah made known in the Scriptures was that men must forsake the old nature by repenting, confessing their sins and by accepting Christ, the Messiah, as their personal Saviour and Lord. Given a second chance after the collapse of the first man and woman, via divine grace, there is no other way on earth by which we can 'be holy' in God's sight.

Obedience Upgrades Quality of Leadership: All the stake-holders of public services are rooted in families. The exemplary traits rubbed in by Godly mentoring in one's family, for sure, spill over for good in one's place of work. Abraham's unflinching faith and trust in obeying God's Word was like an eternal insurance that covered entire gene-next of his descendants to be on the right side of God's favour.

The manner in which Abraham groomed his family got an outstanding mention from the Creator of heaven and earth, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD….." His progeny, indeed, kept the way of the Lord in leadership and ruled over the Israelites through out the succeeding thousands of years.

One extra-ordinary scion of 'the man who walked with God,' was Joseph whose passionate cling to holiness in the face of alluring temptation, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? (Genesis 39:9)," pleased heaven so much that Joseph was made sort of the 'PM-cum-CEO' of the governance of Egypt from the top level, in times of great famine.

Total Commitment Brings TQM: Be it in Church Ministry, Govt Offices, or in the field of managing Public Utility Services, the ultimate goal is to achieve customers' satisfaction.

Apart from Technical clichés like identifying keys to success of the organization, systematic management, periodical reviews and setting targets for improvement, application of creativity and innovation and evaluation of benefits, we need committed players, who would blaze new trails in replacing Mediocrity with Quality.