Events | Number 5, June 2004 | Quality Management

Quality Management

M Pessaran Ghader

Majid Pessaran Ghader is the Academic and Research Consultant to the Management and Planning Organization of Iran. He is also the editor-in-chief of Administrative Reform periodical. He is also the Secretory to the Technical Committee of the International Conference on Quality Management. He holds a doctorate degree in Public Sector Management.

In Iran, Quality Management has a 10-year history, during which we have witnessed its rapid growth and the establishment of various quality management systems in technical and specialized areas. According to the statistics of International Standardization Organization (ISO) Iran’s growth in this field as compared to other countries has been very promising and many Iranian organizations have welcomed the establishment of quality management systems. In practice, however, they have faced difficulties, the most important of which has been the absence of proper cultural grounds necessary for the implementation of these systems, and a lack of adequate understanding of it.

The International Conference on Quality Management which has so far held three rounds of conferences in Tehran, has attempted to overcome these shortcomings. As a result of its efforts the country’s High Council for Administrative Reform has now made it mandatory that Quality Management Systems be implemented in selected public sector organizations on a trial basis. The Conference has also resulted in the Center for Technological Development and Administrative Renovation to become the entity in charge of making possible the implementation of these systems in government organizations.

Quality Management in globalization of Iran’s economy
The globalization process does not ignore Iran nor can Iran ignore foreign markets. Therefore, it is of great importance that our industries and businesses adopt a customer-satisfaction approach as their most strategic national movement towards quality.

Safe and secure boarders no longer protect local businesses. Technological advances together with modern communications leave no impenetrable boarder. Today’s economy is no longer based on macroeconomic leverage but on modern agencies which rely on competitive advantages, which is in turn based on comparative advantages all of which depend on Quality Management. We have to revise our management structures and reengineer our organizations. We must see quality as a global concept. We must give first priority to the demands of the customer, and develop a customer-oriented atmosphere through our civil institutions and professional bodies and make it a part of sustainable development. To ensure that our organizations can meet world standards we need to make sure of certain facts, as follows:

Organizations and executive bodies must identify products and services that meet the satisfaction of customers

Ceaseless effort
must be made to meet customer satisfaction

The organization’s values must be fully understood by the employees, clients and those who have interests in the organization

The organization must have the capacity and ability to foresee changes in the market and the needs and demands of the clients, and be ready to meet them

We must be able to compete with the best worldwide

The senior managements in charge of planning must prepare their organizations such as to be able to compete with foreign products similar to theirs.

How to develop a Quality Management culture
At first glance Total Quality Management may seem to be purely a technological issue but in practice it will not work without adequate consideration being given to cultural and political matters such as the followings:
1. Managers, both in the public and private sectors, must give in-depth consideration to TQM and to fundamental factors of leadership, and must instill commitment and faith in senior and middle managers.
2. A quality culture must be developed among the employees through proper education and training.
3. The various organizational systems must be supported in the public sector, and attention must be given to TQM systems including human resources systems, IT, budgeting and allocation of resources…
4. A Quality Management Model must be developed based on the demands and expectations of stakeholders while giving consideration to the demands of the country’s executive system and eradicating anxieties with respect to job insecurity and unemployment
5. The technique of force field analysis must be used to identify driving and restraining forces with the aim of facilitating change due to establishment of TQM Model.
6. Employee participation must be encouraged in decision-makings on the various aspects of establishing this model with the aim of raising the level of commitment.

The impediments to Quality Management
There are various factors that act as impediment to the development of Quality Management, notably:
1. Cultural impediments: these are the most difficult to overcome because human beings are captives of their thoughts and habits which are contrary to new ways.
2. Relational impediments: if senior and strategic managers demand expertise and responsibility but impede exchange of information and intra-organization relations, crises may occur
3. Organizational impediments: long and complicated processes and bureaucracies often result in delays in responses to clients.
4. Hardware and material impediments: these are easily overcome through simple decision-making and some investment
5. Bureaucratic control and supervisory impediments: these create high walls that separate the managers from the staff. In fact quality must be produced not controlled and a self-control culture in TQM must replace this kind of culture.

The factors that slow down the effective establishment of Quality Management include:

Lack of knowledge by clients as to their own rights; and absence of proper laws that protect the clients and impose responsibility with respect to the product

Absence of competition in the international market and a closed economy

Access to cheap resources (human, energy, raw materials...) • Lack of information on quality in the society

Lack of regulations and standards

Environmental peculiarities and absence of competition

Absence of meritocracy.
There are three major reasons why a certain country can make greater progress than others:

Education with respect to quality

Programmes to improve quality

Direction on quality by the leadership system and the senior managements of organizations.

A national will combined with proper planning can lead to the establishment of a quality culture in both product and service sectors.

The Iranian government must look at the issue of establishing QM systems from two perspectives:

A- Within the organizations

1- Strategic management approach, a proper vision for strategic development and revising the government’s mission based on new theories
2- Environmental analysis, customer market within the country and abroad
3- Proper cognition of product and services within the country and abroad
4- Defining national goals and strategies for sustainable development
5- Cognition of potential abilities and opportunities and awareness of weaknesses and threats
6- Process analysis of the structure of government and identifying main processes
7- Creating quality management systems, reengineering and stabilizing process on the basis of the satisfaction of the High Council for Administrative Reform
8- HR development and empowering employees
9- Creating a commitment culture and self assessment and self monitoring systems (down-up monitoring)
10- Creating environments of creativity and innovation in executive organizations
11- Employing continual improvement and continual incremental techniques.

B- Without organizations

1- Compiling total quality strategies for production and exports during the Fourth Plan
2- Reengineering the cooperative sector towards cooperation among local and external economic entities to increase comparative advantages
3- Reforming and improving service rendering processes and compiling regulations for global activities
4- Rehabilitation of young, educated human resources for effective presence in local and external markets
5- Allocation of credits of executive bodies towards evolution in management systems and applying assessment management of performances
6- Compiling standards and technical regulations
7- IT and advanced communications transfer
8- Protecting organizations to improve government produced products.

Finally attention must be paid to education and development of FREE BIRDS FLY models suggested in Iran’s Second Conference on Quality Management, held in the year 2000 in Tehran.