The Emerging Managerial Paradigm
The Emerging Managerial Paradigm
In simplicity, "Managerial Paradigm" is the way people think and act in conducting business. It provides a structure - rules and standards - as well as accepted norms of managerial practice, laws, theories, applications, and instruments.
The developed world, including the U.S., Japan, Europe and the Oragnisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, have enjoyed being part of the most productive and powerful economies in the world. They have encountered intense global competition in the last few decades from emerging Asian economies.
While the managers in the developed world were enjoying a stage of normalcy, with business as usual, global competitors, including those from the Asian Newly Industrialised Economies (NIEs), shifted to a different paradigm of management - a new framework for managerial thought and practice. As a result, the U.S. and European managers moved
from a stage of normalcy to a stage of anomalities and aberration, where nothing seemed to work like it used to.
Global competitors, especially from the Far East, had written the rules of the new economic game. Competitors and customers now, constantly, challenge U.S. and European managers to shift to a new paradigm or be left behind by these rapid changes. This new paradigm is still emerging and being refined in the booming Asian economies. However, its core idea
is that, managers must think and act to improve organisational systems to provide superior customer value.
Note, the key word here is 'improvement'; and this is where Total Quality Management (TQM)...click comes in.
Paradigm Shifts And The Pervasive Change
Global competition coupled with rapid changes have intensified the manager's efforts to search for new ideas and values of management. Mangement has to see total quality as a key to survival...click. The big three in the American automobile industry have systematically lost market share to the determined Japanese competitiors, like Toyota and Nissan. Boeing and McDonnell Douglas have lost market share to their new European rival, Airbus. Relentless advances in technology, open and close markets as products rapidly move through ever-short life cycles. In the mid-1980s, compact disk (CD) players replaced phonographic record players almost overnight, and advancements in laser technology are rapidly replacing CDs.
Why Even TQM is Not Working?
Logistical innovations and better communications have increased accesability to even the remotest corners of the earth. As technological and the economic developments continue, the number of global competitors will continue to increase. Customers, now, expect more because competitors offer more. Hence, managers everywhere are realizing that traditional approaches to management fall too short of keeping up with these rapid and pervasive changes. Managers know that the tradional approaches alone cannot provide them with the means or the incentives to continuously make the required improvements. In an effort to do things differently, and to follow the current fad (everybody is doing it, why can't we!), managers have tried implementing quality...click improvement programs, such as ISO9000...click certification. They have even tried TQM. To their horror some managers find that the things are still not working in their favour, and their quality imrovement efforts have failed. There is no instant gratification from these efforts. Hence, the disappointment and disillusionment, disturbingly and distractingly, dampen the spirits of managers. The reason for the disappointment with TQM is that managers often treat it as just another 'program' to be implemented. Facilitators, trainers and consultants are assigned to offer comprehensive training. New sets of aims, objectives and goals are set. Managers, happy with themselves and their efforts then, start to expect quick results. What managers fail to understand is that implementing another 'program' with a three-letter acronym - TQM - is not the way to stay competitive. A full, complete and total transformation is required, in their thinking, attitude and the way they act and manage. The traditional walls of thinking and action must come down. The changes required of these managers are profound. Todays managers must realise that they do not need another program, but another paradigm.
The Nature Of Paradigm And Pardigm Shifts
Change, like death, is, perhaps, the only certainty in this uncertain environment of this world. Change must be properly managed. Everybody in every business is talking about 'paradigm' these days. Very few understand the real power of the concept. It is an absolute fact that the notion of 'paradigm' and 'paradigm shifts' is one of the keys to managing change. Someone has defined paradigm as the "universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners." The concept of paradigm, here, applies to the development of science. It could easily be applied to the organizations and management.
Paradigm And Paradigm Shift Defined
Three Stages Of Managerial Paradigm Shift
Total Quality Management Defined
Deming's Fourteen Elements of Total Quality
Deming's Seven Deadly Diseases
Reasons Why TQM Programs Do Not Work
Total Qulaity Management Constituents
Total Quality : Looking Beyond The Horizon
Total Quality : Key To Survival
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