Introduction
Total quality management (TQM) is a system that consists of principles, methods, and best practices that an organization follows in order to excel in everything it does. The aim of TQM is to reduce errors that may occur during the production of goods or the provision of services. Accordingly, TQM ensures that customers are satisfied and that equipment is modernized to enhance improved product quality (Waterhouse and Lewis 362).
TQM works under three main principles and these include the satisfaction of customers, suppliers’ satisfaction, and improvement of business processes. There is a need to examine the application of TQM within an organization of choice. In this report, TQM shall be examined from the point of view of a media organization and in particular, CNN and BBC. To start with, the essay shall discuss the culture of these two organizations.
The essay shall also explore the total quality barriers that are often faced by media organizations. Then, the justification of quality barriers shall be examined, along with an assessment of the Implementation and maintenance of cultural change within a media organization. Characteristics of Quality culture shall also be highlighted. Finally, the paper shall provide recommendations on the improvement of the total quality system within the context of media organizations.
Culture of media organizations
Culture is one of the obstacles that hinder organizations from implementing total quality management. Many organizations are committed to total quality including employees in planning and implementation of TQM. In addition, organizations train their employees so that they may have the required skills but all these efforts go to waste since employees are so conservative and do not want to do things other than the way they have been used to doing them.
In other words, the culture of the organizations has not been changed. Organizational culture refers to the way employees behave at work, what they expect from the organization and from one another, and normal approaches of jobs by employees (Cottle 73). The culture of the organization influences its operations and in the case of media organization, it can act as a constraint limiting acceptance of new products and processes and can also act as a motivator.
For instance in media organization the successes of CNN and BBC is related to their culture in that CNN is the best news organization in the world as it is committed to producing the best programs and BBC is the best quality programmer as it is committed to professional standards and public service ethos(Cottle 82). Moreover, BBC is committed to bettering the lives of the citizens than just being there for financial gain and this acts as a motivator in addition to having a great heritage that is protected by every member and the belief that they are the best broadcasters.CNN, on the other hand, provides entertainment that is free from moral corruption and this makes it earn itself a great number of viewers.
Total Quality Barriers faced by Media organizations
Total Quality Barriers are those factors that hinder an organization from excelling. In media organizations some of these barriers include the fear of employees as this will make them not perform as expected, Suppliers failing to deliver quality data which will make the organization not offer quality services to its customers. In addition, misunderstanding of staff members which creates uncondusive working environment, and lack of proper training of staff members will also act as a barrier to TQM.
Another barrier to TQM of the media organization is the stiff global competition that exists in the market, for instance in the case of CNN and BBC there are many more TV stations that offer the same services as them. Moreover, failing to meet customers’ expectations and lack of TQM theory acts as a barrier as we cannot tell those issues in total quality management that need some interventions.
Reasons as to why the elements discussed above are a barrier to total quality and why they are considered to be quality barriers.
Fear is a barrier to total quality as employees cannot perform according to the expectation and therefore the customers will not be satisfied by the services they are going to offer. When those involved in collecting data from the field collect data that are below the standards it will mean that the information given will also be below the standards and if the customer finds about this they may lack trust with the organization.
Moreover, misunderstanding among employees and lack of proper training will create uncondusive working environment and lack of proper skills respectively. These will lead to the provision of low-quality services which will force many customers to lack trust in the organization and therefore turn to other organizations. This in turn will reduce the number of people customers of that organization which automatically leads to a lowering of the maximum profits enjoyed by the organization.
Characteristics of Quality culture
Quality culture refers to the process of incorporating quality in the whole system of the organization and this leads to a very conducive working environment and leads to customer’s satisfaction. It starts with managers after having a changed mindset since they understand the core values of the organization or training their staff members. Building a quality culture will require the managers to first understand where the organization is and where they want to be in the future then motivate all their members to be committed to the realization of the organization’s goals. After this, they need to ensure that all the staff has the required skills required and motivate them by finding out what motivates each of the workers.
In addition, managers should share the idea of quality culture with society members and there should be a group discussion. Lastly, they should focus on some specific groups like team-building groups so as to ensure that quality culture is developed, should be focus group who work toward which they can do so by training them(Mehta 1-4).
An organization that has achieved quality culture operates with an aim of satisfying the needs of customers which is their highest priority and both their customers and suppliers work together for the betterment of each of them. In addition, the managers give the required guidance to their juniors on what ought to be done in order to achieve the set goals and they come up with strategic plan and implement it. Moreover one of the main characteristic of organization with quality culture is that they are always committed to improving the products they produce, processes, people, working environment and any other factor that affects the operation of the organization. In problem solving the organization identify the problem and its root cause so that the problem can be solved and prevented from occurring another time.
Media organization to some extent have achieved quality culture as their main aim is satisfying the customers’ needs and not just their financial gain and they are always motivated to improve their products,processes,people and working environment an managers are at the highest position and give guidance to their juniors. However there are some differences between media organization and quality culture.
These differences are misunderstanding among staff members and the organization and customers are not partners as sometimes those who collect data may be mishandled by their customers. In addition when a problem occurs in the media organization they always try to find out who caused the problem and look upon one another to solve the problem.
Implementation and maintenance of cultural change within media organization.
For organizations to succeed in the implementation of total quality they will need to create quality culture which will call for cultural change. Cultural change involves changing beliefs, values, way of doing things and behaviors that are shared by the members of the organization rather than focusing on changing the working environment so as to achieve the objectives of the organization (Waterhouse and Lewis 363).
Implementation of cultural change is more difficult than maintaining it as it entails introduction of new and different thing from what is in the current cultures. During this process some things in current culture may be displaced or replaced by others and this always causes resistance from those in the organization where cultural change is taking place due to the fear of the unknown as a result of such a change. Therefore it is important for the managers to convince people that cultural change will have positive impact on the organization (Trice and Beyer para 15).
Cultural change can be implemented in the organization by first making all personnel in the media organization understand that positive and quality attitudes, values and behaviors are expected from them. In addition the managers should be positive role models of the attitudes, values and behaviors they expect their employees to execute as the employees are likely to copy them.Moreover, managers should follow closely on behaviors and attitudes executed by all personnel in the organization so that the negative ones can be rectified as early as possible and reward those who portrays the expected attitudes, values and behaviors (Trice and Beyer para 20).
On the other hand the organization’s management should keep on reminding their personnel on quality attitudes and behaviors expected from them and use mentors in case of new personnel so as to cultivate quality and positive attitudes and behaviors from them. In conclusion once the cultural change has been implemented all members of the organization should work towards reinforcing and maintaining it.
Cultural change can be maintained by first the media organization ensuring that they recruit and maintain those workers with their core values and deploys those who do not portray the expected traits even after being taught for along period of time. In addition any time the organization employ new people they should ensure that they are taught on core values of the company by either using mentors or engaging them in activities where they are going to socialize with old members of the organization. During socialization the new employees can learn on those values and behaviors that they ought to continue with and those they ought to away with in addition to networking with other employees of the organization.
Moreover, in order to maintain cultural change the leaders ought to always be good role models e.g. rewarding those who portrays quality and positive behaviors and they themselves portray the expected behaviors (Giberson et al 1015).Employees should also be empowered so that they can develop themselves and be initiative and should be involved in the new developments that are taking place in the organization.
Recommendations on improvement of the total quality system of the media organization
One of the basic and important factors for the media organization to improve its total quality system is to set specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time able goals, then write its mission and vision statement as this will always act as a key guideline to their way of doing things. In addition the managers at the top management should be more committed to achieving the goals of the organization and satisfying their customers and they should ensure that all the resources both physical and human resources are utilized.
In order to improve the total quality system of media organization, the managers should come up with a plan on how to improve its processes, products, people and working environment. In addition they should come up with a team of members who will be responsible for setting standards of the organization, monitoring quality culture, examining problems and analyzing their causes and come up with solutions. After the team come up with solutions the managers should implement the solution and monitor its success.
If the solution is effective it should be standardised and if not it should be adjusted. Since the aim of the media organization is to satisfy the needs of the customers it should focus on their requirements by ensuring that they understand the needs of the customers, improve those processes that relate to their expectations and involve all the stakeholders. For example if there is a controversy issue in the nation the media should try to keep their customers informed on what is happening and can even call a government official to come and explain to people on what is happening.
The media organization should partner with people or groups that can teach them on how to continue ensuring that they satisfy their customers and managers should designate one of the members the duty of ensuring that the new employees are taught on core values of the organization. Moreover the organization should come up with a way of monitoring their successes and those areas that needs some improvement.
Another way of ensuring improvement of total quality system is coming up with a plan on how to ensure improvement. For example, the media organization should come up with a programme that ensures that those people who portray expected behaviors are recognized and awarded.
Conclusion
As discussed above, each and every organization should seek to achieve total quality management where customer’s satisfaction is the priority of the organization. This can be done by ensuring that there is quality culture as each organization has its own culture but since there are many barriers to quality culture all stakeholders of the organization should seek to overcome these barriers.
Works Cited
Cottle, Simon. Media organization and Production.Lodon: SAGE, 2003. Print.
Giberson, T. R., Resick, C. J., and Dickson, M. W. Embedding leader characteristics: An Examination of homogeneity of personality and values in organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2005. Web.
Trice, Harrison Beyer, Janice. The culture of work: Changing organizations culture. NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. Print.
Waterhouse, James and Lewis, David. Communicating culture change. Public Management Review, 6.3 (2004):353-376.