Introduction
The total quality management approach is generally regarded as a philosophical aspect of management that is aimed at constant improvement of the services or products offered. Since the actual importance of this approach is associated with the necessity to consider the improvement ways, and define the key requirements of the company’s customers. Arab Police Force organization is one of the most progressive police organizations in the countries of the Arab world, and the TQM principles that are used by this organization are aimed at improving the effectiveness, response, and reaction speed of their services. Therefore, the paper aims to identify the key approaches of the TQM by the Arab Police Force and analyze the TQM strategy for defining the pros and cons of the strategy applied.
Literature review
The TQM approaches are regarded as the outcome of the quality assurance development, and the key effort was aimed at offering customers the opportunity to get more. Additionally, the production costs had to be minimized, while the overall quality required improvement. The quality inspection may be regarded as the basic quality management tool, and this quality control method is used as the basic within the Arab Police Force organization. The key TQM principles that are used by the organization are closely associated with the managerial practices, and marketing strategies applied by a company. However, even though Arab Police Force is not a business organization, the TQM tools and principles are the same. Reddy (56) outlines the following key standards of TQM
- Proper executive management, as managers should act as the central ruling force for the TQM. Additionally, special environment should be created to motivate the team.
- Training. The employees of the organization should be aware of the new standards and methods of achieving higher qualities.
- TQM is mainly customer-focused, as quality is improved in accordance with customers’ requirements, while the actual improvement of the quality may be achieved in close cooperation with customers.
- Decision making. This is the ruling motivational force that is needed for creating the range of decisions for any quality improvement aspects.
- Corporate culture. Along with motivation and proper cooperation with customers, culture is regarded as one of the most important uniting factors for any company.
From the perspective of these principles, the tools that are used by Arab Police force are closely associated with the necessity to improve the overall performance of their organization, as well as perform basic changes for improving the customer care. Therefore Bowman (133) emphasized the following statement:
TQM has a customer-first orientation. The customer, not internal activities and constraints, comes first. Customer satisfaction is seen as the company’s highest priority. The company believes it will only be successful if customers are satisfied. The TQM-based company is sensitive to customer requirements and responds rapidly to them. In the TQM context, being sensitive to customer requirements’ goes beyond defect and error reduction, and merely meeting specifications or reducing customer complaints. The concept of requirements is expanded to take in not only product and service attributes that meet basic requirements, but also those that enhance and differentiate them for competitive advantage.
In the light of this fact, the actual importance of the TQM in Arab Police Force emphasizes the fact that the company should implement TQM principles for each particular department, as it is impossible to improve the quality within the entire organization by standard pattern actions. The customer relations department of the police force organization will have to consider customer relations, while the investigation department requires proper development of logical skills and teamwork. Force department should focus on the physical skills, while central management needs to consider proper coordination of the efforts. To re-engineer the process and find a solution the management should focus on two obstacles that are the redistribution of the project to an accountant specialist, and forwarding the invoices to the head of department. These actions are intended for improving the overall quality of the corresponding departments by increasing the efficiency of the communication and organizational management spheres. A solution for process number three is to train the staff on the system and do some demo applications, so that they get used to processing the job without any mistakes or negligence and save the time.
From the perspective of the cultural approaches for changes, it should be stated that the necessary to consider customer relations from the perspective of the marketing performance. This is needed for considering customers’ requirements, and the importance of the close cooperation with the audience. Otherwise, the attempt to outline the TQM principles will be associated with the strategic analysis of the SWOT matrix that was used for creation of the process description. In accordance with the statement by Arogyaswamy and Simmons (301), the following statement should be emphasized:
It is not easy to introduce TQM. An open, cooperative culture has to be created by management. Employees have to be made to feel that they are responsible for customer satisfaction. They are not going to feel this if they are excluded from the development of visions, strategies, and plans. They must participate in these activities. They are unlikely to behave in a responsible way if they see management behaving irresponsibly – saying one thing and doing the opposite.
Summarizing the analyzed principles of the TQM that may be used by the Arab Police Force, the organization could use the general TQM principles for improving the entire paradigm of its performance. Hence, the TQM would be helpful for creating a set of strategic objectives, and the framework for following these objectives.
- Prevention. This may be regarded as the most important aim, as prevention is more preferred in any risk management or communication.
- Protection. The next objective is protection of the city and citizens from risk.
- Response. This presupposes the increased effectiveness of the response, and reduced reaction time.
- Resources. Managing the resources available is one of the key aspects of organizational management.
- People. Effective communication and HR management is inevitable part of successful organizational performance
- Principles. The key principles should not be violated for keeping strategic aims within the frames of mission and vision.
Analysis of the Problems
As it is stated in the description The processes of the chart have two major bottlenecks and they involve in lack of experience and the delay of the application or the invoice in the management. In process number three (Distribute the project to an accountant specialist) where the process should be done by the specialist who is inexperienced in the program itself where they do a lot of inputs mistakes which delay the job or re-do it again. These problems are linked with the ineffective organization of the IT department performance, which may be regarded as a consequence of improperly arranged communication flow.
In accordance with the project description, the key problems of the Arab Police Force are closely linked with the organizational performance, and smoothness of the operational and communication flow within the organization. In the light of this statement, it should be emphasized that TQM standards will be helpful for restructuring the communication patterns, and offer alternative ways of information flow. On the other hand, restructuring of the communication system will require implementation of the proper leadership principles. As it is stated by Mani (365):
Commitment and personal involvement are required from top management in creating and deploying clear quality values and goals consistent with the objectives of the company, and in creating and deploying well-defined systems, methods and performance measures for achieving those goals. These systems and methods guide all quality activities and encourage participation by all employees. The development and use of performance indicators are linked, directly or indirectly, to customer requirements and satisfaction, and management and employee remuneration.
Hence, when all the senior managers agree on the necessity to implement changes for improving the overall quality of the organizational performance, they will have to demonstrate their commitment to quality. The fundamental requirement for the implementation of an adequate quality policy is based on the close cooperation of all the departments of the organization, and such cooperation is a weak link in the entire structure of the Arab Police Force. Leaders are obliged to take the entire responsibility for monitoring the policy, as well as for creating the necessary framework for outlining the improvement standards. As it is emphasized by Frick (34):
Effective leadership starts with the development of a mission statement, followed by a strategy, which is translated into action plans down through the organization. These, combined with a TQM approach, should result in a quality organization, with satisfied customers and good business results.
Benchmarking and Measuring
Proper TQM implementation, and quality analysis are impossible without proper measuring and comparison. That is why benchmarking is inevitable, and the overall principles of quality assessment within the Arab Police Force organization are impossible without proper identification of the measures, and the further assessment of the progress. Measuring scale will be regarded as the indicator of progress and changes, as the strategic objectives offered, and key principles of TQM require evaluation of each step performed, as well as identification of the aims that should be reached.
Conclusion
The TQM strategy applied by the Arab Police Force organization should be based on the necessity to improve the organizational performance of the company. Because the actual importance of TQM is to improve structural parameters, the general actions performed are not focused on the key priority aspects. Therefore, most problems of the organization are associated with improper communication flow, as well as with problems in the IT-sphere.
Benchmarking and measurements that were used for defining the effectiveness of the organizational performance by Police Arab Force mainly involve comparison of the organizational performance before the TQM implementation, and the state that will be achieved after reaching the key aims.
Works Cited
Arogyaswamy, Bernard, and Ron P. Simmons. Value-Directed Management: Organizations, Customers, and Quality. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 2005.
Bowman, James S. “At Last, an Alternative to Performance Appraisal: Total Quality Management.” Public Administration Review 54.2 (2004): 129-136.
Frick, Ronald A. “The Application of Total Quality Management on Service Quality.” The Journal of Management Accounting 10.3 (2006): 34.
Mani, Bonnie G. “Progress on the Journey to Total Quality Management: Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Adjective Check List in Management Development.” Public Personnel Management 24.3 (2005): 365.
Reddy, Allan C. Total Quality Marketing: The Key to Regaining Market Shares. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 2008.