BP1 – Week 2

QUALITY DISCUSSIONS

Right now in the middle of my studies I work at a restaurant. If improvements were needed in the organization I would feel a lot more comfortable if the management took a total quality management method rather than a business process reengineering method. Before I choose to go one way 100 percent it would be nice to see the mission that management had come up with to determine on how severe the improvements will be.

Starting with total quality management (TQM) and to my understanding of the lesson notes TQM builds off of what an organization already has as a system. TQM has a incremental approach and with this type of approach I think employees at least I would have less resistance to change because the management knows they are implementing something new and they are also willing to train the staff. TQM is a system that will not change how the business processes are necessarily accomplished but looks at a way to improve certain sectors and fix the problem to prevent errors in the future.

Even though TQM takes incremental steps and seems to be a good idea, but sometimes an organization will need to take a step back, have a radical change and start with a clean slate and go with the business process reengineering (BPR). Furthermore BPR knows that current procedures are not working and finds an alternate new way to complete the business objectives. In the BPR method I would think that it is more stressful on the employees which can cause resistance in the organization. This would all fall back on the managers to take control and coach the organization through the good and bad times. The organization would have to be creative and most likely stretch out to reach the final goal, also which could mean employees need to take a new perspective and attitude when starting the radical change.

Overall both situations will work depending on the organization. All organizations are unique and needs to be looked at different angles to understand the concept. I believe a key factor for both situations to be successful is the support and determination of management to follow through and guide the employees.