What Is the Connection between Total Quality Management and Performance?

Total quality management and performance are closely related because the ultimate goal of total quality management (TQM) is to improve performance and processes, which in turn is supposed to improve the services and products offered to customers. In this type of management, the entire business or organization that uses it strives to undergo a change in both culture and procedures so everyone is focused on doing his part to improve himself and the organization as a whole. It is a team approach that focuses both on employee performance and business performance.

Employee performance is an essential element of total quality management. Under this management system, everyone in the organization — from executives to lower-level employees — is supposed to keep focused on his own performance and the improvement of it. Regular assessment, both formal and informal, of the performance and output of all employees is part of total quality management. By maintaining effective communication and keeping a constant focus on assessment and improvement, the performance of all employees should be impacted in a positive way. This is one way in which total quality management and performance are related.

Customer satisfaction, and the higher sales projected to result, is another way in which total quality management and performance are connected. There is a focus on measurable goals and a determination to create and attain those goals that will improve the overall performance of the business or organization. Measurable goals could include increased sales, improved production efficiency, an increase in markets to which products and services are offered, or an increase in customers responding positively to satisfaction surveys. The quality of the products and services that are offered to customers is one area that is supposed to be a focus area for improvement under total quality management. Once total quality management is implemented successfully, there should be a companywide focus on increasing customer satisfaction through improved processes, products and services.

Total quality management is meant to be a change in the traditional mindset of top-down management that has long been prevalent in the business world. When this management system is implemented, all people employed by a company are supposed to share a common vision of improved performance, which impacts the work of everyone and holds each accountable. If total quality management is successfully introduced and employed, it should lead to increased buy-in of all employees to the management strategies of the company. Under this system, the ideas and suggestions, as well as the constructive criticism, of all employees are welcomed.