Improving Product Quality through Effective Leadership and
School
Drexel University**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
EGMT 501
Subject
Management
Date
Dec 10, 2024
Pages
8
Uploaded by MajorSpider4647
1.0 Situation Statement The company has noticed a complete decline of the quality of the products manufactured in the last few months. Despite these signs of such issues including variance in measuring units and communication issues between the leadership, management and production staffs, the depth of such issues has not been probed. Such problems have been revealed alongside; low sales, damaged reputation and losses which affect the company’s market share and stability. 2.0 Background: While employed as a Quality Control Administrator in an automotive manufacturing company a while back I realized the importance of communication and adherence to standardas the essence to quality products. This is the case of a former market leader that has been struggling to deliver good performance, which can be caused by questionable quality assurance. However leadership and production communication problems were also noticed a few of which include the obsolescence of the measurement standards. These will be discussedin this paper under the management lens; particularly, this paper will explore reasons why organisational structures/ Leadership may have failed to update the organisation on newer quality control procedures/ Guidelines.3.0 Analysis Approach3.1 Organizational Structure and Span of Control3.1.1 Concept:Org charts can be a hindrance in the flow of communication between the organizational top management and the shop floor.3.1.2 Analysis: Determine whether the current structure has a large number of layers, which hinders communication. When leadership is detached from the production teams, they may not know some of the current quality problems.
3.1.3 Recommendation.Redirection of the organizational structure through the elimination of layers of the organization’s management that are redundant. This will improve the flow of communication from the pinnacle of the organizations to operational teams in order to detect and rectify more efficiently quality matters.3.1.4 Outcome.Promoting operational flexibility, increased response times to incidents, and betterorganization of management and production to increase product quality and organizational effectiveness. 3.2 Management By objective (MBO)3.2.1 Concept:By linking organizational/departmental goals with subordinate goals and target, MBO promotes a performance driven culture.3.2.2 Analysis:The problem is there is no clear management under the objective-driven framework that may cause misalignment in organizations’ departments. Incorporation of MBO would guarantee that the different teams of the organization would have quality improvement objectives that are consistent.3.2.3 Recommendation:Implement MBO to set clear targets for raising quality and communicational standards. This approach will help in making clear as to who does what in the achievement of organizational goals. 3.2.4 Outcome:The implementation of MBO framework will help in define goals, ensure that executive, middle and line personnel are absolutely responsible for meeting those goals and ensure that the employee is motivated to deliver quality service. 3.3 Leadership and Management Style3.3.1 Concept: Managing authorities can influence organizational performance directly and this influence can be observed through the leadership behavior. For example, autocratic leadership may provide little information from the production floor as compared to participative leadership.
3.3.2 Analysis:Is the management too autocratic, so workers do not find it possible to speak out their concerns about measurement standards? Reflect on leadership behaviors in terms of the situational leadership theories to determine whether they are too prescriptive or flexible to accommodate changes.3.3.3 Recommendation.Promote change from mechanistic to organic structures where subordinates are allowed to challenge Third Party measurement systems and encourage the adoption of participative leadership styles. It follows therefore that suitable leadership training should be adopted and the situational leadership theories provide a good ground in this respect.3.3.4 Outcome.Growth in the commitment of the employees and willingness to address various measurement aspects. This will improve organizational productivity, make work environment better and enable an organization to address change in a proper manner. 3.4 Change Management and Resistance3.4.1 Concept:Whenever there are improvements that are needed to be made in the quality control or change in the communication system of the company, the employees tend to resist it.3.4.2 Analysis:Has the company in the past provided updates to procedures or technology effectively in the past? Is there resistance because of low training, high fear, or poor communication from the leadership?3.4.3 Recommendation.To address potential resistance everyone should be trained properly, there should be a culture that does not allow people to fear and lastly communication from leadership should be clear and consistent. This will go a long way in creating trust and confidence and slowly full implement change processes/technologies.
3.4.4 Outcome.By addressing the root causes of resistance—through training, support, and clear communication—the company can expect smoother adoption of changes, improved employee morale, and increased productivity. This will lead to more effective quality control and communication systems, ultimately enhancing overall operational efficiency.3.5 Delegation and Accountability3.5.1 Concept:Accountability means that employees carry out the responsibility of an outcome but the structure of accountability is delegation: assigning responsibility and authority to an employee to do a specific task. Furthermore, good delegation practice encourages efficiency and motivation; bad practice tends to produce miscommunication or lack of ownership. Everyone is accountable so that employees know how to do their part in helping quality standards and organizational goals be met.3.5.2 Analysis:It seems that in terms of the current organizational set up, the company’s leadership is not passing on quality control works to delegates. This has resulted in situations where problems with quality are left unreported or unsolved, causing product quality to decline recently. The possibility of too much trust at the lower tier of the hierarchy, or of communication gaps between the highest levels of management, may prevent leaders from delegating responsibility fully. The problem with this is, without accountability structures, employees do not feel motivated to own quality control responsibilities.3.5.3 Recommendation.To make delegation and accountability strong, set up a structure to assign quality control tasks to each role and to set responsibilities in each role. Accountable teams should be involved in regular quality reviews, and performance metrics should be developed to be based on quality outcome. Rounding out these responsibilities and accountability expectations are training sessions, designed to reinforce these expectations.3.5.4 OutcomeMore reliable quality control process will result in enhanced delegation and accountability by which employees would be motivated to identify and address quality issues proactively. That should lower errors, increase production quality, and create greater ownership among the team members.
3.6 Motivation Theories in Quality Control3.6.1 Concept:Herzberg’s two factor theory motivates theories like motivation is attributed to factors such as achievement, recognition and responsibility and lack of these will demotive employees. Motivated employees are more likely to be attentive to quality standards and take pride in their work if you want them to be attentive to them when they work at manufacturing.3.6.2 Analysis:However, in company, employees may be demotivated since they don’t recognise the efforts of quality and no growth opportunities. A lack of motivation on the side could be contributing to quality control issues, as employees lack a direct lineto the company that determines if their work contributes to the company’s successor if they’re appreciated for maintaining quality standards.3.6.3 Recommendation.Create a program of recognition specifically related to quality achievements treating employees as they who always meet or exceed quality standards. Moreover, offer motivation by establishing career development opportunities to improve quality performance, i.e., training in categories more advanced than ones related to quality.3.6.4 OutcomeA motivated workforce tends to listen more carefully to quality … errors and rework will be reduced. By putting smiles (or friendly words) into employees’ ears, you will mean more to them and they will mean more to you. That can have huge benefits to the quality control and overall morale and productivity.3.7 Personnel Selection and Training3.7.1 Concept:To keep high quality standards in manufacturing, personnel selection is very important and there needs to be systematic training. Consistent production of quality can be achieved with employees selected which pay attention to detail and a commitment to quality as well as receive adequate training in quality control processes.
3.7.2 Analysis:This may not completely be focused on the skills required for quality by current approach in hiring and training in the company. This means that new hires aren't necessarily up to the task of quality control that stems from meticulous attention to detail, and training for the variety of measurement standards that must continue to be met for the product to remain at an acceptable measure of consistency, may also be lacking.3.7.3 Recommendation.You will also need to implement a more rigid hiring process if you want a candidate with a background, or the potential, of quality control and attention to detail. Offer complete training sessions covering all measurement standards and quality control techniques to enable all employees remain on top and able to maintain high quality standards.3.7.4 Outcome.If this approach works, it will create a stronger, quality focused team ready to meet and maintain the company standards. With improvements in hiring and training practices, quality control issues should become a thing of the past, and thecompany would develop its reputation and cut losses on product defects.3.7 Power and Managing Up3.7.1 Concept:Proper use of power is an essential element of a manager’s work. Managers have to know about various types of power including, for example, formal, knowledge and referent power. And most of all, managing up – knowing how to negotiate with your superiors – is important within the organization.3.7.2 Analysis:In this organization, there could be some distortion of power relations, which may affect the communication process that exists between the leadership and operational teams. A form of leadership may lack complete insights and sensitivity to quality issues raised or lack a full appreciation of them at lower ranks. This can make the issue worse as far as the quality of the products is concerned because unquestioning acceptance is unhealthy for anybody dealing with quality control. Moreover, often staff is demotivated when they cannot clearly understand management expectations of their performance.
3.7.3 Recommendation.Support visibility of communication and make sure employees have right to participate in leadership decisions. To cultivate a true feedback culture, managers need to encourage situations in which employees can ‘give feedback to the top,’ so that management becomes aware of the actual situation on the ground. Communication and power relations expertise will increase trust and productivity all over the organization.3.7.4 Outcome.When the managing up concept is enhanced then the organization will be experienced better decision making, more quality problems will be cleared more quickly and problem solving will be done expertly at any level. This brings about high levels of employee motivation and an effective approach towards improvement of quality in the organization hence improved performance.3.6 Conflict Management and Group Dynamics3.6.1 Concept:Improving organizational efficiency calls for conflict management and good group dynamics. Ultimately, Ware’s three modes of the conflict resolution — competing, accommodating, collaborating — lead in determining ways of settling down conflicts in different kinds of organizational settings. Furthermore, McCaskey’s framework for analyzing work groups explains why teams work the way they do and how to improve the team’s effectiveness. Secondly, another problem to address to keep decisions in teams healthy is GroupThink– the tendency for groups to make irrational decisions out of the longing for consensus.3.6.2 Analysis:Quality is suffering, and organization is stagnant, but within the company, unresolved conflicts and inability to get along within teams are likely contributing to both of these problems. Conflicts in absence of goals and procedures alignment between leadership and staff can lead to further escalation in conflict leading to decrease morale and poor decision making. GroupThink is at its worst if it is allowed to take hold, allowing employees to not raise quality issues resulting in stagnation of innovation and issues not being resolved. Also, the organization maynot be able to seek solutions to these problems because it hasn't received any training on conflict resolution.3.6.3 Recommendation.Create an open dialog with the keyword Collaborate. Applied to McCaskey’s framework, it will be a style to analyse and enhance the team effectiveness. Preventing GroupThink requires training on conflict resolution and a culture which values diverse opinions.
3.6.4 OutcomeConflict resolution and group dynamics issues will also improve morale, problem solving and better decision making, increasing organizational performance and product quality as a result.3.6 Motivation Theories in Quality Control3.6.1 Concept:New product product development life cycle, and the Stage Gate process. There are new product strategies such as market penetration, product development, diversification, and market development. The product development cycle covers stages like idea generation, screening, concept development, prototyping, testing and later, product launch. Stage-Gate process allows selection of research ideas at different stages to properly allocate resource.3.6.2 Analysis:A formalized product development lifecycle could benefit the company dealing with current issues with quality and product performance. Without a structured approach, the company might slide into a rut of innovation and lack of systematic checks to the products that truly meet the product standard.3.6.3 Recommendation.Separate out the development of new product ideas and initiatives through something akin to a Stage Gate process. Borrowing inventors, accurately stages ofresearch and development, and ensures enough resources for every stage. It will favour the highest quality and most viable ideas to be selected, so improving product quality.3.6.4 OutcomeA structured product development lifecycle is followed by the company to help them better manage R&D efforts, lessen the risk of failure of new product launches, and ultimately drive product quality and consistency.