Employee Commitment to TQM Process

Any TQM program requires the commitment of the highest levels of the organization at the outset (Crosby, 1992, p. 13). Without this commitment, the organization cannot put the necessary resources into the TQM program, and the program will be destined for failure. Since TQM represents a major shift in the way that most companies do business, it is not an inexpensive process, nor is it a short-term program. Effective TQM programs will have a long-term effect on the way that the organization does business.

General Motors seems to be an ideal type of company where TQM would be able to make a positive difference in the organization. The company's core business is the manufacture of automobiles, which means that it can use quality management techniques at various levels in the manufacturi

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utomobiles and the way they are used by their ultimate consumers, there are long-term effects to this issue. Ford, for example, paid a large settlement as a result of litigation and recalled thousands of its Pintos in the 1970s when the fuel systems on those cars were shown to explode as a result of rear-impact collisions. From a company standpoint, manufacturing-based definitions of quality are of some importance. Value-based definitions of quality are also important to General Motors because this is how cars are ultimately purchased. To some degree, Japanese carmakers have been able to make inroads in the American car market because they offered perceived high levels of value-based quality. Consumers feel that they receive a greater value for the price of Japanese cars than for American cars similarly priced. Value-based quality also explains why some cars sell for $10,000, while others sell for $40,000. Since General Motors must manage all of these types of quality, it cannot expect a single approach to TQM to be effective. Instead, each department and division must focus on the types of quality that they provide, and determine the best way to manage the delivery of that quality. On the production floor, manufacturin
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Approximate Word count = 5329
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page)

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