Total Quality Management andTransformational Leadership in

Private Schools

Bernardino C. Abundo, Jr.Graduate Student

PhD EM 518

BACKGROUND

While many of us may feel that we are now all part of the quality movement, there is still a huge gap between the rhetoric and real understanding. The philosophies of the pioneers of the quality movement, Deming, Juran and Crosby, have not been translated very accurately into the practice of education

TQM as a management model, with its emphasis on leadership, strategy, teamwork, rigorous analysis and self-assessment, has a universal message.

TQM in education has as its message the idea that every student has worth and demands the best possible chance in life

Total Quality Management (TQM)

• Total - made up of the whole• Quality - degree of excellence a

product or service provides• Management - act, art or manner of

planning, controlling, directing,….

Therefore, TQM is the art of Therefore, TQM is the art of managing the whole to achieve managing the whole to achieve excellenceexcellence.

What does TQM mean? Total Quality Management means

that the organization's culture is defined by and supports the constant attainment of customer satisfaction through an integrated system of tools, techniques, and training. This involves the continuous improvement of organizational processes, resulting in high quality products and services.

“DO THE RIGHT THINGS RIGHT THE FIRST TIME, EVERY TIME.”

What’s the goal of TQM?

Another way to put it

• Total Quality Management (TQ, QM or TQM) and Six Sigma (6) are sweeping “culture change” efforts to position a company for greater customer satisfaction, profitability and competitiveness.

• TQ may be defined as managing the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer.

• We often think of features when we think of the quality of a product or service; TQ is about conformance quality, not features.

A Quality Management System Is…

• A belief in the employee’s ability to solve problems

• A belief that people doing the work are best able to improve it

• A belief that everyone is responsible for quality

Elements for Success

• Management Support• Mission Statement• Proper Planning• Customer and Bottom Line Focus• Measurement• Empowerment• Teamwork/Effective Meetings• Continuous Process Improvement• Dedicated Resources

Measurement

Measu

rem

ent

Measu

rem

ent

Measurement

Empowerment/

Shared Leadership

Process Improvement/

Problem Solving

Team Management

Customer Satisfaction

Business Results

The Continuous Improvement Process

. . .

Philosophical Leaders of the Quality Movement

Philip Crosby W. Edwards Deming Joseph M. Juran

Each has slightly different definitions of what quality is and how to achieve it, but they all had the same general message:

To achieve outstanding quality requires: quality leadership from senior management, a customer focus, total involvement of the workforce, and continuous improvement based upon rigorous analysis of

processes.

Modern History of Quality Management• Frederick W. Taylor wrote Principles of Scientific Management in 1911.

• Walter A. Shewhart used statistics in quality control and inspection, and showed that productivity improves when variation is reduced (1924); wrote Economic Control of Manufactured Product in 1931.

• W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran, students of Shewhart, went to Japan in 1950; began transformation from “shoddy” to “world class” goods.

• In 1960, Dr. K. Ishikawa formalized “quality circles” - the use of small groups to eliminate variation and improve processes.

• In the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s:– Deming returned from Japan to write Out of the Crisis,

and began his famous 4-day seminars in the United States– Phil Crosby wrote Quality is Free– NBC ran “If Japan can do it, why can’t we?” – Motorola began 6 Sigma

Modern History of Quality ManagementDeming’s 14 Points

1. Create constancy of purpose for improvement

2. Adopt a new philosophy

3. Cease dependence on mass inspection

4. Do not award business on price alone

5. Work continually on the system of production and service

6. Institute modern methods of training

7. Institute modern methods of supervision of workers

8. Drive out fear

9. Break down barriers between departments

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force

11. Eliminate numerical quotas

12. Remove barriers preventing pride of workmanship

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and retraining

14. Take action to accomplish the transformation

History of Quality ManagementDeming’s Concept of “Profound Knowledge”

Understanding (and appreciation) of Systems

- optimizing sub-systems sub-optimizes the total system

- the majority of defects come from systems, the responsibility of

management (e.g., machines not in good order, defective material, etc. Knowledge of Statistics (variation, capability, uncertainty in data, etc.)

- to identify where problems are, and point managers and workers

toward solutions Knowledge of Psychology (Motivation)

- people are afraid of failing and not being recognized,

so they fear how data will be used against them Theory of Knowledge

- understanding that management in any form is a prediction, and is

based on assumptions

History of Total Quality Dr. Joseph M. Juran (1991):

He is most renowned for coining the phrase “fitness for use or purpose”. The importance of this idea is that a product or service can meet its specification and yet not be fit for its purpose. The specification may be faulty or it may not accord with what the customer wants. Meeting specifications may be a necessary condition of quality in most instances but it is not a sufficient one. Today, the workforce is educated. Workers know what is needed to improve their jobs, and companies that do not tap into this significant source of knowledge will truly be at a competitive disadvantage.”

History of Total Quality

According to Phil Crosby, Quality is . . .

An attitude:- Zero Defects- Continuous Improvement

A measurement:- Price of Conformance, plus- Price of Nonconformance (defects)

TQ: Transforming an Organization

From Motivation through fear and loyalty

To Motivation through shared vision

Attitude: “It’s their problem” Ownership of every problem affecting the customer

Attitude: “the way we’ve always done it”

Continuous improvement

Decisions based on assumptions/ judgment calls

Decisions based on data and facts

Everything begins and ends with management

Everything begins and ends with customers

Crisis management and recovery Doing it right the first time

Choosing participative OR scientific management

Choosing scientific AND participative management

Transformational Leadership• Pioneers: Burns (1978), Bass (1985): Three main types of leadership• Laissez-Faire leadership: absence of transactions with followers. These

leaders avoid expressing views or taking action, avoid or delay decisions, ignore responsibility, provide little feedback. Most passive, least effective of three types.

• Transactional leadership: motivate followers by exchanging rewards for services. Leaders identify what followers want and try to provide it as reward for effort. Respond to followers’ immediate self-interest. Exchanges are economic: pursued on basis of cost-benefit.– Contingent reward leadership: leader behaviors focus on role and task

requirements; provide rewards contingent on performance.– Active management-by-exception: leaders maintain high levels of

vigilance to ensure standards are met; take corrective action quickly.– Passive management-by-exception: leaders fail to intervene until

problems are serious.

• Transformational leadership: leadership is expanded to go beyond simple exchanges and agreement.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership posits four main dimensions (the 4 I’s):

• Idealized Influence• Inspirational motivation• Intellectual motivation• Individualized consideration

Idealized Influence• Idealized influence: builds trust, respect in followers, thus forming

basis for acceptance of big changes.

• Leaders display conviction and high standards of conduct, share risks, consider needs of others first, and never use power for personal gain. Followers admire and trust leader and thus buy into mission, even if it requires radical changes in the organization.

• Attributed idealized influence: followers perceive leader as being charismatic, confident, powerful, and focused on higher-order ideals.

• Idealized influence as behavior: charismatic actions of leaders that focus on values, beliefs, and sense of mission

Inspirational Motivation

• Listen and acknowledge concerns• Remember this is not about you• Stop giving information- the employee is not

hearing you• Have tissues available• Offer to end the meeting or give the employee

a moment to “pull themselves together”

Inspirational Motivation• Inspirational motivation: changes expectations of group

members: problems CAN be solved• Develops appealing vision to guide development of

organizational goals and operating procedures• Leader behaviors provide meaning, challenge for followers

– Project attractive and optimistic future– Emphasize ambitious goals– Create idealized visions for organizations– Clearly communicate that vision is obtainable– Results: team spirit, enthusiasm, optimism, goal

commitment, shared vision within the work group

Intellectual Stimulation• Intellectual stimulation: encourage followers’

creativity—question old assumptions, traditions and beliefs, reframe problems– Encourage followers to design new procedures and

programs and solve problems– Encourage unlearning—eliminate fixation on “way we’ve

always done it”– Insist on constant open examination of procedures,

receptivity to change– Nothing is sacred: any procedure, policy, or operation can

be contested on the merits

Individualized Consideration

Individualized consideration: leaders pay particular attention to each individual’s needs for growth and achievement

– Leaders act as mentors—help followers and colleagues develop

potential and take responsibility for own development

– Create new learning opportunities in supportive climate

– Recognize and accept individual differences in needs and values

– Use two-way communication, and interact personally with

others

Total Quality Management in EDUCATION

According to Deming, a system of quality improvement is helpful to anyone who turns out a product or is engaged in service, or in research and wishes to improve the output of the organization.

The industrial analogy that compares workers and managers to students and teachers is accurate and appropriate. In schools, students are the workers and products. Teachers and administrators are managers.

The hierarchy looks like this:1.Students are the workers and the products. The

difference between success and failure of the school depends on the quality of their work.

2.Teachers are the first level managers. Therefore the teacher will be leader of the class, emphasizing quality through non-coercive management featuring student as worker and teacher as coach, provoking the students to learn how to learn and thus to teach themselves.

3. Administrators are middle and upper level management. The productivity of any school depends mostly on the skills of those who directly manage the workers, i.e., the teachers. According to Deming, their success in turn depends on how well they are managed by the administration above them. Therefore, any attempt at educational quality are best centered around organizational improvement efforts.

4. The Board of Education is the board of directors thus responsible directly to the clients, and board members are overseers of the administration.

Management by Result is no longer sufficient to deal with the problems schools are facing. In order to promote total quality, there is a need to:

1. Quality Characteristics 1 - Change Management Philosophy.

The new management philosophy focuses on achieving quality, which is defined as meeting and exceeding the needs and expectations of clients.

A second focus is on the acceptance and pursuit of continuous improvement as the only useful standard or goal.

The philosophy holds that example and experience teach little about theory, and that experience is not always useful knowledge. However, the new philosophy is based on the acquisition and application of knowledge. This knowledge referred to as profound knowledge

Four Components of Profound KnowledgeIn order to provide leadership for total quality,

people in leadership must be able to understand and apply these concepts:

1.Systematic Thinking – this is the interdependence of functions with their sub-processes and of the organization with its people. (a network of interdependent components that work together)

2.Theory of Variation – this is the understanding of the difference between common and special causes. An understanding of variation will enable

Educational leaders to work toward quality within the framework of individual differences. The existence of variation is why a state of zero defects does not occur and why numerical goals are not feasible.

3. Theory of Knowledge – only through a theory of knowledge can one understand the past and predict the future. A major component of total quality management is prediction. Only through prediction and long-term perspective can schools expect to succeed over a long period of time.

4. Knowledge of Psychology – the new philosophy is based on the understanding of people and their differences, and a commitment to applying systematic thinking to the people system. School leadership’s aim is to free-up the potential of the different attributes of the people of the organization.

Central to this new management will be the 14 points of W. Edwards Deming, derived from industry and geared toward a program of total quality management:

Deming Point 1 – Constancy of Purpose

Educational programs like business and industry must have a purpose and that “reason for existence” must be spelled out in a mission statement. Deviating from a common assumption, Deming states that making money is not the primary purpose of business. On the contrary, he says, that staying in business and improving products and services should be the main mission.

In a similar fashion “raising test scores”should not be the primary focus of schools. Education, like business, needs to focus on its products and services. In schools the student is both the worker as well as the product and we need to provide those services that will help students acquire basic skills and become productive citizens.

The effectiveness of a mission statement in directing the course of a business or educational enterprise is directly dependent upon the degree to which the CEO, Superintendent or Principal fully supports that mission with the employee’s concurrence.

Unless the employees see concrete evidence of top management support and involvement they will not actively buy into the mission.

In control theory terminology, the mission statement should become a part of the quality world of all participants who will then gauge their behaviors against this accepted purpose.

In terms of reality therapy techniques, when we ask persons what they want we are simply looking for their personal mission statement.

Deming Point 2 – Adopt the New Philosophy“Quality Approach” mustbecome the

new philosophy. Business can no longer live with poor workmanship, bad materials, sullen service or poorly trained employees.

Education cannot continue to accept high dropout rates, poor teaching and lowered student performance. What is needed is a transformation of management styles fromboss to lead management. Teachers and administrators must become familiar with control theory and reality therapy in order to implement lead management techniques and institute a quality education program.

Deming Point 3 – Cease Dependence on Mass Inspection

Quality comes not from inspection but from improvements of the process.

In education, teachers need to involve the student as a worker to evaluate the quality of his or her work, product or outcome. When students buy into the self-evaluation process the quality of their work is greatly enhanced.

Using reality therapy techniques to find out what students want and what they are doing to get what they want sets the stage for this process of self evaluation.

Deming Point 4 – End Practice of Awarding Business on Price Tag

AloneAccording to Deming, price has no

meaning without a measure of the quality being purchased.

In education we can cite a number of examples. When school districts maintain such high class size averages that students are failing because of the lack of close supervision, they don’t seem to take into consideration the additional cost it takes for students to repeat a class.

Deming Point 5 – Improve Constantly

In education, instead of “quick fix”, we should be looking at the system and examine our goals and mission.

Examination of long and short range goals is a sign that we are beginning to focus more on improving the system rather than laying more on to students i.e. lengthening the school day, school year and toughening academic standards. It is important to remember that improvement is not a one time effort but is an ongoing process in schools as well as business and industry.

Deming Point 6 – Institute Training/Retraining

A major factor in the so-called “teacher burnout syndrome” is the lack of adequate pre-service and in-service training that causes teaching – theworld’s toughest

job – to be a discouraging and oftentimes frustrating experience. It is just not enough to have a mission statement. You have to be sure people are trained to carry out that mission.

Deming Point 7 – Institute Leadership

The need for a style of leadership that is, forthe most part, not found in the current

exisitng industry or education. This is called Lead Management – managing without coercion. It is characterized by four salient features:

First of all, the leader must engage the worker in a dialogue about what needs to be done. He emphasizes the need for quality work while soliciting input from the workers. He makes a constant effort to fit the job to the skills and needs of the worker.

Second, the leader, supervisor or teacher models what needs to be done so that the worker/students know what to expect.

Third, a lead manager is committed to the concept of self evaluation on the part of the worker with the knowledge that the individuals doing the work are in the best position to evaluate the quality of the work.

Finally, the leader is a facilitator whose job is to provide the worker with a non-coercive climate along with adequate tools and instruction to do the job. Lead managers spend the majority of their time working on the system to improve the performance of the workers.

In education, the antithesis to lead management – boss management – is the most frequent style observed.

Boss managers set standards, tell rather than show how, and rely heavily on reward and coercion to control students and teachers.

Deming Point 8 – Drive out FearCoercion is the most corrosive element in a

work place. It destroys productivity and quality work. Workers that fear their bosses or supervisors may produce but will never achieve quality. Administrators, principals and teachers who operate from a base of coercion and fear will never engender respect and loyalty from those they manage. Nor will they improve the quality of work being produced. (Eliminating Ratings)

A good example of the use of fear and coercion in schools is the over abundance of rules governing student behavior. The language of the rules are invariably phrased in negative terms – “No smoking”, “No littering”, “Keep off the grass”, etc. Until educators accept the fact that fear and quality work are incompatible there can be no improvements to the educational system.

Deming Point 9 – Breakdown Barriers Between Staff Areas

Deming says that most of business organizations is following a boss management base system which cannot foster or promote team work as coercion produces an adversarial climate which negates cooperation.

When, however, schools operationalize the concepts of lead management and seek input from all staff members in the decision-making process, the climate will change. When people feel that their ideas, comments and suggestions are valued they will not only feel a part of the team but will increase the quality of their performance and work.

Schools, who see themselves as the embodiment of democratic principles, feel that they exemplify the team approach with everyone working as a unit. Those of us who work in schools know that this is not the case in most instances. We have only to look at the caste system that exists in the majority of public schools. First of all we have the basic certificated/classified distinction. The principals and teachers see themselves as more important than the clerks, custodians and instructional aides. The latter group, in many instances, feel like second class citizens especially in the area of working conditions and salaries.

Deming Point 10 – Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work

force.According to Deming, slogans never helped

anyone – they only generate frustration and resentment. The message that workers get from company developed slogans is that they could do better if they tried. When faced with poor lighting, incompetent supervision and defective materials the workers in the face of clever exhortations simply conclude that management doesn’t understand the problems and doesn’t care enough to find out.

When slogans are developed by and/or with the workers, they become credible reminders of mutually agreed upon goals.

In schools we see the powerful influence of student-generated slogans that oftentimes precede important athletic and social events. Since a majority of the student body wants to win the event, the slogans are simply external symbols of their internal motivations.

Deming Point 11 – Eliminate Numerical Quotas

Work quotas seldom include any trace of a system that would help someone do a better job.

When quotas are based on the average output of a group, the outcome will be mediocrity – half the workers will be above and half below the quota. Peer pressure will hold the upper half to the average and those below will be unable to meet the standards.

Schools are notorious for exerting pressure on teachers to raise test scores. This has led to

evidence of cheating and resistance on the part of students and teachers. This focus on a numerical goal has led to less attention being paid to those skills that cannot be tested by a standardized instrument. Instead of measuring people by the numbers they turn out it would be far more productive to set up a system that fosters an atmosphere of receptivity and recognition for suggestions made by the employee.

Deming Point 12 – Remove Barriers to Pride of Workmanship

In education, much lip service is given to so called “participative management practices” wherein the employee becomes an integral part of the decision making process. In actuality however, this approach ends up with the employee “participating” and the administrator “managing”.

It’s a simple observable axiom that “people are eager to do a good job and distressed when they can’t”.

Whether we’re dealing with administrators working with teachers, or teachers working with students, the goal is to empower people to manage themselves and take responsibility for their own actions. You don’t have to create pride of workmanship, you have to create an environment in which employees/students are encouraged to do their very best.

Deming Point 13 – Institute aVigorous Program of Education

and RetrainingAlthough this point is similar to number VI

– Institute training and retraining – it stresses setting up a comprehensive continuing program of education that not only trains workers in the skills needed to do their jobs but encourages them to acquire new knowledge and understanding that prepares them for future assignments. Deming stresses the need for workers to understand and use basic statistics to improve the quality of their products

In education this statistical approach to analysis and process control translates to the need for the constant evaluation of what we are doing. It calls for using both subjective and objective techniques to gauge the effectiveness of our instructional strategies as opposed to “gut level feelings” or simply grading on the probability curve.

Deming Point 14 – Take Action to Accomplish the Transformation

“A journey of a thousand miles begins by taking the first step”. That old Chinese proverb summarizes the final principle in Deming’s 14 point management process. Once top management makes a commitment to change its management style, it must act on the basis of this commitment. According to Deming, the first milestone on a company’s road to quality occurs when a “critical mass” of the employees understand the 14 points and become active participants in the process.

Effective schools are the products of effective leadership. When principals and teachers agree on their mission and institutionalize Deming’s 14 points, the students as workers and products will reap the benefits of a lead management system.

Quality Characteristic 15 – The 85/15 Rule

The 85/15 rule means that schools, especially administrations, must adopt a new attitude towards teachers and teachers’ union.

Schools should look at organizational breakdowns instead of looking at individual teachers when trying to improve the overall system of quality.

Implementing the 85/15 Rule, schools should look at the following organizational components:

1. The content and methodology match between curriculum and assessment/testing.

2. The content and methodology match between textbooks and planned curriculum documents.

3. The soundness and viability of curriculum content.

4. The organizational focus and constancy with regard to teacher and student academic behavior.

5. The appropriateness of their teachers’ training and a staff development program based on this assessment.

6. A staff development program based on the identified organizational weaknesses and failures

The 85/15 rule also means disavowing a number of prominent managerial myths ins schools, namely:

1.The teaching staff is mainly responsible for the school’s problems. (Reality – Leadership is responsible for 80 to 90 percent)

2.Teachers could do good quality work but they lack motivation. (Reality – Teachers need to be empowered)

3. Quality will get top priority if upper management so decrees. (Reality – It will happen without fundamental changes)

4. To change people’s behavior, it is first necessary to change their attitude. (Reality – It is the other way around)

Quality Characteristic 16 – Quality as a People Issue

Currently, educational definitions of quality center mainly around standardized test scores.

Education is a human endeavor. Measuring human beings in an absolute sense has always been hard, but measuring continuous improvement is not difficult. It also erases the problems relating to differing abilities and potentials.

The standard of customer satisfaction foregoes all the formal measures and get to the issue of how well people perceive your efforts.

Quality cannot be a people issue in the schools so long as teaching is an isolated activity and anything else that the teacher does is “extra-curricular”. Education must rid itself of the “extracurricular syndrome” to achieve the quality approach.

In education, total quality approaches will not work so long as personal development is extracurricular.

Quality Characteristic 17 – Employee Suggestion Program

This is prelude to the teacher empowerment process. The idea also represents the whole change in management philosophy proposed by total quality management which accepts that people doing the work usually know more about the work than the people supervising the work.

Due to the high level of formal education required to be a teacher, the potential for increased participation on the part of the teacher is good.

The Source of Quality in Education

• outstanding teachers;• high moral values; • excellent examination results;• the support of parents, business and the

local community;• plentiful resources;• the application of the latest technology;• strong and purposeful leadership;• the care and concern for pupils and

students;• a well-balanced and challenging curriculum.

SummaryThe new philosophy of management

focuses on the 14 points put forward by W. Edwards Deming, the world’s leading authority on total quality management.

All of these quality characteristics stress that teachers are generally very skilled and competent, and that the problem in education lie primarily on the way the organization is structured and run.

What we need to do is to treat teachers as professionals, listen to their suggestions, and encourage them to engage in constant self-improvement

With this new attitude and the other elements of the new management philosophy, it will be possible to breakdown the barriers within school organizations so that all employees will be part of the team, dedicated to the constant pursuit of educational quality.

References

Bradley, Leo H. (1993) Total Quality Management for Schools, Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Technomic Publishing Co., Inc.

Glasser, W. (1990) The Quality School, New York: Harper and Row.

Walton, M. (1986) The Deming Management Method, New York: Putnam Publishing Group