Name: Vinay Kumar Thota Student #:000032237

MGMT 515Homework Assignment #1

Due 26 April by start of class

This is an exercise in independent research. Remember, this assignment constitutes 5% of you total grade. Wikipedia is a good place to start, but you will need to explore other sources to obtain a good grade.

You may submit you assignment by email or in Moodle prior to class or in hardcopy at the start of class on the 24th

Penmanship and English grammar will constitute 10% of the grade.

1. Research Peter Drucker, a management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. Describe you understanding of Drucker’s general philosophy. Specifically address his views on leadership and the knowledge worker.

2.Answer: The story of Peter Drucker is the story of management itself. It's the story of the rise of the modern corporation and the managers who organize work. Without his analysis it's almost impossible to imagine the rise of dispersed, globe-spanning corporations.

Peter Drucker: is best known as an influential thinkers and writers on the subject of management theory and practice. His prediction on many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning.

 In 1959, Drucker introduced the term “knowledge worker" and later in his life considered “knowledge work productivity”, to be the next frontier of management. In his hometown of Vienna in Austria, honor his legacy for the annual “Global Peter Drucker Forum”.

Life of Peter Drucker:

 Drucker was born in Vienna, the capital of Austria, in a small village named Kaasgraben (now part of the 19th district of Vienna, Dobling) on 19th November, 1905. At the time when Drucker was born ,Vienna, when the city was still the glittering centre of the Habsburg monarchy.

Drucker was both on his paternal and his maternal side of Jewish descent, but his parents converted to Christianity and lived in what he referred to as a "liberal" Lutheran Protestant household in Austria-Hungary. His mother Caroline Bondi had studied medicine and his father Adolf Drucker was a lawyer and

high-level civil servant. He grew up in a home which was a meeting place for intellectuals, high government officials and scientists; the economists Schumpeter, Mises and Hayek were also regular guests and these intellectuals, high government officials, and scientists would meet to discuss new ideas.

After graduating from Dobling Gymnasium, Drucker found few opportunities for employment in post-World War Vienna, so he moved to Hamburg, Germany, first working as an apprentice at an established cotton trading company, then as a journalist, writing for  (The Austrian Economist). Drucker then moved to Frankfurt, where he took a job at the Daily Frankfurter General-Anzeiger. While in Frankfurt, he also earned a doctorate in international law and public law from the University of Frankfurt in 1931.

In 1933, Drucker left Germany for England. In London, he worked for an insurance company, then as the chief economist at a private bank. He also reconnected with Doris Schmitz, an acquaintance from the University of Frankfurt whom he married in 1934. The couple permanently relocated to the United States, where he became a university professor as well as a free-lance writer and business consultant.

In 1943, Drucker became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He then had a distinguished career as a teacher, first as a professor of politics and philosophy at Bennington College from 1942–1949, then for more than twenty years at New York University as a Professor of Management from 1950 to 1971.

Drucker came to California in 1971, where he developed one of the country's first executive MBA programs for working professionals at Claremont Graduate University (then known as Claremont Graduate School). From 1971 to his death he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University. Claremont Graduate University's management school was named the "Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management" in his honor in 1987 (later renamed the "Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management"). He taught his last class there in 2002 at age 92. Drucker also continued to act as a consultant to businesses and non-profit organizations well into his nineties.

Drucker’s Contributions:

You can’t talk about Drucker’s spectacular success as a management guru and fortune teller without noting that his first big public prediction was a bust. It was published shortly before the stock market crash which preceded the Great Depression. In a public newspaper column Drucker predicted a rosy future and a bull market.

He ate crow a few weeks later when, with an article on the stock market crash published in the Frankfurter General-Anzeiger entitled “Panic on the New York Stock Exchange.” That must have been difficult for him and it was the last time he attempted to predict the stock market.

It may also have been the root of his well-known dictum that “The best way to predict the future is to create it” something he couldn’t much do with the stock market but felt that he was able to help managers accomplish elsewhere.

As the cover story for Bloomberg Business week written shortly after his death recorded, “He was always able to discern trends — sometimes 20 years or more before they were visible to anyone else.” However his reputation was based on far more than his abilities as a fortune teller.

Shortly after his death business journalist John Byrne attempted to access Drucker’s contributions and strived to explain “why Drucker’s ideas still matter.” Byrne’s list of Drucker’s major accomplishments included:

Introducing the idea of decentralization, a concept that became basic to every large organization in the world. This was an idea he thought up 70 years ago.

In the 1950s Drucker became the first to assert that workers should be treated on the asset side of the ledger, and not listed as liabilities. It was one of the main conclusions of his 1946 book, Concept of the Corporation which departed radically from the previous focus on efficiency resulting from technology to reduce worker cost.

Drucker completed the decade by expounding the revolutionary idea that since there was no business without a customer, the purpose of a business was not profit at all, but to create a customer. Profit was simply a necessary element to accomplish this.

It was Drucker who wrote about the contribution of knowledge workers, and in fact he invented the term, long before anyone knew or understood how knowledge would be of importance above other inputs.

Of course there was more, but you get the general idea. His contributions were massive. However, for a long time he seemed to acknowledge its importance, but ignored the concept of leadership.

views on the knowledge worker:

The term 'knowledge worker' is somewhat controversial. Some people are uncomfortable saying that some workers use knowledge, and others don't – for example, “Our marketing team members are knowledge workers, and our production staff are not.” Statements like this may create the impression that some jobs (and people) are better than others. On the other hand, you could say that all work is knowledge work, to a greater or lesser degree.

Thomas Davenport, who has studied knowledge workers for more than a decade, offers a commonly used definition of the term: “Knowledge workers have high degrees of expertise, education, or experience, and the primary purpose of their jobs involves the creation, distribution or application of knowledge.” For our purposes, we'll use this definition.

At its most basic level, knowledge work is often the source of new ideas. So, to get the most from your knowledge workers, and to create an environment where new ideas can flow and flourish, follow some of these basic leadership and management practices. They will help you build trust, and improve the link between the work your knowledge workers do and your organization's success. This may help to create the competitive advantage you need.

Link Technology to Knowledge

There's a tremendous amount of knowledge out there, and new discoveries are made every day. Knowledge workers have to use technology to keep track of everything they need to know. They don't have to create everything themselves, or waste time looking for information that may or may not exist. As a manager, make sure your knowledge workers have access to appropriate technology. This could be something as straightforward as providing them with PDAs, or with access to the Internet.

However, simply providing the technology isn't enough. You'll need to train people to use the technology, and you may even require them to use it. For example, it's pointless if you buy a software program that automatically searches the Internet for new information on specific subjects, but your workers still spend hours doing their own web searches.

Find ways to provide the right technology, and make sure knowledge workers use it. This is the first way for managers to improve their knowledge workers' performance.

Manage Knowledge

Develop a strategy to manage knowledge within your company. Create a wiki containing organizational knowledge, along with systems that support and encourage the sharing and retention of knowledge in your workplace.

It also helps to provide workspaces where knowledge workers can share and collaborate with their colleagues. And they often need space where they can go to think privately, without distractions.

Be a 'Coach,' Not a 'Boss'

The nature of knowledge work varies with each profession – from software developers to lawyers to pharmaceutical researchers. However, most knowledge workers like at least some level of autonomy. They usually don't want someone closely overseeing and supervising their work. Instead, they probably prefer managers to clear the way for them to work productively.

As a manager, you're responsible for things like budgeting and planning, and this takes you further away from 'doing' things yourself. To maintain knowledge workers' trust and respect, stay aware of the work they're doing, and coach them as needed.

Bosses of knowledge workers are often knowledge workers themselves. This makes the role of coach even more important. Develop a coaching relationship in which you give knowledge workers the freedom and support they need to do their work.

Explain the Big Picture

Knowledge workers often need to know 'why' as much, if not more, than they need to know 'what.' Don't ask knowledge workers to improve a product's design without telling them why it needs improving – and how the improvements will benefit the performance of the company. When knowledge workers understand 'why,' they're more likely to offer solutions that are innovative and insightful.

This deeper insight often leads to an increase in 'connectedness.' The more connected knowledge workers feel to a project, the more motivated they're likely to be. Greater motivation means more collective brainpower that will be used to make the project a success.

To ensure high motivation levels, you may have to consider carefully which projects you assign to knowledge workers. Find out what their interests and goals are, and then aim to align those to the work they do within the organization. Be willing to customize projects to a knowledge worker's interests.

Get Creative With Performance Metrics

Knowledge work is mostly unseen, and therefore difficult to measure. You can't watch knowledge being created in the same way as a physical, tangible product. With knowledge work, it's the final output that matters, and the steps along the way are often less important.

Because it's almost impossible to measure the inputs, look instead at the outputs, and decide which results are most important to your organization. For example, a marketing company might decide that campaign awards are the most valid measurement of performance. Obtaining patents might be the measurement system in product development companies. Results of participant evaluations might be the determining factor used in training companies. (Be careful here not to reward quantity at the expense of quality – one spectacular success may be worth many middle-ranking ones. Also, be flexible in the way you apply metrics so that you don't end up motivating perverse behaviors.)

By looking at what's most valuable in terms of output, you can usually identify some key performance indicators. Remember to make sure these indicators are tied to the 'big picture' that you communicated earlier.

When you're happy with a set of performance metrics, experiment with changes that are designed to improve performance. For example, if you introduce a new technology, evaluate how it impacts performance. Or, if you change the layout of the workspace to improve collaboration among knowledge workers, measure before-and-after results to determine how successful the change has been.

Treat Knowledge Workers as Individuals

Different people use their knowledge in different ways. Some people like to sit and think in a quiet space, while others like to have roundtable discussions to generate ideas. Fairness in the workplace can be interpreted as making things 'the same' for everyone. But when you treat all of your knowledge workers alike, you may miss opportunities to discover what motivates them individually – and what each one needs to be more creative and productive.

Everything can be personalized – the technologies you make available, the work environment, the work schedule, and so on. Your knowledge workers get results in ways that are very different from traditional workers, so be open and flexible with their work resources, terms, and conditions.

Key Points

Knowledge workers are usually responsible for exploring and creating ideas, rather than implementing and managing existing processes. New products, new designs, new models for doing business – these are typical outputs of knowledge work.

Because knowledge workers are expected to produce results that are different from traditional workers, you should also manage them and measure their performance differently. Have an open mind, and recognize the different needs and motivations of knowledge workers. This will make it much easier to find creative and effective ways to keep their productivity high

views on leadership:

Taking a team from ordinary to extraordinary means understanding and embracing the difference

between management and leadership. According to writer and consultant Peter Drucker, "Management is

doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." 

Manager and leader are two completely different roles, although we often use the terms interchangeably.

Managers are facilitators of their team members’ success. They ensure that their people have everything

they need to be productive and successful; that they’re well trained, happy and have minimal roadblocks

in their path; that they’re being groomed for the next level; that they are recognized for great

performance and coached through their challenges.

Conversely, a leader can be anyone on the team who has a particular talent, who is creatively thinking out

of the box and has a great idea, who has experience in a certain aspect of the business or project that can

prove useful to the manager and the team. A leader leads based on strengths, not titles.

The best managers consistently allow different leaders to emerge and inspire their teammates (and

themselves!) to the next level.

When you’re dealing with ongoing challenges and changes, and you’re in uncharted territory with no

means of knowing what comes next, no one can be expected to have all the answers or rule the team with

an iron fist based solely on the title on their business card. It just doesn’t work for day-to-day operations.

Sometimes a project is a long series of obstacles and opportunities coming at you at high speed, and you

need every ounce of your collective hearts and minds and skill sets to get through it.

This is why the military style of top-down leadership is never effective in the fast-paced world of

adventure racing or, for that matter, our daily lives (which is really one big, long adventure, hopefully!). I

truly believe in Tom Peters’s observation that the best leaders don’t create followers; they create more

leaders. When we share leadership, we’re all a heck of a lot smarter, more nimble and more capable in the

long run, especially when that long run is fraught with unknown and unforeseen challenges.

Change leadership styles

Not only do the greatest teammates allow different leaders to consistently emerge based on their

strengths, but also they realize that leadership can and should be situational, depending on the needs of

the team. Sometimes a teammate needs a warm hug. Sometimes the team needs a visionary, a new style

of coaching, someone to lead the way or even, on occasion, a kick in the bike shorts. For that reason, great

leaders choose their leadership style like a golfer chooses his or her club, with a calculated analysis of the

matter at hand, the end goal and the best tool for the job.

The research discovered that a manager’s leadership style was responsible for 30% of the company’s

bottom-line profitability! That’s far too much to ignore. Imagine how much money and effort a company

spends on new processes, efficiencies, and cost-cutting methods in an effort to add even one percent to

bottom-line profitability, and compare that to simply inspiring managers to be more kinetic with their

leadership styles. It’s a no-brainer.

Here are the six leadership styles Goleman uncovered among the managers he studied, as well as a brief

analysis of the effects of each style on the corporate climate:

1. The pacesetting leader expects and models excellence and self-direction. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be “Do as I do, now.” The pacesetting style works best when the team is already motivated and skilled, and the leader needs quick results. Used extensively, however, this style can overwhelm team members and squelch innovation.

2. The authoritative leader mobilizes the team toward a common vision and focuses on end goals, leaving the means up to each individual. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be “Come with me.” The authoritative style works best when the team needs a new vision because circumstances have changed, or when explicit guidance is not required. Authoritative leaders inspire an entrepreneurial spirit and vibrant enthusiasm for the mission. It is not the best fit when the leader is working with a team of experts who know more than him or her.

3. The affiliative leader works to create emotional bonds that bring a feeling of bonding and belonging to the organization. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be “People come first.” The affiliative style works best in times of stress, when teammates need to heal from a trauma, or when the team needs to rebuild trust. This style should not be used exclusively, because a sole reliance on praise and nurturing can foster mediocre performance and a lack of direction.

4. The coaching leader develops people for the future. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be “Try this.” The coaching style works best when the leader wants to help teammates build lasting personal strengths that make them more successful overall. It is least effective when teammates are defiant and unwilling to change or learn, or if the leader lacks proficiency.

5. The coercive leader demands immediate compliance. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be “Do what I tell you.” The coercive style is most effective in times of crisis, such as in a company turnaround or a takeover attempt, or during an actual emergency like a tornado or a fire. This style can also help control a problem teammate when everything else has failed. However, it should be avoided in almost every other case because it can alienate people and stifle flexibility and inventiveness.

6. The democratic leader builds consensus through participation. If this style were summed up in one phrase, it would be “What do you think?” The democratic style is most effective when the leader needs the team to buy into or have ownership of a decision, plan, or goal, or if he or she is uncertain and needs fresh ideas from qualified teammates. It is not the best choice in an emergency situation, when time is of the essence for another reason or when teammates are not informed enough to offer sufficient guidance to the leader.

My understanding on Peter Drucker philosophy are

Decentralization and simplification. Drucker discounted the command and control model and asserted that companies work best when they are decentralized. According to Drucker,

corporations tend to produce too many products, hire employees they don't need (when a better solution would be outsourcing), and expand into economic sectors that they should avoid.

The prediction of the death of the "Blue Collar" worker. A blue collar worker is a typical high school dropout who was paid middle class wages with all benefits for assembling cars in Detroit. The changing face of the US Auto Industry is a testimony to this prediction.

The concept of what eventually came to be known as "outsourcing." He used the example of front room and a back room of each business: A company should be engaged in only the front room activities that are core to supporting its business. Back room activities should be handed over to other companies, for whom these are the front room activities.

The importance of the non-profit sector, which he calls the third sector (private sector and the Government sector being the first two.) Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) play crucial roles in countries around the world.

A profound skepticism of macroeconomic theory. Drucker contended that economists of all schools fail to explain significant aspects of modern economies.

Respect of the worker. Drucker believed that employees are assets and not liabilities. He taught that knowledgeable workers are the essential ingredients of the modern economy. Central to this philosophy is the view that people are an organization's most valuable resource, and that a manager's job is both to prepare people to perform and give them freedom to do so.

A belief in what he called "the sickness of government." Drucker made nonpartisan claims that government is often unable or unwilling to provide new services that people need or want, though he believed that this condition is not inherent to the form of government. The chapter "The Sickness of Government" in his book The Age of Discontinuity formed the basis of New Public Management, a theory of public administration that dominated the discipline in the 1980s and 1990s.

The need for "planned abandonment." Businesses and governments have a natural human tendency to cling to "yesterday's successes" rather than seeing when they are no longer useful.

A belief that taking action without thinking is the cause of every failure. The need for community. Early in his career, Drucker predicted the "end of economic man" and

advocated the creation of a "plant community" where an individual's social needs could be met. He later acknowledged that the plant community never materialized, and by the 1980s, suggested that volunteering in the nonprofit sector was the key to fostering a healthy society where people found a sense of belonging and civic pride.

The need to manage business by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value. This concept of management by objectives forms the keynote of his 1954 landmark The Practice of Management.

A company's primary responsibility is to serve its customers. Profit is not the primary goal, but rather an essential condition for the company's continued existence.

A belief in the notion that great companies could stand among humankind's noblest inventions.

3. Research W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and consultant. Describe you understanding of Drucker’s general philosophy. Specifically address on the “plan-do-check-act” cycle, and Total Quality Management.Answer:William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American statistician, college professor, author, lecturer, and consultant. Deming is widely credited with improving production in the United States during World War II, although he is perhaps best known for his work in Japan. There, from 1950 onward he taught top management how to improve design (and thus service), product quality, testing and sales (the last through global markets) through various methods, including the application of statistical methods such as ANalysis Of VAriance (ANOVA) and hypothesis testing. Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's later renown for innovative high-quality products and its economic power. He is regarded as having had more impact upon Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being considered something of a hero in Japan, he was only beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death.

Deming was born in Sioux City, Iowa. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Wyoming at Laramie (1921), an M.S. from the University of Colorado (1925), and a Ph.D. from Yale University (1928). Both graduate degrees were in mathematics and physics. Deming had an internship at Bell Telephone Laboratories while studying at Yale. He subsequently worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Census Department. While working under Gen. Douglas MacArthur as a census consultant to the Japanese government, he famously taught statistical process control methods to Japanese business leaders, returning to Japan for many years to consult and to witness economic growth that he had predicted as a result of application of techniques learned from Walter Shewhart at Bell Laboratories. Later, he became a professor at New York University while engaged as an independent consultant in Washington, D.C.

Deming was the author of Out of the Crisis (1982 – 1986) and The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1993), which includes his System of Profound Knowledge and the 14 Points for Management (described below). Deming played flute & drums and composed music throughout his life, including sacred choral compositions and an arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner.

In 1993, Deming founded the W. Edwards Deming Institute in Washington, D.C., where the Deming Collection at the U.S. Library of Congress includes an extensive audiotape and videotape archive. The aim of the W. Edwards Deming Institute is to foster understanding of The Deming System of Profound Knowledge to advance commerce, prosperity and peace.

Deming's 14 Points:

Deming offered fourteen key principles for management for transforming business effectiveness. In summary:

1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of a product and service with a plan to become competitive and stay in business. Decide to whom top management is responsible.

2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. We can no longer live with commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes, defective materials, and defective workmanship.

3. Cease dependence on mass inspection. Require, instead, statistical evidence that quality is built in. (prevent defects instead of detect defects.)

4. End of the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, depend on meaningful measures of quality along with price. Eliminate suppliers that cannot qualify with statistical evidence of quality.

5. Find Problems. It is a management�s job to work continually on the system (design, incoming materials, composition of material, maintenance, improvement of machine, training, supervision, retraining)

6. Institute modern methods of training on the job

7. The responsibility of the foreman must be to change from sheer numbers to quality [which] will automatically improve productivity. Management must prepare to take immediate action on reports from the foremen concerning barriers such as inherent defects, machines not maintained, poor tools, and fuzzy operational definitions.

8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.

9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales and production must work as a team to foresee problems of production that may be encountered with various materials and specifications.

10. Eliminate numerical goals, posters, slogans for the workforce, asking for new levels of productivity without providing methods.

11. Eliminate work standards that prescribe numerical quotas.

12. Remove barriers that stand between the hourly worker and his right of pride of workmanship.

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and retraining.

14. Create a structure in top management that will push every day on the above 13pts.

The Seven Deadly Diseases:

1. Lack of constancy of purpose.

2. Emphasis on short-term profits.

3. Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance.

4. Mobility of management.

5. Running a company on visible figures alone.

6. Excessive medical costs.

7. Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers who work for contingency fees.

A Lesser Category of Obstacles:

1. Neglecting long-range planning.

2. Relying on technology to solve problems.

3. Seeking examples to follow rather than developing solutions.

4. Excuses, such as "Our problems are different."

Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle: PDCA is the very first, fundamental tool in your arsenal in implementing kaizen. It mainly does three things:

Helps you to continually change and tweak what you do in order to:

Achieve higher quality in your results and processes.

Gain continual increases in work efficiency.

Allows you to clearly see which stage your project is at.

Assists you in handling your work logically and systematically.

The original concept was made popular by statistician Edwards Deming, the father of modern quality management. PDCA is quite easy to understand and quite easy to carry out, as long as you keep track at which stage you’re in.To carry PDCA out, you need to follow the four step cycle as in the diagram below . Firstly, you start with Plan.

PLANStep 1:Identify The Problem

Select the problem to be analyzedClearly define the problem and establish a precise problem statementSet a measurable goal for the problem solving effortEstablish a process for coordinating with and gaining approval of leadership

PLANStep 2:Analyze The Problem

Identify the processes that impact the problem and select oneList the steps in the process as it currently existsMap the ProcessValidate the map of the processIdentify potential cause of the problemCollect and analyze data related to the problemVerify or revise the original problem statementIdentify root causes of the problemCollect additional data if needed to verify root causes

DOStep 3:DevelopSolutions

Establish criteria for selecting a solutionGenerate potential solutions that will address the root causes of the problemSelect a solutionGain approval and supporter the chosen solutionPlan the solution

DOStep 4:Implement a Solution

Implement the chosen solution on a trial or pilot basisIf the Problem Solving Process is being used in conjunction with the Continuous Improvement Process

The four phases in the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle involve:

Plan: Identifying and analyzing the problem.

Do: Developing and testing a potential solution.

Check: Measuring how effective the test solution was, and analyzing whether it could be improved in any way.

Act: Implementing the improved solution fully.

Step 1: Plan

First, identify exactly what your problem is. You may find it useful to use tools like Drill Down , Cause and Effect Diagrams , and the 5 Whys to help you really get to the root of it. Once you've done this, it may be appropriate for you to map the process that is at the root of the problem.

Next, draw together any other information you need that will help you start sketching out solutions.

Step 2: Do

This phase involves several activities:

Generate possible solutions.

Select the best of these solutions, perhaps using techniques like Impact Analysis to scrutinize them.

Implement a pilot project on a small scale basis, with a small group, or in a limited geographical area, or using some other trial design appropriate to the nature of your problem, product or initiative.

Our section on Practical Creativity includes several tools that can help you generate ideas and solutions. Our section on Decision Making includes a number of tools that will help you to choose in a scientific and dispassionate way between the various potential solutions you generate.

Step 3: Check

In this phase, you measure how effective the pilot solution has been, and gather together any learnings from it that could make it even better.

Depending on the success of the pilot, the number of areas for improvement you have identified, and the scope of the whole initiative, you may decide to repeat the "Do" and "Check" phases, incorporating your additional improvements.

Once you are finally satisfied that the costs would outweigh the benefits of repeating the Do-Check sub-cycle any more, you can move on to the final phase.

Step 4: Act

Now you implement your solution fully. However, your use of the PDCA Cycle doesn't necessarily stop there. If you are using the PDCA or Deming Wheel as part of a continuous improvement initiative, you need to loop back to the Plan Phase (Step 1), and seek out further areas for improvement.

When to Use the Deming Cycle

The Deming Cycle provides a useful, controlled problem solving process. It is particularly effective for:

Helping implement Kaizen or Continuous Improvement approaches, when the cycle is repeated again and again as new areas for improvement are sought and solved.

Identifying new solutions and improvement to processes that are repeated frequently. In this situation, you will benefit from extra improvements built in to the process many times over once it is implemented.

Exploring a range of possible new solutions to problems, and trying them out and improving them in a controlled way before selecting one for full implementation.

Avoiding the large scale wastage of resources that comes with full scale implementation of a mediocre or poor solution.

Clearly, use of a Deming Cycle approach is slower and more measured than a straightforward "gung ho" implementation. In true emergency situations, this means that it may not be appropriate (however, it's easy for people to think that situations are more of an emergency than, in reality, they really are...)

Key Points

The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle provides a simple but effective approach for problem solving and managing change, ensuring that ideas are appropriately tested before committing to full implementation. It can be used in all sorts of environments from new product development through to marketing, or even politics.

It begins with a Planning phase in which the problem is clearly identified and understood. Potential solutions are then generated and tested on a small scale in the "Do" phase, and the outcome of this testing is evaluated during the Check phase. "Do" and "Check" phases can be iterated as many times as is necessary before the full, polished solution is implemented in the "Act" phase.

Total Quality Management(TQM):

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive and structured approach to organizational management that seeks to improve the quality of products and services through ongoing refinements in response to continuous feedback. TQM requirements may be defined separately for a particular organization or may be in adherence to established standards, such as the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 series. TQM can be applied to any type of organization; it originated in the manufacturing sector and has since been adapted for use in almost every type of organization imaginable, including schools, highway maintenance, hotel management, and churches. As a current focus of e-business, TQM is based on quality management from the customer's point of view.

TQM processes are divided into four sequential categories: plan, do, check, and act (thePDCA cycle). In the planning phase, people define the problem to be addressed, collect relevant data, and ascertain the problem's root cause; in the doing phase, people develop and implement a solution, and decide upon a measurement to gauge its effectiveness; in the checking phase, people confirm the results through before-and-after data comparison; in the acting phase, people document their results, inform others about process changes, and make recommendations for the problem to be addressed in the next PDCA cycle.

The Primary Elements of Total Quality Management(TQM):

Total quality management can be summarized as a management system for a customer-focused organization that involves all employees in continual improvement. It uses strategy, data, and effective communications to integrate the quality discipline into the culture and activities of the organization.

Customer-focused. The customer ultimately determines the level of quality. No matter what an organization does to foster quality improvement—training employees, integrating quality into the design process, upgrading computers or software, or buying new measuring tools—the customer determines whether the efforts were worthwhile.

Total employee involvement. All employees participate in working toward common goals. Total employee commitment can only be obtained after fear has been driven from the workplace, when empowerment has occurred, and management has provided the proper environment. High-performance work systems integrate continuous improvement efforts with normal business operations. Self-managed work teams are one form of empowerment.

Process-centered. A fundamental part of TQM is a focus on process thinking. A process is a series of steps that take inputs from suppliers (internal or external) and transforms them into outputs that are delivered to customers (again, either internal or external). The steps required to carry out the process are defined, and performance measures are continuously monitored in order to detect unexpected variation.

Integrated system. Although an organization may consist of many different functional specialties often organized into vertically structured departments, it is the horizontal processes interconnecting these functions that are the focus of TQM.

Micro-processes add up to larger processes, and all processes aggregate into the business processes required for defining and implementing strategy. Everyone must understand the vision, mission, and guiding principles as well as the quality policies, objectives, and critical processes of the organization. Business performance must be monitored and communicated continuously.

An integrated business system may be modeled after the Baldrige National Quality Program criteria and/or incorporate the ISO 9000 standards. Every organization has a unique work culture, and it is virtually impossible to achieve excellence in its products and services unless a good quality culture has been fostered. Thus, an integrated system connects business improvement elements in an attempt to continually improve and exceed the expectations of customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

Strategic and systematic approach. A critical part of the management of quality is the strategic and systematic approach to achieving an organization’s vision, mission, and goals. This process, called strategic planning or strategic management, includes the formulation of a strategic plan that integrates quality as a core component.

Continual improvement. A major thrust of TQM is continual process improvement. Continual improvement drives an organization to be both analytical and creative in finding ways to become more competitive and more effective at meeting stakeholder expectations.

Fact-based decision making. In order to know how well an organization is performing, data on performance measures are necessary. TQM requires that an organization continually collect and analyze data in order to improve decision making accuracy, achieve consensus, and allow prediction based on past history.

Communications. During times of organizational change, as well as part of day-to-day operation, effective communications plays a large part in maintaining morale and in motivating employees at all levels. Communications involve strategies, method, and timeliness.

These elements are considered so essential to TQM that many organizations define them, in some format, as a set of core values and principles on which the organization is to operate.