Managing Quality and Developing Performance 1

Running Head: MANAGING QUALITY AND DEVELOPING PERFORMANCE

Managing Quality and Developing Performance

Name

Tutors name

Institution

Date
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………… 3

Introduction …………………………………………………………………..............4

Managing quality and performance in

organization………………………………………………………………………………….5

Quality gurus and their contribution…………………………………………………………7

Problems solving using -fish bone diagram………………………………………………….9

Evaluation of the case study………………………………………………………………….10

How Organizational culture, leadership, and motivational issues affect the organization…...12

Change plan and how to overcome change resistance in the organization………………......13

Performance objectives……………………………………………………………………….15

Developing performance……………………………………………………………………..16

Features of effective organization and concepts of performance…………………………….17

Motivation and performance…………………………………………………………………18

Peripheral approaches-job design……………………………………………………………18

Methods of Job Design………………………………………………………………………19

Goal settings and Management by Objectives (Mbo’s)……………………………………..20

Benchmarking applied to performance improvement………………………………………21

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….22

References
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 3

Abstract

Managing quality and performance strategies in any given organization are very useful

towards making the organization successful. This becomes the best approach that will lead to

better and efficient management. Therefore, in this paper we give a brief discussion on some of

the major approaches and steps that can be taken or adopted towards organization or company

improvement to a high profile. These steps have been well discussed and justified on how they

can help in promoting the performance and quality of a given organization so as to improve the

productivity and better yields.

 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 4

Introduction

Definitively, quality and performance management refers to set of management and

analytic processes that enable the performance and management of an organization to be handled

with a view of achieving one or more pre-selected goals and objectives. Managing performance

approach on the other hand is commonly used in places of work and applies wherever people

interrelate .performance management principles are necessary in the world where people interact

with their environments to produce required effects. In order to promote efficient management

of any given institution, the best approach will be in coming up with ways of managing quality

and performance, through which all the individuals in the institution or organization will be

mentored towards such a development. This will end up increasing performance and productivity

thus being able to see majority of the employees getting the greatest benefits from the very

efficient management in the organization. At the moment, Quality is expected by consumers at

all levels and is increasing to be a point of differentiation. When developing differentiation

strategy, organizations should keep in mind that quality is still differentiator in the world of sales

and marketing and it is a prerequisite (Herzberg, 1966). Earlier period definitions of managing

quality mainly concentrated on conformance to standards. Such definitions entirely focused on

the customer's view of quality and mostly did not take into deliberation how these values are met

– especially through imperfection prevention or a substantial revision of a detailed part or

service. In addition, past definitions also ignored the fact that quality of a product or service

rarely consist of a single element. The current definition of managing quality majorly focuses on

attaining value entitlement, and it describe the concept of quality as a condition by which value

privilege is realized for the customer and supplier. In all features of the organization or business
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 5

relationship, Value signifies financial worth, practical convenience and ease of use for both the

customer and the company that creates the products or services.

In business, Quality is not just all about products, it's mainly a combination of the product

and add-ons like packaging, customer service and convenience .The same concept applies to

individuals in the employment market. People who are more educated are more marketable than

those who are not well educated. Add ons like experience also plays an important part in the

managing performance.Managing Performance refers to activities that ensure goals and

objectives of an organization are consistently being followed in an effective and efficient

manner. Performance management mainly concentrates on performance of the organization

(Rush, 1971). Many cultures exist in the world but the concepts of behavior still remain.

Analytically, managing performance is described as a strategic and integrated approach, that

increase the effectiveness and efficiency of organizations by getting better the performance of

the employees who work in them and by establishing the capacity of teams and individual

contributors. Performance management or managing performance tends to get employees to

reconcile personal goals and objectives with those of the organization. It also helps an

organization to turn marginal business around and increases profitability and productivity of any

organization. For any organization, Management of employees or system performance makes it

easier the advancement of the effective implementation of strategic and operational goals. There

is a clear and instantaneous relationship between use performance management programs and

improved business and organizational results (Mahadevan, 2008).

Managing quality and performance in an organization

 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 6

In order to promote efficient management and productivity of any given institution, the most

accurate and best approach will be in coming up with techniques of managing quality and

performance, through which all the individuals in the institution or organization will be mentored

towards such a development. This process will eventually end up increasing performance and

productivity thus being able to see majority of the employees getting the greatest benefits from

the very efficient management in the organization (Herzberg, 1966). Managing quality is a recent

phenomenon. Sophisticated civilizations that supported the work of arts permitted customers to

choose products of higher quality standards than normal goods. At the moment, as more

organizations improve productivity and implement lean production systems, there is a

tremendous increase in number of made-to-order products and services. Managing quality and

performance in these organizations will order new quality control measures and assurance

methods, intensive dealer qualification quality systems, and shared production information. In

any organization, quality management is described to have three elements that include: quality

assurance, quality improvement and quality control (Mahadevan, 2008).

Managing quality generally focuses not only on products or services but it also

concentrates on methods and techniques used to achieve it. Management of Quality consequently

uses quality improvement, assurance and control of processes as well as products and services to

achieve more consistent quality. Management of quality assumes a number of management

principles that can often be used by higher management to steer their organizations and

businesses towards improved performance. The principles chiefly cover: leadership, process

approach, customer focus, continuous market improvement, accurate approach to decision

making and beneficial relationship between the organization and suppliers. Quality in business

has a realistic interpretation as the non-inferiority or superiority of a product or service. By all

 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 7

means, Quality is a perceptual, provisional and to some extent subjective attributes and mostly

may be understood differently by different people. Consumers or customers mainly concentrate

on the specification quality of a product or service, and tends to compares the commodities with

that of other competitors in the marketplace. Producers on their part evaluate the conformance

quality, or to what degree the product or service was created correctly. As mentioned earlier in

business setting, Quality and performance management drives productivity while improved

productivity increase revenues, service opportunities and scientific and technological advances.

The best method of analyzing quality is in process control. If the process is under control,

inspection is not necessary and proper quality is ensured (Rush, 1971).

Conclusively, progressive view of quality and performance management is entirely focused

on customer or end user and is based upon that individual’s evaluation of his or her entire

customer experience. Customer familiarity is the overall aggregate of all the critical points that

the customers have with the organization's product and services, and is by this description a

combination of these factors facilitates efficient and effective productivity. For instance, if a

consumer buys a product or service, he or she forms an intuition based on how the product or

service was sold, how it was delivered and how well it was supported (Mahadevan, 2008).

Quality gurus and their contribution

By definition, a guru, is a brilliant person, an intelligent individual and a teacher. A quality

guru is an intelligent quality analyst that has established concepts and approaches to quality

within a business and has left a major and lasting impact. The gurus mentioned have done many

great things, and continue to do, that, in some circumstances, even after their death. Management

of quality developed mainly from the ideas and works of the quality gurus and their theories:

since the late 1940’s, there have been three groups of quality gurus:-The early 50’s American
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 8

gurus who took the concept of quality to japan, the late 1950’s Japanese gurus who developed

and established new concepts as result to previous ideas of the Americans and the early 1970 and

1980’s western quality gurus who followed the Japanese industrial successes. The 1950’s gurus

from America include, Joseph Juran, W .Edwards Deming, and Armand Feigenbum.those from

Japan included Genichi Taguchi, Kaoru Ishikawa, and Shigeo Shingo.Finally the 1970-80's

American Western gurus, outstandingly Philip Crosby and Tom Peters, who supplementariry

extended the Quality Management concepts after the Japanese successes. For the Americans who

went to japan, W Edwards Deming placed immense significance and responsibility on quality

management both at personal and organizational level. He believed poor management was the

sole contributor in about 94% of quality problems. He established a philosophy termed as

fourteen point plan that could be applied to small or large organizations in the Public, private or

service sectors (Herzberg, 1966). He critically believed that adoption and implementation of

fourteen points was a signal that management intended to stay in business. He also encouraged

an efficient approach to problem solving and endorsed the widely known Plan, Do, Check, Act

(PDCA) cycle.Dr Joseph M Juran is credited to have developed the quality trilogy – quality

planning, quality control and quality improvement. He argued that quality management to

prosper needs quality actions to be planned out, improved and controlled. On the other hand,

Armand V Feigenbaum was the inventor of “total quality control”, often referred to as total

quality. He termed it as: An effective and efficient system for incorporating development, quality

maintenance and quality improvement efforts within an organization. He proposed three steps of

efficient management termed as, quality leadership, organizational commitment and modern

quality technology. For the Japanese:Dr Kaoru Ishikawa made excellent contributions to quality,

and the most outstanding one worth noting was his total quality viewpoint, that problems where
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 9

established by human error and could be avoided by use of seven quality tools, which could

assists groups in quality improvements. Dr Genichi Taguchi on his part believed that it was

important to design products that were insensitive to variation in the manufacturing process. He

is credited with designing quality, use of techniques, team work and process control.Shigeo

Shingo on the other hand is strongly linked with Just-in-Time production and was the inventor

of the single minute exchange of die (SMED) system, of which set up times were drastically

reduced from hours to minutes, and the Poka-Yoke (mistake proofing) system. Western gurus’

contribution to development of quality management was also very important. Philip B Crosby is

remembered for his concepts of “quality is free” and “zero defects” while Tom Peters identified

leadership as being central to the quality improvement process and is credited with creation of

“Managing by walking about” (MBWA) system (Mahadevan, 2008).

Problems solving using -fish bone diagram

In many business settings, Cause and Effect Diagrams helps the management of

organizations to think through causes of a problem thoroughly. Their major advantage is that

they push people reflect on all possible causes of the problem, rather than just the ones that are

most obvious. The approach of determining the problem combines brainstorming with use of a

type of concept map. The cause and effect diagram are described a fish bone diagrams, because a

completed one just looks like the skeleton of a fish. In business organizations, fishbone diagram

tend to identify possible causes for an effect or problem. As mentioned earlier, it immediately

sorts out ideas into useful categories. This technique is commonly used to identify probable

problems especially in situations when teams thinking tends to fall into ruts. The fishbone

diagram below shows how a manufacturing organization tries to understand the problem of

source of periodic iron contamination. The management of this organization used the six generic
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 10

headings to show timely ideas. The clear Layers of branches show thorough thinking about the

causes of the problem. The ASL Company uses fish bone technique in solving its problems

(Rush, 1971).

Manpower
P
MACHINERY PROBLEMS

CAUSES Material, people,

system, and
CAUSES process problems

OR EFFECTS

METHODS
MATERIALS

Evaluation of the case study

In our case we analyze the airside services ltd (ASL) an organization that handles most of

aircraft ground support at major airports around the world .this organization it’s mostly charged

with responsibility of receiving and dispatching flights, handling baggage and passenger’s

control. In its baggage handling terminal, it has a labor force of about 15 individuals who handle
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 11

conveyor baggage belt and electric float rrespectively.this type of work is conducted in shifts and

in every shift it has two supervisors. The type of work done is very monotonous, and there is a

high prevalence of physical injuries, low flexibility and poor sturdiness. Since most of handlers

are semi skilled, various concepts of quality management are applied to ensure smooth running

of the organization and employee satisfaction. The major problems that ASL (Airside service

limited) organization faces include, people problems which consists of poor handling, devious

staff, is handling of baggage, poor leadership, high labor turnovers, and an output culture.

Materials problems consist of ripped baggage labels and no baggage label. Processes problems

included overload of the conveyor belt, complacency and penalty clause for slow turn around.

System problems consisted of issues like system inter communication breakdown and improper

maintenance of floats and conveyor belts. A Training Needs Analysis (TNA) concept can be

used to solve problems in ASL.This analysis is applied to assess training needs of the company.

Since most problems in ASL are personnel and management based, TNA gap analysis assess the

gap between the facts, ability and attitudes of the workforce and ability and skills they require to

meet the company’s objectives. To be on the safe side, the management of ASL should create

annual appraisal system that focuses on development of staff. Since most of the employees in the

baggage handling section are not well learned or semi illiterate, the management of ASL should

make sure the workers are thoroughly trained in order to increase the productivity and

development of the organization. Effectiveness and efficiency of employees is a vital. For

Airside service limited or ASL its training needs assessment (TNA) analysis is best carried out

up front, before any training and development solutions are budgeted, designed and delivered.

Pestle, Swot, Force Field Analysis & 4e theories can also be used to indentify, analyze and solve

problems of ASL. Force field analysis concept is an important fact in business field and it gives a
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 12

structure for looking and analyzing factors that affect a situation, or particular event in places of

work. In most situations, Force field analysis often looks at factors that drive an organization to

success or failure. SWOT analysis theory on its part tends to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities, and Threats involved in a company. Mostly it involves specifying the goals and

objective of the company and factors that are constructive and inauspicious to achieve those

objectives. Since in our case we know problems of ASL are contributed by workers, materials,

systems and processes, SWOT analysis can be used to solve the problems and make decisions

when desired objective have been defined and indentified. This is also used in pre-crisis

situations and preventive crisis management. PESTLE analysis tools can also be used to solve

these problems. This analysis assists the company to understand the “big picture” of the business

environment in which they are operating, and the prospects that lie in it. Since ASL is commonly

found in most international airports globally, they should take advantage of the available

opportunities and minimize the coercion that contributes to its bad reputation. For ASL, without

the concrete need for revolutionization, the concept of Leadership and decision making is

meaningless. Poor Leadership skills in part of the management is the most contributing factor of

problems facing ASL, The situation in this company demands availability of efficient and

effective leaders, who are ready to lead and organize the cause taking into consideration the 4

E’s framework which consists of Envision, Enable, Empower & Energize. Since the

management knows the problems facing the company, they should establish leadership that has a

clear view of the external business world, decide on which tools and techniques to use in

achieving the goals and objectives, empower their workers and finally energizing the employees

to work.

How Organizational culture, leadership, and motivational issues affect the organization
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 13

Organizational culture refers to a thought in the Organizational management that

describes the psychology, thoughts, skill and personal and cultural values of an organization.

Definitively its termed as the explicit collection of values and standards that are shared by

individuals and groups in an organization this cultural value tends to control the way employees

interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the context of an organization.

Organization values tend to shape thoughts and ideas and affect the choice of goals and

objectives members of an organization should pursue and thoughts about the organization

objectives (Rush, 1971).Bad implementation and observation of organizational culture is

dangerous and can negatively affect the productivity of a company. The concept of

organizational values, other norms, guidelines or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of

behavior by employees in particular situations develop. Proper organizational cultures create

harmony among employees and cement a good working relationship between the employer and

the employees. Leadership is defined as the capacity to create direction and align individuals

towards a common goal, inspiring and committing them to work and making them responsible

for their performance. For most organizations, problems in places of work prevent the direct

achievement of a goal and objectives (Herzberg, 1966). The tasks for accomplishment at times

may be murky and solutions to problems may be unclear. Besides, the goals and objectives may

also be unclear, unknown or controversial. Leadership problems affecting an organization may

be adaptive in nature. Such adaptive problems call for changes in organizations structure, values,

culture and objectives. Leaders involved in problem-solving should vary depending on the

problem and the available solutions. Motivation in quality management is a part of a profounder

matter that is connected to the humanistic aspects of management as well as irrelevant

organizational resources. Currently in the knowledge based economy, it’s only intellectual
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 14

resources that are considered to inimitable in success of an organization. At times the

management is faced with calamities of dealing with trade unions especially in situations where

they establish ideas that are not favorable with them. For example, when the management tried to

introduce standard times, the trade union blocked this approach. Motivation is a management

concept and tends to link the management with their subordinate. The effectiveness and

efficiency of management depends leadership skills as well as their capabilities to motivate

employees. In any organizational settings, no proper leadership can be established with necessary

motivation systems. In areas where there is no motivation, workers don’t work well and there is

always bad working relationship between the management and the employees (Elearn, 2008).

Change plan and how to overcome change resistance in the organization.

The perception of change plan is essential after application quality concepts. In most

situations, people don't like change because they always don’t like changed. When the concepts

of change come into view, fear and resistance to change follow – often despite its obvious

benefits. Including organizations like ASL,individuals fight against the concepts of change

because they: fear to lose something of great importance, or they don’t understand the concepts

of change and their implications or they don’t find the concepts making sense to them or they

find it difficult to cope with speed or level of change. Generally its human nature to resist and

avoid change. In ASL (airside services limited), Resistance to change can be averted via:

Commitment: From the CEO to the janitor, all workers should be committed to the change plan

(Elearn, 2008).One pessimist on the leadership team can ruin the entire process. A change

mandate: Change should not be debatable. With tender esteem it must be made clear to every

employee that that change is not an alternative, it is a requirement. Input: people affected by the

changes should be given chances to air their opinions. Accountability: Every individual in the
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 15

organization should be held responsible for applying his or her personal change activity. Not

meeting the responsibility must carry or recognition. The organization should put mechanisms

that honor the successful implementation of the change plan as well. Evaluation: the

management should examine the success of implementation at designed intervals .evaluation is a

tactical decision that is designed to measure success over time and make corrections for

unexpected consequences. The operational strategy should be structured in such a way that it

supports the organizations overall corporate strategy. It should describe all the necessary tactics

and processes that are important to hold up the corporate strategy and display authentic and

measurable results (Rush, 1971).

Performance objectives

The five performance objectives that are commonly used in handling operations include:

quality of handling client’s baggage. This considers factors like loss, damage, wrong destination

and any customer complaints. Other objectives include the speed and efficiency of handling, cost

of operations, flexibility and dependability. When you analyze quality you find that there have

been a slight increase in baggage on the wrong flight, there have been problems in how baggage

is handled and passengers expectation have not been met as required. In terms of speed, typical

baggage time of handling has been slow. For dependability, there have been late arrivals of

luggage into the aircraft due to inefficient floats. Staff has been unable to cope with unusual

packages and baggage’s hence it has affected flexibility in terms of shifts and performance.

Finally the overall cost of operations and penalties have increased significantly thus making the

running of the company very expensive and non economical (Mahadevan, 2008).
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 16

Developing performance

Managing and developing Performance refers to activities that ensure goals and

objectives of an organization are consistently being followed in an effective and efficient

manner. Performance management mainly concentrates on performance of the organization.

Many cultures exist in the world but the concepts of behavior still remain. Analytically,

managing performance is described as a strategic and integrated approach, that increase the

effectiveness and efficiency of organizations by getting better the performance of the employees

who work in them and by establishing the capacity of teams and individual contributors.

Performance management or managing performance tends to get employees to reconcile

personal goals and objectives with those of the organization. It also helps an organization to turn

marginal business around and increases profitability and productivity of any organization. For

any organization, Management of employees or system performance makes it easier the

advancement of the effective implementation of strategic and operational goals. There is a clear

and instantaneous relationship between use performance management programs and improved

business and organizational results (Elearn, 2008).

Features of effective organization and concepts of performance

Organizational effectiveness refers to the concept of ways in which an organization runs and

how effective it is in achieving its outcomes. Effective organization refers to an organization in

which resources are managed properly, coordinated and effectively utilized. Organizations are in

dire need to continuously evaluate business processes and reinvent plans in order to achieve

efficiency and exploit the full potential of the available resources. To achieve this end,

organizations are required to invest in distinct and defined processes that are flexible, in order to
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 17

become accustomed to changing business requirements. Organizations require the capability to

realign processes and take advantage of opportunities that arise as a result of changing market

environment. An organization's effectiveness also depends on its open competence and ethics.

The relationship between these three concepts is uniquely simultaneous (Mahadevan, 2008).

Ethics is a core factor found within organizational effectiveness. Any given organization must

demonstrate respect and equity to allow open and transparent competence with the participating

members. Along with ethics and open competence, management can finally achieve their

intended goals. Organizational effectiveness is a theoretical concept and is essentially impossible

to measure. Performance management consists of activities that ensure goals and objectives are

consistently met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management mainly focuses

on overall performance of the organization, a section, employees, etc.Performance concepts are

established to meet the learning and business development that are needed for specialty retailers

and their suppliers. These concepts provide innovative, realistic and reasonably priced products

and services, exclusively designed with the retail user in mind. Performance Concepts make

possible the changes in perception that allow individuals to improve their work environments

and their lives (Herzberg, 1966).

Performance and Motivation

The concept of motivation is important to all conducts at work. Motivation can be defined

as a thought or as a force that drives behavior. Generally Motivation involves both feelings or

emotions and thinking or cognition. It is useful to Motivation consists of combinations of an

individual desires and energy that are directed towards achieving the goals and objectives of an

organization. Motivation can either be intrinsic - satisfaction; or extrinsic - goal obtainment.

 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 18

Normally not all people are motivated by similar things, and after periods of times these

motivations may change. According to a range of theories, motivation is rooted in the essential

need to reduce bodily pain and maximize pleasure. At times it may include specific needs like,

like eating or resting. Good leadership requires good motivation skills and the use of

inspirational methods. Motivational methods are wide and range from inspirational quotes, team

building and activities like warm-ups.motivation does not dictate someone performance but it

influence it. In most organizations, motivation and performance management systems tend to

reward some behaviors more than others (Mahadevan, 2008).

In Managing Performance, various processes are used and the most common is the

performance appraisal method. Work Performance in majority of organizations is measured by

performance appraisal. The Performance Appraisal Process, tends to appraise employee's

performance and helps the management to conduct an appraisal discussion, and enables them to

communicate to employees about performance problems and how to make performance

improvements. a good performance appraisal system, recognize and document employees

contribution, try to give employees helpful performance, enables an effective payment system,

enables the organization to communicate the companies values and ideas and finally it helps

organizations to establish professional abilities of employees. The evolution of performance

appraisal is very concise. It started in the late 19th century and it can traced to pioneering Time

of Taylor. A modern Performance appraisal method involves a structured formal relations and

interaction between the management and the staff. In many organizations, results from

performance appraisal are used in determining reward outcomes. Also they are used to identify

better performing employees (Elearn, 2008).

Peripheral approaches-job design

 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 19

Organization concept is the vigor of any business. The more organized and efficient the

business is, the better its functions and produces. Job design involves breakdown of tasks into

each particular component. Job design arose as a result of rapid growth in science and

technology. As jobs continue to be complicated and specialized, the requirement for trained and

motivated workers has increased immensely. In business, the main purpose of job design is to

increase the workers motivation and organization productivity. Increased productivity can be

seen in various aspects that include improvement of quality and quantity, reduction of operation

costs and reduction in turnover costs. On the other hand, increased employees' motivation can be

realized through improved job and personal satisfaction (Mahadevan, 2008).

Methods of Job Design

The performance technologists have established four concrete methods of job design. The

first, involves job enlargement, and this can be used to raise motivation by giving workers more

tasks that they are specialists in and those that are varied. The second, job rotation, this job

design method allows a worker to work in different departments in an organization in order to

gain better insight into organization operations (Rush, 1971). Job enrichment, the third method,

enables workers to observe responsibilities normally delegated from management. Delegation of

duties allows workers to specialize in areas in which they specialized in hence they tend to enjoy

their jobs. Finally, work simplification is another method of job design and tends to analyze job’s

most fundamental components that are involved in restructuring to make jobs performance

easier. Job design tends to improve performance and motivation in an organization. Job-design

analysis looks at job performance at a broad perspective and then promptly moves towards

classifying the precise activities required to do the job. This is mostly done for the principle of
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 20

spotting and correcting any deficits that may affect performance and motivation (Robertson &

Smith, 1985) .Since ASL as no efficient job design, we find it to have numerous problems .

Goal settings and Management by Objectives (Mbo’s)

In business world, Goal setting involves creation of specific, quantifiable and timely

objectives. The parameters of goal settings involve the application of time which sets and

determine deadlines. In ASL, effective goals should be realistic and have a time deadline. There

must be realistic plans to achieve the intended goal. On the other hand, Management by

Objectives (MBO) refers to a process of approving goals and objectives within an organization in

order for the management and workers to settle on a common ground. The core function of MBO

is in goal setting, leadership and decision making. MBO in this company tends to measure and

compare employee’s performance with laid down stardards.when employees are involved in

decision and management making, they are motivated to work more and they are accountable for

deeds since they contributed to decision making. The concept behind management by objectives

is mainly to have workers have clearness on their roles and responsibilities and what the

management expects of them. Some of most important characteristics and advantages of MBO

include:-it motivates employees in the whole activity of goal setting and it increases workers

empowerment and job satisfaction.secondly, it promotes better communication between the

management and the employees since there are laid down procedures and channels. Thirdly it

clearly shows and analyzes set goals and objectives. Fourthly it instills a sense of responsibility

among workers. Finally the management should have efficient channels in which they monitor

and implement organization objectives (Mahadevan, 2008).

 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 21

Benchmarking applied to performance improvement

Benchmarking refers to the process of improving organizational process by incessantly

Identifying and adapting outstanding practices. Benchmarking techniques tends to compare

organizations performance with others. Generally benchmarking concepts entails management

issues of comparison and market analysis where an organization market performance is

measured and compared with other organizations in the market. This Management tactics tend to

identify the best firms in their industry. The concept of benchmarking was initially used by shoe

makers to measure and determine the size of the shoe. Most of them would take someone foot

and place it on a, hence the coining of the term benchmarking. ASL none efficiently use

Benchmarking techniques to gauge its organizational performance .It uses particular indicators

like personnel ,processes and systems to make comparisons with other organizations in this

sector. Benchmarking occurs in many types that include:-process benchmarking-here an

organization focuses on its process and how it relates with other firms. Financial benchmarking-

compares an organization performance and productivity in comparison with other organizations.

Performance benchmarking-this is most important of all benchmarking techniques, enables

businesses to assess their competitive advantage by comparing their products and services with

those of rival firms. Product benchmarking-enables organization to create quality products by

comparing what they are producing and what other firms are producing. Strategic

benchmarking-involves observation of other firms and learning how they compete. Operational

benchmarking-considers everything from productivity, performance and staffing. Apart from the

techniques mentioned above, ASL to succeed can also use another approach that involves use of

production information to establish strong and weak performing units called, metric

benchmarking. The common forms of quantitive analysis used here are data envelope analysis
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 22

(DEA) and regression analysis.DEA tends to estimate companies that are close to its cost while

regression analysis estimates what an average firm should achieve within a given period of time

(Rush, 1971).

At the moment there is no any benchmarking procedure that has been collectively adopted.

Various methodology have been established and a typical methodology entails identification

problem area, identification of market leaders, scouting of businesses that have good measures

and practices and implementation of advanced and latest business practices (Boxwell, 1994)

Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, Resistance to change can be averted via Commitment, A change

mandate, Input where people affected by the changes are given chances to air their opinions.

Accountability and Evaluation of the management success in implementation of decisions made

at designed intervals. The quality and performance management strategies in the organization

should be optimistically mentored so as to augment cohesive groups while promoting partnering.

This will be the best approach towards ensuring that the employees benefit from the working

experience offered in the organization. As we develop, it's natural and necessary to ponder the

challenges facing organizations. Many honored ways exist for making consistent market

predictions, and other methods remain for maintaining high quality services and products.

During the development of a blue workforce, there should be establishment of training programs

significant to type of work being done. Also there should be effectual and competent workforce

development policies that deal with underserved populations. The management should try to

create an effective staff and they should not concentrate only petty issues. Proper blue workforce

development should be encouraged through partnership among various community groups and

the management. Proper leadership and decision making concepts will male ASL achieve its
 Managing Quality and Developing Performance 23

short and long term goals. Quality improvement is imperative to running a business the elegant

way. To coerce accountability for the quality process through the ranks of an organization, the

management teams should gauge individual hard work and contributions to the quality process as

part of every employee's intermittent review. In conclusion, managing quality and developing

performance is a significant issue for any organization that what to be market leaders.

References

Boxwell.J.R.(1994).Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage. .New York: McGraw-Hill.

Elearn. (2008).Quality and Operations Management. Butlington:Elsevier

Herzberg.F. (1966). Work and the nature of man. Cleveland: World Publishing Co.

Mahadevan. (2008).Operations Management: Theory and Practice. New Delhi:Pearson

Education India

Robertson, I. & Smith, M. (1985). Motivation and job design: Theory, research, and practice. St.

Paul: West Publishing Co.

Rush, H. (1971). Job design for motivation: Experiments in job enlargement and job enrichment.

New York: The Conference Board.

Managing Quality and Developing Performance 24

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Managing Quality and Developing Performance 25