International Journal Of Economy Management-Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The International Journal Of Economy Management? Answer: Introduction Globalisation has created a competitive nature in the market raising the demand of quality being delivered to the customers. The demand of maintaining high quality for the products exists in the organisations regardless of the industry. Both manufacturers and service providers require delivering top quality for whatever they are selling to the customers for holding competitive position in the market. This supplemented in the formation of Total Quality Management, which is a systematic approach. It is necessary for the companies the TQM perspective by adequate planning and implementing a constant organisational improvement process. This helps them in gaining competitive advantage in the market by identifying problems, building commitments and exceeding customers expectation. It is necessary for contemporary business organisations to follow the principles proposed in the TQM to identify the quality being delivered to the customers (Kalra and Pant 2013). This essay aims to identify the total quality management of Toyota by analysing the three key principles namely commitment, customer orientation and continuous improvement. This will focus on identification of level of achievement attained by the multinational company I work in and barriers faced by the company in the attainment process. The essay further recommends the necessary modifications that can contribute in attaining the quality narrated in the TQM principles. TQM Principles Total Quality Management from its philosophical stance integrates all its functions for meeting the need of focusing on meeting the customer needs and organisational objectives. This management philosophy was formulated back in 1950 and underwent numerous modifications. The philosophy gained its popularity in 1980s. The managements in contemporary business organisations use this as a method that enables them to get involved in the continuous improvement of the product manufacturing and services delivered to the customers. Kalra and Pant (2013) described TQM as an accumulation of the management tools whose primary focus is to increase business while reducing losses due to the wasteful practices. There are a number of principles communicated by various scholars, out of which, five principles are considered as the primary due to its importance in quality management of a business process. They are management commitments, employee empowerment, fact based decision-making, continuous improv ement and customer focus (Gimenez-Espin, Jimnez-Jimnez and Martnez-Costa 2013). However, management commitment, continuous improvement and customer focus is prioritised over the rest of the principles due to their important contribution in quality management. Commitment involves the input of both the managers and employees in the product development process. Necessity for calculating the commitment of both for identifying the effort put in the process for identifying the efficiency of the development process of the quality product. From the perspective of employee commitment, the participation of the employee towards the organisational goal is calculated. From the managerial perspective on the other hand identifies the need of quality committee, plan formulation, policymaking, strategy implementation and review of the process. This ensures the success of the process that assures quality of the product being delivered to the customers. Continuous Improvement guideline communicated through this principle on the other hand identifies the need of analysing the way the product is being developed. As described by Gimenez-Espin, Jimnez-Jimnez and Martnez-Costa (2013), the principle of continuous improvement looks for the efficiency of a product development process and identifies the gap for improving the process. This further incorporates the evaluation of the employees and their performance for understanding the capability and scope for innovati0n that will further increase the productivity of the firm. The team with better performance is likely to provide quality products and services to the customers of the organisation. The principle further calls for cross-functional process management, attain, maintain and improve standards. Customer Orientation according to Gimenez-Espin, Jimnez-Jimnez and Martnez-Costa (2013) identifies the need of customers focused products. This principle communicates the need of manufacturing products according to the need of customers and maintaining the product quality according to the demand for satisfying the need. This principle further reviews the communication process taken by the company for reaching out their customers in the target market. The complete process includes the product, its functionality, attribution, convenience and the means of communication of the products details to the customers. According to Herzallah, Gutirrez-Gutirrez and Munoz Rosas (2014), the quality of a product is considered as good only if it satisfies the customers need and hold greater perceived value compared to the other similar products in the market. Hence, the quality of the product is proportionate to the value it holds among the customers. The management process of the quality in an organisation on the other hand as prescribed by Mohammad Mosadeghrad (2014) is the complete process of need identification of the customers and working towards the similar aim. This further involves the planning process, evaluation, implementation of the plan and directing the workforce towards the aim. The principles proposed by TQM convey the standards to be maintained in the process for delivering quality products to the customers. Company Analysis The company I had worked in is a multinational company that delivers products and services to the target international customers. The company includes three elements of quality that they require to maintain that are innovation, customers and employee management. The company values the contribution of the employees as they consider them as the building block for maintaining the quality of their products. This leads them to hire the employees who have greater experience on specific field and has the potential to develop innovative products for the organisation. The company adopted multilevel evaluation for the process of employing new workers into the organisation that includes group discussion, skill test and personal interview. The company further offers the employees various training programs for developing the skills for satisfying the customers needs. This also works as a motivational factor for the employees to retain interest towards their work and the organisation. This in turn helps the organisation in retaining the employees with greater commitment towards product development that ensures the greater quality. Moreover, the employee integration in the decision making process amplifies the sense of responsibility among the employees th at further facilitates in increasing the level of commitment of the employees. Moreover, the company has incentive policies for distributing rewards that keep them motivated and encourage them to contribute towards the organisational goal. The management on the other hand follows cross-cultural leadership for addressing the multicultural workforce of the company. This helps them motivating the employees towards the goals of the organisation. The management of the company further developed the performance review matrix that helps in identifying the development required by particular individuals. Moreover, they have developed CSR policies for addressing the environmental issues in the market in which they are operating. This requires them to formulate specific CSR policies for different markets as the particular company operates in the international market, under different legislation. However, the company follows a general CSR policy for all their operational markets around the globe that weakens the implacability of the policy. The management commitment principle as communicated in TQM as described in the earlier section communicates the guideline for providing greater quality of the products that includes various management processes which needs implementation as per the requirement. However, the primary objective of the principle as proposed by Goetsch and Davis (2014) is to attain maximum efficiency of the workforce for developing quality products. However, the multinational company under study reflects limitations in their management process. As mentioned earlier, the company prioritises the customers in their product development for holding competitive advantage in the market by meeting the customers demands and specifications. This helps them in providing customers satisfaction that in turn helps in increasing brand value. The increased brand value on the other hand helps them in building customer loyalty. This can be attributed as the determinant factors for the company in prioritising the customers perception in the product development. The customer-oriented nature of the business is meet through need identification, satisfaction and individual need identification. The company ensures the needs are met or even exceeds the customers needs. The process of need identification involves market analysis that helps the company identifying the existing trend in the market along with the possible upcoming trend that is likely to dominate the market. Market analysis involves various market surveys and trend analysis. The research division of the company again looks this after. They are responsible for collecting, analysing and storing the data. The satisfaction of the customers can be considered as the centre of the companys vision and mission. The overall vision of the company is to provide quality product in accordance to the customers needs for satisfaction and value creation. The overall team of the company is involved in the process for maintaining the product quality being delivered. This involves the activities ranging from product development, product promotion, product marketing, supply chain management for on time delivery to market research for understanding the current sales and upcoming trend. The retails store activities and services are checked for ensuring the primary target customers of the company are satisfied. The attainment of success is determined through the feedback approach taken by the company. This helps them understanding the customers perception towards the products company is delivering to their customers. The company further respects the individual need of the customers. This directed the comp any to deliver a wide range of product line for satisfying a larger customer segment in the target market. This again leads them to stratify the market offering different products with different pricing for satisfying individual customers needs. Moreover, the quality assurance and control policies incorporated by the company guarantees high quality and safety of the product. The manufacturing process is reviewed under multiple product testing stages incorporated in the product development process. Moreover, the company has on spot quality check during the manufacturing that helps in increasing the perceived value of the products. On to it, the CSR policies of the company helps them uphold the environmental safety maintained by the company in the process of production. This again contributes in increasing product value. From the TQM point of view, the company has attained success in following customer orientation principle in the quality management process. Customer orientation principle as mentioned by Gharakhani et al (2013) involves the necessary steps required for both satisfying and measuring the level of satisfaction of the customers. The company invests a lump sum in their research and development of the products. This involves product life cycle review in accordance to the customers need. The constant review of the need is required for introducing innovative products in the market in order to attract customers attention. This is mainly done through the market study conducted by the company using market analysis tools. Moreover, further importance of the division serves in developing the future generation products for the customers. The development department of the company is focused on designing the products according to the customers needs. The company is successful in producing data related to the needs and developing products accordingly that helped them in holding greater market share in the international market. The modification of the products is constant in the company, which enables them to reintroduce the products in the market for satisfying the customers demand. The concept products of the company re present the outlooks that are to enter the market for next generation customers. This represents the successful alignment of the with the mission and vision statement of the company as it accommodates innovation. Barrier Identification The company however, faces considerable challenge in satisfying specific needs of the individual. As the products delivered to the customers are standardised products, it is hard for the company in the process (Ferner and Almond 2013). However, customisation of the products will provide the company in gaining greater efficiency towards customer satisfaction. However, this will increase the costing of the product, which in turn will modify the pricing of the products. This is a huge barrier for the company in their customer focus approach in the international market. Moreover, the company requires modification in the process of data collection regarding the experience. The contemporary feedback system is proving ineffective in the changing world (Black and IVERIFICATION SERVICES LLC 2013). This in contemporary market becoming barrier for the company to continue with existing system and requires modernised tool that integrates technological advancement. Moreover, the need identificatio n process utilised is market analysis, which fails in complete identification of the trend in the contemporary market. This also is becoming a barrier for the company in addressing the needs of the customers in their target market. Lastly, the company has developed and followed CSR policy in the product manufacturing process. However, the absence of CSR policies in other process such as supply chain is a barrier in addressing the customer-focused principle of TQM (Ayuso, Roca and Colom 2013). Some of the barriers as identified in the report are the absence of internal feedback mechanism that needs incorporation within the workplace. This limits the international communication of the organisation (Huang, Baptista and Galliers 2013). Moreover, the cross-cultural leadership as utilised by the organisation limits the ability of motivating and directing the workforce towards the goal of the company. On to it, the objective of the company is too generalised and fails to focus on particular aspect. This according to the TQM principle of innovation is properly aligned. As stated by Bon and Mustafa (2013), a company needs to constantly innovate its operational process for developing innovative products that will satisfy the market need. Constant improvement in the organisation according to the TQM constant innovation principle will help the company holding their market share in the target market. For example, Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan has been successfully holding their international market share due to the innovative approach of the company and the vision of providing future generation products to the customers (Toivonen 2015). Similar but different example can be sighted for the case of Tesla, which is an American automobile organisation. The cars manufactured by the company are eco-friendly and considered as future technology of automobile industry. However, the company is failing in holding greater market share due to its high end pricing, which again can be attribute d to the high production cost (Christensen, Raynor and McDonald 2015). However, despite of focusing on innovation practices, the company is facing significant challenge meeting customers demand. This can be attributed to the cost barriers. The production cost for developing the products as envisioned is considerably high that reduces the profit margin of the company (Klychova et al 2015). Some of the costing that plays active role in increasing the production cost are the price of raw materials, labour costs, transport cost etc. (Ellram et al 2013). This can be considered as a significant barrier in the innovation process both admired by the company and narrated in the principle of TQM. The company is further failing in developing innovative products due to the high production cost. Recommendations The barriers identified can be considered as common challenges faced by a multinational enterprise. Negligence of these challenges significantly reduces the product quality, which makes it important for the organisations to mitigate the issues with maximum priorities. Following are some of the recommendation that can improve the situation of the company and direct them achieving the principles of total quality management. Barriers identified in the previous section on the management commitment limits the efficiency of the company. The internal feedback system as identified can considerably increase the efficiency in performance identification. Integration of employee feedback application in this case can potentially benefit the company by increasing the motivation level of the company. Benefit as identified by Guo et al (2014) is in encouraging the employees by communicating the performance level and appreciating them for the job well done. This can also be used to communicate job description to the employees. Integration of the application will also facilitate the employees to communicate their valuable feedback regarding the workplace environment and the management. This will help the company identify the areas with the workplace that needs attention. The recommendation will also be welcomed from the employees for formulating ideas regarding the improvement process that can successfully modify the w orkplace environment. Change in leadership style is another modification required for developing greater commitment. Changing the cross-cultural leadership to transformational leadership as identified by Top et al (2013) will provide greater efficiency in motivating the employees that will redirect their focus towards the organisational goals. Moreover, the transformational leadership will facilitate in supporting the change that are being recommendation. The implication of transformational leadership also lies in improving the innovative approach of the company. According to Avolio and Yammarino (2013), transformational leaders have the ability to both communicate and extract innovative ideas. Hence, the implementation of the particular leadership style will facilitate in attaining multiple principles communicated through the TQM. Expanding the manufacturing to the developing countries as recommended earlier will help in reducing the production cost. This has further implication in attaining the customer-focused principle of TQM. The lower production cost will help changing the product category from standardisation to customisable product. This will enable the customer receive products specific to their need without major alteration in the pricing of the products. Furthermore, the company needs to develop their general CSR policy. This is because of the international operation of the business. The international organisations require specific CSR policies for their operations in particular nations that should be developed in accordance to the country legislation. Hence, to could be recommended to the company to formulate country specific CSR policies for increasing the quality of their products and services (Stellner, Klein and Zwergel 2015). Moreover, the company follows CSR policy in their production process, whereas, they do not have any policy for the supply chain. Hence, separate policy regarding the supply chain is required to develop for completely addressing the issue of environmental safety. Barrier regarding the customer feedback can be solved with the development of company App. This according to Helander et al (2014) is the modern trend used for gathering customer review. The application will help both the company and the customers in receiving and providing feedback respectively. This will enable the customers to provide feedback and submit complaints related to the used products without having to visit the companys service provides. Company will further reduce their expenses by implementing the application, as this will delete the need of outdoor feedback survey. Moreover, the application can also be utilised in conducting market survey for need identification. The loyal customers of the company will be provided opportunity for sharing their specific recommendation with the company stating their particular product need. The next recommendation that can be provided is the utilisation of social networking websites for collecting customers view. The increased technological advancement and adaptation will support the utilisation of social networking in conducting survey. The target market reflects high utilisation of technology and social networking on daily basis. According to He, Zha and Li (2013), utilisation of social networking for conducting customer need survey will help an organisation in efficient data collection maintaining low budget for research division. Hence, implementation of this particular recommendation will help the company in both getting efficiency in data collection while significantly reducing the cost involved. Lastly, the company is facing challenge in reducing the production cost that significantly decreases the quality of the products, which fails in satisfying the customer needs. The company is further failing in developing innovative products due to the high production cost. Two possible solutions can be recommended. According to Dolgui and Proth (2013), outsourcing can significantly reduce the production cost incurred by an organisation. Implementation of outsourcing in supply chain can provide further benefits to the company by reducing the transportation cost. Another benefit of using outsourcing lies in significantly reducing the risk incurred by the company. However, as identified by Cortes and Pan (2013), this can significantly reduce the quality of the product being delivered due to minimal control of the production process. The second recommendation in this case that can be made is the FDI. This recommends the company to open manufacturing facility in the developing countries. The benefits of this planning involves in reducing the labour cost in the production process (Haberly and Wjcik 2014). This will further benefit the company in maintaining the product quality as the regulation of production process will remain intact and the company will have full control over the process. Conclusion It is possible to state from the above discussion that the company has successfully addressed the mentioned principles of total quality management for their quality management. 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