Keywords: Quality Management, Quality, Management by Values, Values.
Summary:
In this work, a proposal is made for a set of values that, insofar as they exist, will promote the achievement of higher levels of quality. The proposed values are cataloged according to different classification criteria.
Despite the fact that almost everyone recognizes the importance of quality for any production or service entity, that every year an endless number of professionals study modern techniques and philosophies of quality management, that every day The companies that claim to have quality control or consumer protection departments grow, which certify their quality systems as apt to receive social recognition, the truth is that there are more products and services with poor quality than those that enjoy a high level of excellence.
And is that when companies want to seek quality they have to resort to the management of multiple springs on which quality depends, among which are operational and strategic elements.
Among the main operational elements are:
• Carrying out an adequate characterization of customer needs, • The translation of these needs into the characteristics of the product through which it is intended to respond to customer expectations,
• The design of a process capable of realizing the designed product, • The execution and control of the process under which the product will be obtained, • and finally the marketing of the finished product.
Among the strategic elements are:
• The motivating and visionary role of top management, • The establishment of successful coordination mechanisms between the different areas, • The appropriate relationship with suppliers, • The required financial assurance,
• Correct documentation through which the standardization of processes is ensured and materialized, • The execution of a correct management of human resources.
Although the management of human resources is considered within the strategic elements, in reality it constitutes the ether that links each of the related operational or strategic elements, and that is that human resources in all cases are in charge of guaranteeing the execution of each one of these elements.
It is very easy to recognize that for a company's human resource to fight for quality performance, it is necessary that it be motivated and it is generally considered that its motivation depends on the level of satisfaction of its material needs and social recognition. However, it is known of the existence of multiple companies where, despite having very good stimulation mechanisms, quality does not emerge.
Today it is no secret to anyone that any result of man's action is mediated by the magnitude in which he wants to execute it and achieve the objectives, the same results are not obtained from a man who acts out of fear, coercion or threats as from one who It is driven by needs and own values, from this it follows the importance of achieving that man wants and even more knowing how to achieve it.
There is consensus between Marxist and non-Marxist psychologists in the common consideration of the thesis whose central claim is that needs are the basis, driving force, drive and purpose, that is, man always acts in correspondence with one or another need.
The influence of needs on behavior is really complicated, since any particular behavior of a certain complexity is generally the result of the influence not of one but of several or all the basic needs of the personality. Among the best-known theories in this regard are:
• Theory of the hierarchy of needs of Abraham Maslow.
• Mac Clelland's theory of needs.
• Herzberg's Hygiene motivators theory.
• Vrohn's expectation theory.
All these theories in one way or another place needs at the center of motivation, however they do not fully explain the difference in the predominance of needs, a classic example of this is the adoption of different attitudes to the same phenomenon by Geordano Bruno who preferred death before retracting his scientific ideas about the movement of the earth around the sun and the retraction carried out by Galileo Galilei in 1633 for the fact of preserving his life, cases like this are repeated throughout of history. How many people have given up a blood transfusion that could save their life just because it is not contemplated in their moral code (values, norms, convictions), how many have carried out a hunger strike determined to die to achieve an ideal (M. Ghandi),How many Christians were not thrown into the lion's den for not giving up their convictions or beliefs? On the other hand, how many steal or kill as the only way to survive, or just because this is the most appropriate way they find to self-fulfill.
Everything seems to indicate that these differences can be explained by understanding the role of values in individuals, where although it can be argued that the degree to which man wants is determined by the degree of dissatisfaction with his needs, it is conditioned by the scale of values that it possesses, which in fact constitutes the explanation for the entire set of exceptions raised above. It is for this reason that this work aims to delve into the role of values in quality management.
The term value has three possible conceptual dimensions, commonly accepted, they are:
- Economic, expressed in the price to pay to obtain something to which the value is given. Psychological, linked to the expression of courage: moral quality that moves to resolutely undertake large companies and face dangers. Moral: referring to how it is understood that behavior in society should be.
Value must be understood, in this case: the degree of meaning that a subject confers on an object, as a result of an evaluative process, and based on which it may or may not regulate its conduct.
Values can be classified according to the degree to which they are socially accepted. The meaning given can be an individual criterion that does not coincide with the rest of the individuals in a group or in a society, in which case it is an isolated value but if the criterion of the individual coincides with that of the group or society, it is called a shared value. Isolated values are the first step in reaching shared ones, but not always does an isolated value become shared, either because it is wrong or because it is not yet the time to be legitimized at the social level, and society needs centuries to recognize. her worth.
Depending on the degree to which the existence of a value regulates the behavior of the individual, these will be classified as regulators or acceptance. Acceptance values are those that the individual accepts and enunciates as valid but nevertheless do not consider it when it comes to their action, while regulatory values are those that influence and determine the levels of performance of men.
As an example of acceptance values, there are many among them that many doctors offer, by prohibiting smoking of their patients, due to their knowledge of the degree to which the cigarette deteriorates health, while they cough and hold a cigar in their hands, or the unfavorable performances of many priests or teachers who have given rise to the phrase “do what I say but not what I do”, or the one that Tolstoy represents in his book War and Peace when one of the characters affirms “I have said that the woman who falls should be forgiven, I have never said that I can do it ”
The existence of an acceptance value is the first step for a value to become a regulatory value, but an acceptance value does not always become a regulator, it depends a lot on the interests and level of will of the people, the doctor knows the damage that the cigarette produces but does not have the sufficient will to give it up.. The relationship between individual and shared values and acceptance and regulatory values can be graphically represented as follows.
Specifically within quality management the values can be classified into result values or process values. The values of results are those that give great importance to the results to be obtained, while that of processes is where the importance is received by the elements that enable quality to emerge. What could be represented graphically in the following way:
Among the results values are:
- Customer satisfaction: customer identification as the most important thing, the reason for being, the way to obtain profits now and in the future. Social recognition for what is well done: Appreciating the recognition of others for the good work done and the importance of it. The reliability of the products: Orientation to the generation of products that possess and retain the characteristics capable of satisfying customers over time. The level of aesthetic presence: Orientation towards the generation of products that have an adequate aesthetic presence. Time optimization: as an attribute highly valued by customers. Success: As a way to promote effort.
Among the process values are:
- Empathy: To understand the client. Solidarity: To help the client. Good communication: To understand the client and try to make it understand the position of the entity. Integration: To take advantage of the strength of the union of the collective, the suppliers and the distributors. To promote the synergy that is achieved in group work. Efficiency: To reduce expenses and consequently attractive prices for the client. Discipline: To meet product and process standards. Information: To understand and assist customers. Improvement: As a way for development. Control: As a way to evaluate performance. Planning: To set the standards. Independence: To break the rules whenever necessary and convenient. Training: As a way to improve. The creativity:To find solutions to problems and generate new products. System approach: To not look for local but global optimum. Vision of the future: To not allow the future to be sacrificed for the sake of the present.
In addition to the above values, it is necessary for the management to have others such as:
- Internal customer satisfaction: The recognition that this is the fundamental weapon the entity has to generate profits, satisfy the customer, promote and apply new ideas, and consequently it must be trained, informed and stimulated. Integrity: As a way to ensure the coincidence between what is said and what is done. Leadership: As the best way to possess dragging power. Objectivity: To make correct decisions that correspond to the reality of each moment.
To the extent that the personnel of a company values and allows these values to regulate their conduct, the probability that quality service is a constant will be much greater. Once this is understood and the necessary values are identified, the strategies to follow are easier:
- The degree of presence of these values, their level of acceptance, their regulatory power and their degree of sharing in the company must be diagnosed. Depending on the diagnosis, the lines of action should be designed to increase the results of the diagnosis. The possibility of introducing the proposed system of values to carry out the selection of personnel can also be assessed, especially on those values that are difficult to train after a certain age.
In no case will these strategies give short-term results, since the values are not changed or created by decrees, so the fundamental results will be obtained through perseverance and patience.
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