How to Measure the Quality of Top Management-Mico Jancev - EOQ

Jančev Mičo
How to measure the Quality of Top management
Jančev M.
SMILE IT Solutions Jancev KG, Vienna, Austria/ Bosnia & Herzegovina Quality Association
Abstract:
There are numerous examples of use of the word “management”, which creates some confusion in the heads of
not a small number of people. The problem is not of a purely linguistic neither of a ”local” nature – it is about
understanding of their content and the basic meaning. In the ISO 9000:2005 standard the term “management”
refers to “coordinated activities to direct and control an organization”. In English, the term “management”
sometimes refers to people, i.e. a person or group of people with authority and responsibility for the conduct and
control of an organization. The role of top management in the process of introduction of a Quality Management
System is very important. On account of that, the logical question is: How to measure the quality of the top
management? The answer, that the author suggests, could be found in an indirect way. The aim of this paper is
to make a useful contribution to that direction of research.
Key words:
Management, Quality Management, Total Quality Management, ISO 9000 Standard, Audit, Decision,
Knowledge
1. INTRODUCTION
If you continue to do the things that you have always done, you will continue to get
what you have always got!
Quality has certainly been a foundation stone for success of any organisation. It is the key to competitiveness in
the open markets and has become a fundamental way of managing any business anywhere for achieving market
growth and profitability. The nature of global business today emphasises the need for organisations to be
committed to a total quality management (TQM) approach. In particular, TQM strives to create a culture, which
supports (is conducive to continuous) quality improvements throughout the organisation. [19]
Management, Business Management, Quality Management, Total Quality Management… There are numerous
examples of use of the word “management”, which creates some confusion in the heads of not a small number
of people. It is not simply a question of terminology – it is much more important than that. The problem is not of
purely linguistic nature – it is about understanding of their content and the basic meaning. [9;10;23]
In the ISO 9000:2005 standard the term “management” refers to “coordinated activities to direct and control an
organization” (ISO 9000:2005, 3.2.6). In English, the term “management” sometimes refers to people, i.e. a
person or group of people with authority and responsibility for the conduct and control of an organization. When
it is used in this sense, to avoid confusion with the concept “management” defined above, it should always be
used with some form of qualifier, for example “top management” as “a person or group of people who directs
and controls an organization at the highest level” (ISO 9000:2005, 3.2.7). The purpose of a Quality
Management System is to help achieving objectives – it must not, itself, become the objective. Top management
has to concentrate on the results, because without their firm commitment to quality all efforts are bound to fail.
Therefore in the ISO 9001 standard one of the most used phrases is: “Top management shall ensure (review,
provide evidence, determine) that …” But, at the same time, the term “quality” is never mention in the Quality
Management principles in the same standard. [3]
Evidently, the role of top management in the process of introduction of a Quality Management System is very
important. Because of that, the logical question is: How to measure the quality of the top management? The
answer could be found in an indirect way using the terminology and experience of the ISO 9000 standard. First
of all, it is necessary to give an answer to the question: What are the key top management’s products? In the ISO
9001 standard is given clear and unequivocal interpretation of a this term: ”The term ’product’ applies only to
the product intended for, or required by, a customer”. In my opinion, more creative application of the principle
of “Process approach”, as well a definition of the term “product” as a “result of a process”, could help us to
find the answer to the question asked above.

2. QUALITY MOVEMENT: A LITLE HISTORY
A modern quality history did not begin with the appearance of the ISO 9000 standard. A milestone was 1915
when Henry Ford invented the first assembly line. His manufacturing concept created a lot of new professions,
besides many other, a wide range of jobs which had to take care of quality: quality inspectors, quality planning
engineers and a head of them – a quality manager. This worked quite well, as long as all of the participants were
organised to support a mass production in supplying the market. [2]
Already in the sixties, the Japanese started to “irritate“ Western industry by coming up with products which were
able to gain a significant market share in USA and Europe in different product areas, especially in the
automotive industry. It took about 20 years until the leaders of Western corporates started to take this
development seriously and to take a closer look at the way the Japanese operated their companies. The first
serious step happened when they began to introduce a documented Quality Assurance System in their factories.
In 1987 the Internal Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) launched the first comprehensive international
Quality Standard. Besides the requirements for documenting how people in the company are trained to be able to
do their job, it was also quite new for most companies to introduce an internal audit system. To bring such a
system to power and to live it up to the quality standards, it was necessary to have somebody official to check.
This created, mainly in Europe, a new service business: the certification business. [22]
The intent of the 1987 and later the 1994 versions were clearly to create documented systems. Purpose of this
systems was to assure customer of product quality. In other words, it required the system to attain conformity
with requirements. It is well known that the standards used to develop the original ISO 9000 series were born out
of the defence industry where there was a long tradition of command and control. As a consequence, ISO 9000
followed the same pattern of imposing requirements to prevent failures despite the fact that experience has
shown this method to be unsuccessful in ensuring good product quality. Looking at the internal aspects there is
no doubt that a certified quality system helps a lot to clarify tasks and the responsibilities thought the whole
manufacturing process. But, the ISO 9000 was still only a described system and it could not be compared to what
the Japanese has been doing. [3;22]
The revised version of the ISO 9000:2000 series was released on 15 December 2000. The primary motivation for
the changes has been to move organizations further towards business excellence, providing guidance that will
enable them to achieve sustained success. The ISO 9000:2000 series represents a fundamental change in intent,
direction and approach. The 2000 version makes designing a quality management system a more complicated
affair. There is no simple check list of 20 main requirements. The user is forced to stand back, analyse the
overall situation within the organization and to evaluate how the standard can serve it. In the others words, the
essence of the ISO 9000:2000 series is a results-oriented approach to implementation in which the standard is not
the objective, but the tool to reach objectives. Quality management initiatives should now be based on eight
Quality Management Principles that encapsulate the essence of good quality management. By looking at ISO
9000 as a framework upon which a successful organization can be built, rather than as a narrow set of minimum
requirements, significant benefits can be gained. [3;4]
At the beginning of 1991, Juran identified eight lessons for effective way of achieving a quality revolution.
These lessons were learnt from experience of American companies that have applied for the Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award. They include matters such as top management leadership, organization for quality
improvement, recognition of quality in its wider sense, setting of quality goals and their incorporation into
company business plans, cross-training (multiskilling), and delegation of authority. These lessons represent
neither what Juran calls “a new strategy for Western countries“, nor a uniquely Japanese company wide quality
control (CWQC). Rather, they should be regarded as the essence of the genuine quality management. They are
applicable anywhere in the world and were discovered through the intelligence and hard work of people from all
kinds of management environments and cultural backgrounds. [1]
In the closing address of the 51nd Annual Quality Congress of the American Society for Quality that was held in
Philadelphia in 1998, Feigenbaum summarized the six fundamentals of today’s vital signs of the quality
development in the decade of 1990s. They are: (1) Remarkable human behavioural change in the way of thinking
in how they can improve the quality of the way they work at their jobs and they buy the products they use; (2)
Quality which has become one of the 20th Century's most important management ideas, (3) The new disciplines
of quality cost economics; (4) Quality which has become an international business language; (5) Widespread

managerial recognition of the absolute and universal necessity for fact-based decision making; (6) Start
measurement of the business results of quality in series and systematic terms. [1]
The Evolution of Quality and Quality Organizations was a key issue during the first Global Quality Summit that
took place in Antwerp, Belgium in May 2006. Delegates from the all parts of the world, were trying to find the
answers of the the following questions: What is the future of Quality? What is the future of Management? What
are the future needs of our clients? What are the main challenges of our economies and our societies? Does
quality pay? If yes, prove it.
In the closing plenary session of the 51st EOQ Congress that was held in Prague in 2007, professor Hans Dieter
Seghezzi, speaking on enterprise quality and the responsibility of the CEO and the senior management, inferred:
“In general, its members (Senior Management involved in the quality matters) are keen to do their demanding
jobs, but often do not have the necessary capabilities… If an enterprise wishes to be excellent or even best in
class, the real task and responsibility of the Senior Management is the quality of the enterprise. They must have
the relevant know-how and skills… Management models like ISO 9001 or 9004, the EFQM Model, the Balanced
Score Card or Six Sigma can help if they are well understood and properly applied.” [12]
The second Global Quality Sumit held in Huston, USA in May 2008. At the end of the Summit more than 40
president and CEO of National Quality Organizations met together and entrusted WAQ (World Alliance for
Quality) to develop international projects in the most challenging areas of quality. “We will focus on work that
needs to be done and on mobilizing our organizations to do that work. We will focus on organizations that have
needs and the organizations that have answers to those needs. We will focus not only on improving
organizations, but on using quality to make the world a better place“ – were the key messages of the Sammit.
Very interesting are the consideration of Yoshio Kondo about the essence of quality: “We know that quality is
distinguished from the other equally important management indicators, costs and productivity, by the following
features: (1) Its history (in other words, its relationship with human beings) is far longer; (2) It is only one of the
three factors to be of common concern to both manufacturer and consumer. Because of these unique attributes,
quality has a far more human aspect than either costs or productivity.“ Explaining the importance of
establishing a “quality culture“, he stresses the fact that an appeal by managers to improve quality is more easily
sympathised and accepted by the subordinates than a call to cut costs or to raise productivity. That probably
derives from this special nature of quality. “Improving quality in creative ways can lead to lower costs and
higher productivity, although the converse is not necessarily true“, he elucidates. [1]
3. TOP MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY: OBSERVATIONS FROM THE PRACTICE
Following the development of the quality movement in the world we can notice that quality management system
standards are being increasingly recognized as best practice guides. In the case of ISO 9001, for example, it is
the best practice and the demonstrated common sense framework proven by over a million certified users
worldwide that makes it relevant and adaptable to any business need. [28] However, in many situations, the
reality is quite different. We have bred a generation of quality managers, consultants and auditors who believs
that ISO 9000 is mainly about conforming to the requirements (earlier in clauses 1-20 of ISO 9001:1994, now in
4-8 of ISO 9001:2000). [5;20]
On the basis of the personal experience, which the author acquired through his professional dealing with this
problem in Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia, here are some observations, which are not so global
as previous but deserve an attention. Author’s research suggests that the key internal problems of any
organisation are organisational and people-related (65%). In the same time, motive of the top management and
managerial knowledge (61% in Macedonia, and 55% in B&H) are a critical factors in the decision to start
implementing QMS. According to author’s research introduction of QMS in these organisation is estimated as
very important issue (85% in B&H, and 57% in Macedonia). [13;14;15]
There are number of problems which present obstacles for more effective and higher quality work of the
companies, but this time only few needs to be emphasized: (1) Chronically lack of time; (2) Misunderstanding
(lack of knowledge) of the quality management systems; (3) Lack of managerial knowledge and experience of
most of consultants and quality professionals besides QMS; and (4) Lack of communication. [23]
The first and the greatest management problem is chronically lack of time. Being occupied with the current daily
operating crises, managers doesn’t have the opportunity to spend most of their time on strategic planning and

decision making – the truly important but postponable tasks. [11] As a consequence, time – this irreplaceable and
the most democratic resource in the world – is passing by. The challenge for management is to accept QMS
standards, models and techniques as their efficiency management-tools.
The second of the mentioned problems is, before all – the result of inadequate knowledge of top management of
new quality principles and their relations with the requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 standard. Removing
misconceptions such as this one opens a space for more efficient and effective education of managers in quality
system standards, as a part of managerial tool-box, which creates favourable conditions for their creative
application in resolving concrete organisation management issues.
The next huge problem is a logical consequence of the fact that a majority of quality professionals, as a rule, are
engineers, too much burdened with the traditional way of understanding quality as a technical category. Very
often they continue to be in charge of tasks that are outside their intrinsic competence. [20]
And last but not least – a lack of communication – is a consequence of an old (overcome) education process.
During our education, each of us entered own professional areas, without being aware that we were building
walls around ourselves, which practically made the communication with people of other professions difficult.
Coming into a company, due to the inherited situation on the one hand, as well as ”lack of time” on the other,
people just fortified the already built up walls. Apart from that, the current technology demanded further
distribution of work and the interdisciplinary cooperation became established solely by technical-organisational
and legal-administrative means. [9;25] It is clear that the problems that occur in a contemporary organisation
shall never be observed from only one isolated discipline. For example, almost any problem identified in a
modern production-oriented firm can rarely be solved only from the engineering viewpoint; it mostly has
economic, financial, organisational, information-technological and people-related implications. Without a
complete and interdisciplinary problem analysis, the chances are small an appropriate solution to be found,
which will be approved in practice. [16;17]
4. TOP MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY: SOME IDEAS AND SUGESTIONS
The ISO 9000:2000 series provides the basis for a management system – not merely a quality management
system – which is the means for an organization to fulfil its purpose and mission. The intent is for the
management to create an environment in which people will be motivated, not create bureaucratic systems of
documentation that stifle initiative and creativity. The purpose of a quality management system is to help us
achieve objectives. The ISO 9000:2000 series claims to be a much tougher principles-driven set of standards,
requiring new behaviours and knowledge from top management. [3;22]
A review of the ISO 9000:2000 series will confirm that only a small part – about 12 % of its content – is
“auditable”. [5] Too often, in the practice, we ignore the other ”non-auditable” 88 %, where, among others, are
the issues related to the top management activities. We focus almost the whole massive international machine of
consultancy, accreditation, certification, training, quality management and internal auditing on the requirements
of ISO 9001:2000! Maybe this is the answer to the question: Why managers avoid to lead QMS projects?
Long-term and specific experience of the author in introducing quality management system proves that, as a rule,
the most successful in coping with a problem are those who face it directly. The author recognizes managers as
the first line of competent persons who are able to solve, in a most efficient and effective way, top-level
problems of their business. On account of that, it is extremely important for managers to equip themselves with
quality knowledge, which will primarily help them to strengthen their own Management ability to survive under
the most severe conditions and, as a next step, to get to grips with any problem, taking the decisive advantage –
knowing the problem. [21;18;24]
As we know, quality standards relate to all human activities, with no exception, i.e. to each product, is
understood as “result of a process” (ISO 9000:2005, 3.4.2). An attempt to analyse a top management product -
from this point of view, i.e. to apply on them the principles and requirements, which stand for all other products
and services, may significantly contribute the increase of quality of the ”top management products”. Creative
application of the principle of ”Customer focus”, may help recognize both a ”competent recipient” and a
”competent provider” of the top-management products (services).
Very interesting are the author’s experiences attained in the last 15 years during the leading a number of a
problem-solving seminars and workshops assigned to managers. [13;14;15;20] The answers to the question: –
“What are the key top management’s products?” – were mostly the same: – The key products of their companies.

But, after a detailed debate and different opinions, managers succeed to find the right answer: The common key
products of the all kinds of top management are their decisions! After that arises a new questions: How to
improve the quality of the top management’s products? Is it possible to measure it? And so on.
The next step is establishing what are the concrete top-management products, as a base for the decision-making
processes. In that sense, very useful are some of the problems that underlie in the previous chapter, especially a
chronically lack of time. Asking the reason for such a situation, we are coming to the idea how to solve the
problem. The idea sounds very simple: Management spend so much time in meetings that turning meeting time
into sustained results is a priority for successful organization. Effective meetings that produce results begin with
meeting planning and lasts short.
A more creative application of the principle of ”Involvement of people”, as well as a clear and unequivocal
interpretation of the term competence, as a ”demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills” (ISO
9000:2005, 3.9.12), may help us to solve an existing problem (the lack of the management’s time) by using the
mechanism related to the responsibility, authority and communication (ISO 9001:2008, 5.5). The point is in
delegation in the wider sense than appointing a “management representative” (ISO 9001:2008, 5.5.2).
”Delegation, understood in a such a way, underpins a style of management which allows your staff to use and
develop their skills and knowledge to the full potential. Delegation is primarily about entrusting your authority
to others. This means that they can act and initiate independently; and they assume responsibility with you for
certain tasks.” [6]
The results of using such an approach in introducing quality management systems are very favourable in many
aspects: measurable and non-measurable. One of the most important effects was the deeper insight into the
essential business problems of the organisation. At the same time, the managers, being actively involved into the
problem-identification and problem-solving process became more quickly aware of the possibilities offered by
QMS and ISO 9000 series. Secondly, the mentioned seminars and workshops represent an opportunity for
building an efficient team. Such a team becomes a problem-solving community that is really “glued together” by
means of making personal relations deeper than it is usually experienced on such occasions. [15;25]
5. CONCLUSION
Implementing a quality management system and getting it certified to the ISO 9000 standard is not a simple task.
The certification process inevitably requires significant effort, entailing both direct and indirect costs. The
question is: Does ISO 9000 certification pays off? [6] Some argue that the standard is too generic to lead to
genuine improvements. Others dispute these assertions, claiming that the ISO 9000:2000 series provides the
basis for a management system and that a quality management system is the means for an organization to fulfill
its purpose and mission.
It is undisputable that the arguments of both sides have their justification and the “specific weight”. However,
casual review reveals that a significant proportion of these expectations and benefits do not always deliver on
their initial promise. It is sure that quality standards, in a certain way, are not immune to the so-called “cultural
factors” of individual countries, regions, and even smaller areas all through to individual companies. But the
impression remains that some problems and dilemmas arise from some subjective reasons and personal
experiences of the people who are too burdened with the traditional way of understanding quality as a technical
category.
So, if we change the way we think about quality, we will imagine that it is not about following procedures,
inspection, rules and regulations. It is about establishing the needs and expectations of those we choose to serve,
setting goals for satisfying these needs, devising a system of processes to fulfil these goals, measuring
performance and continually improving capability to satisfy the needs of all interested parties. The system must
work for the business and not vice versa and we have to remain vigilant to the dangers of complexity and
bureaucracy. [7] Simplicity has to be the way – although old habits die hard. Processes need to be managed
effectively for the required results to be produced. Quality alone cannot of course satisfy all these conditions, but
it is impossible to speak of them without talking about quality. Quality management principles have to be at the
heart of any such organization attempting high performance. These guiding management principles form the
basic philosophy of the ISO 9000:2000 series. A deep insight and more creative application of these principles
may significantly contribute to the increase the quality of ”top management products”.

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