Kokulan Vanniyasingam | Total Quality

TQM
Management |

Team work
CHAPTERS 10 -13

Communication

Conflict
1. Discuss the importance of quality team works and team building

Employee involvement is one approach to improve quality and it can be achieved by

team work. A team is a group of people (employees) working together to achieve
common objectives or goals. Teams involvement should take place in activities at all
levels of an organization Team work is cumulative actions of the team to fulfill the
objectives or goals. The cumulative actions can be problems solving, process
improvement, designing, planning, auditing, customer satisfaction or etc. Teams must
have clear milestone and systematic approach to be successful. Members of the team
need to focus on building team spirit, maintaining discipline, setting standards,
motivating each other and listening to the suggestion of others. Moreover, there are many
importance of quality team works and team building such as; many heads are better than
one, specialty of each individual can solve complex problems, interaction help build the
trust and improve communication, self-respect and getting know each other which will
eventually increase the chance of better results. For example, many companies nowadays
promote diverse work place which increases the chances involvement of employees from
different background and cultural views.

2. How would you handle conflict in quality teams?

Conflict in quality teams can be handled by many ways though my approach would be
talk about them as soon as they occur or address the possibility of a conflict may happen.
If conflict is managed properly that can leads to positive goals, innovations and creativity.
Here are the basic guidelines for managing conflicts in a team;

Plan and work to establish a culture where individuality and dissent are in balance
with teamwork and in cooperation.
Establish clear criteria for deciding when individuals will make decisions and
when they will make by teams.
Dont allow individual to build personal empires or to use the organization to
advance personal agendas.
Realistically and regularly assess the ability and willingness of employees to
cooperate effectively.

3. How do you reward quality of achievement in a team?

Team work is pillar in a company and employees like to be acknowledged individually or

whole as a team for their successful involvement of the organization. Reward is a way of
motivating employees for their positive contribution and achievements. There are many
ways to reward an individual or team for example, verbal and written praise including
certificate and plaques, offering monetary value rewards such as cash award, tickets for
an even or gift certificate for dinner or lunch. There should be a system developed for
rewarding criteria and most successful reward systems have the following components;

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4. How do you communicate effectively?

Communication is vital in any organization for their success in quality. Communication

increase organizations values of quality and provide clear picture of its direction.
Communication must be effective for example; the messages must be received,
understood and acted in the desired manner. The effective communication system must
have feedback component which encourages two-way communication system. Also, there
should not be any communication barriers within an organization. The following diagram
explains effective communication system;

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5. Why are listening skills important?

Communication is exchanging information between two more individual and listening is

part of communication. Listening skills are important for a quality outcome and its key
to all effective communication. Good listening means receiving the message correctly,
decoding it, and accurately perceiving what it means. Communication can be failure and
the messages can be misunderstood when the receiver is not a good listener and practice
following behavior; lack of concentration, preconceived ideas, thinking ahead,
interruptions, tuning out and interference. The following picture explains inhibitors of
effective listening;

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6. What are the management strategies for quality-focused interpersonal needs?

Interpersonal skills are those needed for people to work together in a positive manner that
is conducive to both personal and corporate success. Lack interpersonal skills can lead to
ineffective communication which is essential to total quality. Positive interpersonal
relations among team members, between company representatives and customers, among
internal customers, and between company officials and vendors are critical in a total
quality setting. Therefore, Managers should recognize the employees need and select
personnel carefully, provide training, measure skill, and reward improvement. The figure
below explains the steps managers can take to ensure employees have sufficient inter-
personal skills;

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7. What are the principles of overcoming negativity of conflicts in the workplace?

Negativity is a behavior impose by employees when working towards a goal, it is like

road block in front of the destination. Negativity is contagious and can affect the entire
organization so managers should monitor it closely. There are few strategies can be
practiced to overcome negativity such as;

Communication: frequent, ongoing, effective communication is the best defense

against negativity in organizations, and it is the best tool for overcoming
negativity that has already set in
Establish clear expectations: make sure all employees know what is expected of
them as individuals and as members of the team
Provide for anxiety venting: the workplace can be stressful in even the best
organizations. Consequently, managers need to give their direct reports
opportunities to vent in a nonthreatening, affirming environment
Build trust: negativity cannot flourish in an atmosphere of trust. Managers can
build trust between themselves and employees and among employees
Involve employees: its hard to criticize the way things are done when you are a
part of how they are done

8. How can you manage conflict in the workplace?

Conflicts occur in most workplaces and it is common. Managers, on the other hand, must
be proficient enough to handle conflict in the workplace. For example, conflicts need to
be handled without having effect on organizations best interest. The following guidelines
can be used to manage conflict in the work place; Determine how important the issue is
to all people involved, determine whether all people involved are willing and able to
discuss the issue in a positive manner, Select a private place where the issue can be
discussed confidentially, make sure that both sides understand that they are responsible
for both the problem and solutions, solicit opening comments from both sides, guide
participants toward a clear and specific definition of the problem, encourage participants
to propose solutions. Examine the problem from a variety of different perspectives and
discuss any and all solutions proposed, evaluate the costs versus the gains of all proposed
solutions and discuss them openly, reflect on the issue and discuss the conflict resolution
process.

9. How do you communicate in conflict situations?

Communication is a key tool in managing conflict whether resolving or promoting it.

Managers have the responsibility to successfully overcome conflict using communication
tool. There are few guidelines can be followed to be successful in managing conflicts;

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 The initial attitude of those involved in the conflict can predetermine the outcome:
if a person enters into a situation spoiling for a fight, he or she will probably get
one.
When possible, conflict guidelines should be in place before conflicts occur: it is
not uncommon for conflict to be exacerbated by disagreements over how it should
be resolved.
Assessing blame should not be allowed: it is predictable that two people in a
conflict situation will blame each other.
More of the same solutions should be eliminated: when a particular strategy for
resolving conflict is tried but proves to be ineffective, dont continue using it.
Maintain trust by keeping promises: Trust is fundamental to all aspects of total
quality. It is especially important in managing conflict

10. Why does quality suffer if there is a major conflict?

Conflict can escalate into major issues within an organization. Disagreements can extend
the gap between teams, individual or organization. For example, disagreement between
two departments in an organization will impact the outcome of the quality products.
Picture show below outlines how quality gets affected;

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11. Social Networking

France Now Offering 200 State Subsidy for Electric Bicycles

Summary: This article states that France government encouraging public to use electric
bicycles as alternative transport system. The government is offering cash incentive for
electric bicycle to save environment. The incentives also come with some restrictions
such as no incentive for lead acid battery bicycle and buyers are not allowed to sell it
back within a year. It also explains how Norway has successfully increased the rate of
electric vehicle purchase.

Kokulan Vanniyasingam: This is one of the finest and smart ways to reduce the
environmental pollution. The incentive programs is not new, we have seen many
incentives for electric/hybrid automobile consumers in president Obamas administration.
But, incentive for bicycle rather than cars seems like a genius investment in many
aspects. For example, bicycle will consume less energy as opposed to cars, noise
reduction will have positive impact and moreover less space will be used since not much
of parking and traffic problems to deal with on daily basis. We all have seen traffic
problems in big cities like Manhattan during rush hour. So, if the government can attract
more consumers with incentives like this quality of our lives will be improved. Seems
like this approach is paying off in Norway, I hope it will do the same for France and
followed by other nations.

Suchandra Das: The trend in France, offering subsidies to buyers of electric vehicles is
definitely a great idea. The advantages of electric bike are many. To begin with, the
environmental is pollution-free since no gas emissions; people can save money on gas
too. Secondly, it provides a better commute: allows traveling longer distances in less time
with no sweat, allows hill-climbing. Thirdly, these bikes are good for health: skipping 30
min of exercise, but riding bike would compensate for that. Lastly, no maintenance is
required for electric bike; no parking is required-we can just lock the bikes anywhere.
Though there are so many benefits of having these bikes, there is this disadvantage that
the batteries need to be recharged for long distance travel. Additionally, there are different
laws and regulations regarding licenses in different countries and cities. Though, it is the
initial stage, we hope that this concept is ubiquitous in the years to come and proves to be
one of the best commute

Trump's push for cyber defense is sorely needed, experts say

Executive Summary: Steven Chabinsky, former deputy assistant director with the FBIs
cyber division recommends that the Trump presidency spends 600 Million dollars of
the defense funds budget on cyber security. Trump has stated that his presidency would

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take on the cyber security problem and build a defense against attacks. To date the
government has not had a heavy hand in handling cyber security and has hoped the
technology market would take care of the issues, but they have not. Consumers and
organizations are constantly being cyber attacked and often left to defend them. The new
presidency should invest more into this cause as we continue to grow in technology and
information databases moving toward more cloud based platforms, everyone will
be susceptible to cyber-attacks.

Beyshyh Wong: Policing and protecting the internet is not much more different
than police officers patrolling the streets. More and more people spend much of their
time on the web socializing, working, banking, shopping, etc. The internet has become a
limitless "place" which is all the more reason why there needs to be necessary safety
precautions implemented. What is to stop a hacker from breaking into a bank database
and stealing money from accounts? Or hackers breaking into an organization's consumer
credit card database and stealing customer information? Target Corporation already
experienced the latter. I believe that the next generation of defense needs to be in the
cyber world and I am all for the government taking on this challenge.

Kokulan Vanniyaisngam: Russia has accused for election hacking, China also has
played huge roles in recent cyber-attacks here in U.S, North Korean cyber attacked on
Sony corps because of a movie badly portraits their leader is another notable one in
recent times. Cyber-attack has become part of our lives and inevitable so we should have
better mechanism to defend ourselves. I welcome the idea of 10 percent of defense
budgets dedicate to cyber defense because this is the only way we can protect and prevent
any attacks in near future. I read somewhere that foreign government continuously
recruiting college grads and employers with computer skills and train them to become
expert hackers there are many greater computer minds in U.S but lack of government
attention has kept us apart from other nations. It is really sad to hear that our nation is
really behind in cyber defense but I hope president Trump's view will implemented rather
sooner than later.

Tidal Lagoons Could Play Significant Role In UK Decarbonization Plans

Summary: A new tidal lagoon at Swansea in the UK can become a prototype to a larger
scale project. Considering that UK has worlds second largest tidal range after Canada,
and that tidal energy is the most predictable one, and that people are more supportive of
tidal power than any other, the project could potentially reduce the CO2 emissions by
36% in 2035. But even if the prototype is successful, it is very expensive and a lot of
investments should be made to develop the project. It is also crucial to research all the
possible effects on the wildlife and environment before giving green light to the project.

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Olga Grankina: I think that it developing tidal energy in the UK is a great idea. It is
predictable and reliable, but unfortunately costly (as all of the renewable technologies).
Maybe in several years as technology develops and becomes cheaper, it will be easier to
involve investments. If the project succeeds, they can not only cut the CO2 emissions, but
be the pioneers in the field of tidal power.

Beyshyh Wong: New technologies are always scary as you never know the impact to
other systems. The research looks promising for using tidal waves as clean and
sustainable energy however are they long term implications? The technology has not
been around long enough to know. Does the interference with tidal waves cause any
disruption to sea life?

Suchandra Das:Tidal Lagoons in the UK are potential clean energy sources of

decarbonized electricity which are cost-effective. They complement other sources as well
like solar and wind energy. The biggest advantage of tidal lagoons is that they are
predictable all the time unlike wind energy. Also, working on projects like this would
generate jobs for local people. This is the most reliable source of energy since investing
on tides today would eventually lead way towards marine energy technologies like wave
and tidal stream. In my opinion, if preservation of marine life is taken care of and the
smaller projects work out to be fruitful, then the bigger projects should start. If there are
unacknowledged damage, it could be worked on in the process.

Kokulan Vanniyaisngam: In environmental point of view this project has both advantages
and disadvantages. Tidal energy source seems a good alternative than nuclear power.
However, there is no guarantee that it will not impact the wildlife. There are many issues
to focus on and learn from this project. I hope this project become successful so other
nations can use this model for producing clean energy.

Reference:

Goetsch, David L., and Stanley Davis. "Chapter 10 - 13." Quality Management for
Organizational Excellence: Introduction to Total Quality. Harlow, Essex, England:
Pearson, 2014. N. page. Print.

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