CSQA Prep - Chapter 2- Quality Leadership

It clearly and concisely describes the work that is done, providing
direction and a sense of purpose. The mission should focus on products and services and be
customer-oriented. During implementation, the mission is constrained by the vision and values.

Complaints are the customers' way of indicating they are having a problem. Quality promotes
turning problems into opportunities. Thus, while resolving a customer complaint the opportunity
can be used to improve customer relationships.

The vision establishes where the organization desires to move from its
current state. It gives everyone a direction to work towards. Senior management should establish
the vision, ensuring how it contributes to the business is clear. A vision is simple and concise, and it
should be understood and supported by all.

The quality environment is the totality of practices that management uses that effects how workers
perform. It is the attitudes, values, ethics, policies, procedures and behavior of management that
sets the example for work in the organization. For example, if management is ethical and
customers over pay their accounts, they will be refunded the overpayment. If IT management
recognizes that they would not have any work task to perform if not for the users, then the users
will be treated as very important people and their desires would be important to the IT organization.
On the other hand, if IT users are viewed as not knowing the requirements and over demanding,
they will be treated as unimportant to the IT organization.

In monitoring, there are both preventive and detective controls. Preventive controls prevent an
event from occurring; detective controls uncover an undesirable event once it has occurred.
Corrective controls are part of the enforcement process. However, as will be discussed in the next
section, both preventive and detective controls are ineffective unless corrective controls are in place
and working.

(as given as example from Eastman Kodak Company)

Goals and objectives are often used interchangeably; however, goals tend to be more global and
non-quantitative. Objectives come from goals, and tend to be more specific and quantitative.

It’s a technique to build group compatibility

Communication must not only be downward from senior management but must include communication upwards from the lowest levels to senior management.

Awareness training should create knowledge of the defined
topic and initiate some action associated with that topic; however, these objectives do not have to
occur simultaneously.

Only the individual being criticized should be aware that the criticism is occurring.

While a manager works within the system
following the accepted practices of the system, a leader determines where the organization needs to
be, and then does what is necessary to get there.

It fosters management involvement.

Empowerment is a process that transfers decision making from management to employees. It is a
concept that enriches an employee’s job and enables quick actions to be taken.

As defined by COSO.

This is the
person who accepts personal responsibility for the success of quality management without being
assigned the responsibility.

No organization has a perfect quality management environment. All are striving to achieve the
optimum management philosophy, and organizations can be anywhere along the quality
management continuum. By forming a quality function, some level of commitment and
organizational structure exists that could be called quality management.

As the slowest group to accept the process, middle management is the weakest link in most quality
management efforts.

Executive management is the management level that expresses the commitment to quality in writing to its employees in the form of a Quality Policy.

The users of the process know the strengths and weaknesses of the process and are aware of the types of process change that can facilitate the use of the process.

While overall management commitment is necessary to the success of quality management,
commitment from the organization’s executives is vital.

Five major accounting associations (Financial Executives International, American Institute of
Public Accountants, American Accounting Association, The Institute of Internal Auditors, and the
Institute of Management Accountants), formed a group known as COSO (Committee of
Sponsoring Organizations), to provide guidance on evaluating internal control.

Strategic quality management goals must focus on both the producer and the customer. Short-term
goals should:

From Table 2.3 on page 2-10

Mentoring allows the more senior employees a means to pass their experience and insights to
junior employees.

With the consensus technique, each member must accept the agreed-upon resolution and be willing
to support it, even if it was not their favorite choice. Everyone participates and there is no voting.
Using consensus provides teams an opportunity to reach high-quality decisions with total team
commitment. Team members have an in-depth understanding of the underlying concern or issues,
trust, willingness to explore, and mutual respect for each other.

From Table 2.2 on p. 2-7

From Table 2-3 on p. 2-10

From Table 2.2 on p. 2-7

Research shows that complaints must be resolved within four minutes and the customer should be
receiving a solution to his or her problem. Dr. Leonard Zunin, a human relations consultant, in his
book Contact: The First Four Minutes, states that unless a customer is satisfied within four
minutes, the customer will give up on you. They will sense that you have not accepted the urgency
of the problem they are expressing to you. You have not accepted the problem as your problem,
and you are not the one to solve their problem.

From Table 2.1 on p. 2-6

From Table 2.1 on p. 2-6

It stifles communication and creates barriers between functions.

The other two include: Define the Objectives and Develop Administrative Planning

See Figure 2.1 on p. 2-16

High Customer Satisfaction activities is a long term goal.

This reflects the degree to which two persons reciprocally satisfy each other’s behavior
preferences (the degree to which each person’s behavior is in accord with the other’s needs). If
one person wants the other to express much affection and the other does so, there is
compatibility in the area of affection. But if one member is frustrated because the other doesn’t
express enough affection, incompatibility results.

Goals explain how the vision will be achieved. For example, if an organization's vision is to
produce defect-free software, a goal might be to have no more than one defect per thousand lines of
code. Goals change as an organization moves closer to accomplishing the vision. Well-developed
programs are necessary to achieve the goals.

The use of auditors, both internal and external, to provide an independent
assessment of the adequacy of the system of internal controls and compliance to
those controls.

The use of teams is critical in a quality management environment. As a result, understanding the
team life cycle is important in order to set proper expectations for the team and to help it
communicate and function effectively. Teams go through these four phases.

Values or guiding principles tell how to conduct business. They define an organization’s culture/personality.

These values and concepts are embedded beliefs and behaviors found in highperforming
organizations. They are the foundation for integrating key business requirements
within a results-oriented framework that creates a basis for action and feedback.

Assuring that the proper leadership is in place for effective corporate governance

• Isolation
Leaders must maintain regular, if not frequent, contact with a significant percentage of
the people they manage. Typical criticism centers on their preoccupation with
technology, their inability to see the big picture, and their fondness for tasks rather than
a genuine interest in the organization.
• Inability to reward
Managers who lack the ability or do not take the time to reward are never able to build
employee commitment. When performance is measured against possibility,
extraordinary rewards are warranted.
• Lack of business perspective
Business perspective is the ability to take advantage of opportunities, articulate goals,
effectively deploy resources, take risks and accept responsibility for

It is a people problem. People must be motivated and convinced that senior management wants the governance implemented and enforced.

There are five types of listening. While people can listen several different ways
concurrently, normally listening is limited to one of the five types. The type chosen will
have an impact on the ability to understand what the speaker is saying. When one has
deciphered the information channel (i.e., what the subject is) and related the importance
of that subject to the audience, listening must be adjusted to ensure that we get the
message we need.

See Figure 2.1 on p. 2-16

See page 2-24 for listing of all 6 attributes as designated by James R Baehler.

The
biggest mistake usually made when implementing a quality management environment is
underestimating the cultural changes that must occur and the time required for accomplishing these
changes.

The listening process involves three separate steps: 1) hearing the speaker, 2) attending to the
speaker, and 3) understanding the speaker. The practice of listening requires these three listening
steps to occur concurrently. Mastering each of these steps will help improve your listening abilities.