Research Paper Example on Quality Management

Approach to Finding a Topic

The first step that I took in finding a research topic was to brainstorm for ideas. I thought about current issues in my organization and industry at large, the opinions I hold about them, and the information I gained in this class that might be relevant to them. Secondly, I visited research websites to obtain general background information about the issues I had in mind, noting down the main concepts that I found interesting. Thirdly, I focused on the possible topics to find one with a suitable scope for this study. I then framed my topic into a focused research question.

Research Questions

What is the role of quality management in the continued profitability and sales sustainability of an organization in the long-term?

What are the policies in place to promote quality management in the organization and the short term initiatives to ensure quality management is a success?

What are the roles and the relationship of the organization stakeholders towards the implementation of the quality management policies?

What are the quality control measures that the organization has put in place to ensure sustainable quality management in the long-term?

Ethical Considerations

The researcher will fully inform the participants about the objective and procedures of the study in advance and ensure that those who participate do so voluntarily. The questionnaires will be accompanied by an introductory letter that specifies the purpose of the case study, the data collection methods, the potential risks, and what the data will be used for. Accordingly, the researcher will only allow participants who can make competent and sound decisions about their participation. Moreover, the researcher will ensure that study observes confidentiality and anonymity to protect the participants from fear of intimidation.

Data Analysis Summary

The study shows that the organization is in the path of success in promoting quality management. The positive outcomes evident so far, can be attributed to a winning strategy that saw the organization adopt four values: reputation, profitability, customer satisfaction and teamwork. The performance of the organization in the past one year already shows significant improvement in all departments. The improvement has resulted from the significant steps that the organization has taken to implement total quality management in its operations. One of the short term initiatives that it put in place to ensure quality is a success is conducting regular market research to evaluate its overall performance in the market. Besides, it has trained its staff on total quality management.

Moreover, the performance of the organization in the last five years shows a trend of consistent improvement. There are many measures that have helped the organization to maintain quality in the long-run. The organization had its workers in all managerial positions sign performance contract, in which they affirmed their commitment to uphold the principles of quality management. It also made some changes its management style to conform to the new principles. Consequently, part of its work practices, procedures and policies changed to match the desired organizational culture. Workers in all departments are on course with initial improvement milestones. At same time, has been conducting audits on its suppliers to ensure that they provide products that match its desired quality. Lastly, the company reviews the progress made after every six months to ensure that all stakeholders remain committed to quality improvement.

Measurement Strategy

Quality management in the organization was measured using the ISO 9001:2015 principles, which measure customer focus, leadership, staff engagement, approach to processes, improvement, evidence-based decisions, and relationship management.

Part Two

The Organizational Problem: Quality Management

Quality management is the process through which an organization can create long terms success which is achieved through customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction increases the customers loyalty to an organization product which ensures sustained sales and organization growth regarding sales and customer base. Quality management is the only process that can assure an organization continued productivity and profitability in a very dynamic market that changes every time. However, quality management requires the immense investment of an organization in improving processes and creating new strategies to meet the dynamic market needs and consumer preferences (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

Quality management requires high investment in the research and development process to improve an organization products and services quality. Through quality management, an organization can be able to oversee all the activities and processes to maintain the desired quality and standard of an organization product. However, quality management is not achieved by many organizations due to the lack of investment in quality policies, quality planning, and control as well as quality improvement strategy to ensure long-term maintenance of an organization products quality. As a result, an organization can ensure quality management through the implementation of both short-term initiatives that ensure an organization can attain its long-term quality management needs (Kim et al., 2012).

The major cause of quality management problem facing the organization is the lack of short-term initiatives to ensure proper quality management. Short-term initiatives such as market research to identify the needs of the consumers, as well as the lack of process audit to assess the effectivity of the production process, hinders the achievement of the organization long term desire regarding better quality. Therefore, there is the need for the implementation and protection of the long-term initiatives to align the organization production process with its long-term quality perspective (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

The second quality management problem facing the organization is lack of quality control and management policies. Quality control and management policies are managerial initiatives that can be used in the supervision of the overall production process to ensure quality and standardization of an organization product. In most cases, many organizations ignore the need to introduce quality control policies which leads to the adoption of ineffective technology. Quality control and management policies should regulate the type of technology and production process an organization uses to ensure product quality uniformity (Kim et al., 2012).

Another problem is poor stakeholders involvement is a major problem towards sustainable quality management process. An organization can attain sustainable quality management through pooling together all its resources and involve all the stakeholders in the decision making. The organization should offer necessary education to the employees to ensure that they meet the required skills for an organization proposed quality control measures (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

The Problem Statement

Quality management is a significant problem that faces many organizations due to the absence of the right strategies and sufficient investment to improve an organization production process while aligning the organization products with the customer needs and preferences in the market. Poor quality management limits an organization success sustainability in the long term, and there is need for more investment in quality management processes and strategies to ensure organization success (Kim et al., 2012).

The Research Strategy

The most appropriate approach to the study to solve the quality management problem is using different case studies which can be used to assess the quality management needs and processes that successful organizations have put in place. A case study approach involves the comparison of different organizations that have implemented quality management policies and how it has contributed to their long-term success (Houghton et al., 2013).

1 Research Question

What is the role of quality management in the continued profitability and sales sustainability of an organization in the long-term?

Rationale for Selecting Proposed Research Strategy

The case study research approach is most suitable for this research because it allows the researcher to use an example that overcame similar situation to create a solution to the problem faced by the organization. The case study approach is more suited in this study because of its applicability and ability to estimate the outcomes of each decision. Therefore, the primary reason for choosing the case study research approach is to ensure that the research is evidence-based and the choices can be fast-tracked. A case study approach provides an in-depth analysis and how the organization can use an example of another organization to implement a successful quality management process (Houghton et al., 2013).

The case study approach eradicates any doubt that is caused by speculative developments which can hamper the implementation process. The case study should provide an analytical approach which will help create association and relationship analysis between the organization that has been successful in implementing a quality management process and how the similar approach can be beneficial to the organization in question. Further, a case study research strategy is effective in exploiting a problem that is in real life context and provides both qualitative and quantitative evidence to back up the quality management solutions identified (Houghton et al., 2013).

Questionnaire

Does your organization have in place policies to promote quality management?

If yes, which ones?

Do you have any short term initiatives to ensure success of quality management?

If yes, which ones?

Which of your organizations stakeholders are involved in implementation of the quality management policies?

How do the stakeholders named above relate to the organization with respect to the policies?

What are the quality control measures that the organization has put in place to ensure sustainable quality management in the long-term?

What do you think helped the organization to maintain success in sales and profits in the last five year?

How has quality management impacted the profitability and sales in your organization?

Ethical Considerations

The researcher will fully inform the participants about the objective and procedures of the study in advance and ensure that those who participate do so voluntarily. The questionnaires will be accompanied by an introductory letter that specifies the purpose of the case study, the data collection methods, the potential risks, and what the data will be used for. Accordingly, the researcher will only allow participants who can make competent and sound decisions about their participation. Moreover, the researcher will ensure that study observes confidentiality and anonymity to protect the participants from fear of intimidation.

Data Analysis Summary

The study shows that the organization is in the path of success in promoting quality management. The positive outcomes evident so far, can be attributed to a winning strategy that saw the organization adopt four values: reputation, profitability, customer satisfaction and teamwork. The performance of the organization in the past one year already shows significant improvement in all departments. The improvement has resulted from the significant steps that the organization has taken to implement total quality management in its operations. One of the short term initiatives that it put in place to ensure quality is a success is conducting regular market research to evaluate its overall performance in the market. Besides,...