5 Qualities of an Effective Manager

5 Qualities of a Good Manager

2/14/2006

When I think of pioneers in management history that set the bar for good managers Dr. W. Edwards Deming is the first person that comes to mind. It is difficult to limit his 14 points of quality management down to 5, but for the assignment’s sake I will choose 5 of my favorite. Maybe I am biased towards his management obligations because he is an Iowa native, but Deming’s quality teachings used in Japan after 1950, while the country was rebuilding after World War II projected them into worldwide prominence as the leader in producing quality products.

The first point is to create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive, to stay in business, and to provide jobs . Deming emphasized quality as the number one importance for a successful economy, which starts at each individual business. If a business institutes an emphasis on quality services and products then the business is built on a strong foundation because corners have not been cut to save costs. Competition is tough among businesses and usually corners have been cut to keep earnings up and compete for market share, but if you build quality products they will create a demand for themselves that will create profits. Honda is a great example of a company who created a constancy of purpose toward improvement of quality of their product. Honda was a giant in the growing Japanese car market already but now have nearly became a leader in a tough industry to enter into, the American automobile sector, in a about a decade. Honda is known for their efficiency and great quality products as their cars are known to run flawlessly for hundreds of thousands of miles. Another point made was to provide jobs. Deming believed in taking “taking care of your own”, and outsourcing is devastating to many Americans because of the availability to cut costs. Outsourcing is a good way of cutting costs but ethically wrong. That is an argument for another day though.

The next quality of a good manager is to institute supervision and cease depending on inspection for quality1. The aim of supervision is to help people and machines do a better job, not to pressure workers. A good manager should help people to build quality into the product in the first place so inspection is not relied upon, taking up more resources and adding pressure to workers down the line.

The third management quality should be to eliminate slogans and targets that ask for zero defects and new levels of productivity1. These exhortations create mixed relationships which causes low quality products and low productivity. The targets cause stress to workers when the certain emphasis should be to aid people at the work place and reduce this stress so that they can be efficient thus increasing productivity.

The fourth quality management technique is to institute a vigorous program of education