The Role of Leadership
Research and summarize senior management’s role in successful quality improvement programs. Be sure to use real, researched examples to demonstrate your points. The Baldrige Award site list of recipients could be a good resource for examples.
In general, identify senior management’s specific role in these large-scale strategic quality programs? Cheerleader? Role model? Decision maker? Resource provider? What else?
Why must firms adopt the identified roles? What is the risk of not using the roles?
Indicate how senior and middle management should derive the metrics to use to monitor and communicate performance?
Sample Answer
here is a summary of senior management’s role in successful quality improvement programs:
- Cheerleader: Senior management must be enthusiastic about quality improvement and must create a culture where everyone is committed to continuous improvement. They should celebrate successes and use positive reinforcement to encourage employees to keep striving for improvement.
- Role model: Senior management must set a good example by demonstrating their commitment to quality improvement in their own work. They should be willing to listen to feedback and make changes when necessary.
- Decision maker: Senior management must make the decisions that are necessary to support quality improvement initiatives. This includes providing resources, setting priorities, and removing barriers to improvement.
- Resource provider: Senior management must provide the resources that are needed to support quality improvement initiatives. This includes funding, training, and time.