COMMUNICATIONS,

INNOVATIONS AND
LEARNING
Reporters:
Jhanen F. Colbe
Oliwa C. Ordaneza
Quality Director or
TQM co-ordinator
 Should then assist the senior management team to
prepare a directive. This must be signed by all business
unit, division or process leaders, and distributed to
everyone in the organization.

The directive should include:

• Need for improvement
• Concept for total quality
• Importance of understanding business processes
• Approach that will be taken and people’s roles
• Individual and process group responsibilities
• Principles of process measurement
 In the Larkins’ excellent book
Communicating Change (1994), the authors
referred to three facts regarding the best way
to communicate change to employees.

1. Communicate directly to
supervisors (first-line)
2. Use face-to-face communication
3. Communicate relative
performance of the local work area
COMMUNICATING
THE QUALITY
MESSAGE
The people in most organizations fall into one
of four ‘audience’ groups, each with particular
general attitudes towards TQM

o Senior Managers – who should see TQM as an

opportunity, both for the organization and themselves
o Middle Managers – who may see TQM as another burden
without any benefits and may perceive a vested interest
in the status quo.
o Supervisors (first-line or junior managers) – who may
see TQM as another ‘flavour of the period’ or campaign,
and who may respond by trying to keep heads down so
that it will pass over.
o Other Employees – who may not care, as long as they
have jobs and get paid, though these people must be the
custodians of the delivery of quality to the customer
and own that personality.
Two mutually supporting aspects:

‘Marketing’ any TQM

initiatives
A positive, logical process of
communication designed to
motivate
TQM ‘events’ should of course be fun
The key medium for motivating
employees and gaining their
commitment to quality is face-to-face
communication and visible
management commitment
COMMUNICATION
LEARNING
EDUCATION
AND
TRAINING
It may be useful to consider why people learn.
They do so for several reasons, some of which
include:
 Self-betterment
 Self-preservation
 Need for or to take
responsibility
 To become properly
accountable
 Saving time or effort
 Sense of
achievement
 Pride of work
 curiosity
Communication and training can be powerful stimulus
to personal development at the workplace, as well as
achieving improvements for the organization. This may
be useful in the selection of the appropriate method(s)
of communication, the principal ones being:
 Verbal Communication – either between individuals or
groups, using direct and indirect methods, such as public
addresses and other broadcasting systems and
recordings
 Written Communication – in the form of notices, bulletins,
information sheets, reports, e-mail and recommendations
 Visual Communication – such as posters, films, video,
internet/intranet, exhibitions, demonstrations, displays
and other promotional features. Some of these also call
for verbal and written communication
 Example – through the way people conduct themselves
and adhere to established working codes and procedures,
through their effectiveness as communications and ability
to ‘sell’ good practices
• Education and training cycle
of improvement
• Ensure education and training is a
part of the policy
• Ensure objectives and responsibilities for
education and training

Three essential requirements must be met:

 Senior management must ensure that

learning outcomes are clarified and
priorities set
 The defined education and training
objectives must be realizable and
attainable
 The main objectives should be translated
for all areas in the organization
• Establish the platform for a learning organization
• Specify education and training needs
• Prepare education/training programmes and
materials
• Implement and monitor education and training
• Asses the results
• Review effectiveness of education and training
A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
TO EDUCATION AND
TRAINING FOR QUALITY
Main elements of effective and
systematic quality training may be
considered under four broad headings:

• Error/defect/problem prevention
• Error/defect/problem reporting and
analysis
• Error/defect/problem investigation
• Review of quality training
Education and training needs occur
at four levels of an organization:
• Very senior management – strategic
decision-makers
• Middle management – tactical
decision-makers or implementers of
policy
• First level supervision and quality team
leaders – on the spot decision-makers
• All other employees – the doers
• In world-class organizations there is clear
evidence that knowledge is shared to
maximize performance, with learning,
innovation and improvement encouraged.
• It is useful to draw the distinction
between explicit knowledge and tacit
knowledge.