Some thoughts for Ivan, regarding internal and external forces shaping an
organization.
The Center for the Quality of Management in Cambridge, Mass., has for some
years now promoted the concepts of mMarket-in versus product-out in an
organization.
In their book, A New American TQM, professor Shoji Shiba, lan Graham and
David Walden discuss how companies have gone from a position of
product-out, which focuses on the product as the purpose of work, to
market-in, which focuses on customer satisfaction as the purpose of work.
Using the slogan "The next process is your customer," implementers of TQ
practices require feedbak from customers. It is this feedback which I
find related to the thread of communication as developed on a lower, more
detailed level of abstraction in recent postings to this group.
Today's TQ movement is a mass movement seeking to change high levels of
"functional" management to cross-functional management, where results are
treated as important but definitely secondary to root causes; the authors
state unequivocally that focus in organizations must be on dependent
variables, not independent variables. More as or when this theme
develops.
-- Barry Mallis Total Quality Resource Manager MARKEM Corporation Keene, NH 03431 bmallis@markem.com