Successful leadership
begins with a vision, which reflects the
shared purpose with the ability to articulate
a clear, practical, transformational vision.
Says Prof. Deniss Tachiki of Tamagawa
University through Videoconference at
Tanzania Global Development Learning Centre
(TGDLC).
Tanzania must undergo transformation
by structuring its management by reforming
the prevailing management system. The
view from Japan system of Total Quality
management can be applied in Tanzania.
It is believed that the system can lead
to economic and social breakthroughs.
The more Tanzanians demand to improve
towards good living standards, families
need rebuilding because jobs are scarce.
The cost of living is increasing and children
do not have a level playing field for
every intellectual, social and emotional
development. We are flooded with evidence
of the need for societal transformation.
Total quality management offers a pedagogical
method to managers where participants
teach each other through group problem-solving
activities.
According to Prof. Dennis Tachiki of
Tamagawa University in Japan, when presenting
to Japan International Cooperation Agency
- JICA, total quality management can help
Tanzania in reforming its public sector
by equipping its individuals with the
understanding, skills and access to information,
knowledge and training that enables them
to perform effectively.
Prof. Tachiki is very proud of the steps
his country has taken through adopting
the synergy. He believes that it is high
time to Tanzania to use it so as to match
with modern economic markets.
The concept of Total Quality Management
(TQM) was developed by an American, W.
Edwards Deming, after World War II for
improving the production quality of goods
and services. The concept was not taken
seriously by Americans until the Japanese,
who adopted it in 1950 to resurrect their
postwar business and industry, used it
to dominate world markets by 1980.
Taking an example of Tanzania primary
schools, just to explain the concept of
QM, traditionally Tanzania school-education
has been prone to individual and departmental
isolation. However, according to Prof.
Dennis Tachiki, this outdated practice
no longer serves us public sector reforms.
In other words, teamwork and collaboration
are essential. In a Tanzania classroom,
teacher-student teams are the equivalent
of industry's front-line workers. The
product of their successful work together
is the development of the student's capabilities,
interests, and character.
In one sense, the student is the teacher's
customer, as the recipient of educational
services provided for the student's growth
and improvement. Viewed in this way, the
teacher and the school are suppliers of
effective learning tools, environments,
and systems to the student, who is the
school's primary customer. The school
is responsible for providing for the long-term
educational welfare of students by teaching
them how to learn and communicate in high-quality
ways, how to access quality in their own
work and in that of others, and how to
invest in their own lifelong and life-wide
learning processes by maximizing opportunities
for growth in every aspect of daily life.
In another sense, the student is also
a worker, whose product is essentially
his or her own continuous improvement
and personal growth.
‘When I close the classroom door,
those kids are mine!’ This notion
is too narrow to survive in a world in
which teamwork and collaboration result
in high-quality benefits for the greatest
number of people. Total Quality Management
purport to lead to enhanced levels of
product quality or lower costs and thereby
provide the ability to achieve and sustain
a global competitive advantage.
To achieve these spoils, however, TQM
directly and covertly alters the values,
culture, and mind-sets within an organization.
As a result, and parallel to these technological
modifications, TQM establishes a carefully
integrated program of social and psychological
engineering which is critical to the ‘successful’
implementation of TQM and which has a
significant impact on the behavior and
consciousness of both managers and workers.
"The first step is transformation
of the individual. This transformation
is discontinuous. It comes from understanding
of the system of profound knowledge. The
individual, transformed, will perceive
new meaning to his life, to events, to
numbers, to interactions between people,”
says Prof. Tachiki.
Once the individual understands the
system of profound knowledge, he will
apply its principles in every kind of
relationship with other people. He will
have a basis for judgment of his own decisions
and for transformation of the organizations
that he belongs to.
“Processes, not people are the problem
in many government bureaucracy and state
owned enterprises,” says Prof Tachiki.
The very application of TQM to organization
emphasizes the synergistic relationship
between the "suppliers" and
"customers". The concept of
synergy suggests that performance and
production is enhanced by pooling the
talent and experience of individuals.
“Successful management begins
with a vision, which reflects the shared
purpose. The ability to articulate a clear,
practical, transformational vision which
answers the question, 'where are we headed?’”
says Prof Tachiki.
