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Communication:

Communication is the activity of conveying information through

the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals,writing, or behavior. Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient. The

communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the message of thesender.

Total Quality Management:

Total Quality Management or TQM is an integrativephilosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and

processes. QM functions on the premise that the quality of products and processes is the

responsibility of everyone who is involved with the creation or consumption of theproducts or services offered by an organization. In other words, TQM requires the

involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and customers, in order to meet or

exceed customer expectations.

1. Importance of communication in TQM:

It binds everything together. Starting from foundation toroof of the TQM house, everything is bound by strong mortar ofcommunication. It acts as a vital link between all elements of TQM.Communication means a common understanding of ideas between the senderand the receiver. The success of TQM demands communication with and amongall the organization members, suppliers and customers.Supervisors must keep open airways where employees can send and receive

information about the TQM process. Communication coupled with the sharing ofcorrect information is vital. For communication to becredible the message must be clear and receiver must interpret in theway the sender intended.

There are different ways of communication such as:

Downward communication - This is the dominantform of communication in an organization. Presentations and discussionsbasically do it. By this the supervisors are able to make the employeesclear about TQM.

Upward communication - By this the lower levelof employees are able to provide suggestions to upper management of theaffects of TQM. As employees provide insight and constructivecriticism, supervisors must listen effectively to correct the situationthat comes about through the use of TQM. This forms a level of trustbetween supervisors and employees. This is also similar to empoweringcommunication, where supervisors keep open ears and listen to others.

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Sideways communication - This type of communication is important because it breaksdown barriers between departments. It also allows dealing with customers and suppliers

in a more professional manner.

1.1. Customer Focus & Communication:

Quality is seen as, meeting the customers requirements" and sometimesexceeding it. Therefore, in TQM customers set the ultimate criteria for quality. The

quality guru Edward Demings sees the customer as the most important part of the quality

process. To understand what their customers need and want, managers and employeesshould continuously work hard to stay up to date since customers needs change with

technology. As stated by Shores, A customer focus keeps the business aware of the

changes taking place in its environment and provides the knowledge needed to changethe product or service." It is important for a quality organization that its employees see

their work through the eyes of their customers and know how to satisfy them. As

explained by Tom Peters, organizations should see every customer as a lifetime customer

who brings family and friends." Moreover, the founder of WalMart stores, Sam Walton,taught his employees a philosophy of treating the customer like a king or queen,

empowering the worker to do what is right, and sharing the rewards of hard work with

everyone who contributes." Therefore, organizations should find ways of better servingtheir customers. One way of delivering a quality service is improving the communication

between the customer and the organization. This could be either in the form of two way

communication such as openly discussing their concerns together, and finding solutionsto their problems, or it could be in the form of one way communication, such as receiving

feedback about a product or service, making surveys to assess their satisfaction, and

solving their complaints to retain customers.

1.2. Culture & Communication:

To create a TQM environment, managers should change cultural problems, such as themindsets and daily practices of people. Also, the cultural view helps managers understand thecauses of human behavior. To change the way people think and act, managers must understandhow the thoughts, interpretations, expectations, and habits that people have are developed andmaintained" As a result of such an understanding, managers can have insight about how tochange the culture of workplace.

1.3. Resistance to change and culture:

Resistance to change is one of the important barriers when organizations try toimplement new techniques and projects. Especially, changing the culture of the federal

government is more difficult than changing federal rules and regulations. Because of itsbureaucratic structure, changes in the public sector are even slower than those in private sector.For example, when the Internal Revenue service of the USA (IRS) first began the quality andcustomer focus training, the resistance was apparent. Some employees and managers tried tofind out reasons not to attend the meetings. Some simply did not believe that this would work.Other employees saw the TQM just another effort that top-level management would support andthen give it up to implement another project. And, some others believed that since their goal hasalways been quality service, TQM would not make any difference in their works. However, if theultimate reasons are explained and communicated, and people affected by a change participate

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in decision making and application processes, the acceptance of change will be more valuable tothem and resistance to change will be less apparent.

1.4. Teamwork, Employee Empowerment & Communication:

In the teams, members should be able to express themselves freely, without fear. They should

develop a trust environment in which everybody feel secure. Individuals should be able to findhelp whenever they need it. they should have a sense of being a member of group. Opencommunication is an important part of the teams. Team members should be able to explain theirideas and concerns about the issues. All these are possible through Effective Communication.

1.5. Productivity and communication:

Improving productivity as a result of TQM activities is an issue that has a communication aspect.In order to have a high level of productivity, organizations need to focus on communication.

According to a survey, made by Lull, Frank, and Piersol, among presidents of the biggest 100U.S. corporations 96 percent believed in a definite relationship" between communication andproductivity. Another investigation was conducted in two business organizations and the resultsshowed that communication was perceived to have an impact on productivity that varied in both

kind and magnitude." As a result, communication is a vital issue in this area, as well, thus it needsto be treated as such.