• 3) Say whether you agree or disagree with these statements:

a) only management can make a change in a system,

b) the common variation is inherent in any system,

c) workers (employees) should not be penalized for common variation,

d) common variation is beyond the workers’ control,

e) workers (employees) can be involved in the process of improvements,

f) achievement of improvement of quality requires improved methods of manufacturing, testing, consumer research, product redesign, etc.

4.16.8 Management’s and worker’s responsibilities

• 1) Before reading the text, answer the following questions:

a) What are the responsibilities of management?

b) What are the responsibilities of workers (employees)?

• 2) Read the text and fill in the gaps in the table:

Responsibilities of managers	Responsibilities of workers and results of the introduction of Dr. Deming philosophy
1.	1. Aside from performing their jobs, they communicate to the management the information they have about the system.
2. Management is involved in never-ending improvement of the process.	2.
3.	3. Workers are afforded secure and rewarding jobs for their efforts.
4. Management must be totally committed to the change.	4.

Managers have a monumental task before them. They must take responsibility for the process and must constantly seek to improve it. They have to stop blaming each other, the workers in the system, the suppliers, and the customers.

Dr. Deming’s philosophy necessitates a fundamental change in how organizations are viewed by the people who manage them and by those who work in them. This change will be a lot more palatable for the workers because, generally, workers are aware of many of the organization’s problems and know that they are not the cause of the problems. Managers, on the other hand, must own up to their responsibility and must realize that the systems that they created perpetuate cause approximately 85 percent of the problems. NOTHING can be done about these problems unless there is a change in the system. However, workers have a responsibility in the process, aside from performing their jobs. Their responsibility is to communicate to management the information they have regarding the system. Under the Deming philosophy this is possible because workers and management learn to speak the same language, the language of statistics and process control.

A true cooperation spirit flourishes in this type of environment. Team work is a prerequisite for the firm to function and to constantly improve the process. The corporate culture changes so that the workers are no longer afraid to point out problems in the system. Management is actively involved in the never-ending improvement of the process with the workers, and workers are afforded secure and economically rewarding jobs for their efforts. Management creates the atmosphere that encourages pride of workmanship and a belief in the process of never-ending improvement. This will eventually lead to higher quality, reduced costs, and greater profitability. However, those goals can only be reached by a slow, steady, real change in the organizational environment.

Management must make a total commitment to the change and must be willing to endure and deal with the workers’ skepticism and doubts, as well as their own. These doubts have been built up over several years, in some cases lifetimes, and are not easily dispelled. Total commitment and real change, over a period of time, will be evident to the employees, and they will start to trust the new atmosphere. Management will be tested many times. If the testing is handled properly, both management and workers will emerge with a strengthened commitment and a renewed sense of purpose.