Many teachers of total quality, following the lead of W. Edwards Deming, suggest that TQM and petj4ormance appraisal are incompatible. Indeed, Deming lists "evaluation ofperformance, merit rating and annual review" as the third of his "Seven Deadly Diseases." Why can't TQM and performance appraisal co-exist? At the center of the case against performance appraisal are the fundamental values andprinciples of TQM. TQM requires customer-consciousness, systems-thinking, an understanding of variation, an appreciation of teamwork, a mastery of improvement methods, and an understanding of the process of personal motivation and learning. These v e y requirements of TQM are subveerted by performance appraisal. TQM requires us to understand, control, and improve processes for the benefit of the customer. Performance appraisal aims at controlling an individual's behavior to the satisfaction of his or her manager. The two approaches represent a fitndamental choice for leaders: one or the other; not both.hile TQM-bashing has recently become fashionable in U S . business periodicals, the total quality movement is alive and well. Companies like Harley Davidson, Motorola, and Xeroxwho understand TQM-aren't bashing total quality. And one doesn't hear of the demise of Japan's total quality control efforts. What we are witnessing is the American appetite for fads. Those who never understood quality in the first place and trivialized it in the second place are now declaring it dead.Total quality is a compelling and simple approach to management. When intelligently applied, the basic principles of TQM will, however, fundamentally change the way a conventional manager thinks about the nature of work and the purpose of leadership. This fundamental change requires managers to relinquish the old set of premises-the old paradigm-and struggle to understand, internalize and apply a new approachwhat Brian Toiner of Toiner Associates calls fourth-generation management. C I -Peter schO1tes is a senior 'Onsultant w ithJoinerAssociates Inc., of Madison, Wisconsin. He is a and meakerDeming ,a;,, "Wha; is required is nothing less than the transformation of Western management." Many managers have learned the rhetoric of total quality and adopted programs to apply TQM to their companies. But on total quality and the' p i ncipal author of T h e Team Handbook.relatively few have appreciated the profoundly different approach it requires of those who must lead.National Productivity Review/Summer 1993 Peter R. Scboltes "I believe most of what Deming teaches," is commonly heard from managers. ''I agree with ten or twelve of his fourteen points." While adherence to ten or twelve is better than none, these managers fail to see that the fourteen points are an interdependent, integrated whole. If you pull out one row in this tapestry, it unravels. When people reject any of Deming's teachings, it usually is point 12b:Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter aliu, abolishment of th...
