It is not uncommon to blame senior management for most of what ails an organization. However, it is past time to rethink this attitude! While management is not blameless, they are more often a scapegoat rather than a root cause to the problems facing the quality profession. It is up to quality professionals to re-ignite the quality firestorm—the flame is not eternal and must be constantly rekindled. In recent times the quality fire has been doused by far too much busy work.
Senior management buy-in and support of quality initiatives was a common theme of quality giants W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, et al, and this certainly remains true today. However, it is time to reevaluate the issue of senior management support that Deming and Juran postulated because things have changed.
In years past organizations with dedicated quality functions called on the skills of their quality professionals to drive improvements. The quality professionals led the improvement parade. In many organizations that’s no longer the case.