Need for leaders to walk the quality talk

Kenya Bureau of Standards Managing Director Charles Ongwae addressing a forum for Mombasa Business Operators at Bandari College on May 4, 2017. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Leaders set the strategic direction of any given organisation.
  • Adopting international standards is mostly influenced by decision makers.

Quality, it is often said, is king. We can never overemphasise the role that quality plays in our lives.

From the service you receive from a company to the pen that you use, it requires a quality management system to ensure that the end product or service meets set standards.

As a trainer in quality management systems, I am often asked what quality really is. In fact, when I bounce back the question to the trainees, many define quality based on attributes such as goodness, beauty, look or feel.

ISO

This is, however, imprecise as individual perceptions of the same attributes differ. This is confirmed by the saying, “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”.

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has come up with a universal definition of quality, as “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an entity fulfils requirements”.

In recognition of the centrality of quality, a day is set aside every year (second Thursday of November) to increase awareness on its value and in acknowledgment of the critical role it plays in our lives.

The theme for the World Quality Day (WQD) this year was “Celebrating everyday leaders”.

This is a timely reminder that we have an opportunity to be advocates of quality, be it in products and services.

It is also an opportunity to celebrate the quality drivers and champions in our organisations. But who are the quality champions in any organisation? Leadership at all levels is at the core of implementing an effective quality management system.

In fact, it is intentional that leadership, is one of the seven principles of ISO 9001: 2015 Quality Management Systems because it provides commitment and guidance for the systematic and continual improvement of an organisation’s overall performance.
STRATEGY

Leaders set the strategic direction of any given organisation. It is also their role to communicate the mission, vision, strategy, policies and processes, besides shaping the culture of the organisation.

The behaviour of the leadership influences the quality culture hence the need to create and sustain shared values, fairness and ethical models for behaviour.

The other six principles of quality management systems, namely customer focus, engagement of people, process approach, improvement, evidence-based decision making and relationship management are important, but leadership is at the centre of them all.

Leaders set the tone on how employees treat their customers. A leader who advocates interests of the customer and stakeholders acts as the conscience of the organisation. Another reason leadership is key in driving the quality agenda is that employees are more likely to be enthusiastic and keen to exceed customer expectation.

Employees take initiatives without fear and when their contribution is recognised. Leaders who promote process approach and assign clear roles and responsibilities, evaluating performance at intervals, promote quality products and services.

A recent survey by the Kenya Bureau of Standards found that adopting international standards is mostly influenced by decision makers.

The trend is worrying because only 172 organisations are certified by Kebs to the Quality Management System (QMS) standards, yet without quality control, the world would be an unpredictable and unsafe place to live in.
For a quality culture to be entrenched, leaders at all levels must be positive examples to people in the organisation.

Leaders also need to provide people with resources.

These can only be achieved in an environment that promotes quality because quality is not an act, but a habit, as the great philosopher Aristotle once said.

Dr Mutuku is the head of the National Quality Institute (NQI) at the Kenya Bureau of Standards. [email protected]