I have been studying and teaching the history of quality and TQM; researching it in different shapes and forms, talking to people from different departments, at work, and during my doctoral research interviewing over 235 people from management and non-management positions.A
A question keeps coming up: “Is quality management dead”?
Could this be a reason why people don’t want to have a conversation about it, deep dive into it, or try and find solutions on how to improve quality in a human-centric way in the era of AI?
Post-COVID-19 forced organisations to adopt remote work, there was a warning that a wave of disruption was coming in all sectors of the profession.
Human behaviour is amazing and now remote work has become normal, and then another disruption arrived – a change in remote work, this time the trend is hybrid work.
How does this impact quality professionals and are they equipped for this change? How do they document and record errors, what methodologies are they using while people are working remotely?
There is a saying that ‘quality is everyone’s responsibility’ – and everyone agrees as if agreeing is the right thing to do, rather than raising the question, how can it be everyone’s responsibility.
It’s great to have agreement, but for the curious mind, it raises a deeper question, how can leaders create the conditions that make everyone take pride in being responsible for quality, that everyone can have a voice in improving quality, ‘that it’s not my job’ phrase doesn’t exist in organisations.
Unless there is a major shift from the mindset – of ‘that’s not my job’, to an open ‘let’s see what I can do’ approach, then how can we expect quality to be ‘everyone’s responsibility.’
For quality to be the responsibility of everyone, there needs to be a culture of empowerment in organisations.
Only by empowering people, organisations can see visible results, as people take responsibility for quality, fix errors, and make relevant decisions about quality products and excellent services.
By not empowering people, we are disempowering them, and thwarting their decision-making skills, including the motivation to take risks and being innovative and creative. These much sought-after skills for quality professionals are being lost.
Disempowered employees are harmful to the health of the organisation.
The future of quality and AI is that a problem is brewing and we will realise that we are worrying about the wrong problem – it’s not the impact of AI on jobs, it is the psychological impact of AI on leaders and all quality professionals in all shapes and forms – the people who are expected to deliver quality.
We should be worrying about the well-being of quality professionals, and the psychological impact of AI on people’s self-esteem, self-efficacy and self-confidence, no matter what sector they are working in, irrespective of their positions in the organisation.
Are we entering into an era of diminishing quality professionals into dinosaurs and letting AI rule?
Shouldn’t we work with AI and put people at the helm of responsibility?
It seems that quality is more human than we think, and we need more human conversation about quality management.
How can quality professionals evolve, be enabled to embrace change and create a space for themselves in the era of AI?
BIO:
Dr Rozana Huq was awarded a PhD from Queen’s University, School of Management, Belfast, UK, where she lectured on the MBA and Leadership and Strategy Course.
Her teaching subjects include TQM, EFQM, Quality, People Skills, Employee Empowerment, Leadership, Psychological Empowerment & Organisational Behaviour.
Dr Rozana Huq’s Awards and Recognitions:
• Certified Business & Life Coach with Distinction, UK
• PhD, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK
• UTV Award Winner, UK
• Jemma Award Winner, UK
• Invited to meet Her Majesty, the Late Queen Elizabeth II, for recognition of Community work
• Invited to Downing Street (London)
• Non-executive Director of NHS Hospital, UK
• Chair of the Hospital Arts Care Committee
• Gratitude Ambassador
She can be reached at:
Dr Rozana Huq <rozanahuq@gmail.com