Total Quality Management-An Approach towards Good Governance

Our public sector departments have created enormous financial burden on the limited national exchequer. Leaving side a few organizations, our public sector is not thinking to improve the quality of services, whereas the crushing national debt calls for urgent cuts in cost of public functionaries. Valuable assets are wasted on projects which are non-starter and programs which are not actualized. The failure of government efforts to improve the quality of public services has demanded the complete renovation of management procedures. The administrative government needs overhauling. The time has come to radically change the way, government operates. Simple and easy to comprehend principle of management signifying the criticality of doing the right thing, the first time and every time has invariably lost sight with obvious consequences. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a workable theory based option that allows public managers to reward truly exceptional individual performance, yet increase the capacity for agency wide co-operation and process improvement. A clear prognosis which emerges after review of the existing national scenario that there must be a pool of national experts in key industrial and social sectors drawn from across the country. Time tested principle of “authority commensurate with responsibility” should never be lost sight of. This paper examines the origins of TQM, describes how philosophies of Quality apply to public sector, suggests ways to overcome barriers to implementation and presents set of proposal for Government’s total quality improvement efforts.