Managing Responsibility
- What does this article tell us about quality and responsibility management and how we can integrate this into organizational processes?
In terms of quality, the article tells us that, "companies cannot compete successfully without paying close attention to the quality of their products and services." With regards to responsibility management, it is said that, "Corporate responsibility is defined as the ways in which a company's operating practices (policies, processes, and procedures) affect its stakeholders, and the natural environment. Demands for enhanced corporate responsibility come from corporate critics, social investors, activists, and, increasingly customers who claim to assess corporate responsibility when making purchasing decisions. These demands go beyond product/service quality to focus on areas such as labor standards, environmental sustainability, financial and accounting reporting, procurement, supplier relations, environmental practices, and supply chain management."
Quality and responsibility management can be integrated into organizational processes. by considering quality and responsibility before all else. For example, according to MIT, "activities like making a decision or approving an application are parts of many organizational processes."
> http://ccs.mit.edu/21c/mgtsci/index.htm
Therefore, before 'any' rules of order or decisions, organizations must first base or filter all actions through the lens of quality assurance and corporate responsibility. Yet, none of this will come easy to any organization. As the article states, "Managing responsibility, however, is more complex than managing quality. First, the borders of responsibility can be extremely difficult to define. Who is responsible for the working conditions in a firm supplying only one subcomponent of a product, where the buyer represents only one of