Reference no: EM133781139

Systems Thinking for an integrated workforce

Assessment 1:

Objective: The purpose of the essay is to allow you to consider in depth a particular TQM/Systems thinking-related aspect that is relevant to your interests and/or likely career path, and develop your critical thinking, exploratory research and communication skills. Ideally, but not a requirement, the content would support future courses of action or aspects to apply or test within your own working environment post-course.

This assessment provides a unique opportunity to review, aggregate, synthesise, consider and communicate without the pressure to also apply or solve. Ideally, the content will provide a strong basis for improvement strategies and implementation (whether to assess, problem solve or otherwise improve workplace systems, practices and outcomes) thereafter.

Topic: The topic for discussion is your choice; it should relate to the philosophy of TQM and Systems thinking and current management practices in industry. Take a field of your interest and investigate TQM (or key aspects therein) within that context, e.g., TQM/Systems thinking in Health Care, Engineering, Education, Retail, Automation, etc.

Consider if your broad area may be specified (e.g., TQM in clinical management as opposed to the more general TQM in health care). You may use your own organization as inspiration, but you should not describe or assess it, nor should you reveal any sensitive/inside information in the analysis. For example, if you work in the aviation industry you cannot simply assess your organisation for aspects you would expect to see in a TQM-based organisation. However, you could, for example, consider the area of Quality and Safety in the Aviation Industry and explore that aspect in light of TQM, potentially utilising your own organisation as supporting evidence of current practice (either for or contrary to such) and practical conclusions surrounding such. Yet, be careful to not base conclusions solely on one organisation, base it on broader research.

You may explore areas of TQM that are still under discussion or contain conflicting views with current management practices. You may be interested in comparing TQM with other management techniques (e.g., TQM v Six-Sigma / Lean Thinking), or perhaps how it may be used to advance existing principles (e.g., Health and Safety in the workplace), or in exploring the concept of teamwork and organisational culture in the workplace (in light of TQM's perspective), etc.

Better essays will be those that take a particular thesis and argue for or against it based upon, and supported by, your literature search: be mindful of providing evidence to support claims.

Size: 1000 words core plus extras (see below).

Requirements

Research: It is anticipated between five and ten hours of research accompany the time spent writing the essay. Such research could involve journal, textbook and other article searches (via internet and/or library), reading, reflecting and synthesising the information. Be careful to use reliable vetted sources and to not base your essay on unsubstantiated web content. The majority of your references should be from reputed sources, such as peer-reviewed journals, companies press-releases, statements etc.

Formatting: The essay should have the following structure
Title
Executive summary/abstract: 200 words max
Body: 1000 words max
References: 5 min
Figures/Tables: 5 max
Provide a word count before the body text.
Summary: One paragraph that is preceded by the word Summary/Abstract, that provides a concise description of the essay body. It should not repeat statements from the body verbatim, nor should be used as a space for introduction/conclusion that have not met the body's wordcount.

Body: An essay should not have numbered sections, nor have a contents page. It should have a natural flow, much like any chapter of a novel you read. The initial paragraphs should provide a setting for the topic of discussion. The ensuing paragraphs should provide viewpoints and discussion of such perspectives, providing the main body of the essay. Such discussions should be clearly related to the content of the initial paragraphs, building upon the initial thesis and enabling the reader to gauge and value the author's perspective and develop an informed opinion. The closing paragraphs should leave the reader with a clear understanding of the concluding viewpoint of the author that is consistent with the main body of the essay and the initial thesis under scrutiny.
References should be listed in a separate section in the end of the document and follow one of the citation guidelines: any of your choice, but consistently. Note, that a single web-link is not a proper citation: any document has an author/title/etc that constitutes a citation, and the web-link is just a way to access that document.

Figures/Tables are not required, but you may use them to support your discussion. They may be located either in-text or in a separate section after References. A figure/table must contain a caption/title (does not contribute towards the wordcount) that briefly describes its content. If there is more than one figure/table, its title should be preceded by a keyword, e.g. "Figure N. ".

Any citation or figure/table used in the essay must be referred to in the text: it is not enough to simply list references/figures in the end of the document. For example, "according to [1] / (Glavatskiy 2022) / Figure 2 / Table 1, an essay must contain in-text labels that clearly indicate the referred source".

Notes
You are not implementing TQM tools nor trying to necessarily improve any organisation or field. You are discussing the use of the tools and principles of TQM in a field and the potential for TQM to add value to an organisation.
You are not expected to provide solutions; rather you should present an insightful discussion of organisational processes and management methods and how these compare with (or contrast) the ideas that you have learnt in this course. Comments on the merit of the TQM concepts should be made where applicable.
Considering a small department within an organisation in isolation will not provide sufficient scope for this essay: TQM crosses all departments (it is organisation-wide, driven from upper management, etc).
Things to look for in an organisation/field include (but not limited to): use of data, 7 simple tools, having customers defined and surveyed, use of Deming's 14 points, using teams for problem solving, documentation of processes and an understanding of systems, measuring waste and rework, cause-and-effect mechanisms of variation, using advanced statistical tools, etc.