Re: TQM-like stuff for WC

[Latisha LaRue <kfischer@keller.clarke.edu>]

> The voice of a Monday-morning cynic:
> 
> TQM is window dressing, another in a series of management fads that gives 
> administrators something to put on their Annual Report of Activities and 
> attempts to perpetuate the illusion that management gives a shit what labor 
> thinks.
> Dave Healy

I always have liked something about you, Dave Healy!  ;)

I'm always a bit aprehensive about coming up with titles and descriptions
and "rules" for things which boil down to being quite simple.  I guess
that's the cynic's approach I've taken to TQM.  I remember the first time
I heard about this.  A Demming Disciple lectured us on the philosophy and
policise of TQM.  It was not that I disagreed with a single thing he
suggested.  But for the most part, and all the time since then, TQM seems
to be a formalized way of saying that an organization operates best by
having everyone own a piece of it.  Sounds sort of Marxist to me and
Marxism has been around a long fine time.  In the corporate world, it
smells a little like profit-sharing and profit-sharing has been around a
long time.  At home, it sounds a little like how a healthy family
collaborates on things like house rules and vacation plans.
	Boy!  I really sound like I'm trying to throw water on this fire
here and I don't mean to be so rude, chums.  And I do love exploring ways
to make any environment more shared, more collaborative.  So if I'm out of
line here, just pass the coffee and I'll catch up with the rest of you
later.
			Katie Fischer