November 18, 2018 – The world is too small? or Is it?

Welcome to November, 2018 edition of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

Let us recollect from our August, 2018 issue that two of the three key changes that characterize ISO 9004: 2018 are:

focus on the concept of “quality of an organization”;
focus of the concept of “identity of an organization”

We will expand the concept of Identity of an Organization in this November, 2018 issue.

Organizational Identity is not a new subject to the world of management academics and the practicing professionals. However with the introduction of the concept into the body of the revised ISO 9004:2018 standard, the subject opens up a very interesting dimension to the quality professionals too.

Organizational identity is a field of study in organizational theory that seeks the answer to the question: “who are we as an organization?” ..According to Whetten (2006) the attributes of an organizational identity are central, enduring, and distinctive/distinguishing (CED).

Central attributes are ones that have changed the history of the company; if these attribute were missing, the history of the organization would have been different.
Enduring attributes are ones deeply ingrained in the organization, often explicitly considered sacrosanct or embedded in the organizational history.
Distinguishing attributes are ones used by the organization to separate itself from other similar organizations, but can also set minimum standards and norms for that type of organization.

Organizational Identity = Purpose + Philosophy – As a unit, the Purpose and the Philosophy are the central attributes of the Organizational Identity that have defined the character of the organization and the cause that it has served over the years. These elements of Organizational Identity serve as the basis for all aspects of the business.

Organizational Identity- From ‘Why we are’ to ‘Who we are – Organizational Identity also helps define the organization to Who Are We? And Why Are We?. Very few organizations actually know the answer to these questions – ’Who are we as an organization?’ ’What are we doing?’ ’What do we want to be in the future?’ An organization’s identity affects its actions, interpretation, and decision-making by its members and the management. This identity also has a huge impact on organizational change processes.

Is your identity given or created? | Marcus Lyon | TEDxExeter : Using Somos Brasil (We are Brazil), a multimedia photography, sound and DNA project, Marcus Lyon brings us images, stories and ancestral DNA to examine modern Brazilian identity. In turn he asks us to consider what drives us and what we can become.

IKEA is known as one organization that is strongly identified for the alignment of its organizational identity with its brand. For IKEA, its vision of creating a better everyday life for the many people also means making a difference for the people and communities where they work. The film – The IKEA Group – The Story of How We Work – lets you know more about how.

Finally, here is a Management system model to achieve sustained success

We will now turn to our regular sections:

For the present episode we have picked up Joshua Spodek’s article The 20/80 Rule, Integrity, and the Opposite of the 80/20 Rule @ Leadership Step By Step column of Management Matters Network….Vince Lombardi says that paying attention to details always pays, i.e. paying attention to the last few percent. When you care about the 1 percent that others don’t, people look to you to lead. It is more important to get every detail right than getting it right most of the time.

We now watch one of the latest ASQ TV episodes:

Risk Intelligence for the Organization – Sanjeev Koshe, Vice President, Management Assurance Group, Tata Housing Development Company Limited, explains how to go beyond brainstorming identify risk, measuring it, and how best to deliver a risk report.
Big Data – discusses Big data, data analytics, and predictive modeling, and how organizations and quality professionals can use all three. Additional reference – The Deal With Big Data

Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems posting for October, 2018 is:

Pursuit of Excellence – Like the old story of the race between the tortoise and the hare, it’s the slow, steady and continuous pursuit of excellence that wins the race, not the flashy sprint that can’t be sustained. Experience has taught me to believe that sustainable improvement requires an organizational culture change. Continuous improvement is more about rigor and discipline than technique. It is about the pursuit of excellence.