Quality Management and Accountability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Quality Management and Accountability - Essay Example Experts posit that while distinct individual expertise is significant in the creation of team, however, they must not be able to overlook the need to openly communicate to each other to completely manage changes in the hospital. 2. The article you read indicated that there needs to be an agreement and understanding between employees and managers for successful quality programs. Discuss this aspect of the case study (e.g. did this occur, what understanding do you think each group had, etc). In the case at hand, while the team were able to attend training on quality improvement training and created its team for the hospital to strategize the changes for competitive leverage but there is apparent lack of communication and coordination to all departments about how the improvements will be undertaken with everyone’s participation. The case further showed that the human resources are demotivated. They were non-collaborative as demonstrated by their poor attendance in meetings; the c orrective action teams were dysfunctional but has instead focused on problem-solving with blame; poor reporting and documentation; and few were convinced that genuine total quality changes can be fully effected. It is appreciable that there are those who are interested to introduce changes in the administrative and operational aspects of the hospital, like Joe, but the drive for changes isn’t just enough. Joe was only able to send a team to undertake training on quality improvement team (QIT) and partially communicated his plan to few staff. The goal of attaining quality services was not shared by everyone. Managing changes within an organization require that the administration and its teams should sit down together and conduct an evaluation of hospital operation and organisational functions (Weeks, Helms, & Ettkin, 1995). There should also performance evaluation among employees. Such evaluation will assess how the human resources work viz-a-viz its goals and how the manageme nt function to complete its program effectively (Weeks, Helms, & Ettkin, 1995). The evaluation will outline the annual outputs of the hospital and determine the outcome of these programs. This will also cover an evaluation of company policies, human resource management and customer or patient supervision. When this evaluations are done, only then that the quality improvement teams (QIT) could formulate recommendations and program of actions that will serve as framework in instituting changes for the organization (Ciampa,1992). The recommendations will address all the problems and concerns raised in the evaluation holistically so that the team will be able to comprehensively respond to problems. As such, they will be able to see the correlation of reports from all departments, the evaluation process and the procedure of managing total quality improvements (Whetten, & Cameron, 1991). 3. What steps did the manager take to implement the improvement process? What steps did he do correctl y? Which ones did not work? As discussed earlier, the manager was only able to send the staff for training on quality improvement but in the absence of shared goal within the organization, the collaboration and cooperation became nil and nixed. Joe plans and sets target but these are not openly agreed and coordinated with all department heads, thus, the direction in in creating changes are not achieved and the outcome was

Using a UK retailer of your own choice, assess their Own Brand Essay

Using a UK retailer of your own choice, assess their Own Brand strategy - Essay Example The retail business is highly related to the perception and preference of customers. Sainsbury’s in order to develop its brand strategies has become completely customer oriented and has adopted strategies accordingly. The market share of Sainsbury’s in the year 2011 first quarter is estimated to be around 16.5 percent (Shannon, 2011). The market position of Sainsbury’s is quite strong in London as well as South East. It is observed that the retail branding is generally a customer oriented approach. The five major areas where Sainsbury’s has recognised growth were ‘great food at great prices’, ‘greater number of complimentary food chain’, ‘reaching maximum customers by means of extra channels’ and ‘increasing the space of supermarket’ along with ‘active property management’. These strategies have helped the retail store to sustain itself in the third position. Sainsbury’s possesses two formats of stores namely traditional super market stores and convenience stores (Li, 2008). The retail business strategy is different from the strategies of other businesses. In this paper, the brand strategy in retail sector has been discussed. The paper seeks to discuss about the brand strategy of Sainsbury’s. The brand strategy developed by the company in their retail business enables it to acquire more customer loyalty and this aspect has been highlighted in the paper. The importance of this strategy in fulfilling the need and expectation of customers has also been included in the paper. The paper also comprises of the relationship between services of the company and the need of customers. 2.0 Retail Branding The retail branding is considered as a well known concept in present scenario. The business in retail industry is growing rapidly and generating more chains of businesses. The branding of retailers is different from other product brands. The retail branding is genera lly ‘multi-sensory’ and it is developed by focusing on the knowledge of consumers. The brand image is adopted in different ways in this type of business. In the retail outlets there are various attributes that act as persuading factors for consumers such as quality of products, brands that are sold, services, appearance of store, the price level, behaviour as well as service of employees among others (Ailawadi & Keller, 2004). The business of retail industry is based on their adaptation towards the trends of society as well as taste of customers for new products. This adaptation generally influences more consumers. There is a chance of retail business to be eliminated from the society if it is incapable to fulfil the requirement of market. In this type of business, major focus is provided towards the customers as they are directly linked to the product of the stores (Mansoory & Mehra, 2010). 3.0 Strategy of Sainsbury’s The brand of Sainsbury’s was essentia lly developed with an intention to provide customers with healthy, fresh, secure and delicious foods. The company has focused towards various approaches before adopting strategies. Their main focus has been on quality, fair price, fresh food, innovative food and other product lines. Based on these aspects, the company developed its strategies to fulfil customers’ expectation (J-Sainsbury, 2010). The strategy of the company is principally based on the five areas and based on this strategy, brand image is developed. It also provides emphasis on the five selected strategies so as to enhance their business and retain customers (J-Sainsbury, 2010). In the first strategy of ‘great food at fair price’ the company has an intention to provide healthy, fresh, safe and tasty food and thus it has continued to make innovation in their product. These innovative products facilitate them to be a leader in delivering the quality products at fair prices (J Sainsbury Plc, 2011). Th e main focus in this strategy is to provide extreme importance on