"The traditional approaches of Quality Management are products of the generations or groups in the workplace.”

According to Graeme Knowles, quality can only be addressed by the whole organization working together. And to look at quality management, there is a need to understand the (society’s) amount of effort involved for the significant changes that are occurring (in a certain organization) to arrive at a certain quality satisfaction – by the management and for the customers.

In this synthesis, the reader is expected to know if the traditional approaches of quality management are produced by the existing generations or groups in the workplace OR a mere guide only to what is really exuded in this era.

There are four generations or groups in the workplace as stated by Susan Quinn: the Veterans (ages 65+), the Boomers (46-64 y/o), the Gen X (34-45 y/o), and the Gen Y (13-33 y/o). In a nutshell, the four types of people in organizations have been classified through their era of birth (showing their current age bracket) and their main characteristics.

Describing each group’s characteristics, the Veterans are those who really stay in a certain company for a long time affecting all the down lines since they are keeping their position unavailable for others. The Boomers are those who are open to working in other country (ies) in order to achieve career growth for themselves. Gen X, expected to be sons and daughters of the Veterans and the Boomers, are those who are self-reliant type of people. And lastly, the Gen Y, are those who are open to the concept of multi-tasking.

Relating with the traditional approaches of Quality Management, the different groups in workplaces are seen to be taking their places in different industries. Their practices, mentioned as critiques by Knowles, include lack of leadership, short-term focus, lack of customer focus, lack of systems thinking, and Human Resources Mentality. Most, if not all, of the existing key players in organizations are trying to make either a diversified working environment due to the continuous development in technology or maintain a closed mind towards the system that they were already used to.

The proof of existence of generations or groups in workplaces are reflected towards the output that they have regardless of the processes or approaches that they have implemented in order to finish a production. Some manifest one of the myths of leadership that states that leaders know best complimenting one of the myths regarding customers about leaders knowing what customers want better than the latter do. Given that, the difference between generations or groups in workplaces will reflect the productivity of each organization. However, the real question that needs an answer is, are the generations or groups responsible for these traditional approaches?

In the light of this topic with due reference to the cited sources, the answer is no. The generations or groups did not produce or set the traditional approaches of Quality Management. They are the ones who basically followed the flow all throughout (before) and are now exploring and implementing new ways of getting things done. They, the generations or groups in the workplace, are now indulging on better systems to manage quality of products and services for customers, which the upcoming generation in the workplace, the Gen Z, will implement. The Gen Z are expected to be equipped with more reliable quality management strategies due to their expected traits of being open-minded, more loyal in the companies that they will be working for, more entrepreneurial, etc.

In a nutshell, as it is easy to look at the classification of generations or groups in the workplace, there is typically no absolute approach (traditional approaches to be particular) towards quality management that can be associated with them. However, it is through the prevailing generations or groups in the workplace that the upcoming workforce, Gen Z to be particular, will enjoy newly developed approaches for better quality management, customer satisfaction, and system development.