Assignment task: New technologies have empowered customers to seek out and compare an endless array of products from around the globe. Shoppers can click to find objective data compiled by experts at organizations such as Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and go online to read user-generated reviews at sites such as Amazon; together, these sources provide an early warning system that alerts the public to quality problems. And when customers are unhappy with a product or service, they can use social media to broadcast their displeasure. In surveys, 26% of consumers say they have used social media to air grievances about a company and its products. And this issue isn't limited to the consumer space-75% of B2B customers say they rely on word of mouth, including social media, when making purchase decisions. But just as companies' margin for error has decreased, the likelihood of error has risen. In many industries, cycle times are compressing. During the recovery from the Great Recession, output gains have outpaced employment growth, and employees report straining to keep up with demands. As a result of these pressures, managers must find a new approach to quality-one that moves beyond the traditional "total quality management" tools of the past quarter century. For two years CEB has conducted research exploring how companies can create a culture in which employees "live" quality in all their actions-where they are passionate about quality as a personal value rather than simply obeying an edict from on high. We define a "true culture of quality" as an environment in which employees not only follow quality guidelines but also consistently see others taking quality focused actions, hear others talking about quality, and feel quality all around them. Going Beyond Rules What embeds quality deep in a company's culture? And how, precisely, does an organization benefit as a result? These questions were at the heart of our "culture of quality" survey. A minority of the employees we surveyed believe their company has succeeded in making quality a core value: Roughly 60% said they work in an environment without a culture of quality, especially when it comes to having peers who go "above and beyond." Such companies are missing out on significant benefits. Employees who ranked their company in the top quintile in terms of quality reported addressing 46% fewer mistakes in their daily work than employees in bottom-quintile companies. In our surveys, employees report that it takes two hours, on average, to correct a mistake. Assuming an hourly wage of $42.55 (the median for CEB client companies), a bottomquintile firm with 26,300 employees (the median head count) spends nearly $774 million a year to resolve errors, many of them preventable-$350 million more than a top-quintile firm. Although figures will vary according to industry and company, here's a broad rule of thumb: For every 5,000 employees, moving from the bottom to the top quintile would save a company $67 million annually.
QUESTION:
With reference to the article above, discuss the attributes of quality management.