SOCIETY IN BALANCE: Raison d’etre of Total Quality Management & Educare

“A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men everywhere are trying to suppress it. This new civilization brings with it new family styles, changed ways of working, loving, and living, a new economy, new political conflicts, and beyond all this is an altered consciousness as well.”

(Alvin and Heidi Toffler)

      The reason for being of total quality management is to instill balance, whether within an organization or company, society, business industry, or even within the family and oneself. Total quality management, being an alternative management science, creates synergy, alignment and productivity between people and system. The logic is, before you can achieve something, you need to have a system, and a system is technically an orderly arrangement according to some common principles.  

     The market economy is shaped upon a material template, in which every individual is a particle interacting with other particles out of self-interest – i.e. a trader. Here the central operating principle is necessarily me vs. you – i.e. competition. Capitalism and free markets reinforce this natural order by granting traders property rights and allowing them to interact freely. The result is a flat reality: the external, productive side of society, a material universe ruled by the Market.

     The other side of society is its natural, spiritual side, as manifested in the culture. This is a very different template, in which the selfish particle becomes part of a larger whole, us. This higher sensibility dampens the potentially unlimited aggression of pure competition and lifts the trader above the beast. He becomes a full-fledged human being. The central operating principle of this side is moral rather than productive – i.e. the Good. This Good expresses itself in a variety of values, be they cultural, familial, aesthetic, institutional, or social. It is the apex of a moral universe.

     Society, at all levels – from the individual, to the institution, to the nation – contains both of these sides, internal and external, neither of which can exist on its own. Pure competition is anarchy unless controlled by moral sensibility. What we experience in ourselves and our lives is thus the critical balance between them. Deadly philosophies arise when one side is conflated with another (e.g. “capitalism is moral”) or confused with the larger society (“the GDP measures the Philippines”). While a person can buy and sell, the trader in us is never a complete person, nor is the marketplace ever a complete society.

 

     So how should our two sides relate to each other? For society to be healthy, the Good must clearly control the Productive – and hence, the spiritual the material, the internal the external, the moral the amoral, the human the animal. As long as this is the case, society cannot be anything but good, de facto. If the reverse is true, society is turned inside out – i.e. corrupted. The Market rules, and amorality spreads. Society becomes tyrannized by quantity, the measure of the material world, and by the market price. Institutions become predatory. The social system becomes senseless and chaotic. Life loses its meaning, purpose, and seriousness, becoming a kind of joke.

     The primary cause of this imbalance is an overemphasis on quantitative thinking, which sets the entire material assembly line in motion, while blinding its operatives to the qualitative side of life. Materialism follows. Materialism rests on the notion that society only has one side – the external, material side – and hence that all is economics, that free-market capitalism defines all reality, and that the Market is God. The physical universe becomes the Universe itself. A deadly veil falls, as fully half of reality is lost. Society is hammered upon the material template, where we are all nothing but particles, in order to make it more efficient. This cause the deepest of all possible damage: the death of the soul.

     The defense against materialism is education in all spheres: the family, the school, the religion, the society at large. However, such efforts are destined to fail if not rooted in an understanding of the nature of reality itself, which gives them shape and legitimacy. The problem we are facing today is thus primarily metaphysical. We have cut ourselves off from the truth. Beware of those who put the world in quotation marks.

     So it is education that will bring the creation of a “society in balance.” Education has two aspects; the first is related to external and worldly education, which is nothing but acquiring bookish knowledge. In the modern world, we find many well versed and highly qualified people in this aspect. Similar to the materialism brought about by the Market, the external is given more emphasis and is the basis of its template. The second aspect, however, of education is spiritual in nature. The word educare comes from the Latin word educere, which means to bring out that which is within. Education is related to human values which are latent in every human being. One cannot acquire them from outside. They have to be elicited from within. Educare means to bring out human values. To “bring out” means to translate them into action. What we are trying to bring out which is within is our “true spiritual nature”, our true self. Philosophically, this is the raison d’etre of education. In the same line of thought, this is also the ultimate aim of total quality management, a balance between system-and-people, and people here includes the external customer of the organization (i.e. the market). Once a balance has been achieved, it is said that you have satisfied your customer through the proper alignment and synergy of the system and people.

     Educare recognizes that life is interdependent and that we share the same building blocks with everything that surrounds us. This leads to the understanding that caring exclusively for ourselves, believing we are isolated and separate is an illusion that can only lead to disaster. A classic example is how many people are ruining their health and the physical environment through the way they live. Wrong eating, destructive lifestyle are increasingly prevalent in affecting health and destroying society’s moral foundation. Commerce, business profits, and personal wealth are being pursued at costs greatly detrimental to the environment, resulting in a negative impact on people’s lives (e.g. higher cancer risk due to reduced ozone layer, pollution, chemicals in the food chain, etc.).

     The true purpose of education or educare is to correct this imbalance. Educare therefore refers to a whole system of education which provides practical knowledge for educating for life, and not just for earning a living. It recognizes that unity in multiplicity is the ultimate goal of education, resulting in a world which is a better place to live in, for people today, and for future generations. In short, transformation is the essence of educare. Transformation is, literally, a forming over, a restructuring. By transformation we speak of the transformation of people – specifically the transformation of consciousness. In this context consciousness does not mean waking awareness. Here it refers to the state of being conscious of one’s consciousness. You are keenly aware that you have awareness. In effect, this is a new perspective that sees other perspective – a paradigm shift. But a paradigm shift is effected only through an internal process within a system (or person). This so-called internal process within a system is “institutionalization” and for a person “internalization.” This is practically the same process called forth by educare, that is, to go through an internal process of change (internalization) or institutionalization of a particular principle (or virtue) before one can externally manifests it in one’s life. Under total quality management or educare, personal and/or organizational change simultaneously happens, though they are technically different from one another.

      We reap what we sow, as the saying goes.  In the same line of thought, as quality actions are repeated and reinforced over time through management leadership, continuous employee training and empowerment, they become internalized as quality behavior and work values.  Employees from top-to-bottom start to understand and appreciate why they always have to do their jobs right the first time and become personally convinced that it is good not only for them but for the company as a whole.  Our concern for quality work is now a natural reaction because of proper work values.  Quality naturally happens at this stage because of the rules and policies.  Employees feel obliged to do things right.  At this stage (quality behavior), there is an unconditional acceptance of norms because everyone knows that rules and norms are there to help them do a quality job.  The paradigm shift has taken effect at this stage.

       Sow a thought, you reap an action.  Sow an action, you reap a behavior.  Sow a behavior, you reap an attitude.  Sow an attitude, you reap a personality.  Sow a personality, you reap a character.  Sow a character, you reap a destiny.

      A concerned motorist stops at the red light not because of the cop’s presence, but because of his/her concern for his/her own safety and that of others.  At this stage, the employee believes in the input-output process work relationship.  He does quality work because he believes that his output will be used as an input of the next employee in line, thus it is very important that his work is done in quality standard as per ISO requirement and/or the company’s total quality management program.

      It will help us to know that quality attitude is a virtue of a person of good character, expressed through good, proper actions and decisions.  “From good comes good, from bad comes bad”, as what Lord Buddha once said.

      Institutionalization, then, is an on-going process in which a set of activities, structures, and values becomes an integral and sustainable part of a person, an organization, society or nation. Quality Government (Q-government) is said to be a continuing manifestation of a “balanced society” as sustained by a “culture of quality.” Within the context of total quality management (TQM) and educare, a “balanced society” calls for:

             Quality Government(Q-Government) is institutionalized when total quality management (TQM) practices,  concepts and methodologies are formally and philosophically incorporated into the structure and functioning of all government mandate and public service structures, consistently implemented, and supported by a culture of quality, as reflected in organizational values, best business practices and policies that advocate efficient delivery of quality public service and ultimate protection of the citizenry.

      The challenge to humanity is to adopt new ways of thinking, new ways of acting, new ways of organizing itself in society, in short, new ways of living. And all these new ways covers the raison d’etre of total quality management and educare.
 

      Some organizations and practitioners of quality management consider total quality management or TQM as a label, but this is wrong. TQM is not a label nor a fad, it is not even a panacea or a myth. Some call it the Third Way, not all left nor new right, but a new centre and centre left governing philosophy for the future. Even the UNESCO’s worldwide Outcome-Based Education or OBE system came under fire and was seen to be a fad for those who used it, but failed in its implementation. Failure resulting from a use of a “system” does not mean the system is deficient. It usually means a lack of continuing “balance between system-and-people.” Many users of TQM overlooked the fact that one good principle of TQM is “continual change”, that is, continuous improvement.

      It’s true. Below the familiar structure of our communities, new rules and systems are paving the way for a transformation few Filipinos dare even consider. Behind the familiar words and seductive slogans lurk meanings, promises and visions only known in the inner circles. Those new words and meanings are vital to the transformation called for by TQM and/or educare. Carried by global information networks and planted among people everywhere, strategic new terms are taking root in the public consciousness and changing our thinking. Total Quality Management or TQM carries words such as stakeholder, partnerships, facilitators, continual or managed change, workforce focus, customer intimacy, continual learning and improvement … among others. They are becoming familiar around the world. Seemingly harmless, they provide the “seamless” framework for managing and monitoring the global community, and most importantly for achieving a “balanced society.”

     This transformation called for by TQM and/or educare has three major but inseparable parts:

1.      SYSTEMS: a global network of “seamless” management systems or organizational framework that link all the pieces and manages the global and local transformation.

2.      A mind-changing PROCESS: a standardized but flexible process that conforms each human resource to his or her place in this vast network of global systems.

3.      STANDARDS: a set of universal standards that holds all people accountable, forcing them to adapt to the changing aims and needs of the system.

     Our job as advocates, practitioners and believers of quality, value and goodness is to help people with that change. Not to resist it, and so suffocate opportunity. But not just to let change happen, regardless of the consequence. We must have a global vision. Our approach, what I call integral transformation, is to manage that process of change to extend opportunity and prosperity for all. To find a way which provides for efficiency in the knowledge economy, and ensuring that all souls feels its benefits. We have to humanize the new economy. By integral (adj.) it means: whole; entire; complete; as in

1.      Multi-cultural and cross-disciplinary studies;

2.      Bridging Eastern and Western traditions of knowledge;

3.      Incorporating analytical, experiential and practical ways of knowing;

4.      Joining the transpersonal and spiritual dimensions of life with community service; blending of religious and spiritual values with the benefits of modern technology;

5.      Joining the variables and factors of development with the goals and objectives of the organization and its people.

      As TQM reaches out – far beyond the promise of quality products or services – to manage human and social development, this integral transformation is almost certain to go “in the right direction.” If our national and global managers have their way, no one will escape the never-ending assessments, evaluations, quality internal audits, corrections and demands for compliance with all kinds of standards. In the more intrusive systems, their regulations will hold the minds and actions of every person accountable to international standards for mental health, citizenship, education and service, cooperation or compliance.

      We have overlooked that globally (and as a nation) our current situation calls for a new paradigm, a new vision subsuming our old assumptions and values. We have failed to see that part of the need of passing through a watershed of history is the need to find fresh purposes. For the purposes that brought us thus far, by themselves alone, can no longer suffice as guiding theme for our future. This is the raison d’etre of total quality management, of educare.

  

-OM-

Rafael Pablo Molina Fernando is currently the Officer-in-Charge of the Total Quality Management group of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA). He is also connected with Integral Transformation Group, Inc., a transformative management group giving organizations and its people alternative forms of managing and living life to the fullest. Formed 1992, ITG-TheGroup extends management services, education & training, and advocacy activities in the areas of: total quality management-ISO implementation, organic agriculture, cooperatives, sustainable development, Vedic culture, good governance, strategic management and institutional development. (May 24, 2011).