Management for Quality in High Technology Enterprises

Contemporary management concepts, methods, and techniques for global, high-technology industries

The rapidly changing shape of technology industries requires a constant reevaluation of what it takes to manage such sophisticated corporations effectively. Management for Quality in High-Technology Enterprises explains how traditional "hard" management skills must be combined with new "soft" skills, why an expanding, global market necessitates an expanding, global mindset, and why a "focus on customers" must dominate all aspects of business.

Momentous external and internal changes to technology enterprises demand new management procedures. Externally, industries are moving toward globalization, increased mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and outsourcing. Internally, the typical workforce has become significantly more knowledgeable and professional; the increase in knowledge workers in particular is changing the role and function of the contemporary manager. Drawing on their considerable experience as leaders in a high-technology corporation, Yefim Fasser and Donald Brettner show managers how to succeed in a shifting playing field.

The book’s five parts, comprising twenty chapters, are:

• A Systemic Approach to Organizational Transformation
• Managing a Knowledge-Based Organization
• Managing in a Global Environment
• Some Aspects of Managing Quality
• Reshaping the Organizational Culture

Eschewing abstract, technical jargon, the authors explain in a lively, accessible fashion what managers must do to cope with the global changes in technology enterprises. Middle managers and engineers in high-technology manufacturing companies, as well as all professionals interested in improving their managerial knowledge and skills, will benefit from Management for Quality in High-Technology Enterprises.

Table of Contents

Introduction.

PART I: A SYSTEMIC APPROACH TO ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION.

  Chapter 1. A Systems View Of Organization.

  Chapter 2. Systems: A General Concept.

  Chapter 3. The Total Continuous Process of Improvement and Innovation (TCPI²) Marco System.

PART II: MANAGING A KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATON.

  Chapter 4. Organizational Learning.

  Chapter 5. Systemic Problem Solving (SPS) as an Effective Way of Learning.

  Chapter 6. Knowledge-Based Innovation.

  Chapter 7. Knowledge Managers and Knowledge Workers.

  Chapter 8. Knowledge Transfer and Knowledge Management.

PART III: MANAGING IN A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT.

  Chapter 9. On the Road to Globalization.

  Chapter 10. Managing Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Strategic Alliances.

  Chapter 11. Globalization and Culture.

PART IV: SOME ASPECTS OF MANAGING QUALITY.

  Chapter 12. Some Fundamental Concepts of Managing Quality.

  Chapter 13. Managing Variation: A Requisite for Quality.

  Chapter 14. Some Major Quality Initiatives.

  Chapter 15. Achieving High Quality Through Transformational Changes.

PART V: RESHAPING THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE.

  Chapter 16. The System of the Organizational Culture.

  Chapter 17. Managing the Core of the Organizational System.

  Chapter 18. Values, Behavioral Standards, and Business Ethics.

  Chapter 19. Symbols, Symbolic Actions, and Metaphors.

  Chapter 20. Understanding an Organization's Behavior.