Question

Review the ISO 9001:2015 Standard elements. Review the theories of the various quality leaders. Write a 1000-1500 word essay that explores how these quality leaders have influenced the elements of ISO 9001:2015 by relating the elements of the Standard to the multi-point philosophies offered by the leaders. There are many ways that you may wish to do this. Some examples include: Organizing the paper by quality leader and discussing which elements they most aptly influenced. Organizing the paper by element and addressing relevant leaders within each section.

Answer 1

ISO 9001 is defined as the international standardtaht specifies requirements for a Quality Management System(QMS). ISO 9001 was first published in 1987 by the international organisation for standardization (ISO). ISO 9001:2015 applies to any organisation, regardless of size or industry. ISO 9001 helps organisation ensure their customers consistently receive high quality products and services, which in turn brings many benefits including satisfied customers, management and employees. The most recent ISO 9001:2015 standard is constructed over seven quality management principles:

* Customer focus

* Leadership

* Engagement of people

* Process approach

* Improvement

* Evidence based decision making

* Relationship management

Customer Focus: according to the new standard, the primary focus of an organisations quality management program is to meet customer requirements and exceed Expectations in terms of the quality of products and services.

Enhance Leadership Involvement: Leaders should, encourage, and recognise people's contributions, and also provide the required resources and training to improve quality management.

Improve engagement of People: Organisations are expected to enhance employee communication, provide better clarity on job expectation, find ways to motivate employees to contribute to organisational success,capture regular feedback and to facilitate dialogue with supervisors to help employees achieve their growth plan.

Adopt a process based approach: it involves cutting and implementing processes, resources, methods, and controls to demonstrate compliance with ISO 9001: 2015.

Enable people and Process improvement:According to the new standard, successful organisations are those that have a persistent focus on improvement, both in terms of organisational efficiency and effectiveness.

Facilitate evidence based decision making: Organisations are expected to revamp their quality management systems to support effective evidence gathering through observations, measurements, and test, or by using any other suitable method like audits and inspections.

Ensure Relationship Management: To ensure high standard of quality, organisations need to be able to effectively manage their relationship with third parties such as suppliers and partners to enable sustained growth.

THEORIES OF VARIOUS QUALITY LEADERS: interest in leaders increased during the early part of the twentieth century. Early leadership theories focused on what qualities distinguished between leaders and followers, while subsequent theories looked at other variables such as situation all factors and skill levels.

While many different leadership theories have emerged ,most can be classified as one of of eight major types:

*"Great man"theories: According to this point of view, great leaders are simply born with the necessary internal characteristics such as charizma , confidence ,intelligence and social skills that make them natural born leaders.

*Trait Theories: Trait theories assume that people inherit certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership. For example traits like extroversion, self confidence, and courage are are all traits that could potentially be linked to great leaders.

*Contingency Theories: According to this theory, no leadership style is best in all situations. Success depends on a number of variables including the leadership style, qualities of the followers and aspects of the situation.

*Situational Theories: Situation theories propose that leaders choose the best course of action based upon situational variables. Different styles of leadership may be more appropriate in different types of situations.

*Behavioral Theories: It is based on the belief that great leaders are made not born. People can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation.

*Participative Theories: In Participating theories, the leader retains the right to allow the input of others. Leaders encourage participation and contributions from group members and help group members feel more relevant and committed to the decision making process.

*Management Theories: These theories based on leader leadership on a system of rewards and punishments. Managerial theories are often used in business, when employees are successful, they are rewarded, when they fail they are punished.

*Relationship Theories: It focuses upon the the connections formed between leaders and followers. These leaders not only focuses on the performance of group members, but also want each person to fulfill his or her potential. Leaders with this style often have high ethical and moral standards.

Conclusion: leadership is a highly multifaceted subject and it is a mixture of many factors that help determined by some people become great leaders.

INFLUENCE OF QUALITY LEADERS ON THE ELEMENT ISO 9001:2015

ISO 9001: 2015 places more emphasis on leadership and management commitment. It requires great involvement by top managers and business leaders in controlling the quality of the management system.

Because ISO 9001:2015 pays more attention to risk management, interested parties and the context of the organisation, the quality management system also fits in better with the needs of the top management. It is intended to encourage integration and harmonisation with the business processes and business strategies. The top management now has to take more responsibility for the effectiveness of the quality management system.

Before Management can demonstrate leadership, they first must have a clear vision of their organisations strategic direction, objectives and culture. They also must consider how both internal and external issues can impact on the organisations strategic objectives and planning of the QMS. Once context is understood, the QMS can be developed around the Context of the Organisation and Quality KPIs can be set.

OBJECTIVES

Consider Risk and Opportunities

An important aspect of Management showing commitment and demonstrating leadership under ISO 9001:2015 is that they are able to demonstrate 'Risk based Thinking'. Management first determine the risks and opportunities in their organisation, analyse and prioritise risks and opportunities and then implement actions to address risk. Finally they must check the effectiveness of these actions. Again, the method employed will depend on the context of the organisation.

Track Quality Metrics

Top management shall demonstrate Leadership and ommitment with respect to the quality management system by' taking accountability of the effectiveness of the organisations Quality Management System'. Top management will also assigned responsibility for 'reporting on the performance of quality management system, on opportunities for improvement and on the need for change and innovation' . Management make metrics visible and regularly review these in meetings and check-ins with the Quality team. By playing such an active and informed role in the continual improvement of the Quality Management System management can effectively demonstrate leadership under ISO 9001:2015.

Moving Forward

While leadership was always an aspect of ISO 9001:2008, ISO 9001:2015 reinforces and highlights the value that effective leadership and commitment is essential for Organisational growth. Great leaders provide a clear vision, inspiration and motivation and improve staff relations. ISO 9001:2015 will ensure top management steps forward and takes charge, instilling a culture of quality in their organisation.

ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN CREATING A PRODUCT QUALITY

The leading people is the current standard of management in modern companies. Managers of the knowledge based business are aware of the importance of the employee involvement through friendly approach and leadership instead of Management or dictatorship.

Leadership means finding people their best features and managing them in the way to enable their common work to be performed according to the leaders directions. The leader is a person who influences people's behaviour without the need to use force. Mature organisations prefer proactive approaches to the leadership and is oriented on learning to entitled people on all the levels. It should lead change in culture strategy structure and informal relations. Most current models of business excellence is based on leadership as one of the main pillars of the assessment.

Top management should through its leadership, create and maintain a shared vision, shared values and internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organisations objectives.

Conclusion:

ISO 9001 has played great and perhaps the most important role in the perception of quality and understanding of the quality assurance and quality management in the last 30 years.

The new issue of ISO 9001:2015 was released in September 2015 and changes introduced in the 2015 revision are intended to ensure that ISO 9001 continuous to adapt to the changing environment in which organisations operate and especially include the context of the organisation, restructuring some of the information, risk-based thinking to enhance the application of the process approach, improved applicability for services and increased leadership requirements.

ISO 9001:2015 expanding the number of sections from 8 to 10 and definitely better define the specific requirements which ISO 9001:2008 left incomplete.