Significance of Personality Development for a Student

Recently, a student approached me seeking help to resolve his personal problems. He was finding it difficult to concentrate during classes and scoring even pass marks in the exams had become a herculean task. A casual enquiry revealed that he was almost starving and severely malnutritioned because of his dislike for the hostel mess food. He would skip breakfast, eat sparingly at night and satisfy his appetite instead at the night canteen with coffee and noodles. This case is not very different from the stories of hundreds of students I have had the opportunity to counsel in the past six years. I have always noticed that most of the students’ academic problems can be traced to imbalances in the personal lifestyle which is often taken for granted. Many parents and teachers fail to make this simple connection and also to impress upon students the need for a balanced lifestyle. Indian society and the education system must veer away from the obsessive focus on marks & ranks, if we want to unleash the full potential of our youth and allow them to grow in a more natural way, pursuing their inborn talents and interests. A host of common behavioural problems noticed in kids and adolescents can be prevented or cured if a foundation is laid at an early age towards holistic personality development. Multiple Intelligence In this article, I will make use of the concept of Multiple Intelligence developed by Dr. Howard Gardner[i], Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Gardner talks of different aspects of intelligence possessed by every human being and why it is important to develop each one of them to achieve a balanced personality. I will also attempt to illustrate how Indian tradition has always emphasized on such all round growth of the human being through the knowledge systems like yoga, ayurveda; through schools of philosophy & spirituality like the darsanas or vedangas and even through classical art forms like music or dance. Physical Intelligence Lack of regular physical activity and regime is perhaps the biggest epidemic afflicting the students in India today. The rat race for marks and ranks leaves little time or motivation for the average student to go out and spend some time at the gymnasium or in the playground. The university campus where I reside has a massive playground, a well-equipped gym, a basketball court, a tennis court and to top it all, one of the biggest swimming pools in South India. And yet, hardly 500 students come out to play or exercise every day, out of the 5,000 strong student community on this campus. No wonder then that a majority of the students who approach me with problems of poor concentration, motivation in studies are those who belong to the couch potato category. Had Swami Vivekananda been with us today, he would have declared again what he told that group of emasculated youngsters who approached him with a request to learn the Bhagavad Gita under his guidance: â€Å"You will be nearer to heaven through football than by reading the Gita. † But there is a significant positive trend happening in schools and colleges across India. Just as the number of obese and overweight kids is on the rise, so is there a growing interest in systems of yoga. What better proof of this than the fact that the mainstream political class in Tamilnadu which takes pride usually in hating everything that is rooted in Hindu tradition, has been instrumental in making yoga compulsory across all schools in the state! Or consider for example the experience of the Vivekananda Kendra in popularizing Surya Namaskara amongst schools all over India, particularly in Madhya Pradesh. Students who have attended the Yoga Vargas or the Samskara Vargas conducted by the Kendra vouch for the marked transformation in personality that the regular practice Surya Namaskara has effected in them. There is palpable strengthening of will power and confidence in these students. Parents and Schools should therefore reconsider the unhealthy trade off which they ask students to make between the time given to physical activities and studies. Linguistic Intelligence Even a cursory look at the placement scenario in professional colleges makes it amply clear that all corporations today emphasize the need for good communication skills and they prefer recruits with better communication skills in English. Communication skill has a great impact on our interpersonal relationships. A person who can communicate effectively and clearly is less likely to create communication gaps which lead to serious misunderstandings. Good communication skills and proficiency in many languages improves one’s reach amongst peers and enhances one’s social acceptance and prestige. It is an interesting fact that great spiritual leaders like Swami Vivekananda were masters of the art of communication. India’s rich literary and oral heritage is yet another illustration of this point; our forefathers understood the significance of developing linguistic intelligence. Musical Intelligence The study and practice of music was considered as a sacred form of worship in Indian tradition – Naadopasana. Perhaps, music is the most beautiful facet of human civilization. Sri Ramakrishna was particularly fond of Swami Vivekananda’s melodious voice and his soulful singing. Sri Ramakrishna would attain Samadhi on listening to devotional music. I often come across students who are addicted to music. Many of them turn out to be class toppers! They listen to their favourite music even the night before their semester exams! We do not need an expert in music therapy to tell us this obvious fact that music not only relaxes the mind but also brings about far reaching physiological and neurological changes in the body-mind complex over a period of time. Interpersonal Intelligence How do you measure a person’s level of emotional maturity and growth? Primarily by the way he conducts himself in civilized society and the treatment he accords to others. Corporations today emphasize again on relationship skills which are considered critically important for an individual to rise in the hierarchy of the organization. A CEO with poor relationship skills is either a non-existent oxymoron or a disaster for the organization. All religious values are centred on building relationship skills on the basis of a spiritual understanding of what connects one human being to another. â€Å"The essence of religion is to be good and do good to others,† said Swami Vivekananda. The Mahabharata declares Ahimsa to be the greatest dharma because the rishis perceived that all life is interconnected. You cannot harm others without harming yourself. If this profound truth is impressed upon our students from a young age, there will not be much need for all the fuss we hear about value education today. Many social or national evils like corruption or caste discrimination are results of a lifestyle that seeks personal aggrandisement at the cost of and complete indifference to the plight of our fellow human beings. If only our education gives greater weightage to building relationship skills amongst students, the India of our dreams would not have to wait for the year 2020. Intrapersonal Intelligence Conventional psychology would look down upon an introvert as a person with poor relationship skills. Not today. Howard Gardner and new schools of thought have begun to understand the reason why Indians give such respect to Munis and Yogis who withdraw from the world. An introvert who spends much time trying to understand his deeper self will also become capable of understanding others from a compassionate viewpoint. Intrapersonal Intelligence is the new marker developed to give due weightage to this important aspect of our personality development and grooming. A person who runs away from his own self all the while trying to substitute his inner vacuum with external pursuits or superficial relationships is heading for a crisis. The extrovert’s sense of identity and esteem is highly dependent on others’ views of his personality. An introvert is a person who is striving to arrive at a state where he can feel good or be content without having to seek an external confirmation of his well-being. Logical Mathematical Intelligence (IQ) Development of Logical Mathematical Intelligence is often given disproportional weightage in the development of a student’s personality. While IQ does play a significant role in the life of every human being, what was perhaps overlooked till recently was that IQ alone does not make a person complete nor is it the only parameter for measuring a person’s potential for success or happiness in life. A person with a poor IQ may be more than compensated by a high emotional intelligence. This is the reason why we see many school dropouts becoming highly successful entrepreneurs in India where as many IIM graduates disappear into oblivion after getting an MBA degree! Conclusion We know through Swami Vivekananda’s writings that he considered two things to be of great importance in personality development: a) Preference to the ‘Heart’ over the ‘Head’ b) The role of the Guru in shaping a student’s personality and the importance of living in the proximity of the Guru or Gurugrihavasa. Swamiji’s views based on Vedantic wisdom have stood the test of time. All that is destructive in human civilization is a result of a sharp brain with an undeveloped heart. Human civilization suffers from an excess of materialistic IQ devoid of EQ and SQ. And the only place where a student can be systematically trained to nurture his EQ & SQ is at the gurukula under the supervision of a wise master. As a teacher, perhaps it would be self-righteous on my part to claim that a teacher plays the most vital role in a student’s personal growth. But, as a student of the school of life, I cannot but reiterate this eternal law – only a spark can ignite another spark, only life can inspire another life. Modern schools of thought like the Multiple Intelligence model discussed here further validate the wisdom that Vedantic knowledge and tradition have bequeathed to us through Atmavidya and the Guru parampara. (The author is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Cultural Education Programme at Amrita University in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. He is a Trustee of the International Forum for India’s Heritage and Resource Person for the Human Excellence Project of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Coimbatore Kendra. He is also a students’ counsellor for the Samvedna Helpline, a project of the corporate social responsibility wing of Tata Teleservices. )

Student Attrition Has Been Concern Of Higher Education Education Essay

IntroductionStudent abrasion has been the concern of higher instruction notice for over 65 old ages, particularly in the United States. A hunt of the literature shows that, as far back as 1937. The U.S office of instruction conducted a survey of the factors lending to college pupil keeping and abrasion harmonizing to a survey conducted by Krause in 2005. And research into issues for freshman pupils has increased perceptibly over the last decennary in the U.S. , and Australia. This can be an declarative mood of the growing that has taken topographic point since the beginning of 1990s, particularly disproof and difference of higher instruction. This has provided the developed involvement in how freshman pupils needed to be sponsored and retained. This survey besides was conducted by Meer in 2009. As for a research survey conducted by Nelson, Duncan, and Clarke in 2009 was the behavior connexion of pupil enrollment in the five firs? ? ? twelvemonth that categorized as at hazard utilizin g the demand of non presenting their first assignment. Harmonizing to the three documents, I would wish to sum up and raise treatment on points sing the challenging of interaction during the first twelvemonth, designation and support of first twelvemonth university pupil at hazard of abrasion and serious idea about dropping out in first twelvemonth, tendencies, forms and deductions for higher instruction.FindingssAfter holding finished reading on three chief subjects for drumhead, I noticed the cardinal factors on research happening to take pupils to confront success and abrasion such as no idea of registration, fundss and resources, context of group activities work, benefit and interaction in learning to keep keeping, furthermore, accomplishment, clip direction, pupil satisfaction and deduction. Now looking at between success and abrasion of pupils, I want to raise some concern over the three subjects to retain pupil is environment of learning that can interact pupils in larning th rough group activities work. This scheme can take pupils have sense of troublesome opportunity and work outing job creatively that they could larn something new from this. Furthermore, sing on the necessity of active engagement and single relation in instruction and larning environing can fit pupils ‘ cognition of interrelatedness between coachs and other pupils. Freshman pupils have a demand for connexion with their equals and or learning staff in their acquisition motive for the first twelvemonth. Harmonizing to Krause ( twelvemonth ) keeping is most convenient inspiration in footings of the actions and duties of establishments. To research, pupils who have positive thought of learning seem to demo purpose to go on university. For other affects of pupils abrasion are holding no idea earnestly of registration because of there is non pre-test on assessment surveies for academic life that many plans operate without pre-test. Fundss and resources can besides be the factors to specify pupils ‘ abrasion due to pupils who commit to their surveies rely on single benefit by passing the higher instruction provided tuition at the start of their first twelvemonth purpose non to be more strongly to remain. Like, those pupils rely much on household as their chief income beginning at university is calculated to remain on at university. And sense of intent can be pupils ‘ committedness to analyze, and it is the importance in dividing possible and dropouts or continuity. Students who feel that being registered at university is merely finding clip which they make their head to future programs and seem to understan d dropping out than those who are expressed about causes of registration and intentional-enforced at university. Taking less clip on campus and in category, and more clip in acquiring paid occupation intend to be in line with critical believing about dropping out survey. Students who got a location in class of their first penchant and who seek themselves larning in a portion that persuade them are intentionally-purposed to go on. Looking at the success and abrasion from each paper, I want to sum up some cardinal factors that define the success and abrasion of pupils. Achievement and self-regulation can be the success for pupils non to drop out because of low attainment and implicit imaginativeness in the first twelvemonth are influential indexs of pupils who are willing to halt from university. Identical ideas about dropping out of university are seen as cogent evidence among those pupils who fail to do a smooth judgement to university, have hardness understanding class stuff, and experience unmanageable by all they have to make at university. Time direction is a factor in holding impact on how pupils can fix their clip and finding at university which can demo singular responsibility in compromising a field righteousness and affirmatory consequence in the first twelvemonth. Harmonizing to the information from the national survey researched by Krause et Al in 2005 pointed out that pupils who determine to higher instruction norm ( that is, more than 12.5 hours ) employment per hebdomad is willing to invariably believe about dropping out. This factor does non carry on in solitariness. However, in the survey, gaining the well-paid occupation scene was escorted by pupils refering over money and emotion that their occupation has influence on their academic dramatically at university. Students who work to confront societal demand and pay off current debts seem to discontinue than those who work for other grounds. Contrarily, those severely think of discontinuing their survey are significantly holding hardship version to university ways of lecture. One more ground for dropping out is student satisfaction that appears as a discontinuing force of per sisters in the first twelvemonth. They reply they gain assistance address in progress before they have association with the establishment when they selected topics to larn, in contrast, university ignore their outlook with satisfaction that so it gives their pleasing construct over discontinuing. On the other manus, deduction is still the major cause for pupils ‘ abrasion because deduction has several guidelines in covering with pupils on their course of study and holistic attack to engagement, structural elements of the readying when they need information and aid they are in or out of the category. Communication is needed for pupils to set them in feedback circle. This involved pupils in tripartite relationship between pupils, faculty members, and pupil support staff. Such a relation is beneficially attained when pupils have connexion with establishment before enrollment. It r efers to the establishment active cooperation with school and communities to acquire qualified pupils and raise their realisation over what to win at university before they get started.DiscussionTo my ain observation on the three paper sum-up, I feel that the above-named affairs are truly the exact concerns for pupils to accept the grade in higher instruction ; otherwise, pupils interaction with one another outside the schoolroom in the context of group work, included the determination suggested that coachs effectiveness in facilitating or transfusing connexion between coachs and pupils gives single internal realisation adequate making to pupils ‘ consequence. To avoid dropping out and to maintain pupils ‘ keeping from abrasion, fundss and resources are really economically supported pupils in good public presentation to perpetrate independently in larning successfully. Sense of intent besides helps pupils to believe mostly on traveling on their survey and accomplish prod uctively at the terminal of each term. This thought gives creative activity whether how they can make up one's mind without reluctance or backdown because of clearly-determined end in higher instruction. For other construct in accomplishing survey from dropping out is clip direction, for those who come to analyze at university intentionally may happen more clip or have free entree to academic advancement instead than coming to university without holding clip direction or face trouble in work load authorship and subjecting trial on required deadline. Satisfaction is a character linked between pupil and community acquisition, pupil learn best when they have aid from academic staff and acquire specific-regular advice from the topic they chose and they may go on to bask survey. Implication is the information for closely-related sense of intent, encouragement and self-regulatory attitude, where this information empower pupils happening the success and seeking non to drop out and deliberately analyze to make future calling end.DecisionAll in all, harmonizing to these three documents concentrate really much on how pupils achieve their survey in higher instruction and avoid dropping out to w hat it is the singular and concerned research on pupils abrasion for first twelvemonth at university, so to a paper researched by Nelson, Duncan, and Clarke ( 2009 ) raise many relevant points about the factors that can assist pupils larn successfully such as course of study, duty, engagement, and future way. These affiliated points can make up one's mind clearly whether first twelvemonth pupil come to category with well-prepared background or merely to pass clip by trusting on school whole plans to give them success in larning. As for a paper by Krause ( 2005 ) discussed about fundss and resources, sense of intent, accomplishment and self-regulation, clip direction, and pupil satisfaction are the most successful scene that determine pupils in acquisition and avoid dropping out due to their intentionally-enforced grounds on the above determination. For the last paper by Meer ( 2009 ) pointed out merely the interaction between pupils and coachs or academic staff, for this finding pup ils seem non to value instruction if they notice that they come to school without attending of personal relation between their equal and coachs. Make non see any comparing of methods used by each of the three surveies. Besides you focus on consequences of Krause survey but I see really small on consequences of the other two surveies. I have problem cognizing whether you truly understood the methods and consequences of the Nelson et Al and Meer articles. Your sentence construction makes it difficult to understand the points you want to do. I encourage you to compose simple, short sentences since authorship in a 2nd linguistic communication is hard. C- 60

Analysis of all constitutes of successful service delivery Essay

Analysis of all constitutes of successful service delivery - Essay Example Thus, prior to direct interaction with the service, consumers form own expectations about experiences related to the service consumption. In such way, customers establish own standards against which in the future the quality of the service received will be compared in accordance with the disconfirmation model. In case if the expectations about the service consumption were greater then the actual quality of product received, the outcome is negative disconfirmation or, in the other words, dissatisfaction with the service received. Whereas, if the expectations were smaller then the quality of the services received, the outcome is positive disconfirmation or product satisfaction. (Lovelock, C., & Wirtz, J. 2004). The higher customer satisfaction is, the greater is the possibility of customer loyalty in the post consumption stage. Thus, customer satisfaction and loyalty are directly related. The concept of customer loyalty is of vital importance as repurchase of services gives significant advantages to the service producer: a continuous stream of profit, reduction of marketing costs, growth of per-customer revenue, decrease in operating costs, increase in referral, increase in price premium (Youjae, Y., Suna, L. 2004). In relation to the customer loyalty, the service recovery concept should be emphasized, as customer loyalty is often seen as a consequence of successful service recovery. ... Thus, service recovery significantly influences customer's attitudes alongside with behavioral intentions and results in a possibility of customer loyalty when successfully executed (Lovelock, C., Patterson, P.G., & Walker, R.H. 2001). Customer Expectations of Services: Formation As previously stated, customer expectations are formed during the first two stages of customer purchase decision and are closely related to knowledge about a service a customer already has. The expectations formation process is not only influenced by marketer's communications, but also is shaped by word of mouth communication, past experience, and personal need. While marketer's communication is a relatively simple concept, word of mouth communication and past experience should be further categorized. Scholars distinguish two sources of customer knowledge about a service: external research and internal research. While internal search is directly linked to previous experiences and influences both the level of desired and expected services, external search category unites implicit and explicit promises (marketer's communication) and word of mouth secondary information received from second sources. Consequently, the two major types of knowledge are distinguished: experience and familiar ity, knowledge received through direct involvement and second hand knowledge, respectively (Palmer, A. 2001). Customer service expectations can be categorized into 5 overall dimensions: reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The formation process is affected by numerous factors; in general, price is considered to be the dominant one. In the article "Understanding Customer Expectations of Service" by Parasuraman, A., Berry, Leonard L., Zeithaml, Valarie (1991), authors

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Employment Law--- case study on Whitakers Fine Wines Limited Essay

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Wollstonecraft discussion - Essay Example This makes them as much rational beings as men are. Today, there are numerous women who do not rely on their appearance for survival. They have infiltrated professionals and careers that would have once been considered impossible for women. This has been made possible thanks to education. Although women are better empowered today than they were a few centuries ago, there is still a considerably huge percentage of the society that still regards the woman as a sex object. Unlike during Wollstonecraft’s days, education cannot be blamed for this misconception about women. Contemporary media and general socialization has more to do with it. There are those women who still consider themselves rationally inferior because the media likes to portray women that way. These women find strength in expressing themselves through their appearance. The good thing is that this kind of thinking is slowly fading as more women become involved in affairs of society. The education system is greatly helping in instilling the idea that women and men are both capable of rational though at the same

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Women and development - Essay Example This is mostly the case in African countries and countries of the Middle East. Unlike their American counterparts, most women in African countries and the Middle East face difficulties and are subjected to victimization by men. This paper seeks to compare women’s economic conditions in an undeveloped society in Africa with the conditions in America. Some of the aspects that the paper will explore include education, economic conditions, family structure, as well as health. In addition, the paper will give an explanation of the factors that contribute to the differences between the two cultures. There exist differences between the levels of women empowerment in both the United States and Africa. The economic conditions of women in most African countries are based on involvement in agriculture. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the involvement of women in the economic activities is based on informal labor. Women in sub-Saharan Africa can be regarded as guardians to their childr en and are the sole providers of the children’s material needs. Women are expected to cater for their children in terms of food, health needs, as well as education needs. This burdens women, and they cannot be said to have benefitted from the numerous advancements in technology with regard to the improvement in machinery used in agriculture (Nallari, 2012). On the other hand, women in the American society can pride themselves of improved economic conditions. For example, in the United States, women economic conditions can be termed as better than the economic conditions of women in Sub-Saharan Africa. American women have an opportunity to gain employment in formal work settings where they receive competitive salaries, just like their male colleagues. American women do not have to bear the burden of child rearing since they have high salaries, which they can use to cater for all the needs of their children. This explains why women play a key role in the economic development of America. Compared to women in Sub-Saharan Africa, American women do not experience poverty. Women from sub-Saharan Africa are subjected to poverty since their ascension up the social ladder is hindered by men. Sub-Saharan Africa women have to do household chores and also engage in meaningful employment in order to provide for their families (Thompson, 2013). In terms of education, women do not get equal opportunities like men in Sub-Saharan Africa, and this has hindered women from career advancement. While the boy child is highly regarded, the girl child is only allowed to gain basic education and their efforts to get higher education are threatened by men. For example, few women have outstanding academic credentials since they cannot access university education (Fallon, 2008). On the contrary, women in America have an opportunity to study with a lot of ease and get as many academic degrees as they want. This is an advantage to women since with academic credentials they can gain em ployment in reputable organizations and improve their status (Thompson, 2013). With little education, women cannot take advantage of numerous job opportunities that present themselves as compared to men. Since high income jobs are a preserve of the well educated, the governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have to the realization that women should also be accorded equal education rights with men. In the recent past, women empowerment has taken center stage in Sub-Saharan Africa as a result of which the society has been challenged to educate the girl child. Consequently, the girl child has started experiencing success in life since education is a regarded as key to a better life in the contemporary world (Mikell,

A Modest Proposal Essay Example for Free

A Modest Proposal Essay This is a beautiful land for millions that grants its people plentiful opportunities to start a wonderful life. The United States of America is the most honorable country to live in; we have been credited for our vast amount of freedom to all. America can easily be claimed the greatest nation in the world. We do, however, have an issue, an issue with the homosexuals. The true American people need to do something about this blasphemy. It continues to frustrate me on a daily basis to see them everywhere. Homosexuals all over the place are an abomination. I was truly appalled to find out that they think they could gain equality rights to normal people; it is outrageous. Maybe, as a solution, for the greater good of our community, we take away this problem. Put them away; build isolated communities to house the gay. The government can go about this the same way they did the Japanese and the internment camps. Homosexuals are a threat to society, to the value of marriage and the proper structure of family. If we as a community let this stand, it will ruin the lives of thousands. Children will grow up wrong and heterosexual marriages will never be the same; this affects everyone. America has a history of poor civil rights decisions: slavery, segregation, women’s suffrage, racism, and discrimination. Now is this country’s chance to learn from history and protect the civil rights of heterosexuals! We cannot stand down and let the wrath of the seemingly harmless and loving Homosexuals need for â€Å"equality† reign down on future generations. The only solution, which is an obvious one, is to relocate any gay out of the public’s eye. This is a surefire way to handle such a controversial issue.

Toyotas Total Quality Management

Toyotas Total Quality Management The once magic spell of Henry Fords T-modal and assembly lines is a long forgotten memory. In todays highly dynamic market place the consumer cannot be satisfied with a black color ford. Today the global automotive industry is facing its toughest challenge of delighting the customer in an economical manner. The Toyota motor company of Japan has taken this challenge seriously and has proved its ability to compete with the once emperors of the industry such as Ford, Volvo, Chevrolet et al. Buy careful adoption of cutting edge technologies such as Total quality management, Toyota has turned itself into a game changer in the industry. This assignment focuses on how Toyota achieved its objectives using TQM. It unfolds in three stages starting with TQM and its scope. Secondly competitive environment analysis with SWOT and PESTLE analyses and finally it arrives at conclusion based on a thorough evaluation of the organization. Company Overview Toyota Motor Company (TMC) is the crown of Japanese auto industry. Started as a small car manufacturer on August 28, 1937 it gifted many quality innovations to the world throughout its history. In the early 1980s Toyota won its first quality control award in Japan. The company launched its luxury brand Lexus in 1989 which became a massive success. It also manufactures Scion an economical automobile brand that targets young adults. Toyota also conquered the hybrid car market with the launch of its iconic car Prius in 17. Today with a work force of 71,116 and an annual sale of US$228+ billion, Toyota is as profitable as all the other car companies combined. In 2007 it became the worlds largest auto manufacturer beating General Motors. (Info http://www.toyota-global.com/) Literature Review Total Quality management Total quality management can be defined as A management psychology that seeks to integrate all organizational functions such as marketing, finance, design, engineering, production, customers satisfaction et al. to focus on meeting customer needs and organizational objectives. [Abstract Besterfield D, Michna Besterfield C, Besterfield Glen and Besterfield-Sacre Mary Total Quality Management (3rd Edition) (2002)] The team of the organization that the TQM is implementing tries to take part in improving processes, products, services as well as the culture which they work. This approach is inspired by quality leaders such as Philip B Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Kaonru Ishikawa and Joshep M. Juran. According to Deming TQM involves 14 principles. 1. Create constancy of purpose 2. Adopt a new philosophy of cooperation 3. Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality 4. End the practice of awarding business 5. Improve constantly, and forever 6. Institute training 7. Adopt and institute leadership for the management of people, 8. Drive out fear and build trust 9. Break down barriers between departments. 10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets asking for zero defects or new levels of productivity 11. Eliminate numerical goals, numerical quotas and management by objectives 12. Remove barriers that rob people of joy in their work 13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement. 14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. Today The concept of quality is significant more than ever before. The history of quality goes as far as 1920s to the times of gurus such as F.W. Taylor who is the father of scientific management. It erupted in 1950s in Japan in a time where the Japanese were searching ways to boost their economy that was ruined by World War 2. By 70s high quality Japanese goods had flooded the US and European markets. It took 20 years for the west to catch up the Japanese quality system. By today the growing global competition the quality has become a decisive factor and is inspired by changing customer needs. Today the customer is the person who defines the quality of a product. Quality management is important because achieving a higher quality is ever changing. Also failing to meet the quality standards continuously would result in losing customers. An organization can take many initiatives to assure quality of its products. Standardization is one such initiative that assures quality. Standardization can be carried out by round interchangeability, variety reduction; improved communication of technical criteria, commonly agreed safety and performance parameters. Standardization applies to raw materials, testing, sampling methods as well as processes Institutional learning is another way of ensuring quality. Here the training process for workers are recorded and will be used in the learning process. The learning forms such as lessons as well as good practices are the primary sources of the knowledge working process. The institutional learning process can be further enhanced through training workshops, evaluation material as well as electronic training media. Also by way of knowledge management an organization can assure the quality of its products. Under knowledge management the capacity to retain knowledge, educational capacity, design and training methods, the training programs as well as qualified trainers are the majors concerns under knowledge management. The fruits of knowledge management can only be picked when: The learnt knowledge puts in to practice. The knowledge is material in innovation. Turning tacit knowledge in to explicit knowledge Gathering and preserving knowledge from every possible source such as information, experience etc. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is a method used to analyze the internal and external environment of an organization. Following is a comprehensive SWOT analysis of Toyota Motor Company. Strengths Toyota operates factories in US and China that led to increase in company profits since 2005. The organization through careful segmentation, Targeting and positioning offers the right product mix to the market. Toyota is highly efficient in its manufacturing which uses total quality management. Toyota has a strong brand name which is a house hold brand name all around the world. Weaknesses Toyota is excessively focused on US and Japanese markets. Thus suffers from fluctuating economic and political conditions of these countries. Toyota has few layers in its hierarchy and as a result there are few opportunities for promotions. Heavy emphasize on techniques such as kaizen has led to higher level of stress among workers. Opportunities Toyota and Lexus has pioneered the environmentally friendly technologies. The world needs vehicles inspired by such technologies more than ever. The company is targeting the urban youth market which has a huge potential. The European Union is emerging as a world of opportunities for auto manufacturers. Toyota already has a large market share in countries such as Denmark, Finland, Ireland et al. Threats Global recession has drastically affected the performance of the global auto industry. Rising gas prices due to the OPEC decision of price hike is a severe damage. In 200, 2010 the product recall of Toyota was estimated to be million units. This can have adverse effects the organizations reputation. Toyota faces strong competition from rivals. New entrants from China, South Korea and India are growing rapidly. (Info http://www.marketingteacher.com/swot/toyota-swot.html) PESTLE Analysis The PESTLE stands for P Political E Economical S Social T Technological L Legal E Environmental Political Since it is a global organization Toyota needs to observe the global political situation. For the past few years Toyota has been enjoying from some of the governments key decisions. The governments decision to limit vehicle imports to Japan and the US governments introduction of quota system in vehicle importing eases the pressure of heavy competition from the outsiders. The Japanese government has provided stimulus packages and tax reliefs to deal with the recent economic down turn. Economical The global recession has hit the global auto industry severely. With inevitable losses companies tend to cut jobs. The same is applicable to Toyota. Due to sky rocketing cost of living people might be prioritizing the fulfillment of their needs at primitive levels. In such a background the industry might get a serious blow. Also during the past 5 consecutive years the global auto mobile sales in major markets have sharply dropped. Social Social factors are vital in deciding the demand for a certain good. Throughout the past decade Japan is experiencing a growing adult population. It is estimated that by 2030 the 65 year old population will be 25.6% of the total population of Japan. Some critical changes in the age structure of the country can be observed. Also the countrys negative population growth rates provide serious implications for the business organizations. Because the shrinking population implies that the business organizations will have to face a shortage in skilled labor in the near future. [Source Matsumoto Yoshiko Faces of Aging: The Lived Experiences of the Elderly in Japan ] Technology With the introduction of cutting edge production technologies adoption of such technologies in the auto industry can be widely seen. Use of robotics for production in Japan has become a major trend. In this information age people have more ways to know about products which makes the present consumer a highly aware one compared to some decades back. The development in World Wide Web led to many organizations going online. The organization will have to adapt to the new ground realities of online marketing to stay ahead of the curve. Legal Today although the free trade is been heavily promoted some key player in the global economy are following protectionism. Countries such as India, Brazil et al are imposing legal restrictions on foreign auto manufacturers in order to promote indigenous manufacturing. With its recall of some of the car models in 2010 Toyota had to face several court cases over accidents occurred due to defect Toyota cars. It was reported that Toyota has paid $ 1.2 million in settlement of a case that was filed against the company. (Info http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2010/12/28/toyota-pays-10m-crash-compensation/) Environment The global warming and climate change has become a burning problem in todays world. The changes in this regard have a major influence on the global auto mobile industry. The global warming has insisted the global auto manufacturing firms to come up with less emission solutions. Governments all around the world are raising the standards and tightening the environmental laws on this matter. In addition to the global warming problem the dwindling oil reserves in Middle Eastern countries which are expected to come to an end as soon as 2040s has urged the auto manufacturers to seek more sustainable and energy efficient solutions for the future. The green marketing has become a major weapon for any organization competing in todays auto industry. Today the green products as well as green production methods has become a threshold in many cases. Thus any organization lagging behind its counterparts in green marketing is in the path to destruction. Analysis Although the total quality management is widely adopted in todays highly dynamic business environment Toyota motor company has its own version of quality management called the Toyota production system or TPS. The TPS includes just in time production which means manufacturing products in required amounts avoiding excess inventories Kanban and Jidoko or automation. According to the field research done and published by Harvards Steven J. Spear it leads to the conclusion that Toyota has achieved a dynamic capability by following the Rules-in-Use for Organizational design, improvement, and adaptation. [Source Spear J Steven Just-in-Time in practice at Toyota: Rules-in-Use for building self-diagnostic, adaptive work-systems Harvard Business Review Oct 2002] The paper identifies that in TPS managed organizations every operation is performed by carrying out hypothesis testing experiments that makes accelerated generation and accumulation of individual and organizational learning about coordinating delegating, and performing work done collaboratively. This also includes work which is done repeatedly few times. The findings adds literature by explaining the most tools that got lot of attention in the operations research process were trustworthy and were giving uninterrupted service without any malfunctioning. [Source http://www.icsti.su/rus_ten3/1000ventures_e/presentations/production_systems.html] Just in time The idea behind just in time is manufacturing the required amounts in required numbers at the required time. For instance the assembly line of a car arrives all the sub assembly lines should reach the main assembly line in right quantities. This will eliminate the need for inventories thus removing the requirement for warehouses and storage facilities. As a result the inventory cost will be drastically reduced giving a higher capital turn out to the company. The JIT manufactures quality products in an efficient manner by completely eliminating waste, inconsistencies and unwanted use of production lines. According to the JIT the Toyota by adhering to the following guidelines can manufacture a car which was ordered by a customer in a soonest possible manner. No sooner an order is received for a vehicle the instructions as well as specifications of the vehicle reach the start of the production line. The assembly line is stored with sufficient parts and components to enable the plant to assemble any kind of vehicle model without any delays. The assembly line must replace the parts used by retrieving the same number of parts from the parts-producing process. The preceding process should store a small number of all types of parts to manufacture only the numbers of parts that were retrieved by an operator from the next process. Although it proves to be a success of following JIT method it is a complicated exercise at Toyota as its business involves hundreds of spare parts and components. Kanban system Although many believe that kanban is TPS, the kanban method exist to manage the just in time method. Simply it is an information system which controls the quantities in every process. In kanban the required amount of units and types are written in a card called kanban. It is send to the people in preceding process to the subsequent process which connects many processes in a Toyota plant. This method is supported by followings. Smoothing of process Reduction of machine set up time Autonomation Standardization of jobs Improvement activities Kanban uses two cards. One a withdrawal card and the other a production order card. (Source http://www.toyota-global.com/) According to the above figure there are two operational flows as production instruction kanban and the operational flow of parts retrieval kanban. In the production instruction kanban it involves 3 distinctive steps. Firstly a production instruction kanban A is removed when an operator retrieves parts. Then the numbers of parts that are indicated in the kanban card are only manufactured. Thirdly the kanban is attached to the newly manufacture parts ready for the next process. Then the next process starts on the operational flow of parts retrieval kanban. The parts are transferred to this process from the preceding process. Then as the first step the parts retrieval kanban is removed when an operator uses parts. Secondly the operator carries the kanban to retrieve replacement parts. As the third step the operator removes the production instruction kanban and replaces it with a parts retrieval kanban. Finally the parts that are displaying the parts retrieval kanban are transported to the next process. Autonomation To gain maximum of just in time 100% good units must reach the prior process. And this process should continue without any interruptions. This means quality control must co-exist with JIT to get the best out of kanban. The idea behind autonomation is built in a mechanism means to avoid mass production of defective items in product lines. It involves autonomous inspections for abnormalities in the process. At Toyota all machines are autonomous where every machine is attached with automatic stopping device. This avoids mass production of defective items and also alarms machine break downs if there are any. The above theory also applies to the manual works at Toyota where an employee pushes the stop button if something abnormal happens in the production line. This would eventually cease the operations of his whole lines. In order to detect discrepancies in the process a device called andon, an electric light board is hung very high in the factory that it is visible to everyone this is called Toyotas visual control system. Conclusion The Toyota production system is a practical and effective as it popped out from the real life experience of the organization. This system is enriched with practical effects, actual practices and implications over the analysis. This system has a vital role in developing the quality of operations of the companies all around the world. Even to this date hundreds of western companies are using the Toyota quality management methods which are a clear indication of Toyotas success. Since Toyotas founding we have adhered to the core principal of contributing to society through the practice of manufacturing high quality products and services. Our business practices and activities based on this core principal created values, beliefs and business methods that over the years have become a source of competitive advantage. these are the managerial values and business methods that are known collectively as the Toyota way. Fujio Cho, president Toyota [Source Liker Jeffery, The Toyota Way, McGraw-hill, 2003]