Policy deployment: an examination of the theory

Introduction An increasing number of organisations, as part of a strategic planning approach to continuous improvement, are starting to use policy deployment. In Western organisations the interest in policy deployment has primarily been generated by the use of self-assessment against a recognised model for business excellence such as the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Model and Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). It has been found that policy deployment based on the Japanese hoshin kanri concept is a good method of engaging all employees in the business planning process, focusing an organisation on the vital few objectives to achieve business results and providing an effective means to track progress against the set objectives. In the late 1980s the concept of policy deployment was little known outside of Japan. Dale recalls leading Japanese TQM study missions of European executives and management consultants to leading exponents of TQM in Japanese manufacturing industry in 1988 and 1989 and, it was clear, that when the concept of policy deployment was introduced by the Japanese host organisation, this was something new to the study mission participants. This prompted Dale (1990) to write an introductory piece on the concept, which proved to be one of the first published papers in the West on the subject of policy deployment. As part of a research study into the application of policy deployment in a " world class " organisation a literature survey of the English language papers on the topic has been carried out. The main purpose was to uncover published literature on policy deployment definition and concept, why it is used, what it is and what it is not, and the main models and processes. Fortunately policy deployment is treated as a discrete topic by those who have written on the subject. Hence it was possible to gain access to most of what has been published without having to search literature relating to specific products and industry. Unlike aspects such as quality management systems and statistical process control, little academic effort appears to have been expended on the use of policy deployment to achieve quality improvement and business results. A search of the ABI/INFORM database (1986-1991 and 1992-1997) reveals only nine and ten articles respectively on policy deployment. However, it should be said that it features as a topic in text such as Imai (1986) and Juran (1964); there is a view from the writings of …