Drive out Fear: Deming Revisited

Today management by fear is ubiquitous. Managers do not trust workers and micromanagement is rife. Such behaviours and cultures lead to suboptimal performance. This paper therefore revisits one of the major components of a Total Quality Management (TQM) culture identified by Dr W.E. Deming as the primary duty of every manager – the removal of fear from the workplace. The paper explores, through the extant literature, various aspects of management by fear and its impact on organisations and people. It revisits Deming’s contention that when there is a problem 94% of the time it is caused by the system and not people. It explores the requirement that all managers must be able to distinguish between “common” and “special” causes of variation if they are to avoid blaming people for systems errors and hence create a blame culture that perpetuates management by fear. Suggested alternatives to the macho management style based on fear and blame include creating a culture that welcomes mistakes and where fear and blame are replaced by respect and trust.