Biblical Operations Management Research Paper

Biblical Operations Management
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Biblical Operations Management
Organizations do not exist on a vacuum but are dependent on both internal and external business environments. Therefore, an organization receives inputs from both environments, transforms them through various processes and exports outputs from these process to the environment. This simple model of transforming inputs into outputs was developed into an operational management which demonstrates how the various inputs are transformed through the various management functions.
As the business environment continues to experience dramatic changes due to technological advancements, more challenges to organizations also continue to emerge as well. These challenges need to be addressed so that the organizations can gain a competitive advantage over others in the market. However, the current competition does not only focus on operational costs but also considers other factors such as the quality of the products and services being produced. Having quality products and services renders one a competitive advantage as well as gains customer loyalty. In order to ensure that the best quality of products and services is achieved, organizations employ various quality management strategies to ensure that their objective is achieved. Addressing the quality of products and services is a crucial approach to the growth and development of an organization. Therefore, the strategies utilized by companies are aimed at achieving their functional objectives through various methods such as problem-solving and product improvement techniques. Quality management is aimed at meeting the needs and preferences of the customers.
Biblical perspectives to operations management
The concept of operations management dates back to when God was creating the universe. Having the right inputs and processes, the quality of outputs of God’s creation was high, with people and all other creatures made the universe beautiful. Therefore, God’s objective was to produce products that were of high quality. Based on this, it is evident that the objective of Quality Management in an operation management is to produce quality products. After God created the man (Adam and Eve), he mandated them to produce the best out of Garden of Eden (Gen 1:28). Later, God gave Noah the responsibility of building the ark. When we read through the Bible, the output of Noah’s work was of high quality and none can be compared to it to date. Noah built a structure that was of an unimaginable size and shape that retain earthly things and survived the floods that destroyed everything that was on earth except those that were in the ark itself. This demonstrates that the ark was of high quality as well.
Another biblical perspective of operations and quality management is from the New Testament when Jesus fed more than 5,000 men (Mark 6:30-44). When Jesus was preaching, many people were coming and they did not have any time to eat, when the apostles realized that the men had not eaten, they approached Jesus and told him this but he told them “You give them something to eat” they replied “That would take eight months of a man’s wages. Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” Jesus asked them what they had and they said “five loaves and two fish.” Clearly this was not enough for the 5,000 men not even for the disciples themselves. But Jesus transformed them into plenty of food that satisfied all the people who were present and even some food remained. From this New Testament operations management testimony, it is evident that the food was of high quality since nobody complained about it and all were satisfied.
From the above brief analysis of operations management from a biblical perspective, it is evident that quality management is applicable to all aspects of operations regardless of the industry. In our daily lives, we are involved in the management of our families and finances. On the other hand, management is applicable to church and government operations as well in which the primary focus is on the quality of the output.
Ethical dilemmas on quality management
From a biblical perspective, the creation of man turned out to be fourfold (Rush, 2002). After God creating man in His own likeness, man sinned and distanced himself from his Creator (God) that rendered him the fallen nature. Because God never wanted to lose His products, He thought of how to improve them and bring them closer to Him so He sent Jesus, His only son to bring salvation to mankind that had separated themselves from God. Lastly, those who will be saved are invited to join God at His table. It can be argued that ethical dilemmas in operations management also dates back to the time Adam and Eve sinned at the Garden of Eden. Up to present, organizations are faced with various ethical dilemmas in quality management of their daily operations.
Quality management involves various techniques and frameworks which are aimed at achieving intended results. Quality managers have a wide range of approaches from which they select those that they perceive that they will enable them achieve the desired outcome. However, Christian managers’ biggest challenge is not using these frameworks but how they can reflect their faith when utilizing them to achieve the highest quality. In Genesis 1:26, God gives man power over other creatures on earth and assigns him the responsibility of developing and taking care of earth and its contents. This was to maintain the quality of God’s work. From this perspective, despite managers having power over resources in the organization, they have a responsibility of ensuring that highest quality results are achieved (Yancey & Stafford, 2011).
The history of management goes as back as to the 1800’s when it was discovered that the organization of workers improves their efficiency (Blamires, 2005). During this period, the working conditions in the factories were worse, they were dehumanizing. The managers never cared about the working conditions of the workers but on their economic objectives. Quality was not also a major concern in their operations.
According to the Utilitarian theory of ethics, managers should be at the forefront to ensure that best quality is achieved and the needs of all stakeholders are addressed as well (Agarwal, 1986). Various operations management ethical dilemmas exist in organizations but most of them are concerned with quality management. Heizner and Render (2013) defines quality as “the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.” Therefore, it is crucial for organizations to focus on quality management because it is among the important attributes to its growth and development. The quality of a company involves how its customers and employees are treated to whether the products and services produced meet the needs and preferences of the intended customers. This implies that quality management involves all aspects intended to satisfy customer needs. To resolve most of the ethical dilemmas involved in quality management, it is important to consider addressing them from a Christian/Biblical perspective. Some of the dilemmas that can be solved include those involving the beverage and service industries.
Some of the quality dilemmas include the lawsuit that was filed against McDonalds by an elderly woman who spilt a full cup of hot coffee on her lap on the drive thru. She did get severe burns from this and filed a lawsuit against the company for not having included all the relevant information on the cup according to her needs. Other similar dilemmas have occurred to other organizations such as Starbucks and Motor City, the question to whether they were right or wrong depends on one’s perspective to the instance...