It isn't the quality officer who's leading the quality effort, however. In many orga-nizations today, the prime movers are the financial officers and specialized positions such as vice president of Six Sigma or vice president of quality. This primarily happens in organizations where the quality officer views his or her role as an authority in a highly specialized aspect of quality. Moreover, quality is becoming a function of every job title in every organization. One reason for this is that the speed of technological growth is exceeding the capability of transactional processes in all forms of customer services, and organizations are struggling to keep pace with increased customer demands.
Mistakes cost more, even when the overall percentage of mistakes remains the same.
As the importance of employee quality performance grows, there is a greater emphasis on employee satisfaction. Indeed, orga-nizations are beginning to apply the same fervor to creating employee satisfaction as to creating customer satisfaction. Training for employee skills development is also continuing to grow. A more demanding public policy has been a major factor in quality's migration. Recognizing that preventable medical errors kill more Americans each year than do highway accidents, a National Academy of Sciences panel has recommended that Congress require all health care workers to report serious mistakes.