Polarity Management

Managing Polarity: Cost vs. Quality

Understanding Polarities

The ability to identify a problem and determine its solution is an important skill set in the business world. Maximizing efficiency, determining which products to manufacture or identifying which new healthcare package to offer employees are examples of problems with definitive solutions. However not all problems are avoidable or have a solution, especially when the choice between two diametrically opposed options results in a major disadvantage. Take planning and action for example: too much planning will yield too little time to act; conversely too much action could yield costly mistakes. This is not an example of a problem, but instead a polarity.

Polarities are defined by Barry Johnson, PhD. (1996), as ongoing or chronic issues that are inherently unavoidable or unsolvable. Any attempt to solve a polarity with common problem-solving techniques may worsen the situation where as managing the polarity yields the best results (Johnson, 1996). “Polarities are interdependent opposites which work best when both are present to balance each other” (Seidler, 2006, pg 1).

A great, simplified example of a polarity is demonstrated by Johnson (1996) by instructing readers to concentrate on breathing in and out. If given the ultimatum to pick only one, only breathing in or only breathing out would lead to suffocation. This is precisely the dilemma some businesses face: the inability to choose either/or is not sufficient. The only option is to manage the polarity and elect to have “both”.

For the purposes of this assignment, we will examine the polarity between product cost and product quality, as these concepts are the “breath of business”.

Cost vs. Quality

Company bean-counters are hard at work trying to reduce costs as much as humanly possible. After all, it’s conceivable if costs decrease profit-margins increase. However, it’s a dynamic problem—a polarity—when contrasted against...