What I think the quote refers to is UM/Owner tends to look more times at financial results than KPI related to the QMS... he might be worried why his billing is down, but won´t look at the increase in customer complaints as a possible cause for this...
At least that´s the way I see it...
That's the devil so many of us face in our competetive environment, isn't it?
I measure management commitment through a closed-loop flow of actions and results:
1. An opportunity to improve is identified from whatever source.
2. Management gets the news, hopefully with some measure of "goodness" that can be compared against later.
3. Management determines action is needed, or not, hopefully based on sound decision making methods.
4. Management assigns resources and clearly identifies reasonable expectations.
5. Management cooperates when the actions are cross-departmental.
6. Management receives and studies the data reporting progress or results.
7. Management compares the outcomes against the original problem and asks: is the result what we wanted? If not, why not?
8. If more work needs to be done, repeat 4 through 8.
9. Management tells the rest of the organization what has happened, what was learned and what it means to the organization.
10. Management appropriately recognizes crucial people and looks at the events for clues as to whose roles could be expanded in future efforts (resource building).
Okay, I live in a fairy tale world. Anyway, evidence of these items happening is how I measure upper management commitment.
The proof's in the pudding, or so the saying goes.