S Venkataraman Strategies for Human Resource Practices in the Context of Total Quality Movement Social Quality Case Study PIQC

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S. Venkataraman Vice President - HR DELPHI-TVS Diesel Systems Ltd., Chennai, India. E-mail: [email protected]

piqc.com.pk

Pakistans 10th International Convention on Quality Improvement ICQI`2006

Pakistan Institute of Quality Control 2

STRATEGIES FOR HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES IN THE

CONTEXT OF TOTAL QUALITY MOVEMENT

AUTHORS

S. Venkataraman Vice President - HR DELPHI-TVS Diesel Systems Ltd., Chennai, India. E-mail: [email protected]

BACKGROUND

With the advent of an open economy, that is described and understood as Globalization, we have been seeing sea changes in the overall economy. The way we conduct business - customer centric; innovative work practices and processes; engagement of various constituents in business including employees, in the processes; - leading towards Total Quality Management, is the perceptible change.

Ours is the consumption-oriented Society. Therefore production has to gear up to match consumption pattern of Society. With the economy having been liberalized, the customer is demanding quality in product, services and delivery as well as responsiveness for addition of value at every stage of consumption including quality of life. It has brought to focus a shift in Shared Values and balance of justice as a sine qua non in conducting the business and creating wealth.

The resultant effect of open economy and globalization, is reflected loud and clear in,

Competition in the market place. Need for competitiveness all around. Quality Management as an essential requirement, encompassing the quality

of products and services; processes and environment.

A need to understand people expectations and align it to business systems; sensitize and respond to it.

Meet an ever-increasing aspiration of people involved in business, for higher quality of life.

In this context, the role of Human Resources takes a pivotal position. Human Resources are simply, people endowed and equipped with a wide range of abilities and attributes. It is by coordinating the contributions of physical (technology) and monetary resources (finance) with those of people (Human Resources), the actual conversion to products and services, which people at large demand, takes place.

QUALITY INITIATIVES

What are the contemporary quality initiatives and continuous improvement techniques being adopted by the organizations to meet the ever-increasing demands of the customer? Standards and Certification in quality like ISO 9000: QS 9000: Environmental Certification like ISO 14000 : changed methodologies in manufacturing, like cellular manufacturing, single piece flow, JIT etc., and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM); Total Quality Management (TQM) are some of the current practices. Total Quality Movement encompasses these.



TOTAL QUALITY MOVEMENT

With the ushering in of the quality era, the quest for total quality performance, becomes a race without a finish line. While the customers supremacy is getting acknowledged, their quality consciousness reflects in their ever-changing preferences. They are an unintended consequence of their travel through increasingly complex environments. A duty is therefore cast on the organizations to consider how to produce what it sells, in the purest and cheapest forms, to make it available in the quickest time, so as to build life long partnership with customers. It beholds on organizations to erect for themselves some exclusive standards of excellence. Such standards help them to differentiate with competitors and form cutting edge of the business. A constant unrelenting and uncompromising effort directed towards making it a way of life within the organization becomes the need of hour. That is Total Quality Movement. The above is made possible in the organizations that align the employees to the organizational goals and unleash their potential. The employees not only upgrade their competencies but also develop the pride in them, that sustains their motivation to continuously commit themselves for organizational goals. Their commitment gets reflected in continuous improvement of quality and performance. In other words, the employees get empowered, not only to meet organizational goals and its sustainability, but also to take charge of themselves, for continuous superior performance, by constant value addition. To make it happen, the organizations pursue policies and practices of people connected with business, on Shared Value Concept. The employees while engaging in practices and processes, to deliver quality products and services to its customers and constituents in tandem with organizational goals, achieve what is beyond it, namely commitment and organizational culture.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

The basic tools that are employed to ensure the success of TQM are aimed not at the organizational, but at the individual level. Each employee is encouraged to identify his role in the organization - a responsible decision maker, working towards not only his goals, but also towards the companys success. So people need to know: what to do; how to do it; what are the right tools to do it; how to measure performance and how to receive feedback on current levels of achievement. These exercises are all part of encouraging people to take responsibility for the quality of their own work. TQM recognizes that Systems, Standards and Technology in addition to Quality has no independent existence. It is people and people-based management makes quality.

STRATEGIES FOR HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES

The strategies in business can be said to be, to manage the present, selectively abandon the past and create future. The same can be related to Human Resource Practices as, skill for managing the present; unlearning and learning new skills and acquiring new skills that are required for the future. Human Resource Practices that impact quality performance need to be tailored to such a fashion, as to inject innovativeness and creativity in such practices. It therefore calls for not common sense, but in fact uncommon wisdom. Aside from being one of the means of investing in human capital, the physical and goodwill of employees become important assets. Quality through improved use of human resources would involve training, a team-oriented work environment, wide employee participation, effective two-way communication, and an effective recognition and reward system. Deming (1986) considered to be one among the total quality trinity advocates that building



quality into the product improves productivity and decreases costs and increases customer satisfaction. The other two constituting the Trinity, namely, Joseph Juran (1988) and Feigenbaum (1991) also insist on total quality as a way of managing an organisation. While Jurans approach focuses on reducing the cost of quality, Feigenbaum places his emphasis on long-term commitment to quality. Subscribing to the old adage prevention is better than cure, Feigenbaum considers that quality problems could be overcome by preventive rather than corrective measures. Total quality performance is a function of employee empowerment, meaning that an effective employee recognition system will produce dedicated and customer-focused employees. The passionate engagement of employees in an organization that is committed to Total Quality Movement is a real indicator of the Human Resource Practices. The practices cover Employee Selection, Right Induction, Training & Development, Career Advancement, Performance Management Culture; Measures of Performance, Appropriate Rewards, the Pride of Employees and last but not the least Harmonious Labour Relations and Healthy Work Environment.

EDUCATION, TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Companies committed to TQM invest heavily in training and education. Training and education have become an important responsibility of the Human Resource Function as empowered employees require new knowledge and skill, which would not have to be cost justified. Procurement involves the selection of the right man for the right job. Total quality performance requires investment in human capital through a significant training which results in a measurable increase or improvement in a persons contribution to the organizational goals. Training generally includes quality awareness, leadership, project management, communications, team work, problem solving, interpreting and using data, meeting customer requirements, process analysis, process simplification, waste reduction, error proofing and other issues that affect employee effectiveness, efficiency and safety. With a view to obviate the possibility of training often ending up being ineffective, existing skill level needs to be assessed keeping in view the specific requirements of the organization before designing a training package. Training is perceived as a means towards an end and therefore it needs to focus on developing new attitudes so as to enable employees to equip themselves with self-directed as well as transferable skills. In the absence of internal receptivity, implementation of managerial innovations equated with progress may prove to be a wild goose chase. This simple truth is brought out metaphorically by Mao-Tse-tung (1967; 213-214) as follows: External causes are the conditions of change and internal causes are the basis of change. External causes become operative through internal causes. In a suitable temperature an egg changes into a chicken, but no temperature can change a stone into a chicken, because each has a different basis. Training therefore must attempt not only to cultivate an effective relationship between the men who manage and the men whom they manage, but also to educate employees about the nature of quality initiatives expected of them, with focus on continuous learning and improvement in performance of job.

CULTURE AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee involvement is one approach to improving quality and productivity. Employee involvement is not a replacement for management nor is it the final word in quality improvement. It is a means to better meet the organizational goals for quality and productivity at all levels of an organization. Employee involvement is not fad that will go away soon. It is a way of life, crucial to TQM, and can mean the difference between being competitive and going out of business. The range of activities involved in employee involvement approaches are: sharing



information; providing input on work related issues; making suggestions and self-directed responsibilities such as setting goals, making decisions and solving problems, often in cross functional teams. Employee involvement offers many advantages over traditional management practices like: replacing the adversarial mentality with trust and co-operation; developing the skills and leadership capabilities of individuals; creating a sense of mission and fostering trust; increasing employee morale and commitment to organization; fostering creativity and innovation; helping people understand quality principles and instilling these principles into the corporate culture; allowing employees to solve problems at the source immediately and improving quality and productivity.

EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION

Effectiveness and efficiency, after all, represent doing the thing right and doing right things respectively. Workers participation may contribute to better utilization of the human resources. Performance comprises all behaviours, which are directed toward task or goal accomplishment. One particular aspect that looks complicated, but can be made simple is creation of high-trust inter-group relations, which not only increase performance, but also feed upon each other thus establishing a circle

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

As quality becomes a central theme, commitment to quality can be fostered through leadership. Leadership with risk-taking proclivities help accomplish extraordinary things by ordinary people and such leadership may be viewed as possessing the ability to turn sand into gold or failure into success. Bennis (1993) refers to this disposition as wallenda factor. As one of the basic components of training, leadership is cast with the task of imparting problem-solving techniques aimed at quality improvement. That leads to grass root level leadership development.

On the job training may be used to reinforce training. The true test of training effectiveness is towards quality performance and therefore by establishing a linkage between training and quality performance, it can be shown that quality performance is a consequence of HR Practices.

EMPOWERMENT

Total Quality Movement had its roots in quality circles which introduced the concepts of empowerment and teamwork. Besides the processes and conditions of empowerment, culture and structural intervention are the other components that ensure parity in power relations and thus make empowerment effective. The Seven Cs, namely, Commitment, Contribution, Communication, Cooperation, Conflict management, Change management, and Connections are identified as key elements of effective teams to succeed (Zoglio, 1993). As confidence begets confidence, empowerment rests on culture of trust and collaboration. One of the primary tasks of leadership is to empower employees whose intelligent and creative work would pay dividends to the organisation. Consultation, delegation and decision making which constitute empowerment are an essential part of what is called participative management.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Improvement in the traditional sense has been sought for only when the performance falls below some required standards. This system has proven to be successful until the emergence of total quality management, where improvement is sought for on a continuous basis. The indications are that there is always scope for continuous improvement. The commitment to continuous is never an empty slogan; it requires the organization to dedicate a significant portion of its time



and resources to improvement

In ever changing expectation of the customers, for supremacy of products, the continuous improvement techniques deployed by operating personnel take the center stage of any Total Quality initiative. Small group activities and Kaizen Circles fill in this requirement and they are required to be nurtured to get the total involvement and commitment of employees

COMMUNICATION

Creating total quality improvement that lasts lies precisely in communication. Communication and incentives are the two-ways by which employees are motivated to perform tasks and pursue organizational objectives.

Customers satisfaction engenders their loyalty, which is equally critical since retaining customers is cheaper than attracting customers. However, the missing link is identified to be communication of a common quality vocabulary that helps provide organization-wide quality definitions based on customers expectations. Motivation thus becomes not only as an integral part of human resource development, but also as one of the ingredients that is critical for total quality performance.

COLLECTIVITY FUNCTION

While self-assertion through voluntary organisation shows its imprints in bilateral dissensus, converting such a situation into one of bilateral consensus calls for making the unions understand and divert their united power towards enrichment of organisational effectiveness and efficiency. Employees participation thus secured may contribute to better utilisation of the human resources. In as much as unions can help decisions to grow out of discussions, a positive union management relationship serves as a lubricant to an organisations ability to adapt and grow in its shared pursuit of common goals. Recognition of this type of reciprocal relations born of interdependency confers mutual benefits in the sense that the output from one becomes an input to the other. With the laying of the foundation for diffusive harmony and quality consciousness in place, counter- productive habits can be addressed effectively through training.

CUSTOMERS

Quality is seen as a very important strategic objective as well as a very important advantage in consideration of the fact that it generates customer satisfaction and profits. Customers satisfaction engenders their loyalty, which is equally critical since retaining customers is a prerequisite to attract new customers. The road to success is laid when there is a perfect match between quality offered and the quality actually desired. Thus, customers must perceive that besides quality, they have received value for their money. Band (1991) considers value creation as the ultimate customer strategy. Ultimate customer strategy involves the integration of quality, service and customer satisfaction. From a total quality perspective, all strategic decisions a company makes are customer-driven. A customer-driven company moves from talk to action with its focus directed towards the customer, his wants, and preferences. It thereby gains an understanding of his use of its products and services. In other words, customer focus becomes the cornerstone of quality management. Development of new techniques to obtain customer feedback is a natural corollary in the context of a company becoming customer-centric. A firm also must recognise that internal customers are as important in assuring quality, as are external customers. Feed back from internal customers will go directly to internal suppliers. In total quality organisations as against traditionally run organisations, it is common for employees to visit customers sites in order to have first hand information from



customers about how well products and services meet their needs.

CULTURE

It is said that culture is what we are. The question as to what we are is shaped by society through various agencies. It is socialisation through which we are made to become what we are. In any society where technological leap forward becomes a continuous process, the educational and occupational background of employees constitutes the most important socialisation variables. Peter Drucker, (1951; 263) views that of the triple personality of a business enterprise, the third personality expresses itself from below out of face-to face relations based on shared interests, sentiments, beliefs and values among various groups of employees. The work groups with such intricate pattern of relationships existing among them try to impose their image on the organisation, which is termed as personalising process (Bakke, 1953). The organisation on the other hand, through a process termed the formal socialising process endeavours to mould every employee into the image of the organisation, which results in the merger or fusion of the two (Bakke, 1953). With the homogenising influence of culture, which means socialisation, employees learn to internalise the dominant standards, beliefs, values, norms, practices and expectations that make up the culture of the employing organisation. In other words, the norms governing values, activities and goals constitute the culture of an organisation. Besides decision making, strengthening the organisational culture rests on leadership. It is therefore the principal responsibility of leadership to create, maintain and shape organisational culture (Schein, 1992).

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The purpose of any business activity is to create wealth. In common parlance it is understood as profit. Many a time the purpose of business is also understood, nay, misunderstood as profit making. But profit making by itself is not an undesirable objective, as the end result of business activity, by way of profits helps in enriching the lives of all constituents who are connected with the business. The profit, when gets translated to enrich the lives of people connected with the business, it is termed as wealth. With the economies opening up world over, the very concept of wealth creation has undergone a change. While human resource was considered one of the major components in the creation of wealth in business, for effective utilisation of other resources viz., raw materials, plant and machinery and finance, the supremacy of technology and knowledge employee make a difference in the way the business is conducted. Thus, the human resources are considered as cutting edge of business. It has elevated itself into an enviable position, and therefore maximising the potential of human resources has become the need of the hour. This not only helps in maximising the wealth creation but also elevate the dignity of human beings to an unparallel pedestal to a strategic level. If creation of wealth is made possible by strategic elevation of human resources or in other words maximising the human potential, the corollary phenomenon is, ploughing back the wealth to human resources at large i.e., Society. It is also implied that if society is empowered with wealth created by business, business activity by itself benefits the society. The current emphasis world over is social responsibility of business which is nothing but adopting acceptable and appropriate standards of production and services including the environment for the benefit of the society at large.

CONCLUSION

High performance teams are identified to possess such attributes as participatory leadership, shared responsibility, a sense of common purpose, high communication, future-focused, focused on task, creative talents and rapid response. The answer, in the midst of otherwise competing equals, lies in total quality performance backed by human resource practices. Thus, the Total Quality



Movement process will not only improve productivity and thereby help blunt the edges of competition, but will also ensure better return on investment. Making full use of human capital through human resource practices is the one and only way to build the bridge toward achieving excellence in business.

REFERENCES

Bakke, E.W. 1953. The Fusion Process, Yale University Labour Management Center, New Haven, Connecticut.

Band,W.A. 1991. Creating Value for Customers: Designing

and Implementing a Total Corporate Strategy, Wiley, New York.

Bennis, W 1993. An invented Life: Reflections on leadership and Change, reading, MA: Addision Wesley.

Deming.W.E. 1986. Out of the Crisis, Cambridge M.A:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology center for Advanced Engineering Study

Feigenbaum, A.V 1991. Total Quality Control 3rd revised

edition, McGraw Hill, New York.

Juran, J.M. 1988. Juran on Planning for Quality, Free Press, New York.

Mao-Tse tung 1967. Quotation from Chairman Mao-Tse tung,

Peking, Foreign Language Press.

Peter Drucker, 1951. The New Society, London, Heinemann.

Schein,E.H. 1992. Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass

Zoglio, S.W, 1993. Teams at Work: 7 Keys to Success,

Doylestown, PA:Town Hills Press.

Documents

S Venkataraman Strategies for Human Resource Practices in the Context of Total Quality Movement Social Quality Case Study PIQC