Deck 13: Work Team Development

Question 1

Explain total quality management and how it can be used to improve quality and productivity.

Answer 1

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a modern management concept that lays down certain principles, tools and techniques for maintaining high quality. An important point is that TQM is not a step or a phase. It is a strategy that needs to be inculcated within the organization to increase the customer and employee satisfaction simultaneously.
A few aspects that are inseparable with TQM are:
• Continual improvement
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Increased employee engagement
• Quality reviews
• Prevention over cure
• Teamwork
• Customer and employees involvement
The OD interventions that are required for TQM are based at changing and improving the organization. This change requires change in principles, strategy, operations, leadership etc. The OD process required for TQM requires all the components of the organization to be highly involved. The change management in the context of TQM is very complex. This change has to be deeply absorbed in the organization.
The various strategies enabled by TQM are used to enhance the quality and the productivity. The higher stress is laid upon the quality requirements. However, it is also ensured that the productivity in terms of quantity is not compromised.
• Tools of TQM: The various tools and techniques enabled by TQM have proved revolutionary to increase the productivity and enhance quality simultaneously. Many such tools include Affinity Diagram, Tree Diagram, Ishikawa or Fishbone Diagram, Prioritization Matrix etc. These are used to systematically identify the process, its requirements, and shortcomings.
The pictorial, graphical and tabularization of data at various instances is enabled by TQM. This ensures a high understanding of processes and operation. This enables continual improvement easy.
• Quality control: TQM lays a high emphasis on quality control. It aims at continually improving the quality. TQM ensures a high quality by incorporating techniques like s ix sigma, Pareto analysis, 5-S etc.
• Economy: The TQM enabled tools and techniques have proved to be revolutionary in cutting the inventory and maintenance cost. Toyota Production System and Just-in-Time inventory techniques have revolutionized production. It has brought down the maintenance and inventory holding cost down to zero.
• Reduced Cycle Time: TQM strives on reducing the time of a process by making continuous developments and amendments. The reduced cycle time ensures increased production and more time for employees.
• Corporate citizenship: The corporate citizenship is a TQM enabled concept. It makes the organization develop itself to suit the needs of its environment and the constituents like customers, clients, employees etc.
• Prevention: TQM enabled techniques lays emphasis on " Doing right in first time ". This ensures less time and resources for quality improvement and inspections.

Question 2

What are some problems that organizations might have in implementing total quality management?

Answer 2

There are various potential problems that are bound to arise in implementation of TQM.
a. Loss in Competitiveness : Smaller organizations are likely to be affected by TQM implementation. The cost incurred on TQM implementation is very high. The smaller organizations are likely to face difficulties in this aspect.
b. Participation : TQM mandates a high participation rate for the change to be absorbed into the organization. If any component of the organization is not ready for the change, they are likely to fail in TQM implementation. It becomes a matter of utmost importance for the organization to make the urgency for the TQM implementation.
c. Leadership and Strategy : It is of high importance for the workforce to be fully involved. The leadership has to be aligned with the principles. It also requires framing the strategy tailored for TQM implementation. It should be ensured that timely trainings and technical expertise is provided to the employees. If the leadership and strategy are not duly aligned with the TQM implementation, it is poised to fail.
d. Paucity of resources : The TQM implementation requires a lot of resources. It is likely to cost high to the organization in terms of time, money and planning. The company has to properly plan its resources for TQM implementation.
e. Lack of Planning : Since TQM implementation is a gradual process. It requires time and energy to be spent for the change to be absorbed. An expert has to be consulted in making the layout of the plan and implementation details. A poor plan would undo the potential benefits that TQM offers.
f. Resistance of Workforce : Like any other major change, TQM is likely to be resisted by the employees. The workforce has to be properly trained and persuaded to comply with the programs. It includes aligning the personal goals of employees with TQM objectives.

Question 3

What are the characteristics of self-managed work teams?

Answer 3

Self-managed work teams are a modern concept of making the team work and increase cooperation. This is done in order to ensure that the teams are self-reliant and can solve issues by them. This requires that teams are given adequate training and expertise.
The goal behind making teams self-managed is to make the teams highly autonomous. This ensures that the work related stress is minimized and the employees develop a feeling of autonomy. This has been related to escalated levels of productivity and higher employee engagement. The characteristics of such self-managed teams are:
• Commitment from organization: These teams are to be supported by the organizations only. The organizations that have such teams are needed to intervene minimally. It is the responsibility of organization to render training to the team, expertise and the resources to carry out their operations.
• Equality: These teams have to maintain equality. Such work teams are required to have no aristocracy and minimal power distance. In these teams, the superintendents and the frontline executives are the same offices.
• Self-reliance and targets: These teams set their own targets and ensure completion. The autonomy given to this team is so high that the organization is concerned with material results only. However in such teams, the organization has to ensure that the team goals are duly aligned with those of organization.
• Diversity: Since the team is self-managed, it should have a variety of skills in the personnel. This is because the team is expected to be self-reliant and independent.
• Openness: These teams have to ensure transparency between the team members. This is important for the team to perform with high efficiency.
• Training: It is very important to impart high quality training to the team members. This has to be ensured that the team has a high level of expertise in managing their issues.

Question 4

Would you like to work in a self-managed work team? Explain your answer. Are classroom team project similar to self-managed teams? Why or why not?