1. Why were the employees so receptive to the program at first?
I think the employees recognized the need for a program like this more than any other parties within Sigtek. They saw the need for quality improving measures and welcomed the opportunity to make certain changes, albeit smaller ones. Smithers’ charismatic leadership style and his enthusiasm for the Total Quality Program (TQ) may have contributed to the employees’ positive reception, but this would only suffice in the short-term. Another factor adding to the enthusiasm for the implementation on the ground-level is Smithers’ decision to remove or reassign those in the management who may be especially resistant to change. By “isolating” or removing those who may oppose the new program, he created the basis for an environment where more employees are likely to adopt the necessary changes.
2. Why were simple things like the “bouncing boards” and the protrusion that hurt the person’s knee unable to be fixed?
Fundamentally, there seemed to be a great reluctance to change among the management, and they failed to see the importance of not only the big changes that the program would bring, but also the smaller implementations that would emerge at the ground level. The general approach, both from Smithers’ and the management’s side seemed far too action-oriented and not focused enough on incremental changes and short-term results of a lesser magnitude. In order for this program to work and for the company to make changes,
Step 2 is forming a powerful guiding coalition. Leadership will have to be on board and on the same page in regards to the change. Kotter and Cohen reveal the core problems people face when leading change. Their main findings are that the central issue concerns not structure or systems but behavior and how to alter it (Farris, 2008). The success of the changes will depend on the ability of the managers to show their commitment to change and motivate the employees to do the same. Without any process to track the implementation, the change can also fail.
41). A systematic approach should be used when implementing a strategic change. The first step of the process would be redesigning how the initiative is currently being administered. The process should include how employees can contribute to cost control and outline the desired performance outcomes. Employees would be coached by their direct supervisor and fellow team members to achieve the preset goals. Supervisors can assess current employees to gage their current performance and encourage improvement. In addition, leadership should recruit future employees based desired skills and replace those not meeting or not willing to align to the new desired behaviors. The final strategic step would be having system in place to measure the behaviors and reward them accordingly. The systematic framework will require strong leadership skills to ensure its
No matter how easy is may seem on the surface, the unfreezing, moving and refreezing stages of Lewin’s 3-Step model must be taken (Lewin, 1946). These stages are difficult and persistence by the organization in sticking to its objectives for growth and improvement must remain a top priority. In reality no matter how many positives a new idea is there will always be resistance when it is introduced. Change management is therefore central to the process of making the transition from the old system to the new and change management practices should be employed throughout the transition (ITIL,
Employee empowerment, teamwork, process control, continuous improvement, customer focused management, and statistical methods and techniques are instrumental in successfully implementing total quality management (TQM) (Evans, & Lindsay, 2007). These concepts as well as many others such as; Deming’s 14 Points and Theory of Profound Knowledge are key components to the BEHS training symposiums.
In early 1990’s, Teradyne experienced a major change in leadership with the new CEO Alex D’Arbeloff. Alex grew interested in the risk of losing Teradyne’s competitive edge due to quality and reliability concerns. Although D’Arbeloff believed the team was exceedingly competent, he believed there were major operating problems regarding reporting and performance measurements. To minimize these problems, D’Arbeloff embraced total quality management (TQM). After 5 years of intensive effort, TQM principles were embedded into most aspects of work at the company and resulted in noticeable improvement in manufacturing quality and customer service. However, the engineering organization was resisting TQM because of the resulting late and over budget projects.
“This case focuses on a change program and selection of an enterprise software vendor. The decision of which partner to choose to help the company change the way it purchased raised fundamental tensions within the company”.
| One of the main learning points that I read was that communication needed to be thorough and maintained through the course of the changes to ensure that complacency didn’t set in or any regression in the implementation of the changes. Another is that consideration should be given to the concerns of the individuals that will be directly affected. It is important to note these because these are sometimes the breaking points for an unsuccessful implementation. Especially considering the individuals affected, it so simple just a little extra time understanding how and what the change will affect will ease the process in the
Senior leadership must determine and direct the level of quality that is acceptable within the organization. Leadership should prioritize areas of quality and use data based on benchmarks from other facilities. (Dlugacz, 2006). In addition the author states there are some important areas that must be monitored for quality. Compliance must be followed by leaders and all
“This case focuses on a change program and selection of an enterprise software vendor. The decision of which partner to choose to help the company change the way it purchased raised fundamental tensions within the company”.
Dayton, L. (1999). Critical success factors in total quality management systems: A practitioner-based study of united states quality programs. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Sarasota)Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/docview/304552688
al., 2012). Trying to get the leadership motivated with adapting to TQM was a challenge in the beginning. The enthusiasm of top leaders has caused the TQM process to become effective. Although Health care has a complex adaptive system, leadership is crucial in implementing an improvement system (Sollecito & Johnson, 2013). The strengths of the TQM process were the support of the chamber of commerce, implementation of a quality improvement plan, adapting a successful way to measure improvement and development of cost effective techniques (McLaughlin, et. al., 2012). Corporate headquarters was totally involved in the TQM program with the CEO John Kausch as an active member of the Total Quality Council of the Pensacola, Area Chamber of Commerce (McLaughlin, et. al., 2012)
The authors were successful on this step by creating a valuable and diverse team that complimented each other, which was a necessity to ensure they had mixed points of views and opinions. Next, the team must create the approach they are going to take, and to be sure each team member has a clear understanding of the benefits for the future of everyone involved. This step was evident by the group meetings. Fourth, it is imperative for the team to demonstrate impeccable communication skills and the ability to influence others to comprehend the significance of the change (Kotter and Rathgeber 2006).
Not only were the leaders impressed by the employees insights, they took action to address all of the problems. As a result, participation increased, communication improved, relationship between employees and management improved, and access to training and development opportunities were wide-spread. But most importantly, once the original change initiatives were introduced, employees embraced the initiatives, offered insights on how to improve their outcomes, and ensured their success.
The President Ralph Larsen has realized that Wengart has some major problems with the quality however he is focusing on the profitability instead of the longevity of the company. He needs to have the team focus on improving the quality problem or the company’s profits will continue to decrease. Larsen in the effort to improve the quality has decided to seek out help from an OD practitioner who suggests to Ralph to implement Top Quality Management (TQM). Larsen feels that this should be easy to implement and hands it off to Kent Kelly the Vice President. He feels that the TQM program was a matter of common sense (Brown, 2011, p. 365).
For Andrei Octavian PARASCHIVESCU and Florin Mihai CAPRIOARA, organizations that desire to implement a strategic quality management approach should consider both the strategic dimension of quality and the management strategy (2014, p 19). In fact, both writers stipulate ”Quality Management” aims to advance quality to meet patron’s requirements by controlling processes (Paraschivescu & Caprioara, 2014, p 21). Likewise, their ideas confirm that the production approach demands a strict input from workers. In doing so, quality improvement teams can measure and spot