Barry J. Witcher

The Links Between Objectives and Function in Organizational Sponsorship

This paper presents the results of a postal survey of 54 large companies who use some form of sponsorship in the UK. The main purpose was to examine the links between the objectives of sponsorship,...

Hoshin Kanri: Policy Management In Japanese-Owned UK Subsidiaries

This paper presents the findings from an ESRC two-year research project about Hoshin Kanri (policy management). Hoshin Kanri is a form of corporate-wide management that combines strategic management and operational management by linking the achievement of top management goals with daily management at an operation level. The research explored practice in real time in three Japanese manufacturing UK-based subsidiaries. This paper consists of: an introductory review of the Hoshin Kanri and Japanization literature; a description of the research and a presentation of the three case studies and the main specific issues; and a discussion of the model and the parts played by lean working and TQM, catchball and nemawashi, strategic management, and the uniqueness of Hoshin Kanri, especially in relation to conventional planning, MBO (management by objectives), and the balanced scorecard. Hoshin Kanri is found to be an organizing framework for policy-based objectives. These are translated into QCDE (quality, cost, delivery, education) targets which are used in daily management to drive progress. Hoshin Kanri employs a participative approach to developing and deploying objectives, and is driven by a process of review. Hoshin Kanri must be managed as a process. Some of the main issues include changes in organization and personnel, problems with administering periodic review, and cross-functional working in departmental forms of organization.

Balanced scorecard and hoshin kanri: dynamic capabilities for managing strategic fit

Purpose – The paper seeks to combine the uses of the balanced scorecard and hoshin kanri as integrative dynamic capabilities for the entire strategic management process. It aims to posit a model for the combination of these long‐ and short‐term organisational activities as a framework for a senior level to manage a firms strategic fit as an integrated organisation‐wide system that links top management goals to daily management.Design/methodology/approach – The resource‐based view of strategy is explored for its relevance to how a combined balanced scorecard and hoshin kanri approach serves as a high‐order dynamic capability. Examples are given from Canon, Toyota and Nissan, of how core capabilities are managed to show how strategy is executed cross‐functionally across a firms functional hierarchy.Findings – The study finds that strategic management of the organisation should consider the long‐term strategy as well as the short‐term capability. Important to this are core capabilities and core competences...

Hoshin Kanri:How Xerox manages

Abstract This article presents a case study of Hoshin Kanri practice at Xerox (UK). Hoshin Kanri is a form of TQM-based strategic management; it provides a link between strategic intent and its implementation in daily management. Xerox is an exemplar of Hoshin Kanri best practice. Key features include Xeroxs use of vital few programmes; the link with employee appraisals; an active role for a network of quality managers; a participative form of deployment; a mature form of total quality management; the use of a self-assessment model to manage the business; and a structured system of review. While implementation has been difficult, key benefits have been transparency and a common language for involving everybody in the management of strategy.

Holistic total quality management must take account of political processes

This paper outlines a holistic version of total quality management (TQM). It discusses TQMs progress to date in terms of some wider organizational issues, which in practice make holistic forms of TQM difficult to achieve. A need to recognize organizational political realities is stressed as fundamental to TQMs success.

The Adoption of Total Quality Management in Scotland

Many organizations and companies claim to “have TQM”. Details a collaboration between Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Quality Network and the Centre for Quality and Organization Change at Durham University Business School to assess the extent to which companies in Scotland indeed “have TQM”. The survey took place in 1993, covering 1,500 organizations and producing a 43 per cent response rate. Presents the results of the survey in detail and concludes that a TQM approach is now the rule rather than the exception for most organizations but that TQM has not as yet developed to its full potential. Expresses some doubts about TQM’s external focus and suggests that organizations need to organize TQM more round the needs of external customers.

Fitness for Use? Barriers to Full TQM in the UK

A brief introduction to Total Quality Management (TQM) is presented. It is a holistic concept and must be implemented as such. However, there are four barriers to full implementation. These are short‐termism, organisational segmentalism, reluctant managers, and poor industrial relations. These barriers affect some parts of the TQM model more than others: this is likely to result in partial rather than holistic TQM.

Dynamic Capabilities: Top Executive Audits and Hoshin Kanri at Nissan South Africa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of top executive audits (TEAs) as part of hoshin kanri (policy management) at Nissan South Africa (NSA). It relates these to the emerging importance of core competencies in the resource‐based view of strategy to discuss “nested” sets of dynamic capabilities and superior performance.Design/methodology/approach – The case study of NSA is considered in terms of how the firm defines its core areas, evaluates its business methodologies and management philosophies, and conducts its diagnosis of management. This was through real time internal company observation during an intensive phase of organizational change and documentation supplied by a senior manager.Findings – The style of TEAs at Nissan is related to the concepts of “core competency” and “dynamic capability.” The core business areas of NSA are organization‐wide competencies necessary for competitive success, and the management of these is shown to be most effective in the form of a TEA, which in...

Hoshin kanri: a study of practice in the UK

This article presents findings from an ESRC sponsored research project about the use of hoshin kanri (policy management) in the UK. The research used tracer studies to follow in real time the development and management of annual policies in three Japanese subsidiaries based in the UK. In addition, case histories were also compiled for companies belonging to the project’s practitioner network. The project explored hoshin kanri as a PDCA‐led strategic management process. There are important issues associated with each part of this PDCA cycle with which practitioners wrestle, but in general there remain important company‐wide benefits.

The Changing Scale of Total Quality Management

This article discusses total quality management (TQM) as something finite and as an organizational culture-based change program. Some human relations aspects of TQM are questioned. TQMs roots in quality management, its transition from a systems-based c..