Morris Foster

Strategies for Managing the TQ Agenda

Reports the findings of a research project into the development of a total quality methodology for strategic use by senior management teams aimed at enabling them to audit current approaches, revise where necessary, and then implement in order to produce TQM programmes which are resilient in the medium/long term. Recounts the empirical and theoretical work underpinning a partially inductively derived map of approaches to TQM, comprising four TQM paradigms which are postulated to be the product of managerial mindsets and which result in predominant and implicit TQM cultures in management teams. Explores the role of TQM in strategic cultural change. Finally details the development of a methodology (TQM2) based on the research findings.

The Quality Management Maze

Reviews the strengths and weaknesses of quality control, quality assurance, total quality control and total quality management and shows how you can choose the quality management style which best fits your organisation′s needs. Compares approaches to quality management and articulates the differences between total quality management and the rest of the field. Argues that the choice of QM should fit an organization′s business strategy. Contends quality is a strategic issue, central to which is the management of change, which requires a diagnosis of where the organization is now. Suggests managers should look at what competitive advantage a particular approach will deliver for their organization and not at what has been delivered to other organizations.

Teamworked organisational engineering: getting the most out of teamworking

Teamworking is proving to be a popular method of organising to exploit new technology and respond to the demands of globalisation, but having tried it, many companies are finding that effective implementation is not as easy as they first thought. New research in the Change Management Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University has identified why this is the case. Although thought by many to be a general panacea, research has identified three quite different approaches to teamworking each with different purposes, payoffs, forms, structures, strengths and weaknesses. The authors offer an outline of a prototype methodology to help managers, in their roles as architects and designers of company organisation, think through and engineer requisite teamwork arrangements.

Strategies for managing the teamworking agenda: Developing a methodology for team-based organisation ☆

Abstract This paper reports the development of a vision driven organisation design methodology, strategic designs for teamworking (SDT), for use by senior managers in their role as organisational architects and engineers. The methodology is based upon models of teamworking. These were developed from existing theory and empirical research. SDT enables managers to design or redesign a requisite organisational form at both a conceptual and detailed level, with the aim of designing and implementing a requisite organisation to contribute to the delivery of strategic objectives.

Teamworking: Redesigning the Organization for Manufacturing Improvements

This paper argues that our understanding of the different forms of teamworking in manufacturing is aided by placing teamworking within an organizational and a strategic context. The argument is developed firstly by considering changes in the manufacturing environment which have resulted in the need to overcome the legacy of traditional organization and move to contemporary forms emphasizing quality and flexibility. Secondly, there follows a discussion of the role of teamworking in the current literature, particularly that focussing on new wave manufacturing. Thirdly, extracts from one of our fourteen in-depth case studies from field work are presented as examples. This is of a car assembly plant, which used teamworking as a vehicle for major organizational change. Data analysis used Hinings and Greenwoods (H.R. Hinings & R. Greenwood, Understanding Organisational Design (Oxford, Blackwell, 1989)) theoretical framework, arguing the relevance of that model to aid our understanding of teamworking, both in...

Spirals of change

Considers the requirements for making organisational change. Contends that those companies that have made the transition have done so by changing the way in which management thinks. Goes on to detail one of the most prevalent assumptions in manufacturing management, the service factory, and ways in which thinking around this concept can be changed for the benefit of manufacturing strategy.

Customer Profiling: Getting into your Customer’s Shoes

The authors have constructed a model which breaks down customer contact in consuming a service into six steps: search, arrival, pre‐contact, contact, withdrawal, follow‐up. They argue that this “journey” should be mapped out by service organisations and the key points carefully managed.

Regenerating Your TQM Effort: What to Do When It Runs out of Steam

Total quality (TQ) is likely to fail or run out of steam 18‐24 months into the endeavour and this cycle is likely to repeat itself as the programme progresses. Discusses why this occurs and describes a methodology of resuscitating the total quality management (TQM) programme. This involves, in addition to the traditional approaches to TQ (planning, learning and visionary mindsets) introduction of the transformation mindset.

Quality ‐ It′s all in the Mindset

Explains how companies such as Milliken, have turned their minds to quality. Discusses how the inability to change basic assumptions guiding a company, helps explain why so many quality initiatives fail. Asserts the mindset challenge is to shift the focus of change from the manipulation of systems and structures to seeing the world from the customer′s perspective, and implementing programmes to meet these new requirements. Describes one organization that is meeting the challenge and how the company has changed. Concludes that everyone working for the company understands that their success in business depends on totally satisfying the customers.

TQM2 – the methodology: an approach to breathing new life into your TQ effort

Companies which seem to have succeeded in complementing TQ programmes over time appear to be those which have acquired the capability to change direction frequently. Argues that the choice managers make about which direction they take depends on the particular mindset they use. Describes research which highlighted four different quality mindsets. Most TQ approaches can be placed in one of these. Concludes that those senior managers of companies who were seen as leaders in quality appear to have frequently reformed the way they think. This results in changes of direction in their approach to quality.