Pei-Chun Lai

Breaking through barriers to TQM effectiveness: Lack of commitment of upper-level management

Abstract This paper examines the importance of senior management commitment to successful implementation of TQM initiatives. Subsumed under the general heading of senior management commitment will be the issues of employee commitment and, in consequence, the TQM success. The interrelationship between CEO commitment, employee commitment and effectiveness of TQM programmes is usually a very close and linear one, not least because, if a TQM organization wishes to improve and achieve success it has no choice but to be committed fully from top to shop floor. As commitment of senior management and employees are not substitutable, it is difficult to study either issue in isolation. The paper opens with an attempt to offer a clear explanation of TQM practices, and goes on from this to outline the importance of a highly-committed CEO and his or her senior management team as a test of whether an organization considers TQM initiatives as a managerial panacea towards competitive advantage or just another management fad. The implications of management commitment for employee motivation and wider aspects of TQM success are discussed. The paper then examines the evidence that ‘mobility of management’ – Demings fourth deadly disease – has a negative effect at both aggregate and company levels, and instances the ways in which world-class organizations utilize senior management commitment to act as a spur to the adoption and successful implementation of TQM programmes. The changes in CEOs or other top executives that have recently taken place are surveyed, and it is argued that the evidence indicates the centrality of ‘mobility of senior management’ to TQM failure. Following on from this, some potential problem areas in terms of current causes of low commitment of senior management and why CEO commitment dropped off so dramatically, are discussed, followed by a number of general organizational factors adduced to explain these barriers to TQM success. The paper concludes with some brief remarks about prospects for the highly-committed senior management of TQM organizations, and the need for further empirical research on the factors that impedes transition to a stable total quality (TQ) environment.

The Compatibility of Performance Appraisal Systems With TQM Principles - Evidence From Current Practice

Purpose – This paper aims to address the question whether or not quality‐driven organisations have, in practice, tended to adjust their performance appraisal systems to integrate total quality management (TQM) requirements.Design/methodology/approach – To do so, the findings of an initial literature survey suggested the combined use of quantitative and qualitative methods for empirical research. The quantitative element consists of a postal questionnaire survey of 64 UK‐based, quality‐driven organisations on the topic of performance appraisal in the context of TQM. Key informants from ten of these organisations were subsequently interviewed in order to gather detailed information on the reasons behind their initial responses.Findings – The results indicated that only a minority of the respondents were satisfied with their TQM programmes. But this comparative lack of success did not lead them to eliminate performance appraisal altogether, as advocated by Deming and others because of the role of systems‐lev...

Asset specificity in make or buy decisions for service operations: An empirical application in the Scottish hotel sector

Purpose – This work analyses make or buy decisions from the transaction cost economics perspective and the resource‐based view of the firm. The aim is to analyse the extent to which the presumptions of the two theories are valid in the service sector in terms of specific assets.Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted on a representative sample of hotels in Scotland, UK. Each of the surveyed hotels was asked for information about 13 operations or hotel processes. A comprehensive model is developed that establishes the relationship between asset specificity and operation performance and hotel or business performance, moderated by the form of governance (make or buy). Moreover, the relationship between asset specificity and outsourcing in the hotel sector is also examined. The different hotel processes are classified according to the asset specificity. The factors that could lead to an increase in the outsourcing strategy are also analysed.Findings – The results indicate that, the relationship ...

Approaches to quality management in the UK: survey evidence and implications

Purpose – This paper seeks to shift the focus to the implications of various quality management systems, as a pervasive feature of modern organisational life, for business excellence.Design/methodology/approach – A mail‐based survey is conducted among a total of 150 UK‐based European Foundation for Quality Management‐affiliated organisations. This quantitative methodology sounds appropriate, given that there is a relative dearth of evidence regarding the nature of quality management systems as quality‐driven organisations pursue continuous improvement through such systems.Findings – Together, International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) series and other total quality management (TQM) models were seen as helping organisations in the journey towards business excellence. Despite the apparently high level of interest in various forms of quality management systems, however, a major discrepancy was found between the rhetoric of these systems and the reality of their practice. For example, little evidenc...

Managing Change Initiatives: Fantasy or Reality? The Case of Public Sector Organisations

Abstract It is becoming a commonplace statement that change initiative programmes are key tools to organisational long-term success. To this end, the last two decades have witnessed a surge of interest in the take-up of various change initiative programmes. Organisational change initiatives, we are told by many commentators, can maximise shareholder value (i.e. economic value theory) and develop organisational capabilities (i.e. organisational capability theory). Specifically, in recent years, as companies have been confronted by the conditions of heightened competition, globalisation, and advancements in communications and information technologies, economic recession and a simultaneous search for excellence, so the desire to take up change initiatives has interested the majority of leading organisations. At the same time, however, the analysis of the prospects for the majority of change management tools reveals so many deep-seated barriers to change with the consequence of little success in practice. This article explores this apparent contradiction, arguing that, despite a heightened interest in the take-up of change initiatives, very few change programmes produce an improvement in bottom-line, exceed the companys cost of capital, or even improve service delivery. It also offers an explanation of why this is the case. To provide empirical verification for this, the article presents the results of four case studies conducted at public sector organisations in the UK. The findings continue to point to the ineffective nature of the top managements contribution to managing organisational change programmes. Finally, using the case evidence, combined with previous research findings, the article explores the implications for senior management of attempts to move from, as Mintzberg (1999∶ 146) put it, ‘direction and supervision towards protection and support’.

The triangular supply chain relationship: labour dispatch agencies, hospitality sector, and flexible workers: the Taiwan experience.

Much has been written on the nature of labour flexibility in the Western context and the extent to which it benefits employers in terms securing them cost-effective operations and flexible workers by offering them contingent work arrangements. Absent in this debate has been any examination of the nature and extent of labour flexibility in the non-Western context. This article aims to broaden the debate and examines the current application of labour flexibility practices and its resultant implications in the novel context of Taiwan – with a particular focus on the hospitality industry. The choice of hospitality industry is in line with the recent CEPDs1 call for labour dispatch agencies to be considered as a promotional service industry among 12 categories of services. Data derived from focus group studies and individual in-depth interviews at four hotels and their partner labour dispatch agencies elicited the triangular relationship among labour dispatch agencies, client hotels, and agency workers. In contrast to previous similar research of the Western context where labour flexibility was primarily seen to secure lower labour costs, it was found that tight managerial control over the flexible workforce plays a crucial role in adopting contingent work arrangements. Moreover, the results indicate that flexible workers are regarded as a cost rather than being considered as the rhetoric of human capital.

Just‐in‐time labour supply in the hotel sector

Purpose – Aims to propose possible solutions to the characteristically erratic demand fluctuations in the hotel sector by applying just‐in‐time (JIT) philosophy through the development of relationships with employment agencies.Design/methodology/approach – Case study data was collected within seven London four‐star or five‐star hotel housekeeping departments and their associated external labour suppliers, the employment agencies, using in‐depth interviews, followed by documentary research and observation.Findings – Points to a future interest in how to create and maintain good relations between three actors, in terms of the company, the recruitment industry and staff. This triangular relationship requires further empirical study in order to assess more fully the applicability of JIT principles to HRM in the hotel sector.Originality/value – Identifies a range of human resource strategies which both build on and go beyond the models traditionally associated with the manufacturing context.Purpose – Aims to propose possible solutions to the characteristically erratic demand fluctuations in the hotel sector by applying just‐in‐time (JIT) philosophy through the development of relationships with employment agencies. Design/methodology/approach – Case study data was collected within seven London four‐star or five‐star hotel housekeeping departments and their associated external labour suppliers, the employment agencies, using in‐depth interviews, followed by documentary research and observation. Findings – Points to a future interest in how to create and maintain good relations between three actors, in terms of the company, the recruitment industry and staff. This triangular relationship requires further empirical study in order to assess more fully the applicability of JIT principles to HRM in the hotel sector. Originality/value – Identifies a range of human resource strategies which both build on and go beyond the models traditionally associated with the manufacturing context.

A New Look at Factors Influencing TQM Failure: Work Process Control or Workforce Control?

By drawing on multi-case data, there is some evidence to suggest that total quality management (TQM) effectiveness can be viewed as a direct function of the controlling mechanisms that senior managers created prior to TQM implementation. More importantly, control tools of TQM were not used by non-managerial employees, with which they could reduce variability or achieve uniformity; rather, they were regarded as a weapon used by their managers against them.

Do relational norms matter in hotel outsourcing relationships? Lesson learned from hotel sectors

The study examines relational norms in outsourcing relationships. The study analyzes some factors that determine the use of relational norms, such as outsourcing benefits and the competitive strategy (cost leadership and differentiation). In addition, it analyzes the influence of the use of relational norms on the outsourcing success. Based on a sample of 127 outsourcing relationships in two tourist destinations, a partial least squares structural model was used to test the hypotheses. The findings show that the outsourcing benefits and competitive strategy determine the use of relational norms. They also show that there is a positive relationship between relational norms and outsourcing success. Some differences were found between the two destinations analyzed.

An Empirical Investigation of Management Understanding of Process Control: The Case of Quality Driven Organisations

By drawing on multi-case data, there is some evidence to suggest that total quality management (TQM) effectiveness can be viewed as a direct function of the controlling mechanisms that senior managers created prior to TQM implementation. More importantly, control tools of TQM were not used by non-managerial employees, with which they could reduce variability or achieve uniformity; rather, they were regarded as a weapon used by their managers against them.