Top management commitment and Empowerment of employees in TQM implementation Thaddeus Litie Njie Linus Teku Fon Gbolahan Awomodu This thesis comprises 15 ECTS credits and is a compulsory part in the Master of Science with a major in Industrial Engineering-Quality and Environmental management Nr. 9/ 2008
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Top management commitment and
Empowerment of employees in TQM
implementation
Thaddeus Litie Njie
Linus Teku Fon
Gbolahan Awomodu
This thesis comprises 15 ECTS credits and is a compulsory part in the Master of Science with a major in Industrial Engineering-Quality and Environmental management
Nr. 9/ 2008
Top management commitment and empowerment of employees in TQM implementation
Thaddeus Litie Njie
Linus Teku Fon
Gbolahan Awomodu
Master thesis
Subject Category: Industrial Engineering- Quality and Environmental Management
Series and Number 9/2008
University College of Borås
School of Engineering
SE-501 90 BORÅS
Telephone +46 033 435 4640
Examiner: Dr. Henrik Eriksson
Supervisor: Dr. Maria Fredriksson
Client: Theoretical thesis. School of Engineering. University college of Borås
Date: 12th June 2008
Keywords: Total quality management, Employee empowerment, Top management
commitment.
ii
Abstract
Top management commitment and employees empowerment is one of the most important and
vital principle in total quality management, because it is often assumes to have a strong
relationship with customer satisfaction. In TQM implementation top management
commitment in creating an organizational climate that empowers employees is very
imperative. Thus, this can be achieved with top management commitment in training
employees and giving employees opportunities to be responsible for the quality of their work.
TQM strategy brings about a turn around in corporate culture as compared to the old
traditional system of management in which the top management simply give orders and the
employees merely obey them. In this study we’ll show that TQM objective of quality
improvement and customer satisfaction can be better achieve if the top management are
committed to empower employees to be responsible for the quality of their work and also
empowerment in relation to decision making authority and process. We’ll as well show that
empowerment in TQM brings about a flattened organizational chart where there is a shared
responsibility between the managers and the employees. Despite some arguments put forward
by some researchers to criticize employee empowerment, we’ll as well show that employees’
empowerment and improved level of job satisfaction can be facilitated by top management
leadership and commitment to the goal of customer satisfaction in TQM organization.
Keywords: Total Quality Management, Employee Empowerment, Top Management
Table 3. Correlation coefficient on employee empowerment, top management leadership and
employee job satisfaction (Ugboro and Obeng, 2000)
A B C D E F
Employee empowerment
-Delegation of decision making authority to employees
-
.4894
(.0001)
.5714
(.0001)
.4495
(.0001)
.4085
(.0001)
.6505
(.0001)
-Employee participation in decision making process
- .4925
(.0001)
.6603
(.0001)
.4779
(.0001)
.4831
(.0001)
.7470
(.0001)
-Employee access to information
- .5759
(.0001)
.5369
(.0001)
.4743
(.0001)
.6413
(.0001)
.6559
(.0001)
Empowerment Summated .7893
(.0001)
Top Management Leadership
-Leadership
- .4959
(.0001)
.6873
(.0001)
.4383
(.0001)
.4172
(.0001)
.6649
(.0001)
-Commitment/Involvement - .4216
(.0001)
.5793
(.0001)
.4294
(.0001)
.3824
(.0001)
.5719
(.0001)
-Resource allocation - .3743
(.0001)
.5287
(.0001)
.4170
(.0001)
.2934
(.0001)
.5779
(.0001)
Top management summated .7136
(.0001)
The level of significance is in brackets
A. Job satisfaction summated
B. Promotion and career advancement opportunity
C. Equitable reward
D. Work environment
E. The job
F. Participation
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We found this article and secondary data on the Science Direct data base by Pearson et al.
(1995) imperative in our methodology to highlight TQM awareness and implementation by
managers.
Table 4. IS- Managers TQM awareness. (Pearson et al. 1995)
No: Heard of TQM: (n = 111)
1 Yes 90 (81.1%)
2 No 21 (18.9%)
Understanding of TQM Concepts/tools: (n = 90)
1 Completely 3 (3.3%)
2 Fairly well 41 (45.6%)
3 Somewhat 34 (37.8%)
3 A little 12 (13.3%)
4 Confused 0 (0.0%)
Perception of TQM Impact on IS: (n = 90)
1 Very Significant 28 (31.1%)
2 Significant 43 (47.8%)
3 Moderate 19 (21.1%)
4 Very Little 0 (0.0%)
21
The figure below will be used to stress the point that in TQM implementation there is a turn
around in corporate culture where the organizational chart is more flattened and no longer the
old traditional system of management whereby managers just gives order and the employees
simply merely obey them.
Line employees
supervisors
Middle
t
CEO
CUSTOMER
Line employees
supervisors
Middle
tCEO
CUSTOMER
Traditional base management TQM based management
Fig 3. Traditional versus TQM-based management approaches (Pearson et al. 1995)
All these concepts and secondary data will be highlighted, reviewed and discussed critically in
our analysis and discussion chapter.
22
4. Analysis and Discussion
4.1 Employees participation and involvement
The correlation in table 2 shows a strong and significant relationship between top
management in terms of leadership role and employee empowerment in delegation of decision
making authority and involvement in decision making process. This implies that the top
management gives sufficient power to the employees in the decision making authority and
process. In terms of commitment, the top management are committed to empower the
employees in involvement in decision making process but not committed to give them
sufficient powers in decision making authority. In relation to resource allocation, the results
show that the top management do not give sufficient power to employees in decision making
authority but employees are a little involve the in the decision making process. From table 2
it is very evident that the top management prefer to empower the employees by involving
them in the decision making process but very little is done to empower them in decision
making authority. From table 3 it is evident that the employees are satisfied with their job
when empowerment is fully implemented in TQM organizations.
In TQM implementation, empowerment is an important aspect because the employee needs to
feel some control over their work and what actually brings about motivation is the fulfilment
of needs. If employees are sufficiently empowered it will definitely motivate them because
they will be satisfied with their job (Table 3). It is very imperative that the employees should
be given sufficient authority to accept the quality of their own work and they should be fully
involved in the definition of the organization quality mission and objectives. The managers
should be committed to communicate definitions clearly to employees such that they don’t
develop their own definition and bring about some inevitable ambiguity. The employees
should be given sufficient power to some control over key resources as well as the right to
know and question the organization imperatives. Empowerment programs cannot be fully
effective without training because training will enable the employees to know more about the
goals of TQM and also knowledge and skills they are required to have to be able to achieve
these goals. Employees are often in the best position to recognize problems and probably
make improvement if they are equipped to take steps to make the improvements.
23
4.2 Top management commitment
From the results in table 2 it can be seen that the top management are committed to empower
employees in involvement in decision making process in terms of leadership role and resource
allocation. Table 3 also points out clearly that the top management was satisfied with their job
while carrying on the empowerment initiative as shown by the high correlation coefficient in
top management summated (Table 3). From table 4, it is evident that some managers can
know about TQM but do not implement the concept. 81.1% of Information System (IS)
managers have a good knowledge about TQM but just 3.3% of the managers understand TQM
concepts and tools (Table 4). With respect to perception of TQM impact on information
system just 31.1% agreed that TQM has a significant effect on IS.
Top management stands as the front runner of any institution, organization, company, in
which the outcome is a reflection of their capability and commitment. TQM cannot be fully
implemented with total commitment from top managers. Minjoon et al. (2004), points out that
some TQM programs have failed in the implementation due to negligence and reluctance of
top management to delegate power and responsibility to subordinates. Some managers are
afraid due to insecurity because they believe they are accountable for their subordinates. Some
do believe that the subordinate do lack the managerial ability and appropriate skills and as a
result of this there is that lack of confidence to delegate task. That is the more reason why in
TQM implementation training is a very important imperative. Top management should be
responsible for training the employees to gain the skills and ability required to perform their
task effectively. Top managers need to realize that empowering employees through self
manage teams; quality improvement teams and management team will bring much benefit to
the organization, through individual knowledge and skills. Thus, top management
commitment requires that management at all levels should reassign the role from authoritarian
to coaching facilitator because top management commitment does not mean dictatorship but
rather their ability to monitor and control their empowered employees and giving room for
their middle and line managers to take responsibility in decision making.
4.3 Total quality management
TQM is significantly about collective use of ideas that are well structured in reaching the
same goal of customer satisfaction or exceeding customers’ expectations. Before the top
management can be committed to empower employees they must have a full understanding
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and concept of TQM and how to use the tool to achieve its aim. Figure 3 gives a good
illustration about a TQM base management. In a traditional base management the top
managers simply give orders and the employees just merely obey them. In a TQM base
management as shown in figure 2, the organizational chart is more flattened and there is a
shared responsibility between the managers and employees. TQM based management is
largely base on team work and the customer is the top priority. Table 2, gives a better review
of correlations and the importance of commitment, leadership role, participation, delegation of
decision making and top management involvement in improving the quality standard of TQM
organization.
Taking a further critical look at Table 2 and Table 3; it was deduced that top management has
more of leadership role to play in decision making. This could be described in terms used by
Hoffherr et al. (1994) that stressed on the importance of top management being focused
minded to have higher drive for business excellence. This further requires commitment and
support of the initial structuring of TQM implementation in organizations. This keeps in line
with the report by Minjoon et al. (2004), that lack of top management support has caused
TQM failure in organization. On the other hand, top management less commitment to job and
inefficient resource allocation and full involvement of all employees in TQM practice has
substantially reduced the efficiencies of participation. The top management introduces
programs but they do not partake in the program initiated, either by using excuses because of
their other engagements or due to self confidence. Emerald (2005), advised on proper
commitment of top management in implementation of TQM and also the importance of their
participation during the process of decision implementation. Therefore, organization should
delegate more of their decision making also to lower level employees. Delegation of powers
was as well supported by Heaphy and Henderson (1990) and also by Garvin (1988) that
organizations should change their concept or idea of not allowing lower level staff free hand
that could easily make them implement technically process changes in using TQM.
Subsequently, TQM gives references and priority to customer first, by understanding the
needs or strives to meet beyond the satisfaction of customers. Top management are
encouraged to use statistical initiative in their decision making while all stakeholders are fully
involved in process of quality management.
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5. Conclusion
Total quality management is a management approach that brings about quality awareness in
all organizational processes. For TQM to be effected in its entirety it is imperative that the top
management should be committed to empower the employees by delegating sufficient
authority for them to make both individual and collective decision. Despite some criticism to
empowerment such as lack of confidence for top management to delegate task to employees
because they feel that they lack the managerial ability and appropriate skills, it has been
shown in this study that of a full TQM program the employees need to be trained in order to
have the skills and knowledge. When the employees are sufficiently empowered through
training it will definitely motivate them and will eventually lead to job satisfaction. In TQM
programs the top management should be committed to empower the employees to resolve
customer’s complaint quickly and effectively after receiving proper training on teamwork and
problem solving techniques.
When organizations are thinking of implementing empowerment programs, it is very
imperative that the management should develop and communicate definitions clearly. If
definitions are not clearly stated employees may develop their definitions and it may bring
about some inevitable ambiguity within the organization. Empowerment programs should be
designed in such a way that employees who have very little or no power may have some
powers to overcome some forms of dominations such as the control of some key resources
within their domain and also having access to make decisions as well as questioning some
imperatives about the organization.
It has also be shown in this study that TQM requires a turn around in corporate culture as
compared to the old transitional form of management in which the top managers gives order
and the employees simply obey them. In a full TQM program the organizational chart is more
flattened and there is a shared responsibility between managers and employees and this will
eventually resolve quality problems faster and easier because every one will be responsible
for their activity.
26
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