Southern Cross University ePublications@SCU eses 2005 Total quality management as the basis for organizational transformation of Indian Railways: a study in action research Madhu Ranjan Kumar Southern Cross University ePublications@SCU is an electronic repository administered by Southern Cross University Library. Its goal is to capture and preserve the intellectual output of Southern Cross University authors and researchers, and to increase visibility and impact through open access to researchers around the world. For further information please contact [email protected]. Publication details Kumar, MR 2005, 'Total quality management as the basis for organizational transformation of Indian Railways: a study in action research', DBA thesis, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW. Copyright MR Kumar 2005
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Southern Cross UniversityePublications@SCU
Theses
2005
Total quality management as the basis fororganizational transformation of Indian Railways: astudy in action researchMadhu Ranjan KumarSouthern Cross University
ePublications@SCU is an electronic repository administered by Southern Cross University Library. Its goal is to capture and preserve the intellectualoutput of Southern Cross University authors and researchers, and to increase visibility and impact through open access to researchers around theworld. For further information please contact [email protected].
Publication detailsKumar, MR 2005, 'Total quality management as the basis for organizational transformation of Indian Railways: a study in actionresearch', DBA thesis, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.Copyright MR Kumar 2005
1.1 Background to research.................................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Research problem............................................................................................................................................ 2 1.2.1 Research pathway...................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Contribution............................................................................................................................................... 4
1.3 Justification for research ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.3.1 Need to change for Indian Railways.......................................................................................................... 5
1.5 Outline of this thesis........................................................................................................................................ 6
2.1.2.1 Historical background...................................................................................................................... 15 2.1.2.2 Commonalty among quality gurus:.................................................................................................. 18
2.1.3 TQM as a philosophy of change.............................................................................................................. 21
2.2 Immediate discipline ..................................................................................................................................... 23 2.2.1 Total Quality Management- a systems perspective ................................................................................. 23
2.2.1.1 TQM and System Dynamics............................................................................................................ 29 2.2.1.2 Systems theory, TQM and organisational learning.......................................................................... 31 2.2.1.3 Organisational knowledge creating process..................................................................................... 33 2.2.1.4 Learning and second order change .................................................................................................. 35
2.2.2 Critical success factors for TQM............................................................................................................. 36 2.2.3 Different International Quality Awards................................................................................................... 38
2.2.3.1 History of quality awards................................................................................................................. 39 2.2.3.2 Commonality and differences among different quality awards ....................................................... 41 2.2.3.3 Change in the criteria of quality awards over time .......................................................................... 42
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2.2.3.4 Commonalities and differences between DP (2004) and MBNQA(2004)...................................... 45 2.2.3.5 TQM and awards in public sector.................................................................................................... 47 2.2.3.6 TQM in India and Indian quality awards ......................................................................................... 49 2.2.3.7 Indian quality awards vs. MBNQA & EQA .................................................................................... 53
2.2.4 Synthesis of system dynamics, CSFs and quality award criteria............................................................. 56 2.2.5 Total Quality Management and ISO........................................................................................................ 58
2.2.5.1 ISO 9000:2000 and TQM ................................................................................................................ 60 2.2.5.2 Factors affecting transition from ISO to TQM ................................................................................ 64 2.2.5.3 Quality movement in India and ISO ................................................................................................ 65
2.2.6 TQM and culture ..................................................................................................................................... 67 2.2.6.1 Indian work culture.......................................................................................................................... 70 2.2.6.2 Duality of traditionalism and modernism in Indian culture ............................................................. 73 2.2.6.3 Recent changes in Indian work culture ............................................................................................ 74 2.2.6.4 Nurturant task leadership ................................................................................................................. 76 2.2.6.5 Juxtaposition of culture for TQM and Indian culture ...................................................................... 77 2.2.6.6 Comparison between Japanese culture and Indian culture............................................................... 79
2.2.7 Indian Bureaucracy.................................................................................................................................. 80 2.2.7.1 Characteristics of Indian bureaucracy............................................................................................. 81 2.2.7.2 Changing the bureaucracy ............................................................................................................... 83 2.2.7.3 TQM and change in government bureaucracy and in public sector................................................. 86 2.2.7.4 Summary of TQM in bureaucracy .................................................................................................. 88
2.2.8 TQM and transformational leadership..................................................................................................... 89 2.2.8.1 Impact of cultural factors on transformational leadership ............................................................... 91 2.2.8.2 Transformational leadership in India ............................................................................................... 92
2.3.Summary of literature review and overview of the central problem........................................................ 93
2.4. Identification of the gaps which need investigation.................................................................................. 97 Chapter 3 Research questions and research methodology ............................... 98
3.1 Research questions ........................................................................................................................................ 98
3.2 Different research paradigms..................................................................................................................... 100
3.3 Development of research map.................................................................................................................... 106
3.4 Research Design for stage 1........................................................................................................................ 108 3.4.1 Survey A - Assessment of organisational policies and practices in the Indian Railways ...................... 108 3.4.2 Survey B - Assessment of cultural values of Indian Railway personnel .............................................. 109
3.5 Research design for stage 2......................................................................................................................... 111 3.5.1 Survey C – Assessment of the impact of ISO 9000 in the Indian Railways.......................................... 112
3.5.1.1 Sampling plan for survey C ........................................................................................................... 112 3.5.2 Survey D - Development of scale to measure the transition of ISO certified organisations towards TQM........................................................................................................................................................................ 124
3.6 Questionnaire design and administration for survey D ........................................................................... 124 3.6.1 Development and evaluation of questionnaire....................................................................................... 125 3.6.2 Development of measurement scale ...................................................................................................... 129 3.6.3 General issues in drafting the questionnaire .......................................................................................... 129 3.6.4 Pre-test, revision and final draft ............................................................................................................ 130 3.6.5 Reliability and validity of the instrument .............................................................................................. 130 3.6.6 Survey method....................................................................................................................................... 133
3.7 Research design for stage 3......................................................................................................................... 133 3.7.1 Development of research design for stage 3.......................................................................................... 133
3.9 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................... 135 Chapter 4 Data collection and data analysis.......................................................136
4.1 Data collection and data analysis for survey A......................................................................................... 136
4.2 Data collection and data analysis for survey B ......................................................................................... 143 4.2.1 Data collection....................................................................................................................................... 143 4.2.2 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 144
4.3 Data collection and data analysis for survey C......................................................................................... 148 4.3.1 Understanding the impact of ISO implementation on railway units in terms of intervening variables . 149
4.4 Data collection and data analysis for survey D......................................................................................... 150 Chapter 5 The action research project ................................................................153
5.1 Situating Action Research in a Research Paradigm................................................................................. 153
5.2 Situating action research within systems theory ...................................................................................... 158 5.2.1 Soft System methodology...................................................................................................................... 158 5.2.2 Soft system methodology as action research ......................................................................................... 160
5.3 Justification of Action Research as the research methodology for this thesis........................................ 161
5.4 Research model for Action Research......................................................................................................... 164
5.5 Rigour and validity in the Action Research .............................................................................................. 167 5.5.1 Falsification ........................................................................................................................................... 170 5.5.2 Reflection and three levels of learning .................................................................................................. 171 5.5.3 Intervention ........................................................................................................................................... 175 5.5.4 General criteria for assessing rigour in AR ........................................................................................... 176 5.5.5 Rigour and validity in this Action Research.......................................................................................... 177
5.6 Action research at Jhansi Stores Depot..................................................................................................... 180 5.6.1 Selection of unit for action research ...................................................................................................... 180 5.6.2 About Jhansi Stores Depot .................................................................................................................... 180 5.6.3 The action research cycles..................................................................................................................... 182 5.6.4 Experiential learning during action research ......................................................................................... 198
Chapter 6 Reflection after action and development of ‘TQM transition model’................................................................................................................................203
6.1 Reflection after action................................................................................................................................. 203 6.1.1 Reflection after action- 1 ....................................................................................................................... 203 6.1.2 Reflection after action- 2 ....................................................................................................................... 207 6.1.3 Reflection after action- 3 ....................................................................................................................... 209 6.1.4 Reflection after action- 4 ....................................................................................................................... 210 6.1.5 Development of TQM transition model ................................................................................................ 214
6.2.1 The next action cycle............................................................................................................................. 223 6.2.2 Action Research revisited...................................................................................................................... 226
6.3 Validation of the TQM transition model................................................................................................... 227 Chapter 7 Conclusion ...........................................................................................231
7.2 Conclusions about research problems....................................................................................................... 231
7.3 Conclusion about research issue ................................................................................................................ 234
7.4 Assessment of Rigour in this Action Research.......................................................................................... 237
7.5 Contribution to literature ........................................................................................................................... 238 7.5.1 Findings which support the existing literature...................................................................................... 238 7.5.2 Finding which is contrary to existing literature ..................................................................................... 239 7.5.3 Findings which are contribution to existing literature ........................................................................... 239
7.6 Contribution to policy and practice........................................................................................................... 240 7.6.1 Implications for Indian Railways .......................................................................................................... 240 7.6.2 Implications for Indian organisations .................................................................................................... 241 7.6.3 Implications for organisations in general .............................................................................................. 242
7.7 Contribution to methodology ..................................................................................................................... 242
Appendix 1. Tables and figures about quality awards................................................................................... 281
Appendix 2. Assessment of organisational policies......................................................................................... 301 Appendix 2A Summary of responses to question no.II to question no. VI of the questionnaire ‘assessment of organisational policies’ (Survey A)................................................................................................................ 311
Appendix 3. Behaviour preference scale ( S 004) ........................................................................................... 321 Appendix 3A Data analysis for the questionnaire S004 (survey B) ............................................................... 328
Appendix 4. ISO 9000 Survey .......................................................................................................................... 338 Appendix 4A Summary of survey C in six ISO certified units of Indian Railways ....................................... 350
Appendix 7. Organization chart of Indian Railways...................................................................................... 385
Appendix 8. Intimation about co- action researchers .................................................................................... 386
Appendix 9. List of ISO certified units in the Indian Railways..................................................................... 389
Appendix 10. Organisational Chart of Jhansi workshop unit of Indian Railways...................................... 393
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List of Figures Figure 2. 1 Concept map for literature review......................................................................... 12 Figure 2. 2 The yin-yang of TQM ........................................................................................... 15 Figure 2. 3 Simplified example of an organization as a system .............................................. 26 Figure 2. 4 Milestones of organisational roots ........................................................................ 28 Figure 2. 5 Milestones of quality development ....................................................................... 28 Figure 2. 6 Quality and business results .................................................................................. 29 Figure 2. 7 Modes of knowledge creation in an organization ................................................. 34 Figure 2. 8 The four types of learning as polar opposites........................................................ 35 Figure 2. 9 European Quality Model ....................................................................................... 41 Figure 2. 10 Model of a process-based quality management system ...................................... 61 Figure 2. 11 Characteristics of internal work culture of organizations in developing countries
in the context of their sociocultural environment ............................................................ 68 Figure 2. 12 Nurturant-Task leadership process leading to participative management........... 76 Figure 2. 13 Socio cultural factors in MBNQA and JQA....................................................... 78 Figure 2. 14 Summary of literature review and gaps in existing literature ............................ 96 Figure 3. 1 Different assumptions about nature of reality ..................................................... 101 Figure 3. 2 Research map ..................................................................................................... 107 Figure 3. 3 Existing functional silos in Indian Railways....................................................... 117 Figure 3. 4 Model of a process-based quality management system ...................................... 119 Figure 3. 5 Plan for development of ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ .................................. 124 Figure 5. 1 The action research cycle .................................................................................... 153 Figure 5. 2 The experiential learning cycle ........................................................................... 154 Figure 5. 3 The oscillation between reflection and generalisation ........................................ 155 Figure 5. 4 Conceptual link between TQM and AR.............................................................. 164 Figure 5. 5 Two-project model for AR based thesis.............................................................. 165 Figure 5. 6 Research model used in stage 3 shown within the AR framework ..................... 166 Figure 5. 7 The ORJI within experiential learning cycle....................................................... 175 Figure 5. 8 Model for validation of learning which occurred in each cycle by using different
methods, different sources of data and different types of data ...................................... 178 Figure 6. 1 Model for sequential development of TQM factors using the ISO framework .. 215 Figure 6. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in India using the ISO framework.............. 218 Figure 7. 1 Reproduction of Figure 2.14 showing gaps in existing literature ....................... 235 Figure 7. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in Indian Railways using the ISO framework
thereby filling up the gap shown in Figure 7.1 .............................................................. 236 Figure 8. 1 The structure of an appreciative system.............................................................. 248
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Figure 8. 2 Unbundling of standards of fact and value into three components of time, person and ecology and their positioning along the Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft continuum........................................................................................................................................ 250
Figure 8. 3 Integration of mode 2 of SSM with context sensitivity and balancing ............... 252
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List of Tables Table 2. 1 Traditional change model vs. complex adaptive change model ............................. 14 Table 2. 2 Commonalities among seminal TQM work ........................................................... 19 Table 2. 3 Definition of variable for enablers.......................................................................... 30 Table 2. 4 Definition of variables for results ........................................................................... 31 Table 2. 5 Differences in checklists of Deming prize 1992 and Deming prize 2000.............. 43 Table 2. 6 Differences in the criteria of MBNQA 1992 and MBNQA 2004 .......................... 44 Table 2. 7 Major Indian National Quality Awards .................................................................. 52 Table 2. 8 Comparison of Indian Quality Awards with MBNQA & EQA ............................. 54 Table 2. 9 CSFs for TQM and CEBEA criteria....................................................................... 55 Table 2. 10 ISO 9000 and Deming’s system of profound knowledge.................................... 62 Table 2. 11 Comparison of MBNQA, EFQM and ISO 9000......................................................... 63 Table 2. 12 Societal values of Indian managers after liberalisation ........................................ 75 Table 2. 13 Comparison between vertical collectivism and horizontal collectivism .............. 79 Table 3. 1 Research questions for this work............................................................................ 99 Table 3. 2 Basic belief systems of alternative enquiry paradigms......................................... 102 Table 3. 3 Quality criteria for different research paradigm ................................................... 104 Table 3. 4 Typology of sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry ........................................ 113 Table 3. 5 Analysis of different categories of railway units on clauses of ISO 9000:2000 .. 120 Table 3. 6 Percentiles for individual scores, based on others’ ratings on MLQ.................... 123 Table 3. 7 Operationalisation of different factors of ‘ TQM transition questionnaire’ ......... 128 Table 3. 8 Summary of scores obtained on the TQM transition questionnaire by DP winners
in India and ISO certified different units of Indian Railways........................................ 132 Table 4. 1 Respondent profile for survey A........................................................................... 136 Table 4. 2 Comparison of codes developed in survey A with the CSFs of TQM ................. 139 Table 4. 3 Existing and proposed organisational dimensions for Indian Railways by senior railway
managers ......................................................................................................................... 142 Table 4. 4 Number of respondents in different categories for survey B................................ 144 Table 4. 5 Scores obtained on the three dimensions of ‘status consciousness (S)’,
‘personalised relationship (P)’ and ‘dependency proneness (D) ’ by different categories of employees of Indian Railways................................................................................... 145
Table 4. 6 List of short-listed railway units for survey C ...................................................... 148 Table 4. 7 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of
Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors ....................................... 151 Table 5. 1 Comparison between three paradigms of knowledge........................................... 156 Table 5. 2 Comparison between positivist science and action research ................................ 157 Table 5. 3 Dimensions of SSM types .................................................................................... 159 Table 5. 4 First order, second order and third order learning ................................................ 173 Table 5. 5 Skills of balancing inquiry and advocacy............................................................. 174 Table 5. 6 Types of intervention............................................................................................ 176 Table 5. 7 The AR cycles....................................................................................................... 183 Table 6. 1 Different types of power....................................................................................... 204
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Table 6. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their proposed Indian cultural equivalent....................................................................................................................... 210
Table 6. 3 Improvement steps identified in May 2004 and their status in December 2004 .. 221 Table 6. 4 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of
Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors including no. of CPA and no. of reward .................................................................................................................. 228
Table 7. 1 Assessment of rigour in this action research thesis .............................................. 237 Table 7. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their Indian cultural equivalent 240
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Abbreviations AL Action Learning AMM Assistant Materials Manager AMV Alambagh Warehousing Unit AR Action Research avg average BEM Business Excellence Model BPL Bhopal Workshop BPO Business Process Outsourcing CEBEA Confederation of Indian Industries Exim Bank Excellence Award CEE Chief Electrical Engineer CFA Critical Factor Analysis ckt circuit CLW Chittaranjan Locomotive Works CME Chief Mechanical Engineer CPO Chief Personnel Officer COS Controller Of Stores CWM Chief Workshop Manager cert certificate CII Confederation of Indian Industries CII_EXIM Confederation of Indian Industries Bank Excellence Award coop cooperation CPA Corrective and Preventive Action CSF Critical Success Factor CWM Chief Workshop Manager del delivery DCW Diesel Components Works DLW Diesel Locomotive Works DEE Divisional Electrical Engineer DME Divisional Mechanical Engineer DMM District Materials Manager doc document DP Deming Prize DRM Divisional Railway Manager Dy CMM Deputy Chief Materials Manager EFQM European Foundation Quality management EQA European Quality Award EXIM Export Import Bank FA&CAO Financial Advisor and Chief Account Officer GM General Manager HPO High Performance Organisation ICF Integral Coach Factory info information ISO International Standards Organisation JPY Japanese Yen JUSE Union of Japanese Scientist and Engineers Lit Literature M&M Mahindra & Mahindra MBNQA Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award
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mgt management MLQ Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire M.R. Management Representative NC Non Conformance n.d. no date NDDB National Dairy Development Board NQA National Quality Award NT Nurturant Task OHSAS Occupational Health and Safety Management System perf performance plg planning PRL Parel Workshop proc process QC Quality Control QMS Quality Management System RCF Rail Coach Factory reduc reduction resp responsibility ret rm retiring room RWF Rail Wheel Factory (the current name of WAP) shop workshop sp qual special quality SQC Statistical Quality Control SSM Soft System Methodology stat tech statistical technique sup supervisor sys system TOR Turn Over Ratio TQM Total Quality management trg training WAP Wheel and Axle Plant
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Statement of original authorship
This is to certify that this research work titled ‘Total Quality Management as the basis for
organisational transformation of Indian Railways’ is an original work carried out by me.
Research work of other authors have been reproduced with due credit.
Ramamurti (1987) has said that when Indian managers in the public sector are free to act
independently, they can be expected to follow strategies which increase profit and resist
those that seek to reduce profit. But, when they are not free to act independently, their
decision depend on more complex factors. Sahay and Walsham (1997, p. 419) have linked
the Indian social system and Indian bureaucracy and said that the Indian bureaucracy rigidly
adheres to rules yet there is personal alliance between businessmen and bureaucrats leading
to personal gratification (we again see here the Indian tendency of personalised relationship
cropping up –researcher’s note). Little wonder, the Indian government has been rated as one
the most corrupt in the world (Khandwalla 1999, p.219). Gupta (1995), Myrdal (1968) and
Sinha et al. (2004) have dealt with different aspects of corruption in Indian bureaucracy.
Though there have been many reports about how to make the Indian bureaucracy more
responsive, it is felt that only cosmetic changes have been achieved (Pai Panadiker &
Kshirsagar 1978, p. 158).
83
2.2.7.2 Changing the bureaucracy
Resistance to change is well documented (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson 2002, p. 376;
Robbins 1997, p. 723). In the context of the public sector, Kamarck (2003) reports that there
is little incentive to innovate in the public sector. Yet, there have been many attempts to
reform bureaucracy the world over. Some of them have failed and some have succeeded.
Caiden (1991) has identified several reasons why reforming the bureaucracy fails:
(a) Imposed implementation often does not work. Cooperation and participation of
the affected staff is important.
(b) Recipes applied without taking into account local culture and activities often do
not work.
(c) Unattainable objectives- they are abstract or too ambitious.
(d) Obstructive structure, such as excessive or inadequate hierarchy, poor
communication mechanisms and poor conflict resolution mechanism.
(e) Indecisiveness
(f) Narrow vision- There is wide choice of instrumentalities for the reform process,
such as public enquiries, changes in law, scientific management, budgeting, automation,
decentralisation, privatisation, debureaucratisation and so forth. Often, reforms fail because
the reformer may over rely on just one or two instrumentalities such as change in law or
changes at the top.
(g) Poor monitoring
Notwithstanding the failure of public sector reform, there have been instances of
successful reforms in the public sector including some in the third world countries. Campos
and Root (1996) have examined how the bureaucracy was made growth oriented in east
Asian economies. They found that one crucial institutional innovation was the creation of
competent, powerful but accountable bureaucrats. This was achieved by taking the following
steps:
(a) The politicians were able to convince officials that economic growth was the over-
riding national objective as in Taiwan. In South Korea, there was close interaction between
the top political executives and the bureaucracy. The President would visit each ministry to
discuss goals and strategies and review the performance during the next visit.
84
(b) Institutionalising a meritocracy in bureaucracy. Non-performance and corruption
were punished.
(c) Relatively low differential in public and private sector compensation. Government
compensation in Singapore was about 15% higher than in the private sector.
(d) Most states framed service rules to protect officials from their seniors and from
politicians as in Japan.
This shows that it is possible to make significant change in bureaucracy
notwithstanding its many shortcomings. An example of changing the working style of
bureaucracy in a third world country comes from Malaysia. TQM was required to be
implemented in different government agencies (Hamid 1995; Khandwalla 1999, p.63). In
1989, the Malaysian government launched a countrywide ‘Excellent Work Culture’
programme. Different state agencies reviewed their operations with full participation of its
employees. Quality awards ranging from national level- called Prime Minister Quality Award
– to district and local level were instituted. Fundamental values like productivity, quality of
service, innovativeness, customer orientation, discipline, integrity and accountability, and
professionalism were stressed. Three important factors which contributed the most in
adoption of these values were: consensus building for change, support from top most political
leadership and keen monitoring by it, and a reward structure which reinforced excellence
In the context of railways, Japanese National Railways (JNR) was a public sector
unit. Much like Indian Railways, it had about 200,000 surplus employees, and it had to
invest in unprofitable, remote routes. However, it was able to convert a loss of US$ 4 billion
in 1986 to a profit of US$ 3.6 billion in 1990 without raising freight and passenger fare. This
was achieved by reorganising JNR into smaller units, reducing the staff and giving these
units freedom from parliamentary approval of budget and also permission to diversify into
other businesses (Khandwalla 1999, p.133). JNR was subsequently privatised. However it
has been reported that application of TQM in railway corporations is slow due to their
traditional management style and emphasis on operational safety (Gaffney & Chan quoted in
Chan et al. 1998).
In the Indian context, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) brought about
increase in milk production and distribution. Its ‘operation flood’ has been hailed as a
massive achievement by the UN. It has been reported that NDDB staff demonstrated high
commitment and morale, despite absence of financial incentives for individuals (Khandwalla
1999). The charismatic leadership of its chairman Mr. Kurien has been reported to be one of
the major reasons behind the success of this government organization (Srivastava 2003).
85
Khandwalla(1999, p. 119) has reported that developing a mission participatively about the
kind of contribution a government unit can make to the quality of life and then brainstorming
to find ways to pursue it under an empowering and participative leadership was critical for
the success of NDDB.
Similar significant changes in bureaucracy have been reported in Britain, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand and Singapore (Khandwalla 1999). Different countries have used
different methods to make the bureaucracy more effective. In South Korea, the development
commitment of the political masters was made credible to the bureaucracy. In Singapore, the
state was fragmented into relatively autonomous entities with clear mandate and professional
management, and in UK and Malaysia, the bureaucratic organization was made more
customer friendly through citizen charters and customer councils.
In a study of bureaucratic reform in government sector Kaul and Collins(1995) have
listed several supporting conditions for successful reforms:
(i) Political commitment for change is critical. This was also noted by Campos and
Root (1996) in their study of east Asian countries quoted earlier.
(ii) Reform has to be paced appropriately. Where reform has been held up for a long
time because of the defensiveness and rigidity of the system, and a political consensus for
reform has finally emerged, administrative reforms can be swift and radical. This process has
been called punctuated equilibrium, meaning spurts of major change within long period of
stability. Where a culture of change has been institutionalised, reforms and innovations can
be gradual based on continuous trial and error learning so that changes are gradual and time
tested, but over a period of time amount to a revolution.
(iii) The successful reform of a bureaucratic system requires involving the staff in the
change process from the beginning.
(iv) There has to be a balance between the increasing service expectation by
consumers and bureaucracy’s internal drive for change.
(v) There should be a system that recognises and rewards good performance and
penalizes poor performance. Remuneration needs to be merit based.
(vi) It has been suggested that the large organisations should be managed as if they
are made up of smaller organisations ( Peter &Waterman quoted by Khandwalla 1999, p. 96).
‘This way the strength of the small organization – fresh thinking, flexibility, teamwork – is
yoked to the strength of the large organization – large resources, risk-bearing ability,
management systems and market clout’ (Khandwalla 1999, p. 96). Fragmentation of
86
bureaucracy into smaller autonomous bodies has shown good result in England, Canada and
Malaysia (Khandwalla 1999).
2.2.7.3 TQM and change in government bureaucracy and in public sector
Since Indian Railways is a public sector, it will be instructive to look at the state of
TQM in government bureaucracies and in the public sector.
Deming had no doubt about the importance of TQM in government services:
In most governmental services, there is no market to capture. In place of capture of the market, a
governmental agency should deliver economically the service prescribed by law or regulation. The
aim should be distinction in service. Continual improvement in government service would earn
appreciation of the American public and would hold jobs in the service and help industry to create
more jobs (quoted in Ehrenberg & Stupak 1994, p. 88).
Though the service sector and the public sector have direct interaction with customers, yet,
innovative practices like TQM have been practiced more in manufacturing rather than in
service and public sector (Yasin & Wafa 2002, p. 596). It has been postulated that
implementation of TQM in a public sector may require a different orientation (Ehrenberg &
Stupak 1994). It has also been reported that it is difficult to implement and institutionalise
TQM in public service organization (Moon & Swafin-Smith 1998; Robertson & Seneviratne
1995; Stringham 2004; Yusof & Aspinwall 2000). Some works have tried to identify some of
the impediments which require special attention in implementing TQM in public sector.
These impediments have been variously described as emphasis on procedure over efficiency,
a layered structure, a short-term perspective due to frequent change of the top leadership,
separation of power which necessitates negotiation and consensus building in decision
making(A SCANS report for America 2000, p.20). Ehrenberg and Stupak(1994, p. 89), in an
early study of TQM in the public sector have said that the public sector has less incentive to
reduce costs, they have a near-term focus, external constraints, and complex, diverse, inter-
and intra-organisational relationships. Thus a different kind of quality management may be
required for public services (Yong & Wilkinson 2002). Boyne and Walker (2002, p.127) said
that a significant difference between public and private firms is the role of government
program of management reforms. Whereas private sector firms largely choose their own
87
approach to management, a government may require a program of public sector TQM to be
adopted by its agencies.
However against this theoretical observation, a study of TQM implementation in
Malaysian government agencies found that there was no need to modify TQM for public
sector (Fei & Rainey 2003).Similarly McAdam, Reid and Saulters (2002) found that in the
UK the Business Excellence Model (BEM) was found to be the preferred model for
implementation of TQM. It is in keeping with the earlier observation made during the review
of quality awards in section 2.2.3.5 that TQM is invariant across public sector and private
sector.
In the critical success factors for TQM, teamwork and empowerment have been
identified as two critical success factors (section 2.2.2 of this thesis). However, studies have
found that the hierarchical orientation of bureaucratic organization does not facilitate
teamwork or empowerment (Garland 1995; Kanter 1997; McHugh & Bennett 1999). In such
a situation, the organization ends up trying to improve its performance within its old structure,
norms and culture (McHugh & Bennett 1999). Team appraisal in place of individual
appraisal and group recognition will facilitate team working because individualist culture and
emphasis on individual achievement is not conducive for teamwork (Hackman 1990). With
this qualifying remark, some implementation of TQM in bureaucracy will now be seen.
TQM in western government bureaucracies In Europe, the concept of TQM has spread
among the public sector organisations under the name ‘New Public Management (NPM)’
(Scharitzer & Korunka 2000). NPM is more in the nature of reforming government working
through TQM concepts. Korunka et al. (2003) found that employee participation, high-
quality training and professional change management are key for successful NPM
implementation. In England, a Citizen Charter was launched that aimed to improve the
quality of services provided by the government to the citizens (Khandwalla 1999, p. 72). A
total of 38 charters, including one for rail passengers were published. Quality systems were
established which aimed at assessment of quality performance and continual monitoring of
customer satisfaction. In the USA, President Clinton established the National Performance
Review and introduced a government-wide TQM programme. At a micro level, there are
reports of TQM being applied by government sectors in West. For example in municipal
councils in U.S. (Berman & West 1995) and in New York department of Parks and
Recreation (Cohen & Eimicke 1994), TQM has been used with good results. Ehrenberg and
Stupak(1994, p. 95) have postulated that ‘because government culture may be difficult to
88
change, it may be necessary to start with smaller organisations or sub-elements of a large
organization in order to establish TQM as a useful template for organisational success in the
years ahead’. This is in line with the observation made in section 2.2.7.2.
TQM in Asian government bureaucracies A TQM approach was established in the Hong
Kong government (Chan et al. 1998). In a study of implementation of TQM in Malaysian
government agencies, Fei and Rainey (2003) found that though Malaysian organisational
culture tends to emphasise hierarchical authority, organisations with more successful TQM
implementation showed leadership patterns and organisational cultural features similar to
those espoused by TQM experts.
Also award winning TQM organisations in the Malaysian government reported higher
levels of ‘organicity’ in organisational structure ( Fei & Rainey 2003, p. 161). An organic
management system is characterised by promotion of cross-functional teams, cross-
hierarchical teams, free flow of information, decentralisation and low formalisation and wide
spans of control (Robbins 1997, p.568). The managers there scored higher on the cultural
dimensions of job challenge, communication, trust, and innovation with particularly large
difference on communication and innovation. It is to be noted that Khandwalla (1999) has
also found organicity a precondition for organisational excellence in Indian organisations.
Tata and Prasad (1998) also recommended organic structure for TQM implementation.
2.2.7.4 Summary of TQM in bureaucracy
In a recent review of innovations in government around the world, quality in
government working has been recognised as one of the six universal components of
government reform ( Kamarck 2003, p. 15). It also identified the following problems in
creation of quality culture in the public sector around the world.
(i) Public sector has difficulty competing with the private sector for the talent needed
to run the government.
(ii) Public sector faces a severe skill shortage.
(iii) Public sector employees are in general paid less.
(iv) The civil service is so bound up in rules and regulations that people are not
rewarded for performance.
(v) Excessive political patronage undercuts merit principles.
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(vi) Public servants do not always operate under the rule of law.
These are in line with the findings of Campos and Root (1996) mentioned in
section 2.2.7.2 in the context of his study of east Asian bureaucracies.
In a review of quality movement adaptation to the public sector, Campos and Root
(1996) identified the following themes:
(i) Set up of ‘one-stop shop’ or places where a person, usually a business owner, can
conduct all their transactions with the government at once.
(ii) Attempt to find out from citizens what they want and expect from government
services.
(iii) Allow citizen inputs to shape bureaucratic organization and behaviour.
(iv) Measure performance and publish whether or not the standards were met.
(v) Involve employees in the redesign of the organization.
(vi) Train government employees in customer service and organise internal incentives
around the accomplishment of quality standards.
2.2.8 TQM and transformational leadership
In section 2.2.5.2, it was seen that transformational leadership is one of the factors
that influence successful transition from ISO to TQM (Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001).
Transformational leadership has supported implementation of TQM (Reed, Lemak & Mero
2002). Robbins(1997, p.735) says that transformational leadership is needed in a learning
organization to implement a shared vision. In his study of organisational turnaround,
Khandwalla (1992, p.262) also has noted that organisational turnaround requires
transformational leadership skills. He says that change through a new mission and vision of
excellence is possible. ‘A vivid, superior, inspiring but credible alternative to the status quo
needs to be identified and communicated to the rank and file and other stakeholders, not
once but again and again, affirmed in small acts and decisions as in large, until that social
mission and/or vision of collective excellence seizes people’s imagination and pushes them
to strive for glory. The process is one of restructuring the Freudian superego (Khandwalla
1992, p.262)’. In the context of TQM, TQM award winning government agencies in
Malaysia had leaders who demonstrated transformational leadership behaviour (Fei &
Rainey 2003). These leaders demonstrated higher vision, staff development, trust,
cooperation, thinking in new ways, adherence to clear value, pride and respect (Fei & Rainey
2003, p.161). These studies show the importance of transformational leadership skills for
90
successful implementation of TQM based change. Thus, this thesis looks at transformational
leadership in more detail.
Krishnan (2002) says transformational leadership has four components: charisma,
inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. In contrast,
tools used in transactional leadership are power brokering, withholding favours, and quid pro
quo. ‘It is always tied to position power. Transactional leaders take the values, needs,
motivation and purposes of followers as given and unchanging, but transformational leaders
do not’ (Krishnan 2002, p.20). ‘A transformational leader looks for potential motives in
followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower’ (Banerji
& Krishnan, 2000, p.407) It has been suggested that the display of determination and
persistence by a transformational leader demonstrates courage and conviction in the vision
and mission, and thus inspires, empowers and motivates followers. Other studies (Project
Globe n.d.; Chhokar n.d.) have shown that transformational leaders are team builders. Bass
(1990, p.25) has suggested that transformational leaders through intellectual stimulation are
likely to build cohesion among team members. Bass and Avolio (2000) have now developed
a full range leadership model called Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X). Bass
and Avolio have divided leadership on a continuum of nine factors. Based on Bass and
Avolio (1997), the nine components of MLQ are explained now:
(i) Idealised influence (Charisma) attributes: Idealised influence is defined with respect to
associate’s reaction to the leader. Associates identify with and want to emulate their leader.
Such leaders are thoroughly respected and have much referent power. A sample item to
assess this component is ‘The leader reassures others that obstacle will be overcome’.
(ii) Idealised influence (Charisma)behaviour: It is also a part of charisma. However, here the
associates react more to the leader’s behaviour. They have complete faith in their
charismatic leader, who is seen as having attainable mission and vision. A sample item to
assess this component is ‘The leader emphasises the importance of having a collective sense
of mission’
(iii) Inspirational leadership: It involves the arousal and heightening of motivation among
followers. The leader here provides symbols, metaphors and simplified emotional appeals to
increase awareness and understanding of mutually desired goals. A sample item to assess this
component is ‘The leader articulates a compelling vision of future’.
(iv) Intellectual stimulation: Intellectual stimulation arouses in followers the awareness of
problems and how they may be solved, and stirs the imagination and generates thoughts and
91
insights. A sample item to assess this component is ‘ The leaders gets others to look at
problems from many angles’.
(v) Individualised consideration: It means leader treats individuals differently but equitably
on one to one basis. The leader recognises associates’ needs and raises their perspectives.
With individualised consideration, assignments are delegated to associates to provide
learning opportunity. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader spends time
teaching and coaching’.
(vi) Contingent reward: Clarifies what is expected from followers and what they will receive
if they meet expected levels of performance. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The
leader makes clear what one can expect to receive when performance goals are achieved’.
(vii) Active management by exception: The leader monitors to make sure mistakes are not
made and allows status quo to exist without being addressed. A sample item to assess this
component is ‘ The leader directs attention towards failure to achieve standard’.
(viii) Passive management by exception: Tends to react only after problems have become
serious to take corrective action. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader takes
no action until complaints are received’.
(ix) Laissez-faire: It indicates absence of leadership or the avoidance of intervention or both.
A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader avoids getting involved when
important issues arise’.
Bass considers the first five factors as transformational, the next three factors as
transactional and the ninth factor as abdication of leadership (Block 2003, p. 321).
Krishnan (2002, p.30) in an empirical study on American subjects further found that
subordinates whose terminal value systems match their leader’s value system are likely to see
their leader as more transformational irrespective of whether the leader’s terminal value
system is congruent with the organization’s or not. One of the managerial implications of
this is that one should pay attention to terminal values of subordinates if a change is
contemplated. This brings the issue of impact of cultural factors on transformational
leadership.
2.2.8.1 Impact of cultural factors on transformational leadership
From a study spanning 60 cultures, Globe Research Project (2002) developed the
hypothesis that certain aspect of transformational leadership are universally endorsed across
92
cultures. These aspects are motive arouser, foresight, encouraging, communicative,
trustworthy, dynamic, positive, confidence builder and motivational. Certain aspects were
cultural specific like risk taking, ambitious, self-effacing, compassionate, sincere and
sensitive. Walumbwa and Lawler (2003) examined the impact of cultural factors like
collectivism in moderating the influence of transformational leadership on work related
outcomes. He used a field survey of 577 employees from banking and financial sectors of
emerging economies, namely: China, India and Kenya. He found that collectivism supports
the relationship between transformational leadership and work related outcomes such as
organisational commitment, job satisfaction and perceptions of organisational withdrawal
behaviour. The study also supported the view that transformational leadership might be
effective across cultures.
Here the importance of collectivism lies in the fact that collectivism can be argued to
be positively related to TQM implementation. In collectivistic culture, achievement
motivation is socially oriented. That is, it does not matter who chooses the task within the in-
group; it is just as satisfying and motivating as it is if any of the in-group chooses the task.
The meaning of work is different in collectivistic cultures. Collectivists emphasize co-
operation, endurance, persistence and obedience. They tend to have long-term orientation ,
leading to long-term commitment to the organization (Bass quoted by Walumbwa & Lawler
2003, p.1087), - a requirement critical for success of TQM in an organization (Yen,
Krumwiede & Sheu 2002). Further, studies have shown that collectivism and power distance
are highly correlated (Sinha 1995). However, collectivistic society tends to be more
hierarchical ( Walumbwa & Lawler 2003, p.1084) – which is not conducive for TQM
implementation.
2.2.8.2 Transformational leadership in India
In the western context, work on transformational leadership has been done by
Bass(1990), Tichy and Devanna (1986) and Globe Research Project (2002) . Singh and
Bhandarkar (1990) and Srivastava (2003) have studied transformational leadership in the
Indian context. The following attributes have been found in the Indian transformational
leaders:
(i) They are change agents.
(ii) They are visionary.
(iii) They are courageous.
93
(iv) They do things differently.
(v) They are passionate in their commitment to task and people.
(vi) They involve and empower people.
(vii) They are interactive.
(viii) They set personal examples.
(ix) They are very ambitious.
(x) They are future oriented.
(xi) They inspire employees to meet new challenges.
(xii) They focus on long-term goals rather than short-term goals without compromising the
core values and principles.
There are many similarities between the above and the five transformational factors
postulated by Bass and mentioned in section 2.2.8. However, an important addition by
Srivastava (2003) is that transformational leaders are change agents. Chhokar (2000)
supports this when he says that action orientation and charisma are most important
characteristics for effective leadership in India. Srivastava further found that Indian
transformational leaders exhibit consultative leadership style. A consultative leader listens to
everyone but finally makes his own decision (Kalra 2002). Kalra considers consultative
leadership more participative that NT leadership (see section 2.2.6.4) and suitable for
followers less dependent and less hierarchical than the traditional Indian followers.
2.3.Summary of literature review and overview of the central problem
It is recalled that the basic focus of this research is ‘Can TQM be used as the basis for
organisational transformation of Indian Railways? If yes, how can it be effectively
implemented in Indian Railways?’
A review of the literature showed the following:
(i) TQM , as it is understood today, is akin to organisational excellence. It has come out
clearly both in the context of private organisations and in the context of government
bureaucracies where TQM has been successfully implemented. Thus it can be said with
reasonable certainty that TQM can be used for organisational transformation of Indian
Railways. Therefore what needs to be focused now is that how it can be effectively
implemented.
94
(ii) On a global scale, TQM is a well-established field of study. But notwithstanding its
popularity, the success rate of TQM implementation is not very high. In general, the
implementational emphasis of TQM has been prescriptive. Non-adaptation of TQM to
organization specific culture and values and the tendency to look at TQM as a tool and not as
a system have been the major reasons for its failure.
(iii) Organisational learning is an outcome of TQM. However the process which leads to
learning is not well explained in the present literature.
(iv) The TQM enablers are almost invariant across countries. Across the world, leadership,
policy and strategy, human resource management, process management, information
management, customer and market focus and supplier focus with suitable adaptations are the
factors or enablers which contribute to the success of TQM. Of all the factors, leadership is
of critical importance. Also, TQM in public sector need not be any different from that in the
private sector.
However, though the enablers of TQM are identified, they have not yet been
integrated into a model which can used by organizations for attaining TQM.
(v) The modification of the ISO 9000 standard in the year 2000 has given it a TQM
orientation. However, till now there has not been much reported study about the impact of
IS0 9000:2000 on organizations. Further, though ISO 9000 standard has been used as the first
step towards implementation of quality in organisations, no scale has been developed which
can objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.
(vi) Factors which affect the transition of an ISO organization to a TQM organization are
transformational leadership and a capacity to learn that is, morphing of an organization into a
learning organization. Empowerment and participative management also promote TQM.
Hierarchical set up hinders TQM implementation. However, the success of TQM in many
high power distance countries in Asia gives rise to the possibility that it is possible to have
country specific adaptation of the cultural enablers of TQM.
95
(vii) In the Indian context, the TQM literature is not very rich which is perhaps a pointer
that TQM as a model of organisational excellence has not caught up with Indian companies
in general.
(viii) The Indian quality awards are implants of western quality awards. Though they can
be used as a measure of attainment of a respectable level of TQM proficiency, they should
not be used as a model to begin an organization’s tryst with TQM. On the other hand, the
developmental orientation of the Deming Prize makes it a preferred model for an
organization embarking on a journey towards TQM.
(ix) The traditional Indian cultural values which have seeped into Indian organisations may
not be conducive for immediate internalisation of the tenets of TQM. The Indian
organisational values are a mix of traditional values and western values. The status
consciousness, dependency proneness and personalised relationship tendencies of Indian
people need to be carefully handled. Though Indians are group oriented, the group orientation
is socially contextualised in terms of religion, language and family and not a work based
group orientation like those of the Japanese. Indian ‘Nurturant – Task’ (NT) leadership is
one Indian grown leadership model which promises progressive shifting from these
tendencies to a more participative tendencies. The recent liberalisation of Indian economy
and consequent market driven forces have strengthened the shift to a more participative and
global work values.
(x) Indian bureaucracy is still a traditional bureaucracy untouched by bureaucratic reforms.
Its value system is not conducive for TQM.
(xi) The implementation of TQM in bureaucracy indicates that TQM should begin in smaller
units of Indian Railways.
(xii) There has not been any systematic organisational study of the Indian Railways. It is
almost a virgin field in India.
The summary discussed above is pictorially summarised in Figure 2.14. It also shows the
gaps in the existing literature. The question mark in the Figure 2.14 is for the research issues
which this summary throws up. This is dealt with in sub section 2.4.
96
Figure 2. 14 Summary of literature review and gaps in existing literature Source: developed for this research.
organisational values and organisational practices of Indian Railways from the point of view of an excellent company Not known
Congruence between the two Not Known
congruence between the two Not known
TQM for railways
TQM in India should pay attention to
• leadership • policy & strategy• HRM • process
management • Information
management • customer focus • supplier focus
ISO 9000:2000 is the desired path to be followed. It is facilitated by
• transformational leadership
• executive mind set
• capacity and willingness to learn
?
Indian bureaucracy is • rule bound • monolithic • tunnel vision • directive
(non participative)
TQM on date draws from -System theory -Critical success factors -Quality awards -Organisational learning
TQM is the same as organisational excellence
Quality management in India
• through ISO
Indian culture • hierarchical • dependency
prone • own-other
syndrome • context
oriented • balancing
97
2.4. Identification of the gaps which need investigation
The gaps are
(i) There has not been any organisational study of the Indian Railways.
(ii) Though the modified standard of ISO 9000 - ISO 9000: 2000 - has been framed with a
distinct TQM slant, there is no scale which can objectively measure the transition of an ISO
certified organization towards TQM.
(iii) Perhaps because of the prevalence of the prescriptive style of TQM implementation,
there are relatively few studies of TQM implementation with organisational members as the
focus that is, a bottom-up process involving the organisational members in planning,
implementing and evaluating the quality management system. This approach focuses on
successful planning, deployment, execution and diagnosis of quality practices and
performance measurement. This approach draws heavily on the Japanese concept of
planning (Hoshin) which promotes consensus building (nemawashi), shared decision(ringi),
commitment and loyalty. The researcher takes a stand that it is worthwhile to study this
method of ISO certification as the first step towards TQM.
(iv) Though the enablers of TQM are identified, they have not yet been integrated into a
model which can used by organizations for attaining TQM.
(v) The literature recognises the importance of transformational top management as the
prime driver towards TQM. However, the literature is silent about the role of middle
management in organisational transformation towards TQM. The literature review could not
come across any study which identifies effective middle management leadership styles which
supports a transformational top leadership style in an organization’s journey towards TQM.
98
Chapter 3 Research questions and research methodology
The gaps identified in literature review gave rise to the research questions
listed in Table 3.1.
3.1 Research questions Gap in literature Research question
(i) There has not been any
organisational study of the Indian
Railways.
(i) What are and what should be Indian
Railways’ core values, style of management,
growth strategies, competitive strategies and
changes in organisational structure /
management system so as to transform Indian
Railways into an excellent organization.
(ii) Though the modified standard of ISO
9000- ISO 9000/ 2000 - has been framed
with a distinct TQM slant, there no scale
which can objectively measure the
transition of an ISO certified organization
towards TQM.
(ii) What is the impact of ISO 9000
implementation in Indian Railways?
(iii) To what extent has the implementation
of ISO 9000 brought about a TQM orientation
in Indian Railways? Answering this question
will involve the development of a scale which
can objectively measure the transition of an
ISO certified organization towards TQM.
Table 3.1 (cont’d…)
99
Table 3.1 (cont’d…) Gap in literature Research question
(iii) There are relatively few studies of
TQM implementation with organisational
members as the focus that is, a bottom up
process involving the organisational
members in planning, implementing and
evaluating the quality management system.
This approach draws heavily on the
Japanese concept of planning (Hoshin)
which promotes consensus building
(nemawashi), shared decision(ringi),
commitment and loyalty. The researcher
takes a stand that it is worthwhile to study
this method of ISO certification as the first
step towards TQM.
(iv) Will a bottom-up methodology build
learning capacity among the railway
personnel?
(iv) Though the enablers of TQM are
identified, they have not yet been integrated
into a model which can used by
organizations for attaining TQM.
(v) How can the enablers of TQM be integrated
in a model for attaining TQM within the ISO
framework?
(v) While the moderating influence of
transformational top leadership is well
documented, the literature is silent about
the leadership role of middle management
in organisational transformation towards
TQM..
(vi) What is an effective leadership style for
middle managers for effective transition from a
ISO company to a TQM company?
Table 3. 1 Research questions for this work
Source: developed for this research.
100
3.2 Different research paradigms
For the above research questions, a research map was to be designed which could act
as a guide to provide answers to the earlier research questions. However, research question
vi was left out as a matter of deliberate choice because the focus of this study would then
have become leadership oriented. However, this can be an area for future research.
In order to develop a research map, it was desirable to understand different
philosophies and methodologies in the area of social science research. In social science, there
is a spectrum of research methods available which could be used. Each one of the research
methods has a philosophical underpinning as to how the world is viewed (ontology), what is
the relationship between the reality and the researcher(epistemology) and what technique the
researcher is using (methodology) (Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 1991, p. 26). A detailed
description of different philosophical bases and the corresponding research designs are
available in many publications (Creswell 1998, Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 1991, Guba &
Lincoln 1994, Neuman 1997). For the purpose of this study, a brief integrative review of
different research methods is presented here.
A positivist holds the opinion that the processes of the external world and their
property can be objectively observed, defined and measured, rather than ‘subjectively
inferred through sensation, reflection and intuition’ (Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 1991, p. 22).
As against this, there is another view which says that the world is not objective and external.
The happenings of the world are socially constructed. That is, one should try to understand
why different people have different experience of the same situation, rather than trying to
look for external causes and fundamental laws to explain their behaviour. This philosophical
position came to be known as phenomenological or social constructionist point of view.
Easterby, Thorpe and Lowe (1991, p. 22) have quoted Morgan and Smircich who have
identified six ontological positions based on one’s perception of nature of reality. The six
ontological positions are shown in Figure 3.1.
101
Subjectivist Objectivist
Figure 3. 1 Different assumptions about nature of reality
Source: Easterby, Thorpe and Lowe (1991).
The different underpinnings shown above has given rise to four scientific paradigms –
positivism, realism, critical theory and constructivism. A paradigm can be regarded as the
‘basic belief system or world view that guides the investigator’(Guba & Lincoln 1994, p.
105). Evered and Louis (1981, p. 385) define paradigm as ‘the entire constellation of beliefs,
values, techniques and so on, shared by the members of given (scientific) community’. Perry,
Riege and Brown (1999) have summarised the four different paradigms in the context of
ontology, epistemology and methodology as shown in Table 3.2.
Projection of human imagination
Social construction
Symbolic discourse
Contextual field of information
Concrete process
Concrete structure
102
Table 3. 2 Basic belief systems of alternative enquiry paradigms
Source: Perry, Riege and Brown ( 1999, p.17) based on Guba and Lincoln (1994).
Healy and Perry (2000) have compared the quality criteria for the above four research
paradigms. It is shown in Table 3.3.
PARADIGM
Item
POSITIVISM REALISM CRITICAL
THEORY
CONSTRUCTIVISM
Ontology näive realism:
Reality is real
and
apprehensible
critical realism:
Reality is ‘real’ but
only imperfectly
and
probabilistically
apprehensive and
so triangulation
from many sources
is required to try to
know it
historic realism:
‘Virtual’ reality
shaped by social,
economic,
ethnic, political,
cultural, and
gender values,
crystallised over
time
critical relativism:
Multiple local and
specific ‘constructed’
realities
Epistemology objectivist:
Findings true
modified
objectivist:
Findings probably
true
subjectivist:
Value mediated
findings
subjectivist:
Created findings
Methodology experiments/
survey:
Verification of
hypothesis,
chiefly
quantitative
methods
case studies,
convergent
interviewing:
Triangulation,
interpretation of
research issues by
qualitative and
quantitative
methods such as
structural equation
modelling
dialogic,
dialectical:
Researcher is a
‘transformative
intellectual’ who
changes the
social world
within which
participants live
hermeneutical,
dialectical:
Researcher is a
‘passionate participant’
within the world being
investigated
103
Table 3.3 (cont’d…)
Criteria for
realism
research
Case study techniques
within realism paradigm
Criteria for
case
research
Criteria
for
construct-
ivist
Criteria for
qualitative
research
Criteria
for
positivism
research
Major
authors
Yin (1994) Lincoln
and Guba
(1985)
Miles and
Huberman
(1994)
Chia
(1997),
Neuman
(1997)
Ontology
1.
Ontological
appropriate-
ness
2. Contingent
validity
Research
problem deals
with complex
social science
phenomena
involving
reflective
people
Open “fuzzy
boundary”
systems (Yin
1994) involving
generative
mechanisms
rather than
direct cause and
effect
Selection of research
problem, for example, it is
a how and why problem
Theoretical and literal
replication, in-depth
questions, emphasis on
‘why’ issues, description
of the context of the cases
Internal
validity
‘Truth
value’ or
credibility
‘Truth
value’ or
credibility
Internal
validity /
credibility /
authenticity
Internal
validity /
credibility /
authenticity
Internal
validity
Internal
validity
Epistemology
3. Multiple
perceptions
of
participants
and of peer
researcher
Neither value
free nor value
laden, rather
value aware
Multiple interviews,
supporting evidence, broad
questions before probes,
triangulation, self-
description and awareness
of own values. Published
reports for peer review
Neutrality
or
confirma-
bility
Objectivity /
confirmability
Value-
free, one-
way
mirror
(Guba &
Lincoln
1990)
104
Table 3.3 (cont’d…)
Table 3. 3 Quality criteria for different research paradigm
Source: modified from Healy and Perry( 2000).
Criteria for
realism research
Case study techniques
within realism
paradigm
Criteria for
case
research
Criteria
for
constructi
vist
Criteria
for
qualitative
research
Criteria
for
positivism
research
Methodology
4. Methodolog-
ical trustworthin-
ess
Trustworthy –
the research can
be audited
Case study database,
use in the report of
relevant quotations and
matrices that summarise
data and of descriptions
of procedures like case
selection and interview
procedures
Reliability Consiste-
ncy or
dependab-
ility
Reliability
/
dependabil
-ity /
audibility
Reliability
5. Analytic
generalisation
Analytic
generalisation
(that is, theory
building) rather
than statistical
generalisation
(that is, theory-
testing)
Identify research issues
before data collection,
to formulate an
interview protocol that
will provide data for
confirming or
disconfirming theory
External
validity
through the
specification
of
theoretical
relationships
, from which
generalisati-
ons can be
made
Applicabil-
ity or
transferab-
ility
External
validity /
transferabi-
lity
/fittingness
6. Construct
validity
Use of prior
theory, case
study
database,
tria-
ngulation
Construct
validity
Construct
validity
Note: critical theory has not been included in this table as no criteria that distinguishes it from constructivism could be
found
105
A positivist view is appropriate in natural science where a single apprehensible
reality whose nature can be known and categorised is to be defined and measured (Perry,
Riege & Brown 1995, p. 16). Here the researcher believes that he/she has identified the
variables which have causal relationship among them which are invariant across time and
context. Thus sample survey and controlled experiments are the primary data collection
techniques. The objective of the researcher is to test a theory or to confirm a hypothesis
(Zikmund 2000). A positivist approach may not be suitable in social science research where
each situation is unique and a person within a situation can give different responses
depending on the nature of reality as he/she perceives it. Also where the emphasis is to
explore the structure and the process of a phenomenon, there are many variables which
interact with each other. It may not be possible to establish a cause and effect relationship
among all the variables. However, wherever it is possible to identify and define constructs
which are invariant across situations, a positivist approach has the advantage of being
generalisable and reliable. Further, a positivist approach which uses a deductive approach is
useful in theory testing and not in theory building which requires an inductive approach
(Perry, Riege & Brown 1999).
Constructivism holds the view that truth is a particular belief system held in a
particular context (Healy & Perry 2000, p. 120). That is each person has his/her own reality
in his/her mind and it is the researcher’s job to interact with many persons so as to get
multiple construction of that reality. Meaning carries more importance than measurement
because perception itself is the most important reality (Perry, Riege & Brown 1999, p.18).
Using hermeneutical techniques, the different constructions are compared and contrasted
through a dialectical interchange so as to arrive at a consensus construction (Guba & Lincoln
1994, p.111). This approach is useful in understanding such deeply held values as beauty,
prejudice and religion (Healy & Perry 2000, p. 120).
Critical theorists aim at transforming social, political, cultural, economical, ethnic and
gender values (Healy & Perry 2000, p. 119). A critical theorist aims at changing the world in
which the participants live. Here knowledge does not accumulate, but grows and changes
through a historical revision that continuously erodes ignorance and misapprehensions and
enlarges more informed insights (Guba & Lincoln 1994, p.114). For a critical theorist, this is
the process of knowledge accumulation. The end goal of the study might be to transform
(through praxis) the underlying order of social life – those social and systemic relations that
constitute society (Creswell 1998, p.81). According to Creswell (1998, p. 82), critical theory
may emphasize multiple methodologies ( qualitative and quantitative) and multiple
106
perspectives (class, race and gender). Examples of critical theory researchers are Marxists,
feminists and action researchers (Perry, Riege & Brown 1999, p. 17).
Realism believes much like positivism that there is a reality out there but it is not
possible to comprehend that fully and perfectly (Guba & Linclon 1994, p. 110). Thus the
attempt of the researcher should be to apprehend that reality as closely as possible through
widest possible critical examination. Triangulation should be used as a way of falsifying
(rather than verifying) hypotheses. By an increased utilisation of qualitative techniques, and
by doing inquiry in more natural settings, collecting more situational information, the
postposivist attempts to get closer to the reality.
In a different context, Miles and Huberman (1994) have also talked about using
qualitative and quantitative techniques together for arriving at more robust conclusions.
‘Qualitative data are useful when one needs to validate, explain or reinterpret quantitative
data gathered from the same sitting’ (Miles & Huberman 1994, p.10). They further say that
qualitative data are useful for exploring a new area which can lead to development of some
hypotheses. Thus from the point of view of robustness of research, it can be seen that not
only can qualitative data be used as authentically as quantitative data but also that both data
types can be used to reinforce each other’s findings.
Some of the strengths of qualitative data are:
(i) They focus on naturally occurring, ordinary events in natural setting. Thus the possibility
of understanding latent, non-obvious issues is strong.
(ii) It is rich and holistic providing a vivid picture of a situation in a particular context.
Quantitative techniques, on the other hand provides ‘sensitivity and power to
individual judgement when one attempts to detect and describe patterning in a set of
observations’ ( Weinstein & Tamur quoted in Miles & Huberman 1994, p. 40).
It has been suggested that that to get broader insights into the issues being
investigated the researcher should try to mix research methods (Ticehurst & Veal 2000, p.20).
Accordingly in this research also, instead of following a particular approach, both qualitative
and quantitative approaches have been used dictated by the needs of the situation.
3.3 Development of research map
With above introductory comments about different research methods in the
background, the research map which was used to guide the research to answer the research
questions is shown in Figure 3.2.
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Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Note: M.R.= Management Representative
Figure 3. 2 Research map
Source: developed for this work.
survey A
Survey among Indian Railways persons on different dimensions of organisational policies and practices which promote excellence
survey B Assess Indian Railways persons on the culture specific dimensions of hierarchy
Take an unit of Indian Railways which is undergoing ISO certification and do its in-depth study so as to triangulate the findings from above
survey D Develop and administer an instrument ‘ TQM transition questionnaire’ , to the M.R. /head of unit of the same shortlisted railway units. Ask them to evaluate the unit on ‘one year before ISO certification’ and ‘today’ basis.
Shortlist ISO certified units of Indian Railways on certain criteria
survey C Administer the questionnaire of Acharya and Roy to the M.R./ head of unit of the shortlisted railway units
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3.4 Research Design for stage 1
3.4.1 Survey A - Assessment of organisational policies and practices in the Indian Railways
Survey A sought to find an answer to the first research question: ‘What are and what
should be Indian Railways’ core values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive
strategies and changes in organisational structure / management system so as to transform
Indian Railways into an excellent organization’?. One of the gaps which the literature review
had shown is that there has not been any organisational study of Indian Railways. Thus there
was no prior set of information available on which this research could build on or cross
verify with.
Thus some known model which could help assess Indian Railways’ organisational
values and practices in the context of organisational excellence needed to be identified.
Khandwalla (2002) has assessed the response of Indian public sector organisations
and private sector organisations to liberalisation and arrived at a model of organisational
policies and practices which he calls a community of adaptive “best” policies and practices
that yield performance excellence in an competitive and liberalised environment which
Indian organisations are facing today (Khandwalla 2002, p. 443). Khandwalla has developed
a questionnaire which assesses the prevalence of these policies and practices in an
organization. A detailed discussion about the reliability and validity of the questionnaire is
available in Khandwalla (2002). Part of that questionnaire consists of open ended and pre-
coded questions about core values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive
strategies and changes in organisational structure / management system which an excellent
organization follows. This part of the questionnaire labelled ‘assessment of organisational
policies’ is shown in Appendix 2. Since the questionnaire developed by Khandwalla was
used to assess excellence in Indian companies and the objective of survey A was to assess
prevalence of different aspects of organisational excellence in Indian Railways,
Khandwalla’s questionnaire was used for survey A of this research.
Question I of the questionnaire consists of open-ended questions. Question II to
question VI are the pre-coded questions. An open-ended question provides the respondents
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freedom to give their opinions. Also, this can provide such dimensions of information which
a Likert scale based questions may not be able to elicit from the respondents. Since the
answers to the first research question was expected to throw light on the organisational
policies and practices of Indian Railways, which, in turn could explain much of what this
study was to subsequently uncover in stage 2 and stage 3, the more the ways in which
answers to the first question were tapped, the more reliable were to be the conclusions. Thus
the use of a questionnaire which included open ended questions and pre-coded questions as
in this questionnaire added to the reliability of the conclusion.
Sampling strategy: The questionnaire was given only to the chairman, board
members, general managers and principal heads of departments of Indian Railways as they
were the persons who could be said to have enough exposure to the strategic part of Indian
Railways to do justice to the full questionnaire. It was noted that Khandwalla, in his study too,
had administered the questionnaire to the chairmen and managers who reported to the
chairman of an organization. (Khandwalla 2002, p. 436). Also, senior staff can provide more
reliable information about their organization than junior staff (Ticehurst & Veal 2000, p.143).
In the bureaucratic set up of Indian Railways, the tenure of the chairmen and board
members are normally not more than one to two years because one can reach that level just
before retirement. Thus, for the sake of comprehensiveness, the questionnaires were sent to
all the chairmen and board members who retired since 1991 and whose contact details were
available. The Indian industry has opened up to the global economy and to the concept of
TQM roughly since 1991, therefore soliciting the opinion of board members and chairmen
since 1991 was considered desirable. The data collection and data analysis of this survey is
dealt with in chapter 4.
3.4.2 Survey B - Assessment of cultural values of Indian Railway personnel
Survey A provided insight on work specific policies and practices about the Indian
Railways. However, it did not assess the impact of Indian culture on the organisational
values of the Indian Railway personnel. It is recalled from the literature review (section
2.2.6.1) that hierarchical relationship, tendency for personalised relationship and dependency
on the superior have been identified as some of the culture based organisational values which,
however, are reported to be changing in view of the liberalisation of Indian economy. It is
also recalled that hierarchical relationship is not conducive for TQM implementation, but
collective orientation is conducive for TQM. Thus, it was all the more important that one
110
looked for an instrument through which one could measure culture specific dimensions
among the Indian Railway personnel.
A perusal of the work on NT leadership by Sinha (1995) indicated that he has
developed a questionnaire which measures hierarchical tendencies among Indian managers.
The questionnaire is shown in Appendix 3. The hierarchical tendencies are measured through
the three constructs of ‘status consciousness (S)’, ‘personalised relationship (P)’ and
‘dependence proneness (D)’. These three constructs are defined below (Sinha 1995, p.99):
(i) Status consciousness – It is a tendency to obey and respect seniors and superiors.
Anger and hostility against a superior are suppressed and displaced. The seniors are listened
to more deferentially. The tendency is to direct one’s effort to appease the superior who in
turn must help, protect and guide the subordinates.
(ii) Dependence proneness – Preference for hierarchy fosters dependence proneness.
It is a tendency to seek support, guidance and encouragement in situations where one is
apparently competent to make decisions.
(iii) Preference for personalised relationship – It is a tendency where a subordinate
expects to be taken care of in a personal way, to solve his/her problem, tell him/her what to
do .
The questionnaire was administered to Indian Railway personnel to assess their
culture specific value of hierarchy.
The reliability and validity of the instrument is dealt with at the end of Appendix 3.
Sampling strategy: Indian Railways has about 8000 persons in the managerial
category. They are called officers. About 4000 of them are called class-1 officers or more
formally group ‘A’ officers. They are directly recruited into the managerial cadre on the basis
of an all India examination. (In Indian organisational context, a cadre means a group of
professionals belonging to a particular category). The balance 4000 are class-2 officers or
more formally group ‘B’ officers. They join the railways in the worker/ supervisor cadre as
class-3 ( or group ‘C’ ) employees and then rise up to become class-2 officers. Almost 95%
of them retire at the first or second rung of the managerial cadre.
Since class-2 officers are generally less educated and are less exposed to position of
responsibility in their work, it was postulated that they should show higher hierarchical
tendencies than class-1 officers. On the same logic class-3 employees should show higher
hierarchical tendency than class-2 or class-1 officers.
The literature review has shown the deeply embedded hierarchical tendencies among
Indians. However, recent studies (Pearson & Chaterjee 2001) have also shown changes in
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this value. It was thus postulated that younger employees should show lesser hierarchical
tendencies than older employees.
Based on the above reasoning, three hypotheses were framed for testing -
(i) Class-1 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class-2
officers.
(ii) Class-2 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class-3
employees.
(iii) Younger employees show lesser hierarchical tendencies than older employees.
To test these hypotheses, samples of railway employees were collected in the
following categories:
Class-1 Class-2 Class-3
Age less than 30 years Age less than 30 years Age less than 30 years
Age between 30 years
to 50 years
Age between 30 years to 50
years
Age between 30 years to 50
years
Age more than 50 years Age more than 50 years Age more than 50 years
The rationale behind this grouping was this: The process of liberalisation in India
started around 1991. Those who were less than 15 years old at that time were less than 30
years old in 2005. It was reasonable to postulate that this age group was exposed to a social
system which was in transition because of the opening of the Indian economy. Further, the
age group of ‘more than 50 years’ is roughly one generation above the youngest group. Thus
these two group presented two contrasting categories for comparison.
The data collection and data analysis of this survey is dealt with in chapter 4.
3.5 Research design for stage 2
Stage 2 of the research sought answers to the following two research questions:
Research question no ii: What is the impact of ISO 9000 implementation in Indian Railways?
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Research question no iii: To what extent has the implementation of ISO 9000 brought about
a TQM orientation in Indian Railways. This therefore involved development of a scale which
could objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.
3.5.1 Survey C – Assessment of the impact of ISO 9000 in the Indian Railways
A review of literature showed that several surveys have been conducted by
researchers about the impact of ISO 9000: 1994 certification. One such survey was
conducted by Acharya and Roy (2000) on about 1200 ISO certified units in India. A slightly
modified form of that survey was administered to a short listed group of ISO certified units in
Indian Railways. This provided answer to the question ‘what is the impact of ISO
implementation in Indian Railways’. The questionnaire is shown in Appendix 4.
Reliability and validity: The thrust of this survey was to gather information from ISO
certified railway units. There was no construct which survey C tried to measure. So the
aspect of reliability and validity was not relevant here.
3.5.1.1 Sampling plan for survey C
Selection of railway units was a key decision in seeking an answer to the research
question no ii. Whether to go for qualitative research or quantitative research was also an
issue here.
Qualitative research usually works with a small sample. The small number of cases
are nested in their context and studied in depth unlike quantitative research where large
number of context stripped cases ( individuals) are used to provide statistical significance.
Thus, a small number of randomly selected sample can make the conclusions biased.
Qualitative samples also tend to be purposive. This is because the initial domain of
study is smaller than that in a quantitative study. Further, social processes have a logic and a
coherence which is lost in random sampling. Thus it was decided that the survey C would be
qualitative and purposive sampling would be carried out in this survey. However, the term
‘purposive sampling’ has been used with different meaning in connection with subjective
methods of sampling (Goon, Gupta & Dasgupta 1986, p.209). Thus a review of different
purposive sampling strategy was done.
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Creswell (1998) identified 16 purposive sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry.
They are shown in Table 3.4. A detailed explanation of each of the sampling plan is given in
Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 28).
Type of sampling Purpose
Maximum variation Documents diverse variations and identifies important common
patterns
Homogeneous Focuses, reduces, simplifies, and facilitates group interviewing
Critical case Permits logical generalization and maximum application of
information to other cases
Theory based Find examples of a theoretical construct and thereby elaborate on
and examine it
Confirming and
disconfirming cases
Elaborate on initial analysis, seek exceptions and looking for
variation
Snowball or chain Identifies case of interest from people who know people who know
cases are information rich
Extreme or deviant
case
Learn from highly unusual manifestations of the phenomenon of
interest
Typical case Highlights what is normal or average
Intensity Information-rich cases that manifest the phenomenon intensely but
not extremely
Politically important
cases
Attracts desired attention or avoids attracting undesired attention
Random purposeful Adds credibility to sample when potential purposeful sample is too
large
Stratified purposeful Illustrates subgroups and facilitates comparisons
Criterion All cases that meet some criterion, useful for quality assurance
Opportunistic Follow new leads; taking advantage of the unexpected
Combination or mixed Triangulation. Flexibility; meets multiple interests and needs
Convenience Saves time, money and effort, but at the expense of information
and credibility
Table 3. 4 Typology of sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry
Source: Creswell (1998, p. 119).
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Qualitative sampling can be a combination of ‘within-case sampling’ and ‘multiple-
case sampling’.
Within case sampling helps us to see a local configuration in some depth. Within-
case sample is almost always nested, that is working from outside into the core of a setting.
The sampling must be theoretically driven – either the theory is pre-specified or
emerges as the study progresses. The choice of informants, episodes and interactions are
being driven by a conceptual question, not by a concern for representativeness. To get to the
construct, one needs to see different instances of it, at different moments, in different places,
with different people. The prime concern is with the conditions under which the construct or
theory operates, not with the generalisation of the findings to other settings.
Within-case sampling has an iterative quality, working in progressive ‘waves’ as the
study progresses.
Multiple-case sampling, on the other hand, adds confidence to findings. That is, it
adds to the precision, validity and stability of the findings. It follows a replication strategy. If
a finding holds in one setting and also in a comparable setting, but not in a contrasting setting,
the finding is more robust. It is to be noted that here, the generalisation from one case to
another is on the basis of a match to the underlying theory, not to a larger universe. The
choice of case is usually made on conceptual grounds and not on representative grounds. A
multiple case sampling has to be guided by the research questions and the conceptual
framework, either pre-specified or emergent.
With this background information on different sampling strategies, it was decided that
instead of doing a complete random sampling in the selection of railway units, let the insight
gained about TQM in literature review guide the sample selection process:
First criteria for selection of railway unit in the survey C: A list of ISO certified
railway units (corrected up to 15 Oct 2003) is shown at Appendix 9. There are 89 units which
are certified to ISO 9000 standard. The list shows that there are some units which are both
ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified. ISO 14000 has been taken up in Indian Railways after
ISO 9000 certification. Thus a unit gets more time to institutionalise improvements. Further,
ISO 14000 is more stringent in the sense that even if there is a single non conformance (NC),
ISO 14000 certification is not granted. ISO 14000 calls for very elaborate housekeeping and
the Japanese have shown through their adherence to ‘5S’ that improvement in housekeeping
is a significant step towards TQM (Pheng 2001). Thus it was reasonable to postulate that a
115
railway unit which was both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified, should show more progress
towards TQM. Hence the survey C could provide better contrasting insight if the sampling
included some railway units which were only ISO 9000 certified and some railway units
which were both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified units.
Second criteria for selection of railway unit in the survey C: There was yet
another way one could make a judicious sampling of railway units. This was based on the
organisational power delegated to the railway units and the assessment of the extent to which
this organisational power was able to do justice to different clauses of ISO 9000. This aspect
is explained now.
A simplified organisational structure of Indian Railway is shown in Appendix 7. It
can be seen from there that the Indian Railways’ organisational structure is functional at the
headquarters level and matrix at the divisional level. Thus all the divisional departmental
heads report to the Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) in the field unit and to their Chief
level officer at the headquarters. All the functional departmental heads and the DRMs report
to the General Manager (GM). Other than the division, there are maintenance units and
warehousing units which are headed by Chief Workshop Manager and Deputy Chief
Materials Manager respectively. It can be seen from Appendix 7 that only the DRM and the
GM have officers of all departments under them.
With this background information, a perusal of the list of ISO certified units of Indian
Railways gave rise to following observations:
(i) In the railways, most of the ISO certified units were engineering based. That is, they
were locomotive or coach manufacturing units and maintenance shops. Considering that the
initial development of ISO system and its adoption was in engineering companies, it was
expected. Thus, though the Indian Railways is a service organization, very few service units
in it have gone for ISO certification.
Among the engineering units, the locomotive or coach manufacturing shops are
called production units. These production units are headed by a General Manager who
possesses both the formal and the informal power for effecting organization wide changes. In
a production unit, all the ten departments of railways function under the unified command of
a General Manager. Thus, the organisational set up of a production unit has the requisite
autonomy to take organization wide decisions.
The coach and wagon repair units are headed by Chief Workshop Managers (CWMs).
A CWM also has managers from all the departments except civil engineering, signal and
medical. However, in terms of delegation of power, he does not possess autonomy in the
116
areas of machine and material procurement, selection / promotion of managers and
investment decisions. The CWMs report to the Chief Mechanical Engineer who sits at the
headquarters and who in turn reports to the General Manager. The CWM is dependent on the
CME and GM for machine and material procurement, selection / promotion of managers and
investment decisions. For work in the areas of civil engineering and medical, the CWM is
supposed to liaise with the local DRM who like a General Manager has all the ten
departments under his administrative control.
A Deputy Chief Materials Manager (Dy. CMM) is responsible for material supply to
all the repair workshops and locomotive maintenance units. Like a CWM, he also has
managers from all departments except civil engineering, signal and medical. Like the CWM,
he does not possess autonomy in the areas of selection /promotion of managers and
investment decisions. However, being a materials manager, he has a limited amount of power
for material procurement. The bulk of the material procurement is done at the headquarters
level collectively by the stores department (headed by Controller Of Stores), accounts
department (headed by Financial Advisor & Chief Accounts Officer) and the user department.
The locomotive maintenance units are headed by Division Mechanical /Electrical
Engineers (DME/DEE). They report to the Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) who is
their field level boss. Besides, they also report to their departmental boss (CME/ CEE) at the
headquarters. Thus a Divisional Electrical Engineer reports to the Chief Electrical Engineer
at the headquarters and to the DRM in the field as in a matrix structure. Under a Divisional
Mechanical/Electrical Engineer, only mechanical / electrical engineers work. The managers
from other support service like personnel, finance, materials do not work under him. He is
supposed to liaise with the divisional heads of these departments who work under the DRM.
Thus, the Divisional Mechanical /Electrical Engineer, like the CWM, is dependent on the
divisional heads under the DRM in the areas of civil engineering, security, medical,
promotion of supervisors, and financial decision making, and on the CME and GM for
machine and material procurement, selection / promotion of managers and large investment
decisions.
It should be clear from the above discussion that there can be unity of purpose only at
two levels - at the level of DRM and at the level of GM. Also, since they have all wings of
railways under them, DRMs and GMs expect inter-department coordination from their
subordinates. Other than these two levels, the line of decision making in a particular
department of Indian Railways is along the vertical hierarchy. This traditional functional
silos in Indian Railways is shown in Figure 3.3.
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Coordinational vector
Functional vector
Work vector
Mech = mechanical
Elec=electrical
Fin= finance
Pers=personal
Stor=stores
Figure 3. 3 Existing functional silos in Indian Railways
Source: developed for this work.
In Figure 3.3 different departments of Indian Railways have been shown along the
periphery of a horizontal circle. This model has borrowed the concept of vector from
Gyllenpalm quoted in Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson (2002, p.437). The work force vector
(shown by black arrows) is a measure of the work which different departmental functionaries
do in Indian Railways. The work force vector has two components – functional force vector
(shown by purple arrow) and coordinational force vector (shown by blue arrow). The
functional force vector is exerted by the functional superiors within a department. This
functional force vector is reinforced by the vertical collectivism (see Table 2.13) tendency of
GM/DRM
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Indians which supports the hierarchy of a department and also develops a clannish feeling
among the departmental members. That is, the feeling of in-group is confined within the
department. The coordinational force vector is caused by the extent of coordination force
exerted by the General Manager (GM) or Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) the only two
levels where effective inter department coordination is practised in the Indian Railways. The
intensity of functional force vector depends on: (i) function specific knowledge of a superior
(ii) the interaction among the functional in-group. This interaction vector in turn depends on
(i) the prevalence of bureaucratic value in that functional unit (ii) prevalence of social values
between the superior and subordinate. These concepts are mathematically shown by the
researcher below:
W= F + C, where
W = Work force vector, F = Functional force vector, C = Coordinational force vector,
F= K+I , where
K= functional knowledge of the superior, I = Interaction among the functional in-group,
I = B+S, where
B= Bureaucratic values in the functional unit, S=Social value in the functional unit.
It has been mentioned here that effective coordination occurs only at the GM and
DRM level. However the list of ISO certified units at Appendix 9 shows that no ISO
certification has been taken at the divisional level or headquarter level. It has however been
taken at intra divisional levels like a diesel loco shed, an electric loco shed etc. ISO
certification has also been taken in railway workshops headed by CWMs, and by
warehousing units headed by Dy. CMMs. There are also a few cases where the ISO
certification has been taken only for part of a workshop.
This situation was analysed in the background of the continual improvement loop of
ISO 9000.
The ISO 9000:2000 standard has incorporated the continual improvement theme in a
process-based approach as shown in Figure 3.4.
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Value-adding activities Information flow
Figure 3. 4 Model of a process-based quality management system
Source: ISO 9001:2000 standard.
A juxtaposition of the clauses of ISO 9000:2000 in the areas of purchasing and
resource management against the power delegated to different unit heads has been shown in
Table 3.5.
Continual improvement of the quality management system
Customers Requirements
Customers Satisfaction
Management Responsibility
Resource management
Product realization
Measurement, analysis and improvement
Product
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ISO clause
(taken from ISO 9000:2000 manual)
Units
headed by
GM
Units headed
by CWM/ Dy.
CMM
Units
headed by
DME/ DEE
‘6.3 Infrastructure
The organization shall determine, provide
and maintain the infrastructure needed to
achieve conformity to product
requirements. Infrastructure includes, as
applicable
a) building, workspace and associated
utilities,
b) process equipment (both hardware
and software), and
c) Supporting services (such as transport
or communication)’.
He/she has
the required
delegation of
power and
organization
to provide it.
He/she does not
have the
required
delegation of
power and the
organization to
provide it.
He/she does
not have the
required
delegation of
power and
the
organization
to provide it.
‘7.4 Purchasing
7.4.1 Purchasing processes
The organization shall evaluate and select
suppliers based on their ability to supply
product in accordance with organization’s
requirements. Criteria for selection,
evaluation and re-evaluation shall be
established. Records of the results of
evaluations and any necessary actions
arising from the evaluation shall be
maintained. (see 4.2.4)’.
He/she has
the required
delegation of
power and
organization
to ensure its
compliance.
He/she does not
have the
required
delegation of
power and the
organization to
ensure its
compliance.
He /she does
not have the
required
delegation of
power and
the
organization
to ensure its
compliance.
Table 3. 5 Analysis of different categories of railway units on clauses of ISO 9000:2000
Source: developed for this research.
From the above table, it was clear that except for production units, the heads of the
workshops, warehousing units and locomotive maintenance units were not organisationally
empowered to satisfy all the clauses of ISO 9000:2000.
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Thus it was possible to propose a hypothesis at this point: ‘Production units will
show better transition towards TQM concepts’.
This insight was used for doing a theory based purposeful sampling of ISO certified
units within Indian Railways.
Therefore it was reasoned that if the production units were the most probable
candidates for a successful transition towards TQM, they should first be studied in detail and
conclusion drawn from them could then be tested further. Therefore, it was decided that the
questionnaire of survey C should be sent to all the six production units – CLW, DLW,
DCW, RCF, ICF and WAP.
Third criteria for selection of railway unit in the survey C: It had been noted in
the literature review that the ISO 9000 certification could be used as the stepping stone for an
organization’s journey towards TQM (Lee & Lam 1997; Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001;
Escanciano, Fernández & Vázquez 2001). Further ISO 9000:2000 is specially designed for
developing a continuous improvement culture in an organization. The literature review had
also shown that the following factors are critical for taking an ISO 9000 certified
organization towards TQM:
(i) Transformational leadership
(ii) Executive mind set
(iii) Capacity and willingness to learn
Among these factors, it was learnt from the literature review that transformational
leadership favourably disposes an organization in developing the correct executive mindset
and the willingness to learn. Thus these two factors could be considered to be dependent on
transformational leadership. However the literature review did not bring about any
relationship between transformational leadership and the capacity to learn. Therefore in the
study of transition of ISO certified units towards TQM, one needed to address the intervening
influence of only two variables: (a) transformational leadership and (b) capacity to learn.
Here, in stage 2 of the research design, only the moderating impact of
transformational leadership was dealt with. The moderating impact of capacity to learn was
dealt with in stage 3 of the research. This was because researcher believed that ‘capacity to
learn’ was closely linked with research question ‘iv’ which was ‘will this bottom up
methodology build learning capacity among the railway personnel?’
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Thus the third criteria to include railway units in survey C was: ‘include some units
which have been headed by transformational leaders and some units which have been headed
by non-transformational leaders’.
For assessing the transformational leadership, Bass’ Multifactor Leadership
Questionnaire -MLQ 5X was administered to the managers of different railway units.
The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X) by Bass and Avolio (2000) is
the most widely used instrument for assessing transformational leadership ( Antonakis,
Avolio & Sivasubramaniam 2003; Block 2003). They are shown in Appendix 6. It has nine
constructs. The nine constructs and their operational definition are:
(i) Idealized Influence - Attributed-(II A) – It is a sub component of charisma. Charisma is a
desire to identify with the leader. It measures the influence which a subordinate attributes to
the leader.
(ii) Idealized Influence - Behaviour- (IIB) - It is also a sub component of charisma. It
measures the influence which a subordinate draws from the behaviour of their leader.
(iii) Inspirational Motivation (IM) – It provides followers with a clear sense of purpose that is
energizing; a role model for ethical conduct which builds identification with the leader and
his/her articulated vision.
(iv) Intellectual Stimulation (IS) – It gets followers to question the tried and true ways of
solving problems; encourages them to question the methods they use to improve upon them.
(v) Individualized Consideration (IC) – It focuses on understanding the needs of each
follower and works continuously to get them to develop to their full potential.
(vi) Contingent Reward(CR) – It clarifies what is expected from followers and what they will
receive if they meet expected levels of performance.
(vii) Management-by-Exception Active (MBEA) – Here the leader focuses on monitoring
task execution for any problems that might arise and correcting those problems to maintain
current performance levels.
(viii) Management-by-Exception Passive (MBEP) – Here the leader tends to react only after
problems have become serious to take corrective action.
(ix) Laissez-Faire (LF)– It shows a lack of leadership where, often, no decision will be made
at all.
Of the above nine constructs, the first five constructs are considered transformational
in nature, the next three are considered transactional in nature while the last one shows an
abdication of leadership responsibilities (Block 2003, p.321).
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The questionnaire measures the above constructs on a scale of 0 (not at all) to 4
(frequently if not always). Table 3.6 shows the percentiles for individual scores on the five
constructs of transformational leadership and one construct of transactional leadership (CR).
It can be seen from the table that Bass and Avolio (2000, p.53) found that only 5% of the
leaders got scores of 3.7 and above on the five constructs of transformational leadership. It
shows that transformational leaders though sought after, are not easily found in organizations.
II(A) II(B) IM IS IC CR N= 2,080 2,080 2,080 2,080 2,079 2,078 Percentile MLQ Scores
Table 4. 5 Scores obtained on the three dimensions of ‘status consciousness (S)’, ‘personalised relationship (P)’ and ‘dependency proneness (D) ’ by different categories of employees of Indian Railways
Source: developed from survey data.
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In Table 4.5, the lower the scores, the higher the measured tendency of ‘status
Statistical package ‘Statistica’ was used to analyse the data. Wherever ANOVA was used, the
following assumptions of ANOVA were verified to be true before conclusions were made
based on ANOVA:
(i) Homogeneity of variance
(ii) Lack of correlation between the mean and variance.
Since for all ANOVA based analysis, the sample sizes were more than thirty and also
because the violation of normality assumption does not affect the robustness of F test
(Statistica 1998, p. 1710), the test of normality was not specifically done.
The analysis began by verifying whether there was any difference between the S
score, P score and D scores given below. The lower the score, the higher was the tendency of
‘status consciousness (S)’, ‘personalised relationship (P)’ and ‘dependency proneness (D)’.
Symbol Mean value Valid N
S 2.1578 311
P 2.9768 311
D 2.2057 311
All Groups 2.4468
The details of the analysis done are shown in step 1 at Appendix 3A.
The analysis showed that in the Indian Railway staff, among the three components of
hierarchy, the dimension of ‘tendency for a personalised relationship’ was significantly
weaker than those of ‘dependency on superior’ and ‘status consciousness’. Further, there was
no significant difference on the scores obtained on the dimensions of ‘status consciousness’
and ‘dependency on the superior’.
Then it was assessed whether there was any difference among class 1, class 2 and
class 3 staff of the Indian Railway on the three dimensions. The details of the analysis are
available in step 2 at Appendix 3A.
The analysis showed that the ‘status consciousness with respect to the superior’ and
‘dependency on the superior’ increased from class1 to class 2 and from class 2 to class 3
employees. However, there was no difference in their ‘tendency for personalised
relationship’ with their superior which in any case was significantly weaker than that of
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‘status consciousness with respect to the superior’ and ‘dependency on the superior’ as seen
from the analysis done in step 1 of Appendix 3A.
The analysis further showed that within a category of employee (class 1, class 2, class
3) there was no significant difference in their scores on the two dimensions of ‘status
consciousness’ and ‘dependency on the superior’ from younger (less than 30 years of age) to
older (more than 50 years of age) employees. The details of the analysis are shown in step 3
at Appendix 3A.
On the dimension of ‘tendency for personalised relationship’, the analysis carried out
in step 4 at Appendix 3A showed that there was no difference in P scores across different age
groups and across different classes of employees. That is, the ‘tendency for personalised
relationship’ is consistently weak across different age and class groups in the Indian
Railways.
The hypotheses made in section 3.4.2 are now reproduced for convenience:
(i) Class 1 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class 2 officers.
(ii) Class 2 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class 3 employees.
(iii) Younger employees show lesser hierarchical tendencies than older employees.
In terms of hypothesis testing, hypothesis i and hypothesis ii were accepted on two
dimensions of hierarchy – ‘status consciousness’ and ‘dependency proneness’. But
hypothesis i and hypothesis ii were not accepted on the third dimension of hierarchy -
‘personalised relationship’.
Hypothesis iii was not accepted on the two dimensions of ‘status consciousness’ and
‘dependency proneness’. That is, in the Indian Railways, the younger employees are as
hierarchical in nature as their superiors who joined service roughly 25 years ago.
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4.3 Data collection and data analysis for survey C
Based on the three criteria for selection of units for survey C mentioned in section
3.5.1.1, the railway units short-listed for this survey and the criteria they satisfied are shown
in Table 4.6.
Railway unit
ISO 14000 certified
Unit headed by a transform-ational leader
Requisite delegation of authority to the head of unit
Parel workshop (PRL) No No No Diesel Components Works (DCW) No No Yes Alambagh warehousing unit (AMV) No Yes No Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) Yes No Yes Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) Yes No Yes Bhopal workshop (BPL) Yes Yes No Wheel and Axle Plant (WAP) Yes No Yes Rail Coach Factory (RCF) Yes No Yes Integrated Coach Factory (ICF) Yes No Yes
Table 4. 6 List of short-listed railway units for survey C
Source: developed from fieldwork. The survey questionnaire was sent by e- mail after the management representative
(MR) or the head of the unit of these units was telephonically advised of the purpose of the
survey. They were then reminded telephonically to complete and return the survey. Two units
CLW and RCF did not respond.
Salient points of the survey are shown in Appendix 4A. Some of the common
conclusions were:
(i) The reason for certification was to initiate a structured way for continuous improvement.
(ii) Top management had been very involved in the quality system.
(iii) Customer feedback is taken as a part of quality system implementation.
(iv) Except DLW, there was no resistance to change from any unit.
(v) The structure of procedure for WAP showed a different approach. It was basically
designed for each business process i.e. it truly reflected the process approach enshrined in
ISO 9000:2000 standard.
(vi) Five out of six units said that implementation of document control ‘prevented non
conformities on account of use of obsolete documents or no documents’.
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(vii) Except WAP no unit calculates process capability index like Cpk. At WAP, the use of
statistical techniques has been good. In the other five units, the use of statistical techniques
has been either ‘low’ or ‘somewhat’.
(viii) Five out of six units said that certification resulted in ‘better understanding of process &
responsibility’ and ‘linkage to other functions’.
(ix) ‘Team work’ came out as the most important lesson learnt followed by the realisation
that ‘people make the system work’.
(x) Except AMV, no other unit involved all departments in the ISO certification.
From the above conclusions, the following are relevant in the context of this research:
(i) Continuous improvement was the reason behind certification. The literature review had
shown that ‘management intent’ behind ISO certification was an intervening variable in an
organization’s transition towards TQM (see section 2.2.5.2).
(ii) Top management was very involved in the quality system. Literature review had shown
that leadership; particularly transformational leadership was a crucial intervening variable in
an organization’s transition towards TQM. However, it must be cautioned here that
‘leadership involvement’ is one thing; ‘transformational leadership’ is another thing. That is,
a non-transformational leader can also be very much involved in the certification process
without showing the traits of transformational leadership.
(iii) There was almost no resistance to change. This was contrary to the findings in the
western literature on management of change (see section 2.2.7.2).
4.3.1 Understanding the impact of ISO implementation on railway units in terms of intervening variables
In Table 4.6, the railway units were short-listed based on three intervening variables –
ISO 14000 certification, presence of transformational leadership and presence of requisite
authority to the head of the unit.
Now, after the survey, based on the survey C and the literature review, additional
intervening variables were used to assess their moderating impact on an unit’s journey
towards TQM. The intervening variables which were now considered as having a moderating
impact on the unit’s journey towards TQM were:
(i) time elapsed from ISO certification till Jan 2005
(ii) ISO 14000 certification
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(iii) presence of transformational leadership
(iv) involvement of all departments in ISO certification process
(v) presence of requisite authority to the head of the unit
(vi) use of statistical techniques.
That took the research to survey D.
4.4 Data collection and data analysis for survey D
The purpose of survey D was to assess the development of TQM orientation in ISO
certified units of Indian Railways. The instrument ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ developed
in section 3.6 was used to get an objective assessment of a unit’s transition towards TQM.
The units short-listed for survey C were used for this survey also so that the effect of
intervening variables could be seen. The questionnaire was e-mailed to the management
representative (M.R.) or the head of the unit after a telephonic discussion about the purpose
of the questionnaire. In three cases (AMV, DLW and WAP), the questionnaire was
personally handed over to the M.R.
The scores obtained on the TQM transition questionnaire by different units of Indian
Railways are shown in Table 4.7. The table also shows the status of intervening variables in
the units which were assessed on TQM transition questionnaire.
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Railway Unit
Score on TQM trans-ition scale
No. of years since ISO 9000 certificat-ion till Jan 2005
ISO 14000 certif-ied
Unit head-ed by a trans-form-ational leader
Involvement of all depar-tments in the ISO certifi-cation process
Requisite delegation of authority to the head of unit
Use of statist-ical techni-que
Parel workshop (PRL)
13 3 No No No No Non existent
Alambagh warehous-ing unit (AMV)
13.17 1 No Yes Yes No Some-what
Bhopal workshop (BPL)
13.33 4 Yes Yes No No Some-what
Diesel Locomot-ive Works (DLW)
25.33 8 Yes No No Yes Some-what
Diesel Compon-ents Works (DCW)
10.33 7 No No No Yes Low
Wheel and Axle Plant (WAP)
37.66 10 Yes No No Yes High
Integrated Coach Factory (ICF)
21.33 9 Yes No No Yes Some-what
Table 4. 7 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors
Source: developed from survey data.
It can be seen from Table 4.7 that the top leader at Parel, Alambagh and Bhopal were
not having requisite delegation of authority. Further, only the leaders at Alambagh and
Bhopal were transformational leaders. The transformational leadership scores of the leaders
at Alambagh (AMV) and Bhopal (BPL) measured through Bass Multifactor Leadership
Questionnaire are shown at Appendix 6.3. Except for AMV, no other unit had involved all
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departments in the certification process. The presence of a transformational leader and
involvement of all department perhaps explains why just one year after certification process,
Alambagh registered a score of 13.17 on the ‘TQM transition scale’ which was the same as
the scores of Bhopal and Parel, even though Bhopal was headed by a transformational leader.
The leaders at DLW, DCW, WAP and ICF were not transformational. But they had the
necessary delegation of authority. With respect to ISO 14000 certification, it was seen that
except BPL, all ISO 14000 certified units (WAP, ICF and DLW) obtained relatively higher
scores. This was in line with the proposition made in section 3.5.1.1 that ISO 14000
certification, because of its emphasis on cleanliness, positively intervenes in an
organization’s journey towards TQM. WAP had the highest on the TQM transition scale.
This could partly be explained by the longer period for which it was ISO certified. However,
DLW and ICF were also ISO certified for the last 8 years and 9 years respectively. In the
case of WAP, the use of statistical technique was high. This could be one possible
explanation as to why WAP got higher scores on the TQM transition scale than DLW and
ICF. Still, the rather large difference of scores between DLW and WAP made the researcher
feel that there were other intervening variables which were not considered in Table 4.7 which
could explain the difference in the scores between DLW and WAP.
This insight was carried forward to the rest of the research discussed in chapter 5 and
chapter 6.
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Chapter 5 The action research project
In section 3.7.1, action research was mentioned as a possible research methodology to
seek answers to the following research questions:
Research question iv: Will a bottom up methodology build learning capacity among
the railway personnel?
Research question v: How can the enablers of TQM be integrated in a model for
attaining TQM within the ISO framework?
This chapter deals with these issues in detail.
5.1 Situating Action Research in a Research Paradigm AR is the process of systematically collecting data about a system (e.g. organization)
relative to some goal or need of the system (Aguinis 1993, p.419). Lewin has however
clarified that introduction of action into the scientific model ‘by no means indicate that action
research is any less scientific or “lower” than pure science’ (quoted by Aguinis 1993, p. 419).
This means that the data collection is not arbitrary. It is systematic in the sense that the action
researcher is guided by hypotheses and assumptions about the nature of organization and its
sub-systems. The data is fed back to the system and action taken as a consequence. Part of
the action involves modifying the hypothesis if the data so indicate.
Action research in its most basic form is shown in Figure 5.1.
Reflect Plan
Observe Action
Figure 5. 1 The action research cycle
Source: Kemmis and McTaggart (1988).
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Planning involves identifying the problem, formulating a hypothesis about the
situation, identifying the theory in use and planning the action to be taken. The action is then
undertaken. The action is observed with data collected. The fourth stage is reflection which
relates to what the experience means, what can be learnt from it, does theory match practice
or does the theory need to be adjusted in light of the practice. This process is then repeated
until theory accurately predicts the practice.
In the context of learning, Kolb has expressed the cyclic learning as shown in
Figure 5.2. Here there is no need to identify the theoretical assumption underlying the initial
action. Instead an event is selected for reflection and a record of experience kept. Using the
record, the experience is analysed in terms of what happened and why, what was expected to
happen and what does it mean? A meaning is abstracted from it which may result in a theory
or a personal record of what has been learnt. In the fourth stage what has been learnt is tried
out and the cycle is repeated.
Concrete
Experiencing
Active Reflective observation
experimentation
Abstract
conceptualisation
Figure 5. 2 The experiential learning cycle
Source: Kuit, Reay and Freeman (2001, p. 128) adapted from Kolb
Cowan (1998) has taken the experiencing learning cycle of Kolb shown in
Figure 5.2 and shown how the cycle can be modified to give rise to generalisation about
learning which can then be tested. Cowan says that the step from reflective learning to
generalisation about that learning is essentially an iterative process in which the learner
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oscillates between reflection and generalisation a number of times before he/she can arrive at
a testable generalisation. This is shown in Figure 5.3.
Experiencing
Test Reflecting
Generalize
Figure 5. 3 The oscillation between reflection and generalisation
Source: based on Cowan (1998, p. 44).
Action research cycle has been regarded as a learning cycle (Dick 2000;
Kemmis & McTaggart 1988; O’Brien 1998). The literature review (section 2.2.1.3)
identified four forms of knowing - experiential, presentational, propositional and practical.
Extending knowledge into research, Reason (1994, p. 326) has said that ‘in research on
persons, the propositional knowledge stated in the research conclusions need to be rooted in
and derived from the experiential and practical knowledge of the subjects’. ‘When formalised
in research, propositional knowledge is the researched world’. Reason has further identified
second person action research –“co-operative inquiry” - as the method which integrates these
four forms of knowing and develops learning organization (Reason 2001, p.185).
Positioning action research in the paradigm of knowledge, de Guerre (2002, p. 333)
said that there are three forms of logical inference and not just two – deduction and induction
- as were generally supposed. He talks about abduction (or retroduction) as a kind of
inference that yields reasonable ex-post facto hypothesis. ‘It was only by this ability to arrive
at reasonable hypotheses, that we could advance scientific knowledge’. ‘Retroduction is
reasoning from the consequent to the antecedent and thus after the fact extracting the
hypothesis’ (Emery & Emery quoted in de Guerre 2002, p.340). Reason has looked at these
three approaches in terms of three paradigms which are shown in a tabular form in Table 5.1.
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Positivist Paradigm Interpretive
Paradigm
Paradigm of Praxis
O’ Brien (1998) has said that
logical positivism is based on a
belief in objective reality,
whose knowledge can be
gained only from data which
that can be directly
experienced and verified
between independent
observers. Phenomena are
subject to natural laws that
humans discover in a logical
manner through empirical
testing, using inductive and
deductive hypothesis derived
from a body of scientific
theory. It uses quantitative
measures with relationships.
Positivism has been considered
by many to be the antithesis of
the principles of action
research.
It is characterised by
a belief in a socially
constructed,
subjectively based
reality, one that is
influenced by culture
and history.
Phenomenology,
ethnography and
hermeneutics are the
approaches which are
used here.
It also retains the
ideals of researcher
objectivity and
researcher as a
passive collector but
expert interpreter of
data.
Aristotle defines Praxis as
the art of acting upon the
conditions one faces in order
to change them. He contrasts
it with Theoria – those
science and activities that are
concerned with knowing for
its own sake. According to
him both are needed. That
knowledge is derived from
practice and practice
informed by knowledge is an
ongoing process is a corner
stone of action research.
Action researchers also
reject the notion of
researcher neutrality,
understanding that an active
researcher is reflecting upon
his/her experience based on
his/her bias and past
experiences.
Table 5. 1 Comparison between three paradigms of knowledge
Source: based on Reason (2001).
Within the three paradigms, action research has been used as a research
method in the paradigm of praxis. To further posit action research as a specific research
methodology, a comparison has been made between the positivist science and the action
research in Table 5.2.
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Points of comparison Positivist science Action Research
Value position Methods are value neutral Methods are social systems
and release of human
potential
Time perspective Observation of the present Observation of the present
plus interpretation of the
present from knowledge of
the past, conceptualisation
of a more desirable future
Relationship with units Detached spectator, client
system members are object
of study
Client system members are
self reflective subjects with
whom to collaborate
Treatments of units studied Cases are of interest only
Basis for generalisation Broad, universal and free
of context
Narrow, situational and
bound by context.
Table 5. 2 Comparison between positivist science and action research
Source: Susman and Evered (1978, p. 600).
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The above table shows that the value position action research takes is social system
based. Thus action research within the context of systems theory is now looked at.
5.2 Situating action research within systems theory
5.2.1 Soft System methodology
In the early phase of systems theory, an organization was treated as a physical entity –
a first order reality - which really exists and which can be defined, designed and engineered
objectively (Gold 2001, p.558). This was taken as the ‘hard’ system’s approach towards the
study of organization. In the context of organisational study, Checkland changed this
approach of systems school. Checkland developed the concept of soft system methodology.
Soft system methodology (SSM) has been advocated as a flexible approach to problem
solving in the context of complex human situations (Gold 2001, p. 558). Schön (quoted by
Checkland & Scholes 1990, p.276) has said that the complex and less clearly defined
problems of business management cannot be solved by technical rationality. According to
SSM, it is not possible to analyse the complex problems of business through a case study
approach (which it considers inadequate). The complex problems can be analysed through
the trick of shifting the focus of systemicity from the world to the process of enquiry about
the world. ‘In hard system, the world itself is considered to be a set of system i.e. is systemic
and these set of systems can be systematically engineered to achieve objectives. But in the
soft tradition, world is assumed to be problematic’ (Checkland 1999, A 49). In SSM, ‘the
system’ is no longer some part of the world which is to be engineered and optimised. ‘The
system’ is in the process of inquiry itself. ‘If that is formalised as a learning system which the
practitioner consciously enacts, then the reflection in action becomes analysable…. Out of
that more tranquil reflection, after the event, general lesson may be extracted’ (Checkland &
Scholes 1990, p. 277). In other words, ‘assumed systemicity is shifted from taking the world
to be systemic to taking the process of inquiry to be systemic’ (Checkland 1999, A 49). For
example, a well-defined problem such as improving the horsepower of an automobile can be
handled well by hard systems. But implementing a superior quality system in an organization
so that it can institutionalise the changes necessary for manufacturing of engines with
improved horsepower is better handled by soft system methodology. Thus instead of trying
to objectively observe the characteristics of organization, one should attempt to understand
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different ways of seeing the situation. Therefore Checkland’s soft system methodology does
not attempt to model the real world. He recognises that the chaos and complexity of
organization is viewed differently by different members of organization. ‘He treated
organization as an ongoing and dynamic arrangement of people and objects in relationship’
(Gold 2001, p.558). These different views are contributions to a debate about possible change.
They indicate what activities are necessary to achieve a purpose meaningful from a particular
point of view. Thereby, the participants in a problem situation are able to learn their way to
what changes are systematically desirable and culturally feasible given the meanings and
relationships that currently exist in the situation (Jackson 2000). From such different views of
organization, if sufficient meaning is derived, it becomes the basis for action (or non action)
(Gold 2001, p. 559). That also makes SSM a learning system. Thus soft system methodology
is more suitable for studying ill-defined, messy problems. Soft System Methodology had a lot
in common with ‘appreciative system theory’ developed by Vickers (Checkland 1994).
Checkland started with Mode 1 approach to SSM. However, now he has shifted to
Mode 2 approach. The differences between these two approaches is shown in Table 5.3
Mode 1 Mode 2
Methodology-driven Situation-driven
Intervention Interaction
Sometimes sequential Always iterative
SSM as external SSM as internalised model
Table 5. 3 Dimensions of SSM types
Source: Gold (2001).
Mode 1 of the soft system methodology involved a seven-stage learning system using
the mnemonics CATWOE (customers, actors, transformational process, world-view, owners,
environmental constraints). It recognised that there are many ways to describe a situation
depending on the point of view one takes. A different way of conceiving the problem
situation will give rise to a different root definition. Thus a prison can be taken as a
punishment system, a rehabilitation system, a system for taking revenge, a system to protect
society or a system that constitutes a university of crime (Jackson 2000, p. S5). It suggested
that the view which is most insightful or most relevant in exploring the situation should be
selected. Often non- written ways of expressions like story telling and rich pictures (pictorial
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and cartoon like pictures) aid in grasping the contentious aspect of a situation. From these,
root definitions are developed which grasp the essence of the relevant system. Each root
definition reflects a particular worldview of the problem situation. Later, Checkland
considered the methodology driven Mode 1 too restrictive for practicing managers who are
more often driven by the pressures of their environment. From their perspective, Mode 1
SSM is cut off from the day to day working of an organization. Thus he developed situation
driven Mode 2 of soft system methodology. Mode 2 SSM is driven by situational logic and
situational culture. The cultural stream has three types of enquiry (Jackson 2000, p. S7):
Analysis 1- It considers the intervention itself and the roles of client, problem solver and
problem owner.
Analysis 2 – It is called the social system analysis. It looks at social roles, norms of
behaviour and what values are used in judging the performance.
Analysis 3 - This examines the politics of the problem situation and how power is obtained
and used.
Though Checkland considers Mode 1 and Mode 2 as a spectrum of possible uses and
not mutually exclusive (Checkland & Scholes 1990), it has been said that ‘it is not easy to
capture SSM in a way that does justice to both Mode 1 and Mode 2 (Jackson 2000, p. S8).
Also Mode 2 based SSM, where problem solvers are able to internalise the methodology,
employ it as a way of thinking as an insider, has not been often used (Gold 2001, p.558).
5.2.2 Soft system methodology as action research
Since SSM involves individuals to take part in the action based on their worldview,
and not simply to observe the action as external watcher, Checkland considers SSM as action
research (Checkland 1999, p. A39). This realisation that all real-world problem situations are
characterized by human beings seeking or wishing to take purposive action led purposeful
action being treated as a system concept (Checkland 1999, p. A54). Different purposeful
activities express different worldviews. Comparison between different worldviews and a
perceived real situation gives rise to a set of action – action which is culturally feasible for a
particular group of people in a particular situation with its own particular history (Checkland
1999, A 55).
The current SSM is based on constitutive rules which guide the process of interaction.
It is these rules which make research on the methodology possible and allow the methods and
techniques which support SSM to be continually improved. At the same time, though SSM
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sets out principles for method use, it does not determine their use. It provides a different
response in each situation depending on the user and the nature of the situation (Jackson 2000,
p. S9).
5.3 Justification of Action Research as the research methodology for this thesis
Action research is used when the research is expected to be responsive to situation
(Dick 2000) or when the circumstances require flexibility and organisational change must
take place quickly or holistically (O’Brien 1998, p.5). Action Research is a powerful
methodology for large-scale change and transformation along with knowledge creation
(Bradbury & Reason 2001, p.449; Kotnour 2001). Action research has been considered more
appropriate than traditional research for improving practice (Jorgensen, Boer & Gertsen 2003;
Kofoed, Gertsen & Jorgensen 2002) and for professional and organisational learning
(Coughlan et al. 2002; Zuber-Skerritt & Perry 2002). Use of action research methodology is
in keeping with recent articles in the area of change management in operations and logistics
based companies (Coughlan et al. 2003; Harland & Knight 2001; Mileham et al. 1999). In a
review of AR, Coughlan and Coghlan (2002) found action research appropriate when the
research questions related to describing an unfolding series of actions over time which
implementation of ISO 9000 certification would involve. In fact, given the now understood
importance of contingency factors like the change process, its manner of facilitation and the
behavioural factors in TQM implementation (Melan 1998), AR seems to be the natural
choice so as to take care of the ‘full range of variables which may not otherwise emerge’
(Westbrook 1994, p.18). The relationship between change and action research has been
considered as a ‘bottom-up approach specially designed as a response to the theory-practice
gap’ (Suderman et al. 2000, p.571). Action research develops context specific knowledge
which is evolved by the participants. Their collective insight promotes transformational or
paradigm changes (Suderman et al. 2000, p.571). In the specific context of the ISO 9000
standard, Boon and Ram (1997), Haversjo (1999) and Castka et al. (2004) have provided case
studies of implementation of ISO 9000 using the action research methodology. Lilford,
Warren and Braunholtz (2003) have noted that both TQM and action research are cyclical
activities involving examination of the existing processes and affecting change through active
participation of stakeholders. Pace and Argona (1991) have used participatory action research
in a change initiative which merged ‘Quality of Work Life’ with TQM at Xerox. Webb (1989,
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p.405) considers action research similar to a case study with the difference that in action
research, the emphasis should be on getting multiple representations and ‘presentation of
evidence in forms which are open to multiple interpretations’. On similar lines, Gummeson
(2000, p.116) considers action research as ‘the most demanding and far-reaching method of
doing case study research’.
From a theoretical angle, if a comparison is made between the PDCA cycle of ISO
9000:2000 (borrowed from TQM), and the plan-act-observe-reflect cycle of AR, the
methodological commonality between the two is clear: TQM has its origin in operations
management. Therefore, the purpose of PDCA is to understand a problem systematically,
solve it, and then, pick up the next problem and so on. Over a period of time, the repetitive
identification and solution of problems bring about the culture of continuous improvement in
an organization. However, in TQM there is no attempt to develop learning from these
continuous problem-solving cycles which could also possibly become an input to the next
level of problem solving and facilitate it. On the other hand, the action learning cycle
‘dwells’ and emphasises upon ‘learning’ which it develops through ‘reflection’ in each cycle.
Because action learning had its origin in systems theory, it looks upon ‘improvement’ of
operations management from a more gestaltist angle and calls it ‘change’ and again because
of its systems background, it is able to recognise the interrelationships and possibly, the
thematic similarities, between different instances of ‘change’ or ‘improvement’ in an
organization, instead of looking upon them as disjointed events. Therefore while the learning
of a PDCA gets dissipated after improvement (change) has taken place, the AR preserves it
by reflection and uses that as an input to the next process of change or ‘improvement’. Thus
the difference lies in their focus. Perhaps, it can be said that action research is a richer way of
undergoing the PDCA loop. Once a ‘learning bias’ is added to the PDCA loop and one
begins looking for data (with a view to analyse them, understand them and benefit from them
in subsequent PDCA loops), the basic skeleton of action learning is already there. After
getting the data, for the purpose of learning, the thematic similarity among different data, the
frequency of occurrences of different set of data need to be ‘reflected upon’, instead of
‘regressed upon – as in regression analysis’- and you arrive at learning. Here, mind, in
contradistinction to mathematics, is the processor which processes perceptual or cognitive
data as against classificatory, ordinal, interval and ratio data. As against mathematical
modelling, mental models (Checkland 1999, p. A58) are used to make sense of the perceptual
or cognitive data. From there, a progressive loop of learning through subsequent intra-
organisational or inter-organisational confirmation, and at a larger scale, through intra-
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methodological and inter-methodological confirmation gives rise to a theory – a theory
whose theory building will be perhaps more eclectic in approach than conventional theory
building and where the experiment of scientific research is replaced by the intervention of the
action research.
Thus TQM and action research can be integrated as shown in the Figure 5.4.
Figure 5.4 shows that in the context of TQM, each cycle of PDCA brings about an
improvement (or change) which can then become the basis for planning next cycle of
improvement (or change). From the PDCA cycles emerges the learning. In the context of
learning, at the individual’s/ group’s level, the experience of undergoing the PDCA cycle
make(s) her/them reflect on her/their experience(s). She/they draw(s) on theories and
constructs to make sense of her/their experience. That is, the theories and constructs known
to her/them till then are used to interpret and find answers to the questions posed in the
reflection. These answers are the new learning to the individual/group. As a consequence of
this new learning, the individual/group learn(s) to act differently in the organization. Thus in
the next cycle (cycle 2), this learning is part of her/their theory and construct which in turn
moderates her/ their experience, reflection and interpretation. However, the experiential
learning arrived above cannot be elevated to the status of knowledge unless it can be
generalised and then verified to be correct.
This is done in the action research cycle. Here, the learning which emerges during
reflection and interpretation needs to be generalised and tested. For this, the data which
emerges during different experiential learning cycles can be compared among themselves or
with other data sources to make the generalisation more robust. Then, it is knowledge.
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Cycle 1 improvement Cycle2 ……………and so on
The TQM cycle Plan----Do-----Check-----Act Plan---Do---Check--Act
learning
The experiential Experience--Reflect--Interpret--Act (in Experience--Reflect--Interpret-Act(in
learning cycle organisational organizational
context) context)
emergence of data emergence of data
knowledge
The action research cycle Generalise---Test (in research Generalise---Test (in research
context) context)
time axis
Figure 5. 4 Conceptual link between TQM and AR
Source: developed for this research.
The time axis in the above figure indicates that improvement precedes learning which
in turn precedes knowledge.
5.4 Research model for Action Research
From the point of view of thesis writing, an action research model has been proposed
by Perry and Sankaran (2002). This model is shown in Figure 5.5.
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2 Act
1 Plan 3 Observe
4 reflect
Ch. 3 Collect data
Figure 5. 5 Two-project model for AR based thesis
Source: adapted from Perry and Sankaran (2002).
This divides the research into two distinct projects. One is the core action research
project which solves an organisational problem. The thesis action research project then takes
up the data generated from the core action research project, analyses them and then arrives at
the learning gleaned from it both for the organization and for the academic community.
The conceptual link shown in Figure 5.4 was modified and integrated with the two-
project model shown in Figure 5.5 so as to suit an ISO based change process through action
research. It is shown in Figure 5.6. This was the research model which was used for the
action research in stage 3.
Core action research project about group thematic concern = pure action research
Thesis action research project about its research problem concern = thesis
action research
Ch. 2 lit. review Ch. 4 analyse data
Ch. 5 contribution to literature
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Figure 5. 6 Research model used in stage 3 shown within the AR framework
Source: developed for this research (adapted from Perry & Zuber-Skerrit 1994).
Conclude 1st draft of thesis
Thesis Action research Plan the research problem
Act By initiating core action projects
CORE AL PROJECTS
Plan
Act
Observe
Reflect
Plan
Act
Observe
Reflect
Plan
Act
Observe
Reflect
Stage 2 development of
Quality Procedure
Stage3 development of work instruction
Plan Final draft
Thesis Writing Act
Write final draft Conclude these
evaluate seek comments/revise
Submit thesis Further Research
Evaluation Observe/reflect/
theorise
Stage 1 Development of Quality Policy
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As per the manual of ISO 9000:2000, the implementation of ISO 9000 is divided into
three sub-areas-
(i) Development of the ‘quality policy’. This leads to the
(ii) Development of the ‘quality procedure’. This leads to the
(iii) Development of the ‘work instruction’.
In the model shown in Figure 5.6, each of the above three steps have been integrated
into an action learning cycle. The advantage in this integration was that the progression from
one level of learning (cycle) to the next level of learning (cycle) also marked from quality
angle, a journey deeper down the ISO framework and lower down the hierarchy of the
organization and to that extent, entwined the two naturally. That is, the quality policy was
first cycle of action learning which was proposed to be done with the managers of the
warehousing unit. The next action learning cycle was kept for development of quality
procedures which is a 2nd tier ISO document. Thus, it was proposed to be done with senior
supervisors of the warehousing unit. Further, in order to ensure that the ISO documents thus
developed, did not become yet another chiselled ‘management learning’ deliberately
percolated down by the management to become ‘worker learning’, it was proposed that for
each cycle, and, because of the above integration, for each level of ISO document
development, the members of the team (or the co-researchers in the language of action
learning), who would develop the documents, would be drawn from the cross section of
organization. Thus, the quality policy was proposed to be developed not by the top
management of the unit, but by a set of people who represented different functional domain
and different ‘level’ domain of the organization. After all, if TQM is about breaking down
the hierarchy, about empowerment and about development of enquiring culture, it made
sense that the structure for ISO implementation took care of these aspects right from the
beginning. Thereby, the quality policy, the quality procedures and the work instructions,
when developed, would have a flavour, created and savoured by the organisational members.
5.5 Rigour and validity in the Action Research
As per the traditional research yardstick, scientific experiment is repeatable, though
the interpretation of the finding can be varied. From the point of view of the positivist school,
one of the criticisms which AR has faced is whether the ‘knowledge’ produced by it is
scientific as per the traditional research yardstick that is whether the observed or assumed
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relationship are true. Susman and Evered (1978, p.601) have said that action research is not
compatible with the criteria of scientific explanation taken in traditional positivist school.
Webb (1989, p.405) has quoted Greenwood who says that ‘face validity in action research
guarantees that findings fit reality and that reliability can be checked by ensuring agreements
between the interpretations of the researcher and the participants’. Echoing a different point
of view, Coghlan and Brannick (2001, p.10) have said that action research is evaluated within
its own frame of reference and that questions of reliability, replicability and universality do
not pertain to the action research approach. For them, an action research should be able to
answer three questions:
What happened? The relating of a good story.
How do you make sense of what happened? This involves rigorous reflection on that story.
So what? This most challenging question deals with the extrapolation of usable knowledge or
theory from the reflection on the story.
Bradbury and Reason (2001, p.447) have indicated that some authors such as
Schwandt and Wolcott have not considered validity an issue in action research. Others have
taken less extreme views. For example, Dickens and Watkins (1999) have mentioned that
some of the criticism of action research has been its supposed lack of internal and external
control and lack of the rigour of true scientific research. Gummesson (2000, p.221) takes a
stand that ‘since the natural state of an organization today is change’, it is more important to
show that a theory works in a specific context than to show that ‘it possesses a wide range of
general and approximate application’ (Gummesson 2000, p. 219). Therefore, from
Gummesson point of view, a theory can be modified (instead of generalised) by its
application and validity in subsequent actions. Thus the theory never gets finalised but is
continually being transcended (Gummesson 2000, p.208). Looking at AR from a qualitative
angle, Coghlan and Brannick (2001, p.15) consider action research as genuinely scientific in
its emphasis on careful observation and study of the effects of behaviour on human systems
as their members manage change. But they accept that it has lost its role as a powerful
conceptual tool for uncovering truth on which action can be taken. Checkland and Holwell
(1998, p.16) have attended to the specific weakness of AR if it is adjudged from a
quantitative angle and accepted that ‘AR cannot produce law-like generalisations from
involvement in a single situation …. but it can be made to yield defensible generalisations’.
For this, ‘action research should be based on research themes as against research hypothesis’.
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That is, the action researchers should be able to establish that the research theme they are
going to research is worthy of being investigated and exploring this theme further is going to
bring about real world benefit (West & Stansfield 2001, p.265). Checkland and Holwell
further accept that AR based research is not repeatable but if the process of AR is
recoverable, ‘it helps to justify the generalisation and transferability of AR (or case study)
research’ (Checkland & Holwell 1998, p.17). Thus it is the notion of recoverability, as
against the notion of repeatability, - so important for knowledge acquisition in natural science
(West & Stansfield 2001, p.277)- which makes action research rigorous.
In order to make the AR recoverable, Checkland and Holwell (1998, p. 18) and
Checkland (1999, p. A40) have suggested:
Action research should be conducted in such a way that the whole process is subsequently
recoverable by anyone…. This means that there should be a declared-in-advance methodology
(encompassing a particular framework of ideas) declaring explicitly, at the start of the research, the
intellectual framework and the process of using them which will be used to define what counts as
knowledge in this piece of research. The thought process and the models which enabled the team to
make their interpretations and draw their conclusions should be made available to the interested
observer. By declaring the epistemology (the methodology and its framework of ideas) of their
research process in this way, the researchers make it possible for outsiders to follow the research and
see whether they agree with the findings. If they disagree, well-informed discussion and debate can
follow. This would the give AR a ‘truth claim’ though less strong than that of laboratory
experimentation. Also the learning gained in … action research may concern any or all of: the area
focused in the research, the methodology used or the framework of ideas embodied in the
methodology.
However, Checkland holds the opinion that action researches which have been
designed with the above framework are not many (1999, p. A39). Therefore it is not
surprising that ‘there are actually very few action researchers who have made major
contribution to the scientific community’ (Gronhaug & Olson 1999, p.13). They go on to add
that the weakness of action research studies is that the researchers do not mention their
research in detail – about their research activities and how step-by-step they have arrived to
their interpretations. Subjectivity is the main methodological weakness of action research
(Westbrook 1994).
The researcher takes a stand that the approach suggested by Checkland is
theoretically sound. But it tends to take AR as a stand-alone research paradigm. However, it
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is possible to add rigour to AR if it is used in conjunction with other research approaches.
Mixed method research approach for action research has also been identified by others (Eden
& Huxham 1996; Gummessson quoted in Coghlan & Brannick 2001, p. 7; Lilford, Warren &
Braunholtz 2003). Thus formal quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques are all
appropriate to different situations (Coghlan & Brannick 2001, p. 9).
However, the researcher considers Checkland’s emphasis on recoverability a
necessary criterion for ensuring the rigour of AR. How these aspects were taken into account
in the conduct of action research is dealt with in the section 5.5.5.
Some other methods which can be used to make the action research more rigorous are
now dealt with.
5.5.1 Falsification
Falsification is another way to enhance the rigour of the action research. In positivist
paradigm, it involves matching the hypothesis with the data empirically collected. The degree
of correspondence indicates the appropriateness of the hypothesis (Aguinis 1993, p.418). It is
possible to use the criteria of falsification in action research also. Heron (1988, p.52.)
suggests that for falsification in AR, ‘an inquirer would read out from the records of the
different cycles, their impression of other’s reality. Any other inquirer could then come
forward as devil’s advocate and sceptically attack these impressions reducing them to purely
naturalistic explanation. The defendant now has three options: to give a reasoned defence of
the impressions as valid impressions of other’s reality, to yield to the devil’s reductionist
explanation as being most reasonable or to stick out their intuitive guns even though unable
to argue the case’.
Dick (1999) has also suggested similar ideas for making action research rigorous. He
uses dialectics to generate agreement from disagreement. Here a person does not persuade
the other person to his/her point of view but presents evidence which he/she think others may
have overlooked. He/She also adds to his/her list those items from other person’s list which
were earlier omitted by him/her but he/she is now prepared to accept. He/she then provides
his/her own list giving reason why it should be added to the other person’s list. Then the
other persons revise their list. This process continues till consensus emerges. Thus Dick says
that ‘while a consensual process operates by identifying agreements and an adversarial
process operates by choosing one of the competing views, dialectical process uses
disagreements to generate agreement’ (Dick 1999, p.24).
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Triangulation can also be used to falsify an emerging hypothesis. The concept of
triangulation involves the use of more than one research approach in a single study to gain a
broader understanding of the issues being studied (Duffy 1987). Duffy has identified four
ways of triangulation:
(i) Analysing data in more than one way.
(ii) Using more than one sampling strategy.
(iii) Using different interviewers, observers and analysts on one study.
(iv) Using more than one methodology to gather data.
5.5.2 Reflection and three levels of learning
Learning through reflection has been considered central to action research (Cowan
1998, Eden & Huxham 1996, Heron 1988, Reason 2001). Zimmer (2001) has explained
reflection at three levels of action learning. His ideas were used to improve the quality of
reflection in the action research project. A summary of the three levels of reflection is shown
in Table 5.4.
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First order
learning
Second order learning Third order
learning
Concrete
experience
I notice what I am
getting from the
system in focus
(You) and I
imagine what I will
be getting from it
(You).
There is only one
layer of sense
making involved
which is ‘I-it’.
I offer You My
receptiveness thereby
inviting Your reflections
from Your own
perspective- and then await
them.
Thus it has two layers of
sense making involving ‘I-
You’. It thus permits
communication.
My sensing becomes
listening to Your
perspective.
I monitor My
communication with
You, My sense of
your communication
with Me and My
sense of Our
communication
together.
Reflective
observation
I note how I feel
when I compare
what I think I will
be getting from the
system (You) with
what I need
I offer you My
understanding and thereby
positively including Your
reflections – and await
Your receptiveness as
confirmation.
Thus My checking
becomes acknowledging to
check Your perspective.
I check Our
togetherness as I
experience it, for
conflict vs.
cooperation.
Abstract
conceptualisation
I want to do
something toward
the system (You) in
order to get what I
need and …
My planning becomes
thinking and speaking to
put Your perspective
together with Mine
I offer You My
reflective, receptive
understanding,
thereby inviting
Yours in return –
and if necessary, I
actually request it.
Table 5.4 (cont’d…)
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Table 5.4 (cont’d…) First order
learning
Second order learning Third order
learning
Active
experimentation
If I can, I do it.
My acting takes into
account Your needs and
vice versa. Thus I can
negotiate with You to see
what You and I actually
can do to get both Your
needs and My needs met.
Here the two cycles
helps each other
along. If there is
conflict, We look for
parts of the cycle
that is missing.
Comment It is manipulative
rather than
communicating. I
am treating the
system (You) as an
object to be
subjected to my
prediction and
control. Thus most
of what one hears in
first order learning
is dogma, demand
and judgement.
This leads to
conflict.
Thus there is no conflict.
Also, it has in-built
autonomy for I and You.
Offering You, My
reflection, offering You,
My receptiveness and
offering You, My
understanding provides the
core of successful
communication which
prevents conflict.
The transformation
process here is one
in which I
experience the two
of Us at becoming
more and more as
one – while
remaining as
individuals, totally
free. This kind of
action learning is
not very often, yet it
is possible.
Table 5. 4 First order, second order and third order learning
Source: based on Zimmer (2001).
Bartunek et al. (1993) and Coghlan and Brannick (2001) have indicated how to do
action research within one’s own organization. Ross and Roberts (1994) have shown how it
is possible for an insider to balance advocacy and inquiry to begin changing a large
organization from within. There is much similarity between what they have suggested and
the second order learning suggested by Zimmer (2001). Since Ross and Roberts have
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indicated a practical way of how to do the balancing, it was explained to the co-action
researchers. The same is summarised in Table 5.5.
Situation Way to handle
Protocols for improved
advocacy
(i) Make your thinking process visible (walk up the ladder of
inference slowly)
(ii) Publicly test your conclusions and assumptions
Protocols for improved
inquiry
(i) Ask others to make their thinking process visible.
(ii) Compare your assumptions to others.
Protocols for facing a point
with which you disagree
(i) Inquire about what has led the person to that view.
(ii) Listen for larger meanings that may come out of honest, open
sharing of mental models
Protocols for when you are at
an impasse
(i) Embrace the impasse and tease apart the current thinking. (you
may discover that focusing on data brings you all down the
ladder of inference.)
(ii) Consider each persons mental model as a piece of larger
puzzle.
(iii) Look for information which will help people move forward.
(iv) Do not let the conversation stop with an “agreement to
disagree”
Table 5. 5 Skills of balancing inquiry and advocacy
Source: based on Ross and Robert (1994).
Coghlan (1993) has looked within the process of reflection and used a model called
ORJI developed by Schein. It focuses on what goes on inside the head of action researchers
and how it affects their overt behaviour. Briefly, it says that when we observe (O), we react
(R) emotionally to what we observe, we make judgement (J) based on our observations and
feelings and then we intervene (I) so as to make something happen (Schein quoted in
Coghlan 1993). Thus the ORJI process focuses on the spontaneous emotional reaction as
they arise rather than later and provides a framework whereby learners can recognise feelings
and distinguish it from cognitive processes. This adds sophistication to the reflection in the
sense that it improves observational ability and avoids premature judgement and
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inappropriate behaviour (Coghlan 1993, p.93). This concept is schematically shown in Figure
5.7.
Concrete
Experiencing
Active O R Reflective observation
experimentation
I J
Abstract
conceptualisation
Figure 5. 7 The ORJI within experiential learning cycle
Source: based on Coghlan (1993).
The broken arrow indicates that the reflection process at the emotional level can also
back from intervention (action) to judgement to reaction to observation. This deeper
reflection at the emotional level was used in the AR project.
5.5.3 Intervention
Intervention or action is the output of an AR cycle. The rigour of action research will
improve if intervention is studied in detail. Coghlan and Mcdonagh (1997) have quoted four
types of interventions. They are shown in Table 5.6.
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Intervention type Aim Assistance to the client
Exploratory Getting the basic story In addition to providing the story, it
also builds relationship between the
client and the action researcher.
Diagnostic Enables the client to do a
diagnosis of the situation
Here the researcher helps the client to
interpret what is taking place and test
theories of what is happening
Action alternative Helping the client clarify
and review courses of
action
It focuses on possible actions and
strategies.
Confrontive Confronts limitations of
thought, attitude and
behaviour
It exposes the thinking patterns
around the content of the issues
Table 5. 6 Types of intervention
Source: Coghlan and Mcdonagh (1997).
5.5.4 General criteria for assessing rigour in AR
Reviewing the study of action research, Bradbury and Reason (2001) have identified
five choice points for assessing the rigour of an action research. They are:
(i) Relationship - The action research should be explicit in developing a praxis of relational
participation. That is whether the action research group is set up to ensure maximum
participation. Whether best decisions are those which ensure maximum participation.
Whether less powerful people are helped by their participation in the inquiry.
(ii) Practical outcome - The action research should be guided by reflexive concern for
practical outcomes. That is, the research is validated by participant’s new way of acting in
light of the work. At the end the participants should be able to say – that was useful. I am
able to use what I have learnt.
(iii) Extended ways of knowing - The action research should be inclusive of a plurality of
knowing. That is,
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(a) The action research should ensure conceptual-theoretical integrity. A well-written
AR study should be such that it can be used by fellow inquirers with similar concern to ‘see
as if’ and illuminate their own situation.
(b) It should embrace ways of knowing beyond the intellect that is artful ways of
expression such as song and dance, video, poetry, and photography.
(c) The AR should intentionally choose appropriate research methods. The choice of
methods should be ecologically sensitive to the context in which it is being used.
(iv) Pay attention to what is worthy of attention- How do we decide where to put our effort?
At the heart of this process is to always ask the question – what values do we hold vis-à-vis
the value of work with which we engage. ‘Since the AR community is committed to bring an
attitude of inquiry towards questions of fundamental importance, we would do well to find
ways to address the question of what purposes are worthy of more direct attention. It is
worthwhile to articulate positive, life enhancing qualities in a situation and to amplify these
than to seek problems and try to solve them. It is thus better to ask appreciative questions
than critical questions. The emphasis should be to ask the right research questions so that we
are convening a process which will generate the outcome we want’ (Bradbury & Reason
2001, p. 453).
(v) Enduring consequences - The AR should emerge towards a new and enduring
infrastructure. This means that the dyadic, small group micro engagement of people should
manifest into an ongoing new patterning of behaviour at a macro level even after the action
researchers have left the scene (Bradbury & Reason 2001, p. 445).
Bradbury and Reason acknowledge that a given AR project cannot address all these
points. A dissertation can be reviewed on its strength and weakness using the above five
choice points as the yardstick. An action researcher can explain these points to co action
researchers (Bradbury & Reason 2001, p.454). Quality and validity in AR involve
encouraging debate and reflection on all these issues among all those involved.
5.5.5 Rigour and validity in this Action Research
From the above review, notwithstanding the apprehension expressed by some critics
about lack of rigour in AR, the researcher was satisfied that it was possible to conduct a
research using the action cycles, fully meeting the requirements of rigour and validity.
Based on the discussions above, a model for making the action research rigorous was
developed for this work. It is shown in Figure 5.8
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Cycle 1
Plan----act-----observe-----reflect
emergence of data
Figure 5. 8 Model for validation of learning which occurred in each cycle by using different methods, different sources of data and different types of data
Source: adapted from Checkland (1999), Coghlan & Mcdonagh (1997), Dick (1999), Eden & Huxham (1996), Ross & Robert (1994), Susman & Evered (1978), Zimmer (2001).
Diff
eren
t obs
erve
rs (i
,ii,…
)
Data set A(a,1,i ) Data set
A(b,2,ii )
Test agreement between different overlapping data set
Explain disagreement between different overlapping data set
Interpretations are gleaned
Interpret through
reflection, comparison
etc
Cycle 2- plan---act--check--reflect
Lateral data input from lit., other sources
Interpretations are cross confirmed
Input for next cycle: (a) validated interpretations, (b) refined question, (c) refined methodology
Ignore non- overlapping data
disagreement
Different methods (a,b,….)
agreement
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The model shows that after conducting an AR cycle, different datasets - A(a,1,i),
A(b,2,ii) - were available which had been generated by different combination of methods (a,
b…. etc), persons (1,2….etc) and observers(i, ii….etc). The topics mentioned by more than
one dataset defined the topics which were to be further questioned. That is, the overlapping
topics were the ones which needed further analysis. Any topic mentioned by only one dataset
was to be ignored. Now, the overlapping topics could be in agreement or in disagreement.
The agreements were tested across different datasets and the disagreements were explained
across different datasets. This can be called intra-cycle validation. The interpretation thus
arrived at was considered fit for carrying forward to the next cycle. However, before they
could be accepted as a valid input into the next cycle, they were further tested for their
validity by cross comparing with data made available from independent sources if any. This
can be called inter-cycle validation. Only such interpretations which passed through this were
to be taken as valid inputs for the next cycle. The interpretations thus developed also served
another useful function- they helped in refining the questions and methodologies with which
a given cycle had started. These three inputs – observation from a cycle, intra cycle
validation and inter cycle validation - therefore modulated the planning for the next cycle and
made it more precise and often more economical. ‘Delphi face-to-face’ method (Dick, 1999)
was used to attain time economy. A progressive convergence of interpretations finally led to
a conclusion. This conclusion was used to support, refute or modify the original research
questions. Thus the conclusions were arrived at much in the same manner as the conclusions
arrived at by any other research methodology. At this point of time, for its final verification,
the conclusions were compared with the literature just as any other research output would
have been compared. However, in the case of AR, one can extend the validation process
further. Just as the proof of a pudding lies in eating it, the ‘test of a research also lies in
finally implementing the change it claimed, it would bring about’ (Lewin, quoted in Dickens
& Watkins 1999, p.139). If it could do that, and not merely tinkle with the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’
of a business process, that is the final vindication for a methodology. Thus in the context of
this research work, if ultimately, it was found that the AR methodology did succeed in
bringing about a change towards TQM in a railway unit, that was to be its final validation.
Data collection: The aspect of collecting data from many sources and through many
methods have been emphasised earlier. Therefore, at the data collection stage, different
viewpoints were taken so that personnel bias was minimised. Multiple sources of information
were looked for during each cycle. Thus, data were collected in the form of field notes,
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participant presentations, discussion etc. It also included feedback, observation and
interviews. A number of railway personnel are semiliterate or illiterate. Thus there was a
need to encourage and look for non-textual data. It has been said that observation can be a
powerful tool during the hypothesis building process (Ticehurst & Veal 2000, p. 123). Hence
observation and story telling (Checkland, 1999) were used to encourage non-formal ways of
data generation and data collection. The root definitions (Gold 2001, p.571) which AR
viewpoints generated were validated with data generated from other methods. In this
connection, the learning gleaned from stage 1 and stage 2 were useful in triangulating the
learning which took place during the action research cycles.
Therefore, it was possible to draw arguably valid conclusions from the action research
cycles.
5.6 Action research at Jhansi Stores Depot
5.6.1 Selection of unit for action research The warehousing and material distribution unit of Indian Railways at Jhansi was
selected for the action research project. The warehousing and material distribution unit is
called stores depot in the Indian Railways parlance. The Jhansi stores depot is responsible for
supplying all the material required for the North Central Railway of India. Formal permission
from the head of the depot was taken for the project. A team of five co- action researchers
was put together at Jhansi.
5.6.2 About Jhansi Stores Depot
The Jhansi wagon maintenance workshop and warehousing unit were established in
1884. The wagon maintenance workshop and the warehousing unit are abutting each other
separated by a wall. Daily, in the morning, the shop foreman would come to the warehouse
with a list of items. These were then issued by the warehouse in-charges against issue tickets
and the cost of the material issued would be debited at average book rate through posting in a
computer. This activity was over during the first half of the day. During the second half, the
warehousing unit had virtually no work.
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The organisational chart of Jhansi workshop is shown in Appendix 10. All the
managers who are not from the mechanical engineering department, besides reporting to the
Chief Workshop Manager (CWM), also report to their departmental heads at the headquarter
(see Appendix 7). The Workshop Accounts Officer (WAO) was vested with the power of not
having to agree with the CWM and the CWM could not overrule him. In case of any
difference of opinion between them, the matter had to be reported to the Financial Advisor &
Chief Accounts Officer (FA&CAO) and the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) together. If
they do not agree, the matter had to be reported to the General Manager (GM) who alone had
the power to overrule the FA&CAO (or for that matter any finance officer). Even then, the
FA&CAO had the power to submit a note of dissent to the Railway Board.
The total staff strength of Jhansi warehousing unit headed by Dy CMM was about
400. Out of this four were managers. 150 were technical supervisors and clerks and 250 were
labours. The warehouse used to work from 8 AM to 4 PM with 30 minutes lunch break.
Around 1300 items were stocked in the warehouse. The warehouse was divided into different
storage wards. Each storage ward used to stock about 300 items. In addition, there were
receipt and inspection wards which used to receive material from different vendors, inspect
them and send them to storage wards for storage. It was the responsibility of the warehouse
to assess the demand for material for the next year, generate indents which were then sent to
the headquarter for placement of purchase orders, liaise with different vendors for timely
supply of the material, stock them and distribute them to the workshop and other end users
across the railway system.
The overall atmosphere both in the workshop and the depot was laid back. Both, in
general, wore an unkempt look. From an engineering point of view, the workshop was
saddled with a 100-year-old layout which was now outdated but not yet changed. Shortcuts in
production and shoddy workmanship were generally overlooked in the name of achieving the
target. The shop staff were generally very critical of the material shortage which according to
them was affecting their targeted output. However, during detailed discussion, it was
revealed that often, they used the materials shortage as a convenient scapegoat to hide the
shop’s failure in meeting the desired production targets.
The warehousing staff were aware of the items in short supply, however, they would
not react fast enough to prevent a stock out or would not react at all unless poked by the shop
staff. In the warehousing unit, almost all the ferrous items were kept in the open in gunny
bags. During rainy season, if the gunny bag had weathered off, the items were lost in the mud.
There were layers of dust in number of godowns. Even though the warehousing staff were
182
almost free of regular work in the second half of the day, the aspect of improving the
housekeeping would not cross their or their manager’s mind.
During the last 100 years or so, there has not been any planned change initiative in the
warehousing unit. However, ISO 9000:1994 was implemented in part of the wagon workshop.
As per the shop staff, ‘only paper certificate was taken and certification per se had not
brought about any improvement in the shop’. Apparently, being a part of government set up,
there was no need to change because there was no demand for change.
Against this backdrop, the researcher made a proposal to the head of the depot to
initiate a change initiative through action research methodology. The head of the depot (Dy
CMM) had arrived at Jhansi in March 2004 on transfer from a sister railway and was quite
dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the depot. He was aware of the fact that the Jhansi
workshop and depot were going to seek ISO 9000: 2000 certification. He thus wanted that
the change initiative should aim at ISO certification for the depot.
The depot head and his immediate subordinate were advised about the action research
methodology. They were also told about the Plan-Do-Observe-Reflect cycle of action
learning. They were explained that customer satisfaction was one of the central concerns for
ISO 9000: 2000 which could form the initial theme to initiate change towards attainment of
ISO certification. A thematic concern defines a substantive area in which a group decides to
focus its improvement strategies (Kemmis & McTaggart 1988, p.9). It is different from
‘method’ which might be used to improve things. Identification of a theme was in line with
the suggestion given by Checkland and Holwell (1998) and West and Stansfield (2001)
mentioned in section 5.5. The action research cycles are dealt with in section 5.6.3.
In the action research cycles, this thesis identifies the head of the depot as Dy. CMM
and his immediate subordinate as DMM.
5.6.3 The action research cycles
The action research consisted of three major cycles. The three cycles and the themes
covered in these cycles are shown in the Table 5.7.
183
Cycle
no.
Time
duration
Objective Outcome
1 April 2004
for three days
Explanation of the purpose of
intervention, understanding the ‘as is’
situation. Explanation of process
orientation using Figure 3.4 and the
related concept of continuous
improvement and customer satisfaction
Emergence of the
concept of the next
person in the process as
the customer and
acceptance of the
concept of customer
satisfaction as a valid
organisational motto
2 April 2004
for two days
and May
2004
Finalisation of action plan for
improvement in depot house keeping
Agreement on depot
improvement action plan
3 May 2004 for
1 week
Iterative development of work instruction
and quality procedures,
Preparation of work
instructions, quality
procedures
Table 5. 7 The AR cycles
Source: developed from field data.
Selection of co-action researchers: Reflection is difficult when done in isolation. It
works best when done in collaboration with others (Kuit, Reay & Freeman 2001, p. 140).
Kuit, Reay and Freeman (2001, p. 138) have quoted Beaty as having said that for planning
changes emanating from reflection on experience, the question ‘so what’ should be asked.
Asking the question ‘so what’ is the most challenging part of the cycle as it involves the
extrapolation of usable knowledge or theory from the reflection on the experience (Coghlan
& Brannick 2001, p.24). Partly because of this and partly to ensure that the opportunity went
beyond the private reflection of the researcher, the researcher decided to have co-action
researchers. To begin with, the Dy CMM and one DMM were included as co-action
researchers. The reason behind taking the managers was to secure enough organisational
clout so as to be able to handle any future organisational politics (Coughlan & Brannick 2001,
184
p.63). Later more co-action researchers were included. The names of co-action researcher are
available at Appendix 8. Enlarging the number of action researchers enabled the co-action
researchers to come up with more reasons to explain the mismatch between expectation and
reality. The Dy CMM was a class 1 officer, the DMMs and the AMM were class 2 officers
and the rest of the co-action researchers and also the staff of the Jhansi warehousing unit
were class 3 supervisors.
The different action cycles and reflection cycle are now dealt with.
185
PDCA Cycle no 1 (from 20.4.04. to 22.4.04)
Mini
cycle1.1
Day1 Plan
1.1
Do 1.1
Check 1.1
Get the staff of the depot to focus on a theme which can act as a trigger to
initiate a change initiative in the depot. Use this interaction to develop an
‘as is’ situation.
22 supervisors and all the four managers were called for what was
described as a brainstorming session to improve the working standard of
the depot. The session began by asking everyone to write down
(i) How do you measure how well you are working?
(ii) Who are your customers?
(iii) What are the problems faced by the depot?
Based on ‘Delphi face to face’ (Dick 1999), persons working in similar area
were then grouped together. They were explained that since they were from
the same functional discipline they have been grouped together so that
collectively they can compare their responses. After getting the responses,
they were discussed.
Not everybody answered all the questions.
(i) For the first question, the most popular answer received was ‘through
turn over ratio (TOR) of the inventory’. ‘Does the shop care for this’? ‘No,
they do not’. ‘Then why do you use it’? ‘Because this is our departmental
objective and on 31st March, we are supposed to meet the departmental
target fixed by HQ. If required we issue the material on paper to shop so as
to reduce our closing inventory and get the required TOR. ‘Why don’t the
shop staff care for it’? ‘Because their objective is production’.
(ii) The answer to the second question generally drew a blank. Some
however mentioned the passengers as the customer for Indian Railways.
(iii) ‘The server is very often down’ and ‘lack of material handling
equipment’ were the most cited problems. ‘Suppliers often do not supply
the material on time. This gives the workshop opportunity to complain
about lack of material’. ‘But it is not our problem. It is of course a problem
for the shop’. It also drew defensive statements such as ‘we do our work
186
Reflection
1.1
perfectly’; ‘there are constraints, but work is anyway getting done’; ‘there
is nothing much we can do as the purchase order is placed by HQ, if the
firm does not supply, we often make local purchase, but that is not
adequate’; ‘shop does not know its own requirement, their forecasting is
erratic’.
The above session lasted for one day. The co-action researchers and the
researcher then reflected on the proceedings. The researcher began by
saying whether the lack of awareness about customer was because we, the
logistics and warehousing personnel, did not yet think that we create an
output. From this point of view a component could be considered an output
for a vendor. We were only passing that output to the shop. Thus the shop
was the customer for the vendor. However, the co-action researchers did
not appreciate the logic of the researcher’s reasoning. They shared with the
researcher, their own lack of understanding about the workshop being their
customer. ‘We do know our functional requirement. But we would like to
know how our functional role gets integrated with the customer approach
which you say is important for bringing about an enduring improvement’
asked a co-action researcher.
The emphasis on a departmental objective –TOR- which bore no
relationship with the expectations of the customer, made the researcher
reflect before the co-researchers whether, this was a pointer to the existence
of bigger departmental silos which made each department in railway look at
its departmental objectives or improvements only. However, since the
awareness of customer itself was non-existent, this issue was kept pending
for future reflection.
Two abstract conceptualisations from this cycle were (i) Jhansi
warehousing unit was steeped in its traditional role. This conclusion was
considered as a valid conclusion because it was mentioned by more than
one member of the Jhansi warehousing unit.
(ii) The employees lacked a systemic focus for the organization. They had a
departmental mindset which made them look at their activities from their
own point of view instead of their customer’s point of view. In fact the
concept of customer was alien to them at that point of time. However this
conclusion was arrived at by the researcher without any confirmation from
187
Intervent-
ion 1.1
the co-researchers. Thus the researcher decided to treat it only as a tentative
conclusion till it was validated more rigorously.
The following interventions were decided by the researcher –
(a). Since it was apprehended that the employees do not have an
organization wide focus, it was decided to first explain them the process
orientation inherent in an organisational working.
(b) The next action planning was to impart to the members of warehousing
unit the concepts of customer and customer satisfaction.
(Mini cycle
1.2) Day 2
Plan & Do
1.2
Check 1.2
For the action plan mentioned above, the researcher was interested in using
a framework which could integrate all the above concepts so that the
pedagogy could become simpler. The central process orientation diagram of
ISO 9000 standard (shown in Figure 3.4) was used as the framework to
explain the process orientation, the concepts of customer, customer
satisfaction and continuous improvement. The group was also explained the
concept of internal customer and external customer. Thereafter, all the
participants were asked to indicate the following:
(i) Who are your internal and external customers (ii) Which aspect of your
work affect the customer (iii) How you can improve your work so as to
satisfy your customer better.
They were able to correctly identify their external and internal customers.
As a group they were able to identify activities that contributed to their
customer’s satisfaction. The activities were:
(a) For receipt ward, ensuring the correct quality.
(b) For storage ward, preserving the material properly.
(c) For ledger section, ensuring that there is no stock-out situation.
(d) For scrap ward, proper lot formation and ensuring that lot is available
for delivery after auction.
However, that it should be their endeavour to satisfy their customer was
not appreciated by them. ‘The shop fellows will never be satisfied. Also,
then we will be at the receiving end because by virtue of being our
customer, the shop staff will only demand and we would be expected to
satisfy their demands come what may’. ‘Then they will always have an
upper hand before CWM. Now we are at least equal’. ‘As it is, we are not
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Reflection
cycle 1.2.1
Day 3
working under our departmental boss, we are working under CWM who is
an officer from the mechanical engineering cadre and the shop is a
mechanical shop. On top of it, if we actively begin to satisfy them, these
mechanical chaps will have an upper hand’. One of the co-action researcher
said, ‘After all why will they say that they are satisfied with us. The
moment they say this, the responsibility of low production is on them’.
The researcher said ‘ Can you collectively figure out whether they can give
you additional trouble’. They were then requested to think it over and
come the next day.
The session with the co-action researchers was held. They repeated the
apprehension expressed by every one during the day that they cannot
formally declare that satisfying their customer would be their motto. ‘This
way we will only be inviting trouble for ourselves. Because no one in turn
is going to listen to our problems. If the railway decides to go for ISO
certification simultaneously for the purchase office, for other warehousing
units, for accounts office, then it would make sense, because then we will
also be their customers. Otherwise, how can we do something better than
what we are already doing’. The researcher responded that ‘may be now we
are able to appreciate how the system called Indian Railways need to be
interlinked with customer focussed performance parameters’. This was
agreed by the co -action researchers. However, they could not agree that
warehousing unit should make a proactive attempt to satisfy their
customers. Faced with this situation, the researcher mentally referred to
Ross and Robert protocol (Table 5.5) which dealt with the situation when
there was difference of opinion among the co-action researchers. The
researcher verbalised his thought process to the co-action researchers that
he wanted to understand the larger meaning behind their and their staff’s
apprehension in willing to satisfy their customer. It was agreed that the next
day we should try to understand the interpretation of the concept of
customer satisfaction. It was noted that we had requested the staff to mull
over the issue and come the next day.
The next day, every one assembled. One person had come up with a
189
reflection
cycle 1.2.2
(done with
a larger
group
consisting
of the co-
action
researchers
and the
staff)
probe
question
definition of customer satisfaction - ‘cust’ in Hindi means ‘pain/ problem’,
‘mer’ in Hindi means ‘to die’. Thus he reasoned, ‘customer is a person who
gets satisfaction while we die trying to solve his problem’. It was an
amusing metaphor but it found a ready echo among others. Everyone
agreed that it would be akin to dying if they began to satisfy the whimsical
demands of their customer – the workshop staff. After some discussion, one
person from the ledger section said “If I am giving material to the shop as
per their monthly quota how can they complain before CWM about
material stock-out. In that case, let them first increase their annual
requirement and get it vetted by finance. Then we will place the order. Only
then they can say that we are not meeting their specified requirement. I do
not think customer satisfaction means trying to fulfil even the unreasonable
expectations of the customer”.
-‘And who will decide what expectations are unreasonable’ some one
asked.
- ‘I think we should decide it before hand. After all when we go to bank,
don’t we see that the bank has publicly displayed that the time required to
encash a cheque is 10 minutes. We have to decide something on these lines.
Say that the stock-out situation will not be more than 2%’, the man from
ledger section replied.
This was picked up by others. Progressively, they began to agree that if
there could be a way to predetermine the customer’s expectation of service,
then one could attempt to achieve it and once achieved one could attempt to
improve upon it.
-‘May be our work will increase. Perhaps we have to work more’.
- ‘Perhaps, this is why we are not keen for customer satisfaction’. There
was laughter all around. However one of them clarified that it was more of
a mind set. ‘We are used to ensuring that our boss is satisfied with our
work. He has been the ultimate arbiter and the ultimate judge of our work.
That now, we, should endeavour that the workshop - and not the boss - is to
be satisfied with our work, is a totally new concept’.
The co-action researchers wanted to confirm that their new
understanding of customer satisfaction is correct. So as a probe question,
they asked all the groups to write that with respect to the activities
190
Interven-
tion 1.2
Reflection
1.2.3
identified on day 2, an action that will enhance their customer’s
satisfaction.
The following actions were identified as improvement actions-
(a) For receipt ward – The drawing and specifications for all the items were
not available. Updating the drawing and specifications was taken as the
improvement action for the receipt ward.
(b) For storage ward – There were many chemicals and rubber items, which
were supposed to have shelf life. But the concept of shelf life was not in the
warehousing unit. Thus it was decided that all items which had a shelf life
would be identified and a process would be developed so that they could all
be consumed within shelf life.
(c) For ledger section – Since material demand was generated from there,
they needed to closely liaison with storage ward so that self-life items were
not over stocked.
(d) For scrap ward – A number of unaccounted vouchers and scrap material
in thousands of tons were awaiting entry into books. The accounting system
needed to be up-to-date.
The responses indicated that the depot staff had correctly learnt the concept
of customer and customer satisfaction. Some of the staff suggested that
since these actions for improvement had now been identified, let us discuss
them for their implementation.
After deliberation, the following action plans were decided-
For storage ward – improvement in house keeping was identified as the
first step for improved storage conditions.
For other three wings of the warehousing unit the improvement action
indicated earlier were retained as the action plan.
At the end of day 3, the action research team reflected on the day’s
proceedings.
(i) One of the co-action researchers began with extending the concept of
mindset expressed during reflection cycle 1.2.2. He said ‘thinking back on
the last three days, it occurred to me that within railway set up, keeping my
boss happy is my main objective. A mental orientation that the customer
should be given what he wanted was there, but I cared for him because I
was afraid that he would complain against me to my boss. Thus again it
191
came back to our boss. Now we understand that keeping the customer
happy should be the motto of our working in railway. He is our new boss’.
‘May be. This would mean dispensing with our internal measures of
efficiency’.
‘Now the measure should be more customer oriented. I think that will
change our very approach to work’.
‘I am wondering why we had been continuing with our departmental
measures of efficiency. I had always been knowing that it was an artificial
contraption’.
We went back to our reflection no. 1.1 where we had raised the issue of
railway being a departmental organization. We all being railway persons,
we reasoned with ourselves that within the railway system, we spend a
substantial portion of our time only with our departmental members. Even
outside the office, in railway clubs and other social functions, our
interactions are more often with our departmental members. Thus we
become more clannish in our outlook which makes us difficult to work with
other professional groups within the railway system. Thus there were
expressions of unease at having to work under CWM who was an officer
from the mechanical engineering department. Thus it was natural for us to
think that keeping our departmental boss satisfied with our departmentally
defined professional parameters was our main objective. That perhaps
explained why we were all outraged when we were told to care for our
customer and not our departmental objectives. To probe this question more
deeply, it was necessary to seek viewpoints from other sources. A search of
the literature indicated that development of effective interpersonal
relationships in non-familial setting and outside one’s caste have been a
problem for Indians (Kumar 2000). ‘Indians feel very insecure in inter
personal relationship’ (Chaudhari, quoted in Kumar 2000, p.64). The
researcher decided that the aspect of departmental bias should be validated
from other surveys being done as a part of this research work. Thus, this is
further dealt with in the generalisation arrived at the end of first cycle.
(ii) The action researchers were now satisfied that the concepts of customer
and customer satisfaction have been learnt by the staff of Jhansi
warehousing unit. However the concept of continuous improvement was
192
not yet broached before the depot staff. Again, the co-action researchers
expressed their reservation about how can any thing be continuously
improved. ‘Once we reached a target, we can rest. After all, the target is a
measure of whatever level of proficiency we wanted to achieve’. The
researcher decided not to broach the aspect of continuous improvement at
that point. We agreed that let us first concentrate on implementing the
improvements we had identified in this cycle.
Learning in cycle 1– (i) Understanding the concept of customer and customer satisfaction
by the employees of Jhansi warehousing unit.
Generalisation based on action learning cycle 1
Generalisation (i): Indian Railways is fragmented into different departments.
Validation of the conclusion from different sources –The survey A conducted among
senior managers of Indian Railways had also brought out that internally Indian Railways is
fragmented along departments. In Table 4.2, 41% of the respondents wanted to have fewer
departments in Indian Railways and 11.7% of the respondents wanted a lesser role for
finance department. Thus more than 50% of the respondents were in favour of reducing the
departmentalism in the Indian Railways. The departmental fixation makes the Indian
Railway employees look only at their departmental efficiency with a corresponding lack of
concern for customer or organisational efficiency. Reducing the number of departments
and developing more team-oriented work was one of the desirable changes which these
senior managers had suggested.
A second source of validation came from the survey ‘C’ of ISO certified units in Indian
Railways. A review of the ISO certified units showed that except for Alambagh
warehousing unit, none of the units thought it fit to include finance, HRM and security
departments in their ISO 9000:2000 change initiative, even though systems approach and
team working are amongst the basic principles of ISO 9000:2000 standard. The
contribution of these departments in overall railway working was admitted. But ‘ISO was
treated as a technical activity. Thus these non-technical departments could be left out’, said
one of the workshop unit head. Another reason was that ‘I do not know whether they will
like to get into this. Unless their FA&CAO or CPO tell them, they may not go for it’ said a
M.R. On the other hand managers of these department felt that ‘because we are not in the
mainstream, GM/ CWM perhaps thought we could be left out’. ‘Unless the GM/CWM is
from our department, we will continue to be left out like this on the plea that we are not
193
into production’. All these showed lack of free and honest communication across
departmental boundaries.
Literature on Indian Railways indicated that the Rakesh Mohan committee had also
identified departmentalism a major problem in the Indian Railways and had recommended
a single managerial cadre instead of ten cadre existing at present.
Thus these three different data sources validate the conclusion that Indian Railways
is departmentally fragmented.
Emerging hypothesis i - At the fundamental level, the caste driven Indian ethos gets
reflected in the working life also.
In India, just as a person is born in a caste and dies in the same caste, likewise, when
he/she joins railway service, it is as if he/she also joins a professional caste – which is the
railway department he/she joins. The lack of movement from one department to another
strengthens his/her bond with his/her professional caste. Just as one’s biological caste
defines one boundary of one’s early socialisation in India (Kumar 2000, Deshpande 2003),
his/her professional caste in the Indian Railways – his/her working department - decides
his/her boundary of adult socialisation within the Indian Railways. Just as an Indian
develops a feeling of own-others (apne-paraye) with loyalty towards ‘own’ and
apprehension towards ‘others’ (Sinha 1991, Sinha 1995), he/she also develops an irrational
affiliation for his/her department and is apprehensive of the moves and intention of
members of other departments. This was amply demonstrated by the persistent
apprehension of Jhansi warehouse staff towards the intention of the workshop staff. This
was also the reason why the staff were more comfortable with their departmental boss Dy
CMM than with their non-departmental superior CWM.
After this, the researcher looked for additional evidence for this line of reasoning.
Among the Indian grown organizations, the researcher zeroed on the Indian Army. The
Indian Army was founded by the British about 150 years ago; around the same time Indian
Railways came into existence. The entry into the Indian Army at that time was made on
linguistic and regional lines, a practice which continues even today. Thus the Indian Army
has a Maratha regiment which recruits soldiers who are Marathas i.e. those who hail from
the state of Maharashtra. The Punjab regiment consists of only the Punjabis i.e. those who
hail from the state of Punjab and the Gurkha regiment is having its soldiers from Nepal
only. This reflected the intuitive understanding by the British of what the social researchers
in 20th century termed as the ‘own-other’ (apne-paraye) syndrome of Indians. To
strengthen their hold on India, the British needed the army more than any other institution.
194
They intuitively realised that in order to maintain discipline, develop team spirit and a
sense of belongingness to the army, it was necessary that the members of a regiment
belong to the same ‘in-group’ – be it region based or be it caste based. One wonders what
would have been the fate of the Indian Army if the British had foisted upon it a region-
neutral recruitment policy and the resultant heterogeneous composition which they
practiced in their own British Army and also in all other institutions they developed in
India including the Indian Railways. It is worth noting that though this practice started 150
years back, it is prevalent even today, though India is now a democracy claiming to
provide equal opportunity and no discrimination on the basis of region or caste. That this
institution of region-based recruitment has continued in the Indian Army, strengthened the
researcher’s hypothesis that in India, ‘the caste driven Indian ethos gets reflected in the
working life also’.
Generalisation ii: There is a general lack of genuine concern about customer satisfaction
in Indian Railways.
Validation of conclusion from different sources: A perusal of the performance
yardsticks of Indian Railways (Indian Railways year book 2002-2003) showed that there is
not a single yardstick within its set of more than 50 statistics which can be said to be
customer-centric. All the statistics are nothing but combination of operational and financial
data which are internally relevant to Indian Railways but carry no meaning to its
customers. Since Indian Railways is bureaucratic, customer satisfaction does not come
naturally to its members. Further, the societal induced organisational value does not make
one look beyond one’s departmental perspective.
Emerging hypothesis ii – The caste system has reinforced the bureaucratic propensity of
lack of teamwork in the Indian Railways.
Earlier it has been seen that the caste-based mentality has given rise to value system
related to functionality, status, power and relationship among the Indian Railway
employees. Thus on the social side, there is hardly any felt need for inter-group interaction.
Both inside and outside the office, the socialisation is more within members of a
department. On the organisational side, till the process of liberalisation started in India in
early nineties, Indians have been used to a bureaucratic working style in almost all walks
of life as large government organizations dominated most of the professions. Literature
review has shown that bureaucracies are not known to espouse teamwork (McHugh &
Bennett 1999). The researcher therefore reasoned that both the caste system and the
bureaucratic set up have worked in tandem which has resulted in poor teamwork among
195
Indian Railway personnel. Sinha and Sinha (1990) have mentioned how personal
relationship (in contrast to professional relationship) is has seeped into Indian
organizations as a social value.
Probe activity: It was decided by the researcher to test this hypothesis as and when the
opportunity arose in the subsequent action research cycles. The opportunity to test it came
during the action cycle 4 dealt with in chapter 6.
PDCA Cycle 2 (from 23.4.2004 to 24.4.2004 and during May 2004)
Cycle 2
Plan &
Do 2
Check
2
In this cycle, the co-action researcher directly dealt with the staff of Jhansi
warehouse. The researcher was present only as an observer.
The discussion concentrated on planning for the improvements discussed in
cycle 1.The groups assembled in cycle one continued. Each group was asked to
make a process sheet of their work and identify ways through which the
improvements suggested in cycle one could be implemented. After the process
sheet was made discussions were held about the steps for improvement.
The general conclusion was that it was better if they could visit other ISO
certified warehousing units so that they can get a practical feel of the
improvements made by them. They decided that they would visit DLW and
DCW which were reported to have superior warehousing systems. A group of
five persons visited these two manufacturing units in May 2004. On their
return, they narrated their experience about what they saw and the specific steps
needed for initiating the improvement at Jhansi. The specific steps identified for
improvement were:
(i) Each stocking item should have an identified location in the warehouse. For
this, different storage bins and ground space should be allocated a distinct
location number. There should be a location register indicating the part number
and its corresponding location number. The overall cleanliness should be
improved using the principles of ‘5S’.
(ii) There is lack of material handling equipment at Jhansi. The only forklifter is
under breakdown since the last seven years. The electric trolleys are very few
and they are in a very bad shape.
(iii) Jhansi depot does not have an updated list of drawings and specifications
for its inspection wing.
196
Act 2
(iv) The unloading of scrap from wagons takes lot of time. It needs to be
improved so that wagon detention is reduced.
In order that the improvement activities get integrated with the ISO related
change initiative the co-action researchers decided that ISO awareness program
should continue concurrently with the above improvement activities.
PDCA cycle 3 (May 2004)
Cycle 3
Day 1
& day
2, Plan
& Do
3.1
Check
3.1
Reflect
3.1
Starting from Figure 3.4, the quality policy, quality procedure and work
instruction were explained to the co-action researchers and a group of 22
supervisors by the researcher. The researcher had planned that in line with the
research model proposed in Figure 5.6, first quality policy, then quality
procedure and finally work instruction would be dealt with in three cycles.
However when feedback was taken from the participants, they expressed
difficulty in differentiating between ‘quality policy’ and ‘quality procedure’, and
between ‘quality procedure’ and ‘work instruction’. It was found that the whole
terminology of quality policy, quality procedure and work instruction were too
esoteric for the staff and they were not able to differentiate amongst these
terminologies.
The reflection in this cycle was done with the co-action researchers. The five
criteria of good action research (Bradbury & Reason 2001) were told to the co-
action researchers. In section 5.5.4, the researcher has mentioned about
Bradbury and Reason (2001) observation that action research should include
‘extended ways of knowing’ like song and dance, poetry etc. Scanning the
literature of organisational learning, it was found that Nonaka (1994) had
theorised that ‘metaphor plays an important role in associating abstract,
imaginary concepts’ (p.21). He said that ‘the essence of metaphor is
understanding one kind of thing in terms of another’ (p.20). Similarly Prange
(1999) had also emphasised the use of metaphors in organisational learning
(p.39). He looked upon metaphor as a ‘way of thinking’ (p. 37) which ‘liberate
imagination and thereby encourage varied perspectives for understanding
organisations’ (p.37).
One of the co-action researchers said that perhaps it was too much for them to
visualise what should be the quality policy of Jhansi depot. ‘Policy making is
the job of senior officers, how can we do it?’. However, they were aware of the
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cycle 3,
Day 3,
PDCA
3.2
actual work they were doing and after seeing the work at DLW and DCW, it
was possible for them to decide a way of working which could improve the
working at Jhansi. Thus at a physical level they were able to understand the gap
between their work and the work of a better railway unit like DLW and DCW,
but at a conceptual level, they were not able to understand the differences
among the ISO terminologies like quality policy, quality manual, quality
procedure and work instruction.
When they were told of Bradbury and Reason’s extended way of knowing and
of metaphors, one of them linked the ISO terminologies with the constitution of
India. The Indian constitution has a preamble, then articles, sub articles and Acts
which flow from the sub articles. From this he developed a metaphor which was
as follows –
My intentions are my quality policy. This is like the preamble of the
constitution.
The way I plan to implement my intentions is my quality manual. These are like
the articles of the constitution.
What I do as per the above planning is quality procedure. These are sub-articles
of the constitution.
How I should do what I am supposed to do is my work instruction. Work
instructions are like the Acts which are supposed to be in consonance with the
articles and sub articles of the constitution.
This analogy went well with other co-action researchers. It was then decided to
use this analogy to explain the ISO terminologies to the staff. This analogy
was quickly grasped by the staff also. Now they were able to differentiate
among different ISO terminologies. Now they were conceptually ready to frame
the quality procedures and work instructions. However, they did not agree to the
scheme suggested in Figure 5.6. Instead they reversed it. They first made the
work instructions. Then they ensured that their actual working was as per the
work instructions. Then they made the quality procedure. From there, they
framed their quality policy.
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Generalisation based on cycle 3
(iii) Developing a metaphor was crucial for understanding of new concepts and their
effective internalisation in the warehousing unit.
Probe activity: The workshop attached with the warehousing unit at Jhansi was also
planning for ISO certification. A team of staff from the workshop was sent for training at a
weeklong lead auditor course. They had returned after completing the training program.
They asked one of the co-action researchers whether he could explain the difference
between ISO terminologies as it was not clear during the lead auditor training. It was
decided that the co-action researcher would explain the ISO terminology to the whole team
of the workshop. The team met. The same analogy which was developed during cycle 3
was explained to them. They were able to grasp it. Buoyed with this understanding, the
workshop staff requested for another day long session with a larger group of about 80 staff
members from the workshop
Emerging hypothesis iii – Metaphors are important in developing learning capabilities.
Validation of this hypothesis: Even after doing a formal week long training at
accredited ISO training program, the program participants were not able to understand the
difference between different terminologies used in ISO standard, but they were able to
grasp it when explained in terms of the metaphor developed in cycle 3.
5.6.4 Experiential learning during action research
The experiential learning cycle which the researcher underwent is now dealt with.
Experiential learning cycle by the researcher
Experience
1.1
During June 2003 and July 2003, the researcher had worked in the store depot
for about 45 days as the head of the unit. The employees of this unit were
aware that the researcher was pursuing higher study under the sponsorship of
the Indian government. Thus the researcher was not new to employees. The
researcher felt this helped him in developing a rapport with the employees.
Coming to the specific experiences, during all the first three days, whenever
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Reflective
observa-
tion 1.1
Abstract
conceptua-
lisation 1.1
the researcher entered the class, every one would get up in deference. It was a
normal Indian practice which the researcher had not paid heed to till then.
However, now as an action researcher, it was taken as a possible data point
which could provide important clues to the underlying social dynamics.
The researcher decided to ask them at the end of second day as to why did
they get up when he would enter the class. They were quite surprised that
such normal behaviour could be questioned. After a significant pause, some
of them replied that it was part of their collective upbringing that they were
expected to show respect to their superiors which according to them, the
researcher was. The researcher provoked them by saying that let them not do
it from next time. However, there were murmurs of mild protest. A few of
them got up and said that even the researcher must be getting up when his
superior would walk in, so ‘why should you object when we get up’? A few
others said ‘Some officers mind if we don’t get up. They take it as an affront.
So why take a chance’?
The researcher perceived a status difference between him and the employees
who were being trained by him. ‘Are they considering me as their boss’? The
researcher was concerned whether it would promote or hinder free
communication between the learners and him. The researcher reflected back
on the literature review which had pointed out how the hierarchical
orientation is deeply engrained in the Indian psyche as well as in the Indian
bureaucracy and how hierarchical orientation works against ‘team work’ and
‘empowerment’. However, the researcher recalled from the literature review
(Sinha & Sinha 1990) that it was possible to convert these societal values into
organisational strengths. The researcher decided to attempt that.
The researcher perceived the power equation in the classroom as a superior-
subordinate relationship. He decided to change the power equation of the
group from that of ‘superior – subordinate’ to ‘teacher – student’: All the staff
had been students in past and the student – teacher relationship in India,
though hierarchical, is not power laden. Also if it were a student-teacher
relationship, it would be conducive for learning and the change might not
look directive i.e. being imposed by the researcher.
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Active
experim-
ent 1.1
On the first day, the researcher had requested them to form groups
amongst themselves so that they can discuss the issues in small groups. About
half of them could not make groups for themselves. Also, not all groups were
able to discuss effectively. The researcher decided on two things. One was to
ask them to make presentation in teams during the next session which was to
take place one week later. Second was that the rest of the groups would
comment on the presentation on a paper and give to the researcher. The
researcher then used these comments to initiate discussion and arrive at a
consensus. This scheme was borrowed from Dick’s (1999) ‘rigour without
number’.
Experience
1.2
Reflective
observa-
tion 1.2
Abstract
conceptua-
lisation 1.2
ISO training was the first ever training which was imparted to the employees
of the unit. The researcher was surprised at the ease with which they grasped
the concepts and were able to relate it to their work place. After the concepts
of customer, customer satisfaction and how ISO could contribute to it were
internalised by the staff, they did not show any resistance in going for a large-
scale change in their working systems.
The literature generally talks about ‘resistance to change’. However here the
situation was different. The staff willingly started a self-sustaining change
program. There was no unfreezing (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson 2002,
p.380) required to be done as suggested in the literature on change.
As I reflected on this I reasoned with myself that the prolonged static style of
working in the Indian Railways has developed a pent up dissatisfaction
among the railway personnel against its working procedures. At an informal
level, they understood it. But they were not sure how to get out of it. A
support from their superior and perhaps the pride of changing their working
style in consonance with an international standard called ISO, induced them
on a self sustaining change path. Their inability to grasp the sequential
division from quality manual to quality procedure to work instruction and the
consequent reversal of the scheme suggested in Figure 5.6 could also have
instilled in them a sense of achievement which then pumped them on an
autonomous path of self directed change.
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Generalisation from the experiential learning cycle 1
(i) The action research at Jhansi showed there is no resistance to TQM oriented change in
the Indian Railways
Validation of this generalisation: In the ISO survey done with different railway units, it was
asked whether there was any resistance to change (see Appendix 4, Q. D6). The summary
of ISO survey is shown in section 4.3. One of the findings of the survey was that except at
DLW there was no resistance to change at other units. This perhaps shows that the
employees of Indian Railway are amenable to a large-scale change initiative if it is
undertaken in a participative manner i.e. involving them.
A special feature of the action research was the opportunity for frank communication
for the warehousing employees. The need for clear and open communication during period
of change has also been highlighted in literature (Robbins 1997, p.390). At a more basic
level, since an ISO based change by itself involves a lot of upward and downward
communication, a lot of participation gets generated during the ISO certification process
which thus builds up employee involvement. The researcher reasoned that this reduced the
resistance to change.
As another possible explanation, the researcher decided to look at the issue from
another angle. Earlier survey A was done to understand the manner in which Indian
Railways should change from the point of view of its senior managers. The survey brought
out that even though Indian Railways is at present a bureaucratic organization,
empowerment and following an informal and flexible management style was supported by
the senior managers. It was thus reasoned by the researcher that since the ISO based changes
were associated with a shift towards more empowerment for the staff and a more informal –
‘hands-on’ management style – in contradistinction to a bureaucratic management style, it
was in tune with the privately held belief of the Indian Railway personnel. Hence there was
no resistance to change.
Emerging hypothesis iv: Indian Railways is amenable to a participative TQM
implementation. Since it is non-threatening to different stakeholders, it is also
implementable.
In May 2004, the work instruction, the quality procedure and the quality manual for
the Jhansi warehouse were ready. The team has got off to a good start. Getting off to a good
start is often crucial to enable a team run on a self-sustaining course (Hackman 1990, p.503).
The staff of the warehousing unit were now willing to modify their work methods in line
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with the ISO documentation. From the ISO implementation point of view, the quality
objectives were yet to be identified for the warehousing unit. At that time, the researcher
decided to withdraw from the scene. He told the managers at Jhansi that since they were
aware of the specific steps required to modify their work in line with ISO guidelines, he
would now return. But if they needed, they could call him back.
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Chapter 6 Reflection after action and development of ‘TQM transition model’
6.1 Reflections after action This chapter deals with five reflections after action.
6.1.1 Reflection after action- 1
The lack of resistance to change across different units of Indian Railways continued
to nag the researcher to come up with more fundamental explanation than what has been put
forward at the end of chapter 5.
As he reflected on his experience at Jhansi, he recalled that during his trip around the
warehouse, whenever he would go with the head of the warehouse to different storage wards,
those staff of the ward who were sitting idle, would move towards the open area around the
ward and start plucking the grass weeds from the ground. The researcher was quite amused
by this conditioned response of the ward staff. He asked them why they resorted to plucking
of grass weeds the moment they saw us. They said that it was the instruction of the Dy CMM
(the head of the warehousing unit) that whenever the staff had no work to do, instead of
sitting idle, they would remove the grass weeds from the ground so that the area around their
ward remained clean. Thus whenever they saw the Dy CMM, they would start plucking the
grass weeds lest he gets annoyed. The researcher asked them that if the purpose was to keep
the area clean of the grass weeds, why not do it at one go and be done with it. The staff said
that the instruction of Dy CMM had to be obeyed. That it could also result in a clean
surrounding was just as well. Dy CMM also did not seem to mind that the staff tended to get
into the mere ritual of plucking the grass weeds irrespective of whether the primary objective
of cleanliness was achieved or not.
The researcher felt that there was a marked tendency among the staff to obey the
instructions of their boss. He also linked this with the lack of resistance to change towards
ISO certification reported in survey C by different railway units. He then reflected back on
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the ‘dependency proneness’ tendency among the Indian Railway employees found in survey
B. He wondered whether the lack of resistance to change was because of the strong sense of
identity which subordinates had with their leader – the head of their group – in line with own-
other syndrome mentioned in the literature review, and high power distance with respect to
the leader reflected through the hierarchical tendency of ‘dependence proneness’ on their
boss (leader). Was it that together these two factors made the subordinates more amenable to
an internal leader’s instruction? Was it that their strong tendency to identify with their boss
made them less critical of the change initiatives if the change initiatives were in consonance
with their privately held belief about how change should occur.
The researcher went back to the literature review (section 2.2.6) where many studies
had said that in India, the power laden organisational interaction emanating from hierarchical
cultural trait is dysfunctional for participative working. The researcher reflected on it and
tried to understand as to how hierarchy introduces dysfunctionality in organisational set up.
After all Japanese culture is also hierarchical (Sinha 1995, p.100). He argued as this:
Hierarchy gives rise to power distance. This differential power status does not permit open
discussion between the superior and the subordinates and perhaps it also tends to legitimise
coercive behaviour. He then tried to understand different types of power from literature. They
are shown in Table 6.1.
Power type Definition
Coercive power The perceived ability to provide sanction, punishment or
consequences for not performing
Reward power The perceived ability to provide things people will like to have
Legitimate power The perception that it is appropriate for the leader to make
decisions because of title, role or position in the organization
Connection power The perceived association of the leader with influential persons
or organizations
Referent power The perceived attractiveness of interacting with the leader
Information power The perceived access to, or possession of, useful information
Expert power The perception that the leader has relevant education, experience
and expertise
Table 6. 1 Different types of power
Source: based on Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson (2002, p.210).
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Among the above power categories, in the context of organization, coercive power,
reward power, legitimate power and perhaps connection power can be thought to come from
the position one holds in the organization. On the other hand, referent power, information
power and expert power can be thought to come from the person. The researcher felt it is the
position based power types which can be said to stifle frank professional discussion between
superior and subordinate. However if the source of power is transferred to personal bases like
referent power, information power and expert power, the same power laden, hierarchical
organisational situation can in fact be used advantageously. He reflected back on the
reflection cycle 1 where the initial superior-subordinate power structure was replaced by a
teacher-student relationship. That still retained the power differential, but the bases of power
shifted from coercive, connection and position to information, referent and expert. Hierarchy
remained, but now instead of stifling discussion and dissent, it promoted curiosity. This
promoted discussion which in turn promoted learning and learning led to change. The
researcher recalled that India has a strong tradition of guru-shishya (teacher - student)
relationship, which though hierarchical in nature has not been dysfunctional. Ancient Indian
scriptures like Upnishad make a special mention of the relationship between a teacher and a
student:
O almighty God, you protect both of us (the teacher and the student) together; you bear both
of us together, may both earn the shakti (power of learning) together, may our learning be
luminous (impressive); may we never bear ill-will towards each other ( from kathopnishad
shwetayashawaropnishad quoted in preface to Rig Ved).
Even in modern India, a student always addresses his teacher by ‘sir’, and never by
the teacher’s name – even decades after he passes out from school /college. But this respect,
this differential power relationship does not stifle discussion or difference of opinion, nor
does the tendency for an individualised teacher-student relationship make a teacher favour a
particular student at the cost of other students. Thus the researcher hypothesised that
hierarchy per se was not problematic. What matters is what is the source of hierarchy. On
what dimension does hierarchy differentiate. If it is differentiating on higher dimensions of
power like information power, referent power and expert power, it develops a resonance with
the Indian tradition of teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship and then, it is conducive
for learning and therefore it is conducive for change. Thus hierarchy can be an advantage – it
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can promote compliance towards change if it is based on such bases of power which invoke a
teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship between the boss (leader) and the subordinate
rather than a superior-subordinate relationship. A review of literature showed that Indians
have a preference for leadership by gurus (teachers)(Sekhar 2001, p.361). Sekhar (2001)
found Indians to rate teachers to be ethically far ahead of other professions as compared with
Americans. Ancient Indian scripture like Gita also supports a raj-rishi model of leadership
where the king (raj) is also a learned one (rishi –a guru, a teacher ) (Chakraborty 1996;
Radhakrishnan 1949, p.383). Ashok is an example of philosopher-king (raj-rishi) in ancient
India (Chhokar 2003, p.13). There is a contemporary example to show that teachers are
intuitively more acceptable as leaders in India. After the last general election in India in the
year 2004, a coalition government was to be formed. The Congress party being the largest
coalition partner suggested three names from its members of parliament as the possible
candidates for the Prime Ministership. Two were veteran politicians with decades of political
experience. The third one was Dr. Manmohan Singh, an academician whom all considered
politically naïve. He was regarded more as a university teacher. However, all the coalition
partners unanimously preferred Dr. Manmohan Singh as the next Prime Minister of India to
the other two seasoned politicians.
Thus teachers in the role of leadership have an intuitive acceptance for Indians.The
researcher felt he got an insight as to why there was no resistance to change at the six ISO
certified railway units and also at Jhansi. He reasoned that during the process of change, the
subordinates had to learn many new things whose fundamental validity appealed to them. For
example ensuring that there was no item at Jhansi warehouse whose shelf life had expired
had a natural validity to the employees. This learning oriented change, induced teacher-
student relationship between the boss and subordinate which in turn invoked higher power
bases like information power and expert power among the subordinates towards their boss.
That is, between the boss and the subordinate, the change situation acquired a teacher-student
relationship which was learning oriented. This coupled with subordinate’s strong existing
tendency to comply with their boss’s instruction because of their socially induced
‘dependence’ relationship with the boss, made the subordinates go for the change process
without any resistance.
This led the researcher to formulate the fifth hypothesis.
Individualised consideration Equity based personalised relationship
Contingent reward Nurturant task
Table 6. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their proposed Indian cultural equivalent Source: developed for this research.
6.1.4 Reflection after action- 4
Armed with these insights, the researcher wondered if TQM could be adapted to the
Indian context. The opportunity came in August 2004. In August 2004, the researcher was
invited by Railway Staff College to deliver lecture on TQM to the senior managers of Indian
Railways. Railway Staff College is the nodal training institute for training of senior managers
of Indian Railways. Almost all the managers who attended the 5 days long training
programme were engineers. They had knowledge of ISO and quality management. They had
heard of TQM and some of them were practising many of its tools like fishbone diagram,
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Pareto analysis, control charts etc. However, they were unaware of TQM as an integrative
concept which could act as a vehicle of organisational change. Thus the researcher planned to
orient their thought to TQM in its totality. Among other things, the researcher explained to
them the critical success factors of TQM mentioned in section 3.6.1. They are reproduced
below for the sake of convenience:
(i) Customer focus
(ii) Communication across organization/ information and data management
(iii) Continuous improvement
(iv) Delegation and empowerment
(v) Leadership
(vi) Process improvement
(vii) Result and recognition
(viii) Strategy
(ix) Supplier focus
(x) Team working
(xi) Values and ethics
(xii) Work culture / congenial inter personal relationship / worker manager interaction
The feedback the researcher got from them was that if so many individual factors
were responsible for successful implementation of TQM, it was not surprising that TQM’s
success rate was only around 25% to 30%. ‘How can an organization emphasise on all these
factors simultaneously’? ‘And how do I operationalise these factors in actual situation. What
if there is a conflict between these factors in business situations’?
As the researcher reflected on these CSFs of TQM and his own unsuccessful attempt
in trying to explain TQM as an aggregate of these CSFs, he correlated this with the difficulty
experienced by Jhansi employees in trying to understand the differences between quality
policy, quality procedure and work instruction in action cycle 3. The researcher wondered
whether the reductionist western approach of breaking TQM to its sub components had taken
the essence of TQM out of it. He also wondered that if senior managers were finding it
difficult to accept TQM as a combination of various factors, how this could be explained to
the lower level employees of Indian Railways. This reflection gave the researcher the insight
that if TQM as a concept had to be internalised by the Indian Railway employees, it must be
viewed in a more Gestaltist manner. The gestalt may subsume in it the individual factors, but
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these individual factors should not be emphasised as the basis for developing an
understanding of the concept of TQM. It has to be reverse. Implementation of TQM should
begin with a singular Gestaltist idea. With time, this idea should gradually lead to the
unfolding of other enabling factors like a dénouement. Then TQM becomes a sequential
concept. This means that not all CSFs of TQM are equally important at the beginning nor it is
possible to begin a TQM oriented change program with simultaneous emphasis on all the
factors. This only leads to confusion and scepticism among the employee as it did with the
railway managers. Rather, there should be a sequential emphasis on these factors starting
with the most basic at the beginning. Literature has also said that ‘it takes between 5 to 7
years before quality is solidly ingrained’ (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson 2002, p.402). The
Deming Prize also maintains a developmental orientation in its TQM model (see section
2.2.3.3, p. 44). This realisation led to the next emerging hypothesis:
Emerging hypothesis vii: There is a sequential relationship among the CSFs of TQM.
Thus a model of TQM based on sequential relationship among these factors should be
more successful than a model which is based on simultaneous application of these factors.
Identification of the central concept of TQM: The emerging hypothesis vii led the
researcher to search for the most basic factor for successful beginning of TQM
implementation. Since the factor was to be such which had to appeal to a cross section of
employees, the researcher began to realise that basically he was not looking for a mere factor.
He was looking for a value – an all pervading value which could supplant the existing
bureaucratic value of Indian Railways, a value which was both generic enough to have pan
organisational validity and which was also ethical enough to be acceptable to people across
organisational ladder. Once this value was identified, it could piggyback on the cultural trait
of an Indian’s strong identification with their leader (boss) for its dissemination and
acceptability. The researcher looked at TQM in its totality. He reasoned with himself that of
all the components of TQM, customer satisfaction was that component which should be
propagated as a value rather than as a measure – a la customer satisfaction index - across an
organization: If it becomes a value which pervades the nooks and corners of an organization,
it will become an underlying current, the new ethereal medium – like air - which people
breathe. Employee and their organization will asphyxiate if this new ether is sucked out of
their organizational space. Thus in this new organization – call it customer-centric
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organization -the boss should both propagate and reward only such behaviour which is in line
with the value called customer satisfaction. For this to happen, the staff should be able to
relate with customer satisfaction in an intuitive way. It will then become a value. It will then
not remain an abstruse concept to be measured mathematically. The reason for choosing
customer satisfaction was its universal validity across different types of organizations. The
ethical relevance of customer satisfaction was developed as follows: In the action learning
cycle 1, one of the staff had mentioned about how banks had decided that they would encash
a cheque in 10 minutes. This logic was taken further: In his/her day-to-day life an Indian goes
to a bank, to a municipal office, to an electric supply company office or to a hospital. The
common theme in all these institutions is that he/she is a customer and he/she wants his/her
problem to be addressed efficiently. However, the general experience in India is that
interaction with these institutions leaves a bad taste in mouth. If the staff in the Indian
Railways are explained that the common theme lacking in these organizations is a customer
orientation, they should be able to understand its relevance to their organization. In fact then
customer orientation does not merely remain a value, rather, it becomes a meta-value i.e. all
other values are then reinterpreted to facilitate the meta value called customer satisfaction.
Since Indians are prone to think in totality rather than in a reductionist way, the
understanding of customer satisfaction as a meta-value valid across different organizations
will make them understand the big picture and their own role in that big picture. Once they
are able to fathom that customer satisfaction is the new mantra, and once they are able to
draw the big picture for customer satisfaction and the role in it for themselves, then a jumbled
puzzle called organisational change should gradually begin to make sense and start taking a
meaningful shape. The resulting process orientation should create a fertile field in which will
sprout such enabling factors as teamwork, delegation and empowerment, communication
across organization etc. Because of the subordinate’s strong identification with their boss, if
the boss supports customer satisfaction as the new mantra, then due to its general intuitive
appeal across employee categories, customer satisfaction has the potential to become the new
organisational value. The survey C of railway units also showed that development of
customer orientation has been one of the consistent outcomes of ISO certification. That is,
while ISO certification might or might not have resulted in inculcation of other aspects of
TQM, it did develop a customer orientation in the employees at the ISO certified railway
units.
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6.1.5 Development of TQM transition model
With these insights, the researcher began framing a model for TQM implementation
within the framework of ISO 9000 suitably aided by the emerging hypotheses developed
earlier in this research. The model developed is shown in Figure 6.1.
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legend: mech- mechanical
stor-stores elec- electrical pers-personal
fin - finance
Work culture
Autonomy (delegation & empowerment)
Teamwork, communication across organization
Figure 6. 1 Model for sequential development of TQM factors using the ISO framework
Source: developed for this research.
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The model in Figure 6.1 shows the sequential development of different factors of
TQM within the ISO framework. It begins with the TQM factor called process orientation. A
process is defined ‘as a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of inputs and
creates an output that is of value to the customer’ (Hammer & Champy 2001, p.38). This
definition shows that adding value to the customer is central to the concept of a process. Thus
process orientation is closely related with customer focus. The model shows that the first step
is to replace the functional orientation of different departments by process orientation. This
can be affected by developing process based ISO documents instead of function based ISO
documents. This process orientation is the first activity which should kick start congruent
behaviour disposition among members of different functional units in an organization. ISO
9000 has a concept of corrective and preventive action (CPA). This aims at identifying
deficiencies in the organisational working and developing ways to eliminate them. The
process-oriented documentation of ISO 9000 should give rise to such CPAs which transcend
a functional boundary. The compulsion of CPA should necessitate interaction across
functional silos and therefore gradually inculcate teamwork. Coordination and information
management across different functional units should then be a by-product of these activities.
Progressive improvements thus brought about by CPAs should imbue a feeling of autonomy
among the employees. This feeling of autonomy is itself empowering – that is, in this
situation, empowerment is not something which is delegated by superiors. The employees
feel empowered. All these give rise to a work culture which promotes worker manager
interaction and congenial interpersonal relationship. Thus, the initial trigger is process
oriented ISO documentation. This will give rise to process oriented quality objectives. Thus
functional orientation begins to get de-emphasised from the very lowest level.
The model shown in Figure 6.1 should be contrasted with the functional model shown
in Figure 3.3. In Figure 3.3, the vertical purple lines are indicative of functional orientation
and the blue horizontal lines are indicative of coordinational orientation.
Figure 6.1 is different from Figure 3.3 in four respects. The first difference between
Figure 3.3 and Figure 6.1 is that there is no centralised focus in Figure 3.3. Each department
defines its own objectives and ways of working. But in Figure 6.1 the customer focus gives
rise to process orientation. This process orientation is essentially a way to operationalise the
customer focus in terms of the nuts and bolts of organisational working.
The second difference is that the spiral vortex of CPA (see blue spiral arrow in Figure
6.1 – shown in blue because CPA creates the coordinational orientation) sucks all the
217
departments towards the focus of customer satisfaction. Thus the functional cylinder of
Figure 3.3 is transformed into a funnel in Figure 6.1.
The third difference is that the coordinational vector which was confined at the level
of GM/DRM in Figure 3.3 is now at all levels in Figure 6.1 represented by the blue CPA
spiral vortex.
The fourth difference is that coordination is no longer required to be attempted by
GM/DRM as in Figure 3.3. It gets integrated in the work vector itself. In Figure 3.3, the work
vector (shown in black arrow) consists of two components – the coordinational vector
(shown in blue horizontal arrow) exerted by GM/DRM and the functional vector (shown in
purple vertical arrow) exerted by functional superiors within a department. That is, the work
which an employee performs is reducible into two mutually independent components of
coordinational work and functional work. However, in Figure 6.1, there is only one vector -
the black work vector (shown as the contours of the funnel). The mutually independent
functional vector and coordination vector of Figure 3.3 is now subsumed in this single work
vector because of the pull exerted across levels and across functions by the CPA vortex even
though the functional departments retain their individual identities.
Where does leadership fit in this model? The facilitating role of leadership is shown
at different levels of transition to TQM by the semi circular arrows which provide the
required vortex at the beginning (at the lowest level which is the first TQM level) by
emphasising the process orientation. Then as the CPA vortex draws the organization up
towards continually improved working, appropriate leadership and appropriate reward and
recognition system at the subsequent higher levels of TQM will further facilitate this vortex.
It is to be noted that this model does not presuppose a transformational top leadership as has
been mentioned in earlier literature (see section 2.2.5.2). A good transactional leader with an
understanding of this model should be sufficient to make a beginning. However
transformational leader will definitely facilitate the creation of vortex by emphasising the
process orientation.
Further, the model till now is independent of the contextual role of organization or
country specific values and culture. Their contextual role gets operationalised at the level of
leadership and reward. In the Indian context, drawing from Table 6.2, the role of leadership is
that of a facilitator who maintains a reward and recognition system which is hinged on the
three Indian specific values of equity based personalised relationship, hierarchical teacher-
student relationship and ‘nurturance’ based on satisfactory ‘task’ completion. These are
pictorially shown in Figure 6.2.
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Work culture
Autonomy (delegation & empowerment)
Teamwork, communication across organization
Figure 6. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in India using the ISO framework
Source: developed for this research.
219
The model synthesises the current literature of TQM with the Indian specific cultural
values, Indian specific organisational values and Indian specific leadership style and
therefore can be considered as a valid TQM implementation model in the Indian context.
This model shows that making a beginning with a NT leadership style, the leader should
develop an equity based personalised relationship with the subordinates. He/she should also
orient the superior –subordinate relationship with subordinates into a teacher- student (guru-
shishya) relationship. This will create the cultural groundswell in which the subordinates will
be ready for an ISO based change targeted towards TQM. Then to create the customer focus,
process based ISO document should be created. Once work starts on the lines of process
based documents, then the CPAs generated as a result of ISO implementation should be
implemented and the employees should be rewarded for generating and thereafter
implementing the CPAs. This process orientation is the first activity which should kick start
congruent behaviour disposition among members of different functional units in an
organization. The process-oriented documentation of ISO 9000 should also give rise to such
CPAs which transcend a functional boundary. This will give rise to teamwork and
communication across organization. Progressive improvements thus brought about by CPAs
should imbue a feeling of autonomy among the employees. This feeling of autonomy is itself
empowering – that is, in this situation, empowerment is not something which is delegated by
superiors. The employees feel empowered. All these give rise to a work culture which
promotes worker manager interaction and congenial interpersonal relationship. Therefore, the
primordial affiliation to one’s professional caste – his/her department in railways- begins to
get de-emphasised from the very lowest level. Similarly, the feeling of autonomy and
empowerment also begins to de-emphasise the ‘dependency proneness’ upon superiors. The
continuous improvement brought about by the CPAs keeps the organization focussed onto
the customers.
After this model was developed, the researcher looked for an opportunity to validate
this model.
6.2 Jhansi revisited .
In December 2004, the head of the Jhansi warehousing unit telephoned the researcher
to come to the Jhansi for few days. He said he wanted to show the improvements which had
220
come about in the depot and to seek suggestions for further improvement. The researcher
visited the depot for three days. The broad areas of improvement which were identified in
cycle 2 in May 2004 and their status in December 2004 are indicated in Table 6.3.
Improvement steps
identified in May 2004
Their status in December 2004
(i) Each stocking item
should have an
identified location in the
warehouse. For this,
different storage bins
and ground space should
be allocated a distinct
location number. There
should be a location
register indicating the
part number and its
corresponding location
number. The overall
cleanliness should be
improved using the
principles of ‘5S’.
(i) All the 1300 items were having a specified location in the
warehouse. Different storage bins and ground space were
allocated distinct location number. A location register was
maintained for each storage ward. Each item was now
identified by its part number and description. Some of the
storage wards were whitewashed and painted by the
warehousing staff themselves even though formally this was
supposed to be done by the civil engineering department. The
normal refrain earlier was that since civil engineering did not
bother about proper upkeep of this century old structure,
things would naturally be shabby. However, this time, the staff
did not wait for the civil engineering department. They did all
the painting and cleaning by themselves. According to the
warehousing staff, it was for the first time in decades that
these wards were cleaned and scrubbed.
(ii) There is a lack of
material handling
equipments at Jhansi.
The only fork lifter is
under breakdown since
the last seven years. The
electric trolleys are very
few and they are in a
very bad shape
(ii) Proposal was made for replacement of electric trolleys and
fork lifter. In the railway system, every proposal for
replacement of old machinery is required to be cleared by the
finance department. However, this proposal was not cleared by
the finance department. These material handling equipments
were more than 15 years old and their original purchase
documents were not available. Because of this procedural
weakness, the proposal was returned back by finance. The
matter rested there i.e. the depot continued to live with the
problem of lack of material handling equipment.
Table 6.3 (cont’d…)
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Table 6.3(cont’d…) Improvement steps
identified in May
2004
Their status in December 2004
(iii) Jhansi depot does
not have an updated list
of drawing and
specifications for its
inspection wing.
(iii) The staff of Jhansi depot found out that soft copies of most
of the drawings were available at the Research & Development
centre of Indian Railways. They had collected the soft copy of
the drawings and specifications of the wagon components. The
soft copy was in the process of getting integrated with the
computer system of the warehouse.
(iv) There are certain
items like paints,
electrodes, varnishes
which have limited
shelf life. However, the
concept of shelf life
was not there.
(iv) All items with limited shelf life were identified. The
preservation methods for the shelf life item were collected from
other railway units. Work instruction was developed to
formalise the preservation methods for different types of shelf-
life items. The concept of matching the consumption pattern
with the in-bound material supply was developed so that there
was no excess build-up of stock for shelf-life items.
Table 6. 3 Improvement steps identified in May 2004 and their status in December 2004
Source: developed from fieldwork.
Table 6.3 shows that the changes in the depot which were within the control of depot
were successfully implemented. However, the depot could not get any of the material
handling equipment because the proposal for their replacement was not cleared by the
finance department. The finance wing worked under the same Chief Workshop Manager
(CWM) under whom the warehouse worked with the proviso that the CWM could not
overrule or even modify the decisions taken by his Finance Manager. The researcher asked
the Dy CMM whether he approached either the head of the finance or the CWM to intervene.
He had not done that. The researcher then went to the head of the finance and asked him
whether he was satisfied that material handling equipment of the depot were required to be
changed. He answered in the affirmative. ‘Then why did you not give financial clearance for
the purchase of those equipments’? ‘That was partly because we wanted to see how serious
the depot was to buy these equipment and partly because we as a matter of convention do not
222
give financial clearance at the first go. They will then take us for granted’. ‘Did you not give
financial clearance because all the required papers were not available’? ‘No, that was just an
excuse to return the proposal uncleared. In this case, I know the papers are not available.
However, after returning the file two three times, I will finally accord the financial clearance.
But for that, Dy CMM should talk to me personally and request for the same’. ‘Why should
he talk to you?’ the researcher asked. ‘Because if he requests personally, even though it is an
official matter, it can be treated differently’.
Confirmation of emerging hypothesis ii: The success of the change initiatives in such areas
which were under the control of the warehouse and the failure of the change initiative where
it required inter-departmental dealing made the researcher go back to the emerging
hypothesis ii: ‘The caste system has reinforced the bureaucratic propensity of lack of
teamwork in the Indian Railways’. The researcher took this instance as the confirmation of
emerging hypothesis ii. It was yet another example of the impact of the caste induced value
of own (apne) – others (paraye) on organisational working which has resulted in poor team
working ability among Indians. The warehousing unit was ‘others’ (paraye) for the finance
department. Thus it did not feel the necessity of giving the financial clearance to the proposal
of the warehousing unit. For the members of the warehousing unit also, it was just as well
that the finance department did not give the clearance. The Dy. CMM said ‘the finance is a
separate (read “other” –paraye) department. So they do not care. But whatever “we” had
planned in May 2004, we have done’ (read apne –own – do not create problem for each
other).
As the researcher reflected on this instance, he reasoned that as a railwayman, he had
been aware of the importance of personal relationship in getting inter departmental issues
settled. In fact, his experience has been that good personal equation across departments and
not just professional excellence has often been the key differentiator between a good team
person and a poor team person in the Indian Railways. It has been reported that collectivist
managers perform poorly when they work with out-group members as compared to in-group
members (Sinha 1997, p.59). The researcher referred back to the literature review where
Myrdal (1968) and Khandwalla (1999) have mentioned about India being a soft state where
accommodation and not confrontation between different groups are preferred (Sinha & Sinha
1990) and where problems are allowed to simmer instead of getting solved at the cost of long
term dysfunctionalities. At Jhansi also, the problem of lack of material handling equipment
was allowed to simmer.
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6.2.1 The next action cycle
The ISO certification process had started in December 2004 and a certifying body
was identified which was to do the certification for the workshop and the warehouse. Dy
CMM therefore wanted a set of quality objectives to be developed for the warehouse. Thus
started one more PDCA cycle. The researcher used this cycle to validate the sequential TQM
model developed in Figure 6.2.
PDCA cycle 4 (December 2004)
Plan 4 Develop the quality objectives for the warehousing unit
Do 4 The six-month period from June 2004 to November 2004 gave practical experience
to the warehousing staff about ISO oriented working. Now they wanted to develop
quality objectives for the warehousing unit. The quality objectives were explained
as a measure which could be used to adjudge how well the warehousing unit was
working. Then the staff were asked to frame the quality objectives for their areas of
work.
Check
4
The group of staff came up with a wide range of statements. Some of them narrated
what they were doing -‘the work of line delivery section is to distribute consumable
items to different railway stations’. Some of them came up with what was an
improvement activity for the warehouse- ‘to keep the material in the bins and not on
the ground’. As in PDCA cycle 3, once again a metaphor helped in explaining the
concept. The metaphor was ‘Your heart works all the time. How will you know
how good is your heart’? The answer was ‘by measuring the blood pressure’.
‘Similarly, you are working all the time in the warehouse. But how do you know
how bad or good is your work. This is what quality objective does. It measures your
work quality’. After prolonged discussion, they were able to come up with
quantifiable quality objectives. But the quality objectives were functionally defined
e.g. ‘number of stock sheets in storage ward’, ‘time taken in placing a purchase
order’. At this time, the researcher decided to explain to them that during the earlier
interaction in April 2004 (refer PDCA cycle 1 in chapter 5), they had understood
that the basic objective of their work was customer satisfaction. Thus a valid quality
objective should be customer oriented and not function oriented.
cont’d…
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cont’d… Act 4 The quality objectives suggested by the head of the warehousing unit were:
(i) Time taken in material accountal after it is received in the warehouse.
(ii) Time taken in putting up a lot for auction after it is received.
However, there were murmurs of protest about how could one decide how well
was the ‘receiving ward’ doing when the time taken in material accountal
depended on three different wings of the warehouse –receipt, inspection and
storage. ‘Receipt ward quality objective should be based on receipt ward work
only’. ‘But this begs the question what work is receipt ward doing? ‘Receipt
ward is only doing invoice matching’. The MR interjected, ‘If we are talking in
the context of ISO, then the quality procedure of receipt ward is the
authoritative document to say what work receipt ward does’. ‘If what receipt
ward does is given in its quality procedure, then we should first change the
quality procedure. Let quality procedure say that material accountal is one work.
Let it not say that invoice matching is one work. Then only we should assess
how well this single work is being done’. Thus began the discussion about
reframing the quality procedure for ISO 9000. Till then there were eight quality
procedures made more or less on the functional lines. On the third day, the
number of quality procedures was reduced to two. These two quality procedures
were (i) supply of material to the workshop (ii) sale of scrap to merchants.
These two quality procedures cut across different functional wings of the
warehouse. For example supply of material to the workshop involved ledger
section, receipt section, inspection section and the storage section. Thus it was
based on a process - material supply – which added value to the customer- the
workshop. Therefore the quality procedure was now aligned with Hammer’s
definition of a process – a process is a set of activities which provides value to
the customer (Hammer & Champy 2001). The understanding of quality
procedure developed in PDCA cycle 3 was that quality procedure tells you what
you do. Thus if ‘what I do is part of a process, then I am willing to accept a
process based quality objective’ – as one of the co-action researcher put it. Now,
there was more agreement in accepting the two quality objectives as valid
measures of what the staff were doing. ‘Now I know what I am supposed to do
– I am supposed to work in a manner that the material is quickly accounted for
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so that it can be quickly supplied to the workshop and that will decide how well
I am working. Like a horse wearing his side blinds and pulling a tonga (cart),
my work should gallop forward towards the customer and not lurch sideways’.
Now the staff were able to accept that their individual work was part of a bigger
work process and that it was that bigger work process which provided value to
the customer not their individual work. Therefore ‘since customer satisfaction is
the ultimate objective, we should aim to improve the bigger work process even
if it means sub optimisation of a section within that bigger work process. But
this sub optimisation should not be viewed against me’.
Reflection
4
The way this cycle started, it once again confirmed the earlier finding about lack
of team orientation. However, the new thing here was that once the quality
procedures were made process oriented there was a change in the staff
orientation towards their specific work. Now, they were willing to accept
quality objectives which went beyond their individual task. By ab-initio
creating two process based quality procedures in place of eight functional
quality procedures, the ISO system introduced process based ‘what we do’ in
place of function based ‘what we do’. Indians who have an inbuilt tendency to
look at a situation in more gestaltist manner were thus able to appreciate the
work in its totality. Therefore, it also appealed to them intuitively. Once
organization gave them the cue (by framing process based quality procedures)
that it was the total working across a process which would now matter, they
were mentally able to reorient themselves towards this.
In addition, they now knew that the rewards would be on group working. Thus
the reinforcing effect of reward and recognition would further strengthen their
group-oriented behaviour. The changed focus of the work group was – ‘now we
know what we are supposed to do. We are together supposed to work in a
manner that the material is quickly accounted for so that it can be quickly fed to
the workshop and that will decide how good we are’. The researcher tried to
look at this change in the context of Indian specific values. He reasoned that the
vertical collectivism (see Table 2.13) earlier confined within a section of the
warehouse, now became organization wide. People retained their collectivism; it
only became wider and thus aided in organisational output. This is how the
collectivistic orientation of Indians can contribute in TQM oriented change
within ISO framework.
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The PDCA cycle 4 more or less satisfied the researcher about the importance of
establishing process based quality procedures for inculcating teamwork among the
employees which creates the initial vortex (see Figure 6.2). This led to the framing of another
hypothesis:
Emerging hypothesis viii: Framing process based quality procedures and quality
objectives leads to development of team orientation in the context of TQM implementation.
However, other crucial aspects of the model were the importance of corrective and
preventive action (CPA) and the reward system for continued propagation of vortex. They
remained to be tested. This has been dealt with in section 6.3.
6.2.2 Action Research revisited
After PDCA cycle 4 in December 2004, the researcher had no interaction with Jhansi.
In April 2005, he held a discussion with his supervisor at Banglore, India. Thereafter, he
decided to check the state of affairs at Jhansi. The researcher held an interview with the
action research team of Jhansi. By then three of them were transferred elsewhere. The other
two informed that:
(i) They had instituted two awards – one for the best ward and the other for the best office.
Ward reflected the material flow process, office indicated the support system process.
(ii) The Jhansi warehousing unit was adjudged the best warehousing unit in the North Central
Railway.
(iii) For another process – scrap disposal, Jhansi was adjudged the best in the Indian
Railways and in recognition of this, the head of the warehousing unit was personally awarded
by the Railway Minister of India.
(iv) In contrast, the workshop attached with the warehouse was still struggling to get its
quality procedures and work instructions ready, even though they had appointed a consultant
to assist them in documentation.
(v) In the area of information technology, a ‘Material Management Information System’ was
initiated for implementation in the warehouse. It was made ready for inaguration by the
Additional Member (Stores) of the Indian Railways in March 2006.
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Another unit ‘Electric Loco Shed, Jhansi’ was used to cross verify some of the
conclusions drawn earlier. This unit was ISO 14000, OHSAS 18000 and ISO 9000 certified.
Sicne it added to the rigour of the conclusions, it has been dealt with in section 7.4.
According to Weisbord (1987, p. 373) concept of improvement evolved in four stages.
The first stage was ‘experts solving problems piecemeal’ based on Taylorism. The second
stage was ‘everybody solving problems piecemeal’ based on participative management. The
third stage was ‘experts improving whole systems’ based on system thinking. The fourth
stage was ‘everybody improving the whole system’ based on what he calls the ‘third wave’
action project. In the third wave, one goes beyond the design limits, one tends to reach
beyond the boundaries of realism so that people can realise their full human potential
(Weisbord 1987, p. 374).
At the end of the AR cycles, the researcher felt because ‘everybody was improving the
whole system’, a large-scale transformation could be implemented in a short time.
6.3 Validation of the TQM transition model
In April 2005, during his visit to Banglore, the researcher visited the Wheel and Axle
Plant of Indian Railways. This was one of the railway units which were earlier surveyed
during survey C and survey D. It was also the first unit in the Indian Railways to get ISO
9000 certification in 1994. It was learnt that in the year 2004, WAP was awarded the Golden
Peacock award - one of the three Indian TQM awards (see Table 2.7). It was then decided to
use WAP to further validate the model developed in Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2. At the end of
section 6.2.1, it was mentioned that the aspect of CPA was yet to be validated. Therefore, the
number of CPAs and rewards given in WAP were compared with corresponding figures in
other six units. It was also recalled that after Table 4.7, it was postulated that there were other
intervening variables which were not obvious at that time which could explain the difference
in the scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ between DLW and WAP. Thus for the sake
of comparison, the Table 4.7 with the number of CPAs and rewards added as additional
column was modified as Table 6.4.
228
Railw-ay unit
Score on TQM trans-ition scale
No. of years since ISO 9000 certi-fication till Jan 2005
Unit headed by a trans-form-ational leader
Invol-vement of all depar-tments in the ISO certif.-cation process
Requi-site delega-tion of autho-rity to the head of unit
Use of statist-ical techni-que
Num-ber of empl-oyees
Aver-age no of CPA raisedper year since 2001
No of awards given last year
Parel work shop (PRL)
13 3 No No No Non existe-nt
1850 15 6
Alamb-agh ware-housing unit (AMV)
13.17 1 Yes Yes No Some-what
805 5 nil
Bhopal work shop (BPL)
13.33 4 Yes No No Some-what
1800 11 13
5800 141 57 Diesel Locom-otive Works (DLW)
25.33 8 No No Yes Some-what
(2 tier CPA, one at AU level and another at apex level)
3786 12 32 Diesel Comp-onents Works (DCW)
10.33 7 No No Yes Low
(2 tier CPA, one at AU level and another at apex level)
2300 More than 100
1725 during 2004-2005
Wheel and Axle Plant (WAP)
37.66 10 No No Yes High
(2 tier CPA, one at AU level and another at apex level)
Integral Coach Factory (ICF)
21.33 9 No Yes Some-what
7250 18 67
Table 6. 4 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors including no. of CPA and no. of reward
Source: developed from survey data.
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Table 6.4 shows that what singled out WAP from other units were the large number
of CPAs generated by the employees of WAP and the large number of awards given to them
in recognition thereof. 1725 awards were given during 2004-2005 in WAP where the
employee strength is 2300. Each year, More than 100 CPAs were raised there. Against this,
at DLW less than 100 employees were awarded but 141 CPAs were raised each year. DLW
has staff strength of 5800. Thus though the number of CPAs were more in DLW, as a ratio of
employee strength, WAP was much ahead of DLW. However as a group, both DLW and
WAP were ahead of other units in terms of CPA raised and awards given. This was in line
with the model suggested in Figure 6.1 which emphasised the use of CPA and reward for
continued upward whirling of the vortex. Because WAP had the largest number of CPAs and
awards as a ratio of employee strength, it scored the highest on the ‘TQM transition scale’.
DLW had the second largest number of CPAs and awards and it score the second highest on
the ‘TQM transition scale’. Further, both WAP and DLW were having two-tier CPA system
– one at the auditing unit (AU) level and another at the apex level. Presence of two-tier CPA
system was indicative of deeper assimilation of CPA concepts in these two units. It was also
noted that WAP had process based ISO documents which DLW did not have. The
importance of process-based documents was brought out in PDCA cycle 4. Thus WAP
became another source to validate emerging hypothesis viii. WAP was not led by a
transformational top leader from 2000 to 2004. (MLQ questionnaire could not be used for the
top leader prior to 2000 at WAP as the persons who could talk about him were transferred out
of WAP). This was again in line with the model in Figure 6.2 which does not presuppose
transformational leadership for progression towards TQM, though it accepts the facilitating
role of transformational leadership. The large number of CPA in WAP showed that perhaps
the transformational leadership was relaced by ‘transformational team’ – a set of self
empowered staff who were sailing on the vortex created by CPA and reward.
This validation of the ‘TQM transition model’ lead to the formulation of another
hypothesis:
Emerging hypothesis ix: A multi tier CPA reinforced with reward and recognition system
positively intervenes in the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.
The research showed that among the seven units which were included in the survey,
WAP could be classified as being a TQM organization followed by DLW. In the case of
WAP, the use of corrective and preventive action mechanism of ISO was crucial for
230
implementation of a number of small improvements which was reinforced by an
institutionalised reward system. WAP also used statistical techniques quite extensively. WAP
however was not led by a transformational leader in the last four years. However its leader
had the requisite delegation of authority. DLW also had a well-established 2-tier CPA system
and was not led by a transformational leader. But its reward system was nowhere near that of
WAP. Thus DLW could not get a reasonably high score on the TQM transition questionnaire.
In the case of BPL, the presence of transformational leader alone without the requisite
delegation of authority to the leader and without the involvement of all departments could not
bring the unit closer to TQM. In the case of AMV, the presence of transformational leader
and the involvement of all departments brought it in one year at par with units like BPL
which were ISO certified more that 3 years back.
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Chapter 7 Conclusion
7.1 Introduction
This thesis started with the research issue whether TQM could be used as a model for
organisational transformation of Indian Railways? If yes, how could it be effectively
implemented in Indian Railways? In trying to seek answer to this research issue, the
researcher developed some research questions in chapter 3. The next section summarises the
findings of this research with respect to those research questions.
7.2 Conclusions about research problems
The first research question was: ‘What are and what should be Indian Railways’ core
values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive strategies and changes in
organisational structure / management system so as to transform Indian Railways into an
excellent organization’.
As per the senior managers of Indian Railways, ‘developing a commercial
orientation’, ‘team working’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘customer focus’ are the desirable policies
to be adopted by Indian Railways.
This shows that as an internal working model, TQM based change initiatives should
find a ready echo among senior railway managers. This understanding is more remarkable
when it is realised that the respondents were having complete freedom to indicate any type of
policy change they felt desirable, yet a common set of factors with a pronounced TQM slant
emerged as the desirable policy change.
Being ‘a fair and just employer’ and ‘making a useful contribution to society’ are the
two existing organisational values of Indian Railways which emanates from the welfare state
policy of the Indian government. As against this, ‘total quality in every operation’ and
‘developing a customer orientation’ are the two desirable values which Indian Railways
should acquire.
The existing management style of Indian Railways is ‘cautious, with clear formal
reporting relationship and a clear distinction between those who give orders and those who
implement them’. In the opinion of the researcher, these indicate a bureaucratic and
hierarchical style which, given the bureaucratic and cultural background of Indian Railway
232
employees, are not surprising. However, the senior managers of Indian Railways strongly
want a ‘bold but calculating risk taking’ management style characterised with ‘flexibility,
informality and resourcefulness’, a management style which is ‘professional and system
oriented’. This is same as innovative organisational culture discussed in section 2.2.1.2 of
literature review which finally leads to continuous improvement which is again a TQM based
concept.
The existing growth strategies of Indian Railways are ‘related and unrelated capacity
building and geographical expansion of railway network’. As against this, the desirable
growth strategies are ‘empowerment and rapid expansion of customer base by weaning
customer back’. Empowerment has already been identified as one of the critical success
factors for TQM.
Indian Railways’ existing competitive strategy has been to compete on the basis of
price and by offering service to specific market segments. There is almost total unanimity
that the desirable competitive strategies should be to compete on the basis of quality and by
offering novel or unique services. Once again quality strategy and innovative culture are the
desirable directions of change.
With respect to organisational structure and management system, Indian Railways is
trying for ‘greater delegation of authority’ and ‘a sophisticated management and control
system’. The senior managers felt that ‘greater delegation of authority’ and ‘a leaner
organization’ should be the desirable changes. ‘Greater delegation of authority’ is same as
empowerment- a TQM enabler.
This analysis shows that TQM itself and many factors and core concepts of TQM like
continuous improvement, empowerment, customer focus, quality based organisational
strategy, systems approach have been identified by the respondents as the desirable changes
which Indian Railways should initiate.
If TQM is the proposed model of change for Indian Railways, to what extent there is
congruence between TQM oriented organisational culture and the cultural values of Indian
Railway personnel. Towards this, this thesis specifically assessed the hierarchical orientation
among the Indian Railway persons. It showed that the hierarchy is a deeply engrained
culturally induced organisational value among the Indian Railway persons. Younger
employees (less than 30 years of age) and older employees (more than 50 years of age) have
similar hierarchical orientation. Since hierarchy is supposed to be having strong negative
influence on TQM implementation (Tan & Khoo 2002, Tata & Prasad 1998), this conclusion
has important implications for the Indian Railways.
233
The second research question was: ‘What is the impact of ISO 9000 implementation
on Indian Railways’?
It was generally agreed that certification resulted in ‘better understanding of process
& responsibility’ and ‘linkage to other functions’. The researcher therefore concluded that it
helped in developing a process orientation among the employees of Indian Railways. ‘Team
work’ came out as the most important lesson learnt followed by the realisation that ‘people
make the system work’.
Implementation of document control ‘prevented non conformities on account of use
of obsolete documents or no documents’. Except at WAP, there was not much use of
statistical techniques at other units.
Some other observations, relevant in the context of this research are:
(i) Continuous improvement was the reason behind certification. Literature review (section
2.2.5.2) had shown that ‘management intent’ behind ISO certification was found to be an
intervening variable in an organization’s transition towards TQM.
(ii) Top management was very involved in the quality system. Literature review had shown
that leadership (section 2.2.2, 2.2.3.1, 2.2.3.7); particularly transformational leadership
(section 2.2.5.2) has been a crucial intervening variable in an organization’s transition
towards TQM.
(ii) There was almost no resistance to change. This is contrary to findings in western
literature on management of change (section 2.2.7.2).
The third research question was: ‘To what extent has the implementation of ISO 9000
brought about a TQM orientation in Indian Railways’. This involved development of a scale
which could objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards
TQM.
The research showed that among the seven units which were included in the survey,
WAP could be classified as being a TQM organization followed by DLW.
Cleanliness and delegation of authority commensurate with organisational
responsibility were the necessary prerequisite for beginning a journey towards TQM.
Extensive use of CPA with reinforcing reward and recognition system supported by good
transactional leadership was seen to be a stronger enabling factor than transformational
leadership alone. However, in the absence of CPA with reinforcing reward and recognition
system, transformational leadership most strongly intervened in an organization’s transition
towards TQM.
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The fourth research question was: ‘Will a bottom up methodology build learning
capacity among the railway personnel’?
The various action research cycles found out that in contrast to consultant supported
training, a bottom up action learning based training provided more enduring learning and also
faster learning. Development of metaphor was crucial to make the participant understand new
and esoteric concepts. It was in keeping with the findings of Nonaka (1994, p.21) that
‘metaphors plays an important role in associating abstract, imaginary concepts’
The fifth research question was: ‘Can the enablers of TQM be integrated in a model
for attaining TQM within the ISO framework’?
Figure 6.1 is the model which integrates the enablers of TQM within the ISO
framework. It also shows the sequential relationship between different enablers of TQM.
Figure 6.2 shows the same model contextualised to the Indian cultural values and leadership
style.
7.3 Conclusion about research issue
With the specific research questions now answered, the researcher returns to the
original research issue which was whether TQM could be used as a model for bringing about
organisational transformation of Indian Railways. If yes, how could it be effectively
implemented in the Indian Railways? It is recalled that after literature review, this thesis had
concluded in section 2.3 that TQM could indeed be the model for bringing about
organisational transformation of the Indian Railways. Figure 2.14 was then developed which
showed the gap in effective implementation of TQM in Indian Railways. Figure 2.14 is
reproduced as Figure 7.1.The question of how TQM could be implemented remained
unanswered at that stage. The Indian Railway specific model for TQM implementation which
emerged in Figure 6.2 as one of the outputs of this research is shown as Figure 7.2 which fills
the gap shown in Figure 7.1 (original Figure 2.14).
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Figure 7. 1 Reproduction of Figure 2.14 showing gaps in existing literature
Source: developed for this research.
organisational values and organisational practices of Indian Railways from the point of view of an excellent company Not known
Congruence between the two Not Known
congruence between the two Not known
TQM for railways
TQM in India should pay attention to
• leadership • policy & strategy• HRM • process
management • Information
management • customer focus • supplier focus
ISO 9000:2000 is the desired path to be followed. It is facilitated by
• transformational leadership
• executive mind set
• capacity and willingness to learn
?
Indian bureaucracy is • rule bound • monolithic • tunnel vision • directive
(non participative)
TQM on date draws from -System theory -Critical success factors -Quality awards -Organisational learning
TQM is the same as organisational excellence
Quality management in India
• through ISO
Indian culture • hierarchical • dependency
prone • own-other
syndrome • context
oriented • balancing
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Work culture
Autonomy (delegation & empowerment)
Teamwork, communication across organization
Figure 7. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in Indian Railways using the ISO framework thereby filling up the gap shown in Figure 7.1
Source: developed for this research.
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7.4 Assessment of Rigour in this Action Research
Since a substantial part of this thesis was based on action research, the researcher
considers it worthwhile to assess the rigour of the action research work. In section 5.5.4 this
thesis had discussed the choice points identified by Bradbury and Reason (2001) to assess
rigour in an action research based thesis. The extent to which this research satisfied the
choice points is now assessed
Choice points The presence of choice point in this thesis
Relationship There was an action research team which consisted of members from the
managerial and non-managerial cadre. More fundamental than this, most
of the decisions were taken by the supervisors of the warehousing unit.
For example they decided to visit different units on the Indian Railways
and they decided to reverse the document preparation from ‘quality
policy to work instruction’ to ‘work instruction to quality policy’.
Practical
outcome
The participants did begin to behave in a new way after they had decided
what was the new way to work.
Extended ways
of knowing
The AR cycles mentioned in chapter 5 and chapter 6 maintained a
conceptual-theoretical integrity in the sense that any other action
researcher in the area of TQM can place himself/herself in this situation
and get suitable answers to his/her ‘as if’ questions. However, use of
other data forms such as dance, poetry and rich pictures were not used.
Pay attention to
what is worthy of
attention
The AR cycles were not framed as a general problem solving session.
Rather, the emphasis was to seek only such questions which were related
to the objective of ISO certification for the warehouse.
Enduring
consequences
Even after the researcher left the Jhansi warehousing unit, the unit
continued to improve as brought out in sections 6.2 and 6.2.2.
Table 7. 1 Assessment of rigour in this action research thesis
Source: based on this research.
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Thus the action research thesis fully satisfied four criteria laid down by Bradbury and
Reason and it partially satisfied one criterion. Thus it can be concluded that the action
research was a rigorous work.
Another way to assess the rigour of action research was understand the impact of ISO
9000 certification at another railway unit at Jhansi – ‘Electric Loco Shed (ELS), Jhansi’.
Based on his field visits, training imparted to staff and subsequent interviews with the head
of the unit, the researcher was able to corroborate the following conclusions drawn from the
action research cycles:
(i) There was no resistance to change from the staff side at the ELS once they
understood that it was going to be ultimately beneficial to them.
(ii) Cleanliness was a big facilitator of overall improvement. The emphasis on
cleanliness at ELS Jhansi can be understood from the fact that in February 2006, it secured
the environmental running trophy in the Jhansi Commissionary. This field based experience
supported the survey based conclusion in section 4.3.1 that cleanliness due to ISO 14000
positively intervenes in TQM imlementation.
The head of the ELS was now planning to initiate a ‘TQM based Business Excellence
Model’ framed by Confederation of Indian Industry.
The aspect of cleanliness being a precursor to TQM was further confirmed based on
the feedback received on a paper on 5S (Kumar & Sankaran 2005) developed from ISO
certification in an unit of Indian Railways.
7.5 Contribution to literature The contribution to literature has been divided into three categories: findings which
support the existing literature, findings which are contrary to the existing literature and
findings which are contribution to the existing literature.
7.5.1 Findings which support the existing literature
The research supports the suggestion given by Nonaka (1994) about the importance
of metaphor in developing learning capabilities.
This research supports the finding by Pheng (2001) that cleanliness is the first step
towards TQM.
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This research supports the findings by Fei and Rainey (2003); Hill, Hazlett and
Meegan (2001) and Reed, Lemak and Mero (2002) that transformational leadership
positively intervenes in an organization’s journey towards TQM.
7.5.2 Finding which is contrary to existing literature This research does not support the findings reported in western literature (Hersey,
Blanchard & Johnson 2002; Robbins 1997) about resistance to change. The guru-shishya
(teacher-student) relationship which learning oriented change invokes in India has been
postulated to be the reason behind this lack of resistance to change.
7.5.3 Findings which are contribution to existing literature
The model developed in Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2 is a contribution to literature. It
provides a specific way about how an organization can lead to TQM via the ISO route.
Further, this research has made following contributions to theory. Since they need to
be validated further, they have been termed as hypotheses.
Hypothesis i: At the fundamental level, the caste driven Indian ethos gets reflected in the
working life also in the form of affiliation to ‘professional caste’.
Hypothesis ii: The caste system has reinforced the bureaucratic propensity of lack of
teamwork in the Indian Railways.
Hypothesis iii: Hierarchical teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship with leader invokes
personal bases of power which promote change in India. This ‘teacher-student (guru-shishya)
relationship’ is conceptually similar to the ‘intellectual stimulation’ factor of transformational
leadership.
Hypothesis iv: The ‘personalised relationship’ with a more equitable slant can be elevated to
the status of ‘individualised consideration’ factor of transformational leadership.
Hypothesis v: The NT leadership model is conceptually similar to the contingent award
factor of transformational leadership.
Hypothesis vi: There is a sequential relationship among the CSFs of TQM.
Hypothesis vii: Framing process based quality procedures and quality objectives lead to
development of team orientation in the context of TQM implementation
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Hypothesis viii: A multi-tier CPA reinforced with reward and recognition system positively
intervenes in the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.
The hypothesis iii, hypothesis iv and hypothesis v are shown in tabular form in Table
Individualised consideration Equity based personalised relationship
Contingent reward Nurturant task
Table 7. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their Indian cultural equivalent
Source: developed from this research.
7.6 Contribution to policy and practice
The contributions to policy and practice have been divided in three categories: those
specific to the Indian Railways, those specific to the Indian organizations and those valid for
all organizations.
7.6.1 Implications for Indian Railways
(i) This research showed that Indian Railways is amenable to a participative TQM
implementation. Since it is non-threatening to different stakeholders, it is also implementable.
(ii) One major implication for policy for Indian Railways is to reduce the number of
departments in the Indian Railways. There are a few public and private sector organizations
in India which are comparable to Indian Railways in terms of turnover. (Indian Oil and
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Reliance Industries for example). They have only one managerial cadre. Within the Indian
bureaucracy, Indian Ordinance Factory has only two services – one to man the technical
posts and the other to man the non-technical posts. The researcher believes that reduction in
the number of departments does not mean that the departmental functionaries lose their
functional expertise. They only lose their functional identity.
(iii) ISO certification will not bring about significant improvement unless it involves
all departments and unless the head of the certifying unit has been delegated the
organisational power commensurate with the requirements of ISO. If this is not done, it does
not make sense for maintenance sheds, workshops and trains or railway stations to go for ISO
certification. Ideally ISO certification should begin at the divisional level. However if it is
too big a level to be handled at the first instance, then the railway unit going for ISO
certification should also include such other units with which it interacts. For example, if a
workshop is getting certified, it should include all the departments of that workshop and it
should also include the associate civil engineering department which is under the control of
DRM but the workshop is dependent on it for its civil engineering works.
7.6.2 Implications for Indian organisations
If the Indians are technically sound as engineers, as doctors, as software experts, but
poor managerially and poor in teamwork, it is because the Indian organizations they work in,
do not provide an all pervading professional value which can supplant their social value of
power laden hierarchy, of sticking to their primordial group. The top manager is as used to
clannish signals and as much imbued with position power as the middle and the lower
managers. Thus they continue to cling to their societal values. This research showed that the
Indian organizations should be able to morph these socially learned values into professionally
acceptable values by using interventions derived from Indian cultural mores. The value
which can be imparted to the Indian employees is that of customer satisfaction. ‘Customer
satisfaction’ has a pan-organisational validity in India and the employees can relate to it at an
intuitive level. The inculcation of customer satisfaction as a value among organisational
members can wean the employees away from their primordial group to a more work-centric
group. It can also keep the organisational members focussed on their objective. The way to
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impart this to the Indian employees and continually strengthen this is by using the Indianised
constructs of transformational leadership shown in Table 7.2.
7.6.3 Implications for organisations in general
The implications for all organisations are with respect to transformation of an
organization into a TQM organization using the ISO route. They are:
(i) The quality objectives and the quality procedures in the ISO documents should be
process based and not function based.
(ii) Corrective and preventive action should be used as the vehicle to invite all members
of an organization to join the journey towards TQM. Process based quality objectives and
quality procedures piggybacking on the CPA vehicle should be able to foster cross-functional
transformational team spirit.
(iii) The reason for developing self propelled ‘transformational teams’ has a practical
utility. Bass and Avolio (2000) have given the percentile distribution of transformational
leadership traits in about 2000 leaders (see Table 3.6). A perusal of this table shows that there
are not many transformational leaders available in this world to chart an organization’s
course of events. The table shows that on the five constructs of transformational leadership
only 5% of the leaders could score more than 3.7. That is, less than 5% of the leaders were
demonstrating the transformational leadership traits ‘frequently if not always’. Thus though
transformational leadership is a very appealing concept; this world does not have many
transformational leaders. Therein lies the importance of transformational teams mentioned in
section 6.3. In the absence of transformational leaders, these self-motivated transformational
teams could move on their own to change the course of an organization as long as they have
a good transactional leader. WAP was an example where even though the top leadership
during the last 4 years was not transformational, the organization could bag one of the Indian
TQM awards.
7.7 Contribution to methodology
(i) The action research module of this research was divided into three phases – the
first phase was when the researcher was physically present at the Jhansi warehousing unit.
The second phase was when the researcher was not present and the co-action researchers
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continued on their own based on the learning learnt in the first phase. During this period, the
researcher was however available as a guide as and when required. The third phase was when
the co-action researchers were able to bring about a level of improvement which brought
them many accolades. During the third stage, the guidance of the researcher was not
available to them. The basic idea behind this progressive withdrawal of the researcher was to
inculcate in them a sense of autonomy, to cease their dependence on a mentor/guide/leader so
that they could work on their own and become self-propelled ‘transformational teams’. This
progressive weaning of a guide/researcher is a useful method within the AR methodological
umbrella which other action researchers can try for creating enduring change.
(ii) Another implication for methodology is the use of inter-cycle and intra-cycle
validity shown in Figure 5.8. The researcher experienced that it brought brevity to the
research effort without sacrificing rigour. The model developed in Figure 5.8 can be used by
other action researchers.
(iii) This thesis uses the basic philosophy of design of experiment without resorting to
quantitative techniques. The Tables 4.6, 4.7 and 6.4 show how it is possible to progressively
assess the impact of different intervening variables by their progressive inclusion without
going for an ANOVA based design of experiment.
(iv) The researcher could find some research using action research by Indian authors
(Devid & Tandon 1983). However, in the area of management, this is perhaps the first
doctoral study using the action research methodology in India. Thus to the Indian academic
community it shows an additional way a thesis can be done.
7.8 Limitations
The model shown in Figure 7.2 does not incorporate two CSFs of TQM –(i) values
and ethics and (ii) strategy. To that extent the model has a limitation. Also, all the data
collection was done within Indian Railways. Though care was taken to define values as
specific to Indian Railways, the extrapolation of conclusions drawn within the Indian
Railway to other organization needs to be qualified.
Further in order to test the general validity of the conclusions drawn in the context of
Indian Railways, a summary of the thesis was sent to Indian Railway persons both retired and
working. Very few responses could be received. However the responses received agreed with
one of the research findings that Indian Railway should have fewer departments. A larger set
of responses would have thrown more light on such agreements or disagreements.
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7.9 Implications for future research
The limitation mentioned above also sets the agenda for future research – to enlarge
the model shown in Figure 7.2 so as to incorporate the factors of ‘values and ethics’ and
‘strategy’ in it. Also a study of additional ISO certified units on the model shown in Figure
7.2 would further strengthen the model’s validity. Another area for future research is to do a
factor analysis of the ‘TQM transition questionnaire’. Similarly more responses about the
research summary mentioned in section 7.8 can be structured along the lines of convergent
interviewing as suggested by one of the reviewers of this thesis.
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Chapter 8 Researcher’s ruminations
When I started this research, I looked for a research methodology which could make
use of each significant cue around me. ‘The richness of data around me and the intellectual
fascination of putting theory on it’ (Coghlan 2001, p.219) made me adopt the action research
methodology. I wanted to grasp the data lying around and wring it till it gave insight. Action
research methodology was indeed the most economic way of doing it. I am fairly convinced
that had I used any other research methodology, I would not have been able to come up with
so many research hypotheses, develop a model for change and also validate it.
As a manager I now realise that my role in the AR project was to manage the
boundary and help others gain the skill. In the words of Weisbord (1987, p.373) it mixed
training, problem solving and purposeful focus so that people learnt just what they needed
and when they needed. The ‘reflection after action’ was perhaps the richest intellectual
journey for me in this thesis. I could understand why a theory building requires a qualitative
grasp of the different shades of data which a quantitative approach would have missed.
I learnt two major things from this thesis. The first learning for me has been about
how to deal with Indian employees in a western organisational set up. Today, Indians have
made their mark as software experts, as knowledge workers, in BPOs and India is a preferred
destination for setting up manufacturing outposts. Almost all these are knowledge-based
activities. Today knowledge is a raw material just as land, labour and capital were in the
industrial era. The Indian ethos of teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship which has been
discussed in this thesis is perhaps the basic reason why Indians are able to grasp knowledge
so easily. I can now say that an understanding of this Indian ethos and how it can be
seamlessly blended with western models of team working and transformational leadership
has a great practical significance for organizations based in India.
Secondly, this research has made me wonder whether Indians are more adaptable than
what they are normally credited with. The origin of this thought goes back to the lack of
resistance to change which has been reported in this research. As I go beyond the realm of
Indian Railways, and look at many large Indian organisations, I begin to feel that Indians
have been able to create a massive industrial base after independence. But, they were not
handling it efficiently in a western-economic sense – perhaps because they were not expected
to look at it only economically- after all India was a socialist welfare state. But once that
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approach was jettisoned in the early nineties, instead of getting overwhelmed by the
supposedly more efficient economic order of western countries, Indians have been able to
profit from it -look at the transfer of jobs to India from USA. This is what Sinha and
Kanungo (1997) have called ‘context sensitivity’ (see section 2.2.6.2). If you are sensitive to
the context in which a particular activity is being done then you do not have any history to
pull you back from that activity. Then you do not feel any excessive need to justify whatever
you have been doing till then. When you do not suffer from the need to justify your past or
current activities, you are temperamentally more amenable to change your current activity
into any other activity. Earlier I was doing a job with one mindset – call it a conservative
Indian, socialist welfare mindset - because that was expected of me in the context in which
the work was then defined. Now if a new set of activity looks justifiable in a new context, I
may as well do this and do this with full gusto – whether it is ISO certification at the Jhansi
warehousing unit or whether it is working in a highly competitive world-class organization in
India. Such mentality does not create any resistance to change as long as that change does not
trample upon ‘my hot line to God – whether spiritual or temporal’ (see p. 207). It is perhaps
this lack of resistance to change or more formally the adaptability of Indians, wherein lies the
transformational promise for Indian Railways or for that matter, for most of the Indian
bureaucracy and indeed for the whole of India. Perhaps this also explains why India has been
able to do well in many industry segments which emerged post 1990 – the context told them
‘work better’ and they immediately rebooted themselves for this – no resistance to change- I
no longer look back to justify my looking forward.
This leads me to think whether there is any philosophical similarity between what
Checkland calls soft system methodology and what Sinha and Kanungo have called ‘context
sensitivity’ and ‘balancing’ of Indians. It was mentioned in literature review (section 2.2.6.1)
that context sensitivity pertains to beliefs about person (patra), time (kal) and ecological
(desh) components of environment. ‘Context sensitivity is basically a thinking principle or a
mind-set that is cognitive in nature and it determines the adaptive nature of an idea or
behaviour in context’ (Sinha & Kanungo, 1997). Related to the concept of context sensitivity
is that of balancing. Balancing is a behavioural disposition. It refers to a behaviour which
tends to integrate and accommodate while coping with the environment. It was mentioned in
section 2.2.6.1 that context sensitivity and balancing are related, because the persons who are
sensitive to their contexts are also aware of their diverse demands and therefore, have to
balance them by adapting their behaviour in order to cope with the environment. Thus
everyone assesses his/her own context and acts accordingly. In this situation, there is nothing
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objective or ‘hard reality’ about what a person sees or does. His/her context or situation
decides his/her action. On similar lines, Checkland’s soft system methodology does not
attempt to model the real world. The mode 2 of SSM is situation-driven and always iterative
(see Table 5.3) wherein a person internalises what he/she sees, understands it and then acts
according to his/her understanding of the situation or should we say according to his/her
understanding of context. Now, when you are always iterative you are also always flexible
and then you do not feel the need to offer any resistance to change – why because now the
context has changed and thus your internal model of action which interprets the cues of the
external world has got modified. Little wonder in a messy India, the context sensitivity is
echoing what Checkland calls soft system methodology for studying ‘ill-defined, messy
problems of this world’ (Gold 2001). In fact it is possible to formally integrate context
sensitivity and balancing within SSM.
In order to integrate the context sensitivity within soft system methodology, let us
first see how mode 2 of SSM draws from Vicker’s concept of appreciative system
(Checkland 1994):
In Vicker’s appreciative system, the worldview of a person is represented by the interacting
flux of events and ideas. They are represented by ‘two-stranded rope’, the strands being inseparable
and continuously affecting each other. There is a recursive loop in which the flux of events and ideas
generate appreciation. Appreciation leads to action. Both appreciation and action also contribute to
flux. A person appreciates the flux of events and ideas and makes judgement about it based on his/her
own standard of facts and values: standards of what is – the facts, and standards of what is good or
bad, acceptable or unacceptable – the values. Also the very act of using the standard may itself
modify them. Thus, there is no ultimate source for standards by means of which what is noticed is
deemed good or bad, important or unimportant. The source of the standard is the previous history of
the system itself (emphasis in original). Action results from the meaning which members of an
organization attribute to their act and to the acts of others. Meanings are socially sustained and
meanings are socially changed.
This discussion on appreciative system is pictorially shown in Figure 8.1.
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time the flux of events and ideas
Figure 8. 1 The structure of an appreciative system
Source: Checkland (1994, p.83).
The standard here is defined as an individual judgement of what is good or bad,
acceptable or unacceptable and Checkland says that the source of the standard is the previous
history of the system. A question arises at this stage: Is it possible to represent the previous
history of the system in some frame of reference. That is, is there any culturally, socially
constructed frame of reference within which a person assesses and modifies his/her standard
or is it that the standard just evolves from a random drift and the resultant temporary mental
amalgamation of previous history? The researcher believes that at least in India, the three
dimensions of context sensitivity - person (patra), time (kal) and ecology (desh) provide the
frame of reference within which an Indian defines his/her standard. Thus though the standard
Appreciation: • Perceive • Judge, in terms
of facts and value
• Envisage desired relationship
Standards (of fact and value)
Action
249
keeps changing, the change in the standard are along the three coordinates of ‘person’, ‘time’
and ‘ecology’. A person’s belief, values and action can be placed on these three coordinates.
(Here, ecology refers to the pattern of relationship of a person with his/her social or physical
surroundings).
Further, while responding to the three components of environment, a person in India
expresses a primary expressive mode which is traditional in nature and also a secondary
expressive mode that is acquired as a result of the transplantation of the Western
management concepts onto a traditional Indian core (Sinha & Kanungo 1997, p.100). The
researcher argues that it is the same as what Checkland has called Gemeinschaft and
Gesellschaft (Checkland 1994, p.77). Gemeinschaft is the family or the tribe in which a
person is born and Gesellschaft is the formally created group as when a person joins a
company. Checkland (1994, p.78) says that the traditional organisational theory has
emphasised the Gesellschaft aspect of the organization which has led to hard system thinking.
However, as against this, the researcher argues that Sinha and Kanungo recognise the
Gemeinschaft based response of a person also. They consider the Gemeinschaft based
response of a person as his/her primary expressive mode and the Gesellschaft based response
of a person as his/her secondary expressive mode. The researcher argues that it is along this
continuum of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft that the coordinates of person, time and ecology
get differentiated.
The above discussion is pictorially shown in Figure 8.2. It unbundles the standards of
fact and value into three components of time, person and ecology and also positions them
along the Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft continuum.
250
Historical Manifestations Contemporary
influence influence
(Gemeinschaft) (Gesellschaft)
(Gemeinschaft) (Gesellschaft)
Figure 8. 2 Unbundling of standards of fact and value into three components of time, person and ecology and their positioning along the Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft continuum.
Source: developed for this research based on Sinha and Kanungo (1997) and Checkland
(1994).
Thus what has been referred to merely as ‘standard’ in Checkland’s model can now
be unbundled using Sinha and Kanungo’s notion of context sensitivity.
Relating to people (patra) Primary Mode Secondary mode In-group embeddedness -------Individualism Hierarchy ------------- Egalitarianism
Relating to time (kal) Primary Mode Secondary Mode Past & present -----------------Future planning orientation Avoidance -------------------------Taking risk
Process Customer management 17% focus 17% People focus 17%
Figure A1.1c Percentage emphasis of Deming Figure A1.1d Percentage emphasis of Canadian Prize Criteria Quality award criteria
Strategy policy and planning 8% People 20% Information and analysis 8% Organisational performance Quality of 12% process 20% Leadership 14% Customer focus 18%
Leadership 5% Policies and strategies 5% Processes7. 5% Resources.5% Human resource management 2.5% Customer satisfaction 10% Employees’ satisfaction 2.5% Business Impact on environment results 50% and society 7.5%
Figure A1.1e Percentage emphasis of Australian Figure A1.1f Percentage of emphasis of Rajiv Quality award criteria Gandhi award criteria Source: based on Vokurka, Stading and Brazeal (2000).
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Malcolm Baldridge award
requirement
European quality
award
Deming
prize
Canadian
quality
award
Australian
quality
award 1. Leadership: How senior leaders and the leadership system address values, company directions, performance direction,
_______________________________________________________________________ This questionnaire is based on a questionnaire developed by Prof. Khandwalla of IIM Ahemadabad and the
permission to use his questionnaire is greatfully acknowledged. It has been used in many public sector and
private sector organisations in India.
303
Assessment of organisational policies
Date: Age:
Rly Service or Designation: Grade:
Railway unit: Location:
I. What new policies/practices you want the organization to adopt in the new
scenario of liberalisation and globalisation?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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II( a) What are the “core” values of the management, that is, values to which the
management is most strongly committed? Given below is a list of fairly widely encountered
management values. Please underline those five to which your management is most strongly
committed:
01. Business integrity
02. Being customer driven
03. Giving best value for money
04. Making a useful contribution to society
05. Growth and development of staff
06. Being a fair and just employer
07. Concern for environment
08. Patriotism
09. Innovativeness and creativity
10. Total quality in every operation
11. Maximising returns to government
12. Pioneering, trailblazing
13. Being a trustee for the interests of all stakeholders of Indian Railways
14. Helping the underprivileged
15. Simple living and high thinking
16. Hard work, efficiency, and thrift
17. Respect for seniors, old traditions
18. Being pragmatic and flexible
19. Achieving goals no matter what is the cost
20. Professionalism
21. An international mind set
22. Other (please specify)
II (b) What do you feel should be the five most important core values of the
management of your organization in the new scenario?
01.
305
02.
03.
04.
05.
III(a) What are the three most important characteristics of the style of management of your
organization? Please tick three items that most fully capture your management’s style of
running the organization.
01. Cautious, stick-to-the knitting management that greatly values stability, good profits,
and steady growth.
02. Bold but calculating risk taking, a lot of entrepreneurship, commitment to fast growth.
03. Participative management, seeking broad consensus on issues.
04. Nurturing and caring management that treats staff like family members.
______________________________________________________________________ This questionnaire was developed by Prof. J B P Sinha of ASSERT Management Institute, Patna, India. The permission to
use this questionnaire is greatfully acknowledged.
I have read the information above and agree to participate in this study as a leader whose
management style is to be assessed using the questionnaire SOO1, S002, S003 S004,
leadership effectiveness rating and leadership style. I am over 18 years of age.
Name ……………………………………………………
Name of Witness (who shall be independent of the project)
Signature of the Witness: Date:
323
I certify that the terms of the form have been verbally explained to the subject, that the
subject appears to understand the terms prior to signing the form, and I asked the subject if
he needed to discuss the project with an independent person before signing and he declined.
Signature of the researcher: Date:................................
324
Behaviour preference scale (S 004) Date: Rly unit (div/workshop/HQ/depot/others): Designation:
Service: Grade: No. of years of
service done in Rly:
Age Location: Education:
The items below ask for your beliefs, practices and preferences in dealing with your immediate superior. Each item is followed by five alternatives. Please encircle the alternative which comes closest to your judgement. Please do not write your name on this questionnaire so that the anonymity of response can be maintained. Items:
Table A2.1 Validity of the three constructs of hierarchical orientation
Source: developed for this research.
Thus the questionnaire can be considered to be a valid instrument for assessing hierarchical
orientation among Indian managers.
328
Appendix 3A Data analysis for the questionnaire S004 (survey B) Legend: quite true-1 true-2 undecided–3 false-4 quite false-5
Step 1 analysis The analysis began with verifying whether there is any significant difference between the S
score, P score and D score given below.
Symbol Mean value Valid N
S 2.1578 311
P 2.9768 311
D 2.2057 311
First the assumption of homogeneity of variances between S, P & D was verified
using Hartley F max, Cochran C and Bartlett Chi-square values.
Hartley Cochran Bartlett F-max C Chi-sqr df p VALUE 1.304074 .367904 6.008716 2 .049585
It was seen that the difference in variance are only marginally significant at 5% p
level. Further, it has also been reported that violation of this assumption does not seriously
affect the conclusions of ANOVA (Statistica 1998, p.1711).
The next assumption of correlation between mean and standard deviation was tested.
It is graphically shown in Figure A3.1. Though r = .69, the regression coefficient is only 0.06.
The significance of this regression coefficient was tested.
Sums of Mean
Squares df Squares F p-level
Regress. .001719 1 .001719 .920435 .513192
Residual .001868 1 .001868
Total .003587
It was seen that the p level was not significant. Thus the regression coefficient was
not significant. Thus there was no significant correlation between the mean and variance of S,
P and D. Thus both the assumptions of ANOVA were satisfied.
329
Regression95% confid.
Plot of Means vs. Standard Deviations; variable: VALUEStandard Deviations = .45585 + .06381 * Means
Correlation: r = .69199
Means
Sta
ndar
d D
evia
tions
0.55
0.57
0.59
0.61
0.63
0.65
2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1
Figure A3.1 Correlation between mean and variance of S. P and D scores
Source: developed from survey data.
Hence ANOVA could be used to test the difference between the means of S, P and D
scores.
Then ANOVA was used to test whether the mean values of S, P and D are same. The
result is shown below:
df MS df MS
Effect Effect Error Error F p-level
2 65.70 930 .37 174 0.00
n=311, k=2.
This showed that there are significant differences on the three dimensions of S, P & D.
Next, using Scheffe test it was found that the P score was markedly different from the S score
and D score.
330
Scheffe test:
{1} {2} {3}
2.16 2.98 2.21
S {1} 0.00 .62
P {2} 0.00 0.00
D {3} .62 0.00
Result of Scheffe test to assess the significance of differences between the sample
means of S, P and D scores
This showed that among the three components of hierarchical dimension, the
dimension of ‘tendency for a personalised relationship’ was significantly weaker than those
of ‘dependency on superior’ and ‘status consciousness’. There was no statistically significant
difference on the scores obtained on the dimensions of ‘status consciousness’ and
‘dependency on the superior’.
Step 2 analysis
Then it was assessed whether there is any difference within class 1, class2 and class 3
staff of the Indian Railways on the three dimensions of S, P and D scores. Since the sample
size was more than 30, the test of normality was not done. The analysis began with the S
score difference among class1, class2 and class3 staff.
Sample mean N
S1 2.43 144
S2 2.13 61
S3 1.79 106
Tests of homogeneity of Variances between S1, S2 & S3-
Hartley Cochran Bartlett
F-max C Chi-sqr df p
VALUE 1.352412 .382749 1.853278 2 .395893
This shows that the difference in variance of S1, S2 and S3 are not significant. Then the
correlation between the mean and variance was assessed. It is shown in Figure A3.2.
331
Regression95% confid.
Plot of Means vs. Standard Deviations; variable: VALUEStandard Deviations = .35576 + .06365 * Means
Correlation: r = .55894
Means
Sta
ndar
d D
evia
tions
0.44
0.46
0.48
0.50
0.52
0.54
1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5
Figure A3.2 Correlation between mean and variance of S1, S2 and S3 scores Source: developed from survey data. Since the value of regression coefficient was only .063, its significance was tested using
ANOVA.
Analysis of Variance
Sums of Mean
Squares df Squares F p-level
Regress. .000980 1 .000980 .510457 .605062
Residual .001919 1 .001919
Total .002899
The low F value (or the high p level) showed that the regression coefficient is not significant.
Thus there was no significant correlation between the means and variances of S1, S2 and S3
scores.
Thus ANOVA could be used to test the difference between S1, S2 and S3. The result of
ANOVA is
df MS df MS
Effect Effect Error Error F p-level
2 12.85 308 .23 54.33 .000
The significantly low p- level showed that the three sample means were significantly
different. Thus Scheffe test was used to assess the difference between them.
332
Scheffe test:
{1} {2} {3}
2.44 2.13 1.79
S1. {1} .00026 .00000
S2 {2} .00026 .00009
S3 {3} .00000 .00009
This showed that class 1 officers were less status conscious of their superiors in comparison
to class 2 officers who in turn were less status conscious of their superiors than the class 3
supervisors of Indian Railways.
Similar test was done to assess the difference among class 1, class 2 and class3
employees on the dimension of personalised relationship
Sample mean N
P1 2.978472 144
P2 2.916394 61
P3 3.009434 106
The difference in their variance were not statistically significant as can be seen from the tests
of homogeneity of variances between P1, P2 & P3 below-
Hartley Cochran Bartlett
F-max C Chi-sqr df p
VALUE 1.252194 .371156 .983970 2 .611416
The correlation between the means and variances of P1, P2 and P3 were assessed.
Regression95% confid.
Plot of Means vs. Standard Deviations; variable: VALUEStandard Deviations = -1.568 + .74377 * Means
Correlation: r = .98100
Means
Sta
ndar
d D
evia
tions
0.59
0.61
0.63
0.65
0.67
0.69
2.90 2.92 2.94 2.96 2.98 3.00 3.02
Figure A3.3 Correlation between mean and variance of P1, P2 and P3 scores
Source: developed from survey data.
333
The regression coefficient was seen to be high. The significance of the regression
coefficient was assessed from the p level of their regression.
Analysis of Variance:
Sums of Mean
Squares df Squares F p-level
Regress. .002499 1 .002499 26.82212 .121429
Residual .000093 1 .000093
Total .002592
Though the p-level was still low at 0.12, it was not significant at 5% level. Thus
ANOVA was not used to test the difference between P1, P2 and P3.
Therefore, non-parametric test Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks was used.
Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 311) = 2.001803 p =.3676.
This shows that there was no statistically significant difference among the class 1,
class 2 and class 3 staff of Indian Railways on the dimension of ‘tendency for personalised
relationship’.
Then the difference on the ‘dependency relationship’ among class 1, class2
and class3 staff were was tested.
Mean N
D1 2.55 144
D2 2.18 61
D3 1.75 106
All Groups 311
Tests of Homogeneity of Variances between D1, D2 & D3-
Hartley Cochran Bartlett
F-max C Chi-sqr df p
VALUE 1.401909 .371443 3.465783 2 .176789
This showed that the differences in their variances were not statistically significant.
Then the correlation between the mean and variance of D1, D2 and D3 were tested. It is
shown in Figure A3.4.
334
Regression95% confid.
Plot of Means vs. Standard Deviations; variable: VALUEStandard Deviations = .29773 + .10266 * Means
Correlation: r = .86082
Means
Sta
ndar
d D
evia
tions
0.45
0.47
0.49
0.51
0.53
0.55
0.57
1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8
Figure A3.4 Correlation between mean and variance of D1, D2 and D3 scores
Source: developed from survey data.
The significance of the regression coefficient was assessed through the F statistics (or p level)
of the regression.
Analysis of Variance
Sums of Mean
Squares df Squares F p-level
Regress. .003397 1 .003397 2.310859 .370423
Residual .001470 1 .001470
Total .004867
The low F value (or the high p value) showed that the correlation is not significant. Thus
ANOVA could be used to test the difference between D1, D2 and D3.
df MS df MS
Effect Effect Error Error F p-level
2 19.55393 308 .270071 72.40305 .000000
This showed that there was significant difference among the sample means D1, D2 and D3.
Thus Scheffe test was used to identify the means with significant difference.
335
Scheffe test:
{1} {2} {3}
2.55 2.18 1.75
D1 {1} .00004 .00000
D2 {2} .00004 .00000
D3 {3} .00000 .00000
This showed that the class 1 officers were less dependent on their superior as compared to
class 2 officers who in turn were less dependent on their superior than the class 3 supervisors.
Step 3 analysis
The analysis in this step aimed at assessing whether there were differences on the S, P and D
scores within a class of staff at three different age groups of ‘up to 30 yrs’, between ‘31yrs to
50 yrs’ and ‘more than 50 yrs’. Since the sample sizes in this category were less than 30,
ANOVA was not used as the assumptions of ANOVA could not be verified. Non-parametric
Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) ANOVA by rank was used.
Score N
S1_30yr 2.4818 44
S1_31-50 2.4292 89
S1_>50 2.3454 11
Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks
Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR
Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 144) = .4386395 p =.8031.
The high P value showed that among class 1 employees, there was no difference across the
generation gap in their tendency for status consciousness towards their superior.
Results of K-W test for other categories are shown below:
Score N
S2_31-50 2.029630 27
S2_>50 2.214706 34
Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks
Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR
Kruskal-Wallis test: H (1, N= 61) = 1.531847 p =.2158
336
Score N
S3_30yr 1.675000 8
S3_31-50 1.790909 77
S3_>50 1.833333 21
Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks
Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR
Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 106) = 1.029577 p =.5976
Score N
D1_30yr 2.452273 44
D1_31-50 2.611236 89
D1_>50 2.445455 11
Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks
Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR
Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 144) = 3.823290 p =.1479
Score N
D2_31-50 2.125926 27
D2_>50 2.232353 34
Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR
Kruskal-Wallis test: H (1, N= 61) = .2595876 p =.6104
Score N
D3_30yr 1.762500 8
D3_31-50 1.744156 77
D3_>50 1.766667 21
Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks
Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR
Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 106) = .5360950 p =.7649
The analysis showed that within a category of employee (class1, class 2, class3) there
is no significant difference in their scores on the two dimensions of status consciousness and
337
dependency proneness from younger (less than 30 years of age) to older (more than 50 years
of age) employees.
Step 4 analyses
Since it was concluded from the analysis in step 2 that there were no differences on
the P scores among class1, class2 and class3 employees, it was desirable to test whether there
was any difference on the P scores in any age group and in any class of the employees. Since
some of the sample sizes were less than 30, non-parametric K-W test was used.
test for difference in P score
VALUE
P1_30yr 2.911364
P1_31-50 3.022472
P1_>50 2.890909
P2_31-50 2.770370
P2_>50 3.032353
P3_30yr 2.650000
P3_31-50 3.010390
P3_>50 3.142857
Kruskal-Wallis test: H (7, N= 311) = 7.858904 p =. 3452
The high p level showed that there was no difference in P score across different age groups
and different class of employees in the Indian Railways.
338
Appendix 4. ISO 9000 Survey
Southern Cross University
Graduate School of Management
Tweed, Gold Coast, Australia
Informed Consent Form
Dear Sir,
I am pursuing a doctoral study in management in the area of ‘ Total Quality
Management as the basis for organisational transformation of Indian Railways’ under the
sponsorship of Department of Personnel and Training. As a part of this, a survey is being
done by me.
The purpose of this survey is to understand the impact which ISO certification has
made in your organization. A sample of such impact of ISO on different railway units would
be merged to form an overall summary. This summary will be an input to understand the
readiness of Indian Railways for organisational transformation through Total Quality
Management (TQM).
In this connection, may I request you to spare some time and respond carefully to the
enclosed questionnaire? I would request you to answer ALL the questions.
I would like to assure you that this survey is being taken only for academic purposes.
The confidentiality of the responses will be maintained. While I look forward to you
responses to the questionnaire, you participation is totally voluntary and you are free to
withdraw from completing this survey at any time.
If you have any query, please do contact at the address given below.
339
Kindly do not write your name on the questionnaire so that anonymity of responses
can be maintained. When responding to the questionnaire, pl. think of your unit and not of
other units.
You are requested to send the filled questionnaire by registered post at the Varanasi
address given below (as I have not received some replies sent by ordinary post) or by e-mail.
_______________________________________________________________________ This questionnaire is based on a questionnaire developed by Prof. Acharya of Indian Statistical Institute,
Banglore, India and the permission to use his questionnaire is greatfully acknowledged.
340
ISO 9000 SURVEY
A. UNIT AND ITS PROFILE
1. Unit’s name:
2. Rly:
3. Product or Service:
4. No. of employees:
(a) in production/marketing or service:
(b) in quality (includes quality assurance, inspection, quality management):
The audit process, or otherwise any staff can generate a CP which if accepted by the MR gets included in the level II CPA meeting and is closed only after the problem is eliminated
From IA and sp. Audit team to bring up NCs
Identify NC product/ process Make use of statistical technique to identify priorities Put up problems to quality teams Implement suggested corrective or preventive action review
No of CPA and rewards
CPA- 5 Reward- nil
CPA –11 Reward- 13
CPA-12 Reward-32 two tier CPA (one at AU level and another at the apex level)
Avg. no of CPA since yr 2000- 141 reward – 57 (two tier CPA since yr 2000-one at AU level and another at the apex level)
CPA- 18 Reward -57
CPA- >100 Reward - 1725 (Two tier CPA one at AU level and another at the apex level)
Customer. Complaint. Analysis exists?
Yes, it reduced customer complains
Cost and cycle. time reduc, less 100 days sick marking
Yes, customer complaint outstanding for >90 days= 5
Yes, There is no complaint more than 6 months
Yes, improvement in customer satisfaction.
Yes customer satisfaction index shows improving trend
No of LA/IA 6/40 5/20 5/78 3/167 7/20 Use of SQC somewhat somewhat Low (pareto,
cause& effect diagram)
Some-what (pareto)
Good(X,R chart, Pareto. Trend analysis)
Appendix 4a(cont’d…)
353
Appendix 4A(cont’d…) Aspect Unit AMV BPL DCW DLW ICF WAP
No of trained staff on SQC
25 0 65 Not available
3 All supervisors (200)
Certification resulted in
Better understand-ing of process & resp Consistent product quality Linkage to other function
Better understanding of process & resp Consistent product quality, Established a system
Better understand-ing of process & resp, Linkage to other functions, Substantial improvement in working after ISO.
Better understand-ing of process & resp Linkage to other functions Established a system where none existed previously
Consistent product quality, Linkage to other functions, Visible improvement in product quality
Better understand-ing of process & resp, Consistent product quality Linkage to other functions Established a system where none existed previously
Current focus (rating on 1 to 6 scale)
CI-6, del-6, retain the cert-6
CI-4, del-6, retain the cert-6.
CI-5, del-5, retain the cert-5, supplier doc & procedure- 5
Del perf- 6, CI-4, Supplier doc -4
CI-4, del. perf-5, retain the cert-6.
CI-6, del-5, supplier doc & procedure- 4, retain the cert-6
Lesson learnt (rating on 1 to 6 scale)
Team work-5, people-5, coop & info sharing-6
Team work-6, people-6, coop & info sharing-5
Team work-5, people-5, coop & info sharing-5
Team work-6, people-6, coop & info sharing-6
Team work-6, people-6, coop & info sharing-5
Team work-6, people-6, coop & info sharing-6
What would you do if go all over again
Better process mgt, better documenta-tion, learn from others
Better process mgmt, bottom up plg
More emphasis on trg, Better process mgmt Learn from others
yes Not available yes yes Yes, % of rework reduced from 16% in Dec 2003 to 8% in June 2004
Reduced rejection, rework and cost, more customer focus
Note: The responses of PRL have not been incorporated above due to lack of space.
355
Appendix 5. TQM transition questionnaire
Date: Rly unit (div/workshop/HQ/depot/others): Designation:
Service: Grade: No. of years of
service done in Rly:
Age No of years of service in this rly unit: Education:
This questionnaire attempts to assess the extent to which ISO certification has
resulted in development of TQM orientation in Railway units.
Pl. comment on the prevalence of the following statements on a scale of 1 to 10 in your
organization.
Against each of the following statements, please write the number that best applies
to your unit’s management practice before ISO 9000 certification and today. For example,
if you feel ‘before certification’ the emphasis given on cost reduction of your product could
be rated as 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, please write 3 under the heading before certification.
‘Today’, if the emphasis on cost reduction can be rated as 4 on a scale of 1 to 10, pl. write 4
under the heading ‘Today’.
356
Q.no. &
Factor
Question Situation 1
year before
ISO
certification (1
shows less
prevalent,
10 shows
more
prevalent)
(B)
Situation today
(1 shows less
prevalent
10 shows more
prevalent)
(A)
(A-B)
1 Customer Focus
People in the organizationknow who their internal andexternal customers are.
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
2 Customer Focus
All departments of myorganization includingfinance, personnel, stores andsecurity care about meetingtheir internal customer’sexpectation.
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
3 Customer Focus
Both, the internal and externalcustomers are asked for theiropinions about the quality ofwork/ services/ products theyreceive from the organization.
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
4 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement
The resources, facts andinformation needed to do agood job are available to thepeople in the work unit.
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
5 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement
Effective communicationacross different departmentsso as to improve inter-department cooperation andalign the work force towardscorporate expectation
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
Table A5.1(cont’d…)
357
Table A5.1(cont’d…) Q.no. &
Factor
Question Situation 1
year before
ISO
certification (1
shows less
prevalent,
10 shows more
prevalent)
(B)
Situation
today
(1 shows less
prevalent
10 shows more
prevalent)
(A)
(A-B)
6 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement
The quality managementsystem contributes to collectionand integration of informationwhich are then used fororganisational decision making
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
7 Delegation and empowerment
The Schedule of Power (SOP) ismodified so as to providemanagers authoritycommensurate with theirresponsibilities
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
8 Delegation and empowerment
Employees are empowered totake corrective decisions on thespot without looking up tomanagers for their approval
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
9 Delegation and empowerment
There is complete formal and/orde-facto autonomy to the headof this unit for taking decisionswhich affect the working of thisunit.
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
10 Continuous improvement
There is great emphasis on employee training for continuous learning of new things
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 Continuous improvement
Improvement of all operations including personnel and financial activities are monitored in MRM
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
12 Continuous improvement
Number of suggestions comefrom staff to improve the cross-functional work processeswhich are then implemented .
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Table A5.1 (cont’d…)
358
Table A5.1(cont’d…) Q.no. &
Factor
Question Situation 1
year before
ISO
certification (1
shows less
prevalent,
10 shows more
prevalent)
(B)
Situation
today
(1 shows less
prevalent
10 shows more
prevalent)
(A)
(A-B)
13 Results and recognition
People in the work unit receivepromotions because theydeserve them.
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
14 Results and recognition
There is a system of quickreward/recognition of people inthe work unit for outstandingperformance
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
15 Results and recognition
The reward / recognitionpolicies are viewed withwidespread satisfaction.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
16 Leadership
Leader(s) in the organizationask people about ways toimprove the work produced, bysetting examples of qualityperformance in their day-to-daydecision-making and activities.
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
17 Leadership
Senior managers providing clearvision and values that promotequality
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
18 Leadership
The manager provides thedirection for or improvementand accordingly, workers aremotivated to take initiative. Incase of any difficulty, workerinteracts with the manager to toimprove the situation
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
19 Process improvement
Use of corrective and preventive action mechanism of ISO for process improvement
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
TableA5.1(cont’d…)
359
TableA5.1(cont’d…) Q.no. &
Factor
Question Situation 1
year before
ISO
certification (1
shows less
prevalent,
10 shows more
prevalent)
(B)
Situation
today
(1 shows less
prevalent
10 shows more
prevalent)
(A)
(A-B)
20 Process improvement
Use of pareto analysis and other statistical techniques
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
21 Process improvement
Key processes in the organization are regularly benchmarked and undergo quality auditing
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
22 Supplier focus
Quality and not price is the prime criteria in supplier selection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
23 Supplier focus
Long term relationship with suppliers is encouraged
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
24 Supplier focus
Suppliers are treated ascustomers whose feed back areimportant in the quest forimprovement
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
25 Team work
Emphasis on team basedproblem solving approach ratherthan individual/departmentbased problem solving approach
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
26 Team work
People in the work unit shareresponsibility for the successand failure of their work
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
27 Team work
Members of differentdepartment voluntarily comeforward to jointly solve anorganizational problem.
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
28 Value & ethics
The organization emphasizesdoing things right the first time.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
29 Value & ethics
Managers in the organization
live up to high ethical standards
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Table A5.1(cont’d…)
360
Table A5.1(cont’d…) Q.no. &
Factor
Question Situation 1
year before
ISO
certification (1
shows less
prevalent,
10 shows more
prevalent)
(B)
Situation
today
(1 shows less
prevalent
10 shows more
prevalent)
(A)
(A-B)
30 Value & ethics
People in the organization arecommitted to produce highquality output rather thanadopting short cuts whichultimately affect quality
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
31 Work culture
People in the work unit take pride in their work
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
32 Work culture
Making a mistake is not feared.It is recognised as a part oflearning.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
33 Work culture
A lot of inter level and interdepartment discussions takeplace to build consensus beforea policy is instituted.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
34 Strategy
Meeting and exceedingcustomer expectation isaccorded a higher strategicpriority than short-termproduction target.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
35 Strategy
Streamlining the working ( i.e.business) processes of theorganization
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
36 Strategy
Leaders in the organization tryto plan ahead for technologicaland organisational changes thatmight impact theorganization’s futureperformance.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Table A5.1 TQM transition questionnaire
Source: developed for this research. @ This questionnaire is based on the work done by Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta ,2003 -
‘ Critical success factors of TQM: a select study of Indian organizations’, Production Planning & Control
Systems vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 3-14. Further assistance by Prof. S. G. Deshmukh of IIT Delhi in developing this
questionnaire is greatfully acknowledged
361
Validity test scores for the TQM transition questionnaire (survey D) The scores here indicate (A-B) score i.e. (After –Before) score obtained for Table A5.1.
Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &
Factor
Question
Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW 1 Customer Focus
People in the organizationknow who their internal andexternal customers are. 2 5 3 2 2.0 5.5 4.6 0
2 Customer Focus
All departments of myorganization includingfinance, personnel, storesand security care aboutmeeting their internalcustomer’s expectation. 3 5 2 0 1.5 2 2.8 0
3 Customer Focus
Both, the internal andexternal customers are asked for their opinionsabout the quality of work/services/ products theyreceive from theorganization. 4 8 4 1 3.5 1.5 2 2
4 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement
The resources, facts andinformation needed to do a good job are available to thepeople in the work unit.
2 5 3 0 2.5 2.5 3.2 0 5 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement
Effective communicationacross different departmentsso as to improve inter-department cooperation and align the work forcetowards corporateexpectation 3 5 4 1 1.5 1 3.6 0
6 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement
The quality managementsystem contributes tocollection and integrationof information which arethen used for organisationaldecision making
5 4 3 0 2.5 1 2 1 Table A5.2(cont’d…)
362
Table A5.2 (cont’d…) Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &
Factor
Question Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW7 Delegation and empowerment
The Schedule of Power (SOP) is modified so as toprovide managers authoritycommensurate with theirresponsibilities 3 5 4 0 0.5 0 1.2 2
8 Delegation and empowerment
Employees are empoweredto take corrective decisionson the spot without lookingup to managers for their approval 2 2 4 0 0.0 0 1.4 0
9 Delegation and empowerment
There is complete formaland/or de-facto autonomy tothe head of this unit fortaking decisions whichaffect the working of thisunit. 2 2 4 6 0.0 0 0.2 0
10 Continuous improvement
There is great emphasis onemployee training forcontinuous learning of newthings 2 5 2 6 3.0 5.5 3 2
11 Continuous improvement
Improvement of alloperations includingpersonnel and financialactivities are monitored inMRM 2 5 3 3 1.5 3 4 4
12 Continuous improvement
Number of suggestionscome from staff to improvethe cross-functional workprocesses which are thenimplemented . 4 3 4 4 2.5 1.5 3.4 3
13 Results and recognition
People in the work unitreceive promotions becausethey deserve them. 2 2 1 0 0.0 0 0.2 0
14 Results and recognition
There is a system of quickreward/recognition ofpeople in the work unit foroutstanding performance 2 3 3 2 0.5 1 2.2 0
15 Results and recognition
The reward / recognitionpolicies are viewed withwidespread satisfaction. 2 3 3 2 0.0 1.5 1.8 0
Table A5.2 (cont’d…)
363
Table A5.2 (cont’d…) Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &
Factor
Question Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW16 Leadership
Leader(s) in theorganization ask peopleabout ways to improve the work produced, by settingexamples of qualityperformance in their day-to-day decision-making and activities. 4 3 4 2 0.5 0 2.2 0
The manager provides thedirection for orimprovement andaccordingly, workers aremotivated to take initiative.In case of any difficulty,worker interacts with themanager to to improve thesituation 4 4 4 1 0.5 4 2.4 0
19 Process improvement
Use of corrective andpreventive actionmechanism of ISO forprocess improvement 4 4 3 1 0.5 0 2.8 2
20 Process improvement
Use of pareto analysis andother statistical techniques
4 5 3 1 1.5 3 4.6 1 21 Process improvement
Key processes in theorganization are regularlybenchmarked and undergoquality auditing 2 3 3 0 2.0 2 2.2 2
22 Supplier focus
Quality and not price is theprime criteria in supplierselection 3 2 4 0 0.5 0 2.4 0
23 Supplier focus
Long term relationship withsuppliers is encouraged 2 1 2 0 0.0 0 2.2 0
24 Supplier focus
Suppliers are treated ascustomers whose feed backare important in the questfor improvement 2 3 3 0 0.5 2 2.2 2
25 Team work
Emphasis on team basedproblem solving approachrather thanindividual/department basedproblem solving approach 1 0 4 0 1.0 0.5 2.2 1
Table A5.2(cont’d…)
364
Table A5.2 (cont’d…) Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &
Factor
Question Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW26 Team work
People in the work unitshare responsibility for thesuccess and failure of theirwork 2 2 4 0 1.0 0 0.8 0
27 Team work
Members of differentdepartment voluntarilycome forward to jointlysolve an organizationalproblem. 4 3 4 0 1.0 0 2.2 1
28 Value & ethics
The organization emphasizesdoing things right the first time. 1 0 3 0 0.5 0 0.8 0
29 Value & ethics
managers in the
organization live up to high
ethical standards 2 0 1 0 0.5 0 0.6 1
30 Value & ethics
People in the organizationare committed to producehigh quality output ratherthan adopting short cuts which ultimately affectquality 4 5 1 0 0.5 1 2.8 0
31 Work culture
People in the work unittake pride in their work 3 0 3 0 0.0 0 2 1
32 Work culture
Making a mistake is notfeared. It is recognised as apart of learning. 2 0 3 0 1.0 0 0.6 1
33 Work culture
A lot of inter level and interdepartment discussions takeplace to build consensusbefore a policy is instituted. 3 2 4 5 2.0 0 2.2 0
34 Strategy
Meeting andexceeding customerexpectation is accorded ahigher strategic priority than short-term productiontarget. 3 2 4 0 0.5 0 1.6 1
35 Strategy
Streamlining the working( i.e. business) processes ofthe organization 3 3 3 0 2.0 0 0.8 1
Table A5.2 (cont’d…)
365
Table A5.2 (cont’d…) Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &
Factor
Question Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW36 Strategy
Leaders in the organizationtry to plan ahead fortechnological andorganisational changes thatmight impact theorganization’s futureperformance. 5 4 3 2 1.5 0 1.4 2
total 102 111 113 39.0 39.5 40 76.6 31
Sum of factor scores for thequestionnaire (total/3) 34 37 37.66 13 13.17 13.33 25.33 10.33
Table A5.2 Scores obtained by different organizations on the ‘TQM transition
instrument’ at the final draft stage
Source: developed from survey data.
366
Score obtained by WAP and ICF on the ‘TQM transition questionnaire’
WAP ICF Question no. and factor
Question Raw
score Factor score
Raw score
Factor score
1 Customer Focus
People in the organization know who their internal and external customers are. 6 5
2 Customer Focus
All departments of my organization including
finance, personnel, stores and security care about
meeting their internal customer’s expectation. 4 1
3 Customer Focus
Both, the internal and external customers are asked for their opinions about the quality of work/ services/ products they receive from the organization. 5 5 3 3
4 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement
The resources, facts and information needed to do a good job are available to the people in the work unit.
5 2 5 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement
Effective communication across different departments so as to improve inter-department cooperation and align the work force towards corporate expectation
4 2 6 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement
The quality management system contributes to collection and integration of information which are then used for organisational decision making
5 4.66 5 3 7 Delegation and empowerment
The Schedule of Power (SOP) is modified so as to provide managers authority commensurate with their responsibilities 1 0
8 Delegation and empowerment
Employees are empowered to take corrective decisions on the spot without looking up to managers for their approval 4 1.66 3 2
Table A5.3 (cont’d…)
367
Table A5.3(cont’d…) WAP ICF Question no.
and factor Question
Raw score
Factor score
Raw score
Factor score
9 Delegation and empowerment
There is complete formal and/or de-facto autonomy to the head of this unit for takingdecisions which affect the working of this unit. 0 3
10 Continuous improvement
There is great emphasis on employee training for continuous learning of new things
4 5 11 Continuous improvement
Improvement of all operations including personnel and financial activities are monitored in MRM 4 6
12 Continuous improvement
Number of suggestions come from staff to improve the cross-functional work processes which are then implemented . 2 3.33 2 4.33
13 Results and recognition
People in the work unit receive promotions because they deserve them. 0 0
14 Results and recognition
There is a system of quick reward/recognition of people in the work unit for outstanding performance 4 1
15 Results and recognition
The reward / recognition policies are viewed with widespread satisfaction. 5 3 1 .66
16 Leadership
Leader(s) in the organization ask people about ways to improve the work produced, by settingexamples of quality performance in their day-to-day decision-making and activities. 5 2
17 Leadership
Senior managers providing clear vision and values that promote quality 1 2
18 Leadership
The manager provides the direction for or improvement and accordingly, workers are motivated to take initiative. In case of any difficulty, worker interacts with the manager to to improve the situation 2 2.66 1 1.33
19 Process improvement
Use of corrective and preventive action mechanism of ISO for process improvement
4 3 20 Process improvement
Use of pareto analysis and other statistical techniques
5 2 21 Process improvement
Key processes in the organization are regularly benchmarked and undergo quality auditing
4 4.33 0 1.33 22 Supplier focus
Quality and not price is the prime criteria insupplier selection 2 2.33 2 2
Table A5.3 (cont’d…)
368
Table A5.3 (cont’d…) WAP ICF Question no.
and factor Question
Raw score
Factor score
Raw score
Factor score
23 Supplier focus
Long term relationship with suppliers is encouraged 1 0
24 Supplier focus
Suppliers are treated as customers whose feed
back are important in the quest for improvement 4 4
25 Team work
Emphasis on team based problem solving approach rather than individual/department based problem solving approach 5 5
26 Team work
People in the work unit share responsibility for the success and failure of their work 2 0
27 Team work
Members of different department voluntarily come forward to jointly solve an organizational problem. 4 3.66 0 1.33
28 Value & ethics
The organization emphasizes doing things right the first time. 2 0
29 Value & ethics
managers in the organization live up to high ethical standards 1 2
30 Value & ethics
People in the organization are committed to produce high quality output rather than adopting short cuts which ultimately affect quality 3 2 0 .66
31 Work culture
People in the work unit take pride in their work 2 1
32 Work culture
Making a mistake is not feared. It is recognised as a part of learning. 2 0
33 Work culture
A lot of inter level and inter department discussions take place to build consensus before a policy is instituted. 4 2.66 3 1.33
34 Strategy
Meeting and exceeding customer expectation is accorded a higher strategic priority than short-term production target. 3 0
35 Strategy
Streamlining the working ( i.e. business) processes of the organization 2 0
36 Strategy
Leaders in the organization try to plan ahead for technological and organisational changes that might impact the organization’s future performance. 2 2.33 1 .33
total 123 41 64 21.33
Note: Factor score = sum of raw scores for a factor/3. Table A 5.3 Score obtained by WAP and ICF on the ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ Source: developed from survey data.
369
Appendix 6. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire
Southern Cross University
Graduate School of Management
Tweed, Gold Coast Australia
Informed Consent Form
Mr.
Dear Sir,
I am pursuing a doctoral study in management with a topic titled ‘Total Quality
Management as the basis for organisational transformation of Indian Railways’. As a part of
this study, a survey on leadership is being carried out by me.
The purpose of the survey is to understand about the leadership style of senior managers who
have worked in railways and who have been able to make a difference to their organizations.
Anecdotically, you have been considered as a leader who has made significant difference in
his area of work in the Indian Railways. As a student of leadership, it is worthwhile to
formally study your leadership style.
In this connection, enclosed please find a questionnaire called ‘leader form’ which you are
required to fill. Also attached is another questionnaire called ‘ratter form’ and
‘transformational leadership in Indian context’. They will be given to managers who have
worked under you. The managers will assess you leadership style. It is being sent to you so as
to seek your consent for the same.
May I request you to spare some time and respond to the enclosed questionnaire.
I would like to assure you that this survey is being taken only for academic purposes. The
confidentiality of the responses will be maintained. While I look forward to you responses to
the questionnaire, you participation is totally voluntary and you are free to withdraw from
completing this survey at any time..
Any complaints or queries regarding this project that cannot be answered by the person
responsible for this research project should be forwarded to:
Mr John Russell
370
Ethics Complaints Officer
Graduate Research College, Southern Cross University
________________________________________________________________________ The questionnaire was developed by Bass of Binghamton University, New York.. The permission to use the questionnaire is
greatfully acknowledged.
I have read the information above and agree to participate in this study as a leader whose
management style is to be assessed using the Multi Factor Leadership questionnaire. I am
over 18 years of age.
371
Name ……………………………………………………
Name of Witness (who shall be independent of the project)
Signature of the Witness: Date:
I certify that the terms of the form have been verbally explained to the subject, that the
subject appears to understand the terms prior to signing the form, and I asked the subject if
he needed to discuss the project with an independent person before signing and he declined.
Signature of the researcher: Date:
372
Appendix 6.1 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Leader Form
My Name:__________________________________________________________Date:_____
This questionnaire is to describe your leadership style as you perceive it. Please answer all items on this
answer sheet. If an item is irrelevant, or if you are unsure or do not know the answer, leave the
answer blank.
Forty-five descriptive statements are listed on the following pages. Judge how frequently each statement
fits you. The word "others" may mean your peers, clients, direct reports, supervisors, and/or all of these
individuals.
Use the following rating scale:
Not at all
0
Once in a while
1
Sometimes
2
Fairly often
3
Frequently, if
not always 4
1. I provide others with assistance in exchange for their efforts……….……….……..0 1 2 3 4
2. I re-examine critical assumptions to question whether they are appropriate……… 0 1 2 3 4
3. I fail to interfere until problems become serious……….………………………… .0 1 2 3 4
4. I focus attention on irregularities, mistakes, exceptions, and deviations
from standards………………………………………………………………………0 1 2 3 4
5. I avoid getting involved when important issues arise……………………………… .0 1 2 3 4
6. I talk about my most important values and beliefs ..…………………………………0 1 2 3 4
7. I am absent when needed…………………………………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4
8. I seek differing perspectives when solving problems ………………….……………0 1 2 3 4
9. I talk optimistically about the future …………………………………………. . ..….0 1 2 3 4
10. I instil pride in others for being associated with me ………………………………0 1 2 3 4
11. I discuss in specific terms who is responsible for achieving performance targets…0 1 2 3 4
12. I wait for things to go wrong before taking action.………………… ……………0 1 2 3 4
13. I talk enthusiastically about what needs to be accomplished……………………….0 1 2 3 4
14. I specify the importance of having a strong sense of purpose… ………………0 1 2 3 4
15. I spend time teaching and coaching……………………………… ………………0 1 2 3 4
373
cont’d . ..
Not at all 0 Once in a while
1
Sometimes
2
Fairly often
3
Frequently, if
not always 4
16. I make clear what one can expect to receive when performance
goals are achieved…………………………………………………………………….0 1 2 3 4
17. I show that I am a firm believer in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."………………….. 0 1 2 3 4
18. I go beyond self-interest for the good of the group,…………………………………0 1 2 3 4
19. I treat others as individuals rather than just as a member of a group………………. 0 1 2 3 4
20. I demonstrate that problems must become chronic before I take action…………… 0 1 2 3 4
21. I act in ways that build others' respect for me……………………………………….0 1 2 3 4
22. I concentrate my full attention on dealing with mistakes, complaints,
and failures…………………………………………………………………………. 0 1 2 3 4
23. I consider the moral and ethical consequences of decisions,………………………. 0 1 2 3 4
24. I keep track of all mistakes………………………………………………………… .0 1 2 3 4
25. I display a sense of power and confidence………………………………………… .0 1 2 3 4
26. I articulate a compelling vision of the future,………………………………………..0 1 2 3 4
27. I direct my attention toward failures to meet standards ,…………………………….0 1 2 3 4
28. I avoid making decisions,……………………………………………………………0 1 2 3 4
29. I consider an individual as having different needs, abilities, and
aspirations from others………………………………………………………………0 1 2 3 4
30. I get others to look at problems from many different angles………………………. 0 1 2 3 4
31. I help others to develop their strengths…………………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4
32. I suggest new ways of looking at how to complete assignments………………….. 0 1 2 3 4
33. I delay responding to urgent questions,…………………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4
34. I emphasize the importance of having a collective sense of mission……………… 0 1 2 3 4
35. I express satisfaction when others meet expectations……………………………… 0 1 2 3 4
36. I express confidence that goals will be achieved……………………………………0 1 2 3 4
37. I am effective in meeting others' job-related needs ,………………………………..0 1 2 3 4
38. I use methods of leadership that are satisfying ,…………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4
39. I get others to do more than they expected to do , ………………………………….0 1 2 3 4
40. I am effective in representing others to higher authority ,…………………………. 0 1 2 3 4
374
cont’d…
41. I work with others in a satisfactory way ,………………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4
42. I heighten others' desire to succeed ,……………………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4
43. I am effective in meeting organizational requirements…………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4
44. I increase others' willingness to try harder…………………………………………. 0 1 2 3 4
45. I lead a group that is effective……………………………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4
Not at all
0
Once in a while
1
Sometimes
2
Fairly often
3
Frequently, if
not always 4
375
Appendix 6.2 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Rater Form Date: Rly unit (div/workshop/HQ/depot/others): Designation:
Service: Grade: No. of years of
service done in rly:
Age Location: Education:
Forty-five descriptive statements are listed on the following pages. Judge how frequently
each statement fits the person who is your immediate superior at your work place. You have
worked under the person for ……. years. He is in ………………(SS/JAG/ SAG/HAG/GM/
board member) grade.
Use the following rating scale:
Not at all
Once in a while Sometimes Fairly often Frequently,
If not always
0 1 2 3 4
code Sr.no. THE PERSON I AM RATING. . .
CR 1. Provides me with assistance in exchange for my efforts……………………….0 1 2 3 4
IS 2. Re-examines critical assumptions to question whether they are appropriate. ...0 1 2 3 4
MEP 3. Fails to interfere until problems become serious… ………………….... 0 1 2 3 4
MEA4. Focuses attention on irregularities, mistakes, exceptions, and deviations
from standards………………………………………………………… .0 1 2 3 4
LF 5. Avoids getting involved when important issues arise……………………. 0 1 2 3 4
IIB 6. Talks about their most important values and beliefs………………………0 1 2 3 4
LF 7. Is absent when needed……………………………… ……………… … 0 1 2 3 4
IS 8. Seeks differing perspectives when solving problems………………….. 0 1 2 3 4
IM 9. Talks optimistically about the future……………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4
IIA 10. Instils pride in me for being associated with him/her…………………… 0 1 2 3 4
CR 11. Discusses in specific terms who is responsible for achieving
Ref: your letter regarding ISO implementation at Jhansi depot through action research
With reference to your letter, the following members of Jhansi depot will be associating
themselves for the ISO implementation as the co-researcher. Their participation is voluntary.
1. Sunil Agrawal- Deputy Chief Material Manager
2. Shashi Bala Srivastava – Divisional Material Manager
3. Rajiv Chaturvedi – Divisional Material Manager
4. U.C Pandey - Depot Material Superintendent –1
5. B.B. Kalra - Depot Material Superintendent - 1
6. A.U. Siddiqui- Assistant Materials Manager
Sunil Agrawal
Deputy Chief Materials Manager
Jhansi depot, North Central Railway
India
389
Appendix 9. List of ISO certified units in the Indian Railways
1 Units Certified Under ISO Quality System (corrected upto 15.10..2003) 2 A B D F G H I
3 S.No. Type of Unit
W.Shop/Diesel shed/Training
Centre Rly. Name of Unit Staff
strengthDate of
Certificat-ion
Standard
4 Units already Certified 5 1 Production Units/RDSO 6 1.1 Res. Centre RDSO RDSO/LKO 2500 08.07.1999 9001:19947 1.2 PU RCF Kapurthala 5800 6/30/98 9001:19948 1.3 PU RCF Kapurthala 5800 26.09.01 9001:20009 1.4 PU RCF Kapurthala 5800 21.07.99 ISO-1400110 1.5 PU RCF Kapurthala 5800 12.7.02 ISO-1400111 1.6 PU DCW Patiala 3900 08.9.1998 9002:1994
12 1.7 PU CLW Chittaranjan 14230 13.7.96 9001:1994
13 1.8 PU CLW Chittaranjan 14231 26.4.02 14001:1996
14 1.9 PU ICF Chennai 13,687 20.1.2003 9001:2000
15 1.10 PU ICF Chennai 13,687 24.12.2001 14001:199616 1.11 PU RWF RWF/ Yelahanka 2345 19.11.94 9001 17 1.12 PU RWF RWF/ Yelahanka 2346 28.6.99 14001 18 19 2 Workshops 20 2.1 Mechanical Workshops
21 2.1.1 W/S CR Parel 1850 25.02.02 9001:2000
22 2.1.2 W/S CR Matunga 9600 03.07.01 9001:2001
23 2.1.3 W/S CR Matunga 9600 20.6.02 14001:1996
24 2.1.4 W/S WCR Bhopal 2200 12.6.01 9001:2000
25 2.1.5 W/S WCR Bhopal 2200 14.4.2003 14001:1996
26 2.1.6 W/S WCR Jhansi 700 13.6.01 9001:200127 2.1.7 W/S WCR RSK W/Shop 435 21.9.01 9001:200128 2.1.8 W/S ER Liluah 8400 2.1.2003 9001:200029 2.1.9 W/S NR Kalka NA NA 9002 30 2.1.10 W/S NER Gorakhpur 669 17.9.2001 9002:199431 2.1.11 W/S NER Izatnagar 80 7.1.2002 9001:200032 2.1.12 C&W SCR Lallaguda NA 19.1.2000 9002 33 2.1.13 Carriage W/S SCR Tirupati NA 21.5.99 9002 34 2.1.14 Wagon W/S SCR Guntupalli NA 24.3.99 9002
390
Appendix 9 (cont’d…)
S.No. Type of Unit
W.Shop/ Diesel shed/
Training Centre Rly. Name of Unit Staff strength
Date of Certificat-
ion Standard
35 2.1.15 W/S SWR MYS NA NA 9002 36 2.1.16 W/S SWR MYS NA 31.3.2003 14001 37 2.1.17 C&W W/S SWR Hubli 3354 28.10.99 9002:94 38 2.1.18 W/S SR Perambur NA NA 9002 39 2.1.19 Loco W/Shop SR Parambur NA NA 9001