Quality Management and Use of HRM-Style Policies - Literature review Example

Quality Management and use of HRM-style Policies Introduction Multiple perspectives can be adopted in the study of interrelation between HRM and TQM. The two concepts in management have introduced important contributions on how organization can improve the level of productivity while also enhancing the level of effectiveness and efficiency in how operations are conducted from shop floor to senior management positions. Due to the interrelation in seeking improvement in organizational processes, HRM-style policies have been linked with organizational efforts to infuse quality management approaches in the organizational practices. This essay focuses on a brief description of what the term quality management implies from the perspective of international business. Further, the essay identifies a number of HRM-style policies that can be introduced in organizational operations to generate commitment to quality, continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. Meaning of Quality Management Given the wide scope of TQM, there exists multiple definitions of the concept that attempt to capture what it is about although no single definition can describe the whole picture (Eriksson and Hansson, 2003). For the purpose of this essay, the description provided by Charantimath (2003) is adopted to provide direction on essential concepts covered in TQM practices. According to Charantimath (2003), TQM is an approach to management that focuses on achievement and long-term sustainability of firm’s success through measures that enhance feedback from seniors to subordinates, increased employee participation, improvement in value for customers, awareness of social beliefs and values while also operating within the confines of government regulation. Overall, TQM can be perceived as an approach that seeks to promote continuous improvement in organizational operations. Application of TQM in organizational operations is not limited to particular department or organizational function, but represents integrative concepts relating to practices of the organization as a whole resulting in continuous improvement of every aspect of activities taking place in an organization. Integration of TQM practices in organizational activities relate to three important levels of inspection, quality control and quality assurance. Inspection refers to management activities including testing or measuring a particular entity for the purpose of comparison and establishing there conformity to set standards. Quality control on the other hand refers to techniques and activities used by management to enforce activities necessary to achieve quality. Lastly, quality assurance focuses on implementation of both planned and systematic activities in the system with the necessary demonstrations being provided to guarantee achievement of quality. Dale, van der Wiele and van Iwaarden (2003) note the importance of quality assurance as creation of an organizational environment where every employee takes “personal responsibility for the quality of the processes for which they are accountable” (280). The principles of TQM have their roots in the management practices of post Second World War Japan where the management of various organizations was concerned with how to improve the quality of organizational processes while reducing costs of operations. However, TQM practices haven spread in a global scale and in now adopted in virtually all industries including businesses and both nongovernmental and government institutions (Madu, 2003). In global business environment, companies perceive quality as essential for sustainable competition within particular industries as management seek to eliminate product defects and high customer satisfaction. The new perception of organizational functions has led to a shift in the perception of the role played by management and employees as both seek to collaborate in continuous improvement of organizational operations. While previously improvement of quality was the role of specialists in management, current practices under TQM framework has seen this function shared across the firm with employees being granted greater responsibility for the quality of their output. Among the organizational departments with greater influence on employees’ adoption of TQM is the HRM department as it creates a link between the management and the employees (Dale, van der Wiele and van Iwaarden, 2003). How HRM-style policies generate commitment to quality One of the essential areas that drive the application of TQM management in an organization is enhancement of the level of commitment to quality demonstrated by employees. Focus on the employee commitment is important for any organization as they perform essential functions to ensure achievement of daily organizational operations. Employees also carry organizational image through their interaction with customers therefore directly contributing to customer satisfaction with the services offered by the organization. These interactions also play an important role in the perception of the organization held by the customers, which plays a significant role when a business organization targets repeat customers. A number of HRM policies impact on employees’ adoption of TQM, particularly when considering their commitment to quality. Employees commitment to quality is seen in the context of hi performance work systems within HRM. Current best practice in HR involves the selection training and hiring of employees who demonstrate their willingness to improvement of organizational performance. Employee commitment to quality is achieved based on internal and external feedback mechanisms. Internally, the management assesses and evaluates employee performance based on their output and contribution to overall organizational success. Externally, customer feedback plays an essential role in determining the level of employee performance, particularly for those working at the front office where interaction with customers is regular. Therefore, When the HR department insist on employees’ performance being at the level that satisfy, the supervisors and customers, the management will improve the level of employee commitment to quality. In this case, high performance and commitment to quality are perceived as meeting similar objectives in the quest to improve organizational performance (Appelbaum, Bailey, Berg and Kalleberg, 2000; Batt, Colvin and Keefe, 2002; Batt, 2002; Bartell, 2004; Berg, 1999; Cappelli and Neumark, 2001; Guest, 2001). In the recent years, literature on HR has highlighted the relationship between employee job security and performance at the workplace. These studies have discussed HR contribution to increased organizational performance by organizational consequences in relation to a number of variables. Feeling of workplace insecurity was related to reduced job satisfaction and commitment to organisational practices (Chirumbolo and Hellgren, 2003; De Witte, & Näswall, 2003). Employees who experience lack of job security are also like to demonstrate job withdrawal tendencies including task avoidance high rate of absenteeism and lateness (Probst, 2002a) and low level of output in job performance (Probst, 2002b). A number of HRM practices have been applied to improve the level of job security thereby resulting in improvement in performance. Such practices include improvement of employee motivation through introduction of HRM policies that improves their level of satisfaction with personal and career development needs (Alonso and Lewis, 2001). Employees’ financial position as a factor affecting performance has also been included among concerns of HRM practice. Therefore, there has been increased number of HR initiatives seen as motivating employees to offer their best to their organization. Given that money is the most effective inducement of high productivity, organizational management has focused on monetary incentives linked to promotion, payment and bonuses as sources of motivation and employees high performances (Lemieux, MacLeod and Parent, 2009; Muralidharan and Sundararaman, 2009; Lazear, 2000; Fisher, 2005). HR practices advocate for workplace practices that does not perceive employees as part of organization machines or files but as a unique resource requiring special attention. The current employee associates management’s commitment to improving their conditions with how the organization values them as essential organizational assets. Therefore, introduction of various practices for employee motivation becomes an important contributor to improved employee performance. The identified HR practices seeking to enhance the level of employee security for improved workplace performance are essential in assessing commitment to quality (Chirumbolo and Hellgren, 2003). When employees gain job security through the HR practices, their commitment to quality in the workplace also improves as they appreciate management recognition that they are valuable members of the organization. The need for increased employee commitment to quality is enhanced by the fact that employees are less likely to commit all their working life to one employee. While noting the importance of employees’ feeling of job security in commitment to quality at the workplace, it is also necessary to accept existing limitations to under which the organization can guarantee employee security. One the limitations in this case the fact than employees might not remain in the same job for the rest of their employment years in addition to other organizational factors that might lead to termination of employee contract. The management might decide dismiss an employee based on indication of dismal performance after assessment carried out over a given period. Additionally, there are a number of industry related factors such as significant loss in customer base due to collapse in the product market making it obligatory that the organization conducts a reduction in labour force. Taking into consideration this unplanned for events, HR practices related to job security, employee commitment to quality performance would result in minimal impact, as organizational efficiency will limit the level of influence of such factors (Purcell and Kinnie, 2007). Employees will therefore expect to retain their positions, as quality created through their activities will play a significant role in buffering the organization against turbulence in the market. Generating employee commitment to quality from adaptation of HRM-style policies should not be regarded as an automatic endeavour although both TQM and HRM practices provide essential insights into the best approaches for improvement of organizational productivity. Conventional performance appraisal as advocated by HRM focuses on the role of individual employees in overall organizational performance, which will inhibit the role of commitment to quality based on system-level approach as advocated by TQM (Soltani, Gennard, Van der Meer and Williams, 2004; Soltani, Van der Meer, Williams and Lai, 2006). For instance, HRM advocates for high performance teams, which are seen as being effective and efficient in meeting organizational goals due to employees being self-directed. Such approach can be adopted with significant success in employee commitment to quality, as every employee is responsible for the overall organizational output. However, a problem will arise during application of payment strategies and employee appraisal strategies. It becomes difficult to apply individual appraisal when determining the performance of each employees since their output reflect a collective effort although there are chances contribution as not equal for each member. HRM-style policies generate continuous improvement TQM philosophy emphasises the importance of system wide continuous improvement as key to enhanced quality needed to satisfy customers’ needs and expectations of the customer (Goyal and Islam, 2001). Various approaches have been adopted to influence organizational improvement for instance the Six Sigma approach, which introduces the necessary principles for continuous process improvement (Van Seaton, 2010). For an organisation to claim superior quality of products that meets the level of customer demands the management and employees must adopt policies that support the growth of a culture of continuous improvement with the application of necessary measurement and improvement polices (Lewis, Pun and Lalla, 2006). Central areas HRM policies generate employee commitment of continuous improvement is in training of both new and existing employees to ensure they acquire the skills to drive organizational need for improved quality. While staff training plays a significant role in HR practice of improving employee knowledge and skills to suit organizational needs for a particular position and responsibilities, adoption of TQM has resulted in increased emphasis on a well-funded training program to drive need for continuous improvement. Under this initiative, training of new and current employees takes place across all the stages in the entire organization. Additionally Training and development is an essential component in HRM policies that has a great impact on organizational need to have employees who are willing to adopt various sources of continuous improvement. HR practitioners have long recognized the role played by training and development on personal and professional growth of employees (Noe, 2002; Storey, 2001). Employees who access facilities that enable their professional and personal development have been known to use such avenues to improve their overall skills required for current position and responsibilities as required in the workplace while also strategizing for future roles. Therefore, the importance of training lies in positioning individuals to assume organizational position that that they want as part of their motivation to work. According to the findings of the study conducted by Roca, Chiu and Martínez, 2006), training plays a significant role in improving employee performance in a multinational corporation. Training of employees seems to be a motivational factor for them to improve the level of output to the organization therefore influencing job performance over time (Zapata-Phelan, Colquitt, Scott & Livingston, 2009). TQM also recognizes the role of training and development in continuous improvement of the system with a focus of reaching production capability that satisfy customer expectations. According to the study by Asim, uz Zaman and Zarif, 2013) hat sampled employees from construction industry in Pakistan, employee training was perceived as having an important impact on a business organizations effort to enhance quality. Therefore, the researchers have advice organizational management to maximize on employee training, particularly by focusing on their technical skills as essential drivers of quality. In TQM employee training and development is not perceived as an event, but as a process that has a continuous impact on the way employees perform their duties and their perception of their action as contributing to overall system improvement within the organization (Vermeulen and Crous, 2000). System improvement generated through employee training and development can be enhanced through proper recruitment policies that identify and search for any gaps in organizational skills, talents and experience. The recruitment polices creates an opportunity for the organization to undertake system wide continuous improvement as the management recognizes the required competencies to fill certain positions (Rees and Doran, 2001). The management identify prospective employees both from internal and external environment based on their ability to work in teams, potential problem solving skills and can generate useful ideas to drive continuous organisational improvement (Ahmad and Schroeder, 2002; Yang, 2006). However, those selected must still indicate their willingness to receive further training guarantee they fit in organizational teams and culture. The relation between training and continuous improvement of organizational operations is also evident in the fact that most of the companies with ISO certification have also adopted training and development programs (Renuka and Venkateshwara, 2006). Therefore, training and development programs are perceived as having an impact on the development of quality assurance system within the organization. HRM-style policies generate customer satisfaction TQM philosophy recognises the importance of customer satisfaction particularly due to the perception that it is a measure of quality achievement. It is advisable that the ideas presented by customers must be transformed into a series of actionable information used during the process of evaluation to determine the impact customer focus on organizational performance. Systematic process must undergo continuous improvement until the point where customers declare their satisfaction with the quality of services they derive from the purchased products. The process of customer satisfaction involves being aware of their preferences through a process that identifies the target market, customer needs and motivation for choosing one product than the other in addition to strategies of influencing their decision on repeat experience of the products (Torres-Coronas and Virgili, 2008). Implementation of policies targeting customer satisfaction should take into account the HR practice of customer focused services. However, for the employees to offer customer focused as services, it is important that they receive greater control over their role in the organization. Given the employee’s experience gained through constant interaction with the customers, it becomes easy to identify their needs and work towards provision of services and products that meet these needs (Moynihan, Gardner and Wright, 2002). According to Torres-Coronas and Virgili, (2008) employee involvement plays a significant role in influencing the level of customer loyalty and enhancement of customer satisfaction. Moynihan, Gardner and Wright (2002) perceive essential HRM policies that are important in enhancing the level of customer satisfaction as generally involving communication of each employee’s contribution in the overall organizational process and activities, enhancement of existing synergies through team-working and adoption of policies that empower employees to make a difference. Effective communication within an organization is perceived as necessary in improving control of organizational processes, as information flow through all the essential departments is not constrained. This flow of information leads to customer satisfaction as enhances quality of services and products while also reducing time interval before customer queries are handled by concerned employees (Jain, 2010). Both employee commitment to quality and continuous improvement find their relevance in customer satisfaction since it provides insight on whether there initiatives are contributing to fulfilment of customer needs. As a measure of employee commitment to quality and continuous improvement, HRM policies such as training and career development, recruitment, creation of organisational high performance teams and improvement of quality of working life are all part of efforts to increase the level of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is an important yardstick that determines aspects of employee initiatives that should be encouraged while noting areas requiring further improvement. Among areas that have significant impact includes employees being given leadership roles within the organization to enhance their level of commitment and involvement in quality activities. Employees with leadership responsibilities are more committed to organizational polices directed towards achievement of customer satisfaction as there demonstrate readiness to take extra responsibility to improve the level of performance for their team and the organization in general. Conclusion A number of HRM-style policies have been determined to play a significant role in generating employee commitment to quality, continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. The applicability of HRM-style policies in TQM concepts is made possible due to existence of common objective of creating a workplace environment that promote high productivity in addition to effectiveness and efficiency in operations. Employee commitment to quality has been related to HRM policies regarding employee motivation through policies that make them feel valued as essential components in success of the organization. Continuous improvement is a result of HRM policies involving practices that contribute to training and development of employee personal and profession life. The management is supposed to provide a workplace condition where workers are encouraged to increase their knowledge to target improvement in current job position and responsibilities in addition to focussing on future roles in the organization. Lastly, customer satisfaction is because of continuous improvement and commitment to quality and acts as a measurement of how effective employees are contributing towards meeting customer expectation. In conclusion, HRM-style policies have extensive areas of application in TQM philosophy, particularly when assessing HRM policies on generation of employee commitment to quality, continuous development and customer satisfaction. References Ahmad, S. & Schroeder, R.G. (2002). The importance of recruitment and selection process for sustainability of total quality management. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 19 (5), 540-50. Alonso, P., & Lewis, G. B. (2001). Public Service Motivation and Job Performance Evidence from the federal sector. The American Review of Public Administration, 31(4), 363-380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02750740122064992 Appelbaum, E., Bailey, T., Berg, P. and Kalleberg, A. (2000). 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