The Main Idea of TQM in Saudi Arabi - Essay Example

Saudi Aramco is the state-owned integrated petroleum energy company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is the world’s largest petroleum energy company by reserves (260.1 billion barrels) and production (7.9 million barrels per day in 2010) (“Our company” 1). As an employee at Saudi Aramco one Total Quality Management (TQM) initiative that I have seen actively deployed is in the training and education of employees. The company has numerous training programs for each of the different levels of employees. These training programs foster a culture of constant learning within the organization which is in line with the vision of TQM. TQM refers to an integrated approach by management to focus all functions and levels of an organization on quality and continuous improvement. According to Deming’s 14 point plan for TQM, point six refers to instituting on the job training and point thirteen, instituting education and self-improvement (Cohen Para 11 & 18). At Saudi Aramco the three training programs that I found particularly enthralling are the professional development program, the special development program, and management and executive development. The professional development program is geared towards inducting fresh college graduates into the Saudi Aramco way of working. Under this program, the recent college hire is attached to experienced employees over a three-year period within their area of interest / function in order to speed up the graduate’s transition into a fully qualified professional. Another singular attribute of this program is the inclusion of professional English learning program to aid non-native English speakers to be competitive in today’s global village and also to reflect Saudi Aramco’s international operations. The special development program differs from the professional development program in the sense that: (1) it is targets specifically engineers and computer professionals; (2) it aims at making the trainees into technical specialists and not fast-track them into management like the professional development program; and (3) it is a highly individualized training program that depends on the skills level of the trainee and the mentor. The special development program concentrates on developing individuals through hands-on field assignments both locally in Saudi Arabia and at international sites. Another unique attribute of this program is that the trainee, as part of her hands-on assignment is seconded to work with specialist vendor companies. Finally, Saudi Aramco also conducts management and executive education for its management level staff. TQM cannot be successful without management buy-in and commitment. TQM begins at the top with managers adopting its philosophy then believing in quality as being more than a slogan but an actionable, achievable attribute to be pursued by the organization. Management and executive education equips Saudi Aramco’s management with the knowledge necessary to support the demands of TQM. Typically the training offered at this target group include the latest management techniques, comprehending the global business environment, organizational learning, courses on the latest developments in oil and gas production technology and so on. The employee training programs at Saudi Aramco enable the company to fulfill two important elements that are necessary for the successful implementation of TQM: employee empowerment and top management commitment. The professional development and special development programs equip employees with skills that increase their confidence as well as abilities. This heightened job-ability and confidence is reflected in increased employee involvement and sense of responsibility which are needed if the organizations TQM initiatives are to be fundamental and not superficial. On the other hand, management and executive education aides in improving the organizations leadership, defining and setting up of strategic directions, management thoughtfulness and practice and the transformation needed to carry out TQM. 2. Using Kelemen’s eight part framework, identify which approach to quality seems to be at work in this initiative and justify your selection. To begin with, the fact that Saudi Aramco has put in place employee training programs is a big indicator that the organization views quality as a self-contained entity that can be planned, managed, and controlled with the help of technical and managerial knowledge (Kelemen 7). This in essence defines a managerial perspective on quality. However, this does not imply that Saudi Aramco totally neglects the critical perspective on quality. What we see is that there is a blend of both perspectives evident in the activities of Saudi Aramco, probably with the managerial perspective being greater than the critical perspectives. This section shall discuss more on which approaches seem to have been undertaken by Saudi Aramco and at the end provide a conclusion as to which approach seems to have a greater portion of this blend of perspectives. Manufacturing-based approach Of the managerial perspectives, Saudi Aramco appears to have adopted the manufacturing-based approach. The manufacturing-based approach views quality as the degree to which a specific product conforms to a design or specification (Kelemen 10). Training, especially on the job training, is often geared towards orienting the trainee on the nuances of a particular job. Saudi Aramco’s professional development and special development programs include extensive durations of on the job training that could be said to implant conformance to certain work practices on the mind of the new hire. Under the professional development program fresh graduates are taken through a three-year program to speed up their integration into the company’s way of doing things. While under the special development program, the trainee is placed under a mentor for an individualized training program. Under these conditions, the trainee experiences the mentor’s approach, the steps and actions necessary, the interpersonal interaction required and the mechanisms needed to effectively perform the job that the mentor may never consider to mention where it, say, a formal classroom-based training program. It would not be far-fetched to presume that at the end of the training the mentee will most likely work according to the format she has seen her mentee use or follow the standards set by her. This leads directly or indirectly to conformance of specifications by the mentee. Additionally, in general, the human resource management (HRM) is in charge of the training and development programs within an organization. This means that for the company that has set its mind on implementing TQM, the HRM takes the lead role in coming up with the specific and development training needs for making TQM a practical reality within the organization (Mackyy). This implies that the HRM will devise training and development programs that ensure conformance to the specifications that they believe result in continuous improvement and quality, which is the central idea behind the manufacturing-based approach. Alternatively, one could look at how the organization evaluates its training and development programs to understand the approach used in promoting TQM. At Saudi Aramco, the evaluation of either the professional development or the special development programs employee training programs is conducted quarterly or half-yearly depending on the complexity of the competency to be acquired. The Saudi Aramco HRM has a skills matrix checklist that it uses to highlight competencies gained by each staff member under these programs. Obviously, there are certain skills or attributes gained in the program that cannot be captured on a skills matrix template such as increased employee judiciousness or safety consciousness. The idea here is that the HRM are inclined to assess those competencies or attributes that are measurable and that correlate to controlling variation in design, processes and production. By the end of the training programs HRM aim at empowering employees with the all the skills necessary to make the production process stable and reliable so that quality becomes inherent (Kelemen 10). To sum up, three attributes from the Saudi Aramco employee training programs affirm a manufacturing-based approach to quality. First, there is the element of adherence to standards masked under structured training programs that grouped into different tracts. This essentially informs us that for one to be an executive, a specialist or a fast-tracked manager at Saudi Aramco she has to follow a given regime of training and education. Second, there is the element of deliberate design. The Saudi Aramco HRM is responsible for designing the training and education programs. As a subset of corporate, the HRM will obviously ensure that its programs are aligned with the company’s overall objectives and strategy. Finally, there is the element of quality check at the end of each program – in this case disguised as an employee skills matrix checklist. A tick beside one’s name and skill in the HRM skills matrix could comically be said to signify the following: “You have passed through our conformity training and we (Saudi Aramco) are happy to approve you as fit to proceed to the next level.” Slogan-based approach As stated earlier, Saudi Aramco’s employee training programs cannot be merely looked at from the managerial perspective but as a blend of both the managerial and contextual perspectives on quality. Saudi Aramco, like most big contemporary corporations, is obsessed with quality to the extent that as Kelemen (17) puts it, quality has become a mere slogan. Employee training programs are fertile ground for both management and employees to pursue their various ends in the name of quality. At Saudi Aramco, this art or science of utilizing the quality slogan for various ends has been perfected. According to Prybutok (Para 1) education and training are essential for getting a company ready for change, in realizing the change itself, and in institutionalizing the change as an enduring part of the company. For this reason, managers could use the pursuit of quality as a means to encourage their employees to actively take part in training programs that shall provide them with the knowledge and skills needed to achieve the goals for which the change is being implemented. At Saudi Aramco, employees who have undergone certain training programs have an increased likelihood of getting promoted to supervisory or management level. This means that employee training on quality is often guided by the motivation for promotion, which by itself may not be such a bad thing. The challenge here would be for managers to devise ways to ensure that workers do not merely attend training programs in anticipation for promotion but that they also acquire the knowledge and skills that are important to enable continuous improvement within the organization. Kelemen (18) informs us that employees, like managers, may also talk in the name of quality to drive their own agendas. At Saudi Aramco, employees often use the talk on improving their skills through training programs in the name of quality whereas the motivating factor is to leverage the certificates or competencies gained to leverage themselves for job promotions and/or increased compensation and benefits. Having certain certifications such as six sigma black belt certification entitles the worker to increased level of benefits and certain job roles. In such cases, some employees get the inspiration to talk about quality whereas their motivation is not quality but the monetary reward attributable to training and education geared towards quality. To sum this up, at Saudi Aramco managers have been using the message of TQM to inspire their employees to take part in more training programs. We can only hypothesize that the managers understand that the more training employees undergo the better they become and as such end up increasing their productivity. Saudi Aramco employees, on the other hand, are playing to the management’s tune of taking more training and education programs in the name of quality whereas their motives lay elsewhere. From the above discussion, the slogan-based approach appears to have a slightly greater impact on quality and continuous improvement at Saudi Aramco than the manufacturing-based approach to quality. Whereas the manufacturing-based approach is based on the premise that the education programs are structured with a “conforming to specification” ideology, there are numerous outcomes to a training program that are immeasurable but are equally important with regards to affecting quality consciousness of the workers. For example the Saudi Aramco training programs may be excellently designed but the selection process for individuals or the teaching/mentoring ability of the instructor may be wanting. Individuals who undergo such a program may thus not be as effective in implementing the TQM philosophy. On the other hand, the slogan-based approach is based on the premise that Saudi Aramco’s fad on quality is being perpetuated by management as a means to implement change needed for TQM to succeed in the organization. The downside could be workers feigning enthusiasm for quality as a means towards achieving motives that are not related with quality. Dissecting worker motives is an onerous task. Nevertheless, at Saudi Aramco the executive has been able to successfully sell quality as a slogan which is why we believe the slogan-approach to be the greater between the two discussed approaches. 3. Discuss how successful the initiative was, using Kelemen’s critique of the strengths and weaknesses of the relevant approach for guidance. In this section we shall refer exclusively to one of the employee training programs at Saudi Aramco, namely the special development program. To begin with, the special development program was designed specifically for engineering and computer professionals and has proven to be a great success from the time it was initiated. Here too we shall critique the strengths and weaknesses of the blend of managerial and critical perspectives approaches used by Saudi Aramco. Manufacturing-based approach From the point of view of the manufacturing-based approach the special development training program made Saudi Aramco to realize three things. Firstly, the computer professional is quickly familiarized with the industry jargon and nuances such that he can easily communicate with others in the petroleum industry. Secondly, the mentor shortens the trainee’s learning curve and thus makes her more productive sooner to the organization. Thirdly, the trainee gets inspired by the mentor and aspires to grow to become an industry expert as well thus gets motivated to work harder. Standardization is probably the greatest strength of the manufacturing-based approach. The special development training program supports standardization by placing a new hire or inexperienced hire under an industry veteran so that the veteran can impart on his mentee the industry norms and nuances. It is akin to a native Indian cultural elder imparting on his son the wisdom of their culture with the aim of perpetuating it to future generations. Saudi Aramco hires that have gone through the mentorship program are therefore at an advantage over those that have not because they have learnt how specialists in the industry communicate, how to be more productive, critical areas of focus and emerging trends with the guidance of an industry expert. Whereas standardization has been accused of leading to deskilling of work and a decreasing role for workers in organizing the production process (Kelemen 11), in specializations like information technology (IT), standardization has had the opposite effect. In IT, standardisation implies that computer professionals from Saudi Aramco are able to collaborate with peers from different vendor companies, in different geographies to develop quality applications for the organizations. Standardization in IT implies easier collaboration and trouble-shooting because the language is uniform and universal. A good example here would be the TCP/IP standards. A networking professional at Saudi Aramco will not feel left out at a vendors site say in the U.S. because the TCP/IP protocol is the same. Other arguments that support training in standards especially for engineering and computer professionals are outlined by Tassey (5 & 6) as follows. For starters, in technologically advanced manufacturing industries such as the petroleum industry a range of measurement and test method standards provide information, which by virtue of being universally accepted, greatly reduce transaction costs between buyer and seller. Secondly, standards specify properties that a product must have in order to work (physically or functionally) with complementary products within a product or service system. Interface standards provide ‘open’ systems and thereby enable IT or engineering innovation at the component level by being competitively neutral with respect to design. Slogan-based approach At Saudi Aramco, management has been able to make employees perceive training programs as being essential for not only increasing their knowledge and skills for continuous improvement but also for their career progression. Workers therefore feel motivated especially given that rewards in form of increased benefits or increased duties or promotions are almost always guaranteed for those with certain specified levels of training and education at Saudi Aramco. Prybutok (Para 19) however warns that in and of itself, employee participation in training does not directly contribute to TQM program success. It is the contribution that training does to improve employee understanding and/or the motivational outcomes that accompany training that directly contribute to TQM success. Training therefore provides the opportunity to empower and motivate employees and to reduce employee resistance which all increases the likelihood of TQM to succeed. Worker motivation seems to be the key ingredient in the success of the slogan-based approach to quality at Saudi Aramco. Herzberg’s two factor theory categorizes achievement, advancement, growth, responsibility and recognition as motivators – those factors that serve to motivate the individual to superior effort and performance (Russell and Taylor III 327). Employee training programs directly impacts all of these motivators. For example under the special development program the aim is to attach a new or inexperienced hire or a worker with identified potential who is an engineering or a computer professional to a ‘master’ or veteran who will then mentor the individual to become a highly valued specialist to Saudi Aramco. Workers who are selected to join the program feel that their potential has been recognized. Working under a mentor enables the worker to grow in knowledge and skills and to complete the program fills the employee with a sense of achievement. After the program, the job roles for the new specialist are bound to increase as she is charged with greater responsibilities and career advancement. The worker at that point is willing to work hard because her work fulfills her needs. Both the manufacturing-based approach and the slogan-based approach appear to contribute equally to the success of the TQM employee special development training program at Saudi Aramco. The manufacturing-based approach’s standardization stance favors technical skills such as engineering and IT. Engineering and IT are the main components for the automation process in the petroleum industry. Due to the volumes involved and the different number of products extracted from oil and gas, the importance of automation in this industry cannot be gainsaid. Furthermore, Saudi Aramco is in an industry that is dominated by a few major companies thus buyer power is weak. This means that consumers in the industry have limited substitutes thus they have to be content with the products offered by the oligopoly. Industry players such as Saudi Aramco therefore find it convenient and more affordable to make products that conforming to specifications. On the other hand, the slogan-based approach to quality is typical of large corporations such as Saudi Aramco. Large corporations have a way of following the latest management fads such as TQM as they utilize their vast resources in seeking new areas of competitive advantage. To motivate its employees as it seeks to implement the TQM philosophy, the management of Saudi Aramco found it convenient to encourage employees to undertake education and training programs that shall enable the company improve its staff competencies to keep it continuously improving and innovating with the aim of remaining competitive in the future. According to Prahalad and Hamel (14) core competences are the wellspring of new business development therefore organizations must invest in identifying, developing and exploiting their core competencies. Education and training programs are mentioned in Deming’s 14point plan for TQM as point number six and point number 13. Deming advocated for use of modern on-the-job training techniques and use of statistical methods to find out when an employee has completed training. Deming also stated that organizations need not just good workers, but workers who yearn and improve themselves through education. Decades later, Prahalad and Hamel concurred with Deming that education and training programs enhance employee knowledge and skills, which are the cornerstone of identifying, developing and exploiting the so called core competencies that will determine companies that will compete in the future. Works Cited Cohen, Phil. “Deming’s 14 points.” HCi.com. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. Kelemen, Mihaela. “Redefining Quality.” Managing Quality: Managerial and Critical Perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2003. 7 - 19. Print. Mackyy. “Implementing total quality management: the role of human resource management.” Knol. 3 Aug. 2008. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. “Our company.” Saudiaramco.com. 5 Dec. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. Prahalad, C. K, and Gary Hamel. “The Core competence of the corporation.” Harvard Business Review May-June (1990): 79 - 91. Print. Prybutok, Victor. “Empowerment, motivation, training, and TQM program implementation success.” Industrial Management (1995): n. pag. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. Russell, Roberta, and Bernard W Taylor III. Operations Management: Creating value along the supply chain. 6th ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Print. Tassey, Gregory. “Standardization in Technology-Based Markets.” June 1999 : n. pag. Print.  Read More