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23. 360-degree feedback is a method whereby a group of individuals who frequently interact
with an employee or team participate in both the goal setting process and the performance
appraisal process. The group may include suppliers, clients, peers, internal customers,
managers, and subordinates. The process requires two-way communication on customer
24. Measurement of workforce engagement and employee satisfaction is needed to assess
linkages with company strategy and to provide a foundation for improvement. Commonly,
outcome measurements can be made of cost savings, productivity improvements, defect rate
25. The characteristics of the Gallup Q12 survey instrument for employee engagement include:
12 survey statements that Gallup found as those that best form the foundation of strong
feelings of engagement. These include factors like knowing what is expected in one’s
work; having the right materials and equipment to do the job; receiving recognition and
feedback on progress and development; having opinions that count, feeling of importance
of the job; and opportunities to learn grow and develop.
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into one of three categories:
1. Engaged employees who work with passion and feel a profound connection to their
26. Workforce capability refers to an organization’s ability to accomplish its work
processes through the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of its people.
Capability may include the ability to build and sustain relationships with customers; to
innovate and transition to new technologies; to develop new products, services, and work
processes; and to meet changing business, market, and regulatory demands. Workforce
capacity refers to an organization’s ability to ensure sufficient staffing levels to
27. Some modern practices for hiring, workforce learning, and career development represent
a break from the traditional personnel and human resources approaches of the 1980’s and
90’s. An important aspect of meeting workforce capability and capacity needs is an
organization’s process for hiring the right people. First, one must identify what skills and
competencies they need. Some organizations come up with a list of core
behavioral/management competencies through an analysis of future leadership
requirements based on a vision and an assessment of the company’s current capabilities.
They then identify job candidates based on the skills and competencies during the hiring
process.
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In a culture of performance excellence, employees need to understand the importance of
customer satisfaction, to be given the training and responsibilities to achieve it, and to
feel that they do indeed make a difference. Training specific to performance excellence
generally includes quality awareness, leadership, project management, communications,
ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Answers will vary, depending on the students’ perspectives on the centrality of human
resources as they relate to organizational success. Toyota takes special care to train,
empower, and value their workers as resources. Many companies pay “lip service” with the
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2. Answers will vary depending on the students’ philosophical opinions and knowledge and
judgment of recent political and economic history. Drucker was reinforcing the importance
3. The answers will vary here, depending on students' perspectives on relevant organizations.
Fraternities are generally pretty democratic in organizational structure, but often do not
understand how to tie human resource plans to organizational strategy, develop leadership,
recognize and reward responsible and innovative behavior, and provide for continuous
improvement of routine processes. Also, because it is a membership organization, a
fraternity will have a few paid employees and a number of volunteers, some of who will
consider themselves in the roles of “workers” or “leaders,” and others who will not. The
following “best practices” may be adapted, as suggested, below:
• Integration of human resource plans with strategic objectives and action plans to fully
address the needs and development of fraternity members/employees.
• Job design of work to promote organizational learning, innovation, and flexibility with
changing fraternity needs.
4. In an organization that has a high level of workforce engagement workers take pride in their
work, are knowledgeable about every aspect of the process, and are eager to talk about it.
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5. The weekly review of journals may say to the employees that management values their
6. Students answers to the question about personal motivation will vary, widely. However,
7. Simple theories, such as those of Maslow, Herzberg, and McGregor provide a "snapshot"
9. Answers will vary, depending on student experiences of job enlargement and enrichment. A
possible example of job enlargement might be a locally owned grocery store chain, where
10. This question is designed to further student awareness of the breadth of the "participative
movement" and empowerment practices to help them to confirm that the theory of quality is
being applied in a practical setting in business and industry. For example, one of the authors
had a reservation at an old hotel that was operated by a university. He arrived late at night
after a long drive, expecting to get a good night’s rest before traveling on, the next day.
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11. Students may be empowered to do anything that does not fall within the exclusive
responsibility or technical expertise of the professor. They could develop "regulations"
12. A team is defined as a small number of people with complementary skills who are
committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they
hold themselves mutually accountable. A jazz quartet is an interesting metaphor for a team.
Generally, there is little cross-functional training, however. Bass players rarely play the
13. There is wide latitude for answers to this question. Slackers are a frequent problem in
student teams, as well as in many business contexts. Although not a specific topic of this
14. This controversial subject is left to the brave professors and eager students among our
15. Team incentives, gainsharing, and “pay for increased skills” have certainly been effective
for certain organizations in different contexts. They usually work best where there are
expanding markets for a product or service, and the amount of product that must be supplied
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16. This issue is related to the concept of empowerment in Discussion Question 11, above. It
may be felt that such recognition approaches in classrooms are too “childish” for secondary
18. The answers will vary here, depending on students' perspectives. For example, some
universities will use it as part of the performance review system, as well as for promotion
19. This is one of Welch’s most controversial management philosophies. It may have worked at
GE (and still be working under Jeffrey Immelt), because it is a large organization; because
GE-trained managers, even those in the bottom 10%, typically have high job mobility and
20. This type of new “employee performance software” will definitely improve productivity,
but from a TQ perspective, it is open to question as to what behaviors it will encourage.
21. Companies are increasingly asking colleges and universities to take on more responsibility
for teaching TQ principles and other common business practices before the students reach
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22. It is likely that instead of “improving quality” that this approach will alienate employees. Its
purpose is probably to “catch” employees who don’t follow procedures; no, an empowering
23. The Xerox training strategy seems to have several advantages, including the basic quality
values of customer focus, teamwork, top management leadership, and repeatable and
24. Student opinions will vary. However, union-management relations are being affected by TQ
in the workplace. In the past, there was a highly structured, "rules-based," generally
adversarial relationship between the parties. The emphasis on teamwork, employee
PROJECTS, ETC.
1. This library exercise is designed to encourage students to investigate organizations that are
perceived by their employees (and others) as great places to work. It gets at an underlying
question: Are great companies that have inspiring workforce management practices also
great companies along quality and performance management dimensions?
2. This is a library exercise that will encourage the interested student to research one particular
branch of workforce management and tie in the findings to quality management issues.
Students should especially be encouraged to discover new workforce management trends
that may affect TQ practices. For example, one interesting area for investigation may be the
increasing use of temporary employees in many organizations. What impact does/can this
have on quality, commitment, and employee morale?
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ANSWERS TO CASE QUESTIONS
I. The Dysfunctional Manager
1. Christina’s experience is closely related to the concepts in this chapter. The Gallup
research study showed that employee satisfaction and engagement were positively related
to not only to customer satisfaction and loyalty, but also to productivity, profit, turnover,
and safety.
If Christina’s manager had been familiar with the Hackman and Oldham approach to job
2. The list of employee competencies used by Medrad included the following:
Table 4.5 Key Employee Competencies at MEDRAD
• Values driven (respect for others,
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• Detail orientation
• Change implementation
II. Golden Plaza Hotels
Sandra had a number of tough issues to address, summarized as follows:
• Child care obligations, classes, and other outside commitments made it difficult for
some associates to meet before or after shifts.
• Many of the custodial workers who were functionally illiterate seemed to be
uncomfortable in interaction with other associates.
• Several associates feel that their current jobs are simply too demanding to take on the
additional meetings that would be necessary.
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III. The Hopeful Telecommuter
1. There are a number of benefits and challenges to telecommuting, as follows1:
BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
Telecommuting benefits:
• Improved quality of worklife: morale, stress, personal control, work/family/personal
life balance, commute pressures
• Improved job performance for Jennifer, individually and organizationally
• Reduced absenteeism; maternity leave can be minimized
1 Several of these points were adapted from the: WRITTEN TESTIMONY OF THE INTERNATIONAL
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2. The VP of human resources would probably raise policy issues, such as what sort of
precedents are we setting for current and future employees regarding the ability to “design
their own jobs,” structure work during maternity leaves, performance appraisal systems, and
3. For Jennifer, empowerment means giving her authority and power to make decisions, gain
greater control over her work, and thus more easily satisfy customers. Successful
empowerment, for her, requires that:
• She is provided with resources and encouragement.
• Policies and procedures be examined for needless restrictions on the her ability to serve
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IV. Nordam Europe, Ltd.
1. The approaches used by Nordam Europe seem to support high-performance work, in a
number of ways, as expressed in ideas presented in this chapter. The HR theory suggests
that employers need to:
• Communicate the importance of each employee’s contribution to total quality.
• Stress quality-related synergies available through teamwork.
• Empower employees to “make a difference.”
• Reinforce individual and team commitment to quality with a wide range of rewards
and reinforcements.
These goals are realized by leading companies through the following “best” practices:
1. They design, organize, and manage work and jobs to promote cooperation, initiative,
empowerment, innovation, and the culture of the organization, capitalizing on the diverse
ideas and thinking of employees.
2. They promote teamwork and skill sharing across work units and locations.
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2. Education, training, and development at Nordam address the organizational needs based
on the company’s mission of maintaining jet engine nacelles and thrust reversers. By
focusing on individual’s background and job experience, rather than race, gender,
nationality, disability, religion or age, the best qualified workers are hired, trained,
promoted, and retained. The hiring process reflects this in such steps as:
a. Applicant’s résumés are received.
b. Screening of applicants is performed by a departmental manager and a personnel
officer to develop a short list of those they would like to interview.
c. The short-listed applicants are invited for an interview with the departmental manager
3. Leadership and motivation advantages may accrue from using older workers, especially
where quality, reliability, and attention to detail are required. Skills in using tools have
4. Problems of age discrimination are somewhat different in the United Kingdom than in the
U.S. The workforce is older in the U.K. than in the U.S., on average. Support services for
older people are probably more widely available in the U.K. than in the U.S. The equal
opportunity laws are somewhat different, but awareness of the need to avoid
No Instructor Reserve Quality in Practice events or cases are offered for this chapter.
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