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25. Outline the characteristics of the Gallup Q12 survey instrument for employee
engagement and explain the management uses for three categories in the resulting
“engagement index.”
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.
Gallup analyzes the survey results and creates an “engagement index” that assigns people
into one of three categories:
26. Why is it important to consider workforce capability and capacity in designing and
sustaining high performance work systems?
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
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27. Explain some modern practices for hiring, workforce learning, and career
development.
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.
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, teamwork, problem
solving, interpreting and using data, meeting customer requirements, process analysis, process
simplification, waste reduction, cycle time reduction, error-proofing, and other issues that affect
employee effectiveness, efficiency, and safety. Many large companies have formal training
departments, whose systems and approaches evolved along with their overall quality systems.
Identifying training opportunities and implementing them is a key business process. Education
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ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What is your reaction to Clifton Leaf’s comments in the opening paragraph of the chapter?
Do you feel these hold for most other organizations?
His comments were:
“For those smart enough to recognize it – and mine it – the human capital embedded in a company’s
workforce is simply the best asset it has: more mobile than factories or equipment, more rewarding
in the long term than investment capital, easier to leverage than brand or market share. It is human
minds, after all, that spark discoveries and breakthroughs; human impatience and ingenuity that
2. The late Peter Drucker, arguably one of the most respected and influential writers on
management in the twentieth century, observed: Whatever his limitations and shortcomings—
and he had many—no other American, not even Henry Ford (1863–1947), had anything like
Taylor’s impact. “Scientific Management” (and its successor, “Industrial Engineering”) is the
one American philosophy that has swept the world—more so even than the Constitution and the
Federalist Papers. In the last century there has been only one worldwide philosophy that could
compete with Taylor’s: Marxism. And in the end Taylor has triumphed over Marx. Comment on
Drucker’ s observations about the Taylor system. Do you agree with his statement about
Taylor versus Marx? Why or why not?
Answers will vary depending on the students’ philosophical opinions and knowledge and judgment
of recent political and economic history. Drucker was reinforcing the importance of Taylor’s
contributions to systematic work processes (see answer to Review Question 1 for background).
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3. How can a fraternity or student organization use the workforce-focused practices in Table
4.1 to improve the organization? If you are involved in such an organization, develop a
strategic “workforce” plan that supports performance excellence.
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. What things might you observe in an organization that has high levels of workforce
engagement? What might you observe in one that has low levels of engagement?
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. Frequently, they
will make personal sacrifices when problems arise, such as volunteering to stay late to fix a
problem, or applying ingenuity in order to solve the problem. Typical measures such as
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5. Explain how a focus on the following can lead to high levels of employee engagement.
Provide specific examples of professions that support each of these.
a. Employees’ jobs benefit their customers and society as a whole.
b. Employees find personal meaning in their tasks and their profession.
c. Employees have strong personal relationships with coworkers.
d. Employees have new opportunities to develop and build their careers.
A focus on these factors can lead to high levels of employee engagement, because the above
characteristics closely parallel the Hackman and Oldham job design model, and other research
studies of factors that are important to successful employee engagement initiatives, including:
1. [a.] Task significance: The degree to which the job gives the participants the feeling that they
have a substantial impact on the organization or the world, for example, solving
a customer’s problem rather than simply filing papers
Professions that support each of these include:
• Religious workers, such as ministers, rabbis, imams, and priests.
6. An engineering service firm that performs repair and maintenance of laboratory
equipment asks its technicians to write weekly journal entries describing their work
experiences. The company owner reviews them each week and provides feedback to the
technicians. What implications might this practice have for fostering employee engagement?
Can you think of any other benefits?
The weekly review of journals may say to the employees that management values their work. It
7. What motivates you to study and perform in the classroom? How do motivation theories
apply to you personally? Discuss how these theories might lead to new ways of teaching and
learning.
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Students’ answers to the question about personal motivation will vary, widely. However, since
8. When simple theories such as those of Maslow, Herzberg, and McGregor explain
motivation, why does the search continue for more complex ones or for ones that integrate
several different theories, such as Porter and Lawler’ s theory? What implications do they
have for quality?
Simple theories, such as those of Maslow, Herzberg, and McGregor provide a snapshot view of a
9. Think of a job you have had. Apply the Hackman and Oldham model to evaluate how the
job design impacted your motivation and satisfaction, as well as organizational effectiveness.
This is one of the authors’ favorite exercises. Students generally provide a very honest response
about their job experiences, and in this way, better understand the Hackman-Oldham model.
10. Describe some examples of job enlargement or job enrichment that you have either seen
or personally encountered in a job.
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 part-time
11. Cite some examples of empowerment or lack of empowerment from your own experiences.
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. Instead, after preparing
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12. How might the concept of empowerment be employed in a classroom?
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 about the conduct of the
13. How might a jazz quartet be viewed as a metaphor for a team in a business situation?
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-
14. How should teams deal with “slackers”? How would you deal with them in the context of
a student project team?
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 chapter, knowledge of
15. Consider the statement, “How one is evaluated determines how one performs.” What
does this notion mean for your classes? Would your performance change if grades were
abolished (as Deming strongly advocated)?
This controversial subject is left to the brave professors and eager students among our readers who
wish to tackle the issue of how to change our traditional grading system in the U.S. You may want
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16. Discuss the conditions under which team incentives, gainsharing, and “pay for increased
skills” reward systems may work. When is it a poor idea to install such systems?
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 lags the demand. For example,
in a housing boom (despite its recent bad press), team incentives might be given to completing
17. Employees at the Container Store are said to be paid about twice the national average.
The CEO feels that he is receiving three times the productivity of an average worker at
only twice the cost. Do you think that this is true? What are the pros and cons of such a
policy?
The CEO at the Container Store who pays employees about twice the national average has an
interesting theory. It would be interesting to test it out to determine if he is receiving three times
the productivity of an average worker at only twice the cost. Opinions of students will vary on
18. Students in early grades often receive many kinds of recognition: stickers, candy, and so
on, for good work. As we discussed, similar forms of recognition are common in the
workplace. Yet little daily recognition is given at the high school and college level. Discuss
possible reasons for this difference and design a recognition program that might be
appropriate in your class.
This issue of incentives (sometimes called a token economy) and rewards for educational
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19. Discuss the controversy over performance appraisal. Do you agree with Deming’s
approach, or do you take the more traditional viewpoint toward performance appraisal?
Why?
See Review Question 22, above, for a definition and discussion of the issues in performance
20. Most colleges and universities use a course/instructor evaluation system. If your school
has one, how is it used? Does it support continuous improvement or is it used strictly for
performance appraisal? How might the evaluation instrument or process be modified to
better reflect quality principles?
Some universities will use it as part of the performance review system, as well as for promotion and
tenure decisions. Some problems may arise from such use, especially if only one term is examined,
21. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, stated his passion for making people GE’ s
core competency yet he used a system in which executives in the bottom 10 percent of a forced
performance ranking were eliminated. What do you think of this approach? How does it fit
with a total quality philosophy? How would you respond to someone who says, “ I think all
my people are pretty good. If I fire the bottom 10 percent, that would just give me a new
bottom 10 percent. Where does it end?”
This is one of Welch’s most controversial management philosophies. It may have worked at GE
(and still be working under the current CEO), because it is a large organization; because GE-trained
managers, even those in the bottom 10%, typically have high job mobility and several opportunities
elsewhere; and because it is unclear how GE went about the firing process. In non-GE firms of
22. Recently, new “employee performance software” has been developed to track individual
output. For example, British Airways uses it to ensure that customer service reps’ time in the
break room or on personal calls doesn’t count on the clock. The technology can keep track so
that extra incentive dollars are eventually directed in to the paychecks of those whose digital
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records merit them. It can also help managers understand how to assemble the most effective
teams or who to lay off. Discuss the implications of such technology from a quality and high
performance perspective.
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. Unless management is
23. Many companies today seek the best available applicants and train them in quality
principles. What implications does this practice have for designing college curricula and
choosing elective courses in a given program?
Companies are increasingly asking colleges and universities to take on more responsibility for
teaching TQ principles and other common business practices before the students are hired. This
24. Often, the preamble to one’ s call to a company will be a recorded message that says
something like “For quality purposes, this call may be recorded.” What do you think the real
purpose of such an approach is? Is it to improve quality or to monitor poorly trained
employees or catch them deviating from company scripts? Would an empowered organization
need to use this method?
It is entirely possible 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
25. The training strategy that Xerox used is summarized as follows:
a. The training is uniform— common tools and processes are taught across all of Xerox, to all
employees, creating a “common language within Xerox” that fosters cohesive team
functioning.
b. Training is conducted in family groups, with all members starting and finishing training at
the same time to facilitate the change process.
c. Training starts at the top of the organization with the CEO and cascades downward to all
employees.
What advantages does such strategy have? Do you see any possible disadvantages? Would
this approach work in any business?
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The Xerox training strategy seems to have several advantages, including the basic quality values of
customer focus, teamwork, top management leadership, and repeatable and measurable processes.
PROJECTS, ETC.
1. Review the most recent list of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” and
summarize the best practices of these companies, classifying them into themes such as
engagement, work environment, training, and so on. Have any of these companies or their
business units received a Baldrige Award?
This exercise involving the “100 Best Companies to Work For” 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? Here are
some sample responses from prior years:
Engagement/Teamwork
Edward Jones has created a best practice in in employee engagement through its Partnership/
Ownership organizational structure and its mentoring program. Edward Jones is owned by the men
Work Environment
The Boston Consulting Group has developed a work environment best practice for the burnout
problem its industry is facing. Through institution of their PTO (Predictability, Teaming and Open
Communication) that reverts to a conventional work-life balance and attempts to rethink the
Training/Development
Quicken loans takes onboarding very seriously which is why all new employees attend ISM’s day,
which is an intensive orientation to immerse them in the culture and challenge them to think outside
the box on ways to do things. This is so important to them that the founder and CEO spend an entire
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each year. Furthermore, they do this at all levels and at all functions of the organization to educate
and inspire them and to help them understand the products on a different level. To achieve this,
2. Search some current business periodicals (e.g., Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company,
Business Week) for articles dealing with workforce-management issues. Explain how they
relate to the material in this chapter. Are any new approaches or practices emerging?
This exercise 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
3. Interview managers at a local organization about their workforce-management practices,
focusing on engagement and work and job design issues. Report on your perceptions of how
well their practices support a high-performance workplace.
The answers will vary here, depending on the organizations that students contact, the results of the
interviews, and whether they are progressive or conservative in work and job design practices.
4. Survey local companies to determine if and how they use suggestion systems. What levels of
participation do they have? Are suggestions tied to rewards and recognitions?
5. Investigate the extent of team participation at some local companies. What kinds of teams
do you find? Do managers believe these teams are effective?
The answers will vary here, depending on students‘ experiences in relevant local organizations and
whether/how they use team participation for effective performance management.
6. Interview some managers at a local company on their approaches to motivation.
Summarize their responses and analyze them in the context of motivation theories. Can you
provide any suggestions for improving their practices?
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7. Research the impacts of the Internet on workforce management practices in an actual
firm. One possible approach would be to interview an HR manager at a company that is
building e-commerce capability. Another approach might be to visit the websites of several
firms, examine practices that may be described, and compare and contrast your findings.
This exercise is designed to encourage the students to research the impact of the Internet on human
resource practices in actual companies.
8. Does your school survey its faculty and staff to assess issues of engagement, satisfaction,
and the work environment? If so, obtain a copy of the survey and analyze it relative to the
concepts in this chapter; if not, design one that might be used.
ANSWERS TO CASE QUESTIONS
Carla’s Quick Service Restaurant Job
1. High attrition rates in the QSR industry may be attributed to low levels of employee
engagement within the organization. How does high turnover impact product quality and
customer service in the QSR industry, as well as the costs to the organization?
There are a number of factors that contribute to high turnover in the QSR industry, which, in turn
negatively impacts product quality and customer service. As indicated in Carla’s situation,
problem-solving is relegated to management, input is not sought, communication is often at
2. How can Carla’s manager or the corporate office improve employee involvement and
engagement?
Carla’s manager and/or the company’s corporate office could take lessons from Pal’s Sudden
Service QSR. Pal’s is known for employee involvement and engagement. Employees are given
The Dysfunctional Manager
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1. How does Christina’s experience relate to the concepts in this chapter? Thoroughly
explain the implications and relationships to the various theories we described.
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
2. How might the list of employee competencies used by MEDRAD have been applied to
individuals selected as managers in order to improve the store’s day-to-day operations?
The list of employee competencies used by Medrad included the following:
Table 4.5 Key Employee Competencies at MEDRAD
• Performance development
• High performance orientation
• Adaptability
• Sound judgment
• Detail orientation
• Values driven (respect for others,
integrity, etc.)
• Continuous innovation and
improvement (creativity process
orientation, etc.)
This list might have been adapted in the form of an employee survey, a management evaluation
tool, or both. If it had been used by the boss’ boss, the former manager might have received
coaching to suggest that she needed to apply managerial, technical, and human skills on the job,
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Golden Suites Hotel
Sandra stared at this list and wondered what she had gotten herself into. What
recommendations would you make to her to address these issues?
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.
It seems obvious that she can’t just transplant the team approach used in Denver to San
Francisco. The workforce is different and so is the environment. The first challenge would seem
to be building trust in the employees that they will not be manipulated or harmed by the new
team approach. This might be done by holding several all hands meetings with various groups of
employees. Sandra could assure them that she was taking a new approach to listen to, and
The Night Shift Pharmacist
1. How would you assess her job in terms of the Hackman-Oldham model? Specifically
address all of the elements of the model based on the facts in this case.
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These are the key elements of the model:
Core job design characteristics
• Task significance: tasks are extremely important to a patient’s overall health
• Task identity: she understands the scope of the work from the time a patient enters the ER
until discharge; however, she has limited patient and physician contact and spend much
Critical psychological states
• Experienced meaningfulness: she clearly sees the job as significant
• Experienced responsibility: because patients’ lives are at stake, she is clearly accountable
Outcomes
• Employee motivation: there is clearly a high level of motivation
• Growth satisfaction: being faced with new decisions, there is ample opportunity for
2. How might your assessment differ for collaborative care pharmacists?
Because collaborative care pharmacists round with the medical team and visit each patient daily,
and help with discharge medication counseling and teach pharmacy students, we would expect