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CHAPTER 4
Workforce Focus
Teaching Notes
This chapter provides an overview of one of the most important sub-systems in TQ – Workforce
Focus – which is called the human resources area in many organizations. The workforce area
continues to undergo wrenching change as organizations try to recruit people with scarce technical
skills, improve their performance while still keeping them motivated, enhance organizational quality
and productivity, and downsize the organization to remain competitive and profitable. Students may
The chapter also develops the important workforce management-related topic of employee
involvement (EI) and participative management. It covers the history of quality circles, employee
participation, and involvement for two reasons. 1) Students should know that the team concept,
which the Japanese called “quality control circles, (QCC‘s)” was developed in the U.S. long before
Key objectives for this chapter include:
• To define Workforce as the term which refers to everyone who is actively involved in
accomplishing the work of an organization. This includes paid employees as well as
volunteers and contract employees, and includes all team leaders, supervisors, and managers
at all levels.
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• To develop and reinforce the concept that the human resource in an organization is the only one
• To learn about, and extend, key workforce-focused practices for performance excellence that
drive workforce engagement, satisfaction and motivation. Some of these are: designing and
• To establish the differences between traditional workforce management practices, under theories
first developed by Frederick W. Taylor, that have tended to focus primarily on tasks and duties
of HR personnel, as opposed to quality-related individual and team development and
enhancement of employee involvement in problem–solving and decision-making activities.
• To build on the basic definition of workforce management: Human resource management
(called workforce management, here) consists of activities designed to provide for and
• To define and explore high performance work, which refers to work approaches used to
systematically pursue ever-higher levels of overall organizational and human performance;
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• To introduce leading concepts and practices including employee involvement (EI), suggestion
systems, motivation theories and models as bases for a sound understanding of workforce
management.
empowerment that they possess.
• To touch on other aspects of workforce management systems, including topics of:
empowerment; recruitment and career development; training and education; compensation
and recognition; health, safety, and well-being; motivation; performance appraisal;
• To help students appreciate that workforce management practices in the Internet Age often
require employers to take non-traditional approaches to attract and retain high-skilled
employees. They must understand workforce capability, which encompasses the
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ANSWERS TO QUALITY IN PRACTICE KEY ISSUES
Training for Improving Service Quality at Honda
1. Honda used a blended approach, rather than a pure virtual online learning approach because
it appeared to meet the criteria of a) improving and extending the delivery of training for
2. There were several benefits of the approach including meeting the criteria listed above, as
well as enabling Honda to capture and measure detailed data about one program (problem-
solving and decision-making) about how the techniques continue to be used to affect and
improve quality in critical service and support areas. The approach supports the achievement
of high performance by providing for:
• Increased learner readiness for workshop learning
• Better identification of relevant application topics
3. Other organizations might learn from Honda’s experience by practicing management
support, using the blended approach to enhance motivation, making use of technology to
Improving Employee Retention through Six Sigma
1. The bold proposal made by the HR department at Hewitt Associates, to justify increases
in compensation based on ROI from calculated savings in productivity, helped
management to see the business problem differently. In the end, the annualized ROI
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2. Hewitt Associates identified several solutions to high employee turnover of trained
customer service personnel at that the company, including:
1) Improving tangible rewards. After a review of market data revealed that Hewitt’s total
compensation rates had dropped slightly below market average, a targeted group of
proficient CS representatives received a market correction in their base pay and a similar
(4) Developing a formal manager effectiveness curriculum for managers and local
leaders, focusing this training on interaction management, team leading, and conflict
Figure 4.8 Hewitt’s Employee Engagement Framework
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ANSWERS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. There is a logical relationship between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction
because research has shown that as workforce satisfaction increased, so did customer
satisfaction and loyalty to the organization. If people were satisfied with their working
conditions and jobs, they stayed with the company, became familiar with customers and
2. The impact of F.W. Taylor on quality and productivity has been profound. Taylor developed
his “scientific management approach” primarily to improve efficiency and productivity of
manual workers. Taylor separated planning from execution, concluding that foremen and
3. The key workforce-focused practices for performance excellence include:
• Understand the key factors that drive workforce engagement, satisfaction, and
motivation.
• Design and manage work and jobs to promote effective communication, cooperation,
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• Assess workforce capability and capacity needs and use the results to capitalize on
core competencies, address strategic challenges, recruit and retain skilled and
4. Workforce management consists of those activities designed to provide for and coordinate
the people of an organization. These activities include determining the organization’s
workforce needs; assisting in the design of work systems; recruiting, selecting, training
and developing, counseling, motivating, and rewarding employees; acting as a liaison
5. Workforce engagement refers to the extent of workforce commitment, both emotional
and intellectual, to accomplishing the work, mission, and vision of the organization.
Organizations with high levels of workforce engagement are often characterized by high–
performing work environments in which people are motivated to do their utmost for the
benefit of their customers and for the success of the organization.
Engagement is manifested in Deming’s concept of “pride and joy” in work that was
reflected in his 14 Points. Engagement means that workers find personal meaning and
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6. Employee Involvement (EI) refers to participative team approaches currently being applied
to problem solving and decision-making in various organizations. These approaches involve
transforming the culture of the entire organization to tap the creative energies of all
employees. EI allows individuals “to discover their own potential, and to put that potential to
7. A simple definition of motivation is response to a felt need. Thus, there are three
components of motivation: 1) the felt need, 2) the stimulus that produced that felt need, 3)
8. High performance work refers to work approaches used to systematically pursue ever-higher
levels of overall organizational and human performance. Flexibility, innovation, knowledge
and skill sharing, alignment with organizational directions, customer focus, and rapid
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9. Work design refers to how employees are organized in formal and informal units, such as
department and teams. Job design refers to the responsibilities and task assigned to
individuals. Both are vital to organizational effectiveness and job satisfaction.
The Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model can be used to design motivating
potential into a job, thus enhancing quality. Their approach to task design help to explain the
motivational properties of tasks by tying together human and technical components of jobs.
In the model, shown in Figure 6.1, the five core job characteristics of task significance, task
10. Job enlargement, expands worker’s jobs to include several tasks rather than one single,
low-level task. This approach reduces fragmentation of jobs and generally results in
11. Empowerment simply means giving people authority and power to make decisions, gain
greater control over their work, and thus more easily satisfy customers. Successful
empowerment of employees requires that:
* Employees are provided education, resources and encouragement.
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* An atmosphere of trust is fostered rather than resentment and punishment for failure.
12. According to management theorist, David Geisler, self-determination differs from
empowerment in that what traditionally passes for empowerment does not allow
13. 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.
The most common types of teams are:
• Management teams: Teams consisting mainly of managers from various functions, such
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14. A quality circle is a small group of employees from the same work area who meet regularly
and voluntarily to identify, solve, and implement solutions to work-related problems.
Characteristics of quality circles include:
(1) Quality circles are small groups, ranging from 4 to 15 members. Eight members are
considered the norm.
(2) All members come from the same shop or work area. This gives the circle its identity.
Self-managed teams, management teams, natural work teams, and virtual teams typically
work on routine business activities—managing an organization, building a product, or
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15. Teams go through several very predictable phases of development called forming, storming,
norming and performing. Forming is when the team is introduced, meets together, and
explores issues of their new assignment. Storming occurs when team members disagree
16. Issues must be considered, and pitfalls must be avoided, if teams are to be successful. As
stated in the chapter, the team structure depends heavily on cooperation, communication,
and clarity. Eckes estimates that 60 percent of failures of Six Sigma teams are due to
Team implementation should always begin with a period of investigation, reflection, and
soul searching. Many companies rush out and form the wrong kind of teams for a specific
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17. The organization must consider a number of issues relating to employee well-being in
today’s work environment. These include: health and safety factors, accommodations for
18. According to Scholtes, the tools needed for running an effective meeting include: Peter
Scholtes provides some rules for effective meetings:
• Use agendas.
• Have a facilitator.
Scholtes suggests the use of detailed agendas that include topics, a sentence about the
importance of each, who will present them, the estimated time for each topic, and the
type of item, such as discussion, decision, or information topics. A facilitator can keep
the discussion on time and on target, prevent anyone from dominating or being
19. The nominal group technique (NGT) was developed to provide a way to prioritize and
focus on important project objectives in the project definition stage. One of the major
advantages of the technique is that it balances the power of each individual involved in
the decision process. Key steps in the process include the following:
1. Request that all participants (usually 5–10 persons) write or say which problem or
issue they feel is most important.
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5. Request that each participant rank the top five problems or issues by assigning five
points to their most important perceived problem and one point to the least important of
their top five.
20. Without willing, sustained, individual effort and coordinated teamwork focused on
meeting organizational goals, TQ is an impossible dream. However, when organizations
ask employees to assume new challenges and responsibilities, the question “What’s in it
for me?” ultimately gets asked. Extrinsic and intrinsic rewards are the key to sustained
individual efforts. Compensation and recognition refer to all aspects of pay and reward,
including promotions, bonuses, and recognition, either monetary and non-monetary or
individual and group.
Compensation is always a sticky issue, closely tied to the subject of motivation and
employee satisfaction. Money is a motivator when people are at the bottom of Maslow’s
Many TQ-focused companies now base compensation on the market rate for an
individual with proven capabilities, and then make adjustments as capabilities are
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21. Key practices that lead to effective employee recognition and rewards include:
a. Giving both individual and team awards.
b. Involving everyone, including both front-line employees and senior management.
In managing quality, it is important to separate individual compensation, i.e. pay and
promotion, from the performance appraisal. One way to do this is through gainsharing,
where all employees, regardless of rank, share savings equally. Another way to separate
22. Performance appraisal is an exceedingly difficult workforce management activity to
perform. Dissatisfaction with conventional performance appraisal systems is common
between both managers, who are the appraisers, and workers, who are the appraised.