Page 104 - DMGT524_TOTAL_QUALITY_MANAGEMENT

Unit 7: Employee Involvement

Notes

Case Study Heavy Truck (HT) Corporation

T Corporation, a manufacturer of heavy trucks had a long, sad and bitter history
of employee relations. The company openly practiced “management through
Hterrorism”. Engineers and technicians dominated the culture. One of the
company’s assembly plants devoted major resources to statistical process control.
An entire department staffed with engineers justified its existence by keeping control
charts. The engineers collected and stored data on a computer and posted the charts in
every production department once each week. They also posted lists of problems and
defects attributable to each department. Another department kept itself busy with “work
design” and assembly line balancing. The plant was highly product focused. Material
moved smoothly from one operation to next.
Subassemblies flowed into the assemblies like tributaries of a river, all moving toward
the assembly line.

Despite this effort, quality was mediocre at best. HT Corporation devoted more factory
space for rework and repair operations than to the original assembly. The individual and
social aspects of the system were largely ignored. People lacked interpersonal skills,
common goals and trust, and they could not hope to attain qualities under the existing
power structure and reward system.

Questions
1. Comment on the human resources management of the HT Corporation.
2. Why quality was mediocre at best?

3. In spite of problems, the production was smooth, comment.
4. If you take over as the chief executive officer of HT Corporation what changes
would you make? How would you begin?
Source: Visveswaraya Technological University-MBA Question Paper, Total Quality Management, July
2007

7.6 Summary

Employee involvement is not a replacement for management nor is it the final word in
quality improvement. It is a means to better meet the organization’s goals for quality and
productivity at all levels of an organization.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs states that that there were five levels. These levels are
survival, security, social, esteem, and self-actualization. Once a given level is satisfied, it
can no longer motivate a person.

Frederick Herzberg extended the general work of Maslow by using empirical research to
develop his theory on employee motivation.

The presence of the extrinsic conditions does not necessarily motivate employees; however,
their absence results in dissatisfaction among employees.
If managers are to effectively motivate employees, they must align their actions closer to
the motivators.

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