E. Soltani, J. Gennard, R.B. van der Meer and T. Williams
While the concepts of performance evaluation and total quality management (TQM) have been explored in the management literature of the last decades, there has been relatively…
Abstract
While the concepts of performance evaluation and total quality management (TQM) have been explored in the management literature of the last decades, there has been relatively little work on the particular characteristics that an organisation with a TQM approach to human resource (HR) performance evaluation should adopt. To this end, this paper provides a review of the literature in the area of TQM and HR performance evaluation, in order to establish the context for future empirical research. This study provides a brief overview of the implications of a quality orientation for the evaluation of employee performance. It reveals the main difficulties with the concept of performance evaluation from a quality perspective; and it also examines particular characteristics of performance evaluation that could maximise the effectiveness of HR performance evaluation in organisational environments with a quality orientation. Both the assumptions of TQM and the requirements for HR evaluation are used as a foundation from which to examine the ways in which HR performance evaluation might have changed to integrate TQM requirements. By examining the relevant literature, the main criteria of a TQM‐based HR performance evaluation system are refined and enhanced, thus moving towards a situation in which TQM can drive HR performance evaluation in practice. The results also serve as a guide for the evaluation of the effectiveness of such a system.
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Robert E. Cole and Tsuyoshi Matsumiya
The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible impediments to radical innovation created by the pursuit of quality improvement in the dynamic hi‐tech sector.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible impediments to radical innovation created by the pursuit of quality improvement in the dynamic hi‐tech sector.
Design/methodology/approach
First examines contributions and limitations of extant literature. Then analyzes three cases from the Japanese hi‐tech sector, dynamic random access memory chips , network equipment, and system integration, to understand the conditions under which the pursuit of quality creates impediments for radical innovation.
Findings
Identifies a number of mechanisms, beyond the existing literature, through which the quality culture of Japanese hi‐tech firms can inhibit innovation. Particular attention is paid to the risk averse culture that may be created, thereby damaging the potential to develop radical innovation. Some exploratory strategies are offered through which firms might minimize these problems.
Originality/value
The ways in which the quality culture of Japanese hi‐tech firms poses a challenge for innovation are explored and some exploratory views on how Japanese firms might meet this challenge are offered. Above all, the paper calls for firms to think more strategically and flexibly about the role of quality at the early stages of the product cycle for hi‐tech products.
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Quality control circles, a Japanese management technique for improving quality, productivity, and worker morale, have been widely adopted in western industry. The apparent hope is…
Abstract
Quality control circles, a Japanese management technique for improving quality, productivity, and worker morale, have been widely adopted in western industry. The apparent hope is that the circles are a key to competing with the Japanese. In this article QC circles are shown to resemble, and potentially overlap with, six other western work improvement programmes, most of which have had successful histories. Case observations offer limited evidence that plant configuration considerations should be foremost among the factors emphasised in an industrial work improvement programme and that western industry should not expect too much from quality control circles.
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Increased worker autonomy and participation are being proclaimed as the foundation for economic competitiveness in the 1990s (Reich, 1991). Management has been generally favorable…
Abstract
Increased worker autonomy and participation are being proclaimed as the foundation for economic competitiveness in the 1990s (Reich, 1991). Management has been generally favorable towards such strategies and surveys of workers also indicate widespread support (Hackman, 1990). However, trade unionists fear that these new organizations of work are, at least in part, being sponsored by management in an attempt to undermine unions and manipulate workers (Grenier, 1988; Parker, 1985). More cautious forms of this argument propose that participation schemes are initiated to extract from workers the important “working knowledge” (Kusterer, 1978) and “tricks of the trade” (Thomas, 1991; Hodson, 1991) that are often workers' resource in bargaining with management over wages and conditions. Participation schemes may also lead to the unraveling of “informal agreements” between workers and front line supervisors concerning work effort and work procedures that both labor and management would prefer to keep hidden (Thomas, 1991:8).
Accountability is defined as a management philosophy wherebyindividuals are ultimately accountable for how well or badly theyperform. If predetermined activities are performed…
Abstract
Accountability is defined as a management philosophy whereby individuals are ultimately accountable for how well or badly they perform. If predetermined activities are performed well, some reward will follow; if not, a penalty or punishment will be justifiably forthcoming. US corporations have witnessed serious consequences of no accountability – abuse of unchecked power; management rewarding itself for bad performances; the “functional autonomy of money” whereby CEOs engage in short‐run activities detrimental to long‐range growth in order to gain a good income at year‐end. In effect, leadership has been “buried” by rewarding structured achievers. Comparisons are drawn with Japan, where egalitarianism contrasts with US elitism; the orientation towards the group as the centre of society versus the US cult of individualism. What can be done to make American CEOs more accountable for their actions? A call for stricter regulation by government agencies or “public directors” appointed by the government on the Board of Directors has not been heeded. There is a need for increased use of employee stock ownership plans, giving employees a stake in the company and providing a voice to help control its destiny. With a growth in employee ownership, CEOs could then be elected instead of being appointed.
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NOBODY can win all the time. From Employer to Worker, from Reader to Editor there must always be some times when each wins and others where they lose out.
This special issue of Personnel Review on “Quality and the Individual” is very different in style from the editor‐generated issues of this journal, but it has beendesigned for a…
Abstract
This special issue of Personnel Review on “Quality and the Individual” is very different in style from the editor‐generated issues of this journal, but it has been designed for a very particular purpose. In the rush towards the achievement of high levels of “quality” among organizations, however this is manifested, the effects on the individual have largely gone unnoticed. We are all aware of the high rates of failure among quality management initiatives, and what is becoming clear is that successful organizations are harnessing the talents of individuals, whatever their status, to the quality cause from its very early stages.
Many experts attribute Japan's spectacular economic success to superior management techniques. But the real key to Japan's performance may be outstanding marketing skills.
“All things are in a constant state of change”, said Heraclitus of Ephesus. The waters if a river are for ever changing yet the river endures. Every particle of matter is in…
Abstract
“All things are in a constant state of change”, said Heraclitus of Ephesus. The waters if a river are for ever changing yet the river endures. Every particle of matter is in continual movement. All death is birth in a new form, all birth the death of the previous form. The seasons come and go. The myth of our own John Barleycorn, buried in the ground, yet resurrected in the Spring, has close parallels with the fertility rites of Greece and the Near East such as those of Hyacinthas, Hylas, Adonis and Dionysus, of Osiris the Egyptian deity, and Mondamin the Red Indian maize‐god. Indeed, the ritual and myth of Attis, born of a virgin, killed and resurrected on the third day, undoubtedly had a strong influence on Christianity.
MAURICE B. LINE and A. SANDISON
The term ‘obsolescence’ occurs frequently in the literature of librarianship and information science. In numerous papers we are told how most published literature becomes obsolete…
Abstract
The term ‘obsolescence’ occurs frequently in the literature of librarianship and information science. In numerous papers we are told how most published literature becomes obsolete within a measurable time, and that an item receives half the uses it will ever receive (‘half‐life’) in a few years. ‘Obsolescence’ is however very rarely defined, and its validity, interest, and practical value are often assumed rather than explained. Before reviewing studies on ‘obsolescence’, therefore, it is necessary to look at the concept and to identify the reasons why it should be of interest.