EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

INTRODUCTION

• The employees are the strength of an organization. They are the prime contributors to its success. When an organization wants to expand its business or increase its profits, only the employees can make it happen. The only expandable resource in the organization are the employees. Any improvement will happen only because of the employees. Therefore, employee involvement is essential for TQM. In this chapter we will discuss the following. TQM principles and strategies pertaining to employee involvement.

• Motivation• Teamwork• Training and Mentoring• Recognition and Rewards• Feedback and Performance appraisal• Empowerment

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

Group Behaviour• Motivated teams lead to the success of

organization.

Top-Notch—Self Actualized (10%)

Fence sitters (80%)

Difficult to improve (10)%

Behaviour of employeesFigure 6.1

• It is believed that about 5 to 10 percent of the employees are self-motivated and whatever be the circumstances in the organization, they continue to do their best. They never get demotivated, even if there are demotivating factors in the organization. The bottom 5 to 10 percent are the difficult people who do not want to get motivated. However, 80 to 90 percent of the people are fence sitters. Their motivation level depends on management strategies. They join the top 10 percent, if the management is effective; otherwise they join the bottom 10 percent. Essentially, they look at the treatment received both by the top 10 percent and the bottom 10 percent.

MOTIVATION THEORY OF INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEES

Theory X Sigmund Freud is the author of Theory X. Theory X Characterizes employees as given

below:• Avoid work• No ambition• No initiative• Do not take responsibility• Needs security To make them work, the management has to do the following:• Reward• Coerce• Intimidate• Punish

If this theory is applicable to any employee, them the organization cannot function with such employees. This theory assumes that the employee cannot be trusted and the employees have to be supervised all the time.

Theory Y Douglas McGregor is the author of Theory Y. McGregor’s theory of

people are given below:• Want to learn• Work is a natural activity• Have self discipline• Develop themselves These employees do not get motivated as much by any reward, but they

seek freedom to do difficult and challenging jobs, all by themselves.

Theory Z Abraham Maslow believes that good qualities

are inherent in people, at least at birth; although later on they are gradually lost.

Self-actualization needs

Esteem needs

Love needs

Safety needs

Physiological needsFigure 6.2 Human motivation Needs

Self-actualizing Needs• They are the greatest motivators for human

beings. He believes that human beings are always dissatisfied and they would like to achieve more and more.

Physiological Needs (Lowest)• This is the basic need for any human being. Every

human being wants to earn a living for himself and his family.

Herzberg’s TheoryFrederick Herzberg has divided the motivational aspects of

human beings into the following:

• Hygiene Theory• Motivation The hygiene theory is the minimum that every employee requires for not being

dissatisfied. without the above, the employee will get dissatisfied these are the basic needs. further efforts are needed to motivate the employees.

Hygiene Theory The hygiene factors include:

Hygiene Theory The hygiene factors include:o The company o Its policies and its administrationo The kind of supervision which people receive while on the job o Working conditions o Interpersonal relationso Salaryo Statuso Security

Motivation The motivation factors include:o Achievemento Recognition for achievemento Interest in the tasko Responsibility for enlarged tasko Growth and advancement to higher level task

Motivational techniques

• It must be realized that all that employees do not fall into one category all the time. It is possible to motivate every employee to work for the organizational goals.

Why teams

• Every organization may start initially with one person or a few people, one of them being the entrepreneur or the promoter. Personnel or added in the organization to do more work. Each person has to contribute to the business output of the organization. Each person is recruited for a specific job. As the organization grows, a formal structure is evolved to enable better management and communication. Teams are formed to fu1fill the objectives.

Management’s Role in Enabling Teamwork

• It is the responsibility of the management to foster teamwork amongst employees. It requires clear definition of the following.

Responsibility Authority Wherewithal for accomplishing the task Criteria of measurement of the work output.

Teamwork Results in a Win-Win Situation

• With proper training, the employees could be motivated to as a team. Employees should be informed about the advantages of achieving a win-win situation. They should also be informed about the disadvantages of win-lose situation in which one member wins and the other loses.

To summarize, the team can have the following benefits if they work for a win-win situation;

Achieve dramatic resu1ts , which individuals can’t Make best use of skills of each member of the team Make right decisions Get more enjoyment and job satisfaction.The problems of win-lose are summarized below; Wastes time Creates conflict Stop people listening Spoil happiness and health of the team members.

Can the Japanese Success be Repeated

• There is a lot of discussion in management circles, as to why only the Japanese can practice teamwork and not the other management of the world. Experts believe that teamwork is possible in the Japan, as there is no diversity among employees. This may be one of the reason for the success of the Japanese teams, but the major deterrent for the teamwork elsewhere is the organizational culture, for which only the top management can be blamed.

Do rewards disrupt Teamwork

• It is believed by some that rewards and awards break teamwork. However, this it is not quite true. On the contrary, reward encourage people to practice teamwork. Awards should be given to motivate the team of people, who have contributed in a greater measure.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

• Communication is a three Way ProcessImagine for a while that all people in the world are dumb and deaf. Nothing

worthwhile would have ever happened in such a world except eating, drinking and other natural biological functions. What makes the difference between the ancient human race and the modern human being , is the art of communications. Therefore , the communications should be proper, appropriate and pleasant.

In every organization, communication is a three way process for each employee, as given below.;

(i) To one, employee is working for-supervisors/managers (ii) To the person working for him-subordinates/junior employee(iii) To the person one works with, the peers, counterparts, customers and suppliers (both internal

and external)

Necessity for Communicating Upwards

• Upward communication means communication with seniors. The senior executive would have assigned specific tasks to their junior employees. In their busy schedule, they may or may not be able to check the progress in the tasks assigned.

Communication with Juniors• Every employee should communicate with juniors. The junior

employee will not have the same education, experience pr expertise as the senior. Therefore, the senior has to communicate with the junior patiently and in detail. The juniors may require repetition of the message at times. It is the responsibility of the seniors to align their juniors with the vision statement, mission statement and quality policy. Such alignment will come only out of hard work on the part of the senior and his allocating enough time for this purpose. The senior should not get agitated when the junior takes time to understand or implement.

Communication with peers

• Communication with peer is equally important. This has assumed significance since the organizations have to establish customer-supplier relationships to practice TQM.

Training and Mentoring

Necessity for Orientation Training• The employees in their formal education learn

many techniques covering wide range of topics, from basic principles to advanced topics. They learn a little bit of everything. It is the responsibility of the educational institutions to develop the overall personality of the students, so that he or she get a broad understanding of wide variety of subjects.

The orientation training should help the employees to understand the following, in particular.

(i)Objectives of the organization (ii)Requirements and expectations from his team with reference to the organization’s

objectives(iii)His role (iv)His responsibilities(v)His authority(vi)The know-how and why of the jobs to the be undertaken on day-to-day basis(vii)Familiarity and skill in operating the tools or machinery connected with the job in

hand.In addition; the employee should be assessed to see whether he has the abilities to

perform the duties straightaway or is he required to be put as an apprentice under a mentor.

Experienced Recruits Need More Orientation

• A fresh employee can be easily moulded as per the organization’s goals and objectives since they are fresh and have no biases due to prior experience. But, an experienced person will definitely bring with him different ideas and work culture from the organizations where he served earlier. If the ideas are better than the organization’s objectives and work culture, then he can become a role model in the new organization.

Training is not a One-Time Activity

• Almost all the Quality Gurus, like Philip Crosby, Edwards Deming, and Harrington have highlighter that training is not a one-time activity. In the service sector, obsolescence settles in fast. Therefore, there is a continual change in the business. This means, that the employees have to acquire the skill needed for designing, manufacturing, delivering and servicing the updated or new products or services.

There is a reluctance on the part of management to send employees for training, due to some of the following reasons:

1. Excessive workload in the organization, which does not permit sending them for training.

2. Non-availability of appropriate training courses.3. Fear of migration of employees after training. The problems could be genuine. Nevertheless,

these are to be overcome since training is an inescapable part of the main business. For instance in Japan, on an average an employee receives six weeks of training each year.

Training is a Formal Activity

• Training should be a formal activity in every organization. Senior level executives in whatever designation they are addressed, should coordinate it.

Mentoring

• The training programs discussed so far are formal in nature.

PDCA for TrainingThough training contributes to the prosperity of an organization, it also costs money. Therefore, PDCA should be used for training of employees in every organization.

Plan for Training—every employee needs training. Therefore, the training needs of every employee should be identified at regular intervals. Their training needs and the methodology should be planned and documented. It could be on the job training, training in an open course, in-house course, etc. What is important is that the training plan for each employee is available at the beginning of every year.