Total Quality Management

Employee
Involvement & Empowerment

M. Ali Hassan
alimba@live.com
What is Employee Involvement?
• It’s a way of engaging employees at all levels in
the thinking process of an organization. It’s the
recognition that many decisions can be made
better by seeking the input of those who may be
affected by them
• It’s an understanding that people at all levels in
an organization possess unique talents, skills
and creativity that can be of significant value if
allowed to be expressed
 What is empowerment?
• Empowerment is employee involvement that
matters.
• It is the controlled transfer of authority to make
decisions and take actions
• The difference between involvement and
empowerment is, just having input and having
input that is heard, considered and allowed to be
implemented.
 A TQM Tip
• Involve all personnel in virtually everything For
example, quality improvement program, self-
inspection; productivity improvement; measuring
and monitoring results; budget development;
review and adjustment; assessment of new
technology; recruitment and hiring; making
customer calls and participating in customer visit
programs.
 Why employee involvement
sometimes fail?
• Many employee involvement systems fail
within the first year.
• The reason is: they involve but do not
empower.
• Without empowerment, employee
involvement is just another management
tool that does not work.
 Case study
• James Monroe, CEO of Spiral Electronics decided to get his
employees involved as a way to improve work and enhance his
company’s competitiveness. He called his managers and
supervisors together, explained his idea, and had suggestion
boxes placed in all depts. At first the boxes filled to overflow.
Supervisors emptied them once a week, acted on any
suggestions they thought had merit and discarded the rest.
After couple of months, employee suggestions dwindled down
to one or two a month. Worse, recent suggestion forms
contained derisive remarks about the company and its
suggestion system. Productivity has not improved and morale
is worse than before. Monroe is at a loss over what to do.
Employee involvement was supposed to help, not hurt. Why did
this happen?
 Empowerment & Culture
• Successful implementation or
empowerment requires change in
corporate culture
• It’s a major new direction in how managers
think and work
• The division of labor between managers
and workers changes with empowerment
 Grazier’s Comments
• Empowerment is not something “nice” we do for our
employees to make them feel better. It’s an
understanding that it’s everyone’s obligation – part of the
job- to constantly look for better ways of doing things. It’s
part of the job to ask questions and raise issues of
concern, to get them out on the table so they can be
resolved. How else can we get better? It’s a major
change of direction in the way we lead our workforce. It’s
a change that affects the culture of the workplace as we
know it and therefore it’s a change that must be
implemented with great care and attention.
 Does Empowerment
means Abdication?
• Some traditional managers view empowerment
as turning over control of company’s authority to
employees
• Pooling ideas from all people involved in the
process will enhance rather than diminish
manger’s power.
• It will increase the likelihood of making best
possible decision and thereby more effectively
carrying out their jobs.
 Working Hard or
Working Smart
• Technology is one way to work smarter but it
can be copied.
• Creative and involved workforce is the most
effective and smartest way to work.
• While working employees observe, think, sense
and analyze. It’s natural to ask questions, such
as:
– Why is it done this way?
– How could it be done better?
– Will I or customer want the product like this?
 Empowerment & Motivation
• Empowerment is the key to motivation and
productivity. An employee who feels he is
valued and can contribute is ready to help
and grow in the job. Empowerment
enables a person to develop personally
and professionally so that his contributions
in the workplace are maximized.
 Empowerment & Participatory
Management
• Participatory Management is about managers
asking for employee’s help in problem solving
and decision making. Empowerment is about
getting employees to help themselves, their
teammates and the company. It helps
employees develop a sense of ownership of
their jobs and of the company. This leads to
greater willingness to make decisions, take risks
in an effort to improve and speak out when they
disagree.
 Obstacles to Empowerment
• Resistance from employees
– Skepticism due to past experiences
– Inertia to change
– Fear of learning and training
– Assumptions about higher expectations
 Obstacles to Empowerment
• Resistance from unions
– Adversarial relationship between organized
labor and management
– Resentment towards an idea not originated by
the union
– Concern about affects of empowerment
towards their future
Example of Florida Power & Light Corp.
 Obstacles to Empowerment
• Resistance from Managers
– Insecurity
– Personal values
– Ego
– Management training
– Personality characteristics
– Exclusion of managers
 Management’s Role
in Empowerment
• Exhibiting a supportive attitude
• Being a role model
• Being a trainer
• Being a facilitator
• Practicing MBWA
• Taking quick actions on recommendations
• Recognizing the efforts of employees
 Tools of Empowerment
• Suggestion Boxes
• Brainstorming
• Nominal Group Techniques
• Quality circles
• Walking & Talking
 Suggestion system
• Establish suggestion Policy
• Set up suggestion system
• Promote suggestion system
• Evaluate suggestions
• Implement suggestions
• Reward employees for suggestions
• Review&Improve suggestion system
 Handling Poor Suggestions
• Listen carefully
• Express appreciation
• Carefully explain your position
• Encourage feed back
• Look for compromise
 Empowerment Traps
• Defining empowerment as Discretion and
self reliance
• Failing to define the new roles of
supervisors and managers
• Assuming employees have the skills to be
empowered
• Getting impatient