THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ON TOTAL QUALITY MANGEMENT

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Overview of Total Quality Management

Recent decades have witnessed dramatic shifts in the role HR. Traditionally; managers saw the human resource function as primarily administrative and professional (Becker et.al 2001.3).HR staff focused on administering benefits and other payroll and operational functions and didn't think of themselves as playing a parting the firm's overall strategy. Efforts to measure HR's influence on the firm's performance reflected this mind-set. In the 1990s, a new emphasis on strategy and the importance of HR systems emerged. Researchers and practitioners alike began to recognize the impact of aligning those systems with the company's larger strategy implementation effort - and assessing the quality of that fit.

We are living in a time when a new economic paradigm - characterized by speed, innovation, short cycles times, quality, and customer satisfaction- is highlighting the importance of intangible assets, such as brand recognition, knowledge, innovation, and particularly human capital (Becker et al 2001:4). The most potent action HR managers can take to ensure their strategic contribution is to develop a measurement system that convincingly showcases HR's impact on business performance. To design such a measurement system, HR managers must adopt a dramatically different perspective, one that focuses on how human resources can play a central role in implementing the firm's strategy. With a properly developed strategic HR architecture, managers throughout the firm can understand exactly how people create value and how to measure the value-creation process.

There is a lot of literature on the concepts of total quality management which revolves around customer service satisfaction, continuous improvement, team work, and commitment. This concept has become more popular over the years with organizations encouraging more understanding and educating their stakeholders on its importance. Little has been studied to link Total Quality Management and Human Resource Management. Of interest is the fact that the latter plays a central role in managing people as the organization's strategic resources. These are the people who drive the business, they are the ones to implement the processes and therefore there is a need to give more focus on strategic HRM which drives the implementation of Total quality management within the organization. Team work, processes, customer satisfaction and commitment are all concepts that require people involvement in order for implementation to take place. The researcher hopes to fill in this gap of knowledge and broaden the understanding of Total Quality Management through its integration with Human Resource Management.

2.1.1 Management Approaches to Quality

When the expression "quality" is used, we usually think in terms of an excellent product or service that fulfills or exceeds our expectations (Besterfield et al 2003:7-8). These expectations are based on the intended use and the selling price. When a product surpasses our expectations we consider that quality. Thus, it is somewhat an intangible based on perception. Quality can be quantified as follows: Q=P/E; where Q=quality, P=performance and E= expectations. If Q is greater than 1.0, then the customer has a good feeling about the produce or service. Of course, the determination of P and E will most likely be based on perception with the organization determining performance and the customer determining expectations. A more definitive definition of quality is given in ISO 9000:2000. It is defined as the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements. Degree means the quality can be used with adjectives such as poor, good and excellent. Inherent is defined as existing in something, especially as a permanent characteristic. Characteristics can be quantitative or qualitative. Requirement is a need or expectation that is stated; generally implied by the organization, its customers, and other interested parties; or obligatory. Quality has nine dimensions as shown in table 1.1

1 0

Table 1.1 The Dimensions of Quality

Adapted from David A. Garvin, Managing Quality: The Strategic and Competitive Edge (New York: Free press, 1988).

Deming (1986) emphasizes that quality improvement must be driven by senior management and that with improved quality we get higher productivity, which in turn provides long-term competitiveness. Demming suggested a fourteen-point plan for managers who wanted to adopt a quality approach summarized below: (Winfield et al.2004). Organizations need a clear mission and management should be committed to it. Quality management depends on people more than anything else and people lead or are led; they are not managed (Hunt, 1993). Top leadership is essential, but quality management leaders are needed at all organizational levels. Effective leadership does not necessarily depend on your place in the organization but rather on your enthusiasm and your visible commitment to the process of continuous improvement. The senior leaders must commit to the growth and development of the entire workforce and should encourage participation and creativity by all employees. Through their regular, personal involvement in visible activities, such as planning, communications, review of the organization's quality management performance, and recognition of employee for quality management achievement, the senior leaders serve as role models reinforcing the values and encouraging leadership at all levels.

The organization needs to focus on the customer and this can only be done by removing 'them and us' attitude that often exists (Winfield et al.2004). A customer's perception of value, satisfaction and preference may be influenced by many factors in the customer's overall service experiences. These factors include the organisation's relationship with customers and whether that relationship helps build trust, confidence and loyalty (Hunt, 1993). Customer driven quality management is thus a strategic concept. It is directed toward customer retention. It demands constant sensitivity to emerging customer and market requirements, and measurement of the factors that drive customer satisfaction and retention. It also demands awareness of developments in technology, and rapid and flexible response to customer requirements. If we think someone else is going to inspect our work then we often let them do just that. This passes the responsibility onto someone else. Management must understand that the purpose of inspection is to improve the process and reduce its cost. For the most part, mass inspection is costly and unreliable. Where appropriate, it should be replaced by never-ending improvement using statistical techniques. Statistical evidence is required of self and supplier. Every effort should be made to reduce and then eliminate acceptance sampling. Mass inspection is managing for failure and defect prevention is managing for success. An organization empowers its people when it enables employees to take on more responsibility and to make use of what they know and can learn. For some positions, there is no limit to the amount of empowerment that is possible through increases in job responsibilities (Wellins & Wilson, 1991).

We need to avoid basing purchasing decisions on price alone and to look at quality as well. End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier. With reference to Besterfield et al (2003:28), the organisation must stop awarding business based on the low bid, because price has no meaning without quality. The goal is to have single suppliers for each item to develop a longterm relationship of loyalty and trust, thereby providing improved products and services. Purchasing agents must be trained in statistical process control and require it from suppliers. They must follow the materials throughout the entire life cycle in order to examine how customer expectations are affected and provide feedback to the supplier regarding the quality.

Constant incremental improvement, even though those improvements may be small, should be made based on what the customer feeds back to us. Management must take more responsibility for problems by actively finding and correcting problems so that quality and productivity are continually and permanently improved and costs are reduced. The focus is on preventing problems before they happen. Organizations can make improvements and enhance value to customers in several ways: by introducing new and improved services and products, by reducing errors, defects and wastes, by improving responsiveness and cycle time performance, by improving productivity and effectiveness in the use of all resources and by improving the organization's performance and leadership position in fulfilling its responsibilities. (Hunt, 1993).

Constant training is required so that all employees have skills and knowledge that are not limited to their own job (Winfield et al.2004). Quality management does not depend on additional people or money; rather, it relies on the availability of time for individuals and groups to pursue improvement efforts and on the availability of training and education to develop needed skills and experience in quality management improvement tools and techniques (Hunt, 1993). You must make those time and training resources available for yourself and your people; doing so is one way for you to demonstrate your commitment to the improvement effort. With training, employees develop experience in the techniques necessary to implement quality management.

Managers should encourage employees in how to do the job, rather than spend time constantly supervising them. Improving supervision is management's responsibility. Instead of focusing on a negative, fault-finding atmosphere, supervisors should create a positive, supportive one where pride in workmanship can flourish. All communication must be clear from top management to supervisors to operators. Empowerment is the process of transferring power to make decisions from management (who are often remote from the customer) to operatives so that they can use it to further the interests of the organization and increase customer satisfaction levels. It is about putting authority and responsibility in the hands of people who need these things in order to do their jobs. (Sadler, 2003:60). Empowering people at the operating level inevitably involves related changes in the roles of managers. They become less concerned with taking decisions on issues passed up to them from below, and more with developing their subordinates' ability to take such decisions soundly and to exercise good judgment. They become coaches and mentors, rather than supervisors and controllers.

Drive out Fear, Create Trust, and Create a Climate for Innovation. Management must encourage open, effective communication and teamwork. Fear is caused by a general feeling of being powerless to control important aspects of one's life (Besterfiled et al 2003:29). It is caused by a lack of job security, possible physical harm, performance appraisal, ignorance of organization goals, poor supervision, and not knowing the job. Driving fear out of the workplace involves managing for success. Management can begin by providing workers with adequate training, good supervision, and proper tools to do the job, as well as removing physical dangers. When people are treated with dignity, fear can be eliminated and people will work for the general good of the organization. In this climate, they will provide ideas for improvement.

Interdepartmental feuding needs to be reduced and the efforts of all focused on the customer (Winfield et al.2004). Management must optimize the efforts of teams, work groups, and staff areas to achieve the aims and purposes of the organization. Barriers exist internally among levels of management, among departments, within departments, and among shifts. Externally, they exist between the organization and its customers and suppliers. These barriers exist because of poor communication, ignorance of the organization's missions, competition, fear and personal grudges or jealousies. To break down the barriers, management will need a long-term perspective. All the different areas must work together. Attitudes need to be changed; communication channels opened; project teams organized; and training in teamwork implemented.

Workers are not fooled by the use of 'buzzwords' to persuade them to improve quality

(Winfield et al.2004). Exhortations that ask for increased productivity without providing specific improvement methods can handicap an organization. They do nothing but express management's desires. They do not produce a better product or service, because the workers are limited by the system. Goals should be set that are achievable and are committed to the long-term success of the organization. Improvements in the process cannot be made unless the tools and methods are available. If targets seem difficult to achieve then workers may cut corners and quality may suffer. Instead of quotas, management must learn and institute methods for improvement. Quotas and work standards focus on quantity rather than quality. They encourage poor workmanship in order to meet their quotas. Quotas should be replaced with statistical methods of process control. Management must provide and implement a strategy for never-ending improvements and work with the work force to reflect the new policies.

Managers and their workforce need to cooperate (Winfield et al.2004). When workers are proud of their work, they will grow to the fullest extent of their job. Management must give employees operational job descriptions, provide the proper tools and materials, and stress the workers' understanding of their role in the total process. By restoring pride in workmanship, everyone in the organization will be working for the common good. People need to be educated in the fullest meaning of the word not just in a job specific sense. What an organization needs is people who are improving with education (Besterfield et al 2003, 30:31). A long-term commitment to continuously train and educate people must be made by management. Everyone should be retrained on the organization requirements change to meet the changing environment. Total quality management must be fully supported by senior management, who should make the greatest efforts possible to include the entire workforce in it. Management has to accept the primary responsibility for the never-ending improvement of the process. It has to create a corporate structure to implement the philosophy. A cultural change is required from the previous "business as usual" attitude. Management must be committed, involved and accessible if the organization is to succeed in implementing the new philosophy.

2.1.2 Principles and Core Concepts of TQM

The acronym (TQM) represents three facets of organization wide quality management (Cartin, 1999:12-13). Total represents a management method that involves everyone in the organization; every function and activity and, frequently, suppliers and customers. It is a systematic approach to achieving excellence. Total involvement is recognition that every activity contributes or detracts from quality and productivity and that the people in those activities (processes) are in the best position to know what needs to be improved. After proper training, they are in the best position to introduce and manage improvements. The common methodology for doing this is by using multifunctional teams. Quality is the characteristic used to measure this management method. It reflects the focus on improvement in the operation of all activities. It requires continuously improved process output so as to be close to the ideal. This results in less variation in products and services, a more satisfied customer, lower costs and a better competitive position. Management is the actions involved in applying improvement principles and techniques. It includes both old and relatively new techniques, assembled and applied in a combination more effective than either alone. It is a scientific management method in that it relies on proved, repeatable principles and methodologies. The old management principles were to provide employees with all the instruction and training needed to do a specific job, nothing more. The principles for the 1990s and beyond are to evolve the organization to train employees in process problem solving and improvement techniques, organize them into coherent work teams, provide them with the resources and overall organization objectives, and let them manage their work and processes to meet those objectives.

TQM as defined by Mohanty, (2003) is "a pragmatic long-term systems approach initiated and driven by the top management to bring about a total change culture and interlink and integrate everyone, every function, every process and every activity of the organization through involvement, participation and cross-functional management to meet the dynamic needs of the customer and to create a loyal but at the same time a diversified customer base". From a different viewpoint, TQM is 'a total management approach to quality improvement which involves every employee, as well as internal and external operating practices and customer-supplier relations (Sadler, 2003:64).

The Oakland's (1989,1990) model (fig 1) of TQM defines TQM as a pyramid representing five distinct components as a management commitment, customer supplier chain, quality systems, tools & teamwork. The management commitment component of the model identifies the role of senior management team in leading and introducing the change. Their commitment has to be reflected by the levels of investment in the required area and the amount of risk taken for the achievement of success. Customer supplier chain is at the heart of the Oakland pyramid. It reflects process ownership, process management and process improvement propelled throughout the chain. The model identifies that a good quality management system, statistical process control and team work are the essential requirements for identifying and meeting the customer needs.

Fig 1 The Oakland Model of TQM

Total quality management encompasses a set of four principles and eight core concepts as shown below:

Adapted from Rao, P.S (2005)

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Delight the Customer: The focus is on the external customer. Delight means being best at what is really important to the customer. Making the continuous changes to satisfy the customer is an integral part of TQM. The second principle is Management by Fact: The management should know the quality of the product or service that the customer is presently using. The quality level is used as bench mark to improve it further. Management gathers the facts about the present level and provides this information to the employees to all levels to make the decisions based on the facts. These facts are an essential aspect of continuous improvement.

People-based Management: There principle here is that should make the employees understand what to do, how to do it, get the feedback about their performance. The people should also be encouraged to assume responsibility for the quality of their work. People can be more committed to the customer satisfaction, if they are involved more. The quality is heavily influenced by the continuous involvement of the people rather than by the systems, standards and technology. The fourth principle per Rao's model is Total Quality Management is continuous process: It is a management and a long-term process. TQM is a continuous improvement based on the incremental change. The term 'Kaizen' has been borrowed from the Japanese to refer to the process of seeking gradual, incremental change (Sadler, 2003:64). The TQM system usually also involves use of statistical quality-control techniques to provide simple and straightforward ways of monitoring quality on an ongoing basis. An important organizational feature of TQM is the use of Kaizen teams - groups of workers using problem-solving techniques to secure continuous improvement in their areas of operation.

Core Concepts for Improvement

Customer Satisfaction: Companies should understand the importance of the external customers as the external customer is the main source of income. Companies should identify the changing needs of the customers from time to time; find out the factors which satisfy them and which cause grief to them. More and more organizations are setting up sophisticated and systematic procedures for tracking customer satisfaction levels (Sadler, 2003:61). The two main methods are the use of questionnaires and 'onthe-spot' interviews of the kind conducted in shopping malls and airports. It is now recognized that meeting customer needs is the foundation of any successful organization, and that the customers come first, second and third in organizational priorities (Hannagan, 2002:70). Customers have, of course, always been important; what has changed is the priority given to them and the urgency with which their needs are considered. It can be argued that customer service is now the only factor which distinguishes one organization from another in the same business. At the same time, the customers have changed, they have become more and more demanding and they have more choice. It is these changes which have made imperative a change in the role of managers. For most organizations their customers' perceptions are formed by contact with people representing the organization. In order to provide excellent service, these representatives have to have the power to make decision without constantly conferring with a line manager. Employees have become responsible for a range of decisions which would have previously required management approval.

Internal Customers are real: internal customers are as important as the external customers as they continuously influence the quality maintenance. They also influence speed, efficiency, perfectness and cost. The more satisfied worked are with their jobs, the better the company is likely to perform in terms of subsequent profitability and particularly productivity (Hannagan, 2002:275). A culture of concern for employee welfare is by far and away one of the most striking predictors of increased performance. All work is a business process: Business process is a "combination of methods, materials, manpower and machines that taken together produce a product or service. Many firms today are reengineering their work processes in order to compete better, faster and more efficiently in a global market place (Demming, 1986). Business Process reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed. Business process re-engineering (BPR) involves a fundamental examination and redesign of the processes of a business, with particular emphasis on those which are cross-functional in nature and which have an impact on the business' competitiveness, including its ability to deliver customer satisfaction (Sadler, 2003:69). BPR is concerned with the strategic impact of processes, rather than with achieving marginal increments in productivity.

Measurement: Measurement of present level of quality is more important in order to determine the future quality level. Internal quality measurement of products are: Breach of promise, Performance standards, Reject level, Accidents, process in control, Yield scarp, Time cost due to availability raw materials, Number of changes to works order and Cost of quality. Team work: People work together in teams to accomplish the most difficult goals. People work in teams to maintain and improve quality. Team work enables the people to work from a cross-functional approach. Teamwork is the engine that drives many improvement efforts. Creating teams allows you to apply diverse skills and experience to your processes and problem solving (Hunt, 1993). Teams provide an underlying basis of experience and history for your improvement effort and are a vehicle through which you allow all individuals to participate in that effort. Not only must individual cooperate within teams, the teams must cooperate throughout the organization. An atmosphere of teamwork should permeate your organization, affecting not only formal team efforts but also each individual's interaction in the organization. Often, encouraging team work involves teaching people who already work together to consciously act as a team. The best known and most often used set of team roles has been developed by Belbin (1981). He showed that people contribute to teams in some combination of three modes. The first is by contributing ideas, the second is by being supportive and effective in interpersonal relationships and the third is by focusing on the task and its implementation. He identified nine roles as Plant, Shaper, Resource investigator, Coordinator, Team worker, Implementer, Specialist, Monitor/evaluator and Completer/finisher.

People Make Quality: Mostly organizational efforts influence the quality. Organizational efforts influence the individuals and teams in the organization to commit to the quality. Contented and hardworking employees are more likely to produce excellent work that genuinely adds value to the enterprise (Graham & Bennet, 1998). The stability of a company that possesses sound employee relations will encourage outside investors to buy shares in the business, so that it becomes easier for the company to raise funds. Continuous Improvement Cycle: Identifying the present quality standards, establishing the customer needs, establishing the ways and means to produce the product or render services to meet the customer needs, measuring the success and improving the quality continuously are the parts of the continuous improvement cycle. Hunt, (1993) views continuous process improvement as the basis of quality management. The only true measure of your performance over time is the degree of process improvement you effect. The term continuous improvement refers to both incremental and breakthrough improvement. A focus on improvement needs to be part of all operations and of all work unit activities of an organization.

Organizations can make improvements and enhance value to customers in several ways: by introducing new and improved services and products, by reducing errors, defects and wastes, by improving responsiveness and cycle time performance, by improving productivity and effectiveness in the use of all resources and by improving the organization's performance and leadership position in fulfilling its responsibilities. Prevention: Preventing the failures to occur is the central system of total quality management. Foreseeing the possible failures and take steps in advance to prevent them from occurrence. Feeding information forward helps to prevent the failures. This process helps for the creation of the culture for continuous improvement. Total quality management impinges on every function in an organisation and will include marketing, product design, human resource development, financial resourcing, site and building and estates management, and so on (Hannagan,2002:188-189). The cultural change required in most organization in order to introduce and maintain TQM has to be led by senior managers. They need to be aware of and understand the principles and practices of total quality and be prepared to support it at every level. Particularly important is the need to ensure monitoring, measurement and evaluation of progress in all functions, against identified and if possible quantified needs and specifications. TQM is implemented at the top of an organization first because it is at this level that change can be initiated. Top managers require skills to enable them to change the way they work, so they can practice and promote quality management and then help others to acquire the necessary techniques and understanding.

2.2 The Role of HRM in Implementing TQM

Quality programs rely so heavily on well-trained, committed employees that it's hard to separate the two. For example, in one study of 66 small medium-sized manufacturing firms, a total quality management program was most effective when supported by significant training and a group-based incentive plan (Demming, 1982).

High Performance Insight: a friendly phone staff is key to customer service and that friendliness doesn't just happen. It's the end result of extensive screening and training. It's no wonder companies are investing heavily on training for their employees to bring the up to speed with the market requirements.

Human Resource & Six Sigma: According to James Harrington, "Six Sigma was simply a TQM process that uses process capability analysis as a way of measuring progress." (Besterfield et al 2003:146). Sigma is the Greek symbol, a, for the statistical measurement of dispersion called standard deviation. It is the best measurement of process variability, because the smaller the deviation value, the less variability in the process. Six Sigma quality control consists of a disciplined, statistics-based system aimed at producing nor more than 3.4 defects per million iterations for any business process- from manufacturing to customer transactions (Thomson Jr et al, 2006:351). The Six Sigma process of define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) is an improvement system for existing processes falling below specification and needing incremental improvement. The Six Sigma process of define, measure, analyze, design, and verify (DMADV) is an improvement system used to develop new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels. Both Six Sigma processes are executed by personnel who have earned Six Sigma "green belts" and Six Sigma "black belts" and are overseen by personnel who have completed Six Sigma "master black belt" training. According the Six Sigma Academy, personnel with black belts can save companies approximately $230,000 per project and can complete four to six projects a year.

The statistical thinking underlying Six Sigma is based on the following three principles:

All work is a process, all processes have variability, and all processes create data that explains variability. Six Sigma is not just a quality-enhancing tool for manufacturers. At one company, product sales personnel typically wined and dined customers to close their deals. Bu the costs of such entertaining were viewed as excessively high in many instances. A Six Sigma project that examined sales data found that although face time with customers was important, wining, dining and other types of entertainment were not.

The data showed that regular face time helped close sales, but that time could be spent over a cup of coffee instead of golfing at a resort or taking clients to expensive restaurants. In addition, analysis showed that too much face time with customers was counterproductive. The point here is that Six Sigma can be a valuable and potent management tool for achieving operating excellence in both manufacturing and non manufacturing situations. (Thomson Jr et al, 2006:353-354)

Achieving six sigma qualities can be an intense experience. HR methods play a central role in six-sigma programs. For one thing, training is crucial. A common practice is to start with top managers and to train them to be "six-sigma black belts". Then the firm trains its other employees. In addition, "performance needs to be measured and reviewed against goals, achievements recognized and celebrated, and rewards and compensation linked to employee participation and progress". These are all HR processes.

Human Resource & Baldrige Awards: HR also plays a central role in winning Baldrige

Awards. A board of quality experts evaluates all applicants. Evaluating the applicant's

HR systems play an important role in this process. Examiners focus on the extent to which the firm uses HR and related techniques (such as employee empowerment, training, and career development) to tap each employee's potential. Another process is

HR & Employee Involvement Programs: An employee involvement program is any formal program that lets employees participate in formulating important work decisions or in supervising all or part of their own work activities. Managers rank such programs as their biggest productivity boosters. Teams are an obvious example of employee involvement, but they're not the only way to get workers involved.

Employee involvement as outlined in Besterfield et al (2003:121), improves quality and increases productivity because; employees make better decisions using their expert knowledge of the process, employees are more likely to implement and support decisions they had a part in making, employees are better able to spot and pinpoint areas for improvement, employees are better able to take immediate corrective action, employee involvement reduces labor/management friction by encouraging more effective communication and cooperation, employee involvement increases morale by creating a feeling of belonging to the organization, employees are better able to accept change because they control the work environment and they have an increased commitment to unit goals because they are involved

HR & Business Process Reengineering: Many firms today are reengineering their work processes in order to compete better, faster and more efficiently in a global market place. Business Process reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed. According to Decenzo (2003:17), the problem with a focus on continuous improvements is that it may provide a false sense of security. It may make organizational members feel as if they are actively doing something positive, which is somewhat true. Unfortunately, ongoing incremental change may prevent a company from facing up to the possibility that what the organization may really need is a radical or quantum change, referred to as work process reengineering. Continuous change may also make employees feel as if they are taking progressive actions while, at the same time, avoiding having to implement quantum changes that will threaten certain aspects of organizational life. It is imperative in today's business environment that all organizational members consider the challenge that work process engineering may have for their organizational processes. Why? Because work process engineering can lead to "major gains in cost, service, or time," as well as assist an organization in preparing to meet the challenges technology changes foster.

Decenzo (2003:17) further argues that if we accept the premise that work process engineering will change how we do business, it stands to reason that our employees will be directly affected. As such, generating the gains that work process engineering offers will not occur unless we address the people issues. First of all, work process engineering may have left employees, at least the survivors, confused and angry. Although a preferred method of "change" would have been to involve employees throughout the process, we need to recognize that work process engineering may have left some of our employees frustrated and unsure of what to expect. Accordingly, HRM must have mechanisms in place for employees to get appropriate answers and direction for what to expect- as well as assistance in dealing with the conflict that may permeate the organization.

Although the emotional aspect is difficult to resolve, for work process engineering to generate its benefits, HRM needs to train its employee population. Whether it's a new process, a technology enhancement, working in teams, or having more decision-making authority, our employees are going to need new skills. Consequently, HRM must be in a position to offer the skills training that is necessary in the "new" organization. Even the best process will fail if employees do not have the requisite skills to perform as the process task dictates. Another one is Building commitment: HR play a crucial role in implementing reengineering efforts. A key to reengineering is winning people's commitment to the organizational changes and to what those changes mean. HR can play a big role here - for instance, by hiring competent employees, by providing the right incentives, and by installing effective two-way communication practices.

Building teams: Business Process reengineering generally means switching from functional departments to process-oriented teams. Hr plays a role in making such teams effective, for instance by hiring carefully selected "team players" and providing the required training. Finally we have Redesigning Compensation: reengineering also has significant compensation implications. A reengineered job is most likely to be rated higher suggesting that pay would have to rise as well. To get employees' sustained, energetic commitment, management has to be resourceful in designing and using motivational incentives - both monetary and non-monetary (Thomson Jr et al 2006:359). Financial incentives generally head the list of motivating tools for trying to gain wholehearted employee commitment to good strategy execution and operating excellence. Monetary rewards generally include some combinations of base pay increases, performance bonuses, profit sharing plans, stock awards, company contributions to employee or retirement plans, and piecework incentives (in case of production workers). But successful companies and managers normally make extensive use of such nonmonetary carrot-and-stick incentives as frequent words of praise, special recognition at company gatherings or in the company newsletter, more job security and stimulating assignments.

Guidelines for Designing Incentive Compensation Systems

Thomson Jr et al (2006:364-365) identified the several guidelines for creating incentive compensation system to help drive successful strategy execution. The performance payoff must be a major, not minor, piece of the total compensation package; The incentive plan should extend to all managers and all workers, not just top management; The reward system must be administered with scrupulous care and fairness; The incentives should be based only on achieving performance targets spelled out in the strategic plan; The performance targets each individual is expected to achieve should involve outcomes that the individual can personally affect; Keep the time between the performance review and payment of the reward short; Make liberal use of nonmonetary rewards; don't rely solely on monetary rewards; Absolutely avoid skirting the system to find ways to reward effort rather than results.

Redesigning the work itself: with reengineering, jobs generally change from specialized tasks to multitask, enriched, generalist work. Each worker becomes responsible for a broader, more enriched job. And the employees must "share joint responsibility with team embers for performing the whole process, not just a small piece of it". Each worker needs to be capable of using a much broader range of skills from day to day. HR drafts the new job descriptions and training programs and selects high potential employees.

Moving from controlled to Empowered Jobs: selecting and training employees for reengineered jobs is a special challenge, "reengineered employees are empowered to perform a broad set of task with relatively little supervision. This means that in selecting employees, values play a bigger role. The TQM approach brought changes in the attitudes and expectations of the managers about the roles of human resource managers. Further, the expectation of stakeholders about the HRM profession has also been changing. Traditionally, objectives of the business organizations were restricted to productivity and profits (Mohanty, 2003). Consequently, stakeholders particularly the customers and employees were given low priority. Workers' participation in management programs were limited to offering suggestions by employees. Training and development programs were limited to job related activities rather than extending the employee capacities. The business objectives and total quality HRM approach are to maximize customer satisfaction, and market share through improved quality. Total quality management requires the introduction and acceptance of an individual, group and organizational change throughout a company's operations; a complete change in the way a business is managed. To make and sustain the necessary changes in the company culture and at the same time run day-to-day business operations is a difficult task and thus Human Resources has a role to play. Individual change is the basis for all change. The Human Resource function must make efforts to ensure that the employees understand that through a process of continuous quality improvement, decision-making, suggestions, initiatives, communications and presentation skills improve.

How HRM Support Improvement Programs: Human resource management play an important role in the implementation of continuous improvement programs. Whenever an organization embarks on any improvement effort, it is introducing change into the organization. As such, organization development efforts dominate. (Decenzo, 2003:17) Specifically, HRM must prepare individuals for the change. This requires clear and extensive communication of why the change will occur, what is to be expected, and the effects it will have on employees. Improvement efforts may result in changes in work patters, changes in operations, and even changes in reporting relationships. HRM must avail itself to help the affected employees overcome barriers that may result in resistance to the change. That is, the fear dimension that is often associated with change must be overcome. Looking for better ways of working often results in new ways of doing things. Consequently, HRM must be prepared to train employees in these new processes and help them to attain new skill levels that may be associated with the "new,

improved" operations.

2.3 Total Quality Human Resource Management (TQHRM)

Total quality human resources management (TQHRM) is "an approach to human resources management that involves many of the concepts of quality management." (Vandenvor- Internet source) The primary goal of TQHRM is employee empowerment. Empowerment requires the alignment, authority, capability, and commitment of employees. In order to achieve these goals, Juran (1999) has identified several steps that must be taken to achieve each goal. The first step is alignment which realized if employees know the needs of customers and stakeholders and are be prepared to contribute effort to organization strategies, goals, objectives, and plans. Second is authority; in order for employees to the have the authority and opportunity to contribute to the organization, several conditions have to be met. Individual authority, responsibility, and capability need be consistent while barriers to successful exercise of authority have been removed. Additionally, to achieve empowerment, employee capability can be developed through organizational training initiatives and educational development. Finally, an organization must earn the commitment of employees through reinforcement, recognition and rewards.

Trends like globalization and increased competition have placed HR front and center in most firm's strategic planning efforts (Dessler 2005). For example, we will see that HR managers today are more involved in partnering with their top managers in both designing and implementing their companies' strategies. Today's emphasis on gaining competitive advantage through people makes input from the department that helps to screen, train, appraise and reward employees too important to ignore when the company is reviewing its strategic options. Today's focus on competitiveness and operational improvements also mean that all managers -including HR- must be much more adept at expressing their departmental plans and accomplishments in measureable terms.

Every successful company has one or more competitive advantages around which it builds its competitive strategy. Today, most companies have access to the same technologies, so technology itself is rarely enough to set a firm apart. It's usually the people and the management system that make the difference. Increasingly, it is being recognized that competitive advantage can be obtained with a high quality workforce that enables organizations to compete on the basis of market responsiveness, produce and service quality, differentiated products, and technological innovation. (Dessler,

2005). Total quality human resource approach requires: organization around process (instead of tasks), flatten hierarchies, use of teams to manage everything, let customer

satisfaction drive output, reward team results, maximize supplier and customer contact and inform and train all employees.

2.4 Human Resource Management Tools for TQM

Several HRM tools used to promote total quality management will be discussed below.

University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Limited will be used as case study and examples will be given based on existing practices within the organization. The examples given will show how organizations can contribute to total quality management throughout the organization with HR as the central driver of the implementation of TQM concepts.

Performance Management

The increasing use by employers of performance management reflects several things. It reflects, first, the popularity of the total quality management (TQM) concepts advocated several years ago by management experts like W. Edwards Deming. (Dessler 2005). Basically, Deming argued that an employee's performance is more a function of things like training, communication, tools, and supervision than of his or her own motivation. Performance management's emphasis on the integrated nature of goal setting, appraisals and development reflects this assumption. Performance management as a process also explicitly recognizes that in today's globally competitive industrial environment, every employee's efforts must focus like a laser on helping the company to achieve its strategic goals. In that regard, adopting an integrated, performance management approach to guiding, developing, and appraising employees also aids the employer's continuous improvement efforts. Continuous improvement refers to a management philosophy that requires employers to continuously set and relentlessly meet ever-higher quality, cost, delivery, and availability goals. Central to this philosophy is the ideas that each employee must continuously improve his or her own personal performance, from one appraisal method to the next. Performance management is crucial to this process, because, it consolidates goal setting, performance appraisal, and development into a single, common system, the aim of which is to ensure that the

employee's performance is supporting the company's (continuous improvement) strategic aims.

According to Hannagan (2002:229), the term 'performance management' means different practices to different managers, but usually includes the following elements: The organization has a shared vision of its objectives, or a mission statement or corporate objectives, which it communicate to its employees. Individual performance management targets are set which are related to the organizational objectives; A regular, formal review is carried out to monitor progress toward these objectives; The review process is used to identify training needs, career development and possible rewards and The effectiveness of the whole process is evaluated against the overall performance of the organization.

There is usually a strong emphasis on objective setting and formal appraisal and there is often a sequence of steps in the performance management cycle. These steps include; agreement on the job description, establishing priorities, arriving at objectives, setting a time horizon and reviewing and monitoring. This process results in the assessment of the individual's performance, and in 'coaching' in the sense of identifying means of improving performance through training and development and establishing career progression. Performance management can be defined as a method of improving business performance by focusing on key areas of activity.

Modern performance management places a very high emphasis on participation and on

'coaching' at all levels. The emphasis is on progression and development rather than measurement and control. Increasingly, it is seen as s fundamental support for total quality management (Hannagan, 2002:230). In operating a performance management system, managers will start appraising themselves. This process begins with outlining the main tasks of the post and from this establishing a description of the job. This job description can then be agreed with a managers' immediate boss, that is the line manager (Hannagan 2002:232). The next stage is to agree on the main priorities of the job in particular time periods, say three months, six months and a year. The line manager will need to make sure that this fits with company objectives. Then the manager's objectives can be arrived at, again by agreement, which is essential if the manager is to feel responsible for achieving the objectives. The objectives agreed by managers will take the form of actions to be completed within a certain period. They will be reviewed from time to time and may be altered in the light of changing circumstances by agreement between the manager and line manager. The process is not one of appraising for weakness, but analyzing the situation. If the manager and the boss agree on an area for improvement, then this may be able to be helped through training. The whole emphasis of this approach is on the future, not on the past. It is all about performance and help, or 'coaching' to achieve good performance. The performance management system provides leverage points for integration with total quality management by encouraging policies, procedures and values which promote performance and ongoing activities based on a set of skills which facilitate high

performance.

Fig. 2 Performance management cycle

Agreeing Objective Results discussed

Performance determined

Strengths

Areas of

Training development

Coaching Agreed action plan

Adapted from Hannagan (2002:232) in Management Concepts and Practices

As a basis for continuous improvement, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Limited carry out their performance appraisals twice a year. Performance objectives are set by each employee with the help of their line manager using the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Time bound) model. The Mid Year reviews are conducted around June/July of each year where employees sit with their managers to review their set objectives. Usually during this time, realignment of the objectives is done where need be, a check on work load balance is also done to see if employee is able to perform their normal duties as well as meet their yearly targets. The individual makes a self assessment and the line manager does the same against each of the employee's objectives. A final end of year review is conducted in January and on the basis of the employee's performance, a development program is drawn and bonus payout is determined based on the performance rating. The performance rating is given as follows:

0 - 75% = Partially performing

75- 125% = Performing

125-200% = Excelling

Based on these ratings employees are rewarded accordingly. The payout is consistently done in April of each year after completion of the performance appraisal. This is key in motivating employees as they feel their efforts will be rewarded.

Feedback is a key aspect within the performance management process; managers must ensure they meet with their staff to explain the employee's overall rating and work with them in generating their own development plans. Another tool used by U.I.T.H to collect feedback is the 360 degree Survey. This is an evaluation tool that involves collecting feedback not only from the supervisor, but from peers, direct reports, customers and others to provide a more complete picture of the employee's performance. The HR department does the administration of the process and the results of the survey are sent separately to each individual. The employees are encouraged to share their results with their line mangers and draw up improvement plans. The HR department separately compiles the departmental (team) results and these are shared during the monthly staff meetings. The teams are comprised of 4 departments; Finance &Admin, Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain. They sit in 'talking circles' during the staff meetings and discuss their results and at the end they prepare improvement plans which they present to the rest of the group. U.I.T.H initially adapted this tool for improvement purpose only and would adapt the tool later on for appraisal once the employees had a clear appreciation of the process. The feedback from staff is that they are more open and able to assist each other improve.

Rewards & Recognition

The distinction between rewards and recognition is that rewards are usually monetary, while recognition is an action or activity and is nonmonetary. (George 1994). Examples of rewards are bonuses, cash awards, trips, and merchandise. Examples of recognition are company awards, department or team awards and special events, individual awards and personal thank you's. In Besterfield et al (2003:113), recognition is a form of employee motivation in which the organization publicly acknowledges the positive contributions an individual or team has made to the success of the organization. This acknowledgment is delivered using verbal and written praise and may include symbolic items such as certificates and plaques. Reward is something tangible such as theater tickets, dinner for two, or a cash award to promote desirable behaviour. Recognition and reward go together to form a system for letting people know they are valuable members of the organization.

Most managers and supervisors believe that pay is a prime motivator of performance; research and surveys of employees suggest it is not. (George, 1994). Traditionalists scoff at the need for pats on the back and thank-you's, pointing out that people are paid well to do well. Surveys of employees and the experiences of a few companies, however, suggest that day-to-day recognition is a powerful motivator. Management way to show appreciation to employees (teams) for their contribution to quality improvement and to cost reduction. Very strong elements of recognition are public presentation made at team meetings, conferences, management meetings etc. these presentations normally consist of describing the work carried out by the teams, followed by a handshake, congratulations and small gift from a high ranking manager (Demming, 1986). Some companies use their internal communications system (e.g. company's magazine) in order to announce, together with a photograph, the names of employees worthy of recognition. Documentation illustrating teams activities can also be displayed in areas of the plant or offices where numbers of employees normally get together.

Employees should be involved in the planning and implementation of the recognition and reward program (Besterfield et al, 2003:114). This activity should be performed by a cross-functional team that represent all areas of the organization. Systems that are developed with employee involvement will most likely succeed. It should be fully understood by the employees and reviewed periodically in order to continuously improve the system and because priorities-either the employee's or the organizations may change. In addition, the system should be simple. Employees should be involved with the manager and sometimes the customer and supplier in the nomination and selection of the individuals and teams to be recognized and rewarded. The system should be so developed that monetary reward is not a substitute for compensation. While the reward may be delayed until an appropriate time, the recognition should be on a timely basis. Rewards should be appropriate to the improvement level - the greater the improvement, the greater the reward.

Reward and Recognition at U.I.T.H

U.I.T.H has several ways in which they reward and recognize their employees. Employee of the Quarter/Year: One way the U.I.T.H recognizes employee efforts is through the employee of the quarter and year awards. The nomination criteria is based on U.I.T.H's leadership model and values. This approach is used to recognize employees who have done exemplary well within the quarter and selection is done across all departments. The winner of the quarter gets a prize worth Ksh 25,000, a certificate and their photo is framed and placed at the reception until the next quarter. The Employee of the year gets the double the amount. This not only motivates others to work hard but also makes employees see that the organization recognizes their efforts. Moreover a culture of performance is created and employees learn to support and appreciate each other's efforts.

Christmas shopping vouchers: Every year as the company's sales increase, management appreciates each employee's efforts by giving Christmas shopping vouchers of an equal amount to all employees irrespective of position. This is because U.I.T.H recognizes that the success of the company is as a result of team commitment and contribution. At U.I.T.H they have developed a culture of appreciating employee's efforts in the simplest ways. A thank you from your supervisor goes along way in boosting an employee's morale. Teams are also encouraged to go out and celebrate their own success as a team for instance after completion of a major project.

Recognition of personal achievements: U.I.T.H also has a culture of celebrating each other's achievements as one of their core values. If an employee graduates from college and excels in a major project, they usually appear on the internal magazines with the line manager giving them compliments. This creates a spirit of the employee being appreciated even on non work related issues. It means the organization is concerned about their personal development as well as achievements. Staff birthdays are equally celebrated by the team every month.

Training

Training used to focus mostly on teaching technical skills, such as training assemblers to solder wires or teachers to prepare lesson plans. Today, such technical training is no longer sufficient. Training has to make sense in terms of the company's strategic goals. A strategy to improve customer service implies the need for customer service training.

In today's business management, a company is obligated to train its employees, to provide them with the intellectual arsenal they need to work in teams, collect and analyze data, initiate improvements, satisfy customer and assume all other responsibilities that come with empowerment and involvement. (George 1994). Continuous improvement is possible only with the continuous and effective training of all employees at all levels.

According to Deming (1986), when an individual has brought his work to a state of statistical control, whether he was trained well or badly is in a rut. He has completed his learning of that particular job. It is not economical to try to provide further training of the same kind. He may nevertheless, with good training, learn very well some other kind of job. It is obviously of the utmost importance to train new people, when they come on to

a job, to do the job well. Once the learning curve levels off, a control chart will indicate where and when a person has reached the state of statistical control. In a state of chaos (poor supervision, bad management), it is impossible for anyone in the organization to develop his potential ability and capacity for uniformity or for quality.

In today's business environment, employees are the most important asset in the quest to achieving competitive advantage. Consequently, retaining and motivating employees through training is an essential element of any management programme. (Anami L.: Standard Newspaper, 26/09/08). An elaborate training programme not only contributes to the development of a firm's skill bank but also instills confidence in employees. Training helps in optimizing utilization of human resource and achievement of organizational goals. Human resource experts say organizations that offer training attract quality employees and motivate them to increase their performance. Training reduces employee turnover as people choose to work with organizations that facilitate professional development. Most employees are likely to stay longer in organizations that provide opportunities for development. (Anami, L: Standard Newspaper, 26/09/08)

The key to effective training is to truly understand your employees' and your company's training needs. U.I.T.H conducts a capability assessment for their employees with respect to the roles they are performing. Each departmental head sits with their teams to identify areas of strength and weaknesses. Based on the outcome, each employee is given a priority area for training. The HR department draws a training calendar for all the employees and sources the best trainers for the specific courses. These usually include; customer service training, Selling skills, computer skills, product knowledge among others. The training is usually either internal or external; for U.I.T.H specific courses such as crop protection products, the training is conducted internally. Customers are key to the success of the business; for this reason every employee in U.I.T.H usually undertakes a Customer service training course in order for all to understand the need to satisfy the customer and achieve organizational overall objective. The skills audit process also helps to identify employees with extra skills that can be utilized across other departments; this is usually useful in job sharing and job rotation.

Employee Participation

There is an enormous range of employee involvement schemes, varying from those that are informational mechanisms to full-blown democratic systems where employees have as much say in the decision-making processes as does management (Beardwell et al 2004:548). This makes an all encompassing definition problematic. In addition, different labels have been attached to these processes, such as employee or worker participation, industrial democracy, organizational communications, co-determination, and employee influence, each of which has its own definitions.

Employee involvement is a long-term commitment, a new way of doing business, a fundamental change in culture. Employees who have been trained, empowered, and recognized for their achievements see their jobs and their companies from a different perspective. They 'own' the company, in the sense that they feel personally responsible for its performance. Having the support and attention of senior management remains a necessary condition for making TQM work in an organization, but without empowered employees it won't go very far. (Stoner 1995).Empowerment means letting employees make decisions at all levels of an organization without asking for approval from managers. An organization's success in meeting its quality and performance objectives depends increasingly on workforce quality and involvement (Hunt, 1993). The close link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction creates a "shared fate" relationship between organizations and employees. For this reason, employeesatisfaction measurement provides an important indicator of the organization's efforts to improve customer satisfaction and operating performance. Hunt (1993) further emphasizes the need for organizations to invest in the development of the workforce and to seek new avenues to involve employees in problem solving and decisions making. Factors that ear upon the safety, health, well-being, and moral of employees need to be part to the organization's continuous improvement objectives. Increasingly, training and participation need to be tailored to a more diverse work force and to more flexible work organizations.

It has recently become evident that work-force participation can also add significantly to companies' quality performance (Juran, 1989). However, certain prerequisites must be met if the participation concept is to become effective on a continuing basis. Upper management must undergo the training needed to understand and support the objectives of the participation concepts: to develop people by using their education, experience and creativity to improve company operations. Juran also adds that other members of the management team must accept the concept of participation, realizing that in doing so they will be delegating to the work force some activities that have in the past been regarded as "management prerogatives". These same members undergo sufficient training in quality matters to be able to understand what is being offered to the work force. In addition, the first line of supervision must undergo minimally the same training program as will be offered to the workforce.

University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Ltd promotes employee involvement in various ways. Staff

Meetings (coffee mornings): the employees hold Coffee morning meetings on monthly basis to share on projects, discuss general issues and make presentations on ongoing activities within the organization. The general set up of these meetings is usually in form of 'talking circles' i.e. employees sit in about 4 to 5 groups in circles. For every coffee meeting one of the agenda in the meeting is to present on "My Job" and another on a 'U.I.T.H product". When people are working they sometimes get engrossed in their own jobs that they hardly know what their colleague does on day to day basis. It is from this background that they found it necessary to have sessions where people share their roles within the organization; this also helps others understand better the part one is playing within the organization. There is always a misconception especially for the sales reps since they are always out in the field, people may often think they go to run their own errands and not work. It therefore helps to share our job roles in teams. Secondly, information on U.I.T.H products helps all employees appreciate the kind of business they are operating in especially on crop protection. In other words, it helps employees across other departments to have a broader understanding of what the agribusiness is all about. As earlier on mentioned, it is during such meetings that employees get to share ideas and also work on their improvement plans such as those on 360 degree

surveys. This kind of activity has greatly opened up the employees to freely share and give ideas for improvement and encourage innovation. Notably, key business issues such as the strategic agenda and the companies ambitions are discussed and employees have a chance to make contributions and changes and they deem right.

Team building: another important activity is the team buildings which are usually organized once or twice a year. This helps in encouraging team spirit and employees get to participate in informal activities out of the usual official set up. Again this is an opportunity where the team remind themselves of the need to support each other and also understand their roles as well as live the values of the organization.

Working Teams

Cross functional teams: A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of professional goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. (Reilly, 1999). An organization must perform a certain set of tasks. The traditional way of structuring the organization "to solve this problem" has been to divide these tasks between different department. This way, each department has assumed responsibility for a defined portion of the total set of tasks. The department members have been trained and specialized to solve these tasks. This is readily apparent in normal organization charts, where department like fiance, personnel and procurement can be found. As soon as people are placed in boxes in an organization chart, it seems as if the lines of the boxes become solid boundaries within which they should stay (Reilly, 1999). Communication across these boundaries is limited and a member of a department will only perform tasks that naturally belong to the parent department's area of responsibility.

A cross functional team is a group consisting of members from different functional departments or areas of responsibility and often also from different hierarchical levels. The purpose of the team is to solve problems involving several of the organization's functions. (Andersen, 1999). In his book, Andersen identifies three different ways of forming cross functional teams. Firstly, to exist on a permanent basis, where the entire organization is simply changed to consist of a number of cross-functional teams instead

of specialized departments. Secondly, on an ad hoc basis, where a team is formed to solve or investigate a specific problem and thereafter is dissolved. This is actually a special variant of the cross-functional teams called problem-solving teams. Finally, a cross functional team can be formed as a combination of the above two, where the team is permanent and its members mainly function within their departments, but from time to time meet within the team. This way, the team will consist of a long period of time and constantly find new cross functional problems or improvement areas to attack. Cross functional teams operate under certain rules: The normal and recommended size of such teams is between four and eight people. For cross functional teams, meetings are held only where there is 100% attendance usually during regular working hours. Before the team is established, management must agree to follow up on any recommendations made by the team, subject to realistic budgetary constraints.

Problem-Solving Teams: Cross-functional teams are usually established to find and solve many problems over a long period of time. A problem-solving team, however, is a temporary special variant established to attack a particular problem. In this respect, it can be defined as a temporary team formed to solve a predefined problem and is composed of members from areas affected by this problem.(Andersen, 1999). The same rules described for cross-functional teams apply to this type of team. The advantages of establishing such a team to handle problems and improvement projects linked to system faults are multiple: A specific and collective responsibility for the problem is defined and by avoiding everyone affected by the problem in the team, it ensures coherent solutions acceptable to everyone are arrived at. Also, as the work is carried out in parallel or simultaneously in a cross-functional team, not sequentially in each department, the process is usually relatively quick. Finally the organizational culture and the work climate are usually improved. (Reilly,1999).

Quality Circles

A quality circle is a group of people from the same work area who under guidance of a circle leader voluntarily participate in regular meetings during normal working hours to identify, analyse and solve problems within their own work area and present suggestions for solutions with cost estimates to a person authorized to decide on implementation. (Andersen, 1999:174). Juran (1992) defines a quality circle as a volunteer group of workers who have undergone training for the purpose of solving work-related problems. Many of these circles have tackled projects to replan departmental processes. These projects have demonstrated that most workers have the education, job knowledge, and creativity to be able to contribute to quality planning if the opportunity is provided.

The objectives of quality circles are obviously to strengthen the competitiveness of the organization through creating improvements and at the same time create a good basis for development of the individual employee's creative skills and allow the use of these skills in practical improvement work. If the circle is successful, active and enthusiastic, it is expected that people will want to join (Hannagan, 2002:190). The supervisor of a work area will usually lead a circle. His or her role is to encourage volunteers to establish a group which he or she will chair because of previous experience and training in organizing and running quality circles. The supervisor guides the circle in order to help it develop into a cohesive team and to focus on solving problems and improving quality. The circle will usually consist of between six and twelve members, large enough to generate a variety of ideas; small enough for everybody to be involved and have their say.

Customer Service Delivery

Delivering excellent customer service is another approach to enhancing organizational competitive performance. Service begins with product design and includes interaction with customers, with the ultimate goal of meeting customers' needs. In many organizations, service quality is affected significantly by the individual employees who interact with customers. Mathis (2003) identifies 5 service dimensions and out of these at least 3 of them are HR related: Confidence in employee's knowledge; Dependable and accurate performance; Physical facilities and equipment; Care and concern; Timely assistance.

As mentioned earlier, it is essential that employees understand the meaning and importance of customer service. For this reason, training on customer service goes a long way in trying to create a culture of excellent customer service delivery within the organization. Employees are eventually the communicators and the ones who deliver the service hence the need to train them. It is also worth noting the employees are the internal customers to the organization and their needs should also be taken care of in order for them to be motivated to deliver positive results. Some of the things organizations can do to achieve maintain a motivated workforce are discussed above and include; implementing rewards and recognition programs, effective performance appraisal and employee involvement in organizational matters. Companies that build their systems on a foundation of customer satisfaction must be careful that the foundation is secure. (George, 1994). This requires a thorough and accurate knowledge of customer requirements. For this reason, U.I.T.H conducts customer satisfaction surveys in order to understand their customers better and identify opportunities for improvement. This is usually based on the products usage, labeling, packaging, delivery procedures and customer service responsiveness. In response to customers feedback, a customer service charter was drawn to communicate to customers and distributors what U.I.T.H offers and with specifications on mode and terms of service delivery. The feedback is also useful in identifying training needs for their employees in order for them to deliver excellent customer service. This will be discussed later under training.

2.1.6 Investing in People

This is concerned with the contribution people can make to business success. For many organizations, people represent their largest cost, often 70 or 80 percent of the total (Hannagan, 2002:201-202). In a 'quality' culture, people take ownership of their work and responsibility for the quality of their work. By learning from the actions of those organizations which are already developing and using their people successfully, other organizations can adopt, and benefit from, an 'investing in people' (IPP) approach. The investing in people approach aims to help organization improve performance through a planned approach to: setting and communicating business goals, developing people to meet these goals so that what people can do and are motivated to do matches what the organization needs them to do. This can be seen in figure 3.

Fig 3: Investing In People Approach

Adapted from Hannagan, T (2002:202) in Management concepts and practices

The objective is to encourage organization to think consistently of their people as an investment, not a cost, and act in a way which reflects this perspective. Organizations need to recognize people as a valuable business resource, which can be used to create, protect or waste assets; that there are investment costs as well as benefits in this process; that the benefits will be greater than the costs; and that organization will only benefit fully from investing in people if they start with clearly defined objective and actions. There are various actions required to improve quality through investing in people approach. Every employer should have a written but flexible plan which sets out business goals and targets, considers how employees will contribute to achieving the plan and specifies how development needs in particular will be assessed and met (Hannagan, 2002:201-202). Management should also develop and communicate to all employees a vision of where the organization is going and the contribution employees will make to its success, involving employee representative as appropriate.

Additionally, the resources for training and developing employees should be clearly identified in the business plan. Manager should be responsible for regularly agreeing training and development needs with each employee in the context of business objectives. Action should focus on the training needs of all new recruits and continually developing and improving the skills of existing employees. All employees should be encouraged to contribute to identifying and meeting their own job-related development needs. The investment, the competence and commitment of employees, and the use made of skills learned, should be reviewed at all levels against business goals and targets. Finally, the effectiveness of training and development should be reviewed at the top level and lead to renewed commitment and target setting.