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Q 4. a) Differentiate between the 'hard' and the 'soft' aspects of quality management. Use practical examples of each within your answer, taking either the manufacturing sector or the service sector as your focus (12 marks). b) An organisation you know has just employed a new Human Resources Manager. How is he / she likely to interact with the company's quality improvement programme? (8 marks). (Total 30 marks) The 'hard' versus 'soft' approach to quality is reflected in John Oakland's model of Total Quality Management (a diagram of the model a) The model suggests that the 'hard' elements of QM are teams, systems and tools, and that the 'soft' elements are culture, commitment and communication. The key differential therefore, is in the tangibility or, perhaps more appropriately, the visibility of each characteristic.
Oakland also suggests that the 'hard' elements constitute necessities - that is, they are needed to make real what might be called 'recognisable' quality management; those aspects of a the discipline that makes it distinctive from any other. The 'hard' necessities of Human Resource Management, for example, might be health and safety, compensation and benefits, and If 'hard' is necessary, however, 'soft' is foundational, or fundamental. These underlie everything the organisation does and can be pro-actively focused on quality improvement or may ignore it completely. If there is a 'numbers' culture rather than a 'quality' culture then output volume will reign supreme. Similarly an organisation may be committed to something other than quality and will communicate this message - purposely or otherwise - through its actions and policies. Most students should be able to find examples of both 'hard' and 'soft' elements of quality management from their own experience.
For a manufacturing organisation 'hard' might include meteorological measurement, laboratory testing, SPC, the quality 'department' or 'section'. For a service organisation there might be a customer services department, complaints handling procedures and mystery shoppers, for example. Some of these are likely to be common to both sectors, as might ISO 9000 quality systems and teams established for problem solving or improvement (remember that 'teams' are not the same as 'teamwork'; the first is tangible and overt, but of little value without the second 'soft' aspect). Soft issues might include quality policy, commitment of the CEO, mission or value statement, employee commitment, evidence of customer-friendly front-line staff, or of employee empowerment. b) The new HRM manager will have a personal view of quality improvement and how it is likely to further the interests, relatively, of the organisation; the HRM function; him / her in terms of career development. He / she could adopt one of four stances - facilitator, internal contractor, change agent, or hidden persuader.
Respectively, interaction is likely to be: - Incidental involvement with quality improvement strategy Direct involvement with quality improvement strategy Direct 'ownership' of quality improvement programme Supporter of other quality improvement programme 'owner'. His / her action is likely to depend on the current level of maturity and / or effectiveness of the existing quality improvement programme. Examples from your own experience would help to illustrate and validate any opinions you put forward. Bibliography: Q 4. a) Differentiate between the 'hard' and the 'soft' aspects of quality management.
Use practical examples of each within your answer, taking either the manufacturing sector or the service sector as your focus (12 marks). b) An organisation you know has just employed a new Human Resources Manager. How is he / she likely to interact with the company's quality improvement programme? (8 marks). (Total 30 marks) The 'hard' versus 'soft' approach to quality is reflected in John Oakland's model of Total Quality Management (a diagram of the model would be useful here) a) The model suggests that the 'hard' elements of QM are teams, systems and tools, and that the 'soft' elements are culture, commitment and communication. The key differential therefore, is in the tangibility or, perhaps more appropriately, the visibility of each characteristic.
Oakland also suggests that the 'hard' elements constitute necessities - that is, they are needed to make real what might be called 'recognisable' quality management; those aspects of a the discipline that makes it distinctive from any other. The 'hard' necessities of Human Resource Management, for example, might be health and safety, compensation and benefits, and wage negotiations. If 'hard' is necessary, however, 'soft' is foundational, or fundamental. These underlie everything the organisation does and can be pro-actively focused on quality improvement or may ignore it completely. If there is a 'numbers' culture rather than a 'quality' culture then output volume will reign supreme. Similarly an organisation may be committed to something other than quality and will communicate this message - purposely or otherwise - through its actions and policies.
Most students should be able to find examples of both 'hard' and 'soft' elements of quality management from their own experience. For a manufacturing organisation 'hard' might include meteorological measurement, laboratory testing, SPC, the quality 'department' or 'section'. For a service organisation there might be a customer services department, complaints handling procedures and mystery shoppers, for example. Some of these are likely to be common to both sectors, as might ISO 9000 quality systems and teams established for problem solving or improvement (remember that 'teams' are not the same as 'teamwork'; the first is tangible and overt, but of little value without the second 'soft' aspect).
Soft issues might include quality policy, commitment of the CEO, mission or value statement, employee commitment, evidence of customer-friendly front-line staff, or of employee empowerment. b) The new HRM manager will have a personal view of quality improvement and how it is likely to further the interests, relatively, of the organisation; the HRM function; him / her in terms of career development. He / she could adopt one of four stances - facilitator, internal contractor, change agent, or hidden persuader. Respectively, interaction is likely to be: - Incidental involvement with quality improvement strategy Direct involvement with quality improvement strategy Direct 'ownership' of quality improvement programme Supporter of other quality improvement programme 'owner'.
His / her action is likely to depend on the current level of maturity and / or effectiveness of the existing quality improvement programme. Examples from your own experience would help to illustrate and validate any opinions you put forward.
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Research essay sample on Quality Improvement Employee Empowerment
