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Total
Quality Management
MGT510
VU
Lesson
# 43
TEAMWORK
CULTURE FOR TQM
The
Importance of Teams in TQ
Teams
are everywhere in TQ organizations: at
the top and bottom and in ever
function and department
in
between. Why are there so many
teams? The TQ philosophy
recognizes the interdependence of
various
parts of the organization and uses
teams as a way to coordinate
work. Teamwork
enables
various
parts of the organization work
together in meeting customer
needs that can seldom be
fulfilled
by
employees limited to one specialty. Teams
promote equality among individuals,
encouraging a
positive
attitude and trust. The diversity
inherent in tams often
provides unique perspective on
work,
spontaneous
thought, and creativity. In addition,
teams develop a greater sense of
responsibility for
achieving
goals and performing tasks. In short,
teams provide a variety of
benefits that are not
derived
from
individuals working alone.TQ
organizations recognize that the
potential contributions of
employees
are much greater than in the
traditional organization, an teams
are an attempt to take
advantage
this potential. Further, the
competitive environment of modern
business requires flexible, fast
reaction
to changes in customer demands or
technological capacity. Teams can
provide the capacity
for
rapid
response.
Types
of TQ Teams
TQ
uses so many different types of
teams that sometimes it is
difficult to tell one from
another. Some
common
types of teams include:
·
Steering
committees (or quality
councils) management teams
that lead an organization
and
provide
direction and focus.
·
Problem-solving
teams teams of workers
and supervisors that met to
address workplace
problems
involving quality and productivity, or
ad-hoc teams with a specific mission
such as
organizational
design teams that act a architects of
change as discussed in the previous
chapter.
·
Natural
work teams people who
work together every day to
perform a complete unit of
work.
·
Self-managed
teams Work teams that
are empowered to make and control their
own
decisions.
·
Virtual
teams teams whose
member communicate by computer, take
turns as leaders, and
jump
in an out as necessary. Virtual
teams are beginning to play
an increasingly important
role
because
of the Internet and electronic
communication.
Steering
Committees
Most
organizations practicing total
quality have a steering committee, called a
quality council by Juran
and
a quality improvement team by
Crosby. Steering committees
are responsible for establishing
policy
for
TQ and for guiding the implementation and
evolution f TQ throughout the
organization. The top
manager
of the organization is usually on the steering
committee, as is the manager with
overall
responsibility
for quality- for example,
the Vice President /Director of Total
quality. The steering
committee
may meet fairly often
when a TQ effort is getting
started, but usually meets
only monthly or
quarterly
once things are under
way. This group makes
key decisions about the quality
process how
quality
should be measured and what
structures and approaches should b
used to improve quality.
The
steering
committee also periodically reviews the
status of TQ and makes the adjustment
necessary to
ensure
customer satisfaction and continuous
improvement. In general, the steering committee
has
overall
responsibility for the progress and
success of the TQ effort.
Problem-Solving
Teams
The
second, and probably most common,
type o team used in TQ is the
problem-solving team. As
the
name
implies, problem-solving teams
work to improve quality by
identifying and solving
specific
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quality-related
problems facing the organization. Such
teams are sometime referred
to as corrective
action
teams, or quality circles, although
many organizations have created
their own names for
them.
Two
basic types of problem-solving teams
are departmental and
cross-functional.
Departmental
Problem-Solving Teams
These
teams are limited in membership to
employees of a specific department and are
limited in scope
to
problems within that department. Such
groups typically meet once a
week for one to two hours
and
progress
through a standardized problem-solving
methodology. First they
identify a set of problems
and
select
one to work on. Then they
collect data about the
causes of the problem and
determine the best
approach
to solving it.
If
the solution does not
require any major changes in
procedures or substantial resources, the
group
frequently
can implement its own
solution. If this is not the
case, group members will
make a
presentation
to some level of management, requesting
approval for their solution
and the resources to
implement
it. These teams typically
remain relatively intact as
they address a number of problems
in
succession.
Cross-Functional
Teams
Cross-functional
teams are not unique to
total quality they are
commonly used in new
product
development,
for example but are
increasingly becoming a mainstay of
quality programs. These
teams
are
similar in many ways to the departmental
teams just discussed: they
receive training in
problem
solving,
identify and solve problems, and either
implement or recommended
solutions.
The
differences are that members
of cross-functional teams come
from several departments or
functions,
deal
with problems that involve a
variety of functions, and typically
dissolve after the problem is
solved.
For
example, a cross-functional team in a
brokerage might deal with
problems in handling questions
from
clients. The issues raised
would not be limited to
stocks, bonds, or mutual
funds, so people from
all
of these areas would be
involved.
Cross-functional
teams make a great deal f sense in an
organization devoted to process
improvement,
because
most processes do not
respect functional boundaries. If a
process is to be comprehensively
addressed,
the team addressing it cannot be limited,
by either membership or charter, to only
one
function.
To be effective, cross-functional teams
should include people from
several departments: those
who
are feeling the effects of the problems,
those who may be causing it,
those who can
provide
remedies,
and those who can furnish
data.
Natural
Work Teams
Natural
work teams are organized to
perform a complete unit of work,
such as assembling a motorcycle,
creating
circuit plans for a television
set, or performing a market
research study from
beginning to end.
Te
"unit of work" need not be
the final product, but some
intermediate component. Natural work
teams
replace
rather than complement the traditional
organizational of work. What is
different in this
work
design
structure is that work tasks
are not narrowly defined as
they would be on an assembly
line, for
instance.
Team members share
responsibility for completing the
job and are usually cross-trained
to
perform
all work tasks and often
rotate among them.
Self-Managed
Teams
Self-managed
teams (SMTs), also known as
self-directed teams or autonomous work
groups, are natural
work
teams with broad
responsibilities, including the
responsibility to manage themselves.
SMTs are
empowered
to take corrective action and
resolve day-to-day problems;
they also have direct access
to
information
that allows them to plan,
control, and improve their operations.
Although self-managed
teams
have been used for decades,
(the SMT concept was
developed in Britain and Sweden in
the
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1950s,
and one of the early
companies to adopt it was
Volvo, the Swedish auto manufacturer),
their
popularity
has increased in recent
years, due in part to their
use in TQ. In the absence of a
supervisor,
SMTs
often handle budgeting,
scheduling, setting goals, and ordering
supplies. Some teams even
evaluate
one another's performance and hire
replacements for departing
team members.
SMTs
have resulted in improved quality and
customer service, greater flexibility,
reduced costs, faster
response,
simpler job classifications,
increased employee commitment to the
organization, and the
ability
to attract and retain the best
people.
Virtual
Teams
Virtual
teams are groups of people
who work closely together
despite being geographically
separated.
Virtual
teams rarely meet
face-to-face; their primary
interaction is through technologies
such as
telephone,
fax, shared databases and
collaborative software systems, the
Internet, e-mail, and
video
conferencing,
In 1998, over 8 million
workers were members of such
teams, and this number
has
undoubtedly
grown as new technology has
proliferated. Virtual teams
are becoming important
because
of
increasing globalization, flatter
organizational structures, an increasing
shift to knowledge work,
and
the
need to bring diverse talents and
expertise to complex projects and
customize solutions to
meet
market
demands. For example, a
product design team in the United
States can hand off its
work to
another
team in Asia or Australia,
resulting in an almost continuous work
effort that speeds up
development
time considerably.
Because
of their physical separation, some have
difficulty applying the team
concept t virtual
teams.
Virtual
teams can face some
unique challenges including language,
culture, style differences, and
the
lack
of social relationships that
can lessen team commitment.
These require special efforts to
ensure that
a
team environment is truly
realized, particularly paying
attention to communication, strong
interpersonal
relationships, and formal structures
that support their
work.
Effective
Teamwork
Teams
are the main structure of
many TQ organizations. Thus, effective
teamwork is critical to a
successful
TQ effort. If teams are not
effective, TQ processes will
suffer. Steering committees
will
choose
poor directions and policies
for the organization; departmental and
cross-functional problem-
solving
teams will choose
inappropriate problems or won't be able
to solve the problems they
identify;
and
self-managed teams will not be
able to fulfill the promise of an empowered,
creative workforce.
Criteria
for Team
Effectiveness
There
are several criteria for
team effectiveness. First, the team
must achieve its goals f
quality
improvement.
For example, a steering committee must
move the TQ effort ahead, a
problem-solving
team
must identify and solve
important problems, a self-managed team
must operate and improve a
set
of
production or service processes.
Second,
teams that improve quality
performance quickly are more effective
than those that take a
long
period
of time to do so. One of the
strengths of teams is their
potential for rapid
adaptation to changing
conditions.
A team that takes a long
time to accomplish anything is losing te
potential benefits of
having
problems
solved sooner and is consuming a
greater-than-necessary amount of resources,
including the
time
devoted to team meetings. In short, it is
inefficient.
Third,
the team must maintain r
increase its strength as a unit.
Think of the team as representing
as
asset-a
quantity of human capital-beyond that
represented by its individual
members. This
additional
human
capital is based on the ability t
understand and adjust to one another's
work styles, the
development
of an effective set of routines, the
growth of trust among team members, and
so on. A team
that
remains intact over a period
of time preserves and enhances
this human capital. A team
that solves
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an
important problem but has
such miserable relations that it
dissolves, does not. It may
make a
contribution
to the TQ effort, but it squander a
considerable amount of human capital in the
process.
Fourth,
the team must preserve or strengthen
its relationship with the
rest of the organization. A
team
that
accomplishes its goals at the cost of
alienating others in the organization
violates the TQ spirit of
teamwork
and compromises its ability to
perform successfully in the future, when
the collaboration of
others
may well be needed. Peter
Scholtes, a leading authority on
teams for quality
improvements, has
suggested
10 ingredients for a successful
team:
1.
Clarity
in team goals. As a sound
basis, a team agrees on a mission,
purpose, and goals.
2.
An
improvement plan. A plan
guides the team in determining schedules
and mileposts by
helping
the team decide what advice,
assistance, training, materials, and
other resources it
may
need.
3.
Clearly
defined roles. All members
must understand their duties and know
who is
responsible
for what issues and
tasks.
4.
Clear
communication. Team
members should speak with
clarity, listen actively, and
share
information.
5.
Beneficial
team behaviors. Teams should
encourage members to use
effective skills and
practices
to facilitate discussions and
meetings.
6.
Well-defined
decision procedures. Teams should
use data as the basis for
decisions and
learn
to reach consensus on important
issues.
7.
Balanced
participation. Everyone
should participate, contribute
their talents, and share
commitment
to the team's success.
8.
Established
ground rules. The
group outlines acceptable and
unacceptable behaviors.
9.
Awareness
of group process. Team
members exhibit sensitivity to
nonverbal
communication,
understand group dynamics, and work on
group process issues.
10.
Use
of the scientific approach.
With
structured problem-solving processes,
teams can
more
easily find root causes of
problems.18
Team
Processes
Many
processes are undertaken
within TQ teams, including
quality planning, problem selection
and
diagnosis,
communication, data collection, and
implementation of solutions. Team
processes are not
fundamentally
different from other
processes, such as assembling an
electronic device, taking a
patient's
vital
signs, or preparing cop au
vin. The customers of all
these processes can be
identified, their
elements
can be placed in a flowchart, steps
that do not add value can be
removed, and their quality
can
be
improved continuously.
Problems
Selection
One
of the processes undertaken at least
occasionally by most teams and
frequently by problem-solving
teams
is the choice of problems or issues on which to
work. This process can be
particularly difficult
for
newly
empowered employees, who are more
accustomed to being told
what to do than they are
to
establishing
their own agenda. New
teams generally are not
skilled enough to solve
massive problems,
and
a failure to address such a
visible problem successfully may be
difficult for the team to overcome.
It
makes
more sense for a team
initially to select a problem of
moderate importance and difficulty and
to
move
on to more complex ad difficult problems
when the team is better established.
This approach is
more
likely to lead to successful
solutions, which will build
momentum for each team and
for the
quality
effort as a whole.
Problem
Diagnosis
After
problems to be addressed are identified,
their causes must be
ascertained. Thus a second
critical
process
in TQ groups is problem diagnosis, the process by
which the team investigates potential
causes
of
problems to identify potential solutions.
Juan refers to this step as
the "diagnostic journey"
and
explains
that it consists of three parts:
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1.
Understanding
the symptoms (for example, a
process out of
control),
2.
Theorizing
as to causes (for example,
preventive maintenance neglected),
and
3.
Testing
the theories (for example, reviewing
preventive maintenance records to see
whether
they
relate to the problems
experienced).
Many
teams want to bypass problem
diagnosis and begin problem solving as
soon as possible, usually
because
they mistakenly believe that
the problem's causes are
obvious. Teams that spend more
time
diagnosing
problems have been shown to be much more
effective than those that
proceed immediately
to
solutions.
Work
Allocation
Another
important process is the allocation of
work within the team. Many
teams approach this
process
haphazardly,
assigning tasks to the next in line or
the first person who
volunteers. Assigning tasks is
one
of
the keys to team effectiveness and should
not be taken so lightly.
Each team member has
certain
skills
and will perform well on
tasks that use those
skills and not o well on
tasks that use other
skills.
The
team needs to assign people
tasks that will utilize
their skills to the greatest
extent possible.
Communication
Communication
is key processes for any
team attempting to improve
quality Steering
committees
communicate
priorities to employees. Members of
problem-solving teams communicate
among
themselves
and to their internal and external
customers. For example,
problem-solving teams often
have
to
present their recommendations to
management. Self-managed teams have
similar communication
needs
and often must communicate
effectively across
shifts.
Communication
within and across teams
can also be enhanced by
suing a variety of media. Many
TQ
teams
use electronic mail and
fax machines, but also
benefit from such low-tech
media as posters and
graphs
posted on the walls. As with
many team processes, any
specific recommendations are
less
important
than the general idea of
recognizing communication as a process
that consists of a series
of
steps
that can be improved.
Coordination
Another
key process is coordinating the team's
work with other teams and
departments in the
organization.
Team cannot work in isolation, and
maintaining good relationships
outside the team is one
criterion
of team effectiveness. New product
teams, for example, depend on
other parts o the
organization
for resources, information, and support
while also acting as primary
internal suppliers.
Coordination
often involves resolving
issues of interdependent schedules,
but may also include
some
negotiation.
Thus, teams often play a
"boundary spanner" role. The
boundary-spanning literature
shows
positive
relationships between communication and performance.
However, researchers have often
found
a
tendency among teams to turn inward,
believing that their own
needs, ideas, and plan are
more valid
than
those of "outsider." Ironically, the more
cohesive the team becomes, the greater the
likelihood of
this
occurring.
In
summary, team processes can be
improved just like any
other process. Several key
processes
that
are candidates for
improvement are problem
identification and diagnosis, work
allocation,
communication,
and coordination of work with
other teams and
departments.
Organizational
Support
However
skillful the team, they will
find it hard to be successful unless
their efforts are supported by
the
organization
in general and by management in
particular. Organizational support is the
foundation for
effective
teamwork. Management must
provide the following if a TQ team is to
be successful.
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First,
management must issue a clear
charge to the group; that is, a
description of what the group is
and
is
not expected to do. This is
often called a team charter.
Many teams have wasted a great
deal of time
and
energy on issues that they
later found they were not
authorized t pursue. Management's
guidance as
to
the quality priorities of the
organization is crucial, especially in
the early stages of a team's
work.
Several
organizational researchers have found
that team performance improved
for teams with
charters
and
clear expectations.28
Second,
human resource management (HRM)
systems often must be adjusted.
Conventional HRM
systems
may be barriers to effective teamwork
that will undermine TQ if
not changed.29 the need
for
enhanced
training is particularly acute, as
team members must be brought
up to speed on the various
types
of skills necessary for
effective teamwork.
Performance
appraisal and reward systems
are also a concern. Many of
these systems are designed
to
reward
individual effort or the attainment of
functional goals, rather than teamwork.
Numerous research
studies
over the past several decades have
pointed out the problems and pitfalls of
performance
appraisals.30 many legitimate objections
can be made:
·
They
tend to foster mediocrity and discourage
risk taking.
·
Thy
focus on short-term and measurable results,
thereby discouraging long-term
planning or
thinking
and ignoring important behaviors
that are more difficult to
measure.
·
They
focus on the individual and therefore
tend to discourage or destroy teamwork
within and
between
departments.
·
The
process is detection-oriented rather than
prevention-oriented.
·
They
are often unfair, since
manager frequently don't
possess observational accuracy.
·
They
fail to distinguish between factors that
are within the employees'
control and system-
determined
factors that are beyond
their control.
This
can greatly undermine
teamwork and can be fatal t the
team if not
addressed.
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