Design & Improvement Qlty Process Course Chapter 9: Engagement, Empowerment, and
ID: 330074 • Letter: D
Question
Design & Improvement Qlty Process Course
Chapter 9: Engagement, Empowerment, and Motivation
Book: QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE
1-What are the important issues in your case study? (One paragraph; 3-5 sentences)
2-Briefly answer the discussion questions or prompts associated with the case study:
a)How would you suggest him get these teams to take the gun away from their own heads?
b) Is it possible to create an empowered workforce in an old union environment?
c) How would you advise him?
3-Do you think there are situations in which employee empowerment would hurt rather than improve quality? Why would this occur?
CASES The Frustrated Manager would you suggest I get these teams to take the gun away from their own heads? They have a management who is willing to hand over the power. They have the tools necessary to make informed decisions on the shop floor. They just don't have the inspiration to take the power and to run with it. My question is simple: Is it possi ble to create an empowered workforce in an old union environment A professional colleague who teaches total quality concepts received the fo student:2 llowing e-mail from a former wondering if you could offer me s I was thoughts on a particular situation that plagues the company I work unionized and has a long history of anti-company sentiment. Upper management has set up the assembly area as an example of employee involvement and the blossoming empowered workforce to show off to customers. They often bring in customers to help gain future contracts One customer in particular is very sensitive to cost, quality, and schedule, and has had some bad experie clearly told us that it wants to see an empowered work force making key decisions. If this does not happen, it will not award the contract. This information has been relayed to the work teams in the area, but several work teams, in their team meetings, tell us they don't want to be empow- ered. The attitude (as I see it) appears to be as follows: "We know how to build our products, the customers do not. So, get the customers out of our business and tell them to take the product when we're done with it, regardless of how we choose to build it. As many times as I inform them that customers will not buy our products in that manner, I am given the same answer. How ome for. Our workforce is How would you advise him? nces with us in the past. The customer hasExplanation / Answer
Ques 1. Following can be the issues related to the case given-
a. The workers are not willing to change their way of working
b. The customers are sensitive as to how the company is building its products
c. The workers are unaware of the benefits of an empowered workforce
d. The top management has so far been unsuccessful in bringing about any change
Ques 2
The problem given in the case study can be that of CHANGE MANAGEMENT
What is Change Management - Change Management is the process to bring about changes in the current processes of an organization, to make the processes more streamlined and hence improve the business outcomes.
Following are some issues which occur when a change is brought about in a process-
It is possible to bring a change in an old union and this can be done in the following ways-
Communicate well - Tell the workers effectively the benefits of the new process
Make the understand the LONG VISION OF THE COMPANY.
Build Relations-
Take the workers along with you
Maybe choose some leaders from the union, and take them along and make the understand the business deeply, make them understand why changes are required
Show them some buseiness case scenarios, where change in process brought in huge success
Use smaller steps
Don't bring in a process change altogether, do it like a proper project with a plan.
Break the process into smaller steps and implement them time to time
Show the improvements of each stage to the union, celebrate it and take them ahead.
Ques 3
Yes there can be situations when the employee empowerment can bring in negative effects. This usually happens when-
1. The senior management takes it half-heartedly
2. The worker union is un-inspired and takes it casually.
3. The training structure is built weakly
4. The change occurs all of a sudden and there is no time to adjust
5. There is lack of LONG TIME VISION in the entire process