Total Quality Management as the Basis for Organizational Transfor

Southern Cross University

ePublications@SCU Theses

2005

Total quality management as the basis for organizational transformation of Indian Railways: a study in action research Madhu Ranjan Kumar Southern Cross University

Publication details Kumar, MR 2005, 'Total quality management as the basis for organizational transformation of Indian Railways: a study in action research', DBA thesis, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW. Copyright MR Kumar 2005

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Southern Cross University

Doctor of Business Administration

Total Quality Management as the basis for organizational transformation of Indian Railways – A Study in Action Research

Researcher: Madhu Ranjan Kumar

Student ID: 21231263

Table of Contents

Abstract.................................................................................................................. xiv

Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background to research.................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Research problem............................................................................................................................................ 2 1.2.1 Research pathway...................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Contribution............................................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Justification for research ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.3.1 Need to change for Indian Railways.......................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Methodology .................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.5 Outline of this thesis........................................................................................................................................ 6 1.6 Limitations ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 1.7 My own value system as a researcher............................................................................................................ 8 2.0 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................... 10

Chapter 2 Literature Review .................................................................................. 11 2.1 Parent discipline ............................................................................................................................................ 13 2.1.1 Parent discipline 1-Organisational Change.............................................................................................. 13 2.1.2 Parent discipline 2– Total Quality Management ..................................................................................... 15 2.1.2.1 Historical background...................................................................................................................... 15 2.1.2.2 Commonalty among quality gurus:.................................................................................................. 18 2.1.3 TQM as a philosophy of change.............................................................................................................. 21 2.2 Immediate discipline ..................................................................................................................................... 23 2.2.1 Total Quality Management- a systems perspective ................................................................................. 23 2.2.1.1 TQM and System Dynamics............................................................................................................ 29 2.2.1.2 Systems theory, TQM and organisational learning.......................................................................... 31 2.2.1.3 Organisational knowledge creating process..................................................................................... 33 2.2.1.4 Learning and second order change .................................................................................................. 35 2.2.2 Critical success factors for TQM............................................................................................................. 36 2.2.3 Different International Quality Awards................................................................................................... 38 2.2.3.1 History of quality awards................................................................................................................. 39 2.2.3.2 Commonality and differences among different quality awards ....................................................... 41 2.2.3.3 Change in the criteria of quality awards over time .......................................................................... 42

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2.2.3.4 Commonalities and differences between DP (2004) and MBNQA(2004)...................................... 45 2.2.3.5 TQM and awards in public sector.................................................................................................... 47 2.2.3.6 TQM in India and Indian quality awards ......................................................................................... 49 2.2.3.7 Indian quality awards vs. MBNQA & EQA .................................................................................... 53 2.2.4 Synthesis of system dynamics, CSFs and quality award criteria............................................................. 56 2.2.5 Total Quality Management and ISO........................................................................................................ 58 2.2.5.1 ISO 9000:2000 and TQM ................................................................................................................ 60 2.2.5.2 Factors affecting transition from ISO to TQM ................................................................................ 64 2.2.5.3 Quality movement in India and ISO ................................................................................................ 65 2.2.6 TQM and culture ..................................................................................................................................... 67 2.2.6.1 Indian work culture.......................................................................................................................... 70 2.2.6.2 Duality of traditionalism and modernism in Indian culture ............................................................. 73 2.2.6.3 Recent changes in Indian work culture ............................................................................................ 74 2.2.6.4 Nurturant task leadership ................................................................................................................. 76 2.2.6.5 Juxtaposition of culture for TQM and Indian culture ...................................................................... 77 2.2.6.6 Comparison between Japanese culture and Indian culture............................................................... 79 2.2.7 Indian Bureaucracy.................................................................................................................................. 80 2.2.7.1 Characteristics of Indian bureaucracy............................................................................................. 81 2.2.7.2 Changing the bureaucracy ............................................................................................................... 83 2.2.7.3 TQM and change in government bureaucracy and in public sector................................................. 86 2.2.7.4 Summary of TQM in bureaucracy .................................................................................................. 88 2.2.8 TQM and transformational leadership..................................................................................................... 89 2.2.8.1 Impact of cultural factors on transformational leadership ............................................................... 91 2.2.8.2 Transformational leadership in India ............................................................................................... 92 2.3.Summary of literature review and overview of the central problem........................................................ 93 2.4. Identification of the gaps which need investigation.................................................................................. 97

Chapter 3 Research questions and research methodology ............................... 98 3.1 Research questions ........................................................................................................................................ 98 3.2 Different research paradigms..................................................................................................................... 100 3.3 Development of research map .................................................................................................................... 106 3.4 Research Design for stage 1........................................................................................................................ 108 3.4.1 Survey A - Assessment of organisational policies and practices in the Indian Railways ...................... 108 3.4.2 Survey B - Assessment of cultural values of Indian Railway personnel .............................................. 109 3.5 Research design for stage 2......................................................................................................................... 111 3.5.1 Survey C – Assessment of the impact of ISO 9000 in the Indian Railways .......................................... 112 3.5.1.1 Sampling plan for survey C ........................................................................................................... 112 3.5.2 Survey D - Development of scale to measure the transition of ISO certified organisations towards TQM ........................................................................................................................................................................ 124 3.6 Questionnaire design and administration for survey D ........................................................................... 124 3.6.1 Development and evaluation of questionnaire....................................................................................... 125 3.6.2 Development of measurement scale ...................................................................................................... 129 3.6.3 General issues in drafting the questionnaire .......................................................................................... 129 3.6.4 Pre-test, revision and final draft ............................................................................................................ 130 3.6.5 Reliability and validity of the instrument .............................................................................................. 130 3.6.6 Survey method....................................................................................................................................... 133 3.7 Research design for stage 3......................................................................................................................... 133 3.7.1 Development of research design for stage 3.......................................................................................... 133

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3.8 Ethical considerations ................................................................................................................................. 134 3.9 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................... 135

Chapter 4 Data collection and data analysis.......................................................136 4.1 Data collection and data analysis for survey A......................................................................................... 136 4.2 Data collection and data analysis for survey B ......................................................................................... 143 4.2.1 Data collection....................................................................................................................................... 143 4.2.2 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 144 4.3 Data collection and data analysis for survey C......................................................................................... 148 4.3.1 Understanding the impact of ISO implementation on railway units in terms of intervening variables . 149 4.4 Data collection and data analysis for survey D......................................................................................... 150

Chapter 5 The action research project ................................................................153 5.1 Situating Action Research in a Research Paradigm................................................................................. 153 5.2 Situating action research within systems theory ...................................................................................... 158 5.2.1 Soft System methodology...................................................................................................................... 158 5.2.2 Soft system methodology as action research ......................................................................................... 160 5.3 Justification of Action Research as the research methodology for this thesis........................................ 161 5.4 Research model for Action Research......................................................................................................... 164 5.5 Rigour and validity in the Action Research .............................................................................................. 167 5.5.1 Falsification ........................................................................................................................................... 170 5.5.2 Reflection and three levels of learning .................................................................................................. 171 5.5.3 Intervention ........................................................................................................................................... 175 5.5.4 General criteria for assessing rigour in AR ........................................................................................... 176 5.5.5 Rigour and validity in this Action Research.......................................................................................... 177 5.6 Action research at Jhansi Stores Depot..................................................................................................... 180 5.6.1 Selection of unit for action research ...................................................................................................... 180 5.6.2 About Jhansi Stores Depot .................................................................................................................... 180 5.6.3 The action research cycles..................................................................................................................... 182 5.6.4 Experiential learning during action research ......................................................................................... 198

Chapter 6 Reflection after action and development of ‘TQM transition model’ ................................................................................................................................203 6.1 Reflection after action................................................................................................................................. 203 6.1.1 Reflection after action- 1 ....................................................................................................................... 203 6.1.2 Reflection after action- 2 ....................................................................................................................... 207 6.1.3 Reflection after action- 3 ....................................................................................................................... 209 6.1.4 Reflection after action- 4 ....................................................................................................................... 210 6.1.5 Development of TQM transition model ................................................................................................ 214 6.2 Jhansi revisited ............................................................................................................................................ 219

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6.2.1 The next action cycle............................................................................................................................. 223 6.2.2 Action Research revisited...................................................................................................................... 226 6.3 Validation of the TQM transition model................................................................................................... 227

Chapter 7 Conclusion ...........................................................................................231 7.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 231 7.2 Conclusions about research problems ....................................................................................................... 231 7.3 Conclusion about research issue ................................................................................................................ 234 7.4 Assessment of Rigour in this Action Research.......................................................................................... 237 7.5 Contribution to literature ........................................................................................................................... 238 7.5.1 Findings which support the existing literature...................................................................................... 238 7.5.2 Finding which is contrary to existing literature ..................................................................................... 239 7.5.3 Findings which are contribution to existing literature ........................................................................... 239 7.6 Contribution to policy and practice........................................................................................................... 240 7.6.1 Implications for Indian Railways .......................................................................................................... 240 7.6.2 Implications for Indian organisations .................................................................................................... 241 7.6.3 Implications for organisations in general .............................................................................................. 242 7.7 Contribution to methodology ..................................................................................................................... 242 7.8 Limitations ................................................................................................................................................... 243 7.9 Implications for future research ................................................................................................................ 244

Chapter 8 Researcher’s ruminations ...................................................................245 References .............................................................................................................254 Appendices ............................................................................................................281 Appendix 1. Tables and figures about quality awards................................................................................... 281 Appendix 2. Assessment of organisational policies......................................................................................... 301 Appendix 2A Summary of responses to question no.II to question no. VI of the questionnaire ‘assessment of organisational policies’ (Survey A)................................................................................................................ 311 Appendix 3. Behaviour preference scale ( S 004) ........................................................................................... 321 Appendix 3A Data analysis for the questionnaire S004 (survey B) ............................................................... 328 Appendix 4. ISO 9000 Survey .......................................................................................................................... 338 Appendix 4A Summary of survey C in six ISO certified units of Indian Railways ....................................... 350 Appendix 5. TQM transition questionnaire.................................................................................................... 355 Appendix 6. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire ...................................................................................... 369 Appendix 6.1 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Leader Form................................................................ 372 Appendix 6.2 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Rater Form .................................................................. 375 Appendix 6.3 Scores obtained on the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (rater form)............................. 384

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Appendix 7. Organization chart of Indian Railways...................................................................................... 385 Appendix 8. Intimation about co- action researchers .................................................................................... 386 Appendix 9. List of ISO certified units in the Indian Railways..................................................................... 389 Appendix 10. Organisational Chart of Jhansi workshop unit of Indian Railways...................................... 393

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List of Figures

Figure 2. 1 Concept map for literature review......................................................................... 12 Figure 2. 2 The yin-yang of TQM ........................................................................................... 15 Figure 2. 3 Simplified example of an organization as a system .............................................. 26 Figure 2. 4 Milestones of organisational roots ........................................................................ 28 Figure 2. 5 Milestones of quality development ....................................................................... 28 Figure 2. 6 Quality and business results .................................................................................. 29 Figure 2. 7 Modes of knowledge creation in an organization ................................................. 34 Figure 2. 8 The four types of learning as polar opposites........................................................ 35 Figure 2. 9 European Quality Model ....................................................................................... 41 Figure 2. 10 Model of a process-based quality management system ...................................... 61 Figure 2. 11 Characteristics of internal work culture of organizations in developing countries in the context of their sociocultural environment ............................................................ 68 Figure 2. 12 Nurturant-Task leadership process leading to participative management........... 76 Figure 2. 13 Socio cultural factors in MBNQA and JQA....................................................... 78 Figure 2. 14 Summary of literature review and gaps in existing literature ............................ 96 Figure 3. 1 Different assumptions about nature of reality ..................................................... 101 Figure 3. 2 Research map ..................................................................................................... 107 Figure 3. 3 Existing functional silos in Indian Railways....................................................... 117 Figure 3. 4 Model of a process-based quality management system ...................................... 119 Figure 3. 5 Plan for development of ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ .................................. 124 Figure 5. 1 The action research cycle .................................................................................... 153 Figure 5. 2 The experiential learning cycle ........................................................................... 154 Figure 5. 3 The oscillation between reflection and generalisation ........................................ 155 Figure 5. 4 Conceptual link between TQM and AR .............................................................. 164 Figure 5. 5 Two-project model for AR based thesis.............................................................. 165 Figure 5. 6 Research model used in stage 3 shown within the AR framework ..................... 166 Figure 5. 7 The ORJI within experiential learning cycle....................................................... 175 Figure 5. 8 Model for validation of learning which occurred in each cycle by using different methods, different sources of data and different types of data ...................................... 178 Figure 6. 1 Model for sequential development of TQM factors using the ISO framework .. 215 Figure 6. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in India using the ISO framework.............. 218 Figure 7. 1 Reproduction of Figure 2.14 showing gaps in existing literature ....................... 235 Figure 7. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in Indian Railways using the ISO framework thereby filling up the gap shown in Figure 7.1 .............................................................. 236 Figure 8. 1 The structure of an appreciative system .............................................................. 248

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Figure 8. 2 Unbundling of standards of fact and value into three components of time, person and ecology and their positioning along the Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft continuum. ....................................................................................................................................... 250 Figure 8. 3 Integration of mode 2 of SSM with context sensitivity and balancing ............... 252

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List of Tables Table 2. 1 Traditional change model vs. complex adaptive change model ............................. 14 Table 2. 2 Commonalities among seminal TQM work ........................................................... 19 Table 2. 3 Definition of variable for enablers.......................................................................... 30 Table 2. 4 Definition of variables for results ........................................................................... 31 Table 2. 5 Differences in checklists of Deming prize 1992 and Deming prize 2000.............. 43 Table 2. 6 Differences in the criteria of MBNQA 1992 and MBNQA 2004 .......................... 44 Table 2. 7 Major Indian National Quality Awards .................................................................. 52 Table 2. 8 Comparison of Indian Quality Awards with MBNQA & EQA ............................. 54 Table 2. 9 CSFs for TQM and CEBEA criteria....................................................................... 55 Table 2. 10 ISO 9000 and Deming’s system of profound knowledge.................................... 62 Table 2. 11 Comparison of MBNQA, EFQM and ISO 9000......................................................... 63 Table 2. 12 Societal values of Indian managers after liberalisation ........................................ 75 Table 2. 13 Comparison between vertical collectivism and horizontal collectivism .............. 79

Table 3. 1 Research questions for this work............................................................................ 99 Table 3. 2 Basic belief systems of alternative enquiry paradigms......................................... 102 Table 3. 3 Quality criteria for different research paradigm ................................................... 104 Table 3. 4 Typology of sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry ........................................ 113 Table 3. 5 Analysis of different categories of railway units on clauses of ISO 9000:2000 .. 120 Table 3. 6 Percentiles for individual scores, based on others’ ratings on MLQ.................... 123 Table 3. 7 Operationalisation of different factors of ‘ TQM transition questionnaire’ ......... 128 Table 3. 8 Summary of scores obtained on the TQM transition questionnaire by DP winners in India and ISO certified different units of Indian Railways........................................ 132 Table 4. 1 Respondent profile for survey A........................................................................... 136 Table 4. 2 Comparison of codes developed in survey A with the CSFs of TQM ................. 139 Table 4. 3 Existing and proposed organisational dimensions for Indian Railways by senior railway managers ......................................................................................................................... 142

Table 4. 4 Number of respondents in different categories for survey B................................ 144 Table 4. 5 Scores obtained on the three dimensions of ‘status consciousness (S)’, ‘personalised relationship (P)’ and ‘dependency proneness (D) ’ by different categories of employees of Indian Railways................................................................................... 145 Table 4. 6 List of short-listed railway units for survey C ...................................................... 148 Table 4. 7 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors ....................................... 151

Table 5. 1 Comparison between three paradigms of knowledge........................................... 156 Table 5. 2 Comparison between positivist science and action research ................................ 157 Table 5. 3 Dimensions of SSM types .................................................................................... 159 Table 5. 4 First order, second order and third order learning ................................................ 173 Table 5. 5 Skills of balancing inquiry and advocacy............................................................. 174 Table 5. 6 Types of intervention............................................................................................ 176 Table 5. 7 The AR cycles....................................................................................................... 183 Table 6. 1 Different types of power....................................................................................... 204

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Table 6. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their proposed Indian cultural equivalent....................................................................................................................... 210 Table 6. 3 Improvement steps identified in May 2004 and their status in December 2004 .. 221 Table 6. 4 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors including no. of CPA and no. of reward .................................................................................................................. 228 Table 7. 1 Assessment of rigour in this action research thesis .............................................. 237 Table 7. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their Indian cultural equivalent 240

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Abbreviations AL AMM AMV AR avg BEM BPL BPO CEBEA CEE CFA ckt CLW CME CPO COS CWM cert CII CII_EXIM coop CPA CSF CWM del DCW DLW DEE DME DMM doc DP DRM Dy CMM EFQM EQA EXIM FA&CAO GM HPO ICF info ISO JPY JUSE Lit M&M MBNQA

Action Learning Assistant Materials Manager Alambagh Warehousing Unit Action Research average Business Excellence Model Bhopal Workshop Business Process Outsourcing Confederation of Indian Industries Exim Bank Excellence Award Chief Electrical Engineer Critical Factor Analysis circuit Chittaranjan Locomotive Works Chief Mechanical Engineer Chief Personnel Officer Controller Of Stores Chief Workshop Manager certificate Confederation of Indian Industries Confederation of Indian Industries Bank Excellence Award cooperation Corrective and Preventive Action Critical Success Factor Chief Workshop Manager delivery Diesel Components Works Diesel Locomotive Works Divisional Electrical Engineer Divisional Mechanical Engineer District Materials Manager document Deming Prize Divisional Railway Manager Deputy Chief Materials Manager European Foundation Quality management European Quality Award Export Import Bank Financial Advisor and Chief Account Officer General Manager High Performance Organisation Integral Coach Factory information International Standards Organisation Japanese Yen Union of Japanese Scientist and Engineers Literature Mahindra & Mahindra Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award

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mgt MLQ M.R. NC n.d. NDDB NQA NT OHSAS perf plg PRL proc QC QMS RCF reduc resp ret rm RWF shop sp qual SQC SSM stat tech sup sys TOR TQM trg WAP

management Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire Management Representative Non Conformance no date National Dairy Development Board National Quality Award Nurturant Task Occupational Health and Safety Management System performance planning Parel Workshop process Quality Control Quality Management System Rail Coach Factory reduction responsibility retiring room Rail Wheel Factory (the current name of WAP) workshop special quality Statistical Quality Control Soft System Methodology statistical technique supervisor system Turn Over Ratio Total Quality management training Wheel and Axle Plant

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Statement of original authorship

This is to certify that this research work titled ‘Total Quality Management as the basis for organisational transformation of Indian Railways’ is an original work carried out by me. Research work of other authors have been reproduced with due credit.

Madhu Ranjan Kumar [email protected]

The author can be contacted at [email protected] for permission to take copies of this thesis.

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Acknowledgements At the outset, I wish to thank my research guide Prof. Shankar Sankaran whose guidance and incisive comments made this research work more rigorous. Southern Cross University and its support staff can be rated as the most helpful team for a research work. The library staff of SCU deserve a special thanks for their very prompt delivery of many research papers and book sections. My special thanks goes to Ms Sue White who, as the DBA administrator, was a constant source of support.

This is the perhaps the first ever doctoral level organisational study on Indian Railways. I wish to thank the Department of Personnel & Training and the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India for sponsoring this study. It is perhaps a measure of change in thinking within the Indian government that it sponsored an in-depth academic study of the largest bureaucracy in India with a view to bring about fundamental change in it.

A major part of the work involved collecting data at different railway units and conducting surveys with railway employees from supervisors to chairmen. This is an occasion to express my gratitude to hundreds of such respondents whose names cannot be individually mentioned here for want of space. My special thanks go to the action research team at the Jhansi warehousing unit for their illuminating insights and the desire to run AR cycles.

Mr. Arif Zama deserves a special mention here for his painstaking feeding of data collected into the computer and also for his enormous help in developing software which helped in organising the data. That made the quantitative data analysis much easier.

I am thankful to Prof P. Khandwalla, ex. Director, I.I.M. Ahemadabad, Prof U.H. Acharya of Indian Statistical Institute, Banglore, Prof J.B.P. Sinha of Assert Management Institute, Patna and Prof. S.G.Deshmukh of I.I.T Delhi for their permission to use their questionnaire in this thesis.

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Abstract The basic objective of this research was to assess the suitability of Total Quality Management (TQM) via the International Standards Organization (ISO) 9000/2000 quality accreditation system route for bringing about organisational transformation in the Indian Railways and to develop an India specific model for taking an ISO certified organization towards TQM. The first part of the research aimed at getting the ‘as is’ and ‘should be’ status of Indian Railways from an organisational change point of view. Based on the work carried out by Khandwalla (1995), a series of open-ended and close-ended questions were asked to the senior members of Indian Railways. Analysis of their responses was undertaken. It indicated that the way they thought Indian Railways should change was in line with the TQM model of change. The culture-TQM fit was studied as a part of this research. ‘Hierarchy’ (or power distance) and its related concept ‘collectivism’ were identified as the two cultural constructs which affect the successful implementation of TQM. The second part of the research aimed at measuring the hierarchical orientation among the employees of Indian Railways. This was measured on three dimensions of ‘dependency proneness’, ‘personalised relationship’ and ‘status consciousness’ based on the work done by Sinha (1995). It was found that among the three dimensions, ‘status consciousness’ and ‘dependency proneness’ were more deeply entrenched cultural traits among Indian Railway employees as compared to ‘personalised relationship’. On the two dimensions of ‘status consciousness’ and ‘dependency proneness’, the class 1 officers of Indian Railways were less hierarchy conscious than the class 2 officers who, in turn, were less hierarchy conscious than the supervisors. The tendency for ‘personalised relationship’ did not vary significantly either across the class 1 officer, class 2 officer and supervisor categories or across different age groups. Further, employees less than 30 years old, from 31 years to 50 years old and more than 50 years old, demonstrated similar level of ‘status consciousness’ and ‘dependency proneness’. This shows that at least in the Indian Railways, even among the younger generation, notwithstanding 15 years of liberalisation, hierarchical orientation continues to be a powerful cultural trait. The third part of the research aimed at understanding the impact of ISO 9000 implementation in the Indian Railway units. It was found that, contrary to the literature, there

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was no resistance to implementation of ISO based change in the Indian Railways. This research argues that because of their strong sense of identity with their work group, the employees of Indian Railways are more amenable to an internal leader initiated change. Hence there was no resistance to change. The fourth part of the research was an action research project aimed at ISO 9000:2000 certification of a warehousing unit in the Indian Railways. This was carried out to investigate the way organisational learning occurred during ISO certification. Three action cycles were conducted over a period of two months. Seven months later, one additional cycle was completed. Special care was taken to see that the conclusions arrived after one cycle were validated from other sources. It was found that departmentalism and lack of team spirit are major problems in Indian Railways. Both are ascribed to the caste system in India. It is hypothesised that since an Indian Railway employee remains in a department throughout his/her career, the department becomes his/her ‘professional caste’. The research then identifies an Indianised version of leadership in the context of organisational change. It hypothesises that hierarchical teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship with the leader invokes personal bases of power which promotes change in India. The teacher-student (gurushishya) relationship with the leader is conceptually similar to ‘intellectual stimulation’ factor of transformational leadership. The ‘personalised relationship’ with a more equitable slant can be elevated to the status of ‘individualised consideration’ factor of transformational leadership and the Nurturant Task (NT) leadership model of India is conceptually similar to the contingent reward factor of transformational leadership. In the context of TQM, this research hypothesises that there is a sequential relationship among the critical success factors (CSFs) of TQM. For this, one should begin by framing process-based quality procedures and quality objectives. Process based quality procedures and quality objectives lead to development of team orientation in the context of TQM implementation. Similarly, a multi-tier Corrective and Preventive Action (CPA) reinforced with a reward and recognition system, positively intervenes in the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM. The learning arrived at in different parts of the research was finally integrated into a model for transforming an ISO certified unit towards TQM. The model shows that propagation of customer satisfaction as a value and not just as a measurement- as in a customer satisfaction index – is key for replacing some of the dysfunctional traditional Indian values which do not fit in a liberalised economy. More specifically, the compulsion of

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implementing a ‘Corrective / Preventive Action’ makes a person come out of his/her traditional moorings and thus begins his/her socialisation outside his/her ‘professional caste’. The reinforcing effect of successive improvement inculcates a feeling of team spirit among members of different functional groups. Successive CPAs supported by a suitable reward system and an Indianised version of leadership mentioned earlier create a spiral vortex which continually pulls the organization towards achieving TQM. Finally, this research establishes a link between the soft system methodology and an India specific cultural dimension called ‘context sensitivity’. The researcher argues that it is because of context sensitivity of Indians that no resistance to change was found during ISO implementation in Indian Railways. This also explains why post liberalisation Indians have been able to make a mark in the world.

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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background to research As a model of organisational change, TQM has been used in various forms for decades (Yong & Wilkinson 2002). However, its success rate has not been very impressive (Cao, Clarke & Lehany 2000; Tata & Prasad 1998). The reasons for its failures have variously been summarised as: (a) Improper understanding of the core concepts of TQM. (b) Implementation was based on a one-size-fits-all assumption that is, it was prescriptive and not participative (Boyne & Walker 2002; Korunka et al. 2003; Yusof & Aspinwall 2000). (c) Implementation of TQM ignored looking at different subsets of the organization that is, it did not treat organization as a system (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002). TQM has also been criticised on the ground that it provides a rhetoric that is individually interpreted and therefore carries inconsistent meaning across contexts (DeCock 1998; Zbracki reported by Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002). The faltering success of TQM has led many researchers to establish relationships between TQM and contextual factors such as culture (Lakhe & Mohanty 1994; Pun 2001; Sahay & Walsham 1997), leadership (Rao, Raghunathan & Solis 1997; Zairi 2002), teamwork (Eisenhardt & Tabrizi 1995; Quazi, Hong & Meng 2002) and training (Palo & Padhi 2003). The personality profile of managers (Krumwiede & Lavelle 2000) and the host country culture have been found to have a bearing on the adoption or success of TQM (Yen, Krumwiede & Sheu 2002). Some researchers have looked at the specific problem of TQM implementation in the public sector (Moon & Swafin-Smith 1998; Robertson & Seneviratne 1995; Stringham 2004; Yosuf & Aspinwall 2000) and tried to analyse whether TQM implementation requires a different orientation in the public sector (Ehrenberg & Stupak 1994). Another stream of research has been conducted to arrive at empirically validated factors that influence successful implementation of TQM (Black & Porter1996; Wali, Deshmukh & Gupta 2003). At a systemic level, a formal integration of TQM principles in a model of quality management system has been attempted by ISO 9000: 2000 standard (Kartha 2002). Yet 1

there is a lack of reported research which establishes that ISO 9000:2000 certification enables an organization to proceed on the TQM path. However, there is reported research about the varying impact of ISO 9000: 1994 standard on an organization. It is both positive (Escanciano, Fernández & Vázquez 2001; Sun 1999) and negative (Curry & Kadasah 2002). Some authors have tried to explain this varying impact on general factors such as country culture (Noronha 2002); organisational factors such as intention behind certification (Gotzamani & Tsiotras 2002; Poksinska, Dahlgaard & Antoni 2002); leadership (Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001) and operational factors such as adoption of more than one enablers of TQM. Therefore, there is a need to understand the implementation of TQM in terms of these intervening factors. Looking from this perspective, there seems to be a need to understand successful implementation of TQM for organisational change as a function of the intra-organisational parameters mentioned above.

1.2 Research problem The above introductory background throws up the following broad research problem which this thesis will address

Can TQM be used as the basis for organisational transformation? If yes, how can it be effectively implemented in an Indian bureaucracy?

Within the Indian bureaucracy, this thesis will study the implementation related issues in the context of Indian Railways which is the largest Indian bureaucracy. The ISO 9000: 2000 model is the framework in which the study will be undertaken. This is because ISO 9000: 2000 provides a change mechanism and change-monitoring model which lends a holistic approach to change. The international standard organization claims that its eight underlying principles are also in consonance with the tenets of TQM (www.iso.org). Thus this thesis attempts to understand whether the revised ISO 9000 standard is designed for taking an organization on its TQM journey and how the intra-organisational intervening variables of culture, presence of enablers of TQM and management’s intention behind certification affect this journey. 2

1.2.1 Research pathway The specific research pathways which have been used to seek answer to the research problem are now indicated. The first area to be explored pertains to TQM. It attempts to answer the following questionsWhat is the state of TQM today? That is, starting from the principles of the founding fathers of TQM, where does it stand today? What variations, if any, has it undergone? What factors contribute to and what factors impede its successful implementation. These are dealt with in section 2.2.1, 2.2.2 and 2.2.3. Since the focus of this thesis is India, this research looks at different aspects of Indian culture in their organisational context. How does Indian culture affect the organisational values of Indian Railway personnel in the context of TQM? These are dealt with in section 2.2.6. Since Indian Railways is a bureaucratic organization, section 2.2.7 tries to explore the core values of Indian bureaucracy and how it affects the organisational values and beliefs of railway personnel who are part of this bureaucracy. Other than establishing the status of TQM today and an understanding of the organisational values and beliefs of Indian Railway personnel, the research also focuses on the issues involved in the successful implementation, assimilation and continuance of TQM. The key issues in the implementation of TQM are taken up in sections 2.2.5, 2.2.6 and 2.2.8 wherein the relationships between TQM and ISO, TQM and culture and TQM and transformational leadership are dealt with. Understanding these issues leads to the development of specific research questions: ‘What are’ and ‘what should be’ the organisational policies and practices of Indian Railways and what are the culturally induced values of Indian Railway personnel. The thesis also assesses the general impact of ISO certification in Indian Railways. With TQM as the focus, this research then takes up a participative style towards TQM implementation via the ISO 9000: 2000 route using an action research (AR) methodology. A question arises: does this

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participative style build a learning capacity among the railway personnel? Answer to this question is discussed at the end of the descriptions of the action research cycles.

1.2.2 Contribution (i)

At present there are very few AR based ISO 9000 implementations in the

government sector. So this thesis is expected to contribute to the literature by showing the implementability of ISO 9000 in a government organization using a bottom-up approach. (ii)

In India, there has been very little work in the area of change management

through AR. Thus, to the Indian academic community, this will be one of the first studies of systematic implementation of change using AR. (iii) The contribution of this research to practice will be to the Indian organizations, especially bureaucratic organizations. It will explain what flavour, if any, of TQM is suited for bureaucracy and how its members internalise and implement the basic tenets of TQM.

1.3 Justification for research (i) The unimpressive success rate of TQM implementation in western countries, inspite of it being around for more than 30 years in the field of research, has brought into focus the contextual factors which mediate in the successful implementation of TQM and also the route selected for TQM implementation. From this point of view, the values and beliefs of the members of an organization provide a set of context for quality implementation. (ii) Though the factors which lead to TQM are now understood, the current state of research does not provide a synthesis of these factors. That is, there is little research carried out which can explain the success or failure of TQM oriented change initiative in the light of the totality of the understanding developed about TQM. (iii) There are relatively few reported studies of TQM implementation with organisational members as the focus that is, a bottom-up process involving the organisational members in planning, implementing and evaluating the quality management system. (iv) Internationally, TQM has generally been studied in the private sector environment. There is not much evidence of research about its implementation in a bureaucracy. 4

Another justification for the research comes from the need for change in the Indian Railways.

1.3.1 Need to change for Indian Railways The organisational justification for this study comes from the compelling need to change for the Indian Railways made time and again (Sondhi n.d.). It needs to change in order to survive. But given its history, how can a beginning be made for successful implementation of change in Indian Railways. One option is to make an ambitious change program, so ambitious, that it fundamentally alters the social system of Indian Railways. But can the Indian Railways accommodate such a change programme? If the change is going to fundamentally alter its social system, are the different stakeholders of Indian Railways – the government, the railway personnel and indeed, the customers of Indian Railways- the Indian people - going to allow the implementation of such a radical change? It is worthwhile to point out in this connection that in 1998, the Government of India appointed the Rakesh Mohan committee to suggest ways for changing the Indian Railways. In its report, submitted in the year 2001, the committee has inter alia mentioned that the ‘Indian Railways is the most studied organization in the world. However, hardly any one of the findings of those studies has been implemented’ (quoted by Sondhi n.d). Not surprisingly, the recommendations of the Rakesh Mohan committee too, were never implemented because it adversely affected all the stakeholders. This is a pointer to the fact that while the malaise of Indian Railways and its solutions from a purely large scale organisational transformation angle are well known, the different stake holders of Indian Railways have ensured that such solutions remain unimplemented. The second option for change is to keep it at the level of window dressing. In this case, the old systems remain untouched and they continue to generate the same behaviours. However, the researcher believes that it is possible to bring about a change in a manner and in such areas of Indian Railways which is acceptable to different stakeholders and therefore implementable. In the context of Indian Railways, action choices emanating from changes in such factors as ownership and structure have the risk of antagonising the three important stake holders - the government, the railway personnel and even the customers – who would to see the Indian Railways more as a not-for-profit organization. Thus it can make them withdraw from or oppose the proposed change. However a change in such factors as system, culture, 5

leadership and industrial relations are not necessarily threatening to them and a beginning can be made to initiate change in these areas. Thus the intent of this research is to use TQM via the ISO 9000: 2000 route as the overarching method for bringing about change in the Indian Railways

1.4 Methodology Since this is perhaps the first doctoral level study on the Indian Railways, the overall framework of research methodology is largely qualitative. Since the focus of the work is to improve the intra-organisational processes within the Indian Railways, the concept of customer here is that of an internal customer. Literature review is the prime source for understanding the impact of Indian bureaucracy and Indian culture on the values of Indian Railway personnel. The preliminary literature review indicated that enough literature is available to understand the cultural values of Indians. However, there is no direct study of the organisational values within the Indian Railways. Thus direct assessment of the organisational values of Indian Railway personnel is done. Established instruments are used for this assessment. The instruments have already been extensively tested for their reliability and validity. Literature review is the prime source for assessing the state of TQM and its status in India. A questionnaire-based survey of different units of Indian Railways is used to assess the impact of ISO 9000 certification in these units. It has been mentioned earlier that one of the weaknesses of TQM implementation has been the prescriptive style which ignores the tacit factors (Joseph et al. 1999) which could drive TQM success. Thus the emphasis of this research is to develop a bottom-up approach of quality implementation. Therefore, action research (AR) methodology is used to progressively implement the ISO 9000: 2000 quality system. For this purpose, an action research model proposed by Perry and Sankaran (2002) is used.

1.5 Outline of this thesis Chapter 2 is a literature review about the parent and immediate disciplines of this research. It begins with organisational change and a historical account of TQM. In the

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immediate discipline, the linkage between TQM and systems theory and identification of critical success factors of TQM are dealt with. This leads to a discussion on different TQM awards. Thereafter the linkage between TQM and ISO, and TQM and culture are discussed. The discussion on TQM and culture leads to a discussion on bureaucratic culture and status of TQM in bureaucratic organizations. A recurring theme in TQM implementation both in private sector and bureaucracy is that of transformational leadership. Thus the critical role of transformational leadership in TQM is the last part of literature review. The literature review leads to the identification of gaps which need investigation. Chapter 3 describes the research methodology used. It begins by framing the research questions which need investigation. It then develops the research map for the research questions. The research map divides the research in three stages. Stage one consists of two surveys. Survey ‘A’ seeks to find answers to the first research question ‘What are and what should be Indian Railways’ core values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive strategies and changes in organisational structure / management system so as to transform Indian Railways into an excellent organization’? Survey ‘B’ assesses the impact of Indian culture on the organisational values of the Indian Railway personnel by measuring their hierarchical tendencies. Section 3.4 discusses the specific surveys which are used. Stage two seeks to find answers to the second and third research questions. These research questions are Research question ii - What is the impact of ISO implementation in Indian Railways? Research question iii-

To what extent has the implementation of ISO 9000 brought

about a TQM orientation in Indian Railways? This involves development of a scale which can objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM. Sections 3.5 and 3.6 discuss the specific surveys which were used to find answers to these two research questions. Chapter 4 deals with the data collection and data analysis for the above surveys. Stage three seeks to find answers to the fourth and fifth research questions: Research question iv - Will a bottom up methodology build learning capacity among the railway personnel? Research question v - How can the enablers of TQM be integrated in a model for attaining TQM via the ISO framework?

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Chapter 5 and chapter 6 discuss the action research methodology which was used to find answer to the last two research questions. Chapter 7 synthesises the findings and draws conclusions from the research. Chapter 8 is the researcher’s reflection on the entire thesis.

1.6 Limitations The focus of the work is in the context of Indian Railways. The results obtained from here can be applicable to the rest of the Indian Railways subject to further test. However, no claim of generalisability can be made beyond that. For an outside customer, Indian Railways is a service organization. But this study has been limited to the manufacturing section of Indian Railways. This was done because TQM started in manufacturing sector and in the Indian Railways also, its concept has largely been used in its manufacturing units via the ISO 9000 implementation.

1.7 My own value system as a researcher When the researcher joined the Indian Railways, he found on the table of a railway engineer, underneath a transparent glass sheet, a chart which read as

Error

Punishment

Inspection not done

Withhold annual increment in salary

Not reporting on time

Decrease in grade of salary

Jumping the signal

Demotion

Accident

Dismissal from service

When he checked up, it was explained that since there were so many cases of these types of ‘errors’, to make the decision making simpler for the engineer, this chart came in handy in deciding what level of punishment was required for different categories of errors. Apparently the railway engineer was a robot who would mechanically hand over punishment! The researcher wondered what happened to the staff who had made an error of other than an ‘accident’? They obviously continued in the system, but at what level of efficiency?

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Notwithstanding this managerial mind set, the researcher has always been impressed by the fact that though close to 50% of its staff are illiterate, and it has only one engineer for every 500 workers, Indian Railways manufactures, maintains and runs technologically advance locomotives and coaches. Further, during the last 18 years, Indian Railways has reduced its workforce by 300,000 without any formal voluntary retirement scheme or golden handshake and there has not been a murmur of protest in the job scarce India. Yet he used to hear ‘You cannot do much in the Indian Railways’. ‘The politicians will not allow you to do’. ‘The staff is not interested in working’. This made him wonder whether the tendency for external locus of control has been manifested in the working of Indian Railways. Thus in his professional work, the researcher tended to stretch his subordinates and his superiors beyond their conventional standard of working. To their credit, he did not find the subordinates shirking in meeting the stretched expectations or the superiors and peers shirking in their stretched assistance to him. This made the researcher undertake a formal study of Indian Railways to get an academically validated study of this organization. When the researcher started this research, the initial aim was to look for ways to bring about improvement in the Indian Railways which was by and large acceptable to its stakeholders and which was also implementable. TQM appeared to him one such way. He thought he would do this by juxtaposing the basics of TQM on to the ground realities of Indian Railways. As a student, his initial grounding has been in the field of mathematics. Therefore he has always tried to get an unbiased estimate of the reality out there. However after joining the service, as more and more varieties of reality began to unfold before him, he began to realize the shortcoming of trying to get an unbiased estimate of reality. The situation became more complex when he realized that in a social situation, even within one type of reality, there were so many variables which interacted with each other that it was impossible to isolate the impact of one variable from another. This showed to him the importance of context in decision making. The context in decision-making became the boundary condition within which a social system like an organization worked. This has been reflected in this research also. Until chapter 4, this research is largely defining the boundary conditions of Indian Railways. Another major way this research differs from other research is that data as it emerges during research has been compared with other emerging data or with existing literature. The data has not been kept in isolation till the end when they will be compared with other data or existing literature. This approach has made the research more focused without losing rigour in the context in which the research was done. Thus there are cross comparisons to other 9

parts of literature in the literature review itself and research data have been compared with earlier data as they emerge in later chapters of the thesis.

2.0 Conclusion This chapter has provided an overview of the thesis. A synopsis of each chapter of the thesis has been dealt with. A detailed description of each chapter now follows.

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

Introduction

This research aims at studying TQM as a model for bringing about organisational transformation in Indian Railways and identifying ways for effective implementation of that. Thus the broad research question has been framed as follows:

Can TQM be used as a model for organisational transformation of Indian Railways? If yes, how can it be effectively implemented in Indian Railways?

The purpose of this chapter is to carry out a literature search on TQM as a model of change and understand the key issues involved in the implementation of TQM in Indian Railways.

Concept map

Based on this question, the concept map for literature review is shown in Figure 2.1. The two parent disciplines, organizational change and TQM are discussed in sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.2. Their interaction has been discussed in sections 2.1.3 (TQM as a philosophy of change). These form the basis for literature review of the immediate discipline wherein the focus is on the interaction between different aspects of TQM. Different immediate disciplines have been taken up as they naturally emerge during discussion. That is, the immediate disciplines have not been taken based on any given a-priori set or point of view or school of thought. Thus the flavour of the discussion is rather eclectic. Each major theme is also reviewed in the Indian context so that the focus remains on the research question mentioned earlier.

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Parent discipline 1

Parent discipline 2

2.1.1Organisational change

2.1.2 Total Quality Management

2.1.3 TQM as a philosophy of change

2.2 Immediate discipline

2.2.1 TQM- a systems perspective 2.2.2 Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for TQM 2.2.3 Different international quality awards 2.2.4 Synthesis of system dynamics, CSFs and quality award criteria 2.2.5 TQM and ISO 2.2.6 TQM and culture 2.2.7 Indian bureaucracy 2.2.8 TQM and transformational leadership

2.3 Summary of above and overview of central problem

2.4

Identification

of

the

gaps

which

investigation

Figure 2. 1 Concept map for literature review Source: developed for this research.

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need

2.1 Parent discipline 2.1.1 Parent discipline 1-Organisational Change Organisational change models closely parallel how organizations have been viewed over time. From ‘scientific management’ to ‘organisational development’ and ‘organisational studies’, the study of organization has moved from a study of mechanical functions from a closed system perspective to a study of complex adaptive functions from an open system perspective. Within open systems theory, contingency theory materialised as a means of accounting for change within an organization. Contingency theory states that depending on the level of turmoil within an organization, different systems theories should be adopted for facilitating change. Thus in a government organization where stability and bureaucracy cause change to occur slowly, a more mechanistic model should be adopted (McElyea 2003, p.63). Within the field of organisational change, a comparison of the traditional change model and complex adaptive model of organization change is shown in Table 2.1.

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Traditional Models of Organisational Complex Adaptive Model of Change Organisational Change Few variables determine outcome Innumerable variables determine outcome The whole is equal to the sum of its parts (reductionist) Direction is determined by design and power of a few leaders Individual or system behaviour is knowable, predictable and controllable

The whole is different from the sum of its parts Direction is determined by emergence and the participation of many people Individual or system behaviour is unknowable, unpredictable and uncontrollable Causality is linear: every effect can be traced Causality is mutual: every cause is also an back to a specific cause effect and every effect is a cause Relationship are directive Relationship are empowering All systems are essentially the same

Each system is unique

Efficiency and reliability are measures of Responsiveness to the environment is the value measure of value Decisions are based on facts and data Decisions are based on tensions and patterns Leaders are experts and authorities

Leaders are facilitators and supporters

Table 2. 1 Traditional change model vs. complex adaptive change model Source: McElyea (2003, p. 63).

Mastenbroek (1996) looks upon organisational change in historical perspective and emphasises that organizational change is essentially a duality management, a balance between autonomy and interdependence, between steering and self-organization. From this perspective, strategies such as empowerment cannot be corrected without strong steering. Top-down reengineering cannot be balanced without the responsibility and creativity of work units. Mastenbroek says that TQM and continuous improvements often do not live up to their promises because the line organization is involved in rather awkward ways. All kinds of analysis and research, internal and external consultants obstruct the development of steering and self-organization in the line organization. This impedes the cultural change necessary to give continuous improvement momentum. Capacities for steering and self-organization are critical assets for such a culture. It is to be noted that this approach does not ask for an absolute participative management style, rather a balance between participative and directive style. A similar view has also been expressed by Cunha, Cunha and Dahab (2002). They have 14

called for a dialectic synthesis between the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ (‘yin’ and ‘yang’) side of management to get a better look at TQM as shown in Figure 2.2.

Norm Standardization Control Methods Statistics Inspection Planning Top Down Leadership Quantity

Participation trust creativity Suggestions self-control bottom up leaders collaboration democratic leadership quality autonomy

Figure 2. 2 The yin-yang of TQM Source: Cunha, Cunha and Dahab (2002).

2.1.2 Parent discipline 2– Total Quality Management 2.1.2.1 Historical background Today, TQM has become a part of corporate management on a global scale (Lakhe & Mohanty 1994; Melan 1998; Yusof & Aspinwall 2000). Quality today is studied under the overall umbrella of ‘Total Quality Management’. The improvements brought about by TQM in the Japanese industry are too well known to merit repetition here. Quality as a concept has moved from being an attribute of the product or service to encompass all the activities of an organization. The core philosophy of TQM as it is understood today is that each step in a production process is seen as a relationship between a customer and a supplier (whether internal or external to the organization). The suppliers will have to meet the customer’s

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requirements, both stated and implied, at the lowest cost. Waste elimination and continuous improvement are ongoing activities. The early development of total quality management was influenced by a few quality ‘gurus’: Deming, Juran, Feigenbaum, Crosby and Ishikawa. Their key contribuitions to the quality movement will now be looked at. The work of Deming: The main thesis of Deming is that by improving quality, it is possible to increase productivity which results in improved competitiveness of a business enterprise. According to Deming, low quality results in high cost which will lead to loss of competitive position in the market. His approach can be summarised in his 14 point programme (Gaither & Frazier 1999, p. 634): (i) Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service. (ii) Refuse to allow commonly accepted levels of delay for mistakes, defective material, defective workmanship. (iii) Cease dependence on mass inspection to achive quality. (iv) Reduce the number of suppliers. Buy on statistical evidence, not price. (v) Constantly and forever improve the system of costs, quality, productivity and service. (vi) Institute modern methods of training on the job. (vii) Focus supervision on helping people to do a better job. (viii) Drive out fear. (ix) Break down barriers between departments. Encourage problem solving through team work. (x) (xi)

Eliminate numerical goals slogans, posters for the workforce. Use statistical methods for continuing improvement of quality and productivity and eliminate

work standards prescribing numerical quotas. (xii) Remove barriers to pride of workmanship. (xiii) Institute a vigorous program of education and training. (xiv)

Clearly define management’s permanent commitment to quality and productivity.

From these initial concepts, Deming later developed what he called the ‘system of profound knowledge’ (Bauer, Reiner & Schamchale 2000, p.412). This means appreciation of a system, knowledge about variation, theory of knowledge and psychology. Deming said that only if the top management is able to understand the company as a complex system, are they able to successfully improve the structures of the system ( Bauer, Reiner & Schamschule 2000, p.412). The work of Juran : Unlike Deming whose approach was more process oriented, the ideas of Juran were having a managerial flavour (Kruger 2001). His main contribution was that

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quality control must be an integral part of the management function. This broadened the understanding of quality. Visible leadership and personal involvement of top management is important in inspiring quality across the organisation. According to Juran (1988), to demonstrate commitment to quality the management should establish a quality council which would coordinate the company’s various activities regarding quality. Further, the management should establish a ‘quality policy’ which should guide the managerial action. The management has to establish quality goals which should be expressed in numbers and should have a time frame. Once a specific goal has been established by the management, it is the responsibility of the management to provide the necessary resources to achive the quality goals. Juran developed the improvement spiral showing that quality improvement is a continuous process and not just a programme with start and end point (Bauer, Reiner & Schamschule 2000). Later these very concepts were incorporated in the ISO 9000: 2000 standard. The work of Ishikawa:

He recognised that for TQM to be sucessful, the tools and

techniques of using data to make decisions must be understood by the workers and first-line supervisors /managers. Accordingly, his techniques and the explanation for application are simple and straightforward. For him, the ultimate purpose of data is to take action based on data. Thus data can be used for understanding the actual situation, analysis, process control and regulation as well as for the traditional acceptance and rejection decisions. The work of Crosby:

While Deming and Juran described the TQM philosophy and

Ishikawa provided the tools and techniques, Crosby offered a detailed guide to implementation. He proposed a quality management grid that described the stages of TQM implementation relative to management’s understanding and problem-solving techniques, the organisational approach, and the results achieved. Each stage of Crosby’s matrix represents an increasingly mature implementation of the TQM philosophy (Crosby 1981). The work of Feigenbaum:

He can be considered the originator of the concept of total

quality control. His main contributions are two: (i) Quality is the responsibility of everyone in an organisation. Quality is produced not only by the production department, but also by marketing, finance, purchasing, and any other department. It is the total participation of all employees and the total integration of all the company’s technical and human resources that will lead to long term business success. Feigenbaum thus developed the concept of quality at source which means that every employee will have to do his/her work with perfect quality. In total quality control, where 17

product quality is more important than production rate, the worker is given the power to stop the production if a quality related problem occurs. (ii) He recognised the cost of non-quality which according to him consists of cost of control and cost of failure of control. Both have to be minimised. Cost of control should be measured by prevention cost (e.g. quality training of employee) which should keep defective part from occuring and appraisal cost (e.g. quality audit costs) which covers the costs of maintaining the quality level of the company. The cost of failure of control is also measured in two areas: internal failure cost (e.g. scrap) and external failure cost (e.g. customer complaints, reworked material). Thus the emphasis of Feigenbaum is not so much to create managerial awareness about quality as to assist an organisation to design its own quality system which involves every employee (Kruger 2001, p.152). 2.1.2.2 Commonalty among quality gurus:

Though the approach of each one of the quality gurus mentioned above has been different, there are commonalities in their work. A summary of their commonalities is shown in Table 2.2.

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Concept/ Author

Crosby (1979,1996)

Deming 1986)

(1982,

Feigenbaum (1951, 1961, 1983, 1991)

Ishikawa (1985)

Customer satisfaction

Maturity grid: from goodness and delighting the customer to satisfaction and conformance.

Customers define quality; consumers are the most important part of the production line.

Total quality control (TQC) means having a consumer orientation.

Cost reduction

The price of nonconformance means that quality is free.

Leadership and top management commitment

Leadership by examplecommitment is demonstrated by participation and attitude.

Doing it right first time means less waste, less rework, and lower costs. Management’s job is leadership (to show constancy of purpose in their focus on quality).

Quality is what the customer says it is; customer focus is embedded in the management of quality. Controlling quality costs less than correcting mistakes.

Top management commitment should be shown by adopting the lead role in implementation.

Training and education

Use training in quality, from the CEO down, to internalise concepts; training and education should be continuous.

Vigorous, continuous program for (re) training employees in new knowledge and skills; statistical methods to check training efficacy.

Requires complete support of top management, who realize that it is not a temporary cost reduction project. Training (on-thejob, classroom, problem solving) and education are fundamental to achieving full commitment to quality.

Teams

Use management team for quality for internal communication, quality council for internal/external communication Quality commitmentgenuine belief by employees in importance of good quality, workmanship, good designs and service.

Cross-functional teams can create improvement in product, service, and quality and reduce costs.

Quality control committees should have representatives from all functional areas.

Cross-functional management committees (teams) facilitate the responsible development of quality assurance.

A new philosophy is required: drive out fear (of quotas, questioning accepted methods, etc.), and instil pride in quality

Quality control is a “spirit of quality mindedness”, from CEO to the shop floor; it is a communication channel and means of participation.

TQC requires organization wide participation; where there are no voluntary quality circle activities, there is no quality control.

Culture

Table 2. 2 Commonalities among seminal TQM work Source: Reed, Lemak and Mero (2000, p. 8).

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TQC reduces cost over the long term, not the short term.

TQC is a revolution in thinking, so training and education must be continuous for all employees (from CEO down).

Juran (1951,1962, 1974, 1988, 1989, 1992) Customer satisfaction which drives market share and profits comes from product satisfaction. Costs of poor quality remain unknown, but they are very high. Top management’s job is motivation, which includes participation in quality program.

To make quality happen, training should include the entire hierarchy, starting at the top: purpose of training is to create or update skills. Major quality improvement projects are multi- functional in nature, thus requiring multifunctional teams. Changing to a company-wide quality system means changing existing cultural patterns; there may well be cultural resistance

Looking at the commonalities of concepts among different gurus of TQM, it can be noted that ‘customer satisfaction’ and ‘reducing costs’ are the two achievable- the two outcomes of TQM. On the other hand, leadership, training, use of teams and ‘having the appropriate culture’ are the four processes by which the two outcomes can be achieved. A review of research related to each of the four processes of leadership, training, use of teams and culture is now done.

TQM and leadership:

Research on TQM has consistently found strong link between

successful TQM implementation and leadership (Ehrenberg & Stupak 1994; Rao, Raghunathan & Solis 1997; Zairi 2002). In general they have argued that top management’s ability to create a vision and promote change is at the heart of successful implementation of TQM. In the specific context of a railway – Mass Transit Railway Corporation, Hong Kong the importance of visionary leadership has been emphasized for successful implementation of TQM (Chan et al. 2002). Leaders must understand culture and recognise those elements that cannot be changed. They must be able to create an environment where they can empower others to act both independently and interdependently. They must provide a vision that focuses on quality and meeting customer’s expectations. In other words, top management need transformational leadership skill. On the other hand, the role of middle management in initiating and institutionalising small, incremental improvements has been noted by Frohman (1997).

TQM and culture: The aspect of culture has been emphasised by the founding fathers of TQM. TQM de-emphasises status distinctions and empowers employees to make decisions and use their own intelligence (Crosby 1981; Deming reported by Tata & Prasad 1998, p. 705). The aspect of culture has been emphasised by other authors also (Chin & Pun 2002; Lakhe & Mohanty 1994; Pun 2001; Sahay & Walsham 1997). Tata and Prasad (1998) have reasoned that one of the reasons for failure of TQM implementation is that culturally many organizations were unprepared to change. In a similar vein, it been reported that implementation of TQM is one of the most complex activities that any company can attempt, due to the fact that it involves a change in the working culture and impacts on people (Mani, Murgan & Rajendran 2003). In the Chinese context, the successful adoption of TQM depended largely on the management of cultural dynamics and organisational complexities of the enterprise (Pun 2001).

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Emphasising the need of cultural change during TQM implementation, it has been argued that TQM calls for a new way of managing business, requiring a new thinking style- the thinking for quality (Yusof & Aspinwall 2000). According to them this is the basic reason for the success of TQM in Japan. Culture has been found to be an important factor in empirically validated studies which aimed at arriving at ‘critical success factors (CSF)’ for successful implementation of TQM (Black & Porter 1996). It has also been corroborated by another empirical study of CSF for TQM in the Indian context (Wali, Deshmukh & Gupta 2003).

TQM and training: The review of literature corroborates the importance of training as an important factor for successful TQM implementation (Palo & Padhi 2003; Quazi, Hong & Meng 2002). Training is considered a vehicle for implementing and reinforcing quality practice (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002). Effective training and employee involvement have also been found to be important for initiating quality management practice in Indian context (Joseph et al 1999).

TQM and (cross functional) team: Teams are appropriate when there is a need for coordination of activity, when major breakthroughs in performance are required. Research has corroborated the importance given to team by the founding fathers of TQM (Black & Porter 1996; Gupta 2000; Mandal et al. 2000). It has been reported that teams are very useful for integration of activities, generating production efficiencies (Quazi, Hong & Meng 2002) and for providing innovative approaches to production issues (Eisenhardt & Tabrizi 1995). In the specific context of a railway unit – Mass Transit Railway Corporation, Hong Kong - the importance of team has been highlighted for successful implementation of TQM (Chan et al. 2002, p.294). Above, the literature in the area of organisational change and TQM has been briefly gone through. Now the literature dealing with the interrelationship between organisational change and TQM will be reviewed.

2.1.3 TQM as a philosophy of change In the context of organisational change, TQM has been an important and popular management innovation and change programme in the 1990’s (Reed, Lemak & Mero

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2002;Yong & Wilkinson 2002). Notwithstanding its popularity, there has also been criticism of TQM. TQM works better in the manufacturing sector than in service sector (Boyne & Walker 2002, p.119). The implementation of TQM has not been an easy task for many organizations (Yusof & Aspinwall 2000, p.291). Thus the success rate of TQM implementation has been around 25% to 30% (Umesh, Bhusi & Kumar 2000). It has been said that the TQM model provides a self-assessment protocol outlining the criteria for business excellence, but without solid guidance on ‘how’ to achieve it (Chan et al. 2002). Only about half of organizations have experienced improvements through TQM (Tata & Prasad 1998). The same authors go on to suggest that this is because of the failure to pay sufficient attention to the cultural and structural variables that influence TQM implementation. However, others have considered TQM as a ‘long term journey with substantial hardship at the beginning which Juran calls sporadic spikes’ (Noronha 2002, p.215). Noronha further says that this positive view towards uncertainty provides the basis for a healthy attitude towards TQM. At a more ideological level, TQM has been dismissed as a managerial control mechanism loosely disguised as a method of worker empowerment (Boje & Windsor quoted by Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002). Another criticism of TQM has been that it provides a rhetoric that is individually interpreted and therefore carries inconsistent meaning across contexts (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002). Cao, Clarke and Lehany (2000) studied TQM based organisational change programmes. According to them, the approaches to organisational change can be classified into four categories: (i) Changes in process (ii) Changes in functions (structural changes) (iii) Changes in values (cultural changes) (iv) Changes in power within the organization

They contend that for TQM to be successful, an approach which addresses all the above types of change is required. ‘However, since TQM as an approach, focuses almost entirely on the changes in process, a systemic approach is needed for successful implementation of TQM or its application needs to be restricted to those contexts where process dominates’ (Cao, Clarke & Lehany 2000, p.5). Thus, Cao, Clarke and Lehany concluded that the success of TQM programmes is in sharp contrast to its popularity.

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In view of this criticism and given the multi attribute characteristics of TQM as emphasised by the founding fathers of TQM and supported by later research mentioned in section 2.1.2, a question arises that what are the different parameters or organisational attributes which are required for an effective implementation of TQM as it is understood today. Three approaches have been used by different researchers to answer this question. The approaches are (i) TQM from a systems perspective. (ii) Understanding the critical success factors (CSF) of TQM. (iii) TQM as understood from different quality award models. The basic thrust of this research is to understand whether TQM can be used for organisational transformation of Indian Railways. Thus understanding the parameters which account for the success or failure of TQM implementation will be useful for this research. Therefore at first, each approach will be looked at in a global context and then focus will shift to Indian context. The global context will help understand TQM from the three approaches more generally and then their Indian context will explain their specific application in India. This focuses the attention to the immediate discipline of this literature review.

2.2 Immediate discipline 2.2.1 Total Quality Management- a systems perspective The first approach to the understanding of TQM is from a systems perspective. System thinking developed in the 1950s as an alternative to traditional management thinking (McElyea 2003, p.59). The systems school grew out of the ‘general systems theory’ developed by the biologist Bertalanffy (McElyea 2003, Mirvis 1996) and the quantitative techniques- operations research and systems analysis—that were developed during the second world war. Further, Simon’s contributions on bounded rationality, satisficing, and incremental decision making recognised the complex environment in which post-war managers made decisions (Ehrenberg & Stupak, 1994, p. 77). System thinking school is aware that traditional management thinking does not have a full picture of situations in organizations. The system school views organizations as complex interrelationships amongst input, throughput (process), output, and feedback. From a systems point of view, an organization is an open and complex system with varying degrees of process flexibility and

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many feedback loops which are used adaptively by an organization for its survival. In the context of organisational change, Harrington, Carr and Reid (1999) have explained three interrelated concepts of system, emergent properties and complexity. It is briefly explained now. System is a set of different elements which together can perform a function which the constituent elements cannot perform alone. Emergent properties are those functions, good or bad, which would not exist except for the operation of the system. Complexity is something that is composed of interconnected elements that function as a system to produce emergent properties. In the context of system, Deming gave the example of automobile – a collection of wheels, engine and transmission do not make them a system. To become a system they must possess the complexity of having been designed in a particular way and then be interconnected in a particular way. Then they become a system called automobile which provides the emergent property called ‘transportation’ and thereby makes it valuable. Thus it is the complexity which gives rise to the emergent properties which define a system and make it valuable. But complexity is also the source of problem. Complexity is on the cusp between stability and chaos and a small amount of perturbation can push the system one way or the other. Systems with the order of complexity as small as three elements with two interconnections per element can produce chaotic behaviour. Lack of chaos is not always desirable. Bankruptcy and death are examples of stable but undesirable states. Thus more the complexity more is the chance that the system will degenerate into a chaotic state or a stable but undesirable state. An interface is a point where two elements come together and exchange something. Interface is the key to design an effective system. The interfaces should be clear and defined and should not be complex. A complex interface results in people developing means to ‘work around’ the complexity. Thus in an organization, a complex inter departmental interface results in people developing ‘ a personal relationship’ to manage the poor inter departmental interface. Interfaces which are ambiguous, grey and subject to interpretation will result in variations in behaviour. High inter-element complexity and ill-defined interfaces will result in disaster. An ideal organization is one in which the elements have a high order of internal and a low order of external complexity. Thus each element must be as independent as possible. Most good systems have good feedback control mechanisms. Feedback is used to maintain and improve the system. But feedback is also a source of complexity and thus has 24

advantages and risks. A good system is one that manages perturbation and change as a system. If feedback results in a perturbation which does not die out before the next perturbation, the system will result in chaos or a stable but undesirable state. The systems view of organization is shown in Figure 2.3. It shows an organization in which the main sub-systems are marketing management, operations / production and finance. It is an example of open system where the customer gives feedback to the marketing sub system of the organization about his/her product choice and its quality requirement. It also gives feedback to the operation / production sub system about the quality of output. The more effective the feedback loops are in a system, the ‘softer’ the system (i.e. the more flexible and response-able to change). According to Cusins (1994) the quality management system (QMS) can be thought of as the servomechanism for the organization. It runs in the reverse direction to the operational systems. Information on outputs from operations form input to QMS and outputs from QMS form inputs to operations. Total quality management consists in making effective boundary judgement at every system interface within the organization and between the organisational system and the user system.

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The business environment Supplier systems

(peri-organizational environment)

Environment information Marketing information Competitor information

Marketing information People

Marketing system

Management system

Contracts

Management information People Machinery Materials Energy

Operation/ production system

Customer systems

Customer requirements Product specification

feedback about quality / product requirement

Goals and targets Decisions Plans Schedules

Product Services (Waste) Feedback about quality of output

Cash out

Financial System

Value of (inputs)

Cash in Value of (outputs)

Figure 2. 3 Simplified example of an organization as a system Source: Cusins (1994, p. 23).

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Thus from the point of view of system theorists, the quality judgement is a judgement made at the boundary between the supplier system and the user system about what passes across it. Further, whether an output is a product or waste is a judgement on its quality. A satisfactory output is a product. An output which cannot be used by the user system is a waste. Waste can collect in the production system, or in the user system or both. Nature often becomes the user system of the waste. Cusins further defines ‘dynamic quality factors’ and

‘static quality factors’. The dynamic quality factors are individual and unique and situation dependent. Their addition will create an image of high quality. The static quality factors are general and common to all customers. They are not situation dependent. Their absence will create an image of poor quality. (Cusine 1994, p. 27) In the context of TQM, systems approach has made a lasting impact. According to McElyea (2003) the birth of most management models like TQM, HPO (High Performance Organization), etc stems from a systems view of organization. Deming who is the father of TQM, also developed what he called ‘the system of profound knowledge’ (Bauer, Reiner & Schamschule 2000, p. 412). System thinking suggests that instead of reductionist approaches to management, a holistic view should be adopted (Taiwo 2001). Taiwo adds that while there is no single model which can capture an organisational situation fully, some of the methodologies which can be used to capture the inter-relationship and intra relationship of an organization are classified as ‘hard’, ‘soft’, ‘cybernetic’ or ‘emanicipatory’ depending on the effectiveness of their feedback loop. These methodologies, if used adequately, complement the customer focus, process improvement and employee involvement principles of TQM. From the point of view of systems theory, TQM fits within the open and the rational systems perspective. Thus TQM process is a system with interactive components. Committing to just one part of the system is unlikely to produce the desired effects. Therefore, from systems theory point of view, TQM is more than leadership; it is more than culture, or training or teams. It is all of these factors together. Further, successful implementation means that effort and perseverance are required to find the right balance for each organization. Thus it is desirable that each firm explores its own needs for leadership, education and training, the use of teams, and the culture development to fit its own particular brand of TQM (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2000). As per the system theorists, implementing a complex system like quality management, with all its serial interactions, is a difficult task and many of the ‘TQM failures’ can be

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attributed more to the failure to implement and manage them as a system. It is not because of any inherent weakness or fundamental flaws in the system or its components (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002). Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000) parallel the systems thinking with the growth of quality systems as shown in Figure 2.4 and Figure 2.5. Business excellence 1990 TQM 1980 Quality assurance 1970 System thinking 1960 System Dynamics 1950 Operations Research 1940 Human Relations 1924 Taylor 1913

Figure 2. 4 Milestones of organisational roots Source: Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000).

Knowledge management Value management Customer focus Customer orientation Business excellence Management systems Process quality Product quality

1970

1980

1990

2000

Figure 2. 5 Milestones of quality development Source: Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000).

Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000, p.412) say that today, what was earlier known as TQM has morphed into business excellence. All the quality awards are today known as models of business excellence. It really makes the two conceptually the same. Both are dominated by a comprehensive systems approach which includes a systemic control of all resources including social and cultural ones.

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2.2.1.1 TQM and System Dynamics The understanding of TQM from the point of view of systems thinking led Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000) to develop a model of quality from the point of view of system dynamics. System dynamics is a tool which can capture the interactions among a range of system variables and predict the implication of each over a period of time (Khanna, 2003). Khanna et al. (2002) have quoted a study by Forrester wherein he used system dynamics to investigate how strategy, decision-making, structure and delay influence the growth and stability of organizations. In the context of quality, through the use of system dynamics software, Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000) showed the interdependence of different organisational sub systems for quality. This is shown in Figure 2.6.

Processes

Customer Satisfaction

Leadership

People People Management

Business Result

(The arrows indicate the information flow) Figure 2. 6 Quality and business results Source: Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000).

Taking the study of TQM through system dynamics further, Khanna et al. (2002) have studied the dynamic interactions among TQM subsystems in the Indian automobile sector. Using the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Model (MBNQA) of USA and modifying it to suit Indian socio-cultural conditions, they identified 12 TQM variables which help in implementing the TQM philosophy. They developed causal relationships among

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different variables and clustered seven of them as enablers and five of them as results. The definitions of the full set of variables are given in Table 2.3 and Table 2.4. The table also links the variables with the emphasis given by the founding fathers of TQM and with the ISO quality management system.

TQM variables: enablers Variables Leadership

Definition

Reference

Senior managers who provide clear vision and Crosby, 1981; values that promote total quality. It is the most Deming, 1993 important enabler for driving a total quality management culture

Strategic

Business strategies incorporate long-term and short- Ishikawa, 1985

planning

term

goals

based

on

customer

and

market

expectations Information

Effective information and communication systems Ishikawa, 1985

management

for continuous improvement of all work

Human

Maximize opportunities for all employees to realize Juran, 1995

resource focus

their full potential

Customer and Customer market focus

(internal

and

external

customer) ISO

9000

-

relationships must be managed to secure clear 2000, understanding of requirements

Supplier focus

Suppliers are treated as partners in the process of ISO improvement

9000-

2000

Process

Systems approach to quality control of all operations ISO

management

including appropriate use of “quality tools”

Table 2. 3 Definition of variable for enablers Source: Khanna et al. (2002, p. 367).

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2000

9000-

TQM variables: results Variables

Definition

Impact on society

References

Societal

ISO 14001/ OHSAS

responsibilities/environmental

18001

management Human

resource All employees are motivated and ISO

satisfaction

dedicated

to

9000/2000,

continuous ISO/TS 16949/2002

improvement – feeling empowered and valued Customer satisfaction

Internal

and

external

customers ISO/9000-2000,

know that their needs are important – ISO/TS 16949-2002 and addressed Supplier satisfaction

Suppliers want to do repeat business ISO/9000-2000, – as partners

Company specific business Do results

the

ISO/TS 16949-2002 company’s

results Mody, 1996

demonstrate effective performance

Table 2. 4 Definition of variables for results Source: Khanna et al. (2002, 368).

2.2.1.2 Systems theory, TQM and organisational learning Organisational learning is another concept which is rooted in systems theory and which is linked to TQM. One definition of organisational learning is that it is the capacity or processes within an organization to maintain or improve performance based on experience (Nevis, DiBella & Gould 1995, p.73). Since implementing TQM involves substantial organisational change (Ehrenberg & Stupak 1994, p. 81), a TQM organization has been defined as an organization that has developed the continuous capacity to adapt and change. Therefore quality movement has been considered the forerunner in creating learning organizations (Elkjaer 1999; Senge 1994, p.61; Zhao & Bryar n.d.) and organisational learning has been considered a necessary outcome of a TQM initiative (Barrow 1993, p.39; Sohal & Morrison 1995). A learning organization adopts TQM commitment to continuous improvement (Garvin 1993, p.78). In the American context, Robbins (1997, p. 735) has dealt 31

with different aspect of learning organization. He says that a learning organization among other things supports the importance of disagreements, constructive criticism and other forms of functional conflict. However, there is some evidence that the way organization learns also depends on the culture of that organization. For example, Kumar (2000), Snell & Chak (1998) and Tsang (1997, p. 83) have shown Indian, Singaporean and Chinese theories of organisational learning respectively which are dependent on the specific culture of the country. Thus Easterby-Smith and Araujo (1999, p.14) advocated a culture and institution based theory of organisational learning. One important way to understand organisational learning is through a theory of action. Argyris and Schön have described organisational learning as a theory of action (Elkhaer 1999, p.79). Action learning postulates that people learn most effectively when working on real time problems occurring in their own setting (Raelin 1997, p.21). Burgoyne, Pedler and Boydell (1994) have shown culture based differences in organisational learning between the US and UK models of action learning.

Zimmer (2001) says that using a systemic

action-learning cycle at the level of second-order cybernetics, it is possible to reduce conflict in the organization and maintain autonomy. According to Zimmer, first order cybernetics is about first order feedback system –‘I plan and do, I sense and I check’. Second order cybernetics is about second order feedback system wherein ‘I share my reflection and feedback with those from another person – you’. Zimmer further says that respect for autonomy is a powerful tool to manage complexity. It lets mutually supportive order emerge. In western culture though, much order is imposed. This causes conflict, which only adds to the complexity. Another approach to organisational change is through innovation. Innovation is a specialised kind of change wherein a new idea is applied to initiating or improving a product, process or service (Kanter quoted in Robbins 1997, p. 732). Bart (2004) has studied the link between innovative practices and organisational learning. Innovative organizations have a culture that rewards both successes and failures (Robbins 1997). Schein (1993) identifies three types of learning: (i) knowledge acquisition and insight, (ii) habit and skill learning and (iii) emotional conditioning and learned anxieties. Most organisational learning theories focus on knowledge acquisition and insight (Schein 1993, p.2). Schein (1996) has also identified three cultures in an organization – the operator culture, the engineering culture and the executive culture. According to him, organizations will not learn effectively unless they recognise and confront the implications of these three

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occupational cultures. For example, he views the executive culture and the engineer culture as major problems because they do not sufficiently consider human factors. This brings into focus the aspects of the content and process of organisational learning. However, organisational learning has not so much been defined in terms of processes (Nonaka 1994, p.16). It has more been identified in terms of outcomes (Huysman 1999). Prange (1999) has therefore argued for a linkage between the content and process of organisational learning. 2.2.1.3 Organisational knowledge creating process Within organisational learning, Nonaka (1994) has dealt with the organisational knowledge creating process. He argues that organisational knowledge is created by continuous dialogue between two types of knowledge – tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is the codified knowledge which is transmittable in formal, systematic knowledge. It is captured in the records of the past such as libraries, databases and archives and is assessed on sequential basis. Tacit knowledge has a personal quality which makes it hard to formalize and communicate. It involves both cognitive and technical elements. The cognitive element comes from the ‘mental models’ which includes schemata, beliefs, paradigms that help individuals to perceive and define the world. The technical element of tacit knowledge covers skills, concrete know-hows and crafts that apply to specific contexts. Sharing of tacit knowledge involves parallel processing of the complexities of current issues. Organisational knowledge is created, enlarged and enriched by the individuals of an organization. It is carried out by the interactive amplification of tacit and explicit knowledge held by individuals, organizations and societies in a spiral fashion. Organization plays the role of a forum where the spiral of knowledge creation takes place through socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation (SECI). The SECI model is shown in Figure 2.7.

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Tacit Knowledge

Explicit Knowledge To

Tacit knowledge

Socialisation

Externalisation

Internalisation

Combination

From Explicit Knowledge

Figure 2. 7 Modes of knowledge creation in an organization Source: Nonaka (1994).

For parallel processing of knowledge, Nonaka emphasises middle-up-down management where all members work together both horizontally and vertically. He deemphasises the charismatic role of top management or the entrepreneurial role of lower management. He looks upon the middle managers as the knowledge engineers who synthesise the tacit knowledge of top managers and frontline employees into new knowledge and new learning. He disagrees with Argyris and Schön that double loop learning is difficult. He argues that double loop learning is in-built in his knowledge-creating model because ‘organization constantly creates new knowledge by reconstructing existing practices, perspective or frameworks on a day-to-day basis’ (Nonaka 1994, p.19). In the context of learning, Reason (2001, p.185) has identified four levels of knowledge: (i) Experiential knowing is through direct face- to-face encounter with person, place or thing; it is knowing through empathy and resonance, and is almost impossible to put in words. (ii) Presentational knowing emerges from experiential knowing, and provides its first expression through forms of imagery such as poetry, drawing, sculpture, movement, dance and so on. (iii) Practical knowing is knowing “how to” do something and is expressed in a skill, knack or competence. (iv) Propositional knowing is knowledge “about” something and is expressed through ideas and theories a. It is expressed in abstract language or mathematics. Bawden (1991, p.17) has considered these four dimensions of learning as opposites yet integrated to each other as shown in Figure 2.8.

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Experiential learning for praxis

Propositional

Practical

learning

learning

for knowing

for doing

Intuitive learning for fitting in

Figure 2. 8 The four types of learning as polar opposites Source: Bawden (1991).

According to Reason, knowing will be more valid – richer, deeper, more true to life and more useful – if these four ways of knowing are congruent with each other; that is if our knowing is grounded in our experience, expressed through our stories and images, understood through theories which make sense to us, and expressed in worthwhile action in our lives. There is much in common between Reason’s concept and the concept of action learning referred earlier.

2.2.1.4 Learning and second order change In a different approach to organisational change, Torbert (1989) has said that first order change is like changing the efficiencies and effectiveness within the existing assumptions. It is akin to the single loop learning of Argyris, Putnam and Smith (1985).

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Second order change involves change in assumptions, change in structure and strategy and change in goals. First order changes are those that occur in a stable system that itself remains unchanged while second order change occurs when fundamental properties or states of the system are changed (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson 2002, p.388). According to Torbert, second order change is very rare. But it is the second order change which is truly transformational. Also it can rarely be planned. Most of the planned changes are first order change. Torbert (1989, p.89) thus doubts the transformational changes which have been documented by many authors such Bass and Tichy and Devanna.

2.2.2 Critical success factors for TQM The second approach which has been used to assess the organisational requirements for successful implementation of TQM is through the identification of critical success factors (CSF). In an attempt to establish empirically validated factors that influence successful implementation of TQM, Black and Porter (1996) have identified ten factors which affect successful implementation of TQM. They are:

(i)

Corporate quality culture

(ii)

Strategic quality management

(iii) Quality improvement measurement system (iv) People and customer management (v)

Operational quality planning

(vi) External interface management (vii) Supplier’s partnerships (viii) Teamwork structures (ix) Customer satisfaction orientation (x)

Communication of improvement information

An early exploratory attempt to arrive at CSF in the Indian context was made by Motwani, Mahmoud and Rice (1994) wherein they arrived at nine critical factors for effective management of quality in Indian manufacturing industry. As the TQM literature in India moved from introductory level discussion on TQM (Lakhe & Mohanty 1994) to more robust research work, the emphasis also shifted from a mere duplicating of western models of quality to trying to develop indigenous models. Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta (2003) made a 36

review of various critical success factors which different authors including the founding fathers of TQM like Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Crosby, Feigenbaum, and Garvin had recommended. Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta started from the early work of identification of the critical success factors (CSF) by Saraph, Benson and Schroeder (1989) to the more recent one by Ahire, Golhar and Waller (1996). From there, they attempted to identify the critical success factors (CSF) for adoption of TQM in the Indian context. Their study claims that these ‘CSFs are derived based on actual practices followed by Indian organizations and it was based on a statistically validated instrument and factor analysis. It was not based on constructing a priori set of pre-defined CSFs and then matching it with actual practice’ (Wali, Deshmukh & Gupta 2003, p. 12). The study by Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta (2003) is perhaps the first comprehensive empirical study of quality practices in the Indian context. Thus it is worthwhile to look in detail at the twelve factors identified by them. They are listed below in decreasing order of importance.

(i) Leadership, Creativity and quality strategy: Successful quality performance requires that the leadership is dedicated to quality. It must also provide initiative and resource support. It must enable creativity to be nurtured and accordingly chalk out the strategy. Given the importance of leadership, it is not surprising to find that, in all quality awards, leadership issues are placed at the top of the list of criteria. Such leadership will drive quality strategy in an organisation and nurture creativity. (ii) Worker – Manager interaction : This means that healthy interaction between worker and manager is important from quality point of view. The manager provides the direction for improvement and accordingly, workers are motivated to take initiative. In case of any difficulty, the worker interacts with the manager to improve the situation. (iii) Results and Recognition : Crosby (1979) considers recognition as one of the most important steps of the quality improvement process. The organisation should reward their employees for their contribution to quality. There should be a quick recognition system for outstanding performance by the employees. These rewards may not be purely financial. (iv) Work culture : The work culture must be very conducive. There should be an active interaction amongst the peers and support from supervisors. The critical importance of the employee’s involvement in the quality process of an organisation should be based on the belief that the best process innovation idea comes from the people actually doing the job.

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(v) Information and Data management : Information is the critical enabler of TQM. This factor emphasises that the key processes are regulary measured and quantified. There should be focus on benchmarking which provides a stimilus for improvement. The facts and information should be made available to all. This is mainly relevant for managing quality costs. (vi) Customer Focus : Quality should be customer driven. …. Employees should be well aware of the concept of internal and external customers. They should care about meeting and exceeding the customer expectations. There must be a focus on customer feedback and accordingly the process should be driven. (vii) Value and ethics : It is important for the people in an organisation to live up to the highest ethical standards. There should be perception of fair treatment to all. The organisation must be guided by the value and ethical standards. (viii) Communication across the organization: Effective communication channels must exist in the organization between various work units. With the help of information technology, comunication can be made effective. Effective comunication is vital in aligning the workforce towards corporate expectations. (ix) Team working: According to Crosby (1979), team work is a critical element of TQM. Teamwork delivers synergistic enhancement of quality efforts. Employees must demonstrate cooperative behaviour and positive attitude towards working in a team. (x) Congenial inter – personal relations : The atmposphere in the organisation must be highly congenial to promote active interaction. There must be mutual respect and faith among employees. (xi) Delegation and empowerment: In a TQM setting, both delegation and empowerment are required. People must share responsibility for the success or failure of their work. (xii) Process improvement: Employees must identify opportunities for continuous improvement. If employee involvement is key to the attainment of customer satisfaction, managing the process is key to engaging an organisation’s employees to take responsibilites for what they are doing in relation to satisfying the customers.

2.2.3 Different International Quality Awards The third approach towards the understanding of TQM is through different quality awards. As TQM became popular around the world, the concepts of TQM were embodied in 38

various national quality awards. Thus a comparison of different quality awards can provide insight into the similarities and differences in the understanding of TQM across the world. Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000) have said that these quality awards are today looked upon as models of excellence. The basis for considering a quality award framework as a model of business excellence is that now it usually contains a set of quality criteria that encompass all areas of an organization’s operation.

2.2.3.1 History of quality awards The Deming Prize (DP) is the oldest quality award instituted in 1951 by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). It is awarded to both individuals and groups that have made significant contributions to quality control (QC) research and to companies that have excelled in applying QC programs. When the TQM concept was brought to the US, the Malcolm Baldridge award was established in 1987 in the U.S. It is awarded in the categories of manufacturing, small business and service. In 1991, the European Quality Award was instituted for European companies, almost on the same lines as the Baldridge award. In 1992, the Australian quality award was instituted. Since these are the earlier awards, a comparative analysis of them is now set out. Vokurka, Stading and Brazeal (2000) have compared the Deming Prize and the western models of quality awards on the basis of their objectives, quality principles and criteria. It is shown in Table A1.1 at Appendix 1. The comparison shows the commonalities among different quality awards. The commonality is that they all use a minimum of seven criteria – (i) Leadership (ii) Strategic planning (iii) Customer and market focus (iv) Information and analysis (v) Human resource focus (vi) Process management (vii)Business results. They all emphasize customer driven quality control through streamlining processes, product design, leadership, human resource development and customer focused strategic plans. In all the models, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and community satisfaction are emphasized. However the criteria differ on what they understand by the 39

seven quality areas – leadership, planning, customers, suppliers, employees, processes and results. The same is shown in Table A1.2 at Appendix 1. In addition they also differ on the weightage they assign to each criteria (see Figure A1.1a to Figure A1.1e at Appendix 1). A comparison of these quality criteria show that except for the Deming Prize, all other award models have common factors. They all assign considerable weightage to the results. However, the researcher is of the opinion that if the enabling factors are robust, the results should automatically follow. In this sense, the result is a dependent variable and the enablers are the independent variables. The researcher considers it a weakness of the quality award models except the Deming Prize that they consider the independent variables and dependent variables on a uni-dimensional additive scale. Coming back to the quality awards, since other award models, except the Deming Prize are based on MBNQA, Vokurka, Stading and Brazeal (2000) have also mapped the different award criteria onto MBNQA categories. It is shown in Table A1.3 at Appendix 1. The mapping shows that in the year 2000, as compared to the Baldridge award, the Deming Prize accorded more emphasis to process control which is perhaps expected, given the strong statistical background which TQM has in Deming’s teaching. However, customer and market knowledge were accorded little consideration in the Deming Prize. The Baldridge award criteria assigned about half of its weightage to business results. But ‘business result’ as a criteria was missing in the Deming Prize. Over time other countries, notably from the non-developed and developing belt, also instituted national quality awards. The commonalities and differences among quality awards of both developed and developing countries are compared with the early quality awards viz Deming award, MBNQA and EQA. Hui and Chuan (2002) made a comparison of the national quality awards of nine countries. Their criteria are indicated in Table A1.4 at Appendix 1. The CII_EXIM award of India is also shown for the sake of quick comparison. It is noteworthy that all the criteria in Table A1.4 can be grouped into two classes of enablers and results as envisaged in the European Quality Award model shown in Figure 2.9. This is perhaps a pointer to certain consistency in the selection of criteria of quality awards by different countries. Different countries have however, given different emphasis to the above-mentioned criteria. The differences in emphasis have been shown in Table A1.5 at Appendix 1.

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People satisfaction

People management

Policy & strategy Leadership

Processes

Resources

Customer satisfaction

Business results

Impact on society

Enablers

Results

Figure 2. 9 European Quality Model Source: Sankaran (1993, p. 98).

2.2.3.2 Commonality and differences among different quality awards The matrix in Table A1.5 compares the different emphases laid down by different quality awards on 39 aspects. U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia can be said to represent similar cultural and political systems. Together, they occupy 39*4 = 156 matrix points in Table A1.5. Out of these 156 matrix points, there are differences only on 20 matrix points amongst them. That is, only on 13% of the matrix points, these four countries lay different emphasis. However, if these four countries are compared as a group with a significantly different country like Japan, there are 11 aspects out of 39 aspects (i.e. 28%) on which this group has a significantly different orientation in comparison with Japan. The thesis now looks at some of the aspects where there are significant differences between them. From Table A1.5, it is seen that staff empowerment is strongly emphasized by the Baldridge award, Canadian, European and Australian awards. But the same is not addressed in the other countries’ award model including that of Japan. However, innovation, a concept complementary to empowerment (Hui & Chuan 2002, p.58) finds mention in all the award models. ‘Leadership by example’ is strongly emphasized in the Japanese award model, but it is not mentioned in other award models. ‘Ethical decision making’ is strongly emphasized in Japan, Singapore and Australian award model, but not in the rest. All the models have 41

customer focus, but the Japanese and the Singapore models strongly emphasize ‘personalized service for enhanced customer satisfaction’. ‘E-technology and other high-tech activities’ are strongly emphasized only in the Baldridge model. ‘Good working relation’ between the boss and subordinate is strongly emphasized in the Japanese, Singaporean and the South African model, but is not directly described in the Baldridge, Canadian, European or Australian framework- maybe because most western society do not emphasize power structure in managing boss-subordinate relationship. These are pointers to the possibility that different countries may use overlapping as well as different criteria to measure their country-specific conception of total quality and organizational excellence (Hui & Chuan, 2002, p.62). Tan et al. (2003) have studied the differences in the modelling of 53 National Quality Awards (NQA). They found that in most of the NQA models, the economic structure, social characteristics and the total quality maturity level have been taken into account. Their study has shown that most of the European countries have modelled their NQA on the EQA. ISO 9000:2000 and ISO 14000 have also been used as a framework for NQA especially by developing countries. 12 out of 53 NQAs studied by Tan et al. (2003) were of Asian countries and 10 of these 12 Asian NQAs were having their own distinctive framework. That is, they were not based on the MBNQA, EQA, ISO 9000 or ISO 14000. Tan et al. (2003) therefore concluded that the cultural and demographic background of a country should be taken into account in designing a NQA. Tan and Khoo (2002) have found Confucianism relevant for effective implementation of NQAs in the Southeast Asian countries. Thus, it needs to be seen that in the context of India, what factors have been identified for successful implementation of TQM.

2.2.3.3 Change in the criteria of quality awards over time In section 2.2.3.2, a comparison among quality awards of different countries was made as they were in the year 2000. However, it may be worthwhile to see how these criteria have evolved over time. Maybe, this will give some indication of the changing understanding of TQM over the last many years. Since the literature, till now, had shown that the Deming Prize was the pioneer and most of the western award models are based on the Baldridge award, the changes brought in these two awards since 1992 is now compared. Then the two awards are compared as they were in the year 2004. The viewpoints of Deming Prize as in 1992 and in 2000 are compared in Table A1.6 at Appendix 1. In making the comparison, checklists of 1992 are shown in 42

column 1 and its conceptually similar checklist in 2000 (rephrased as viewpoint since 2000 by the Deming committee) is shown in column 2. The differences between them are shown in column 3. The differences between them are reproduced in Table 2.5 for ready reference.

Differences in the set of viewpoints for 2000 with respect to those in 1992. The following were either new viewpoints or there were significant changes in them ( significant changes shown in italics) (i)The entire ‘policy’ viewpoint of 1992 becomes a part of the ‘policy management’ under ‘TQM framework’ in 2000. (ii)‘2.4 Relationship to ISO 9000 and ISO 14000’ finds a place in 2000. (iii)‘2.5 Relationship to other management improvement programs’ finds a place in 2000. (iv) ‘2.6 TQM promotion and operation’ gets emphasised as a long lasting activity in 2000. (v) 5. The emphasis shifts from a mere ‘quality oriented training’ to HRD which gets recognised in its own right in 2000. (vi) ‘5.3 Respect for people’s dignity’ is an important culture based addition in 2000. (vii) ‘6.2 Information system’ is a reflection of the systemic orientation in the current Deming model. (viii) The concept of ‘control of systems’ gets subsumed in many other viewpoints in 2000. However, ‘Management system for business elements’ can be said to be the conceptual successor to what was perhaps intended by ‘control’ in 1992. Also, ‘management systems’ gets recognised as an important ‘viewpoint’ in its own right which is a measure of the increased emphasis which DP gives to ‘organisational management’ in 2000 as compared to ‘operational management’ in 1992. (ix)

Cross-functional management, environment management, safety, hygiene and work cost management

are individualised entries in 2000 which were not there in 1992. (x) The scope of results is enlarged more in line with the MBNQA (xi) 1.1 The concept of leadership finds a place. (xii) 1.2 The aspect of vision and strategies gets more emphasis in 2000. The overall emphasis shifts from ‘operational management’ to ‘organisational management’. Both these changes are in line with MBNQA. Note: The numbers given in the above table correspond to the section number in DP criteria 2000.

Table 2. 5 Differences in checklists of Deming Prize 1992 and Deming Prize 2000 Source: developed for this research.

Now it will be seen how the other prominent quality award – the MBNQA – has changed during the last 12 years. The set of criteria for MBNQA in 1992 and in 2004 are compared in Table A1.7 at Appendix 1. Their differences are reproduced in Table 2.6 for ready reference.

43

Differences in MBNQA (1992) and MBNQA (2004) (i)

Leadership gets more weightage. Also, ‘management for quality’ of 1992 gets subsumed in a more ‘general

management’ (ii) Information recognised as an asset which need to be managed. (iii) In 2004, ‘strategic quality planning’ of 1992 gets subsumed in the overall ‘strategic plan’. (iv) In 2004, ‘quality plan’ of 1992 gets subsumed in over all ‘action plan’. In fact in place of an exclusive ‘quality and performance plan’ in 1992, there is the mention of ‘human resource plan’ and of ‘benchmarking of performance’ in 2004. (v) There is less weightage on human resource focus in 2004. (vi)Process, the core of quality management in 1992, gets much less weightage in 2004. (vii) In 2004, ‘Business results’ as against mere ‘quality result’ becomes the hallmark of success. In 2004, financial results and HRD gets recognised as a necessary component of organisational excellence. (viii) There is substantial increase in weightage on business results (ix) Customer, who was the ‘king’ in 1992 with 30% weightage, gets much less weightage.

Table 2. 6 Differences in the criteria of MBNQA 1992 and MBNQA 2004 Source: developed for this research.

Review of literature till 2003 indicates that, in general, there has been a lack of clear understanding of how the Deming Prize is awarded and it’s marking criteria. JUSE which administers the award also recognised it (What is the Deming Prize n.d., p.6). In recognition of this, in 2003 in its ‘The guide for the Deming Application Prize 2003’ JUSE for the first time elaborated its marking criteria and how the Deming Prize is awarded to ‘make the examination process more transparent and to make the intentions of the Deming Prize more clear’ (What is the Deming Prize n.d., p.6). Yet it cautions that ‘the committee’s basic stance on the examination criteria remains unchanged that is the criteria should reflect each applicant organization’s circumstances’ (What is the Deming Prize n.d., p.6). Thus there is no model which a company is supposed to conform to. ‘Rather, the applicants are expected to understand their current situation, establish their own themes and objectives and improve and transform themselves company-wide…. The DP committees view the examination process as an opportunity for “mutual development” rather than examination.’ (What is the Deming Prize n.d., p.6). Therefore it can be seen that the approach of DP is entirely different from those of other quality awards. Considering that it is the oldest quality award, and after all its mutations over the last 50 years, the Deming Committee still finds it worthwhile to retain an altogether different approach, the researcher considers it desirable to highlight its difference with that of MBNQA which, as the literature review has shown, is the source of most other awards (Tan et al. 2003). 44

2.2.3.4 Commonalities and differences between DP (2004) and MBNQA(2004) The major differences between them in 2004 are indicted below. (a) The examination of an organization under DP is conducted under evaluation criteria and judgement criteria. The evaluation criteria itself consists of ‘basic categories’, ‘unique activities’ and ‘role of top management’. Thus, DP assesses an organization on three different dimensions of ‘basic categories’, ‘unique activities’ and ‘role of top management’ while MBNQA assesses the organization on the single additive dimension of a composite score. This makes DP a more detailed examination. (b) As per the judgement criteria of DP, an organization will have to achieve 70% in each of the three evaluation criteria. But in MBNQA, the overall points obtained is the sum of the points obtained in each of the seven criteria and two organisations which secure the highest and the second highest overall points get the award. So while MBNQA is more competitive, DP can be taken as more benchmarking oriented. Little wonder the DP committee views the examination process as ‘mutual development’ and ‘TQM diagnosis’ in the preceding year is a precondition for applying in the subsequent year. (c) Except for leadership, all other criteria of MBNQA are reflected in the ‘basic categories’ criteria of DP. The relationship among different constituents of ‘basic categories’ was, for the first time made public by JUSE in its ‘Deming Application Guide 2003’ (www.juse.or.jp). However, the set of interrelationships among different constituents of MBNQA were known since the beginning of MBNQA. (d) In case of the Deming Prize, even within ‘basic categories’, the examination subcommittee can make changes in its ‘items’ and ‘points’ which are not there in MBNQA. Thus unlike other quality awards, DP fully recognises that an organization can have, for its development, its unique set of quality related activities. ‘In fact the emphasis of the examination is on whether or not the company has developed a unique brand of TQM suitable for its business and scale’ (What is the Deming Prize n.d, p.5)…… ‘For any company, the shortest way to win the DP is to manage its business in the most appropriate manner to the company’ (What is the Deming Prize n.d, p.5). DP also gives full recognition to organization specific TQM by examining ‘unique activities’ of an organization as a separate dimension. The existence of ‘unique activities’ indicates that DP allows different flavours of quality management to grow and get institutionalised in different organizations. But the MBNQA criteria are fixed.. 45

(e) Unlike what some literature on the Deming Prize indicate ( Vokurka, Stading & Brazeal 2000, Khoo & Tan 2003), ‘role of top management’ is very strongly emphasized in the Deming Prize. In fact it is one of the three dimensions for examination in DP while it is just one criterion in MBNQA. Further, a deeper look at the points which are examined in ‘role of top management’ in DP, indicates that now there is a good deal of congruence in the role of leadership as postulated by DP and by MBNQA. However, DP talks about leadership’s enthusiasm about TQM, as it talks about the enthusiasm of

every one else in ‘basic

categories’ (The guide for Deming Application Prize 2004, p.34) which perhaps points to an attitudinal slant of DP examination. (f) In MBNQA 45% of the weightage is given to ‘result’, but in DP, ‘result’ as a category is only seen to have been alluded to in the list of ‘viewpoints’ as ‘Contribution to Realization of Corporate Objectives’. (g) Unlike what has been reported in some research (Izadi, Kashef & Stadt, 1996, Lee 2002, p.144) DP does not require advanced statistical methods to be used in an organization (What is the Deming Prize? n.d, p.5). (h) The DP committee members undertake the examination free. However JUSE charges JPY 500,000 (US $ 5000) as the administrative fee. The MBNQA charges US$ 5000 as application fee and between US $ 10000 to US $ 35000 for site visit. (i) What is most noteworthy about DP is that in spite of all the mutations it has undergone in the last 12 years, it has retained its basic congruence with the philosophy of Deming – the Deming 14 points (see section 2.1.2.1). It also continues to pay attention to whether the organization is free from the seven deadly diseases (Deming 1993) which are listed below: (i) Lack of constancy of purpose. (ii) Emphasis on short-term profit. (iii) Evaluation of performance, merit rating, or annual review. (iv) Mobility of management, job-hopping. (v) Management by use of visible figures, with little consideration of figures that cannot be made visible. (vi) Excessive medical costs (peculiar to US industry only) (vii) Excessive cost of liability That DP still calls its process ‘challenging and developmental’ indicates that one needs to have constancy of purpose for this. It still insists that it will take three years or more to be ready to win the prize- so one does not expect a short term jump in profit by quickly going for DP. It still insists that one year before, the organization will have submit to TQM 46

diagnosis ‘so that the organization receives a diagnosis - a recommendation for the introductory or promotional stage of TQM’ (Deming Application Guide 2003, p. 36). It still insists on a ‘on site visit’ – the core of the examination (Deming Application Guide 2004, p.19) – so that it can get information beyond ‘visible figures’. Thus from among many TQM award models, the researcher decided to use the Deming Prize as the preferred model in this research. A question arises: ‘In spite of the differences, are there any commonalities between the DP and the MBNQA’ ? A look at the changes which have come about in these two awards between 1992 and 2004, shows that in 1992, the emphasis in both was on excellence in product/ service quality. But by 2004, the emphasis shifted from a mere technical quality to emphasis on quality of all organisational processes. That is, quality had now acquired a strategic dimension. That is, by the year 2004, TQM award had come to mean organisational excellence and long-term business success. In fact almost all the national awards now look upon their award model as a model of organisational excellence (Tan et al. 2003, Lee 2002). Thus today, TQM is considered a set of business strategy which aims at harnessing the full capacity of all organisational resources (Kruger 2001). From this point of view, TQM can be accepted as a model of organisational excellence. The researcher considers it an important understanding, arrived at from literature review, that today, TQM is akin to organisational excellence.

2.2.3.5 TQM and awards in public sector All the awards that have been looked at, started with private sector organizations in mind. A question arises whether these awards need to look different in the context of public sector. In recognition of the different framework which public sector may require, the Federal Quality Institute (FQI) was established in U.S.A. (Research Results Digest 1994, p.4). FQI also administers the ‘President’s award for Quality’ for the public sector in the US. However, there is no equivalent of FQI in India. The President’s Award was instituted in 1988 for the top federal public sector performer in the USA. The President award, though based on the Baldridge Award, was governed by a briefer and less stringent set of criteria. (Harwick & Russell 1993, p.34). Also, the Baldridge section ‘on public responsibility’ was not included in the President award 47

(Harwick & Russell 1993, p. 36). The contenders for the President Award must qualify by first winning a prototype award - the President Prototype Award (Harwick & Russell 1993, p.34). The President Prototype Award was instituted to encourage

less developed

departments into the quality process. Outside the U.S.A., awards like the ‘National Quality Award for the Public Transportation and Traffic Industry’ was instituted by the Brazilian National Public Transport association (www.antp.otrg.br). This quality award is also an adaptation of the MBNQA model. ( International Awards n.d.). Thus, the answer to the question whether there are separate set of yardsticks in quality awards for public sector appears to be ‘no’. Even in the Indian context, though the Indian Peacock award is divided into three categories, one of them being for government organizations, the criteria for all the three categories are the same.. However, beyond the limited ambit of quality awards, another approach which governments across the world used for better public management in the 1980s and 1990s was the reform movement. Realising the importance of quality in government, there has been instances of innovation in different government departments across the world (Kamarck 2003, p.26). For example, the United States adopted Customer Service standards for its federal agencies. In Europe, ‘Citizen Charters’ were the response of the British government for the introduction of a quality movement in the public sector. These charters articulated explicit performance for everything from waiting times at the National Health Service to expectations for the punctuality of the railway system. Portugal established Quality Charters for public services and Ireland established Northern Ireland Quality Awards for excellence in Northern Ireland public sector organization. This award model was based on the European Foundation Quality Management’s (EFQM) Business Excellence Model (McQuillan 2003). In 1998, the Australian government embarked upon a major reorganisation of 78 different social service programs affecting 7 million customers. It was called ‘centrelink’ and it has been reported to be one of the most studied instances of quality and customer driven government in the world (Kamarck 2003, p.24). It flattened hierarchies, put the most experienced people in the front, instituted performance pay. All this helped in creating a customer culture. A more detailed review of the infusion of quality consciousness in government working will be undertaken in the study of bureaucracy. The literature review till now focussed on the development of TQM in Japan and in the western countries. An attempt was then made to understand TQM through the lens of

48

TQM awards. The growth and status of TQM in India and the Indian quality awards are now reviewed.

2.2.3.6 TQM in India and Indian quality awards

The literature review, till now, shows that in the western literature, TQM has been an important field of study for the last two to three decades. In the Indian context however, the TQM initiative was first set up by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in the early 1980s. In 1987 and 1988, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) invited the Juran Institute to India to conduct workshops and in 1989 a team from India attended the Deming seminar in London. Because of the strategic tie-up between many Japanese automobile manufacturers and Indian automobile manufacturers, there have been TQM implementations in some Indian automobile companies such as Maruti and TVS Suzuki. It has been reported that some Indian companies - mostly ancillary suppliers to large automobile manufacturers in India had tied up with Japanese consultants to implement total quality (Business Today reported by Jagadeesh 1999). Jagadeesh further adds that, in general, the manufacturing sector in India is well aware of the importance of quality but the service sector, mostly government owned, lags behind the manufacturing sector in all aspects that imply quality. Also, there are large variations in the depth and the spread of quality culture among Indian organizations. Some are comparable to the best in the world, but the bulk of Indian companies are yet to make use of the various techniques for continuous improvement. In what is perhaps one of the few studies of TQM in the Indian public sector, Gyani (1995) talks about implementation of TQM in Indian Oil wherein all the workers were involved through small group activities at the shop floor. The special point about this TQM attempt was that the TQM project began at the shop - floor level involving workers and then moved onto the middle management levels. Blythe and Shahani (1997) have described a continuous improvement initiative at Glaxo which has been successfully implemented. In this report, in order to give TQM the right organisational connotation, they named their initiative as 'Glaxo Excellence Process'. They cited commitment from the top as one of the key enablers (Blythe & Shahani 1997, p.16). Blythe, Rao and Shahani (1997, p.104) further add that ‘the simpler the process used, the better it works’…. ‘The basic rules are to determine the starting point, define the destination, map the route, put in place a structured and organized training 49

programme for all staff, set goals and measurables and launch the recognition system’. Gondhalekar and Karamchandani (1994) have described a kaizen improvement system started at Godrej. They identified the variables which affected this improvement system and further classified them into two categories: (i) Attributes of individuals (a) organisational level (higher the better) (b) age (middle age 30-50, better than extreme age) (c) recognition, (d) communication ability (e) type of work (shopfloor better than desk) (ii) attributes pertaining to design of the system (a) visible top management commitment (b) mandatory participation. In a countrywide survey of competitiveness of Indian manufacturing industry, it has been reported that quality is the topmost competitive priority of Indian firms (Chandra & Sastry 2001). In a study of propagation of quality management practices among Indian manufacturing companies since 1985, Mandal et al. (2000) have stressed the improvement of organisational culture in the direction of team working, harmony and participation. The same study also reports that there were a small number of companies which have started using SQC techniques but the bulk of the focus continued to be on inspection as a means of achieving quality. In fact, it has been remarked (Harrington reported by Jagadeesh 1999) that companies with poor performance went bankrupt in other parts of the world but were still surviving in India. This means there is still scope for bad products in India. As the concept of quality began to be internalised by the Indian industry, spurred to a great extent by competition, quality awards were instituted on the lines of

Malcolm

Baldridge award and European Quality award. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) was introduced in 1987, and the European Quality Award was introduced in 1991. In comparison, the first Indian quality award - Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award (RGNQA) - was instituted in 1991. Thereafter a number of quality awards were also announced. This was a measure of the maturing of quality related concepts in India. In Table 2.7, different Indian quality awards and their criteria have been compared. In order to understand the philosophy behind these awards, a quote from CII-EXIM award is reproduced: ‘The purpose of creating this award was to set a challenge for industry to scale new heights of quality and leadership. It does this in part by creating “role model” 50

organizations, which exemplify the application of the TQM approach to the achievement of business success - this is business excellence’(Wali, Gupta & Deshmukh, 2000, p. 287). It is thus noted that in the Indian quality awards also, TQM is considered as the equivalent to business excellence.

51

Awards

Golden Peacock Award 2003

Organizations

Institute

of

Directors,

New Delhi

CII-EXIM

IMC

Rajiv

Gandhi

Award

Ramkrishna

National

Quality

Bajaj Award

Award (1999)

Confederation of

Indian

Bureau

Indian

Industry

Merchant’s

Standards, New Delhi

and

Export-

Chamber

Import Bank of

Bombay

of

Indian

India, New Delhi Criteria

Organisational

120

Leadership

100

Leadership 100

leadership Strategic

Policies and strategies 100

planning Human resource

Leadership 100

Policy and

80

strategy 100

Management

Strategic

80

100

planning

People

90

management

Human

100

resource

Human

resource

management 50

development and management Enablers

Information analysis 60

Information

80

analysis

Process

120

Resources

90

Processes

140

Management

Sub total 500 150

Satisfaction Employee

Impact on society

Customer

Sub total 500 200

satisfaction 100

Satisfaction Results

140

100

Processes

150

management

Sub total 500 Customer

Process

Resources

Customer

Sub total 500 100

satisfaction

People

200

satisfaction

90

Employee

satisfaction 100

Customer

50

satisfaction

Impact

60

on society

Impact on

100

environment

and

society Business results

150

Sub total 500 Total

1000

Business

150

Business

400

Business

150

Results

Focus

results

Sub total 500

Sub total 500

Sub total 500

Total

Total

Total

1000

Table 2. 7 Major Indian National Quality Awards Source: developed for this research.

52

1000

1000

It is seen from the table that all the four Indian awards have given almost the same weightage to different quality criteria.

2.2.3.7 Indian quality awards vs. MBNQA & EQA When these quality awards were instituted, they were generally based on western quality models of MBNQA and EQA ( Chandra & Adur 1999). Even now, the comparison of Indian quality awards with MBNQA and EQA show that there are striking similarities among the ‘enablers’ and the ‘results’ of the Indian quality awards vis-à-vis the corresponding enablers and results of the western quality awards. The relative weightage given by Indian quality awards on different criteria are also similar to those given by EQA and MBNQA as shown in Table 2.8.

53

Golden

CII-EXIM

IMC

Rajiv

Peacock

Award

Ramkrishna

National

Bajaj Award

Quality Award

Leadership 10%

Award 2003 Organisational

Leadership 10%

leadership 12% Strategic quality

Policy and

planning 10%

strategy

Human resource

People

utilization 10%

management

8%

Strategic

8%

Gandhi

MBNQA

EQA

Leadership 10%

Leadership 11%

Leadership 10%

Policies

and

Strategic

Policy

10%

planning

strategies

8%

& strategy

8%

planning 9%

Human

10%

resource

Human resource

Human resource

People

management 5%

focus

management 9%

10%

development and management Information 6%

Information

management

analysis Resources

Information 8%

9%

analysis

& 8%

Resources 10% Customer

Resources

9%

Processes

14%

&

market focus 8% Process

12%

Processes

14%

management

Process

14%

Processes

15%

management

Process

10%

management

Sub total 50%

Sub total 50%

Sub total 50%

Sub total 55%

Sub total

Customer 15%

Customer

Customer

Customer

(customer

Customer

Satisfaction

satisfaction

focused result,

satisfaction 20%

Employee 10%

People

human resources

People

Satisfaction

satisfaction

result,

satisfaction 9%

Impact on 10%

Impact

organisational

Impact on

society

on society

environment and

effectiveness

Society

society

result,

50%

Sub total 50% 20%

10%

satisfaction

20%

satisfaction

9%

Employee

5%

satisfaction 6%

Impact on

10%

supplier

6%

&

partner result, Business results

Business

15%

Results

Focus

results

result)

Sub total 50%

Sub total 50%

Sub total 50%

Sub total 45%

Sub total 50%

Total

Total

Total

Total

Total

Sub total 50% Total

100%

15%

100%

Business

40%

100%

Business

15%

100%

fin

&

Table 2. 8 Comparison of Indian Quality Awards with MBNQA & EQA Source : developed for this research.

54

market

Business

45%

Result

100%

15%

100%

Since these Indian awards are based on western award models, a question arises that how do these Indian quality awards compare with the critical success factors referred to earlier in this research. Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta (2003, p. 9) in their study have compared the CSFs with one of the Indian quality awards - CII EXIM Business Excellence Award (CEBEA). The same are indicated in Table 2.9.

Factors proposed

Corresponding CEBEA criteria

Leadership, Creativity and Quality Strategy

Leadership/Policy & Strategy

Worker Manager Interactions

*

Results and recognition

Business Result/Impact on society

Work culture

*

Information and Data Management

*

Customer Focus

Customer satisfaction

Values and Ethics

*

Communication across the organization

People Satisfaction

Team Working

People Management

Congenial inter-personal relations

People Management/ People Satisfaction

Delegation and Empowerment

People Management /People Satisfaction

Process Improvement

Processes

Table 2. 9 CSFs for TQM and CEBEA criteria Source: Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta (2003, p. 9).

It is worthwhile to compare the commonalities between the CSFs discovered by Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta with the TQM implementation at Glaxo and the Kaizen improvement at Godrej mentioned earlier. Training, communication, top management commitment and recognition are common among them which perhaps pointed to the universality of these factors. It was noted in section 2.2.3.3 that in the case of Deming Prize, the very approach to quality award was different. It was also noted in section 2.2.3.2 that studies have shown that the South Asian awards have a different flavour which takes into account the specific culture and demography of this region. Viewed in this background, the similarities between the Indian quality awards and the western quality award indicate that in designing the Indian 55

awards, perhaps, no specific care of the Indian context was taken. A comparison of CSFs of Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta and CII-EXIM award criteria (see Table 2.9) also shows critical success factors for which there are no corresponding criteria in the CII – EXIM model. Thus the researcher takes a stand that while the Indian quality award models may be taken as a measure of reasonable prevalence of TQM in an Indian organization, but from a developmental point of view, for the implementation of TQM in the Indian Railways, the Indian or for that matter, international quality award models need not be taken as the starting point.

2.2.4 Synthesis of system dynamics, CSFs and quality award criteria Since the survey of the Western, Japanese and Indian studies for the identification of factors for successful implementation of TQM is now completed, it is worthwhile to compare these factors to understand their commonalities and the differences. The commonalities are that across the world, leadership, policy and strategy, human resource management, process management, information and data management, customer and market focus and supplier focus are the factors or enablers which contribute to the success of TQM. This is confirmed by the three sources of studies: (a) the study of different award models (Hui & Chuan 2002; Tan et al. 2003; Vokurka, Stading & Brazeal 2000); (b) by empirical research done in arriving at CSF for TQM (Black & Porter 1995 in the European context; Motwani, Mahmoud and Rice 1994 in the Indian context; Saraph et al. 1989 in the American context; Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta 2003 in the Indian context) and (c) by the modelling of TQM on the lines of system dynamics (Bauer, Reiner & Schamschule 2000; Khanna et al. 2002). However, different countries tend to look at these factors differently. For example, the cultural pattern of a country and within a country the organisational values of different companies have been found to be variables which affect TQM implementation. Another difference is with respect to the path followed by organizations of these countries in their pursuit of TQM. Given the birth of TQM in Japan, it is not surprising that the Japanese organizations have readily gone for TQM implementation. But the western countries have in general used ISO as the first tentative step towards TQM. Indian organizations too, have in general used ISO as their first step towards development of a quality consciousness. Thus Melan (1998) has suggested a contingency approach for the implementation of TQM in an organization. Chin and Pun (2002, p.274) have quoted Lewis and Smith who have identified 56

six common approaches which have been used to develop and/or to implement TQM. They are: (a) Guru approach. Here the writings of Deming’s 14-point model, Crosby’s 14 steps and Juran’s triology are used for analysis and implementation. (b) Japanese model approach. This uses the writings of Japanese writers such as Ishikawa and the educational guidelines (e.g. Kaizen, 5S, etc) of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers. (c) Total quality element approach. This uses elements (e.g. quality circles, statistical process control and quality function deployment) of continuous improvement rather than full implementation. (d) Hoshin planning approach. This focuses on successful planning, deployment and execution and diagnosis of quality practices and performance measurement. (e) Quality awards/ business excellence criteria approach. This includes MBNQA, EQA, Australia Quality Award and similar quality awards to identify areas of improvement. (f) Industrial company/leader model approach. This is where leaders from one organization visit an organization using TQM, identify its system and integrate this information with their own to create a customised approach. Visiting and learning from the quality/excellence award winners is an example of this approach. While all these approaches work, the most useful TQM implementation plan is an integrated blend of them (Lindsay & Petrick 1997). The moderating influence of culture on TQM implementation and the adoption of ISO path by many western organizations as the first step towards adoption of TQM indicate that the worked done in these areas need to be studied in detail. Thus another set of immediate disciplines which need to be studied for implementation of TQM in the Indian Railways are – (i)

TQM and ISO.

(ii) TQM and culture. (iii)The Indian cultural values. (iv) The organisational values of Indian Railways. Since Indian Railways is part of Indian government our study of organisational values of Indian Railways should begin with the study of Indian bureaucracy and then shift to Indian Railways. First the work done in the areas of TQM and ISO will be reviewed.

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2.2.5 Total Quality Management and ISO Starting as a management and quality assurance guidelines in 1987, today ISO 9000: 2000 standard is a structured basis to develop systematic programs for quality improvement. ISO certification has been one of the popular routes for organizations across the world in their quest for quality. In a cross-country study to assess the impact of ISO 9000: 1994 on quality management, Rao, Raghunathan and Solis (1997) studied firms in the USA, Mexico, India and China which were then consolidated to form a global perspective. This study found significant differences between ISO 9000 registered and non-registered firms in terms of quality management practices. The ISO 9000 registered companies exhibited higher levels of quality leadership, information and analysis, strategic quality planning, human resource development, quality assurance, supplier relationships, customer orientation and quality results. Hill, Hazlett and Meegan (2001, p.153) have reported that in the UK organizations seek ISO 9000 certification first, and then move towards TQM. Agus and Abdullah (2000) in their study of Malaysian manufacturing companies found that companies with ISO certification and long-term TQM adoption were better quality implementers which could give them an edge over their competitors. Escanciano, Fernández and Vázquez (2001) found in their study of Spanish companies that ISO 9000 certification contributes to a company’s progress towards total quality. They also found that companies which went for certification mainly for internal reasons progressed well towards TQM (Escanciano, Fernández and Vázquez 2001, p.492). Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2002) have found compelling evidence in a study of ISO certified companies in Greece that when a company’s true motive behind ISO certification was only advertisement or external pressure, there was no significant correlation with TQM based performance improvement. But when the true motive was to improve their internal operations and product, it was significantly correlated with TQM base performance improvement (Gotzamani and Tsiotras 2002, p.165). Similar result has been reported by Poksinska, Dahlgaard and Antoni (2002) for Swedish companies. A study by Sun (1999) found that among Norwegian firms, ISO certification was significantly correlated with quality results especially the reduction of defective products and customer complaint. However, it had little influence on market position and competitiveness. They concluded that ‘it seems as if there is a tendency for the ISO 9000 standards to be taken as part of a TQM programme in the future……Yet it will be long journey for the Norwegian companies to continue the TQM implementation’(Sun 1999, p.901). A study in North America found that

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ISO 9000: 1994 was being adopted as one tool in a larger strategy of achieving competitive advantage through quality management and in this sense, it complemented rather than substituted TQM (Anderson, Daly & Johnson 1999). On the other hand, in a review of the effects of ISO 9000: 1994 certification on small Singaporean firms, Quazi, Hong and Meng (2002) found that ISO certification did not affect quality management practices and quality results. However, they qualified their conclusion with the observation that the composition and characteristics of the firms in the sample may be the reason for such differences in findings. Lack of relationship between ISO 9000: 1994 and TQM implementation was also found by Sun and Cheng (2002) in their study of Norwegian firms. According to them, ISO 9000 aims to standardize certain process and maintain the quality level while TQM aims to establish a quality culture and continuously improve quality level (Sun and Cheng 2002, p. 437). However they also qualified that in order to incorporate the two, ISO 9000: 1994 may be required to be updated to the new version. Curry and Kadasah (2002) found that in Saudi Arabia, ISO 9000 was in itself not sufficient in establishing an effective quality management system nor was it sufficient to produce quality product. They also found that ‘to achieve registration merely to have the certificate with little in the way of supporting infrastructure often causes more problems than it solves’(Curry & Kadasah 2002, p.214). In the context of railways, Lee and Lam (1997) have reported a study on KowloonCanton Railway Corp where starting from ISO 9001:1994 they progressed to a TQM programme called ‘quest for excellence’ through which they reported significant improvement in their working. Two of its activities are worth reporting: (i) The quality procedures and the work instructions were prepared by persons who were directly responsible for, and therefore most clear about, the work processes covered by them. An important part was that the persons were required to consult their staff during the preparation process to ensure that the resultant procedures and instructions were practicable. It created a sense of ownership. This was very much like hoshin – planning. (ii) There was no separate quality audit team. The duties of internal audit were assigned to the section managers and line officers selected from different sections. This avoided a conflict of interest with the additional benefit of better understanding of other sections and the exchange of best practices. It is to be noted that all the studies referred above were based on firms which complied with the ISO 9000: 1994 version. In fact during the literature review the researcher could not come across any study made about the impact of ISO 9000: 2000 on the quality 59

management system. This could be because the latest version of ISO came only in December 2000 and it gave a three-year time frame to companies to shift from old standard to the new standard. Therefore, the conceptual similarities between ISO 9000: 2000 and TQM are now assessed.

2.2.5.1 ISO 9000:2000 and TQM

The ISO 9000 version 2000 published in December 2000 is based on eight principles listed below (www.iso.org ): Principle 1:

Customer Focus

Principle 2:

Leadership

Principle 3:

Involvement of People

Principle 4:

Process Approach

Principle 5:

System Approach to Management

Principle 6:

Continuous Improvement

Principle 7:

Factual Approach to Decision Making

Principle 8:

Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

It is to be noted that principle 5 of ISO 9000:2000 does recognise the systems approach to management. Not only this, the eight principles mentioned above also closely resemble the enablers for TQM implementation as synthesised in section 2.2.4. Thus it has been argued that ISO 9000:2000 closely reflects the basic principles of TQM (Kartha 2002). The ISO 9000:2000 family of standards consists of three documents: ISO 9000:2000, Quality Management System – Fundamentals and Vocabulary; ISO 9001:2000, Quality Management Systems – Requirements; and ISO 9004:2000, Quality Management Systems – Guidelines for Performance Improvement. ISO 9004:2000 is a business management tool which companies can use to go above and beyond the foundational elements of ISO 9001. It includes information from different national quality awards such as MBNQA, EQA and JQA (Babicz 2001). Thus ISO 9000:2000 is conceptually closer to the TQM model of excellence. Pheng (2001) have shown the similarities between ISO 9000:2000 and the Japanese ‘5S’ principles. All these show the coherence of concepts between ISO 9000:2000 and TQM. In

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fact continuous improvement is the focus of the process based model of ISO 9000:2000 shown in Figure 2.10.

Continual improvement of the quality management system Management Responsibility

Customers Customers

Requirements

Resource management

Measurement, analysis and improvement

Product realization

Value-adding activities

Satisfaction

Product

Information flow

Figure 2. 10 Model of a process-based quality management system Source : ISO 9001:2000 standard.

Another similarity between TQM and ISO 9000:2000 has been attempted by Magd and Curry (2003). They have mapped the Deming’s system of profound knowledge with the components of ISO 9000:2000. The same is shown in Table 2.10.

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ISO 9000 Process The initial assessment is a detailed review of the company’s quality systems and

9000 assessment

procedures compared with ISO 9000 requirements. This process defines the scope of the ISO project. Quality

assurance

While ISO 9000 standards do not require a quality assurance and policy manual, they do require the company to document everything it does and every system that affects

manual

the quality of the finished product. The quality manual is often used because it is a good way to get all the necessary documentation together in one place. Everyone, from top to bottom, needs training in two areas. First, they need an overall

Training

understanding of ISO 9000 vocabulary, requirements , role of the quality manual, and benefits that will be derived from the system. Second, they need to be aware of the actual day-to-day process of upgrading and improving procedures. Documentations

of

Processes that have been improved will need new documentation. Once completed, this manual should outline every process a company undertakes that affects the quality

work instructions

of a finished product. The final step in ISO 9000 program is an audit by company-chosen register to see that

Registration audit

the system is working as described in the quality manual and that the system meets ISO 9000 requirements.

Deming’s system of profound knowledge Knowledge

about

The system contains inter-related components working together in harmony. Managers should ensure communication and co-operation among the different parts of the system

the system

and each component has a duty to contribute to the whole system. Therefore, it is not important if any of the components is losing money as long as it contributes to the success of the other components. Knowledge

about

Deming emphasises the need to understand variations between people, processes, products, and outcomes; nothing remains constant. Managers should consider

variation

variations in process capability and control charts, and most importantly, variations in people. Theory

of

Practice based on past experience is a very important element for managers. Deming claimed that there is no true value of any conditions; any experience might yield

Knowledge

different results when different procedures are used. Knowledge psychology

of

Management should understand the human side of organization and the human interaction of employees. People differ, and management should use these differences for optimisation providing incentives and motivation to succeed.

Table 2. 10 ISO 9000 and Deming’s system of profound knowledge Source: Magd and Curry (2003). 62

Magd and Curry (2003) have said that the first three elements of Deming’s profound knowledge and the ISO 9000:2000 process/system approach complement each other. However, Deming’s Knowledge of Psychology is not evident in ISO 9000 because ISO 9000 does not focus on human interactions (Magd & Curry 2003, p. 248). They concluded that ‘ISO 9000 can be implemented first to create stability and consistency in the organization’s work, then the implementation of TQM can enhance employee motivation and operational efficiency, and achieve overall organisational success and performance’(Magd & Curry 2003, p.252). Biazzo and Bernardi (2003) have compared the ISO 9000:2000 with MBNQA and EFQM to assess their conceptual convergence. It is shown in Table 2.11.

MBNQA

Model

EFQM Model (1999)

ISO 9000 (2000)

Principle developed in the

Principle developed in the same way

(2001) Visionary leadership

same way Customer-driven

Principle developed in the

excellence

same way

Organisational

and

personal learning

Principle developed in the same way

Principle developed in the

Principle developed in the same way (focus on

same way

continuous

improvement

of

company

performance) Valuing

employees

and partners

Principle developed in the

Principle developed partially in the same way

same way

(focus

on

both

personnel

and

supplier

development) Agility

Principle not developed

Principle not developed

Focus on the future

Principle not developed

Principle not developed

Managing

Principle given less emphasis

Principle not developed

for

innovation Management by facts

Principle

developed

in

a

Principle developed in a similar way, but with

similar way, but with more

more emphasis on processes and on their

emphasis on processes

interconnections

Public responsibility

Principle developed in the

Principle not developed

and citizenship

same way

Focus on result and

Principle developed in the

creating values

same way

Principle developed in the same way

Table 2. 11 Comparison of MBNQA, EFQM and ISO 9000 Source: Biazzo & Bernardi (2003).

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The above studies indicate that it is reasonable to conclude that ISO 9000:2000, unlike ISO 9000:1994 has embodied many concepts of TQM. If ISO 9000 and TQM are so interrelated, what are the key factors which facilitate a successful transition from ISO 9000 to TQM?

2.2.5.2 Factors affecting transition from ISO to TQM Hill, Hazlett and Meegan (2001) studied more than 100 ISO registered companies over a period of time and concluded that the key factors affecting transition from ISO to TQM are:

(i) Transformational leadership Hill, Hazlett and Meegan (2001) said that visionary or transformational leadership is of key importance throughout the transition process. They also quote Smith (Hill, Hazlett and Meegan 2001, p.153) who has highlighted the need for the leader to enrol others as co-creators of the vision arguing that ‘people who are enrolled or committed, identify themselves with the vision and apply themselves to effecting its realisation’. Bass (1990) also emphasised the need for more transformational leaders at higher levels in an organization as then lower level employee will emulate transformational behaviour. (ii) A capacity and willingness to learn ISO 9000 certification facilitates in ‘learning how to learn’(Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001). ‘Organisational learning is, again related to visionary leadership’(Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001, p. 153) because ‘major influences on the motivation to learn includes leader behaviour’ (Bass & Avolio quoted in Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001, p.153). Innovative thinking reinforced through a tolerance of risk and error and teamwork can be effective in organisational learning (Schein 1993). Thus the willingness to learn is seen to be dependent on visionary or transformational leadership. Hackman (1990, p.84) found that learning from experience leads to performance enhancement of a team. He also found that that capacity to learn depends on the amount of trust among team members (Hackman 1990, p.84). (iii) Executive mind set. This depends on three parameters: (a) Understanding quality concepts, why the transition is being attempted, what it will entail and the potential benefit derived from the effort.

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(b) Executive motivation It is what drives the underlying behaviour. ‘If the senior management’s primary behaviour in pursuing ISO 9000 is to have a “badge of competence”……., then the drive to move beyond the standard will be weak’ ( Hill, Hazlett & Meegan, 2001, p. 150). One aspect of motivation is goal setting – both personal goals and goals for others. Once again the role of transformational leaders comes to the fore because ‘they articulate goals, build an image and arouse motivation’ ( Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001, p.152). (c) Executive intent This refers to the difference between espoused theory (what they say) and theories-in-use (the implied theory in what they do). Thus it is a measure of the difference between what managers say about TQM and what they actually do. This is also in consonance with the observations by Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2002) and Curry and Kadasah (2002) referred in section 2.2.5 that the true reason behind ISO certification has an impact on an organization’s transition to TQM. Hill, Hazlett and Meegan (2001) have concluded that the obsession for winning and/or commitment to a compelling vision have the potential to strengthen intentions and to increase behavioural control at both individual and corporate levels. This discussion about factors which affect transition from ISO to TQM shows that a transformational leadership has substantial bearing on the other two factors. This makes transformational leadership a crucial area to study. This has been done in section 2.2.8. Till now the impact of ISO on quality orientation of companies outside India has been reviewed. What has been the impact of ISO on quality management of Indian companies? The same is now reviewed.

2.2.5.3 Quality movement in India and ISO Mandal et al. (2000) made a study of the propagation of quality management practice since 1985 and concluded that with the opening up of the Indian economy and subsequent increased competition, Indian companies are becoming more quality conscious. In February 1991, an Indian company obtained the first ISO 9000 certificate in India (Jagadeesh 1999). By December 1998, about 3500 companies were certified in India (Mehta 1999, p.649). In 1996, the Government of India set up the Quality Council of India (QCI) which acts as national agency for quality certification and it also administers the National Quality Campaign.

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Gupta (2000), in what is perhaps the first study to assess the differences between the ISO and non-ISO organizations in India, found that the following four statistically significant differences do exist between them: (i) Product design (ii) Training (iii) Use of quality in strategic planning (iv) Team building ISO 9000 is now generally recognised as a launching pad for implementation of TQM. (Khanna et al. 2002; Umesh, Bhusi & Kumar 2000). Acharya and Ray (2000) did a study of about 1200 ISO 9000 certified organizations in India. They have found that ISO implementation has benefited these companies in the following three areas: (i) Better understanding of process/ activities being performed. (ii) Better understanding of responsibilities/ authorities. (iii) Better linkage to other functions across the organization. The study also found that ‘quantitative techniques are rarely used in analysis of noncompliance, customer complaints and control of processes and “find and fix it” approach is still in usage rather than a disciplined problem-solving approach’(Acharya & Ray 2000, p.266). Rao, Raghunathan and Solis (1997) also found that the level of training in basic and advanced statistical techniques is low. They also reported that the effectiveness of employee involvement and the level of employee participation were low. This is perhaps a pointer that the Indian industry is still in its infancy as far as complete assimilation of tools and techniques of TQM are concerned. Similar opinion has been echoed by Umesh, Bhusi and Kumar (2000) wherein they have indicated that

‘unless our society becomes quality

conscious, TQM/ISO will be only bandwagons ( In Japan quality started from society and came to industry). As long as quality does not become a way of life, (entire society adopts it), TQM will only be in books’ (Umesh, Bhusi and Kumar 2000, p.170). Acharya and Ray (2000) go on to add that the three most important lessons learnt by the organizations in the process of ISO certification are (i) Teamwork is essential. (ii) People make the system work. (iii)Cooperation and information sharing are needed. The researcher believes that the aspects mentioned above can be called the soft side of an organization, which emanate largely from the culture of an organization. Thus now another major immediate discipline - TQM and culture will be reviewed. 66

2.2.6 TQM and culture The review of quality awards and critical success factors for TQM has shown that culture influences the definition of TQM in a country and it also affects the operationalisation of TQM in a country. Deming also has said that TQM is a management philosophy that requires a radical cultural change from traditional management to continuous improvement management (Yen, Krumwiede & Sheu 2002). However, there has been less attention to how the principles of TQM have been adapted to existing cultures (Chin & Pun 2002, p.274).This necessitates that the impact of a country’s culture and organization’s own culture on the implementation of TQM is studied. Noronha (2002) has studied the impact of Chinese culture on TQM. He concludes that ‘whether a TQM program will sustain or fail will depend upon how TQM itself fuses with the quality climate, which is in turn influenced by the national culture setting’ (Noronha 2002, p.221). Triandis and Bhawuk (1997) have referred to a pioneering study by Hofstede who identified four factors on which culture of different countries differ. The four factors are collectivism-individualism, power distance, masculinity-feminity and uncertainty avoidance. Kanungo and Mendonca (1996) have provided a model to explain the internal work culture of organizations in developing countries based on these four dimensions and one additional dimension of associative thinking-abstractive thinking. The model is shown in Figure 2.11.

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INTERNAL WORK CULTURE

Descriptive assumption about human nature External Locus of control

Prescriptive assumption about the principles that ought to govern human conduct Passive and reactive stand

Limited and fixed potential

Moralism

Past & Present orientation

Authoritarian & paternalistic

Short-Term perspective

Context dependent

Figure 2. 11 Characteristics of internal work culture of organizations in developing countries in the context of their sociocultural environment Source: Kanungo and Mendonca (1996). High power distance cultural dimension means the less powerful members of society accept unequal distribution of power and rewards. A high uncertainty avoidance culture means the extent to which people feel the need to avoid ambiguous situations, and the extent 68

to which they try to manage such situations by providing explicit rules and regulations. In a high uncertainty avoidance culture, people feel uncomfortable without the structure of policies and procedures and employee do not desire a great deal of

discretion. Low

masculinity in work setting implies that the orientation of the employees is towards personalised relationship rather than towards performance (Kanungo & Mendonca 1996, p.70).The dimension of ‘high associative thinking’ and ‘low abstractive thinking’ implies that people are guided less by abstract rules and principles ( as they apply uniformly to every situation) and more by the existing contextual and historical considerations (Kanungo & Mendonca 1996, p.71).It is akin to context sensitiveness proposed by Sinha and Kanungo (1997). Collectivistic culture refers to ‘societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout their lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty’ (Hofstede quoted in Walumbwa & Lawler 2003, p.1087). Tata and Prasad (1998) have assessed the impact of two cultural constructs - ‘ power distance’ and ‘uncertainty avoidance’- on TQM implementation. According to Tata and Prasad (1998) high power distance and high uncertainty avoidance culture give rise to control oriented organisational culture and mechanistic organisational structure. However, ‘since TQM introduces significant changes in the distribution of power and status’ …. ‘it may result in failure of TQM implementation’ (Tata & Prasad 1998, p. 706). Companies which have flexibility-oriented cultures and organic structures are more likely to implement TQM successfully. Similar views have been expressed by Chin and Pun (2002, p.275) that individuals dominated by high power distance and /or a strong uncertainty avoidance do not necessarily want the responsibilities that come with TQM. Aycan et al. (2000) assessed the way in which socio-cultural environment influences internal work culture

and human

resource management practice. They found that managers who perceived paternalism and high power distance in their socio-cultural environment did not provide job enrichment and empowerment. Robert et al. (2000) studied the fit of empowerment and continuous improvement with national culture using the theoretical construct of individualismcollectivism and power distance. Collectivism here means societies where group interests supersede individual interest (Hofstede quoted in Walumbwa & Lawler 2003, p. 1084). Robert et al. (2000) found that empowerment was negatively associated with satisfaction in India, but positively associated in US, Mexico and Poland. Continuous improvement was positively associated with satisfaction in all the four countries. Since Indians are high on collectivism (Chhokar 2000; Hofstede quoted in Sinha 1995, p. 100; Sinha et al. 2002), 69

Robert et al. (2000) concluded that ‘ a very high power distance country like India, may give rise to negative attitudes in response to empowerment or participation types of practice’. On the other hand, individualistic cultural dimension may not fit into the group orientation aspects of TQM. Yen, Krumwiede and Sheu (2002) used the MBTI instrument and found that a top manager personality who had a long-range perspective and was possibility driven, was crucial for TQM practice. This personality dimension was not affected by cultural factors. In line with the studies made by western researchers, cultural change has been found to be a major problem in implementing quality improvement program in India (Mandal et al. 2000). Crosby has said that complacency is a major problem with the Indian management system (Jagadeesh 1999). This necessitates that the a review of Indian work culture be carried out. 2.2.6.1 Indian work culture Sinha and Sinha (1990) and Sinha (1991) have tried to assess the impact of Indian social values on Indian organizations. They identified five social values which affect organisational effectiveness in India:

(i)

Power play in terms of affection (sneh)and deference (shradha): This means those

who yield to power are treated with due and undue favour and those who do not yield to power are discriminated. This has been also termed as affective reciprocity – an intense emotionality in caring and being cared for without asking. Affective reciprocity means those who are close to the superior are bestowed with all kinds of and including undue favours, while those who are not, tend to be distanced and discriminated against (Sahay & Walsham 1997, p. 421) (ii)

Preference for personalised relationship. This is akin to low masculinity of

Kanungo and Mendonca (1996). (iii)

Group imbeddedness: The members of in-group are owned and bound by

personalised relationship while others are strangers and must be distanced (Sinha & Sinha 1990, p. 710). Thus social networking is through own(apane)-other(paraye) dichotomy. (iv)

Duty and obligation over hedonism: The emphasis in Hindu religion is on self-

control and containing of impulses. Hence duty consists of appropriate role behaviour which includes protecting in-group members and favouring them over others (Sinha 1997, p.59).

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(v)

Hierarchical perspective: Indians tend to arrange things, persons, relationships, ideas

and almost everything hierarchically. Even the Indian Gods are hierarchised. The high power distance, status consciousness, centralisation of decision making, need to depend upon a patron and so on are manifestation of this preference for hierarchy ( Sinha 1997, p.58). These five social values have been called vertical collectivism by Triandas and Bhawuk (Sinha 1997, p.59) i.e. collectivism where every one within a collective group is put in a hierarchy. How do these social values affect Indian work culture? Research on Indian work culture indicates that high power distance, collectivism and affective reciprocity are major cultural values of Indian managers (Chhokar 2000, Sinha 1997). With respect to uncertainty avoidance earlier studies (Hofstede 1980, quoted by Sinha 1997, p.61) have said Indians are high on uncertainty avoidance but a more recent study (Chhokar 2000, p.22) found Indians to be moderate on uncertainty avoidance. In a cross-cultural study covering 61 countries, Chhokar (2000) found Indians to be midway on uncertainty avoidance. It is generally agreed that successful TQM implementation requires participatory management style in organizations (Ishikawa 1985; Korunka et al. 2003; MBNQA 2000). However, Kanungo and Mendonca (1996) have contended that because of the above dimensions of work culture, the sociocultural environment of developing countries is not conducive to participative management. They postulated that the sociocultural dimensions of high uncertainty avoidance, low individualism, high power distance, low masculinity, and high context-sensitive thinking are incompatible with participative management (Kanungo & Mendonca 1996, p.276). Thus according to them participative leadership becomes a viable option for developing countries only to the extent and degree to which its implementation modalities address the cultural constraints and build on the cultural facilitators. Kanungo and Mendonca (1996, p.283) mention that the environment of developing countries are characterised by high complexity due to presence of heterogeneous elements, low predictability due to presence of unstable and turbulent elements and low munificence due to the scarcity of needed resources. Monetory form of compensation and job security are therefore highly valued by Indian employees (Gopalan & Rivera 1997). Faced with instability and uncertainty, the leader cannot rely on well-defined rules and regulations or established procedures, but must resort to rather flexible and unconventional strategies and courses of action. On the same lines, Sinha and Kanungo (1997) explain the Indian organisational behaviour on the basis of context sensitivity and balancing. Context sensitivity pertains to 71

beliefs about person (patra), time (kal) and ecological (desh) components of environment. Context sensitivity is basically a thinking principle or a mind-set that is cognitive in nature and it determines the adaptive nature of an idea or behaviour in context (Sinha & Kanungo 1997, p.96). Balancing is a behavioural disposition to avoid extremes and to integrate or accommodate diverse considerations. It refers to a tendency to accommodate, integrate or tolerate while coping with the environmental context. The preference for accommodation rather than confrontation leads to few open conflicts, but can result in a state of ‘cold war’. Context sensitivity and balancing are related, because the persons who are sensitive to their contexts are also aware of their diverse demands and therefore, have to balance them by adapting their behaviour in order to cope with the environment (Sinha & Kanungo 1997, p.96).They say that traditional systems such as Hindu religion, caste as a form of social stratification, and agricultural mode of production have interacted with foreign invasions and alien rules to give rise to several sociocultural characteristics such as: (i) Group embeddedness and hierarchy while relating to people (patra). (ii) Uncertainty about future and the resultant short term perspective while relating to time (kal), and (iii) Scarcity of resources, deficient infrastructural facilities and poverty syndrome related to ecology (desh).

Sinha et al. (2004) have identified the impact of societal culture on organisational culture in India. They found

four major pan Indian societal dimensions: hypocrisy,

corruption, inaction and respect for power. Three dimensions : quick rich disposition, nonwork orientation and face keeping were differently endorsed at different location. Infrastructural facilities had sweeping impact on societal, organisational and managerial dimensions of beliefs, preferences and practices. People from infra-structurally adequate place rated themselves, the people and the organization more positively. Sinha et al. (2004) say that Hofstede’s dimension of power distance emerged as a dominant theme in this study. However, ‘collectivism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance did not appear at the top of manager’s mind’ (Sinha et al. 2004, p.7) while these were considered as a part of Indian culture in an earlier study by Kanungo and Mendonka (1996). Triandis and Bhawuk (1997) have said that Indians are shifting towards individualism. These studies bring up the possibility that the cultural values are gradually changing in India. The next section focuses on that.

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2.2.6.2 Duality of traditionalism and modernism in Indian culture It was mentioned earlier that Sinha and Kanungo (1997) have explained the duality of traditionalism and modernism in Indian culture on the three components of the environment person (patra), time (kal) and ecology (desh). They explain that people exhibit both a primary expressive mode that is traditional in nature and a secondary expressive mode that is acquired as a result of the transplantation of the western management system onto the traditional core. Superior-subordinate relationships, work behaviour, and management practices reflect both the primary and secondary modes in varying degree. Based on these two concepts, Sinha and Kanungo (1997) contend that Indian managers have the potential to integrate, blend and accommodate traditional values with western management practice in order to render their organization effective in the face of increasing competition (Sinha & Kanungo 1997, p.103). The aspect of affective reciprocity and a personalised superior- subordinate relationship against contractual relationship has also been noted by Sahay and Walsham (1997). They also refer to ‘own-other’ syndrome which manifests in social networking. They also say that managers internalise two set of values: those drawn from the traditional moorings of the family and community, particularly values related to affiliation, security, dependency and social obligations; and those drawn from modern education, professional training and the imperatives of modern technology, such as those relating to personal growth, efficiency and collaborative work (Sahay & Walsham 1997, p. 424). Sinha(1997, p.60) has said that two set of values -vertical collectivism and individualism- coexist in Indian organization. Khandwalla (1992) in his study of corporate turnaround also notes that societies which are transiting from the traditional to modernity, internalise two different identities, one passive and dependent, rooted in childhood upbringing, and the other proactive, learnt through exposure to modern institutions, ideas and mores. Which set of behaviours is evoked at work will depend on what cues are emitted at work: to conform and obey, or to take initiative and be dynamic (Khandwalla 1992, p.255). Public enterprises being centralised and rule bound, generally tend to evoke feudal and servile behaviour. This leads him to hypothesize that ‘in collectivities whose members are socialised into both passivity and proactivity, the more bureaucratic and/or authoritarian the top leadership, the sicker will the collectivity become, and the more dynamic and participatory the top leadership, the faster will be its regeneration’(Khandwalla 1992, p. 255).

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In these environments charismatic

leaders who, by definition are more proactive, entrepreneurial, and change-oriented would seem to provide a better fit for the needs of organizations than leaders who are more inclined to maintain the status quo. Today, charismatic leadership is considered a part of transformational leadership (Srivastava 2003). Earlier transformational leadership was noted as an important mediating factor for transiting an organization from ISO to TQM orientation. Thus the concept of transformational leadership is required to be reviewed in more detail. As mentioned earlier, this will be done in section 2.2.8.

2.2.6.3 Recent changes in Indian work culture The review of Indian work culture in section 2.2.6.1 has continuously emphasised the hierarchical nature, personalised relationship, affective reciprocity as the dominant work culture of Indians. However, section 2.2.6.2 also shows the duality in the Indian work culture on account of the impact of modernisation. It has been said that the political equality experienced since independence has resulted in a desire to effect a decrease in power distance (Chhokar 2000). This means that though the Indians are high power distance persons, they exhibit a preference for reduction in the power distance if possible. Similarly the collectivistic orientation is also under going a change (Chhokar 2000, p.22; Sinha et al. 2002, p. 318) and people have expressed a preference towards decrease in collectivistic orientation (Chhokar 2000, p.22). Gupta et al. (2002) have said that India and much of South Asia aspire for much stronger future orientation and performance orientation. They also value charismatic, team oriented and humane leadership. These call in question: “In view of the liberalisation of Indian economy since 1991, what changes have come in the organisational values of Indian managers”. Pearson and Chaterjee (2001) have attempted to answer this question. Through their study on 421 Indian managers, they have concluded that ‘in a relatively short time, the fundamental attributes of a competitive market economy have subjugated societal qualities reinforced over hundreds of years and thought to be unchangeable’. Among the respondents, 46% were from organizations owned by the government, 56% were holding masters degree or above, 61.8% of them had spent their childhood in joint (extended) family. More than 75% of them were above 40 years of age and were holding senior positions. In this respondent profile, Pearson and Chaterjee found that such deep-rooted Indian cultural values as ‘respect for seniority’, ‘valuing tradition over change’ were perceived to be less important and such 74

new concepts as ‘quality’, ‘team work’ and ‘customer service’ were rated to be more important. Their result is shown in Table 2.12.

Variable

Mean

Std. Dev.

Quality in all work activity

3.61

2.40

Personal integrity

3.86

3.10

Team Work

4.37

2.33

Customer service

4.90

2.98

Social responsibility

5.12

3.00

Workplace harmony

6.57

2.59

Organisational learning

7.16

2.45

Respect for seniority

7.17

2.75

Innovation and creativity

7.29

3.56

Valuing tradition over change

8.82

2.72

Ordered relationship structure

8.94

3.83

Wealth and material possession

10.21

2.31

Note: The lower the mean, the higher level of the perceived importance.

Table 2. 12 Societal values of Indian managers after liberalisation Source: Pearson and Chatterjee (2001).

Pearson and Chatterjee (1999, p.144) therefore concluded that ‘within the context of organizations, Indian employee can embrace global work values while retaining deep connection to their societal culture’. The final work goals held by the managers were shaped both by the forces of the economic transformation as well as their indigenous cultural values (Pearson & Chatterjee 1999, p. 144). Similarly, Sinha et al. (2002) found evidence that though the core of Indians continue to be collectivist, the changing socio-economic scenario of the country is creating a shift towards individualism. Khandwalla (1999) has also found that the change in corporate culture seems distinctly compatible with a free, more competitive market environment. A question arises that if India is transiting from its traditional cultural values to more modern cultural values, what is the appropriate leadership intervention in such a situation. Kanungo and Mendonca (1996) claim that the ‘nurturant-task’ leadership proposed by Sinha (1995) is an appropriate leadership style which can reduce the dysfunctional effects of traditional values such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, low individualism and low masculinity. 75

2.2.6.4 Nurturant task leadership Relationship orientation as against task or performance orientation has been a central characteristics of effective Indian leaders (Chhokar 2000, p.28). Sinha (1995) has recognised the importance of relationship and has developed a ‘nurturant-task’ (NT) leadership model. As per this model, the NT leader ‘cares for his subordinates, shows affection, takes personal interest in their well being, and above all is committed to their growth’, but provides this nurturance only after subordinates perform the agreed job tasks (Sinha 1990). As per Sinha (1990), from a state of dependency on the leader and constraints of high power distance and authoritarian and paternalistic norms,

subordinates can be developed to a state of

preparedness for participative management so that they function as autonomous work groups. This is schematically shown in Figure 2.12. It shows that a subordinate has a bi-directional relationship with his leader who displays a NT leadership style. With time, as the dependence of the subordinate decreases on the leader, the leader can display a combination of NT and participative leadership style and then a participative leadership style. Finally once the subordinate ceases to have any dependence on the leader, both become part of an autonomous group.

NT

NT/P

P Autonomous groups

S1

S2

S3 time

NT= nurturant-task leadership style NT/P = combination of nurturant-task and participative style, P= participative leadership style S1, S2, S3=subordinates, arrow=direction of relationship,

Figure 2. 12 Nurturant-Task leadership process leading to participative management Source: Sinha (1990).

Sinha (1995, p.117) defines nurturance ‘as benevolent paternalism while people orientation in the West is primarily fraternal in nature. Fraternalism assumes equality among members (including the leader)’. In the West, ‘the members have different resources which 76

they need to share by maintaining a supporting relationship. But in India, nurturance assumes a hierarchical relationship where unequals are bound by “affective reciprocity” between a senior or superior and a junior or subordinate who needs affection, guidance and direction’ (Sinha 1995, p.117). Thus, the superior is seen to be kind and the subordinate submissive. Sekhar (2001) considers NT leadership style a modern variation of the leadership style of the legend of Ram. Kanungo and Mendonca

(1996, p.74) said that NT leadership promotes the

relationship or people orientation by placing job objectives and recognition of successful performance in a personalised context; and enhances the social achievement orientation through opportunities to experience significant personal achievement for the collective good. This gives rise to the possibility that even though the traditional Indian culture may not be conducive to TQM, it is not an invariant, and it is possible to modulate it towards modern management values required for TQM. Therefore in the next section, Indian culture is compared with ‘culture for TQM’.

2.2.6.5 Juxtaposition of culture for TQM and Indian culture Both Tata and Prasad (1998) and Tan and Khoo (2002) have mentioned that a culture of high power distance and/or a strong uncertainty avoidance are not conducive for TQM. It has been seen in section 2.2.6.1 that Indian culture shows high power distance and strong uncertainty avoidance which promotes hierarchical relationship, dependency on superiors and a preference for rules and regulations for every situation rather than having to deal with uncertain situations where discretionary decision making is called for. Also there is a preference for personalised relationship as against professional relationship (Sinha 1995). Does it mean that the Indian culture is not conducive for TQM implementation? The existing literature is silent on this issue. However, there are other Asian cultures which are similar to Indian culture and where the moderating influences of culture on TQM have been studied. Khoo and Tan (2003) have compared the western approach to TQM and the Japanese approach to TQM . The same is shown in Figure 2.13.

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-Employee development -Customer Focus -Social Responsibilities - High emphasis on leadership Overlapping Concepts - Breakthrough

- Kaizen

Improvements

-Keiretsu

- Autonomy

-Group Learning

- Workforce Diversity -Employee Empowerment

- Harmony and Respect - Leadership by example/ethics

-Leaders Driving Creativity/

- Shintoism /Buddhism

Innovation MBNQA Model

JQA Model

Western Culture and Management

Japanese Culture and Management

Figure 2. 13 Socio cultural factors in MBNQA and JQA Source: adapted from Khoo & Tan (2003, p. 22). The Japan specific cultural concepts which have influenced the TQM concept there are dealt now. In a Japanese firm, planning is a task for all members of the company. The top management policy (hoshin) is more than a planning system. It is an organization development process throughout the company. It is recalled that the Deming Prize also looks upon the journey to the award as a developmental process (section 2.2.3.3). Hoshin promotes nemawashi (consensus building), ringi (shared decisions), commitment and loyalty. The effective top down and bottom up communication encourages all employees to act collectively in achieving shared organisational objectives (Khoo & Tan 2003). Japanese Shintoism and Buddhism advocate respect for everyone. Keiretsu are large conglomerates of financially linked group of companies. Owing to the cooperative nature of the Keiretsu

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network, part produced by companies within the group fit together so well that the result is better quality (Khoo & Tan 2003, p.21). 2.2.6.6 Comparison between Japanese culture and Indian culture Are there similarities between these Japanese cultural norms and the Indian culture? Sinha(1995, p.100) says there is significant overlap between Indian and Japanese cultures. He found dependence proneness in both cultures. Hierarchical and personalised relationships are typical in both cultures. However, there are differences as well. Indians are much less group embedded than the Japanese are. Further, Indian work group is internally fragmented in terms of own (apana) and others (paraya). The concept of ‘own’ is based on ethnic, caste and religious similarities. But the Japanese linkages for ‘own’ are based on seniority and personal loyalty. Second, work is central to the life of the Japanese, but Indians value work if it is part of a positive personalised relationship (Sinha 1995). Still, ‘if it is possible to change the collective orientation of Indians from the primordial “own –others” to “work groups”, the so called dysfunctional

Indian social values can play a facilitating role in developing a

synergetic work culture’ (Sinha & Sinha 1990, p. 712). Another difference between Indian culture and Japanese culture is that though both are collectivist in nature, Indian collectivisim is vertical collectivism, where members of a group try to differentiate among each other while Japanese collectivism is more like horizontal collectivism where members of a group do not tend to differentiate among each other (Triandis & Bhawuk 1997, p. 16). A comparison between vertical collectivism and horizontal collectivism is given in Table 2.13.

Dimension

Vertical collectivism

Kind of self

Emphasises difference from Emphasises sameness with

Sociality

Political system

Universal value

Horizontal collectivism

others within the in-group

others within the in-group

Communal sharing

Communal sharing

Authority ranking

Equality matching

Low equality

High equality

Low freedom

Low freedom

Values hierarchy

Values harmony

Table 2. 13 Comparison between vertical collectivism and horizontal collectivism Source: Triandis and Bhawuk (1997, p. 27).

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Horizontal collectivism displays a sense of oneness with members of the in-group. Vertical collectivism also displays a sense of serving the in-group and sacrificing for the benefit of the in-group (Triandis & Bhawuk 1997, p. 17). The difference between them lie in the orientation that the vertical collectivism emphasises on how an in-group members are different on certain aspects, the horizontal collectivism emphasises how an in-group members are having the same self. There is equality of status in a horizontal collectivist society, but in a vertical collectivist society, hierarchy is emphasised within a social in-group. Therefore vertical relations are more common in societies high on power distance and horizontal relations are most common on societies low on power distance (Triandis & Bhawuk 1997, p. 17). It has been reported that in the collectivist culture of Japan, harmony is taken to be more important than fairness (Sinha 1997, p.60). In the context of leadership, leadership theorists in both the countries ‘have given a major role to context as a determinant of what will be good leadership and what will be not’ (Earley & Erez 1997, p. 631).Thus given these comparisons, it is possible to postulate that TQM can be successfully implemented in a government organization like Indian Railways, provided, the Railway specific organisational values are identified and is modulated to suit the tenets of TQM. This begs the question: What are the

organisational values of Indian

Railways in the context of TQM? The existing literature is silent on this. In fact, there has not been any study on the Indian Railways from the organisational point of view. However, there are some studies on Indian bureaucracy of which Indian Railways is a part. Therefore studies on

Indian

bureaucracy will now be reviewed.

2.2.7 Indian Bureaucracy Collective decision-making in the form of Panchayat has survived to this date in India. It has now evolved into a democratic government. Today, the policies made by the elected representative are implemented by bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is supposed to be a rational organisational system. Some regard it as the best way to deal with the masses (Ballé 1999). However in practice, many bureaucracies do not work efficiently. Myrdal (1968) has differentiated the bureaucracy in terms of ‘soft state’ and ‘hard state’. In hard states, administration is based on the basis of rational bureaucratic principles as propounded by Weber. In a soft state, as in India, administrators habitually circumvent law and regulations. 80

‘In the soft state political accountability of the rulers to the people, the accountability of the bureaucrats to his/ her boss, …. and the rule of law which enables individuals or groups to seek redressal against each other or the state, all get eroded’ (Khandwalla, 1999, p.126). Taking this logic further, Chhokar (n.d.) and Kumar (2000, p. 60) have said that the Indian state is neither coercive nor enabling. Whatever be the nature of Indian bureaucracy, people have generally been losing their confidence in bureaucracy (Chhokar 2000, p.7). Sinha and Sinha(1990, p. 706) have ascribed the soft work culture to the ‘socially determined’ work forms.

2.2.7.1 Characteristics of Indian bureaucracy Some of the characteristics of Indian bureaucracy are given below. The first three have been summarised from Khandwalla (1999, chapter 2). (a) Tunnel vision – They tend to stress the perspective afforded by their own speciality and ignore other perspective that may be relevant in a situation. Thus, conflicts between specialist departments flare up. They tend to solve the problem of coordination by bringing in other specialists which worsens the problem. Thus teamwork is not the hallmark of a bureaucratic culture (McHugh & Bennett 1999). In fact a movement towards teamwork constitutes a major cultural change in bureaucratic set-up (McHugh & Bennett 1999, p.89). (b) Rule orientation- Rule orientation cues the staff to minimum acceptable behaviour that satisfies rules. Related to rules and regulations is the unintended consequence of creating a culture of mistrust whereby people try to shirk risky work, and that justifies layers and layers of rules and regulations that further chokes collaboration and initiative taking. Since people in bureaucracy are rewarded for following rules and standard procedures, it tends to invert goals and means. That is, adherence to the means – the rules and regulations – becomes the goal. Thus bureaucracy finds it difficult to adapt to change and generally resists it. (c) Monolithic- At the structural level Indian bureaucracy is quite monolithic. It has standardized recruitment procedures, salary structure, rules for conducting business and audits and accounting procedures. At the functional level, there are powers delegated to make routine decisions, but power to make discretionary decision tends to be centralised (Narain 1990). There are many checks and balances which slow down decision-making, discourage initiative taking and adaptation to local circumstances (Narain 1990). Monolithic systems tend to be rigid and inertial, and often exhibit the phenomenon of punctuated equilibrium: a 81

long period of relative inflexibility during which the perception of inadequacy of the system in coping with changes and challenges accumulates, until a situation arises when the system falls into disrepute (Orton & Weick 1990). Orton and Weick maintain that the cost of punctuated equilibrium system is the long delay in introducing large as well as local innovations and therefore long periods of declining performance of the state. The challenge therefore is to minimize the monolithic features of bureaucracy (Khandwalla 1999, p. 257). (d) Hierarchical – The Indian bureaucracy is deeply hierarchical. It a deeply ingrained value in the Indian government. In fact Pai Panandiker & Kshirsagar (1978, p.161) have said that the ‘steeply hierarchical propensities and traditions of Indian bureaucracy need to be curbed’. (e) Poor in implementation -

The Indian bureaucracy is considered weak in

implementing policies (Kumar 2000, p. 58). This is partly because of emphasis given by traditional Indian ethos to ‘thought’ over ‘action’. Another reason is that Indians are prone to idealistic thinking as against pragmatic thinking which makes one seek perfect solutions. This either results in no action or very delayed action (Kumar 2000, p.61). However, this gap between thought and action, instead of leading to dissonance are balanced, accommodated, integrated and allowed to coexist (Marriott quoted in Sinha 1997, p.61 emphasis in original). There are diverse conclusions on the managerial style of Indian bureaucrats. A few studies have found the managerial style to be directive or manipulative rather than participatory (Pai Panandiker & Kshirsagar 1978; Mehta 1988; Sharma 1992). However Ramamurti (1987) has said that when Indian managers in the public sector are free to act independently, they can be expected to follow strategies which increase profit and resist those that seek to reduce profit. But, when they are not free to act independently, their decision depend on more complex factors. Sahay and Walsham (1997, p. 419) have linked the Indian social system and Indian bureaucracy and said that the Indian bureaucracy rigidly adheres to rules yet there is personal alliance between businessmen and bureaucrats leading to personal gratification (we again see here the Indian tendency of personalised relationship cropping up –researcher’s note). Little wonder, the Indian government has been rated as one the most corrupt in the world (Khandwalla 1999, p.219). Gupta (1995), Myrdal (1968) and Sinha et al. (2004) have dealt with different aspects of corruption in Indian bureaucracy. Though there have been many reports about how to make the Indian bureaucracy more responsive, it is felt that only cosmetic changes have been achieved (Pai Panadiker & Kshirsagar 1978, p. 158).

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2.2.7.2 Changing the bureaucracy Resistance to change is well documented (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson 2002, p. 376; Robbins 1997, p. 723). In the context of the public sector, Kamarck (2003) reports that there is little incentive to innovate in the public sector. Yet, there have been many attempts to reform bureaucracy the world over. Some of them have failed and some have succeeded. Caiden (1991) has identified several reasons why reforming the bureaucracy fails: (a) Imposed implementation often does not work. Cooperation and participation of the affected staff is important. (b) Recipes applied without taking into account local culture and activities often do not work. (c) Unattainable objectives- they are abstract or too ambitious. (d) Obstructive structure, such as excessive or inadequate hierarchy, poor communication mechanisms and poor conflict resolution mechanism. (e) Indecisiveness (f) Narrow vision- There is wide choice of instrumentalities for the reform process, such as public enquiries, changes in law, scientific management, budgeting, automation, decentralisation, privatisation, debureaucratisation and so forth. Often, reforms fail because the reformer may over rely on just one or two instrumentalities such as change in law or changes at the top. (g) Poor monitoring

Notwithstanding the failure of public sector reform, there have been instances of successful reforms in the public sector including some in the third world countries. Campos and Root (1996) have examined how the bureaucracy was made growth oriented in east Asian economies. They found that one crucial institutional innovation was the creation of competent, powerful but accountable bureaucrats. This was achieved by taking the following steps: (a) The politicians were able to convince officials that economic growth was the overriding national objective as in Taiwan. In South Korea, there was close interaction between the top political executives and the bureaucracy. The President would visit each ministry to discuss goals and strategies and review the performance during the next visit. 83

(b) Institutionalising a meritocracy in bureaucracy. Non-performance and corruption were punished. (c) Relatively low differential in public and private sector compensation. Government compensation in Singapore was about 15% higher than in the private sector. (d) Most states framed service rules to protect officials from their seniors and from politicians as in Japan. This shows that it is possible to make significant change in bureaucracy notwithstanding its many shortcomings. An example of changing the working style of bureaucracy in a third world country comes from Malaysia. TQM was required to be implemented in different government agencies (Hamid 1995; Khandwalla 1999, p.63). In 1989, the Malaysian government launched a countrywide ‘Excellent Work Culture’ programme. Different state agencies reviewed their operations with full participation of its employees. Quality awards ranging from national level- called Prime Minister Quality Award – to district and local level were instituted. Fundamental values like productivity, quality of service, innovativeness, customer orientation, discipline, integrity and accountability, and professionalism were stressed. Three important factors which contributed the most in adoption of these values were: consensus building for change, support from top most political leadership and keen monitoring by it, and a reward structure which reinforced excellence In the context of railways, Japanese National Railways (JNR) was a public sector unit. Much like Indian Railways, it had about 200,000 surplus employees, and it had to invest in unprofitable, remote routes. However, it was able to convert a loss of US$ 4 billion in 1986 to a profit of US$ 3.6 billion in 1990 without raising freight and passenger fare. This was achieved by reorganising JNR into smaller units, reducing the staff and giving these units freedom from parliamentary approval of budget and also permission to diversify into other businesses (Khandwalla 1999, p.133). JNR was subsequently privatised. However it has been reported that application of TQM in railway corporations is slow due to their traditional management style and emphasis on operational safety (Gaffney & Chan quoted in Chan et al. 1998). In the Indian context, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) brought about increase in milk production and distribution. Its ‘operation flood’ has been hailed as a massive achievement by the UN. It has been reported that NDDB staff demonstrated high commitment and morale, despite absence of financial incentives for individuals (Khandwalla 1999). The charismatic leadership of its chairman Mr. Kurien has been reported to be one of the major reasons behind the success of this government organization (Srivastava 2003). 84

Khandwalla(1999, p. 119) has reported that developing a mission participatively about the kind of contribution a government unit can make to the quality of life and then brainstorming to find ways to pursue it under an empowering and participative leadership was critical for the success of NDDB. Similar significant changes in bureaucracy have been reported in Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore (Khandwalla 1999). Different countries have used different methods to make the bureaucracy more effective. In South Korea, the development commitment of the political masters was made credible to the bureaucracy. In Singapore, the state was fragmented into relatively autonomous entities with clear mandate and professional management, and in UK and Malaysia, the bureaucratic organization was made more customer friendly through citizen charters and customer councils. In a study of bureaucratic reform in government sector Kaul and Collins(1995) have listed several supporting conditions for successful reforms: (i) Political commitment for change is critical. This was also noted by Campos and Root (1996) in their study of east Asian countries quoted earlier. (ii) Reform has to be paced appropriately. Where reform has been held up for a long time because of the defensiveness and rigidity of the system, and a political consensus for reform has finally emerged, administrative reforms can be swift and radical. This process has been called punctuated equilibrium, meaning spurts of major change within long period of stability. Where a culture of change has been institutionalised, reforms and innovations can be gradual based on continuous trial and error learning so that changes are gradual and time tested, but over a period of time amount to a revolution. (iii) The successful reform of a bureaucratic system requires involving the staff in the change process from the beginning. (iv)

There has to be a balance between the increasing service expectation by

consumers and bureaucracy’s internal drive for change. (v) There should be a system that recognises and rewards good performance and penalizes poor performance. Remuneration needs to be merit based. (vi) It has been suggested that the large organisations should be managed as if they are made up of smaller organisations ( Peter &Waterman quoted by Khandwalla 1999, p. 96). ‘This way the strength of the small organization – fresh thinking, flexibility, teamwork – is yoked to the strength of the large organization – large resources, risk-bearing ability, management systems and market clout’ (Khandwalla 1999, p. 96). Fragmentation of

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bureaucracy into smaller autonomous bodies has shown good result in England, Canada and Malaysia (Khandwalla 1999).

2.2.7.3 TQM and change in government bureaucracy and in public sector Since Indian Railways is a public sector, it will be instructive to look at the state of TQM in government bureaucracies and in the public sector. Deming had no doubt about the importance of TQM in government services: In most governmental services, there is no market to capture. In place of capture of the market, a governmental agency should deliver economically the service prescribed by law or regulation. The aim should be distinction in service. Continual improvement in government service would earn appreciation of the American public and would hold jobs in the service and help industry to create more jobs (quoted in Ehrenberg & Stupak 1994, p. 88).

Though the service sector and the public sector have direct interaction with customers, yet, innovative practices like TQM have been practiced more in manufacturing rather than in service and public sector (Yasin & Wafa 2002, p. 596). It has been postulated that implementation of TQM in a public sector may require a different orientation (Ehrenberg & Stupak 1994). It has also been reported that it is difficult to implement and institutionalise TQM in public service organization (Moon & Swafin-Smith 1998; Robertson & Seneviratne 1995; Stringham 2004; Yusof & Aspinwall 2000). Some works have tried to identify some of the impediments which require special attention in implementing TQM in public sector. These impediments have been variously described as emphasis on procedure over efficiency, a layered structure, a short-term perspective due to frequent change of the top leadership, separation of power which necessitates negotiation and consensus building in decision making(A SCANS report for America 2000, p.20). Ehrenberg and Stupak(1994, p. 89), in an early study of TQM in the public sector have said that the public sector has less incentive to reduce costs, they have a near-term focus, external constraints, and complex, diverse, interand intra-organisational relationships. Thus a different kind of quality management may be required for public services (Yong & Wilkinson 2002). Boyne and Walker (2002, p.127) said that a significant difference between public and private firms is the role of government program of management reforms. Whereas private sector firms largely choose their own

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approach to management, a government may require a program of public sector TQM to be adopted by its agencies. However against this theoretical observation, a study of TQM implementation in Malaysian government agencies found that there was no need to modify TQM for public sector (Fei & Rainey 2003).Similarly McAdam, Reid and Saulters (2002) found that in the UK the Business Excellence Model (BEM) was found to be the preferred model for implementation of TQM. It is in keeping with the earlier observation made during the review of quality awards in section 2.2.3.5 that TQM is invariant across public sector and private sector. In the critical success factors for TQM, teamwork and empowerment have been identified as two critical success factors (section 2.2.2 of this thesis). However, studies have found that the hierarchical orientation of bureaucratic organization does not facilitate teamwork or empowerment (Garland 1995; Kanter 1997; McHugh & Bennett 1999). In such a situation, the organization ends up trying to improve its performance within its old structure, norms and culture (McHugh & Bennett 1999). Team appraisal in place of individual appraisal and group recognition will facilitate team working because individualist culture and emphasis on individual achievement is not conducive for teamwork (Hackman 1990). With this qualifying remark, some implementation of TQM in bureaucracy will now be seen.

TQM in western government bureaucracies In Europe, the concept of TQM has spread among the public sector organisations under the name ‘New Public Management (NPM)’ (Scharitzer & Korunka 2000). NPM is more in the nature of reforming government working through TQM concepts. Korunka et al. (2003) found that employee participation, highquality training and professional change management are key for successful NPM implementation. In England, a Citizen Charter was launched that aimed to improve the quality of services provided by the government to the citizens (Khandwalla 1999, p. 72). A total of 38 charters, including one for rail passengers were published. Quality systems were established which aimed at assessment of quality performance and continual monitoring of customer satisfaction. In the USA, President Clinton established the National Performance Review and introduced a government-wide TQM programme. At a micro level, there are reports of TQM being applied by government sectors in West. For example in municipal councils in U.S. (Berman & West 1995) and in New York department of Parks and Recreation (Cohen & Eimicke 1994), TQM has been used with good results. Ehrenberg and Stupak(1994, p. 95) have postulated that ‘because government culture may be difficult to 87

change, it may be necessary to start with smaller organisations or sub-elements of a large organization in order to establish TQM as a useful template for organisational success in the years ahead’. This is in line with the observation made in section 2.2.7.2.

TQM in Asian government bureaucracies A TQM approach was established in the Hong Kong government (Chan et al. 1998). In a study of implementation of TQM in Malaysian government agencies, Fei and Rainey (2003) found that though Malaysian organisational culture tends to emphasise hierarchical authority, organisations with more successful TQM implementation showed leadership patterns and organisational cultural features similar to those espoused by TQM experts. Also award winning TQM organisations in the Malaysian government reported higher levels of ‘organicity’ in organisational structure ( Fei & Rainey 2003, p. 161). An organic management system is characterised by promotion of cross-functional teams, crosshierarchical teams, free flow of information, decentralisation and low formalisation and wide spans of control (Robbins 1997, p.568). The managers there scored higher on the cultural dimensions of job challenge, communication, trust, and innovation with particularly large difference on communication and innovation. It is to be noted that Khandwalla (1999) has also found organicity a precondition for organisational excellence in Indian organisations. Tata and Prasad (1998) also recommended organic structure for TQM implementation.

2.2.7.4 Summary of TQM in bureaucracy In a recent review of innovations in government around the world, quality in government working has been recognised as one of the six universal components of government reform ( Kamarck 2003, p. 15). It also identified the following problems in creation of quality culture in the public sector around the world. (i) Public sector has difficulty competing with the private sector for the talent needed to run the government. (ii) Public sector faces a severe skill shortage. (iii) Public sector employees are in general paid less. (iv) The civil service is so bound up in rules and regulations that people are not rewarded for performance. (v) Excessive political patronage undercuts merit principles. 88

(vi) Public servants do not always operate under the rule of law. These are in line with the findings of Campos and Root (1996) mentioned in section 2.2.7.2 in the context of his study of east Asian bureaucracies. In a review of quality movement adaptation to the public sector, Campos and Root (1996) identified the following themes: (i) Set up of ‘one-stop shop’ or places where a person, usually a business owner, can conduct all their transactions with the government at once. (ii) Attempt to find out from citizens what they want and expect from government services. (iii) Allow citizen inputs to shape bureaucratic organization and behaviour. (iv) Measure performance and publish whether or not the standards were met. (v) Involve employees in the redesign of the organization. (vi) Train government employees in customer service and organise internal incentives around the accomplishment of quality standards.

2.2.8 TQM and transformational leadership In section 2.2.5.2, it was seen that transformational leadership is one of the factors that influence successful transition from ISO to TQM (Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001). Transformational leadership has supported implementation of TQM (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002). Robbins(1997, p.735) says that transformational leadership is needed in a learning organization to implement a shared vision. In his study of organisational turnaround, Khandwalla (1992, p.262) also has noted that organisational turnaround requires transformational leadership skills. He says that change through a new mission and vision of excellence is possible. ‘A vivid, superior, inspiring but credible alternative to the status quo needs to be identified and communicated to the rank and file and other stakeholders, not once but again and again, affirmed in small acts and decisions as in large, until that social mission and/or vision of collective excellence seizes people’s imagination and pushes them to strive for glory. The process is one of restructuring the Freudian superego (Khandwalla 1992, p.262)’. In the context of TQM, TQM award winning government agencies in Malaysia had leaders who demonstrated transformational

leadership behaviour (Fei &

Rainey 2003). These leaders demonstrated higher vision, staff development, trust, cooperation, thinking in new ways, adherence to clear value, pride and respect (Fei & Rainey 2003, p.161). These studies show the importance of transformational leadership skills for 89

successful implementation of TQM based change. Thus, this thesis looks at transformational leadership in more detail. Krishnan (2002) says transformational leadership has four components: charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. In contrast, tools used in transactional leadership are power brokering, withholding favours, and quid pro quo. ‘It is always tied to position power. Transactional leaders take the values, needs, motivation and purposes of followers as given and unchanging, but transformational leaders do not’ (Krishnan 2002, p.20). ‘A transformational leader looks for potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower’ (Banerji & Krishnan, 2000, p.407) It has been suggested that the display of determination and persistence by a transformational leader demonstrates courage and conviction in the vision and mission, and thus inspires, empowers and motivates followers. Other studies (Project Globe n.d.; Chhokar n.d.) have shown that transformational leaders are team builders. Bass (1990, p.25) has suggested that transformational leaders through intellectual stimulation are likely to build cohesion among team members. Bass and Avolio (2000) have now developed a full range leadership model called Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X). Bass and Avolio have divided leadership on a continuum of nine factors. Based on Bass and Avolio (1997), the nine components of MLQ are explained now:

(i) Idealised influence (Charisma) attributes: Idealised influence is defined with respect to associate’s reaction to the leader. Associates identify with and want to emulate their leader. Such leaders are thoroughly respected and have much referent power. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader reassures others that obstacle will be overcome’. (ii) Idealised influence (Charisma)behaviour: It is also a part of charisma. However, here the associates

react more to the leader’s behaviour. They have complete faith in their

charismatic leader, who is seen as having attainable mission and vision. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader emphasises the importance of having a collective sense of mission’ (iii) Inspirational leadership: It involves the arousal and heightening of motivation among followers. The leader here provides symbols, metaphors and simplified emotional appeals to increase awareness and understanding of mutually desired goals. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader articulates a compelling vision of future’. (iv) Intellectual stimulation: Intellectual stimulation arouses in followers the awareness of problems and how they may be solved, and stirs the imagination and generates thoughts and 90

insights. A sample item to assess this component is ‘ The leaders gets others to look at problems from many angles’. (v) Individualised consideration: It means leader treats individuals differently but equitably on one to one basis. The leader recognises associates’ needs and raises their perspectives. With individualised consideration, assignments are delegated to associates to provide learning opportunity. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader spends time teaching and coaching’. (vi) Contingent reward: Clarifies what is expected from followers and what they will receive if they meet expected levels of performance. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader makes clear what one can expect to receive when performance goals are achieved’. (vii) Active management by exception: The leader monitors to make sure mistakes are not made and allows status quo to exist without being addressed. A sample item to assess this component is ‘ The leader directs attention towards failure to achieve standard’. (viii) Passive management by exception: Tends to react only after problems have become serious to take corrective action. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader takes no action until complaints are received’. (ix) Laissez-faire: It indicates absence of leadership or the avoidance of intervention or both. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader avoids getting involved when important issues arise’. Bass considers the first five factors as transformational, the next three factors as transactional and the ninth factor as abdication of leadership (Block 2003, p. 321). Krishnan (2002, p.30) in an empirical study on American subjects further found that subordinates whose terminal value systems match their leader’s value system are likely to see their leader as more transformational irrespective of whether the leader’s terminal value system is congruent with the organization’s or not. One of the managerial implications of this is that one should pay attention to terminal values of subordinates if a change is contemplated. This brings the issue of impact of cultural factors on transformational leadership.

2.2.8.1 Impact of cultural factors on transformational leadership From a study spanning 60 cultures, Globe Research Project (2002) developed the hypothesis that certain aspect of transformational leadership are universally endorsed across 91

cultures. These aspects are motive arouser, foresight, encouraging, communicative, trustworthy, dynamic, positive, confidence builder and motivational. Certain aspects were cultural specific like risk taking, ambitious, self-effacing, compassionate, sincere and sensitive. Walumbwa and Lawler (2003) examined the impact of cultural factors like collectivism in moderating the influence of transformational leadership on work related outcomes. He used a field survey of 577 employees from banking and financial sectors of emerging economies, namely: China, India and Kenya. He found that collectivism supports the relationship between transformational leadership and work related outcomes such as organisational commitment, job satisfaction and perceptions of organisational withdrawal behaviour. The study also supported the view that transformational leadership might be effective across cultures. Here the importance of collectivism lies in the fact that collectivism can be argued to be positively related to TQM implementation. In collectivistic culture, achievement motivation is socially oriented. That is, it does not matter who chooses the task within the ingroup; it is just as satisfying and motivating as it is if any of the in-group chooses the task. The meaning of work is different in collectivistic cultures. Collectivists emphasize cooperation, endurance, persistence and obedience. They tend to have long-term orientation , leading to long-term commitment to the organization (Bass quoted by Walumbwa & Lawler 2003, p.1087), - a requirement critical for success of TQM in an organization (Yen, Krumwiede & Sheu 2002). Further, studies have shown that collectivism and power distance are highly correlated (Sinha 1995).

However, collectivistic society tends to be more

hierarchical ( Walumbwa & Lawler 2003, p.1084) – which is not conducive for TQM implementation.

2.2.8.2 Transformational leadership in India In the western context, work on transformational leadership has been done by Bass(1990), Tichy and Devanna (1986) and Globe Research Project (2002) . Singh and Bhandarkar (1990) and Srivastava (2003) have studied transformational leadership in the Indian context. The following attributes have been found in the Indian transformational leaders: (i)

They are change agents.

(ii) They are visionary. (iii) They are courageous. 92

(iv) They do things differently. (v)

They are passionate in their commitment to task and people.

(vi) They involve and empower people. (vii) They are interactive. (viii) They set personal examples. (ix) They are very ambitious. (x)

They are future oriented.

(xi) They inspire employees to meet new challenges. (xii) They focus on long-term goals rather than short-term goals without compromising the core values and principles.

There are many similarities between the above and the five transformational factors postulated by Bass and mentioned in section 2.2.8. However, an important addition by Srivastava (2003) is that transformational leaders are change agents. Chhokar (2000) supports this when he says that action orientation and charisma are most important characteristics for effective leadership in India. Srivastava further found that Indian transformational leaders exhibit consultative leadership style. A consultative leader listens to everyone but finally makes his own decision (Kalra 2002). Kalra considers consultative leadership

more participative that NT leadership (see section 2.2.6.4) and suitable for

followers less dependent and less hierarchical than the traditional Indian followers.

2.3.Summary of literature review and overview of the central problem It is recalled that the basic focus of this research is ‘Can TQM be used as the basis for organisational transformation of Indian Railways? If yes, how can it be effectively implemented in Indian Railways?’ A review of the literature showed the following: (i)

TQM , as it is understood today, is akin to organisational excellence. It has come out

clearly both in the context of private organisations and in the context of government bureaucracies where TQM has been successfully implemented. Thus it can be said with reasonable certainty that TQM can be used for organisational transformation of Indian Railways. Therefore what needs to be focused now is that implemented.

93

how it can be effectively

(ii)

On a global scale, TQM is a well-established field of study. But notwithstanding its

popularity, the success rate of TQM implementation is not very high. In general, the implementational emphasis of TQM has been prescriptive. Non-adaptation of TQM to organization specific culture and values and the tendency to look at TQM as a tool and not as a system have been the major reasons for its failure.

(iii)

Organisational learning is an outcome of TQM. However the process which leads to

learning is not well explained in the present literature.

(iv)

The TQM enablers are almost invariant across countries. Across the world, leadership,

policy and strategy, human resource management, process management, information management, customer and market focus and supplier focus with suitable adaptations are the factors or enablers which contribute to the success of TQM. Of all the factors, leadership is of critical importance. Also, TQM in public sector need not be any different from that in the private sector. However, though the enablers of TQM are identified, they have not yet been integrated into a model which can used by organizations for attaining TQM.

(v)

The modification of the ISO 9000 standard in the year 2000 has given it a TQM

orientation. However, till now there has not been much reported study about the impact of IS0 9000:2000 on organizations. Further, though ISO 9000 standard has been used as the first step towards implementation of quality in organisations, no scale has been developed which can objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.

(vi)

Factors which affect the transition of an ISO organization to a TQM organization are

transformational leadership and a capacity to learn that is, morphing of an organization into a learning organization. Empowerment and participative management also promote TQM. Hierarchical set up hinders TQM implementation. However, the success of TQM in many high power distance countries in Asia gives rise to the possibility that it is possible to have country specific adaptation of the cultural enablers of TQM.

94

(vii)

In the Indian context, the TQM literature is not very rich which is perhaps a pointer

that TQM as a model of organisational excellence has not caught up with Indian companies in general.

(viii) The Indian quality awards are implants of western quality awards. Though they can be used as a measure of attainment of a respectable level of TQM proficiency, they should not be used as a model to begin an organization’s tryst with TQM. On the other hand, the developmental orientation of the Deming Prize makes it a preferred model for an organization embarking on a journey towards TQM.

(ix) The traditional Indian cultural values which have seeped into Indian organisations may not be conducive for immediate internalisation of the tenets of TQM. The Indian organisational values are a mix of traditional values and western values. The status consciousness, dependency proneness and personalised relationship tendencies of Indian people need to be carefully handled. Though Indians are group oriented, the group orientation is socially contextualised in terms of religion, language and family and not a work based group orientation like those of the Japanese. Indian ‘Nurturant – Task’ (NT) leadership is one Indian grown leadership model which promises progressive shifting from these tendencies to a more participative tendencies. The recent liberalisation of Indian economy and consequent market driven forces have strengthened the shift to a more participative and global work values.

(x) Indian bureaucracy is still a traditional bureaucracy untouched by bureaucratic reforms. Its value system is not conducive for TQM.

(xi) The implementation of TQM in bureaucracy indicates that TQM should begin in smaller units of Indian Railways.

(xii) There has not been any systematic organisational study of the Indian Railways. It is almost a virgin field in India.

The summary discussed above is pictorially summarised in Figure 2.14. It also shows the gaps in the existing literature. The question mark in the Figure 2.14 is for the research issues which this summary throws up. This is dealt with in sub section 2.4. 95

Indian bureaucracy is • rule bound • monolithic • tunnel vision • directive (non participative)

organisational values and organisational practices of Indian Railways from the point of view of an excellent company Not known

TQM on date draws from -System theory -Critical success factors -Quality awards -Organisational learning TQM is the same as organisational excellence

Indian culture • hierarchical • dependency prone • own-other syndrome • context oriented • balancing

Congruence between the two

Not Known

congruence between the two Not known

TQM in India should pay attention to • leadership • policy & strategy • HRM • process management • Information management • customer focus • supplier focus

ISO 9000:2000 is the desired path to be followed. It is facilitated by • transformational leadership • executive mind set • capacity and willingness to learn

? TQM for railways

Figure 2. 14 Summary of literature review and gaps in existing literature Source: developed for this research.

96

Quality management in India • through ISO

2.4. Identification of the gaps which need investigation The gaps are (i) There has not been any organisational study of the Indian Railways. (ii) Though the modified standard of ISO 9000 - ISO 9000: 2000 - has been framed with a distinct TQM slant, there is no scale which can objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM. (iii) Perhaps because of the prevalence of the prescriptive style of TQM implementation, there are relatively few studies of TQM implementation with organisational members as the focus that is,

a bottom-up process involving the organisational members in planning,

implementing and evaluating the quality management system. This approach focuses on successful planning, deployment, execution and diagnosis of quality practices and performance measurement. This approach draws heavily on the

Japanese concept of

planning (Hoshin) which promotes consensus building (nemawashi), shared decision(ringi), commitment and loyalty. The researcher takes a stand that it is worthwhile to study this method of ISO certification as the first step towards TQM. (iv) Though the enablers of TQM are identified, they have not yet been integrated into a model which can used by organizations for attaining TQM. (v) The literature recognises the importance of transformational top management as the prime driver towards TQM. However, the literature is silent about the role of middle management in organisational transformation towards TQM. The literature review could not come across any study which identifies effective middle management leadership styles which supports a transformational top leadership style in an organization’s journey towards TQM.

97

Chapter 3 Research questions and research methodology

The gaps identified in literature review gave rise to the research questions listed in Table 3.1.

3.1 Research questions Gap in literature

(i)

There

organisational

Research question

has

study

not of

been the

any (i)

What are and what should be Indian

Indian Railways’ core values, style of management,

Railways.

growth strategies, competitive strategies and changes

in

organisational

structure

/

management system so as to transform Indian Railways into an excellent organization. (ii) Though the modified standard of ISO (ii)

What is the impact of ISO 9000

9000- ISO 9000/ 2000 - has been framed implementation in Indian Railways? with a distinct TQM slant, there no scale (iii) which

can

objectively

measure

To what extent has the implementation

the of ISO 9000 brought about a TQM orientation

transition of an ISO certified organization in Indian Railways? Answering this question towards TQM.

will involve the development of a scale which can objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM. Table 3.1 (cont’d…)

98

Table 3.1 (cont’d…) Gap in literature

Research question

(iii) There are relatively few studies of

(iv) Will a bottom-up methodology

TQM implementation with organisational

learning

members as the focus that is, a bottom up

personnel?

process

involving

the

capacity

among

the

build railway

organisational

members in planning, implementing and evaluating the quality management system. This approach draws heavily on the Japanese concept of planning (Hoshin) which

promotes

(nemawashi),

consensus

shared

building

decision(ringi),

commitment and loyalty. The researcher takes a stand that it is worthwhile to study this method of ISO certification as the first step towards TQM. (iv) Though the enablers of TQM are (v) How can the enablers of TQM be integrated identified, they have not yet been integrated in a model for attaining TQM within the ISO into

a

model

which

can

used

by framework?

organizations for attaining TQM. (v) While the moderating influence of

(vi) What is an effective leadership style for

transformational top leadership is well

middle managers for effective transition from a

documented, the literature is silent about

ISO company to a TQM company?

the leadership role of middle management in organisational transformation towards TQM.. Table 3. 1 Research questions for this work Source: developed for this research.

99

3.2 Different research paradigms For the above research questions, a research map was to be designed which could act as a guide to provide answers to the earlier research questions. However, research question vi was left out as a matter of deliberate choice because the focus of this study would then have become leadership oriented. However, this can be an area for future research. In order to develop a

research map, it was desirable to understand different

philosophies and methodologies in the area of social science research. In social science, there is a spectrum of research methods available which could be used. Each one of the research methods has a philosophical underpinning as to how the world is viewed (ontology), what is the relationship between the reality and the researcher(epistemology) and what technique the researcher is using (methodology) (Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 1991, p. 26). A detailed description of different philosophical bases and the corresponding research designs are available in many publications (Creswell 1998, Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 1991, Guba & Lincoln 1994, Neuman 1997). For the purpose of this study, a brief integrative review of different research methods is presented here. A positivist holds the opinion that the processes of the external world and their property can be objectively observed, defined and measured, rather than ‘subjectively inferred through sensation, reflection and intuition’ (Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 1991, p. 22). As against this, there is another view which says that the world is not objective and external. The happenings of the world are socially constructed. That is, one should try to understand why different people have different experience of the same situation, rather than trying to look for external causes and fundamental laws to explain their behaviour. This philosophical position came to be known as phenomenological or social constructionist point of view. Easterby, Thorpe and Lowe (1991, p. 22) have quoted Morgan and Smircich who have identified six ontological positions based on one’s perception of nature of reality. The six ontological positions are shown in Figure 3.1.

100

Subjectivist

Objectivist

Projection of human imagination Social construction Symbolic discourse Contextual field of information Concrete process Concrete structure

Figure 3. 1 Different assumptions about nature of reality Source: Easterby, Thorpe and Lowe (1991).

The different underpinnings shown above has given rise to four scientific paradigms – positivism, realism, critical theory and constructivism. A paradigm can be regarded as the ‘basic belief system or world view that guides the investigator’(Guba & Lincoln 1994, p. 105). Evered and Louis (1981, p. 385) define paradigm as ‘the entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques and so on, shared by the members of given (scientific) community’. Perry, Riege and Brown (1999) have summarised the four different paradigms in the context of ontology, epistemology and methodology as shown in Table 3.2.

101

PARADIGM

POSITIVISM

REALISM

CRITICAL

Item

CONSTRUCTIVISM

THEORY

Ontology

näive realism:

critical realism:

historic realism:

Reality is real Reality is ‘real’ but ‘Virtual’

reality Multiple

and

only

apprehensible

and

economic,

probabilistically

ethnic, political,

imperfectly shaped by social, specific

apprehensive so

critical relativism: local

and

‘constructed’

realities

and cultural,

and

triangulation gender

values,

from many sources crystallised over is required to try to time know it Epistemology

objectivist:

modified

subjectivist:

Findings true

objectivist:

Value

subjectivist:

mediated Created findings

Findings probably findings true Methodology

experiments/

case

survey:

convergent

studies, dialogic,

hermeneutical,

dialectical:

dialectical:

Verification of interviewing:

Researcher is a Researcher

hypothesis,

Triangulation,

‘transformative

chiefly

interpretation

quantitative

research issues by changes

methods

qualitative

is

a

‘passionate participant’

of intellectual’ who within the world being the investigated

and social

world

within

which

quantitative

methods such as participants live structural equation modelling

Table 3. 2 Basic belief systems of alternative enquiry paradigms Source: Perry, Riege and Brown ( 1999, p.17) based on Guba and Lincoln (1994).

Healy and Perry (2000) have compared the quality criteria for the above four research paradigms. It is shown in Table 3.3.

102

Criteria

for

realism

Case study techniques

Criteria for

Criteria

Criteria

within realism paradigm

case

for

qualitative

for

research

construct-

research

positivism

research

for

ivist Major

Yin (1994)

authors

Criteria

research

Lincoln

Miles

and Guba

Huberman

(1997),

(1985)

(1994)

Neuman

and

Chia

(1997) Ontology

Research

1.

problem

Ontological

with

complex

appropriate-

social

science

ness

phenomena

replication,

2. Contingent

involving

questions,

validity

reflective

‘why’ issues, description

Internal

‘Truth

people

of the context of the cases

validity

value’

Selection deals

of

research

‘Truth

problem, for example, it is

value’

a how and why problem

credibility

Theoretical

and

Internal or

literal

validity

/

credibility

/

validity

authenticity

in-depth emphasis

on Internal or

credibility Open

Internal

“fuzzy

Internal

validity

/

credibility

/

validity

authenticity

boundary” systems

(Yin

1994) involving generative mechanisms rather

than

direct cause and effect Epistemology

Neither

3.

free nor value

perceptions

laden,

of

value aware

Multiple

value

rather

Multiple

interviews,

Neutrality

Objectivity

supporting evidence, broad

or

confirmability

questions before probes,

confirma-

way

triangulation,

bility

mirror

self-

/

Valuefree, one-

participants

description and awareness

(Guba

and of peer

of own values. Published

Lincoln

researcher

reports for peer review

1990)

Table 3.3 (cont’d…)

103

&

Table 3.3 (cont’d…) Criteria

for

realism research

Case study techniques

Criteria for

Criteria

Criteria

Criteria

within

case

for

for

for

research

constructi

qualitative

positivism

vist

research

research

Consiste-

Reliability

Reliability

realism

paradigm

Methodology

Trustworthy

4.

the research can

use in the report of

ncy

be audited

relevant quotations and

dependab-

dependabil

matrices that summarise

ility

-ity

Methodolog-

ical trustworthin-

–

ess

Case

study

database,

Reliability

or

data and of descriptions

/

/

audibility

of procedures like case selection and interview procedures 5.

Analytic

generalisation

Analytic

Identify research issues

External

Applicabil-

External

generalisation

before data collection,

validity

ity

validity

(that is, theory

to

an

through the

transferab-

transferabi-

building)

rather

interview protocol that

specification

ility

lity

statistical

will provide data for

of

generalisation

confirming

theoretical

(that is, theory-

disconfirming theory

than

formulate

or

testing)

or

/

/fittingness

relationships , from which generalisations can be made

6.

Construct

validity

Use of prior

Construct

Construct

theory, case

validity

validity

study database, triangulation Note: critical theory has not been included in this table as no criteria that distinguishes it from constructivism could be found

Table 3. 3 Quality criteria for different research paradigm Source: modified from Healy and Perry( 2000).

104

A positivist view is appropriate in natural science where a single apprehensible reality whose nature can be known and categorised is to be defined and measured (Perry, Riege & Brown 1995, p. 16). Here the researcher believes that he/she has identified the variables which have causal relationship among them which are invariant across time and context. Thus sample survey and controlled experiments are the primary data collection techniques. The objective of the researcher is to test a theory or to confirm a hypothesis (Zikmund 2000). A positivist approach may not be suitable in social science research where each situation is unique and a person within a situation can give

different responses

depending on the nature of reality as he/she perceives it. Also where the emphasis is to explore the structure and the process of a phenomenon, there are many variables which interact with each other. It may not be possible to establish a cause and effect relationship among all the variables. However, wherever it is possible to identify and define constructs which are invariant across situations, a positivist approach has the advantage of being generalisable and reliable. Further, a positivist approach which uses a deductive approach is useful in theory testing and not in theory building which requires an inductive approach (Perry, Riege & Brown 1999). Constructivism holds the view that truth is a particular belief system held in a particular context (Healy & Perry 2000, p. 120). That is each person has his/her own reality in his/her mind and it is the researcher’s job to interact with many persons so as to get multiple construction of that reality. Meaning carries more importance than measurement because perception itself is the most important reality (Perry, Riege & Brown 1999, p.18). Using hermeneutical techniques, the different constructions are compared and contrasted through a dialectical interchange so as to arrive at a consensus construction (Guba & Lincoln 1994, p.111). This approach is useful in understanding such deeply held values as beauty, prejudice and religion (Healy & Perry 2000, p. 120). Critical theorists aim at transforming social, political, cultural, economical, ethnic and gender values (Healy & Perry 2000, p. 119). A critical theorist aims at changing the world in which the participants live. Here knowledge does not accumulate, but grows and changes through a historical revision that continuously erodes ignorance and misapprehensions and enlarges more informed insights (Guba & Lincoln 1994, p.114). For a critical theorist, this is the process of knowledge accumulation. The end goal of the study might be to transform (through praxis) the underlying order of social life – those social and systemic relations that constitute society (Creswell 1998, p.81). According to Creswell (1998, p. 82), critical theory may emphasize multiple methodologies ( qualitative and quantitative) and multiple 105

perspectives (class, race and gender). Examples of critical theory researchers are Marxists, feminists and action researchers (Perry, Riege & Brown 1999, p. 17). Realism believes much like positivism that there is a reality out there but it is not possible to comprehend that fully and perfectly (Guba & Linclon 1994, p. 110). Thus the attempt of the researcher should be to apprehend that reality as closely as possible through widest possible critical examination. Triangulation should be used as a way of falsifying (rather than verifying) hypotheses. By an increased utilisation of qualitative techniques, and by doing inquiry in more natural settings, collecting more situational information,

the

postposivist attempts to get closer to the reality. In a different context, Miles and Huberman (1994) have also talked about using qualitative and quantitative techniques together for arriving at more robust conclusions. ‘Qualitative data are useful when one needs to validate, explain or reinterpret quantitative data gathered from the same sitting’ (Miles & Huberman 1994, p.10). They further say that qualitative data are useful for exploring a new area which can lead to development of some hypotheses. Thus from the point of view of robustness of research, it can be seen that not only can qualitative data be used as authentically as quantitative data but also that both data types can be used to reinforce each other’s findings. Some of the strengths of qualitative data are: (i) They focus on naturally occurring, ordinary events in natural setting. Thus the possibility of understanding latent, non-obvious issues is strong. (ii) It is rich and holistic providing a vivid picture of a situation in a particular context. Quantitative techniques, on the other hand provides ‘sensitivity

and power to

individual judgement when one attempts to detect and describe patterning in a set of observations’ ( Weinstein & Tamur quoted in Miles & Huberman 1994, p. 40). It has been suggested that that to get broader insights into the issues being investigated the researcher should try to mix research methods (Ticehurst & Veal 2000, p.20). Accordingly in this research also, instead of following a particular approach, both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been used dictated by the needs of the situation.

3.3 Development of research map With above introductory comments about different research methods in the background, the research map which was used to guide the research to answer the research questions is shown in Figure 3.2.

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Stage 1 survey A Survey among Indian Railways persons on different dimensions of organisational policies and practices which promote excellence

Stage 2

survey B Assess Indian Railways persons on the culture specific dimensions of hierarchy

Shortlist ISO certified units of Indian Railways on certain criteria

survey D Develop and administer an instrument ‘ TQM transition questionnaire’ , to the M.R. /head of unit of the same shortlisted railway units. Ask them to evaluate the unit on ‘one year before ISO certification’ and ‘today’ basis.

survey C Administer the questionnaire of Acharya and Roy to the M.R./ head of unit of the shortlisted railway units

Stage 3

Take an unit of Indian Railways which is undergoing ISO certification and do its in-depth study so as to triangulate the findings from above

Note: M.R.= Management Representative

Figure 3. 2 Research map Source: developed for this work.

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3.4 Research Design for stage 1

3.4.1 Survey A - Assessment of organisational policies and practices in the Indian Railways Survey A sought to find an answer to the first research question: ‘What are and what should be Indian Railways’ core values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive strategies and changes in organisational structure / management system so as to transform Indian Railways into an excellent organization’?. One of the gaps which the literature review had shown is that there has not been any organisational study of Indian Railways. Thus there was no prior set of information available on which this research could build on or cross verify with. Thus some known model which could help assess Indian Railways’ organisational values and practices in the context of organisational excellence needed to be identified. Khandwalla (2002) has assessed the response of Indian public sector organisations and private sector organisations to liberalisation and arrived at a model of organisational policies and practices which he calls a community of adaptive “best” policies and practices that yield performance excellence in an competitive and liberalised environment which Indian organisations are facing today (Khandwalla 2002, p. 443). Khandwalla has developed a questionnaire which assesses the prevalence of these policies and practices in an organization. A detailed discussion about the reliability and validity of the questionnaire is available in Khandwalla (2002). Part of that questionnaire consists of open ended and precoded questions about core values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive strategies and changes in organisational structure / management system which an excellent organization follows. This part of the questionnaire labelled ‘assessment of organisational policies’ is shown in Appendix 2. Since the questionnaire developed by Khandwalla was used to assess excellence in Indian companies and the objective of survey A was to assess prevalence of different aspects of organisational excellence in Indian Railways, Khandwalla’s questionnaire was used for survey A of this research. Question I of the questionnaire consists of open-ended questions. Question II to question VI are the pre-coded questions. An open-ended question provides the respondents

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freedom to give their opinions. Also, this can provide such dimensions of information which a Likert scale based questions may not be able to elicit from the respondents. Since the answers to the first research question was expected to throw light on the organisational policies and practices of Indian Railways, which, in turn could explain much of what this study was to subsequently uncover in stage 2 and stage 3, the more the ways in which answers to the first question were tapped, the more reliable were to be the conclusions. Thus the use of a questionnaire which included open ended questions and pre-coded questions as in this questionnaire added to the reliability of the conclusion. Sampling strategy: The questionnaire was given only to the chairman, board members, general managers and principal heads of departments of Indian Railways as they were the persons who could be said to have enough exposure to the strategic part of Indian Railways to do justice to the full questionnaire. It was noted that Khandwalla, in his study too, had administered the questionnaire to the chairmen and managers who reported to the chairman of an organization. (Khandwalla 2002, p. 436). Also, senior staff can provide more reliable information about their organization than junior staff (Ticehurst & Veal 2000, p.143). In the bureaucratic set up of Indian Railways, the tenure of the chairmen and board members are normally not more than one to two years because one can reach that level just before retirement. Thus, for the sake of comprehensiveness, the questionnaires were sent to all the chairmen and board members who retired since 1991 and whose contact details were available. The Indian industry has opened up to the global economy and to the concept of TQM roughly since 1991, therefore soliciting the opinion of board members and chairmen since 1991 was considered desirable. The data collection and data analysis of this survey is dealt with in chapter 4.

3.4.2 Survey B - Assessment of cultural values of Indian Railway personnel Survey A provided insight on work specific policies and practices about the Indian Railways. However, it did not assess the impact of Indian culture on the organisational values of the Indian Railway personnel. It is recalled from the literature review (section 2.2.6.1) that hierarchical relationship, tendency for personalised relationship and dependency on the superior have been identified as some of the culture based organisational values which, however, are reported to be changing in view of the liberalisation of Indian economy. It is also recalled that hierarchical relationship is not conducive for TQM implementation, but collective orientation is conducive for TQM. Thus, it was all the more important that one 109

looked for an instrument through which one could measure culture specific dimensions among the Indian Railway personnel. A perusal of the work on NT leadership by Sinha (1995) indicated that he has developed a questionnaire which measures hierarchical tendencies among Indian managers. The questionnaire is shown in Appendix 3. The hierarchical tendencies are measured through the three constructs of ‘status consciousness (S)’, ‘personalised relationship (P)’ and ‘dependence proneness (D)’. These three constructs are defined below (Sinha 1995, p.99): (i) Status consciousness – It is a tendency to obey and respect seniors and superiors. Anger and hostility against a superior are suppressed and displaced. The seniors are listened to more deferentially. The tendency is to direct one’s effort to appease the superior who in turn must help, protect and guide the subordinates. (ii) Dependence proneness – Preference for hierarchy fosters dependence proneness. It is a tendency to seek support, guidance and encouragement in situations where one is apparently competent to make decisions. (iii) Preference for personalised relationship – It is a tendency where a subordinate expects to be taken care of in a personal way, to solve his/her problem, tell him/her what to do . The questionnaire was administered to Indian Railway personnel to assess their culture specific value of hierarchy. The reliability and validity of the instrument is dealt with at the end of Appendix 3. Sampling strategy: Indian Railways has about 8000 persons in the managerial category. They are called officers. About 4000 of them are called class-1 officers or more formally group ‘A’ officers. They are directly recruited into the managerial cadre on the basis of an all India examination. (In Indian organisational context, a cadre means a group of professionals belonging to a particular category). The balance 4000 are class-2 officers or more formally group ‘B’ officers. They join the railways in the worker/ supervisor cadre as class-3 ( or group ‘C’ ) employees and then rise up to become class-2 officers. Almost 95% of them retire at the first or second rung of the managerial cadre. Since class-2 officers are generally less educated and are less exposed to position of responsibility in their work, it was postulated that they should show higher hierarchical tendencies than class-1 officers. On the same logic class-3 employees should show higher hierarchical tendency than class-2 or class-1 officers. The literature review has shown the deeply embedded hierarchical tendencies among Indians. However, recent studies (Pearson & Chaterjee 2001) have also shown changes in 110

this value. It was thus postulated that younger employees should show lesser hierarchical tendencies than older employees.

Based on the above reasoning, three hypotheses were framed for testing (i) Class-1 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class-2 officers. (ii) Class-2 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class-3 employees. (iii) Younger employees show lesser hierarchical tendencies than older employees.

To test these hypotheses, samples of

railway employees were collected in the

following categories:

Class-1 Age less than 30 years

Class-2 Age less than 30 years

Class-3 Age less than 30 years

Age between 30 years Age between 30 years to 50 Age between 30 years to 50 to 50 years

years

years

Age more than 50 years

Age more than 50 years

Age more than 50 years

The rationale behind this grouping was this: The process of liberalisation in India started around 1991. Those who were less than 15 years old at that time were less than 30 years old in 2005. It was reasonable to postulate that this age group was exposed to a social system which was in transition because of the opening of the Indian economy. Further, the age group of ‘more than 50 years’ is roughly one generation above the youngest group. Thus these two group presented two contrasting categories for comparison. The data collection and data analysis of this survey is dealt with in chapter 4.

3.5 Research design for stage 2 Stage 2 of the research sought answers to the following two research questions:

Research question no ii: What is the impact of ISO 9000 implementation in Indian Railways?

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Research question no iii: To what extent has the implementation of ISO 9000 brought about a TQM orientation in Indian Railways. This therefore involved development of a scale which could objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.

3.5.1 Survey C – Assessment of the impact of ISO 9000 in the Indian Railways A review of literature showed that several surveys have been conducted by researchers about the impact of ISO 9000: 1994 certification. One such survey was conducted by Acharya and Roy (2000) on about 1200 ISO certified units in India. A slightly modified form of that survey was administered to a short listed group of ISO certified units in Indian Railways. This provided answer to the question ‘what is the impact of ISO implementation in Indian Railways’. The questionnaire is shown in Appendix 4. Reliability and validity: The thrust of this survey was to gather information from

ISO

certified railway units. There was no construct which survey C tried to measure. So the aspect of reliability and validity was not relevant here.

3.5.1.1 Sampling plan for survey C Selection of railway units was a key decision in seeking an answer to the research question no ii. Whether to go for qualitative research or quantitative research was also an issue here. Qualitative research usually works with a small sample. The small number of cases are nested in their context and studied in depth unlike quantitative research where large number of context stripped cases ( individuals) are used to provide statistical significance. Thus, a small number of randomly selected sample can make the conclusions biased. Qualitative samples also tend to be purposive. This is because the initial domain of study is smaller than that in a quantitative study. Further, social processes have a logic and a coherence which is lost in random sampling. Thus it was decided that the survey C would be qualitative and purposive sampling would be carried out in this survey. However, the term ‘purposive sampling’ has been used with different meaning in connection with subjective methods of sampling (Goon, Gupta & Dasgupta 1986, p.209). Thus a review of different purposive sampling strategy was done.

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Creswell (1998) identified 16 purposive sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry. They are shown in Table 3.4. A detailed explanation of each of the sampling plan is given in Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 28).

Type of sampling

Purpose

Maximum variation

Documents diverse variations and identifies important common patterns

Homogeneous

Focuses, reduces, simplifies, and facilitates group interviewing

Critical case

Permits logical generalization and maximum application of information to other cases

Theory based

Find examples of a theoretical construct and thereby elaborate on and examine it

Confirming

and Elaborate on initial analysis, seek exceptions and looking for

disconfirming cases

variation

Snowball or chain

Identifies case of interest from people who know people who know cases are information rich

Extreme

or

deviant Learn from highly unusual manifestations of the phenomenon of

case

interest

Typical case

Highlights what is normal or average

Intensity

Information-rich cases that manifest the phenomenon intensely but not extremely

Politically

important Attracts desired attention or avoids attracting undesired attention

cases Random purposeful

Adds credibility to sample when potential purposeful sample is too large Illustrates subgroups and facilitates comparisons

Stratified purposeful Criterion

All cases that meet some criterion, useful for quality assurance

Opportunistic

Follow new leads; taking advantage of the unexpected

Combination or mixed

Triangulation. Flexibility; meets multiple interests and needs

Convenience

Saves time, money and effort, but at the expense of information and credibility

Table 3. 4 Typology of sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry Source: Creswell (1998, p. 119). 113

Qualitative sampling can be a combination of ‘within-case sampling’ and ‘multiplecase sampling’. Within case sampling helps us to see a local configuration in some depth. Withincase sample is almost always nested, that is working from outside into the core of a setting. The sampling must be theoretically driven – either the theory is pre-specified or emerges as the study progresses. The choice of informants, episodes and interactions are being driven by a conceptual question, not by a concern for representativeness. To get to the construct, one needs to see different instances of it, at different moments, in different places, with different people. The prime concern is with the conditions under which the construct or theory operates, not with the generalisation of the findings to other settings. Within-case sampling has an iterative quality, working in progressive ‘waves’ as the study progresses. Multiple-case sampling, on the other hand, adds confidence to findings. That is, it adds to the precision, validity and stability of the findings. It follows a replication strategy. If a finding holds in one setting and also in a comparable setting, but not in a contrasting setting, the finding is more robust. It is to be noted that here, the generalisation from one case to another is on the basis of a match to the underlying theory, not to a larger universe. The choice of case is usually made on conceptual grounds and not on representative grounds. A multiple case sampling has to be guided by the research questions and the conceptual framework, either pre-specified or emergent. With this background information on different sampling strategies, it was decided that instead of doing a complete random sampling in the selection of railway units, let the insight gained about TQM in literature review guide the sample selection process:

First criteria for selection of railway unit in the survey C: A list of ISO certified railway units (corrected up to 15 Oct 2003) is shown at Appendix 9. There are 89 units which are certified to ISO 9000 standard. The list shows that there are some units which are both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified. ISO 14000 has been taken up in Indian Railways after ISO 9000 certification. Thus a unit gets more time to institutionalise improvements. Further, ISO 14000 is more stringent in the sense that even if there is a single non conformance (NC), ISO 14000 certification is not granted. ISO 14000 calls for very elaborate housekeeping and the Japanese have shown through their adherence to ‘5S’ that improvement in housekeeping is a significant step towards TQM (Pheng 2001). Thus it was reasonable to postulate that a 114

railway unit which was both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified, should show more progress towards TQM. Hence the survey C could provide better contrasting insight if the sampling included some railway units which were only ISO 9000 certified and some railway units which were both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified units. Second criteria for selection of railway unit in the survey C: There was yet another way one could make a judicious sampling of railway units. This was based on the organisational power delegated to the railway units and the assessment of the extent to which this organisational power was able to do justice to different clauses of ISO 9000. This aspect is explained now. A simplified organisational structure of Indian Railway is shown in Appendix 7. It can be seen from there that the Indian Railways’ organisational structure is functional at the headquarters level and matrix at the divisional level. Thus all the divisional departmental heads report to the Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) in the field unit and to their Chief level officer at the headquarters. All the functional departmental heads and the DRMs report to the General Manager (GM). Other than the division, there are maintenance units and warehousing units which are headed by Chief Workshop Manager and Deputy Chief Materials Manager respectively. It can be seen from Appendix 7 that only the DRM and the GM have officers of all departments under them. With this background information, a perusal of the list of ISO certified units of Indian Railways gave rise to following observations: (i)

In the railways, most of the ISO certified units were engineering based. That is, they

were locomotive or coach manufacturing units and maintenance shops. Considering that the initial development of ISO system and its adoption was in engineering companies, it was expected. Thus, though the Indian Railways is a service organization, very few service units in it have gone for ISO certification. Among the engineering units, the locomotive or coach manufacturing shops are called production units. These production units are headed by a General Manager who possesses both the formal and the informal power for effecting organization wide changes. In a production unit, all the ten departments of railways function under the unified command of a General Manager. Thus, the organisational set up of a production unit has the requisite autonomy to take organization wide decisions. The coach and wagon repair units are headed by Chief Workshop Managers (CWMs). A CWM also has managers from all the departments except civil engineering, signal and medical. However, in terms of delegation of power, he does not possess autonomy in the 115

areas of machine and material procurement, selection / promotion

of managers and

investment decisions. The CWMs report to the Chief Mechanical Engineer who sits at the headquarters and who in turn reports to the General Manager. The CWM is dependent on the CME and GM for machine and material procurement, selection / promotion of managers and investment decisions. For work in the areas of civil engineering and medical, the CWM is supposed to liaise with the local DRM who like a General Manager has all the ten departments under his administrative control. A Deputy Chief Materials Manager (Dy. CMM) is responsible for material supply to all the repair workshops and locomotive maintenance units. Like a CWM, he also has managers from all departments except civil engineering, signal and medical. Like the CWM, he does not possess autonomy in the areas of selection /promotion of managers and investment decisions. However, being a materials manager, he has a limited amount of power for material procurement. The bulk of the material procurement is done at the headquarters level collectively by the stores department (headed by Controller Of Stores), accounts department (headed by Financial Advisor & Chief Accounts Officer) and the user department. The locomotive maintenance units are headed by Division Mechanical /Electrical Engineers (DME/DEE). They report to the Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) who is their field level boss. Besides, they also report to their departmental boss (CME/ CEE) at the headquarters. Thus a Divisional Electrical Engineer reports to the Chief Electrical Engineer at the headquarters and to the DRM in the field as in a matrix structure. Under a Divisional Mechanical/Electrical Engineer, only mechanical / electrical engineers work. The managers from other support service like personnel, finance, materials do not work under him. He is supposed to liaise with the divisional heads of these departments who work under the DRM. Thus, the Divisional Mechanical /Electrical Engineer, like the CWM, is dependent on the divisional heads under the DRM in the areas of civil engineering, security, medical, promotion of supervisors, and financial decision making, and on the CME and GM for machine and material procurement, selection / promotion of managers and large investment decisions. It should be clear from the above discussion that there can be unity of purpose only at two levels - at the level of DRM and at the level of GM. Also, since they have all wings of railways under them, DRMs and GMs expect inter-department coordination from their subordinates. Other than these two levels, the line of decision making in a particular department of Indian Railways is along the vertical hierarchy. This traditional functional silos in Indian Railways is shown in Figure 3.3. 116

GM/DRM Coordinational vector

Functional vector

Work vector Mech = mechanical Elec=electrical Fin= finance Pers=personal Stor=stores

Figure 3. 3 Existing functional silos in Indian Railways Source: developed for this work.

In Figure 3.3 different departments of Indian Railways have been shown along the periphery of a horizontal circle. This model has borrowed the concept of vector from Gyllenpalm quoted in Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson (2002, p.437). The work force vector (shown by black arrows) is a measure of the work which different departmental functionaries do in Indian Railways. The work force vector has two components – functional force vector (shown by purple arrow) and coordinational force vector (shown by blue arrow). The functional force vector is exerted by the functional superiors within a department. This functional force vector is reinforced by the vertical collectivism (see Table 2.13) tendency of 117

Indians which supports the hierarchy of a department and also develops a clannish feeling among the departmental members. That is, the feeling of in-group is confined within the department. The coordinational force vector is caused by the extent of coordination force exerted by the General Manager (GM) or Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) the only two levels where effective inter department coordination is practised in the Indian Railways. The intensity of functional force vector depends on: (i) function specific knowledge of a superior (ii) the interaction among the functional in-group. This interaction vector in turn depends on (i) the prevalence of bureaucratic value in that functional unit (ii) prevalence of social values between the superior and subordinate. These concepts are mathematically shown by the researcher below:

W= F + C, where W = Work force vector, F = Functional force vector, C = Coordinational force vector, F= K+I , where K= functional knowledge of the superior, I = Interaction among the functional in-group, I = B+S, where B= Bureaucratic values in the functional unit, S=Social value in the functional unit.

It has been mentioned here that effective coordination occurs only at the GM and DRM level. However the list of ISO certified units at Appendix 9 shows that no ISO certification has been taken at the divisional level or headquarter level. It has however been taken at intra divisional levels like a diesel loco shed, an electric loco shed etc. ISO certification has also been taken in

railway workshops headed by CWMs, and by

warehousing units headed by Dy. CMMs. There are also a few cases where the ISO certification has been taken only for part of a workshop. This situation was analysed in the background of the continual improvement loop of ISO 9000. The ISO 9000:2000 standard has incorporated the continual improvement theme in a process-based approach as shown in Figure 3.4.

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Continual improvement of the quality management system Management Responsibility

Customers Customers

Resource management

Measurement, analysis and improvement Satisfaction

Product realization

Requirements

Value-adding activities

Product

Information flow

Figure 3. 4 Model of a process-based quality management system Source: ISO 9001:2000 standard.

A juxtaposition of the clauses of ISO 9000:2000 in the areas of purchasing and resource management against the power delegated to different unit heads has been shown in Table 3.5.

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Units ISO clause

headed

(taken from ISO 9000:2000 manual) ‘6.3

Infrastructure

Units

by by CWM/ Dy. headed

GM

CMM

He/she

The organization shall determine, provide the

headed Units

conformity

to

required have

product power

DME/ DEE

has He/she does not He/she does

and maintain the infrastructure needed to delegation of required achieve

and delegation

the not have the required of delegation of

requirements. Infrastructure includes, as organization

power and the power

applicable

organization to the

a)

to provide it.

building, workspace and associated

provide it.

utilities, b)

by

and

organization to provide it.

process equipment (both hardware

and software), and c)

Supporting services (such as transport

or communication)’. ‘7.4 Purchasing

He/she

7.4.1 Purchasing processes

the

has He/she does not He /she does

required have

The organization shall evaluate and select delegation of required suppliers based on their ability to supply power

and delegation

product in accordance with organization’s organization requirements.

Criteria

for

the not have the required of delegation of

power and the power

and

selection, to ensure its organization to the

evaluation and re-evaluation shall be compliance.

ensure

established. Records of the results of

compliance.

its organization to ensure its compliance.

evaluations and any necessary actions arising from the evaluation shall be maintained. (see 4.2.4)’.

Table 3. 5 Analysis of different categories of railway units on clauses of ISO 9000:2000 Source: developed for this research.

From the above table, it was clear that except for production units, the heads of the workshops, warehousing units and locomotive maintenance units were not organisationally empowered to satisfy all the clauses of ISO 9000:2000. 120

Thus it was possible to propose a hypothesis at this point: ‘Production units will show better transition towards TQM concepts’. This insight was used for doing a theory based purposeful sampling of ISO certified units within Indian Railways. Therefore it was reasoned that if the production units were the most probable candidates for a successful transition towards TQM, they should first be studied in detail and conclusion drawn from them could then be tested further. Therefore, it was decided that the questionnaire of survey C should be sent to all the six production units – CLW, DLW, DCW, RCF, ICF and WAP. Third criteria for selection of railway unit in the survey C: It had been noted in the literature review that the ISO 9000 certification could be used as the stepping stone for an organization’s journey towards TQM (Lee & Lam 1997; Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001; Escanciano, Fernández & Vázquez 2001). Further ISO 9000:2000 is specially designed for developing a continuous improvement culture in an organization. The literature review had also shown that the following factors are critical for taking an ISO 9000 certified organization towards TQM:

(i) Transformational leadership (ii) Executive mind set (iii) Capacity and willingness to learn

Among these factors, it was learnt from the literature review that transformational leadership favourably disposes an organization in developing the correct executive mindset and the willingness to learn. Thus these two factors could be considered to be dependent on transformational leadership. However the literature review did not bring about any relationship between transformational leadership and the capacity to learn. Therefore in the study of transition of ISO certified units towards TQM, one needed to address the intervening influence of only two variables: (a) transformational leadership and (b) capacity to learn. Here, in stage 2 of the research design, only the moderating impact of transformational leadership was dealt with. The moderating impact of capacity to learn was dealt with in stage 3 of the research. This was because researcher believed that ‘capacity to learn’ was closely linked with research question ‘iv’ which was ‘will this bottom up methodology build learning capacity among the railway personnel?’

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Thus the third criteria to include railway units in survey C was: ‘include some units which have been headed by transformational leaders and some units which have been headed by non-transformational leaders’. For assessing the transformational leadership, Bass’ Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire -MLQ 5X was administered to the managers of different railway units. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X) by Bass and Avolio (2000) is the most widely used instrument for assessing transformational leadership ( Antonakis, Avolio & Sivasubramaniam 2003; Block 2003). They are shown in Appendix 6. It has nine constructs. The nine constructs and their operational definition are: (i) Idealized Influence - Attributed-(II A) – It is a sub component of charisma. Charisma is a desire to identify with the leader. It measures the influence which a subordinate attributes to the leader. (ii) Idealized Influence - Behaviour- (IIB) - It is also a sub component of charisma. It measures the influence which a subordinate draws from the behaviour of their leader. (iii) Inspirational Motivation (IM) – It provides followers with a clear sense of purpose that is energizing; a role model for ethical conduct which builds identification with the leader and his/her articulated vision. (iv) Intellectual Stimulation (IS) – It gets followers to question the tried and true ways of solving problems; encourages them to question the methods they use to improve upon them. (v) Individualized Consideration (IC) – It focuses on understanding the needs of each follower and works continuously to get them to develop to their full potential. (vi) Contingent Reward(CR) – It clarifies what is expected from followers and what they will receive if they meet expected levels of performance. (vii) Management-by-Exception Active (MBEA) – Here the leader focuses on monitoring task execution for any problems that might arise and correcting those problems to maintain current performance levels. (viii) Management-by-Exception Passive (MBEP) – Here the leader tends to react only after problems have become serious to take corrective action. (ix) Laissez-Faire (LF)– It shows a lack of leadership where, often, no decision will be made at all. Of the above nine constructs, the first five constructs are considered transformational in nature, the next three are considered transactional in nature while the last one shows an abdication of leadership responsibilities (Block 2003, p.321).

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The questionnaire measures the above constructs on a scale of 0 (not at all) to 4 (frequently if not always). Table 3.6 shows the percentiles for individual scores on the five constructs of transformational leadership and one construct of transactional leadership (CR). It can be seen from the table that Bass and Avolio (2000, p.53) found that only 5% of the leaders got scores of 3.7 and above on the five constructs of transformational leadership. It shows that transformational leaders though sought after, are not easily found in organizations.

N= Percentile 95 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5

II(A) 2,080 3.7 3.5 3.2 3.1 2.9 2.7 2.5 2.2 1.9 1.4 0.9

II(B) 2,080

IM IS 2,080 2,080 MLQ Scores

3.8 3.6 3.4 3.2 3.0 2.8 2.6 2.3 0.9 1.4 1.0

3.8 3.6 3.4 3.2 3.0 2.8 2.6 2.3 1.9 1.3 0.9

3.7 3.5 3.2 3.0 2.8 2.7 2.4 2.2 1.8 1.3 0.8

IC 2,079

CR 2,078

3.9 3.7 3.4 3.2 3.1 2.9 2.6 2.3 1.9 1.2 0.8

3.5 3.3 3.0 2.7 2.5 2.3 2.0 1.8 1.4 0.9 0.5

Table 3. 6 Percentiles for individual scores, based on others’ ratings on MLQ Source: Bass and Avolio (2000, p.53).

The three criteria which were used in selection of railway units for survey C are summarised now: (i) Include some ISO 9000 certified units and some ISO 9000 plus ISO 14000 certified units. (ii) Include all production units of Indian Railways. (iii) Include some railway units headed by transformational leaders and some headed by nontransformational leaders. The railway units selected for survey C, the data collection and data analysis are dealt with in chapter 4.

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3.5.2 Survey D - Development of scale to measure the transition of ISO certified organisations towards TQM

For assessing the TQM orientation in ISO certified units, a questionnaire labelled ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ was developed. It is shown in Appendix 5. Its questionnaire design has been separately taken up in section 3.6.

3.6 Questionnaire design and administration for survey D The questionnaire design and administration process for survey D is schematically shown in Figure 3.5.

Develop and evaluate questionnaire

Develop measurement scale

General issues in drafting the questionnaire Question content and wording Sequence Physical characteristics

Pre-test, revise and prepare final draft

Questionnaire administration

Reliability and validity of the questionnaire

Figure 3. 5 Plan for development of ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ Source: developed for this research. 124

The different steps involved in the questionnaire design are now dealt with.

3.6.1 Development and evaluation of questionnaire The objective behind developing the instrument was not to assess an organization on a known model of TQM. The objective here was to develop an instrument which could measure the progress of an unit towards the TQM philosophy. Section 2.2.5 of the literature review had already shown that ISO by itself does not catapult an organization into TQM orbit. However, it is definitely the first significant step. The literature review had also identified factors which enable inculcation of a TQM orientation in an organization. They have been indicated in sections 2.2.4, 2.2.5.3, 2.2.6 and 2.2.8 of this thesis. The factors are alphabetically reproduced below: (i)

Customer focus

(ii)

Communication across organization/ information and data management

(iii)

Continuous improvement

(iv)

Delegation and empowerment

(v)

Leadership

(vi)

Process improvement

(vii)

Result and recognition

(viii) Strategy (ix)

Supplier focus

(x)

Team working

(xi)

Values and ethics

(xii)

Work culture / congenial inter personal relationship / worker manager interaction

The ISO 9000 version 2000 published in December 2000 is based on eight principles (www.iso.org ): Principle 1:

Customer focus

Principle 2:

Leadership

Principle 3:

Involvement of People

Principle 4:

Process Approach

Principle 5:

System Approach to Management

Principle 6:

Continuous Improvement 125

Principle 7:

Factual Approach to Decision Making

Principle 8:

Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

Based on this understanding, a questionnaire was developed. It is shown in Appendix 5. The factors which each of the questions attempted to test are also indicated there. The operationalisation of the 12 factors which the questionnaire attempts to measure are given in Table 3.7.

Sr.no

Factor

Operational definition

Based on the work of

1

Customer

Quality should be customer driven.Employee Deming;

Focus

should be well aware of the concept of internal and Wali, external customers. They should care about Deshmukh meeting and exceeding the customer expectations. and

Gupta

There must be a focus on customer feedback and (2003); accordingly the process should be driven.

ISO

9000:2000 standard;

2

Communication Information is the critical enabler of TQM. The Deming; across

the facts and information should be made available to Ishikawa;

organisation

all. Effective communication channel must exist in Wali,

Information

the organisation between various work unit. With Deshmukh

and

Data the help of information technology, comunication and

maangement

Gupta

can be made effective. Effective comunication is (2003);

ISO

vital in aligning the workforce towards corporate 9000:2000 expectations. This factor emphasises that the key standard; processes are regulary measured and quantified. There should be focus on benchmarking which provides a stimilus for improvement.

Table 3.7(cont’d…)

126

Table 3.7(cont’d…) Sr.no Factor

Operational definition

Based on the work of

3

Continuous

Employees must identify opportunities for Deming;

ISO

improvement

continuous improvement. They must be trained 9000:2000 to identify opportinities for improvement. standard; There must be top management comitment to monitor the implementation of improvements suggested.

4

Delegation and In empowerment

TQM

setting,

both

delegation

and Deming;

Wali,

empowerment are required. People must share Deshmukh

and

responsibility for the success or failure of their Gupta (2003) work. 5

Leadership

Successful quality performance requires that Deming; Crosby; the leadership is dedicated to quality. It must Wali, Deshmukh also provide initiative and resource support. It and Gupta(2003); must enable creativity to be nurtured and ISO accordingly chalk out the strategy.

6

9000:2000

standard

Process

If employee involvement is key to the Deming;

improvement

attainment of customer satisfaction, managing Deshmukh the process is key to engaging an organisation’s Gupta employees to take responsibilites for what they ISO

Wali, and

(2003); 9000:2000

are doing in relation to satisfying the standard customers. 7

Results Recognition

and

The

organisation

should

reward

their Deming;

Juran;

employee for their contribution to quality. Wali, Deshmukh There should be quick recognition system for and Gupta (2003) outstanding performance by the employees. These rewards may not be purely financial.

Table 3.7 (cont’d…)

127

Table 3.7 (cont’d…) Sr.no

Factor

Operational definition

Based on the work of

8

Supplier focus

Organisation should buy on statistical evidence, Deming;

ISO

not price. Long term relationship with suppliers 9000:2000 standard should be encouraged.

9

Departmental barriers should be broken down. Deming;

Team Work

Wali,

The organisation should encourage problem Deshmukh

and

solving through team work. Employees must Gupta (2003); ISO

demonstrate cooperative behaviour and 9000:2000 standard positive attitude towards working in a team.

10

Value

and It is improtant for the people in an Deming;

ethics

Wali,

organisation to live upto the highest ethical Deshmukh

and

standards. There should be perception of fair Gupta (2003) treatment to all. The organisation must be guided by the value and ethical standards 11

Work culture

Employees should not be afraid of making Deming;

Wali,

mistake. They must feel pride in their Deshmukh

and

workmanship. Organisation should practice Gupta a policy of cooperative planning involving (2003);Hoshin every one. 12

Strategy

Organisation

planning; should

demonstrate Deming; Ishikawa;

management’s permanent commitment to Wali, quality and productivity.

Deshmukh

and Gupta (2003); ISO

9000:2000

standard Table 3. 7 Operationalisation of different factors of ‘ TQM transition questionnaire’ Source: developed for this research.

128

3.6.2 Development of measurement scale Each of the above factors was measured by three items. The existence of a multiple item measurement scale made the observed scores more reliable. A ten point Likert scale was used for the instrument. This is because though Likert scale is an ordinal scale, by going for a ten-point scale, it is possible to use it as interval scale when a number of responses for a particular construct are averaged. Also to eliminate the ‘between sample’ variation (Statistica for Windows 2001) among respondents, the items were framed to be answered on ‘before’ and ‘after’ format. A copy of the questionnaire titled ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ is available at Table A5.1. The difference in the score ‘today’ and ‘1 year before ISO certification’ was taken as a measure of the emergence of the corresponding underlying item. The difference in scores for a particular factor was the average of the ‘difference score’ for its three corresponding items.

3.6.3 General issues in drafting the questionnaire The general issues involved in drafting the questionnaire were question content, response format, sequence and physical characteristics. With respect to the question content and wording, the questions are simple to understand and not vague or double barrelled. Further, railway specific wording are used so that the respondents can understand the correct nuance of the meaning. For example, the ‘delegation of power’ in the Indian Railways is formally done through a document called ‘Schedule of Power (SOP)’. Thus during the exploratory research stage, the wording of question seven was modified. The instrument contains some questions on Pareto analysis and ‘corrective and preventive actions’ which are indicative of the emergence of a basic quality awareness and use of simple statistical tools. Questions like ‘quality and not price is the basis for supplier selection’, ‘team working’ indicate assimilation of additional TQM factors. Cultural factors are most difficult to change. They are indicative of still higher level of assimilation of TQM concept. They have been represented through ‘People in the work unit take pride in their work’ and ‘Making a mistake is not feared. It is recognised as a part of learning’.

129

3.6.4 Pre-test, revision and final draft Pre-testing helps to uncover biased or ambiguous questions before they are administered at large (Sekaran 2000, Zikmund 2000). For the pre-test, the questionnaire was personally administered. The response for each item was examined. Such items which did not discriminate between respondents were discarded. An important step taken in the pre-test stage was to send the initial draft to the head of quality department of the Deming Prize winners in India and incorporate the changes suggested by them.

3.6.5 Reliability and validity of the instrument Reliability A measurement is reliable when it offers similar result over time and across the various items in the instrument. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured by split half reliability. It was .70. The Guttman split half reliability was .67. The use of Guttman split half reliability is that it does not presume equal reliabilities or equal variances of the two halves (Statistica for Windows 2001, p. 3131). This being an exploratory study, this level of reliability was considered acceptable.

Validity: It concerns the instruments adequacy for the measurement of the concept or idea that it measures. That is, the degree to which the elements of the instrument fully cover the phenomenon that is measured. The following validity types were tested: Content validity: It measures the extent to which the instrument actually covers the area under study. It can only be checked subjectively, by its approval from experts on the subject. Extensive literature review can also assure content validity. In this questionnaire, the content validity was established by linking the questionnaire with the literature, pre-testing of questionnaire and sending a copy of the questionnaire to academicians who have worked in the area of TQM in India. Their suggestions were incorporated. In the operational definition of the factors (Table 3.7), the literature references are mentioned which also helped establish the content validity of this questionnaire. Construct validity: It is established when a measured construct is significantly related to another construct with which it should be theoretically related. It is assessed through convergent validity and discriminant validity. Ideally, convergent validity is established

130

through factor analysis. However, for a reliable factor analysis, for each item in the questionnaire, there should be about ten responses (Statistica for Window 2001). Since there are 36 items in this questionnaire, it required 360 respondents. Thus factor analysis was not possible because of the small sample size. Therefore criterion validity was used to assess the validity of the instrument. Criterion validity: Criterion validity is established if the results are in agreement with another measure of the same construct. The criterion validity was established by administering the questionnaire to three Deming Prize-winner organizations in India. It was found that on all the questions in the final draft of the questionnaire, a high total score was obtained by the Deming Prize winners. This was indicative of the criterion validity of the instrument. This, therefore, showed that the instrument could be used to measure the transition of an organization towards a TQM organization. To check its discriminant validity, it was administered to five ISO certified units in Indian Railways. It was found that different units scored differently on the test. Units which scored high on the instrument were ancedotically rated as successful implementation of ISO and units which rated low were ancedotically considered not successful cases of ISO implementation. Thus this instrument was able to discriminate between successful and unsuccessful cases of ISO implementation. The scores obtained by the three Deming Prize winners and the five ISO certified railway units on the ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ is shown in Table A5.2 in Appendix 5. A summary of the scores for each of the 12 factors is shown in the Table 3.8.

131

ISO certified railway units in India

Deming Prize winners in India TQM factor

Customer Focus Comm, info& data mgt Delegation & empowerment Continuous improvement Results and recognition Leadership Process improvement Supplier focus Team work Value & ethics Work culture Strategy Total

Sona Steering

M&M

Rane Brake

DLW

AMV

PRL

3.00

6.00

3.00

3.13

2.33

1.00

3.00

.66

3.33

4.67

3.33

2.93

2.17

0.33

1.50

.33

2.33

3.00

4.00

0.93

0.17

2.00

0.00

.66

2.67

4.33

3.00

3.47

2.33

4.33

3.33

3

2.00 4.00

2.67 3.33

2.33 3.33

1.40 2.20

0.17 0.50

1.33 1.00

0.83 1.83

0 .33

3.33

4.00

3.00

3.20

1.33

0.66

1.67

1.66

2.33 2.33

2.00 1.67

3.00 4.00

2.27 1.73

0.33 1.00

0.00 0.00

0.67 0.17

.66 .66

2.33 2.67 3.67 34.00

1.67 0.67 3.00 37.00

2.66 3.33 3.66 37.66

1.40 1.60 1.27 25.33

0.50 1.00 1.33 13.17

0.00 1.66 0.66 13

0.33 0.00 0.00 13.33

.33 .66 1.33 10.33

BPL

DCW

Note: info – information, mgt - management

Table 3. 8 Summary of scores obtained on the TQM transition questionnaire by DP winners in India and different ISO certified units of Indian Railways Source: developed from survey data.

The above discussion showed that the questionnaire could be treated as a valid instrument to assess an organization’s transition towards TQM after ISO certification. Argyris (1999, p.452) has said that reliability and validity scores are best obtained with observers who manifest a relatively high level of competence in the variables being studied. Further the more the subjects are involved in planning and designing the research, the more we learn about the best ways to ask questions, the kind of resistance each research method would generate and the best way to gain genuine and long term interest in the research (Argyris 1999, p. 451). Thus during the development and validity testing phase, the instruments were administered to the head of TQM division of the Deming Prize winner organisations and in Indian Railways, it was administered to the head of an organization or the divisional heads within an organization.

132

3.6.6 Survey method The same persons who took survey C were requested to take survey D also. The instrument was mailed by post or electronically to the management representatives and the unit heads of ISO certified units of Indian Railways.

3.7 Research design for stage 3 After obtaining the insight which the research in stage 1 and stage 2 provided, stage 3 sought answers to the research question no. ‘iv’ and research question no. ‘v’ developed in section 3.1. The research questions were: Research question iv: Will a bottom up methodology build learning capacity among the railway personnel? Research question v: How can the enablers of TQM be integrated in a model for attaining TQM within the ISO framework? It was recalled that in section 3.5.1.1 (p. 121), ‘capacity to learn’ was found to be an intervening variable which affected the assimilation of TQM concepts in an organization.

3.7.1 Development of research design for stage 3 In the Indian Railways, ISO 9000 implementation is perhaps the only organization wide formal change initiative which has been taken up on a sustained basis. Literature review had shown that ISO 9000:2000 quality system has many similarities with TQM. It had also been mentioned in the literature review that one of the weaknesses of TQM implementation had been the prescriptive style which therefore ignored the tacit factors (Joseph et al. 1999). A summary of the impact of ISO implementation in different units of Indian Railways is shown in Appendix 9. It shows that almost all implementations had been consultant guided. There have been only few instances of involvement of employees in the planning and implementation process.

133

In contrast, in the literature review, it was noted that in the Japanese culture, top management planning (hoshin) is more than a planning system. It is an organization development process throughout the company. It is recalled that the Deming Prize also looks upon the journey to the final award as a developmental process (see section 2.2.3.3). Hoshin promotes consensus building and shared decisions, commitment and loyalty. The effective top down and bottom up communication encourages all employees to act collectively in achieving shared organisational objectives (Khoo & Tan 2003). Japanese Shintoism and Buddhism advocate respect for everyone. The literature review had shown the similarities between the Indian culture and the Japanese culture (section 2.2.6.6). Thus there was enough theoretical underpinning to believe that a bottom up approach of ISO implementation might be better for developing learning capacities so as to internalise the TQM values of customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. Since the focus here was the progressive assimilation of core values of TQM, one needed to select a research methodology which facilitated both organisational learning by a group and also academic learning for the purpose of research. Action research (AR) methodology was one research methodology which was suitable to do this. The action research project which was used is discussed in chapter 5.

3.8 Ethical considerations Stage 1 and stage 2 of this research involved surveys. All respondents to the surveys were assured that their identities would remain confidential. They were also informed that their participation was voluntary and that they were free to withdraw from the survey if they so desired at any time. They were also briefed about the purpose of the survey and why they were requested to participate in the survey. Thus the respondents were free from any stress on account of their participation in the survey. Stage 3 of this research involves action research methodology. For this also, a team of co-action - researchers was made at the Jhansi warehousing unit of Indian Railways. They were made the co-researchers with their consent and with the consent of the head of the warehousing unit. The questionnaires and the formation of action research team were also cleared by the ethical committee of Southern Cross University vide their letter ECN-04-95.

134

3.9 Conclusion This chapter dealt with the research methodology which was used to seek answers to the research questions framed at the beginning of the chapter. Justifications for different research methods, the sampling techniques and the ethical consideration associated with the research methods have been explained. The next chapter discusses data collection and data analysis for different surveys.

135

Chapter 4 Data collection and data analysis This chapter deals with the data collection methods and the analysis of different surveys.

4.1 Data collection and data analysis for survey A Survey A was concerned with assessing the organisational practices and policies of Indian Railways. A copy of the survey instrument is shown at Appendix 2. Through the open-ended question I, this survey attempted to understand what new policies/practices the organization should adopt in the new scenario of liberalisation and globalisation. Question II to question VI of the survey seeked respondent’s opinion on ‘what is’ and ‘what should be’ the Indian Railways’ core values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive strategies and changes in organisational structure / management system. Part ‘a’ of these questions sought the ‘what is’ status and part ‘b’ of these questions sought the ‘should be’ status. The questionnaire was sent by post. Before sending the questionnaire, the respondents were spoken to in person or telephonically and the purpose of the survey was explained to them. After sending the questionnaire, all the possible respondents were also reminded telephonically. Out of 25 questionnaires sent, 20 responses were received which made the response rate very high. The high response rate was possibly because the researcher and the respondents were both railwaymen. Thus the respondents were able to relate to the research work done. However not all the respondents answered all the questions. Therefore, in Appendix 2A, against each question, the number of respondents is indicated. The profile of the respondents is shown in Table 4.1.

Organisational rank

Number respondents Ex- chairmen and ex-board 13

of Years of service in Indian Railways More than 35 years

members of Indian Railways Senior administrative grade

7

From 27 years to 35 years

and up to General Manager Table 4. 1 Respondent profile for survey A Source: developed from survey data. 136

The questions and their responses are now analysed: Question I- What new policies /practices you want the organization to adopt in the new scenario of liberalisation and increased competition? 17 respondents had answered this question. A total of 89 different types of policies /practices were identified by them. They have been termed ‘responses’ in this data analysis. These responses were coded using Miles and Huberman (1994) concept of data coding. Depending on their conceptual similarity, these 89 responses were first reduced to 28 level -1 codes. At a second level, using networks of codes, they were further reduced to 13 level-2 codes. It was recalled that these responses were respondent’s opinion about the policies and practices which they felt Indian Railways should adopt in the liberalised scenario. It was then compared with the factors of TQM which were summarised in Table 3.7. It was found that 10 of the codes matched with TQM factors either partly or fully. These are shown in Table 4.2.

Level 1 coding

No.

of Level

responses

2 No.

(% coding

of Corresponding

responses

(% factor of the

of respondents

of respondents TQM

who

who

mentioned the

mentioned the Table 3.7

code)

code)

Multi modal transport

3 (17.6%)

Customer

Customer orientation

4 (23.5%)

oriented

model

shown

7 (41.1%)

in

Customer Focus

transportation Faster

decision

2 (11.7%)

Empowerment

9 (52.9%)

making

Delegation and

More flexible rules

5 (29.4%)

Freedom to engage

2 (11.7%)

Empowerment

manpower at short notice Profit orientation

6 (35.3%)

Commercial

Cost cutting

1 (5.9%)

orientation

Better

3 (17.6%)

accounting

14 (82.35%)

none

system Rational pricing

4 (23.5%) Table 4.2 (cont’d…) 137

Table 4.2 (cont’d…) Level 1 coding

No.

of Level

responses (%

2 No.

coding

of Corresponding

responses

(% factor of the

of respondents TQM

of

model

respondents

who

shown

who

mentioned the Table 3.7

mentioned

code)

in

the code) Innovation

3 (17.6%)

Remove fear of failure

3 (17.6%)

Less role of finance

2 (11.7%)

Work culture

6 (35.3%0

Work culture

Team work

10 (58.8%)

Team Working

6 (35.3%)

None

5 (29.4%)

None

3 (17.6%)

Values

department Less

departments

in

7 (41.1%)

railways Team work

1 (5.9%)

Competitive advantage

2 (11.7%)

Focussed

Outsource, get out of

4 (23.5%)

working

5 (29.4%)

Strategic

non core area Level playing field with road

sector

and

governmental

compensation for social responsibility

support

of

railways Transparency

3 (17.6%)

Ethical working

Executive development

3 (17.6%)

Staff training

4 (23.5%)

BPR

ethics

Training

7 (41.1%)

Training

1 (5.9%)

Process

7 (41.1%)

Process

TQM

1 (5.9%)

improvement

Technological

5 (29.4%)

improvement

upgradation Table 4.2 (cont’d…)

138

and

Table 4.2 (cont’d…) Level 1 coding

No.

of Level 2 coding

No. responses

responses (%

of

of Corresponding (% factor of the

of respondents TQM

model

respondents

who

shown

who

mentioned the Table 3.7

mentioned

code)

in

the code) More

tenure

for

2 (11.7%)

Recognition

6 (35.3%)

higher level posts Merit

Result

and

recognition

based

3 (17.6%)

promotion Better salary

1 (5.9%)

Better discipline

2 (11.7%)

People

2 (22.5%)

management

Congenial inter-personal relations

High

level

of

7 (41.1%)

professional work

Management’s commitment quality

7 (41.1%)

Strategy

to and

productivity Total

number

of

89

response

Table 4. 2 Comparison of codes developed in survey A with the CSFs of TQM Source: developed from survey data.

The three level–2 codes which did not match with TQM factors are commercial orientation, focussed working and strategic government support. Together, these three codes accounted for 25 responses out of 89 responses received. The balance 64 responses (72%) were such that they were related to TQM based practices. In terms of frequency, 82% of the respondents felt that ‘developing an commercial orientation’ should be a desirable policy to be adopted by Indian Railways. The preponderance of ‘developing a commercial orientation’ as the desirable change in the policy 139

of Indian Railways indicates that the importance of what TQM award models call ‘business result’ was also realised by the senior railway managers in India. 58.8% of the respondents felt that team working should be a desirable policy to be adopted by Indian Railways. 52.9% of the respondents felt that ‘empowerment’ should be a desirable policy to be adopted by Indian Railways. 41.1% of respondents felt that ‘customer focus, training, process improvement and strategy’ should be among the desirable policies to be adopted by Indian Railways Thus, it can be said that the model which senior railway managers have in their mind about way things should change in Indian Railways is conceptually similar to the TQM model. The analyses of the responses to other questions of this survey (survey A) were then used to support or disapprove this emerging understanding. Question II to question VI attempted to understand what are and what should be the organisational values, management style, growth strategy, competitive strategy and organization structure for the Indian Railways. These questions contained pre-coded options while question I contained an open ended question. This was done so that comparison made across these different question types could make the conclusions more rigorous. The details of the responses received to these questions are shown in Appendix 2A. From these responses, for the five dimensions of organisational values, management style, growth strategy, competitive strategy and organization structure, two most often quoted responses have been shown in the Table 4.3. These responses have again been compared with the TQM factors shown in Table 3.7. The table shows that the existing core values of Indian Railways are to be a ‘fair and just employer’ and ‘making a useful contribution to society’. As against this, ‘total quality in every operation’ and ‘customer focus’ are the two values which Indian Railways should have. These two values are the very core of TQM. The management style of Indian Railways is ‘cautious, with clear formal reporting relationship and a clear distinction between those who give orders and those who implement them’. In the opinion of the researcher, these indicate a bureaucratic and hierarchical style which, given the bureaucratic and cultural background of Indian Railways employees, are not surprising. However, the senior managers of Indian Railways strongly want a ‘bold but calculating risk taking’ management style characterised with ‘flexibility, informality and resourcefulness’, a management style which is ‘professional and system oriented’. This is the

140

same as an innovative organisational culture discussed in section 2.2.1.2 of literature review which finally leads to continuous improvement which is again a TQM based concept. The existing growth strategies of Indian Railways are ‘related and unrelated capacity building and geographical expansion of railway network’. As against this, the desirable growth strategies are ‘empowerment and rapid expansion of customer base by weaning customer back’. Empowerment has already been identified as one of the critical success factors for TQM. Indian Railways’ existing competitive strategies have been to compete on the basis of price and by offering service to specific market segments. There is almost total unanimity that the desirable competitive strategies should be to compete on the basis of quality and by offering novel or unique services. Once again quality strategy and innovative culture are the desirable directions of change. With respect to organisational structure and management system, Indian Railways is trying for ‘greater delegation of authority’ and ‘a sophisticated management and control system’. The senior managers felt that ‘greater delegation of authority’ and ‘a leaner organization’ should be the desirable changes. ‘Greater delegation of authority’ is same as empowerment- a TQM enabler. This analysis showed that TQM itself and many core concepts of TQM like continuous improvement, empowerment, customer focus, quality based organisational strategy, systems approach have been identified by the respondents as the desirable changes which Indian Railways should initiate.

141

Dimensions

Existing

Proposed

Corresponding TQM factor

ii. Core values

Being a fair and just employer (70%) – welfare state (researcher’s interpretation) Making a useful contribution to society (41%)

–

welfare

state

Total quality in every operation

TQM itself

(80%) Customer orientation (45%)

Customer focus

(researcher’s

interpretation) iii. Management

Cautious, stick to knitting management that

Bold

style

greatly values stability, good profit and

taking,

steady growth (77%) - bureaucratic style

entrepreneurship, commitment

(akin

(researcher’s interpretation)

to fast growth (80%)

improvement)

clear

Strong emphasis on flexibility,

Innovative

roles,

adaptability, informality and

organisational culture

resourcefulness (73.7%)

(akin

Management formal

greatly

reporting

emphasises

relationships,

procedures and accountability (77%) bureaucratic

style

but

calculating a

risk

lot

of

(researcher’s

Innovative organisational culture to

to

continuous

continuous

improvement)

interpretation) Strongly discipline oriented management,

Highly

clearly separates those who give orders

oriented management (73.7%)

professional,

system

Systems approach

from those who must obey them (72%) – hierarchical

system

(researcher’s

interpretation) iv.

Related capacity building (53%)

Empowerment

Organization’s

Unrelated capacity building ((31%)

front line managers to tap and

growth strategy

Geographical or locational expansion of

capture

railway network (31%)

offering

new

(empowering

markets

locally

Empowerment

by

relevant,

potentially ‘star’ services with locally fixed tariffs) (73.7%) Rapid expansion of present customer base

Rapid expansion of present

by weaning customers back to railways

customer base by weaning

(31%)

customers back to railways

Customer focus

(73.7%) v. Organization’s

Compete on the basis of price (81%)

Compete on the basis of high

competitive

Compete

quality of service (100%)

strategy

services to cater to the needs of specific

by

developing

and

offering

Compete

market segments (62%)

on

the

basis

of

Quality strategy

Innovative

innovative and offering novel

organisational culture

or unique new services (95%)

(akin

to

continuous

improvement) vi. Organization

Greater delegation of authority at operating

Contract out various functions

structure

levels (70%)

and activities to make the

management

More sophisticated information and control

organization

system

system (63%)

(80%)

and

much

None

leaner

Greater delegation of authority

Empowerment

at operating levels (70%)

Table 4. 3 Existing and proposed organisational dimensions for Indian Railways by senior railway managers Source: developed from survey data.

142

It was thus noted that the open ended question I and the pre-coded question II to question VI threw up similar approaches of change for Indian Railways. Further, these approaches were conceptually similar to different factors of TQM which the literature review had identified. Literature review had shown that TQM could be used as a model for organisational transformation. This survey showed that the managers of Indian Railways also suggested a model of change which was conceptually similar to TQM.

It is to be noted that the open-ended question was the first to be answered by the respondents and then they answered the pre-coded questions. This eliminated the possibility that the options in the pre-coded questions might have biased the respondents towards giving TQM oriented responses.

4.2 Data collection and data analysis for survey B

4.2.1 Data collection If TQM is the proposed model of change for Indian Railways, to what is extent there congruence between TQM oriented organisational culture and the cultural values of Indian Railway personnel? Section 2.2.6.6 had shown that there is no study in this area. Since hierarchy was found to be having strong negative influence on TQM implementation (Tan & Khoo 2002, Tata & Prasad 1998), survey B attempted to assess this among the employees of the Indian Railways. The instrument for survey (S004 available in Appendix 3) was personally administered by the researcher during visits to different units of the Indian Railways. Personally administering the instrument had the advantage of explaining the rationale of the survey and clarifying any doubt by the respondents before they could start filling the questionnaire. This also took care that there were no missing responses in the filled questionnaire. This helped at the time of data analysis. A total of 311 responses were collected from the survey. The distribution of the respondents is shown in Table 4.4.

143

Category

of

employee: Category of employee:

class 1 officers

class 2 officers

No of respondents respondent’s

age

less than 30 years respondent’s

age

144

class 3 supervisors

No of respondents

61

44 respondent’s age less nil than 30 years 89 respondent’s

age 27

between 30 years to 50

50 years

years age

more than 50 years

No of respondents respondent’s less than

106 8

30 years

between 30 years to

respondent’s

Category of employee:

11 respondent’s More than 34 50 years

respondent’s

between 77

30 years to 50 years

respondent’s more than 21 50 years

Table 4. 4 Number of respondents in different categories for survey B Source: developed from field data. In Indian Railways, for the field postings, there is no direct recruitment at the class 2 level. The class 3 supervisors after putting in certain years of service take a departmental promotion examination. Those who qualify through this are promoted to the level of class 2. Thus most of the class 2 officers are more than 30 years old. Hence during the survey, no class 2 officer less than 30 years of age could be accessed. In the category of class 1 officers less than 30 years of age, all were trainee officers, that is, they had not yet joined a working post. Since the training period for them is two years, they had not put in more than two years of service in the Indian Railways. Thus it could be said that their values were not influenced by railway specific experiences and it was more a reflection of their experiences in the Indian society. 4.2.2 Data Analysis For the data analysis, the scores obtained on the dimensions of ‘status consciousness’, ‘tendency for personalised relationship’ and ‘dependency proneness’ were symbolised by S, P and D scores respectively. The class 1, class 2 and class3 employees were symbolised by the suffix 1, 2 or 3 respectively after S, P or D. Thus D3 means ‘dependency proneness’ score for class 3 employees of Indian Railways. The scores were further divided age group wise as shown in the Table 4.5 which is self-illustrative.

144

Dimensions of hierarchy

Status consciousness category of employee: class 1 officers

respondent’s age less than 30 years (n= 44) score respondent’s age between 30 years to 50 years (n=89) score

Personalised relationship

Dependency proneness

S1_50 (n=11) 2.3454 score average score for class 1 officers S1= 2.43 (n=144) category of employee: class 2 officers respondent’s age less than 30 years S2_50 (n=34) 2.2147 score average score for class 2 officers S2=2.13 (n=61) category of employee: class 3 supervisors

P2_50

3.0323

2.2323

P2=2.92

D2=2.18

P3_50

D3_>50

1.8333

3.1428

1.7666

S3=1.79

P3=3.01

D3=1.75

S=2.1578

P=2.9768

D=

respondent’s age less than 30 years S3_