Activating Cultural Change

To attempt the implementation of total quality without creating a quality culture is to invite failure. Organizations in which the prevailing culture is based on traditional management practices are not likely to succeed in the implementation of total qual­ity. Successful total quality requires cultural change. Several primary reasons cultural change must either precede or at least parallel the implementation of total quality are described here.

1. Change cannot occur in a hostile environment. The total quality approach to doing business may be radi­cally different from what management and employees are accustomed to. Managers who are used to sitting in their lonely towers at the top of the pecking order and issuing edicts from on high are likely to reject the con­cept of employee involvement and empowerment.

Employees who are used to competing against their fellow employees for promotions and wage increases may not be open to mutually supportive internal part­nerships and teamwork. Situations such as these can create an environment that is hostile toward change, no matter how desirable that change is. Change can be dif­ficult, even when people want to do so. It can be impos­sible in a hostile environment.

2. Moving to total quality takes time. The nature of total quality is such that the organization may have to go down somewhat before it can turn things around and start to come up. In a conversion to total quality, positive results are rarely achieved in the short run. This characteristic gives nonbelievers and people who just don’t want to change (and such people are often in the majority at first) the opportunity to promote the “I told you it wouldn’t work” syndrome.
3. It can be difficult to overcome the past. Employees who have worked in an organization for any period of time have probably seen a variety of management fads come and go. Promoting the latest management gim­mick and then letting it die for lack of interest may be part of the existing organizational culture. If this is the case, it will be difficult to overcome the past. Employees will remember earlier fads and gimmicks and characterize total quality as being just the latest one; they may take a “This too shall pass” attitude toward it. The past is not just an important part of an organiza­tion’s culture; it can also be the most difficult part to leave behind.

Source: Goetsch David L., Davis Stanley B. (2016), Quality Management for organizational excellence introduction to total Quality, Pearson; 8th edition.