Total Quality Management
PART III.
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Innovativeness One measure of innovativeness is the degree to which an organization encourages, listens to, and gives serious consideration to new ideas. Openness to new ideas is one way to encourage innovation and creative thinking. Agap in perception related to innovativeness is noted in the perception of the two groups studied. Management responses indicate more positive agreement (78.6%) to the statement that new ideas are often being tried than employees responses to the same statement (41.7%). A second gap is also noted regarding management (59.5%) and employee agreement (37.5%) concerning conventional ways being rarely questioned. Finally a third gap in responses between the perception of management (52.4%) and employees' agreement (25.0%) is also noted regarding conventional ways being rarely changed. Listening and openness to new ideas are areas of relative strength for the hospital based on responses from management and employees regarding the characteristics of innovativeness as well as influence. The hospital's TQM efforts may be enhanced by determining the cause of this disparity and modifying organizational structures or helping employees to focus more clearly on challenges so that more appropriate suggestions may be obtained. The gaps noted in responses by management and employees to statements regarding new ideas and conventional ways are additional indications of potential weakness in innovativeness. Management take a more negative view than do employees asserting that conventional ways are rarely questioned or changed. Innovation is one of the three characteristics of potential weakness identified for the hospital. These gaps may reflect a more accepting attitude of employees with the status quo. World Class Manufacturing Menu lean
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presentations solutions Teamwork Through the use of teamwork the skills of individuals are combined in a powerful way to create synergism and solve organizational problems or respond to opportunities. Responsiveness to co-workers and ease in approaching supervisors are the most positive aspects of teamwork based on employee responses. Responses are most positive regarding the following: responsiveness to co-workers is an important organizational objective, managers and supervisors are easy to approach, and cooperation among employees is evident within units. Like employees, management express contradictory negative perceptions regarding teamwork. These perceptions are noted concerning interaction between units. The greatest number of statistically significant differences are noted between management and employee perceptions for teamwork statements. A gap is noted in management (16.7%) and employees disagreement (0.0%) that responsiveness to coworkers is an important organizational objective. Other gaps are noted in both agreement and disagreement concerning notification of changes. Another point of statistically significant difference between the groups involves management's disagreement (47.6%) with the statement that cooperation between units is evident and employees' disagreement (20.8%) with the statement that employees in different units cooperate in solving common problems. An additional gap is noted in the quality of health care at the hospital is often lowered by conflicts. While the hospital has some areas of strength related to teamwork, considerable challenges may also be faced. The perceptions regarding teamwork cause the greatest concern in considering the potential success of a TQM program. Successful TQM efforts can be negatively impacted if interdepartmental communication is not effective. This signals a potential problem even if the employee perception is valid and notification is being received. The gap in perception regarding disagreement concerning cooperation between units and between individuals underscores the potential benefits to the hospital's TQM efforts of exploring cross-functional cooperation. Important characteristics including common vision/ benchmarking, innovativeness, and teamwork exhibit potential serious problems. Also, desire to change/ability to adapt to change needs investigation. The hospital may want to evaluate these strengths and weaknesses summarized in Table 1 further to facilitate TQM. Identified weaknesses may slow progress and limit the organization's ability to implement the most successful TQM program. Summary The perceptions of management and employees are important because people function as if perceptions are fact. They may be misconceptions based on false assumptions, lack of information, or even previous leadership. Nevertheless, they provide insight concerning how these individuals perceive reality. The characteristics do not function in isolation within an organization. STAY CONNECTED To stay current on bullet-proofed manufacturing solutions, subscribe to our free ezine, "The Business Basics and Best Practices Bulletin." Simply fill in the below form and click on the subscribe button. We'll also send you our free Special Report, "Five Change Initiatives for Personal and Company Success." Your
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