TQM & HR

Over the past few decades, Total Quality

Management (TQM) has become a business wide
concept. One important aspect often overlooked is
the relationship between TQM and Human
Resources (HR). Both of these aspects play a
significant role in how ones business functions and
works. Even though they are both equally
recognized as key components of any prospering
productive business, there is limited current
research that discusses the link between the two.
The purpose of this study is to present the current
data on the subject as well as offer new information
that may help business use these aspects of their
businesses more effectively.
As is inevitable for any idea that enjoys wide
popularity in managerial and scholarly circles, total
quality management has come to mean different
things to different people. There is now such a
diversity of things done under the name "total
quality" that it has become unclear whether TQM still
has an identifiable conceptual core, if it ever did. We
begin with a close examination of what the
movement's founders had to say about what TQM
was supposed to be, and then we assess how TQM
as currently practiced stacks up against the
founders) values and prescriptions. (Hackman &
Wageman, 1995).
 
Not only has the presented data shown the
significance of TQM and HRM, it has also supported
the idea that there is a strong correlation between
the two, and it is necessary to have a balance and
understanding of the importance of each aspect of
business. Therefore, when discussing the relation
between the two it is easy to state that they go hand
in hand. It is also evident that they enhance one
another. As stated earlier, both concepts separately
were see as positive aspects with faults and
difficulties, however, those problems and difficulties
seem to diminish substantially when the two
concepts are intermingled and utilized to their fullest
extent.
In general, HRM is responsible for providing training
and development. With their background, HR
departments are well positioned to take the leading
role in providing such programs consistent with the
TQM philosophy. HR managers have an important
opportunity to communicate a history of their
organization's TQM program and its champions.
Equally important, HRM can tell stories of
employees who are currently inspiring the TQM
philosophy. As corporate historian, the HR
department should be primarily responsible for
relaying the TQM culture to members of the
organization in employee orientation training.
As a guardian of such functions as recruitment and
selection, training and development, performance
evaluation and reward systems, the HRM
professional is best able to take charge of these
important functions as they relate to a TQM strategy.
The full potential of the entire work force must be
realized by encouraging commitment, participation,
teamwork, and learning. HRM is best suited to
accomplishing this by modeling these qualities.
Leading by example, the HR department could then
sustain the long-term TQM process company-wide.
A by-product of setting a TQM example can be the
improved standing of the HR department in the eyes
of other, traditionally more influential departments.
(10) But, the primary end result can be total
quality management as a successful competitive
strategy for organizational survival. (Clinton,
Williamson & Bethke, 1994)
In addition to identifying customer groups, there are
other essential TQM customer issues. Clarifying
what products and services will provide
maximum customer satisfaction, measuring
satisfaction, and continually monitoring and
improving the level of customer satisfaction are all
fundamental to the TQM philosophy. For the HR
department, applying these TQM issues would
translate into identifying the expectations of senior
management, their principal internal customer,
regarding TQM, and spearheading the TQM
program's implementation based on those
expectations. TQM in practice for HRM might also
mean periodic surveys, both formal and face-to-face,
to monitor senior management's levels of
satisfaction as the TQM process unfolds. (Giroux &
Landry, 1998).
Human resource management can plan a vital role
in implementing and maintaining atotal
quality management process. HR managers are
responsible for recruiting high-quality employees,
the continual training and development of those
employees, and the creation and maintenance of
reward systems. Thus, TQM controls processes that
are central to achieving the dramatic cultural
changes often required for TQM to succeed.
Tailoring the TQM cultural development program to
the firm's circumstances is essential in overcoming
resistance to change and moving beyond simple
compliance toward a total commitment to TQM.
If we are truly strategic thinkers, keep in mind how
all of these elements--the changes from functional to
capability to results strategies, the three constant
challenges or tasks of HR, and the power of
contextual influences (the economy, technology,
globalization, and the changing workforce)--interact
as we survey past, present, and future in HR
strategy and planning. We probably will fall short in
drawing all the connections and implications of these
powerful variables.