Quality Circle - Introduction (IEM Quality Control 05April 2021)

Quality Circle

 

A quality circle is a participatory management technique that enlists the help of employees in solving problems related to their own jobs. Circles are formed of employees working together in an operation who meet at intervals to discuss problems of quality and to devise solutions for improvements.

 

A quality circle or quality control circle is a group of workers who do the same or similar work, who meet regularly to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems. It consists of minimum three and maximum twelve members in number.

 

Quality Circles can be described as a small group of employees of the same work area, doing similar work that meets voluntarily and regularly to iden­tify, analyze and resolve work related problems.

 

Thus, we can say that a quality circle is a group of 5 to 8 employees performing similar work, who volunteer themselves to meet regularly, to identify the cause of their on-the-job problems, employ advanced problem-solving techniques to reach solutions and implement them.

 

Characteristics of Effective Quality Circles:

1. The atmosphere should be informal, comfortable and relaxed. The members should feel involved and interested.

2. Everyone should participate.

3. The objectives should be clear to the members.

4. The members should listen to each other.

5. The group should feel comfortable even when there are disagreements.

6. The decisions should generally be taken by a kind of consensus and voting should be minimum.

7. When an action is required to be taken, clear assignments should be made and ac­cepted by all the members.

8. The leader should not dominate the group. The main idea should not be as to who controls but how to get the job done.

9. Until a final solution is found and results are attained feedback is necessary.

A quality circle is a group of company employees who regularly meet to determine how to resolve problems. It aims to improve how part of the company operates, such as the production process. Members are employees who do similar or the same work. They meet periodically to identify, examine, analyze, and solve problems in the company or workplace.

A quality circle is typically autonomous and small. In most cases, a senior worker or supervisor heads it.

Most members have received training in problem-solving methods. 

The quality circle presents its findings to management, which subsequently approves or turns down solution proposals. The circle then implements the ones that management has approved.

“A quality circle is a participatory management technique that enlists the help of employees in solving problems related to their own jobs.”

“Circles are formed of employees working together in an operation who meet at intervals to discuss problems of quality and to devise solutions for improvements.”

 

Quality circle – Japan

Nippon Wireless and Telegraph Company introduced quality circles in 1962. It was the first company to do so.

By 1978, Japan had approximately one-million circles involving about ten million workers.

JUSE (Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers) coordinated the quality circle movement in Japan.

Today, circles operate in most East Asian countries. According to Wikipedia, China has over 20 million quality circles.

 

Quality circle adoption in the US

Lockheed Martin, a global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technologies company started using quality circles in 1974. They used them in their manufacturing facilities.

Lockheed Martin executives learned about them when they visited Japanese factories. They also saw how beneficial and useful they could be.

Not long after Lockheed Martin started using quality circles, other American companies, such as Westinghouse, Northrop, and GM, also added them to the workplace.

Many US companies did not properly understand what the function of a quality circle was and turned them into fault-finding exercises.

 

Which companies use quality circles?

Such well-regarded companies as IBM, TRW, Honeywell, Westinghouse, Digital Equipment, and Xerox use them a lot. In any discussion of the prevalence and popularity of quality circles, the question inevitably arises, “Why are they so popular?” As with most management trends, there is no simple answer.

Quality Control Examples

Many companies today use quality circles, especially when it comes to manufacturing. The most well-known example would be Toyota, which helped to pioneer the concept decades ago. These circles continue to meet on a regular basis to identify potential problems and get them resolved as efficiently as possible.

Another example would be Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin began using quality circles in their manufacturing facilities back in 1974. Executives from this company learned of quality circles when visiting Japanese manufacturing plants, and saw how beneficial they could be. Soon after Lockheed Martin, a number of other US companies added them to their workplaces, including GM, Northrop, and Westinghouse.

These are good examples of large corporations using quality circles on a broad scope. Looking some of the ways a quality circle can work in an average manufacturing facility can be just as effective. The following are some examples of how a typical quality can provide benefits to the workplace.

·                  Discussing Best Practices - In many workplaces, there are multiple shifts of people who do the same or similar work. By getting everyone together in one place, it is possible to identify which shift is working most efficiently, and use that to create best practices that can be followed across all shifts.

·                  Pointing Out Issues - Employees often know of lots of minor (or even major) issues, but they assume that someone else is working on getting them fixed. When a quality circle meets, they can discuss these types of issues, and take ownership of them to actually move forward with a positive result.

·                  Collaborating on Solutions - One of the biggest examples of how a quality circle can help is that it is the actual employees who are working to come up with solutions to problems. Those who have to deal with the problems are typically the best people to fix it. Since they are also working on the issue themselves, there will be far less pushback on a proposed solution.

·                  Brainstorming Ideas - When a circle meets, everyone will be familiar with the position so they can more easily bounce ideas off of each other. Brainstorming ideas is a very effective way to arrive at the best possible solution to a problem.

·                  Streamlined Problem Solving - If management or another outside group tries to come up with solutions to a known problem, it will take a lot longer to learn about how things are done, and how a problem can be fixed. Those with experience in the department won't need to waste time learning about the problem before proposing solutions.

 

Quality Circle Tools

A quality circle can use any type of tools that they would like to help improve their roles. Some of these circles are more casual and just talk about different issues with their jobs, and propose solutions. In this type of situation, a simple notepad could be sufficient. While this can be a good place to start a quality control circle, it is best if they evolve into something more formal where more detailed problems can be addressed.

When this happens, some of the following quality improvement tools are often incorporated to help discover the root causes to issues, and how to fix them.

·                  Flowcharts

·                  Scatter Plots

·                  Run Charts

·                  Graphical Tools

·                  Process Mapping Tools

·                  Pareto Charts

·                  Fishbone Diagrams

There are many other potential tools that a group could use depending on the specific problems they are trying to overcome. When equipped with the right tools, a quality circle is able to more efficiently identify issues, and propose solutions, which is the main goal of these groups.

 

Organizational Culture - Introduction (Management-1 03April 2021)

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture, also known as corporate culture, represents the common perception shared by the employees of an organization. In other words, organizational culture consists of norms, values, and unwritten codes of conduct of an organization. The culture of each organization is unique and distinct. It guides the behaviour of organization’s employees by defining the standards of acceptable behaviour.

Since, organizational culture helps in shaping the behaviour of employees working in the organization; therefore, it becomes important to understand the relationship that exists between organizational culture and organizational behaviour.

Organizational culture can be defined as the group norms, values, beliefs and assumptions practiced in an organization. It brings stability and control within the firm. The organization is more stable and its objective can be understood more clearly.

Organizational culture helps the group members to resolve their differences, overcome the barriers and also helps them in tackling risks.

 

Definitions of OC

OC refers to “the set of values beliefs and norms together with symbols like dramatized events and personalities that represent the unique character of an organisation”.

“Culture is the set of important understandings that members of a community share in common. It consists of patterned ways of thinking, feeling, and reacting that are acquired by language and symbols that create a distinctiveness among human groups. A system of shared values is the building block of culture.” — Vijay Sathe

“Organisational culture is concerned with how employees perceive the basic characteristics like individual autonomy, structure, reward, conflict and consideration. Every organisation has a unique and distinct culture of its own. Therefore, one organisation can be distinguished from others in terms of culture.” — J.P. Campbell

 

Organisational Culture – Nature

(i) Like an individual, every organisation has its own personality.

(ii) The personality of the organisation defines the internal environment of an organisation.

(iii) It differentiates an organisation from the others.

(iv) It is relatively enduring or stable over time.

(v) It is perceived by the members and the outsiders.

(vi) It exercises a significant influence on the attitudes, behaviour and performance of organisational members.

 

Elements of Organizational Culture

The two key elements seen in organizational culture are −

·                  Visible elements − These elements are seen by the outer world. Example, dress code, activities, setup, etc.

·                  Invisible elements − These inner elements of the group cannot be seen by people outside the group or firm. Example, values, norms, assumptions, etc. Now let us discuss some other elements of organizational culture. They are −

·            Stories − Stories regarding the history of the firm, or founder.

·            Rituals − Precise practices an organization follows as a habit.

·            Symbol − The logo or signature or the style statement of a company.

·            Language − A common language that can be followed by all, like English.

·           Practice − Discipline, daily routine or say the tight schedule everyone follows without any failure.

·         Values and Norms − The idea over which a company is based or the thought of the firm is considered as its value and the condition to adopt them are called norms.

·       Assumptions − It means we consider something to be true without any facts. Assumptions can be used as the standard of working, means the employees prepare themselves to remain above standard.

 

Relationship between Organizational Culture and Organizational Behaviour:

 

Organizational Culture:

1. Definition – It refers to the study of an organization’s values, beliefs, attitudes, psychology, behaviour, and experiences.  

2. Purpose – It communicates the ethical expectations, builds the strengths of employees, and lays emphasis on growth.   

3. Interdependence – It guides the behaviour of employees through its shared actions, beliefs, and values.  

 

Organizational Behaviour:

1. Definition – It helps in understanding the perception, learning capabilities, values, and beliefs of an individual in an organization.

2. Purpose – It helps in improving quality, productivity, and customer service; manages workforce diversity; improves ethical behaviour of employees and their interpersonal skills; and balances the work-life by minimizing conflicts.

3. Interdependence – It studies the behavioural pattern of employees in an organization, which contributes to the creation and updating of the organizational culture to a great extent.

 

How to Create an Organizational Culture

An organizational culture is created with the combination of certain criteria that are mentioned below −

·                  The founder of the organization may partly set a culture.

·               The environment within which the organization standards may influence its activities to set a culture.

·             Sometimes interchange of culture in between different organizations create different new cultures.

·                 The members of the organization may set a culture that is flexible to adapt.

·                 New cultures are also created in an organization due to demand of time and situation.

The culture of an organizational can change due to composition of workforce, merger and acquisition, planned organizational change, and influence of other organizational culture.

 

6 Organizational Culture Examples Worth Following

Organizational culture is a hot topic these days, and for good reason. With big names like Google and Facebook setting examples for what a healthy company culture looks like, many others are following suit and fostering cultures that align with their values and needs. Here are 6 organizational culture examples worth following!

Read on to see what makes these corporations and startups alike great places to work.

1. L.L. Bean

Ranked in Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, L.L. Bean’s dedication to customers through offerings like lifetime warranties and free shipping is reflected in its internal culture. The 103-year-old retail company with a focus on outdoor apparel has a low turnover rate of just 3%, and employees enjoy perks like discounted gym memberships, employee discounts, paid time off for volunteering and even college tuition reimbursement.

Those aren’t the only benefits of working at L.L. Bean, though. The company sponsors excursions like kayaking and camping for the whole team, and employees can even borrow outdoor gear and take advantage of camping around Rangeley Lake, where HQ is based, with their families.

Management-wise, L.L. Bean takes care of the team by having regular one-on-one meetings with employees to discuss career development and offering regular classes and workshops. Their “Bean’s Best” program praises teammates who go the extra mile with an annual celebration, and teammates acknowledge one another through peer recognition programs.

Why we love it: As L.L. Bean wrote in its culture deck, “Every employee is the most important ever in this company.” That’s a great mindset to have, which is why it ranks first amongst our organizational culture examples.

2. Adobe

Also earning a spot in Fortune’s Top 100, Adobe offers perks like discounted gym memberships and tuition reimbursement, plus paid sabbatical and subsidies for commuters. Employees even receive patents for their ideas and are awarded bonuses for those creations at an annual banquet. Product releases are celebrated with events and recognition for the teammates responsible with rewards like bonuses and swag.

What really sets Adobe apart, though, is how it values communication across the company between departments. Regular team events, like a speed networking event, encourage employees to get to know one another. A company-wide community for LGBTQ employees is a place for members of those communities to socialize and have discussions, and several Adobe employees even contributed videos to the popular “It Gets Better” movement aimed toward LGBTQ teens.

Why we love it: Adobe not only encourages creativity and communication, it rewards and provides outlets for them.

3. DogVacay

The “Airbnb for dogs,” DogVacay, is a startup with an office culture any animal lover would covet. Every day is bring-your-dog-to-work day, and the team regularly volunteers at a local animal shelter. Frequent happy hours, karaoke nights and catered lunches are nice added bonuses, plus HQ is just a few minutes from the beaches of Santa Monica. Employees even have access to free rental bikes to take out for a spin when they need to take a break and move around.

As head of communications Rachael King told us: “Our office culture is all about creativity and collaboration, and our open floor plan and fun decor provide a pleasing and comfortable workspace for our teams to work together. DogVacay’s employees come from all different backgrounds, which contributes to our unique and open office culture, but we all have one important thing in common: our love of dogs!”

Check out our exclusive interview with DogVacay’s Office Manager for more details on how they build the DogVacay company culture.

Why we love it: Besides the dogs, it’s a playful environment with passionate people working toward a cause the whole team believes in. Plus, the dogs.

4. Wrike

Wrike is another company that puts a great deal of emphasis on hiring for culture, which is likely why it has glowing reviews on Glassdoor and was named one of the best places to work by the San Francisco Business Times. The project management software company does cross-team interviews to ensure a good fit and regularly blogs about culture. The entire team even got to take a trip to Mexico for four days of team-building and learning.

Creativity and feedback are encouraged at Wrike, where the attitude is “if you think it’s a good idea, go for it.” The team also makes a point of celebrating successes. As founder and CEO Andrew Filev tells Enplug:

“We always make sure to take the time to celebrate each other’s wins. In sales, it’s obvious: closing a big deal means bringing in money for the company. But other teams have different measures of success and we are careful to recognize those too,” and that includes personal accomplishments.

Why we love it: Wrike gives employees the autonomy to create a culture they love. Andrew’s advice on doing just that: “Make sure your employees know that being a great workplace is one of your goals as a business leader. They’ll be more than happy to help you create it.” Well said!

5. Zappos

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh once famously said, “Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes.” It also just happens to be famous for its wonderful (and sometimes wacky) culture. Amongst these six organizational culture examples, Zappos is probably the best-known. Zappos hires for culture first, treats employees to a three-day culture camp training event, and regularly features employee contributors in a culture series for its blog.

In fact, the company is so focused on culture that it has its own culture book, which has hundreds of unedited testimonials from employees and is updated every year. Their core values are clearly defined and include tenets like delivering customers “wow” through service, embracing and driving change, and creating fun and “a little weirdness” in the office.

Managers are responsible for creating career paths within their departments for all employees, with an emphasis on those who excel. Zappos even offers new hires $2,000 and up to quit if they feel the job isn’t right for them.

Why we love it: Few companies manage to embrace individuality (or “weirdness”) as well as Zappos does, and the company’s unapologetic commitment to a culture-first attitude ensures that never changes.

6. Quora

Quora is all about learning, conversation, and discovery. So it only makes sense, then, that the question-and-answer website’s employees are constantly learning and improving. At Quora, new hires are paired with mentors, and by the end of the first week, engineers and designers are reviewing one another’s code and deploying their creations.

In fact, continuous deployment—where new code is shipped out constantly—is the norm. Constant feedback from peers helps ensure the code keeps improving, and it helps employees learn from one another. Employees get regular one-on-ones with managers starting from day one, and everyone on the team has the chance to work with one another as teams vary by project.

Quora employees are also treated regularly to yoga sessions, free meals and company swag, and movie nights and morale events keep the team happy and engaged. On “one-hour project days,” everyone on the team spends their day doing a set list of tasks—like bug fixes—that can each be accomplished within an hour. The team races to complete each task, listening to music all the time, and celebrating at the end.

Why we love it: Quora’s philosophy of continually learning and improving is right in line with their product, meaning employees always have the chance to take on new and exciting challenges.

Transactional Analysis (Management-1 01April 2021)

Transactional analysis

 

Transactional analysis is a technique used to help people better understand their own and other's behaviour, especially in interpersonal relationships. 

“Transactional Analysis refers to a method of analysing and understanding interpersonal behaviour. Transactional Analysis offers a model of personality and the dynamics of self and its relationship to others that makes possible a clear and meaningful discussion of behaviour.”

 

The Transactional Analysis refers to the psychoanalytic process wherein the interpersonal behaviours are studied. In other words, a social psychological model that talks about the personal growth and personal change, i.e., identifying the ego states of each individual to understand their behaviours and altering them to solve the emotional problems.

 

This model was originally developed by Dr Eric Berne, who during his observation found that his patients behaved in a way as if several different people were inside them. This forced him to study the personality and dynamics of self and its relationship with others which helped in determining the kinds of behaviours that an individual shows in different real time situations.

 

Now, this study has become a well-established approach and is being widely used in several fields such as psychotherapy, counselling, education, organizational development, etc. The transactional analysis gives birth to several models that help in explaining the relationship formed between the individuals as a result of their interactions.

Thus, when people interact with each other, the social transaction gets created which shows how people are responding and behaving with each other, the study of such transactions between people is called as the transactional analysis.

Transactional analysis, in another way, can also be defined as language within a language, to reflect the true meaning, feeling, and motive of the communicator. It helps us to understand the environment and then decide our choice of ego states while communicating with others. Because of its all - encompassing effects, transaction analysis is used in the theory of personality, communication, and understanding the behavioural pattern of the people.

Benefits and Utility of Transactional Analysis:

Transactional analysis is an approach towards understanding human behaviour. It is particularly useful in studying interpersonal relationships.

The understanding of Transactional Analysis can help us in the following ways:

 

1. Improved Interpersonal Communication:

With the help of Transactional Analysis people can understand their own personalities. It can help them understand why people sometimes respond as they do. With the help of Transactional Analysis, a manager can understand when a cross communication occurs and he can immediately take steps to convert into complementary communication. As a result, there will be improvement in interpersonal communication.

 

2. Source of Psychic Energy:

The purpose of Transactional Analysis is to bring positive approach towards life and hence positive actions. A clear change can be brought from negative feelings to positive feelings. Such a change from negative attitude to positive attitude is a source of psychic energy. Thus, the application of Transactional Analysis can enhance the trust and credibility felt towards the organisations which are essential for good employee relations.

 

3. Understanding the Ego states:

With the help of Transactional Analysis, managers will be able to identify the ego states from which both parties are interacting. A better understanding of themselves and of other people will make them more comfortable, confident and effective. The improved interpersonal relations will make the organisation more effective. This will lead to self-development of individuals also.

 

4. Motivation:

Transactional Analysis helps in changing the managerial styles more suitable to the emergent situation. Transactional Analysis can be applied very successfully in motivation where it will help in satisfying human needs through complementary transactions and positive strokes. If the manager emphasises adult-adult interaction with life position “I am OK, you are OK, it will be motivating for employees and beneficial to the organisation as a whole.”

5. Organisational Development:

Transactional Analysis can help in organisational development process. How to communicate with different level of peoples within the organisation i.e., junior to senior