Algunas reflexiones finales

A research by Beer (2003) shed light on the role of top management and organisational culture in the success and failure of TQM. His study drew attention on the leadership style of top management rather than factors at the strategic management level and recommended that the behaviour of management should be synchronised with the TQM philosophy. Echoing Deming (1986), Beer (2003) mentioned that too top down or too laissez faire i.e. laid back / casual leadership approach will actually hinder the effective implementation of TQM and related activities. Kumar and Sankaran (2007) highlighted that successful implementation of the TQM and excellence program will need two cultural requirements i.e. collectivist culture and an empowering and participative style of management. Therefore too top down and laid back attitude of management will be detrimental for the organisational growth. Davies (2007) commented on the management style for the implementation of TQM in the Higher Education context and stated that managerial approach will receive scepticism and resistance by the academic staff, however their support appears for collegial approach

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combined with leadership. Sarvan and Anafarta (2005) felt that improper management style is one of the barriers to the implementation of TQM initiatives.

According to Thiagarajan (2001), the leadership style of senior management certainly has a positive or negative impact on the effective dissemination and communication of quality goals and guiding principles to ensure that all hierarchy levels understand these and are committed to the organisation's direction. Claver (2003), stated that it is a responsibility of every individual in leadership role to ensure effective communication of quality commitment and goals, encourage people to implement and execute changes, motivate the employees for fact-based decision making and inspire them for continuous improvement. A study carried out by Ooi (2007), highlighted that a leadership style through rewards and recognition mechanism will surely enhance employees’ satisfaction and will enable them to contribute well in their day to day jobs and to achieve organisational objectives. Omanchonu and Ross (2004) mentioned various ways through which leadership style of top management is reflected and employees’ information is obtained including periodic meetings with top management, departmental meetings, emails, organisation newsletters, memos, verbal discussions and written feedback from superiors.

There is an agreement among different authors that top management’s leadership style can act as a critical enabler or barrier for successful implementation of excellence and TQM requirements. All above mentioned researchers are in agreement that leadership style of every member of senior management plays important role for effective implementation of quality excellence framework and thus taken as individual level factor.

66 2.10.12 Management Effectiveness

Beer (2003) mentioned that too top down or too laissez faire i.e. laid back / casual leadership approach will establish an in-effective top team with respect to quality of direction, effectiveness and efficiency of senior management keeping in view that a management team which cannot confront issues constructively is actually in-effective (Evan and Lindsay, 2005; Moosa, 2010). They further commented that effective implementation of any managerial intent including TQM / excellence program requires quality of direction that depends upon effectiveness and efficiency of every member of senior management team because without their commitment and involvement, a strategic change like the TQM / excellence model cannot succeed.

According to Ahmad and Yusof (2010), effectiveness and efficiency of senior management can be observed through their timely initiatives of providing leadership direction, required resources and employees’ recognition however, these are visible for business decision but not for TQM and excellence program’s implementation in the same manner hence such issues emerge ineffective top team. Smith (1999) informed that every individual at senior management level must ensure quality of direction and show its leadership effectiveness through their commitment to achieve organisation's vision and train people for unity of purpose and towards a common direction. Soltani et al. (2003) revealed a major barrier of quality implementation that lack of commitment of everyone at the senior management level towards the quality mind-set and implementation will reflect an ineffective top team and will lead to a lack of commitment of employees. Arumugam (2009) mentioned that self- assessment for TQM originated with business excellence and quality award models, and can be used to judge the level of effectiveness of senior management with respect to quality award requirements application and overall organisational performance.

67 2.10.13 Over-Enthusiasm

Commenting on the management style and their over-enthusiastic behaviour, Krishnaveni and Anitha (2006; Greasley, 2008 and Ngware (2006) mentioned that sometimes senior management wants to achieve more in the shortest possible time due to various business reasons. Such issues affect adversely on the empowerment level, job satisfaction, higher level of motivation, quality of decisions by senior management and building the sense of ownership. This issue may create an over-enthusiastic top management who wants to do the maximum in shortest possible time (Angell, 2009; Moosa, 2010).

When senior management wants to achieve the maximum in shortest possible time, it may hamper fairness and affect on employee recognition adversely. Therefore organisations need to establish a proper recognition mechanism for TQM and excellence initiatives to encourage employee participation, team work and involvement (Demirbag, 2006). The TQM program requires a committed, motivated and trained work force, however, the attitude of over-enthusiastic senior management members and leadership can be detrimental for TQM and excellence culture (Mosadegh Rad, 2005). Therefore, quality related recognition scheme and performance measurement system will be effective for senior management and employees to take quality activities seriously (Arasli, 2002). Tsang and Antony (2001) highlighted that a formal performance management mechanism and performance indicators need to be in place for continuous monitoring of performance at all levels of the hierarchy.