Hofstede Employee Empowerment Model

Hofstede is a famous researcher in the field of organizational culture. He defines culture as “the collective programming of mind, which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede, 1991). Hofstede indicated that organizational culture comes from national culture; cultures manifest themselves, from external to deep, in leaders, values and symbols. Furthermore, the differences in national cultures are reflected in how organizations are structured and managed (Chen, 2001; Hofstede, 1991).

Dale, et al (1994), defined quality culture as ‘the culture which nurtures high social relationship, and respects for individual, a sense of membership or the organization and a belief that continuous improvement is for

Customer satisfaction is the most important principle of TQM, with management focusing on overall beneficiary satisfaction as the basis of quality. First, however, who the beneficiary is and what his/her requirements and expectations are should be determined so that the service can meet these expectations and needs (Sallis, 2002). For this, several steps should be

The empowerment tool of TQM essentially focuses on how much decision-making authority to delegate to corporate subordinates by managers (Osuagwu, 2002). Ross (1999) indicates that the greater employee autonomy and discretion implied by team working is invariably accompanied by an intensification of work and increased self-monitoring. Hill and Wilkinson (1995) point out that continuous improvement involved in a process to satisfy an internal customer introduces elements of “bottom up” issue identification and problem solving which contrast with traditional “top down” management. When issues require information gathering or change elsewhere in the quality chain, then quality improvement has a horizontal dimension that enhances the future scope of a job at any given level in the company. They add that these facts of TQM have raised the possibility that TQM empowers organization members by delegating functions that were previously the preserve of a more senior organization member.

In order to encourage employee commitment and involvement, successful organizations put great importance on empowering their employees. It is suggested that the positive effects of employee empowerment are well documented but the idea has been challenged by some writers claiming that it