Total Quality In Human Resource Management

1.2.1.15 The key to successful implementation of quality principles and methods is tied directly to leadership. In fact, lack of management and leadership commitment is considered by Crosby to be the number one cause of quality system failure. According to Juran, every successful quality revolution has included the active participation of upper management - there are no exceptions and Deming agrees. He says the transformation is top management job and it cannot be delegated. Quality is not a quick fix to address management problems. It is not a program, but a transformation. As part of this effort, top managers must recognize the need for assessment, strategic planning, and the development of a long-term, integrated Human Resource management

There are two reasons that explain this favoured attitude of Greek managers. The first is that TQM has entered the organizational agenda in Greek service industry and become a fashionable management concept. Also, the educational background seems to be the second reason. The majority of managers that are in favour of TQM are postgraduate degree holders and they have been graduated mainly from Anglo-Saxon universities. Those that have been educated (MSc/MA/MBA and/or PhD) in foreign countries seem to be much more familiar with “hard” aspects of TQM than those have been educated in Greek universities. Most of these people have good educational background (mainly at the postgraduate level) and sometimes working experience taken in countries like UK and US. When they returned to Greece they try to apply what they learned and experienced. Most of the time, these individuals operate as “change agents,” bringing a lot of management practices and concepts to Greek organizational environments. This results in much more emphasis on the technical side of management than on the “soft” one. In other words, we can argue that postgraduates can easily understand and apply TQM practices. The most plausible explanation is associated with the fact that “soft” management concepts can more easily be accepted by everyone

Without any doubt TQM has become a substantial issue on the Greek managerial agenda. Nevertheless, Greek managers have to undertake many steps towards the TQM approach before it could be said to be a core organizing principle. Moreover, there is evidence that TQM has affected Greek managers’ perceptions on several aspects of their day-to-day work. However, this effect came mainly from their familiarity with “hard” management practices rather than from their awareness of “soft” notions. This fact suggests that managers hold a realistic view of TQM. According to their view, although the “soft” side of TQM is something “good” and useful in their minds, it has little to do with organizational reality. The one that really matters is the “hard”