Xerox Team Case Study

1.1.4.12 Leadership teams. The third method Xerox uses to help in Total Quality Management is leadership teams. Leadership teams are a new concept that many companies are adapting. These teams consist of a group of people with different areas of specialty lead by HR department. The main functions of the teams are to produce a product for the lowest possible cost with the highest quality. These teams can have jobs that range from finding ways to cut costs all the way to how to handle difficult employees and anything in between. The teams generally decide on what special project they are going to work on. The teams also decide what the hours are they are going to work and the salaries they are going to get for doing the jobs. Leadership teams

Another example of the effects of HRM and TQM on the Xerox Corporation is the employee and customer support given to the company. Xerox hosts a teamwork day in which teams are able to come in and show off the projects that they are working on to other employees and to visitors. The first year the amount of teams that attended was thirty. The next year the amount of teams doubled and there were five hundred visitors attending as well. There are no incentives for the teams to take part. The only recognition the people get from the day are thank-you notes. This is an excellent example of how HRM and TQM is working within the company. The workers want to take part in this activity because of a sense of competition to come up with the best ideas and pride in the work the team has done. These are the kind of employees that help make a corporation become a success and stay a

The new procedures include research as part of the TQM process. Xerox does surveys to customers, stockholders and employees as part of this research. These surveys are mailed out to the respective people and ask questions about the satisfaction of the products and ask about improvements that can be made to the products. The surveys also take into consideration suggestions made by the employees as to how to improve the products and to improve the production process. Xerox and other leading TQM companies have similar processes of surveying employees, mass media, government, and investors on an ongoing basis and sharing the information in the company. These surveys let the employees know the quality of the job they are doing and how they can improve their performance on that job. This allows empowerment of the employees and increases the improvement time and it increases the rate in which improvements are made. These surveys help to strengthen the corporation because of the fact that the company responds to then and the corporations image is improved because good customer relations are developed. The surveys work well in the Xerox corporation because they are taken seriously and are responded to. The company wants to be the best it can be and it is shown partly through these