QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

Quality Management and Employee Motivation

Quality Management and Employee Motivation

Introduction

A sound quality management implementation process should be concerned with more than just the mechanical aspects of the change. Instead, it should focus on improving the more indirect value characteristics of the organization such as trust, responsibility, participation, harmony and group affiliation. Empowerment, the most important concept in TQM, is many things, since employees must be empowered to make the necessary organizational changes (Stevens, 1993). The concept of empowerment is based upon the belief that employees needs the organization as much as the organization needs them and that leaders understand that employees are the most valuable asset in the firm.

Motivation

Motivation is based on emotions. It is the search for positive emotional experiences and the avoidance of negative emotional experiences. Motivation is involved in the performance of all learned responses (Accel, 2004). It is a behavior that will not occur unless it is triggered. In general, psychologists question whether motivation is a primary or secondary influence on behavior (Accel, 2004).

Everyone has certain needs and goals. To obtain the goals and meet the needs that a person wants, they will have to agree to do work and provide services in exchange for what they want. One key to making these agreements satisfactory is how fair they are being treated. People want to ensure that they will be consistently treated fairly. Perceived factors of being treated fairly from an employee perspective are salary, benefits, bonus, incentives if any, etc. Salary and benefits are not seen as motivators but as entitlement for the work that is being done. If the agreement is seen as being unfair, the person will be dissatisfied which will result in poor morale. But if the agreement is seen as being fair it will play a role in whether the person is a "motivated" employee.

Motivation Techniques

In order to motivate employees, they must know what is expected of them. Employees must have a clear understanding of challenges and realistic goals that they must meet. Employees that are encouraged to healthy competition ensure that the criteria for successes are clear and do not encourage resentment or low morale (Webb, 2001). Tough approaches, like firing staff that are not working to their full potential, can motivate other employees to do work better and strive for those goals that have been set.

There is no perfect way to motivate staff. Some psychologists hold that financial bonuses or perks will be enough to motivate employees to give their best effort (Webb, 2001). Competition between employees is also commonly used as a motivation strategy at times. However, the keys to effective employees are motivation strategies that provide a range of incentives that appeal to the different personalities of the employees (Pandy, 2001). While one individual may be driven by money, another may find job satisfaction or creative opportunities more powerful factors (Pandy, 2001).

Some company employee motivation techniques suggest that most employees respond to the same ...