Southern Cross University

Doctor of Business Administration

Total Quality Management as the basis for organizational

transformation of Indian Railways – A Study in Action Research

Researcher: Madhu Ranjan Kumar

Student ID: 21231263

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Table of Contents

Abstract.................................................................................................................. xiv

Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1

1.1 Background to research.................................................................................................................................. 1

1.2 Research problem............................................................................................................................................ 2 1.2.1 Research pathway...................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Contribution............................................................................................................................................... 4

1.3 Justification for research ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.3.1 Need to change for Indian Railways.......................................................................................................... 5

1.4 Methodology .................................................................................................................................................... 6

1.5 Outline of this thesis........................................................................................................................................ 6

1.6 Limitations ....................................................................................................................................................... 8

1.7 My own value system as a researcher............................................................................................................ 8

2.0 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2 Literature Review .................................................................................. 11

2.1 Parent discipline ............................................................................................................................................ 13 2.1.1 Parent discipline 1-Organisational Change.............................................................................................. 13 2.1.2 Parent discipline 2– Total Quality Management ..................................................................................... 15

2.1.2.1 Historical background...................................................................................................................... 15 2.1.2.2 Commonalty among quality gurus:.................................................................................................. 18

2.1.3 TQM as a philosophy of change.............................................................................................................. 21

2.2 Immediate discipline ..................................................................................................................................... 23 2.2.1 Total Quality Management- a systems perspective ................................................................................. 23

2.2.1.1 TQM and System Dynamics............................................................................................................ 29 2.2.1.2 Systems theory, TQM and organisational learning.......................................................................... 31 2.2.1.3 Organisational knowledge creating process..................................................................................... 33 2.2.1.4 Learning and second order change .................................................................................................. 35

2.2.2 Critical success factors for TQM............................................................................................................. 36 2.2.3 Different International Quality Awards................................................................................................... 38

2.2.3.1 History of quality awards................................................................................................................. 39 2.2.3.2 Commonality and differences among different quality awards ....................................................... 41 2.2.3.3 Change in the criteria of quality awards over time .......................................................................... 42

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2.2.3.4 Commonalities and differences between DP (2004) and MBNQA(2004)...................................... 45 2.2.3.5 TQM and awards in public sector.................................................................................................... 47 2.2.3.6 TQM in India and Indian quality awards ......................................................................................... 49 2.2.3.7 Indian quality awards vs. MBNQA & EQA .................................................................................... 53

2.2.4 Synthesis of system dynamics, CSFs and quality award criteria............................................................. 56 2.2.5 Total Quality Management and ISO........................................................................................................ 58

2.2.5.1 ISO 9000:2000 and TQM ................................................................................................................ 60 2.2.5.2 Factors affecting transition from ISO to TQM ................................................................................ 64 2.2.5.3 Quality movement in India and ISO ................................................................................................ 65

2.2.6 TQM and culture ..................................................................................................................................... 67 2.2.6.1 Indian work culture.......................................................................................................................... 70 2.2.6.2 Duality of traditionalism and modernism in Indian culture ............................................................. 73 2.2.6.3 Recent changes in Indian work culture ............................................................................................ 74 2.2.6.4 Nurturant task leadership ................................................................................................................. 76 2.2.6.5 Juxtaposition of culture for TQM and Indian culture ...................................................................... 77 2.2.6.6 Comparison between Japanese culture and Indian culture............................................................... 79

2.2.7 Indian Bureaucracy.................................................................................................................................. 80 2.2.7.1 Characteristics of Indian bureaucracy............................................................................................. 81 2.2.7.2 Changing the bureaucracy ............................................................................................................... 83 2.2.7.3 TQM and change in government bureaucracy and in public sector................................................. 86 2.2.7.4 Summary of TQM in bureaucracy .................................................................................................. 88

2.2.8 TQM and transformational leadership..................................................................................................... 89 2.2.8.1 Impact of cultural factors on transformational leadership ............................................................... 91 2.2.8.2 Transformational leadership in India ............................................................................................... 92

2.3.Summary of literature review and overview of the central problem........................................................ 93

2.4. Identification of the gaps which need investigation.................................................................................. 97 Chapter 3 Research questions and research methodology ............................... 98

3.1 Research questions ........................................................................................................................................ 98

3.2 Different research paradigms..................................................................................................................... 100

3.3 Development of research map.................................................................................................................... 106

3.4 Research Design for stage 1........................................................................................................................ 108 3.4.1 Survey A - Assessment of organisational policies and practices in the Indian Railways ...................... 108 3.4.2 Survey B - Assessment of cultural values of Indian Railway personnel .............................................. 109

3.5 Research design for stage 2......................................................................................................................... 111 3.5.1 Survey C – Assessment of the impact of ISO 9000 in the Indian Railways.......................................... 112

3.5.1.1 Sampling plan for survey C ........................................................................................................... 112 3.5.2 Survey D - Development of scale to measure the transition of ISO certified organisations towards TQM........................................................................................................................................................................ 124

3.6 Questionnaire design and administration for survey D ........................................................................... 124 3.6.1 Development and evaluation of questionnaire....................................................................................... 125 3.6.2 Development of measurement scale ...................................................................................................... 129 3.6.3 General issues in drafting the questionnaire .......................................................................................... 129 3.6.4 Pre-test, revision and final draft ............................................................................................................ 130 3.6.5 Reliability and validity of the instrument .............................................................................................. 130 3.6.6 Survey method....................................................................................................................................... 133

3.7 Research design for stage 3......................................................................................................................... 133 3.7.1 Development of research design for stage 3.......................................................................................... 133

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3.8 Ethical considerations ................................................................................................................................. 134

3.9 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................... 135 Chapter 4 Data collection and data analysis.......................................................136

4.1 Data collection and data analysis for survey A......................................................................................... 136

4.2 Data collection and data analysis for survey B ......................................................................................... 143 4.2.1 Data collection....................................................................................................................................... 143 4.2.2 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 144

4.3 Data collection and data analysis for survey C......................................................................................... 148 4.3.1 Understanding the impact of ISO implementation on railway units in terms of intervening variables . 149

4.4 Data collection and data analysis for survey D......................................................................................... 150 Chapter 5 The action research project ................................................................153

5.1 Situating Action Research in a Research Paradigm................................................................................. 153

5.2 Situating action research within systems theory ...................................................................................... 158 5.2.1 Soft System methodology...................................................................................................................... 158 5.2.2 Soft system methodology as action research ......................................................................................... 160

5.3 Justification of Action Research as the research methodology for this thesis........................................ 161

5.4 Research model for Action Research......................................................................................................... 164

5.5 Rigour and validity in the Action Research .............................................................................................. 167 5.5.1 Falsification ........................................................................................................................................... 170 5.5.2 Reflection and three levels of learning .................................................................................................. 171 5.5.3 Intervention ........................................................................................................................................... 175 5.5.4 General criteria for assessing rigour in AR ........................................................................................... 176 5.5.5 Rigour and validity in this Action Research.......................................................................................... 177

5.6 Action research at Jhansi Stores Depot..................................................................................................... 180 5.6.1 Selection of unit for action research ...................................................................................................... 180 5.6.2 About Jhansi Stores Depot .................................................................................................................... 180 5.6.3 The action research cycles..................................................................................................................... 182 5.6.4 Experiential learning during action research ......................................................................................... 198

Chapter 6 Reflection after action and development of ‘TQM transition model’................................................................................................................................203

6.1 Reflection after action................................................................................................................................. 203 6.1.1 Reflection after action- 1 ....................................................................................................................... 203 6.1.2 Reflection after action- 2 ....................................................................................................................... 207 6.1.3 Reflection after action- 3 ....................................................................................................................... 209 6.1.4 Reflection after action- 4 ....................................................................................................................... 210 6.1.5 Development of TQM transition model ................................................................................................ 214

6.2 Jhansi revisited ............................................................................................................................................ 219

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6.2.1 The next action cycle............................................................................................................................. 223 6.2.2 Action Research revisited...................................................................................................................... 226

6.3 Validation of the TQM transition model................................................................................................... 227 Chapter 7 Conclusion ...........................................................................................231

7.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 231

7.2 Conclusions about research problems....................................................................................................... 231

7.3 Conclusion about research issue ................................................................................................................ 234

7.4 Assessment of Rigour in this Action Research.......................................................................................... 237

7.5 Contribution to literature ........................................................................................................................... 238 7.5.1 Findings which support the existing literature...................................................................................... 238 7.5.2 Finding which is contrary to existing literature ..................................................................................... 239 7.5.3 Findings which are contribution to existing literature ........................................................................... 239

7.6 Contribution to policy and practice........................................................................................................... 240 7.6.1 Implications for Indian Railways .......................................................................................................... 240 7.6.2 Implications for Indian organisations .................................................................................................... 241 7.6.3 Implications for organisations in general .............................................................................................. 242

7.7 Contribution to methodology ..................................................................................................................... 242

7.8 Limitations ................................................................................................................................................... 243

7.9 Implications for future research ................................................................................................................ 244 Chapter 8 Researcher’s ruminations...................................................................245

References .............................................................................................................254

Appendices ............................................................................................................281

Appendix 1. Tables and figures about quality awards................................................................................... 281

Appendix 2. Assessment of organisational policies......................................................................................... 301 Appendix 2A Summary of responses to question no.II to question no. VI of the questionnaire ‘assessment of organisational policies’ (Survey A)................................................................................................................ 311

Appendix 3. Behaviour preference scale ( S 004) ........................................................................................... 321 Appendix 3A Data analysis for the questionnaire S004 (survey B) ............................................................... 328

Appendix 4. ISO 9000 Survey .......................................................................................................................... 338 Appendix 4A Summary of survey C in six ISO certified units of Indian Railways ....................................... 350

Appendix 5. TQM transition questionnaire.................................................................................................... 355

Appendix 6. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire ...................................................................................... 369 Appendix 6.1 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Leader Form................................................................ 372 Appendix 6.2 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Rater Form .................................................................. 375 Appendix 6.3 Scores obtained on the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (rater form)............................. 384

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Appendix 7. Organization chart of Indian Railways...................................................................................... 385

Appendix 8. Intimation about co- action researchers .................................................................................... 386

Appendix 9. List of ISO certified units in the Indian Railways..................................................................... 389

Appendix 10. Organisational Chart of Jhansi workshop unit of Indian Railways...................................... 393

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List of Figures Figure 2. 1 Concept map for literature review......................................................................... 12 Figure 2. 2 The yin-yang of TQM ........................................................................................... 15 Figure 2. 3 Simplified example of an organization as a system .............................................. 26 Figure 2. 4 Milestones of organisational roots ........................................................................ 28 Figure 2. 5 Milestones of quality development ....................................................................... 28 Figure 2. 6 Quality and business results .................................................................................. 29 Figure 2. 7 Modes of knowledge creation in an organization ................................................. 34 Figure 2. 8 The four types of learning as polar opposites........................................................ 35 Figure 2. 9 European Quality Model ....................................................................................... 41 Figure 2. 10 Model of a process-based quality management system ...................................... 61 Figure 2. 11 Characteristics of internal work culture of organizations in developing countries

in the context of their sociocultural environment ............................................................ 68 Figure 2. 12 Nurturant-Task leadership process leading to participative management........... 76 Figure 2. 13 Socio cultural factors in MBNQA and JQA....................................................... 78 Figure 2. 14 Summary of literature review and gaps in existing literature ............................ 96 Figure 3. 1 Different assumptions about nature of reality ..................................................... 101 Figure 3. 2 Research map ..................................................................................................... 107 Figure 3. 3 Existing functional silos in Indian Railways....................................................... 117 Figure 3. 4 Model of a process-based quality management system ...................................... 119 Figure 3. 5 Plan for development of ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ .................................. 124 Figure 5. 1 The action research cycle .................................................................................... 153 Figure 5. 2 The experiential learning cycle ........................................................................... 154 Figure 5. 3 The oscillation between reflection and generalisation ........................................ 155 Figure 5. 4 Conceptual link between TQM and AR.............................................................. 164 Figure 5. 5 Two-project model for AR based thesis.............................................................. 165 Figure 5. 6 Research model used in stage 3 shown within the AR framework ..................... 166 Figure 5. 7 The ORJI within experiential learning cycle....................................................... 175 Figure 5. 8 Model for validation of learning which occurred in each cycle by using different

methods, different sources of data and different types of data ...................................... 178 Figure 6. 1 Model for sequential development of TQM factors using the ISO framework .. 215 Figure 6. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in India using the ISO framework.............. 218 Figure 7. 1 Reproduction of Figure 2.14 showing gaps in existing literature ....................... 235 Figure 7. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in Indian Railways using the ISO framework

thereby filling up the gap shown in Figure 7.1 .............................................................. 236 Figure 8. 1 The structure of an appreciative system.............................................................. 248

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Figure 8. 2 Unbundling of standards of fact and value into three components of time, person and ecology and their positioning along the Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft continuum........................................................................................................................................ 250

Figure 8. 3 Integration of mode 2 of SSM with context sensitivity and balancing ............... 252

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List of Tables Table 2. 1 Traditional change model vs. complex adaptive change model ............................. 14 Table 2. 2 Commonalities among seminal TQM work ........................................................... 19 Table 2. 3 Definition of variable for enablers.......................................................................... 30 Table 2. 4 Definition of variables for results ........................................................................... 31 Table 2. 5 Differences in checklists of Deming prize 1992 and Deming prize 2000.............. 43 Table 2. 6 Differences in the criteria of MBNQA 1992 and MBNQA 2004 .......................... 44 Table 2. 7 Major Indian National Quality Awards .................................................................. 52 Table 2. 8 Comparison of Indian Quality Awards with MBNQA & EQA ............................. 54 Table 2. 9 CSFs for TQM and CEBEA criteria....................................................................... 55 Table 2. 10 ISO 9000 and Deming’s system of profound knowledge.................................... 62 Table 2. 11 Comparison of MBNQA, EFQM and ISO 9000......................................................... 63 Table 2. 12 Societal values of Indian managers after liberalisation ........................................ 75 Table 2. 13 Comparison between vertical collectivism and horizontal collectivism .............. 79 Table 3. 1 Research questions for this work............................................................................ 99 Table 3. 2 Basic belief systems of alternative enquiry paradigms......................................... 102 Table 3. 3 Quality criteria for different research paradigm ................................................... 104 Table 3. 4 Typology of sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry ........................................ 113 Table 3. 5 Analysis of different categories of railway units on clauses of ISO 9000:2000 .. 120 Table 3. 6 Percentiles for individual scores, based on others’ ratings on MLQ.................... 123 Table 3. 7 Operationalisation of different factors of ‘ TQM transition questionnaire’ ......... 128 Table 3. 8 Summary of scores obtained on the TQM transition questionnaire by DP winners

in India and ISO certified different units of Indian Railways........................................ 132 Table 4. 1 Respondent profile for survey A........................................................................... 136 Table 4. 2 Comparison of codes developed in survey A with the CSFs of TQM ................. 139 Table 4. 3 Existing and proposed organisational dimensions for Indian Railways by senior railway

managers ......................................................................................................................... 142 Table 4. 4 Number of respondents in different categories for survey B................................ 144 Table 4. 5 Scores obtained on the three dimensions of ‘status consciousness (S)’,

‘personalised relationship (P)’ and ‘dependency proneness (D) ’ by different categories of employees of Indian Railways................................................................................... 145

Table 4. 6 List of short-listed railway units for survey C ...................................................... 148 Table 4. 7 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of

Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors ....................................... 151 Table 5. 1 Comparison between three paradigms of knowledge........................................... 156 Table 5. 2 Comparison between positivist science and action research ................................ 157 Table 5. 3 Dimensions of SSM types .................................................................................... 159 Table 5. 4 First order, second order and third order learning ................................................ 173 Table 5. 5 Skills of balancing inquiry and advocacy............................................................. 174 Table 5. 6 Types of intervention............................................................................................ 176 Table 5. 7 The AR cycles....................................................................................................... 183 Table 6. 1 Different types of power....................................................................................... 204

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Table 6. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their proposed Indian cultural equivalent....................................................................................................................... 210

Table 6. 3 Improvement steps identified in May 2004 and their status in December 2004 .. 221 Table 6. 4 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of

Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors including no. of CPA and no. of reward .................................................................................................................. 228

Table 7. 1 Assessment of rigour in this action research thesis .............................................. 237 Table 7. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their Indian cultural equivalent 240

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Abbreviations AL Action Learning AMM Assistant Materials Manager AMV Alambagh Warehousing Unit AR Action Research avg average BEM Business Excellence Model BPL Bhopal Workshop BPO Business Process Outsourcing CEBEA Confederation of Indian Industries Exim Bank Excellence Award CEE Chief Electrical Engineer CFA Critical Factor Analysis ckt circuit CLW Chittaranjan Locomotive Works CME Chief Mechanical Engineer CPO Chief Personnel Officer COS Controller Of Stores CWM Chief Workshop Manager cert certificate CII Confederation of Indian Industries CII_EXIM Confederation of Indian Industries Bank Excellence Award coop cooperation CPA Corrective and Preventive Action CSF Critical Success Factor CWM Chief Workshop Manager del delivery DCW Diesel Components Works DLW Diesel Locomotive Works DEE Divisional Electrical Engineer DME Divisional Mechanical Engineer DMM District Materials Manager doc document DP Deming Prize DRM Divisional Railway Manager Dy CMM Deputy Chief Materials Manager EFQM European Foundation Quality management EQA European Quality Award EXIM Export Import Bank FA&CAO Financial Advisor and Chief Account Officer GM General Manager HPO High Performance Organisation ICF Integral Coach Factory info information ISO International Standards Organisation JPY Japanese Yen JUSE Union of Japanese Scientist and Engineers Lit Literature M&M Mahindra & Mahindra MBNQA Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award

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mgt management MLQ Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire M.R. Management Representative NC Non Conformance n.d. no date NDDB National Dairy Development Board NQA National Quality Award NT Nurturant Task OHSAS Occupational Health and Safety Management System perf performance plg planning PRL Parel Workshop proc process QC Quality Control QMS Quality Management System RCF Rail Coach Factory reduc reduction resp responsibility ret rm retiring room RWF Rail Wheel Factory (the current name of WAP) shop workshop sp qual special quality SQC Statistical Quality Control SSM Soft System Methodology stat tech statistical technique sup supervisor sys system TOR Turn Over Ratio TQM Total Quality management trg training WAP Wheel and Axle Plant

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Statement of original authorship

This is to certify that this research work titled ‘Total Quality Management as the basis for

organisational transformation of Indian Railways’ is an original work carried out by me.

Research work of other authors have been reproduced with due credit.

Madhu Ranjan Kumar

madhu_ranjan@yahoo.com

The author can be contacted at madhu_ranjan@yahoo.com for permission to take copies of

this thesis.

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Acknowledgements

At the outset, I wish to thank my research guide Prof. Shankar Sankaran whose

guidance and incisive comments made this research work more rigorous. Southern Cross

University and its support staff can be rated as the most helpful team for a research work. The

library staff of SCU deserve a special thanks for their very prompt delivery of many research

papers and book sections. My special thanks goes to Ms Sue White who, as the DBA

administrator, was a constant source of support.

This is the perhaps the first ever doctoral level organisational study on Indian

Railways. I wish to thank the Department of Personnel & Training and the Ministry of

Railways of the Government of India for sponsoring this study. It is perhaps a measure of

change in thinking within the Indian government that it sponsored an in-depth academic study

of the largest bureaucracy in India with a view to bring about fundamental change in it.

A major part of the work involved collecting data at different railway units and

conducting surveys with railway employees from supervisors to chairmen. This is an occasion

to express my gratitude to hundreds of such respondents whose names cannot be individually

mentioned here for want of space. My special thanks go to the action research team at the

Jhansi warehousing unit for their illuminating insights and the desire to run AR cycles.

Mr. Arif Zama deserves a special mention here for his painstaking feeding of data

collected into the computer and also for his enormous help in developing software which

helped in organising the data. That made the quantitative data analysis much easier.

I am thankful to Prof P. Khandwalla, ex. Director, I.I.M. Ahemadabad, Prof U.H.

Acharya of Indian Statistical Institute, Banglore, Prof J.B.P. Sinha of Assert Management

Institute, Patna and Prof. S.G.Deshmukh of I.I.T Delhi for their permission to use their

questionnaire in this thesis.

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Abstract

The basic objective of this research was to assess the suitability of Total Quality

Management (TQM) via the International Standards Organization (ISO) 9000/2000 quality

accreditation system route for bringing about organisational transformation in the Indian

Railways and to develop an India specific model for taking an ISO certified organization

towards TQM.

The first part of the research aimed at getting the ‘as is’ and ‘should be’ status of

Indian Railways from an organisational change point of view. Based on the work carried out

by Khandwalla (1995), a series of open-ended and close-ended questions were asked to the

senior members of Indian Railways. Analysis of their responses was undertaken. It indicated

that the way they thought Indian Railways should change was in line with the TQM model of

change.

The culture-TQM fit was studied as a part of this research. ‘Hierarchy’ (or power

distance) and its related concept ‘collectivism’ were identified as the two cultural constructs

which affect the successful implementation of TQM. The second part of the research aimed at

measuring the hierarchical orientation among the employees of Indian Railways. This was

measured on three dimensions of ‘dependency proneness’, ‘personalised relationship’ and

‘status consciousness’ based on the work done by Sinha (1995). It was found that among the

three dimensions, ‘status consciousness’ and ‘dependency proneness’ were more deeply

entrenched cultural traits among Indian Railway employees as compared to ‘personalised

relationship’. On the two dimensions of ‘status consciousness’ and ‘dependency proneness’,

the class 1 officers of Indian Railways were less hierarchy conscious than the class 2 officers

who, in turn, were less hierarchy conscious than the supervisors. The tendency for

‘personalised relationship’ did not vary significantly either across the class 1 officer, class 2

officer and supervisor categories or across different age groups. Further, employees less than

30 years old, from 31 years to 50 years old and more than 50 years old, demonstrated similar

level of ‘status consciousness’ and ‘dependency proneness’. This shows that at least in the

Indian Railways, even among the younger generation, notwithstanding 15 years of

liberalisation, hierarchical orientation continues to be a powerful cultural trait.

The third part of the research aimed at understanding the impact of ISO 9000

implementation in the Indian Railway units. It was found that, contrary to the literature, there

xv

was no resistance to implementation of ISO based change in the Indian Railways. This

research argues that because of their strong sense of identity with their work group, the

employees of Indian Railways are more amenable to an internal leader initiated change.

Hence there was no resistance to change.

The fourth part of the research was an action research project aimed at ISO 9000:2000

certification of a warehousing unit in the Indian Railways. This was carried out to investigate

the way organisational learning occurred during ISO certification. Three action cycles were

conducted over a period of two months. Seven months later, one additional cycle was

completed. Special care was taken to see that the conclusions arrived after one cycle were

validated from other sources. It was found that departmentalism and lack of team spirit are

major problems in Indian Railways. Both are ascribed to the caste system in India. It is

hypothesised that since an Indian Railway employee remains in a department throughout

his/her career, the department becomes his/her ‘professional caste’. The research then

identifies an Indianised version of leadership in the context of organisational change. It

hypothesises that hierarchical teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship with the leader

invokes personal bases of power which promotes change in India. The teacher-student (guru-

shishya) relationship with the leader is conceptually similar to ‘intellectual stimulation’ factor

of transformational leadership. The ‘personalised relationship’ with a more equitable slant can

be elevated to the status of ‘individualised consideration’ factor of transformational leadership

and the Nurturant Task (NT) leadership model of India is conceptually similar to the

contingent reward factor of transformational leadership.

In the context of TQM, this research hypothesises that there is a sequential

relationship among the critical success factors (CSFs) of TQM. For this, one should begin by

framing process-based quality procedures and quality objectives. Process based quality

procedures and quality objectives lead to development of team orientation in the context of

TQM implementation. Similarly, a multi-tier Corrective and Preventive Action (CPA)

reinforced with a reward and recognition system, positively intervenes in the transition of an

ISO certified organization towards TQM.

The learning arrived at in different parts of the research was finally integrated into a

model for transforming an ISO certified unit towards TQM. The model shows that

propagation of customer satisfaction as a value and not just as a measurement- as in a

customer satisfaction index – is key for replacing some of the dysfunctional traditional Indian

values which do not fit in a liberalised economy. More specifically, the compulsion of

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implementing a ‘Corrective / Preventive Action’ makes a person come out of his/her

traditional moorings and thus begins his/her socialisation outside his/her ‘professional caste’.

The reinforcing effect of successive improvement inculcates a feeling of team spirit among

members of different functional groups. Successive CPAs supported by a suitable reward

system and an Indianised version of leadership mentioned earlier create a spiral vortex which

continually pulls the organization towards achieving TQM.

Finally, this research establishes a link between the soft system methodology and an

India specific cultural dimension called ‘context sensitivity’. The researcher argues that it is

because of context sensitivity of Indians that no resistance to change was found during ISO

implementation in Indian Railways. This also explains why post liberalisation Indians have

been able to make a mark in the world.

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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background to research

As a model of organisational change, TQM has been used in various forms for

decades (Yong & Wilkinson 2002). However, its success rate has not been very impressive

(Cao, Clarke & Lehany 2000; Tata & Prasad 1998). The reasons for its failures have

variously been summarised as:

(a) Improper understanding of the core concepts of TQM.

(b) Implementation was based on a one-size-fits-all assumption that is, it was

prescriptive and not participative (Boyne & Walker 2002; Korunka et al. 2003; Yusof &

Aspinwall 2000).

(c) Implementation of TQM ignored looking at different subsets of the organization

that is, it did not treat organization as a system (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002).

TQM has also been criticised on the ground that it provides a rhetoric that is

individually interpreted and therefore carries inconsistent meaning across contexts (DeCock

1998; Zbracki reported by Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002).

The faltering success of TQM has led many researchers to establish relationships

between TQM and contextual factors such as culture (Lakhe & Mohanty 1994; Pun 2001;

Sahay & Walsham 1997), leadership (Rao, Raghunathan & Solis 1997; Zairi 2002),

teamwork (Eisenhardt & Tabrizi 1995; Quazi, Hong & Meng 2002) and training (Palo &

Padhi 2003). The personality profile of managers (Krumwiede & Lavelle 2000) and the host

country culture have been found to have a bearing on the adoption or success of TQM (Yen,

Krumwiede & Sheu 2002). Some researchers have looked at the specific problem of TQM

implementation in the public sector (Moon & Swafin-Smith 1998; Robertson & Seneviratne

1995; Stringham 2004; Yosuf & Aspinwall 2000) and tried to analyse whether TQM

implementation requires a different orientation in the public sector (Ehrenberg & Stupak

1994). Another stream of research has been conducted to arrive at empirically validated

factors that influence successful implementation of TQM (Black & Porter1996; Wali,

Deshmukh & Gupta 2003).

At a systemic level, a formal integration of TQM principles in a model of quality

management system has been attempted by ISO 9000: 2000 standard (Kartha 2002). Yet

2

there is a lack of reported research which establishes that ISO 9000:2000 certification enables

an organization to proceed on the TQM path. However, there is reported research about the

varying impact of ISO 9000: 1994 standard on an organization. It is both positive

(Escanciano, Fernández & Vázquez 2001; Sun 1999) and negative (Curry & Kadasah 2002).

Some authors have tried to explain this varying impact on general factors such as country

culture (Noronha 2002); organisational factors such as intention behind certification

(Gotzamani & Tsiotras 2002; Poksinska, Dahlgaard & Antoni 2002); leadership (Hill, Hazlett

& Meegan 2001) and operational factors such as adoption of more than one enablers of TQM.

Therefore, there is a need to understand the implementation of TQM in terms of these

intervening factors.

Looking from this perspective, there seems to be a need to understand successful

implementation of TQM for organisational change as a function of the intra-organisational

parameters mentioned above.

1.2 Research problem

The above introductory background throws up the following broad research problem

which this thesis will address

Can TQM be used as the basis for organisational transformation? If yes, how can it

be effectively implemented in an Indian bureaucracy?

Within the Indian bureaucracy, this thesis will study the implementation related

issues in the context of Indian Railways which is the largest Indian bureaucracy.

The ISO 9000: 2000 model is the framework in which the study will be undertaken.

This is because ISO 9000: 2000 provides a change mechanism and change-monitoring model

which lends a holistic approach to change. The international standard organization claims

that its eight underlying principles are also in consonance with the tenets of TQM

(www.iso.org).

Thus this thesis attempts to understand whether the revised ISO 9000 standard is

designed for taking an organization on its TQM journey and how the intra-organisational

intervening variables of culture, presence of enablers of TQM and management’s intention

behind certification affect this journey.

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1.2.1 Research pathway

The specific research pathways which have been used to seek answer to the research

problem are now indicated.

The first area to be explored pertains to TQM. It attempts to answer the following

questions-

What is the state of TQM today? That is, starting from the principles of the founding

fathers of TQM, where does it stand today? What variations, if any, has it undergone? What

factors contribute to and what factors impede its successful implementation. These are dealt

with in section 2.2.1, 2.2.2 and 2.2.3.

Since the focus of this thesis is India, this research looks at different aspects of

Indian culture in their organisational context. How does Indian culture affect the

organisational values of Indian Railway personnel in the context of TQM? These are dealt

with in section 2.2.6.

Since Indian Railways is a bureaucratic organization, section 2.2.7 tries to explore

the core values of Indian bureaucracy and how it affects the organisational values and beliefs

of railway personnel who are part of this bureaucracy.

Other than establishing the status of TQM today and an understanding of the

organisational values and beliefs of Indian Railway personnel, the research also focuses on

the issues involved in the successful implementation, assimilation and continuance of TQM.

The key issues in the implementation of TQM are taken up in sections 2.2.5, 2.2.6 and 2.2.8

wherein the relationships between TQM and ISO, TQM and culture and TQM and

transformational leadership are dealt with. Understanding these issues leads to the development of specific research questions:

‘What are’ and ‘what should be’ the organisational policies and practices of Indian Railways

and what are the culturally induced values of Indian Railway personnel. The thesis also

assesses the general impact of ISO certification in Indian Railways. With TQM as the focus,

this research then takes up a participative style towards TQM implementation via the ISO

9000: 2000 route using an action research (AR) methodology. A question arises: does this

4

participative style build a learning capacity among the railway personnel? Answer to this

question is discussed at the end of the descriptions of the action research cycles.

1.2.2 Contribution

(i) At present there are very few AR based ISO 9000 implementations in the

government sector. So this thesis is expected to contribute to the literature by showing the

implementability of ISO 9000 in a government organization using a bottom-up approach.

(ii) In India, there has been very little work in the area of change management

through AR. Thus, to the Indian academic community, this will be one of the first studies of

systematic implementation of change using AR.

(iii) The contribution of this research to practice will be to the Indian organizations,

especially bureaucratic organizations. It will explain what flavour, if any, of TQM is suited

for bureaucracy and how its members internalise and implement the basic tenets of TQM.

1.3 Justification for research

(i) The unimpressive success rate of TQM implementation in western countries,

inspite of it being around for more than 30 years in the field of research, has brought into

focus the contextual factors which mediate in the successful implementation of TQM and

also the route selected for TQM implementation. From this point of view, the values and

beliefs of the members of an organization provide a set of context for quality implementation.

(ii) Though the factors which lead to TQM are now understood, the current state of

research does not provide a synthesis of these factors. That is, there is little research carried

out which can explain the success or failure of TQM oriented change initiative in the light of

the totality of the understanding developed about TQM.

(iii) There are relatively few reported studies of TQM implementation with

organisational members as the focus that is, a bottom-up process involving the organisational

members in planning, implementing and evaluating the quality management system.

(iv) Internationally, TQM has generally been studied in the private sector

environment. There is not much evidence of research about its implementation in a

bureaucracy.

5

Another justification for the research comes from the need for change in the Indian

Railways.

1.3.1 Need to change for Indian Railways

The organisational justification for this study comes from the compelling need to

change for the Indian Railways made time and again (Sondhi n.d.). It needs to change in

order to survive. But given its history, how can a beginning be made for successful

implementation of change in Indian Railways. One option is to make an ambitious change

program, so ambitious, that it fundamentally alters the social system of Indian Railways. But

can the Indian Railways accommodate such a change programme? If the change is going to

fundamentally alter its social system, are the different stakeholders of Indian Railways – the

government, the railway personnel and indeed, the customers of Indian Railways- the Indian

people - going to allow the implementation of such a radical change? It is worthwhile to

point out in this connection that in 1998, the Government of India appointed the Rakesh

Mohan committee to suggest ways for changing the Indian Railways. In its report, submitted

in the year 2001, the committee has inter alia mentioned that the ‘Indian Railways is the most

studied organization in the world. However, hardly any one of the findings of those studies

has been implemented’ (quoted by Sondhi n.d). Not surprisingly, the recommendations of the

Rakesh Mohan committee too, were never implemented because it adversely affected all the

stakeholders. This is a pointer to the fact that while the malaise of Indian Railways and its

solutions from a purely large scale organisational transformation angle are well known, the

different stake holders of Indian Railways have ensured that such solutions remain

unimplemented.

The second option for change is to keep it at the level of window dressing. In this

case, the old systems remain untouched and they continue to generate the same behaviours.

However, the researcher believes that it is possible to bring about a change in a

manner and in such areas of Indian Railways which is acceptable to different stakeholders

and therefore implementable.

In the context of Indian Railways, action choices emanating from changes in such

factors as ownership and structure have the risk of antagonising the three important stake

holders - the government, the railway personnel and even the customers – who would to see

the Indian Railways more as a not-for-profit organization. Thus it can make them withdraw

from or oppose the proposed change. However a change in such factors as system, culture,

6

leadership and industrial relations are not necessarily threatening to them and a beginning can

be made to initiate change in these areas.

Thus the intent of this research is to use TQM via the ISO 9000: 2000 route as the

overarching method for bringing about change in the Indian Railways

1.4 Methodology

Since this is perhaps the first doctoral level study on the Indian Railways, the overall

framework of research methodology is largely qualitative. Since the focus of the work is to

improve the intra-organisational processes within the Indian Railways, the concept of

customer here is that of an internal customer.

Literature review is the prime source for understanding the impact of Indian

bureaucracy and Indian culture on the values of Indian Railway personnel. The preliminary

literature review indicated that enough literature is available to understand the cultural values

of Indians. However, there is no direct study of the organisational values within the Indian

Railways. Thus direct assessment of the organisational values of Indian Railway personnel is

done. Established instruments are used for this assessment. The instruments have already

been extensively tested for their reliability and validity.

Literature review is the prime source for assessing the state of TQM and its status in

India.

A questionnaire-based survey of different units of Indian Railways is used to assess

the impact of ISO 9000 certification in these units.

It has been mentioned earlier that one of the weaknesses of TQM implementation has

been the prescriptive style which ignores the tacit factors (Joseph et al. 1999) which could

drive TQM success. Thus the emphasis of this research is to develop a bottom-up approach

of quality implementation. Therefore, action research (AR) methodology is used to

progressively implement the ISO 9000: 2000 quality system. For this purpose, an action

research model proposed by Perry and Sankaran (2002) is used.

1.5 Outline of this thesis

Chapter 2 is a literature review about the parent and immediate disciplines of this

research. It begins with organisational change and a historical account of TQM. In the

7

immediate discipline, the linkage between TQM and systems theory and identification of

critical success factors of TQM are dealt with. This leads to a discussion on different TQM

awards. Thereafter the linkage between TQM and ISO, and TQM and culture are discussed.

The discussion on TQM and culture leads to a discussion on bureaucratic culture and status

of TQM in bureaucratic organizations. A recurring theme in TQM implementation both in

private sector and bureaucracy is that of transformational leadership. Thus the critical role of

transformational leadership in TQM is the last part of literature review.

The literature review leads to the identification of gaps which need investigation.

Chapter 3 describes the research methodology used. It begins by framing the research

questions which need investigation. It then develops the research map for the research

questions. The research map divides the research in three stages.

Stage one consists of two surveys. Survey ‘A’ seeks to find answers to the first

research question ‘What are and what should be Indian Railways’ core values, style of

management, growth strategies, competitive strategies and changes in organisational

structure / management system so as to transform Indian Railways into an excellent

organization’? Survey ‘B’ assesses the impact of Indian culture on the organisational values

of the Indian Railway personnel by measuring their hierarchical tendencies. Section 3.4

discusses the specific surveys which are used.

Stage two seeks to find answers to the second and third research questions. These

research questions are

Research question ii - What is the impact of ISO implementation in Indian Railways?

Research question iii- To what extent has the implementation of ISO 9000 brought

about a TQM orientation in Indian Railways?

This involves development of a scale which can objectively measure the transition of

an ISO certified organization towards TQM.

Sections 3.5 and 3.6 discuss the specific surveys which were used to find answers to

these two research questions.

Chapter 4 deals with the data collection and data analysis for the above surveys.

Stage three seeks to find answers to the fourth and fifth research questions:

Research question iv - Will a bottom up methodology build learning capacity among

the railway personnel?

Research question v - How can the enablers of TQM be integrated in a model for

attaining TQM via the ISO framework?

8

Chapter 5 and chapter 6 discuss the action research methodology which was used to

find answer to the last two research questions.

Chapter 7 synthesises the findings and draws conclusions from the research. Chapter

8 is the researcher’s reflection on the entire thesis.

1.6 Limitations The focus of the work is in the context of Indian Railways. The results obtained from

here can be applicable to the rest of the Indian Railways subject to further test. However, no

claim of generalisability can be made beyond that. For an outside customer, Indian Railways

is a service organization. But this study has been limited to the manufacturing section of

Indian Railways. This was done because TQM started in manufacturing sector and in the

Indian Railways also, its concept has largely been used in its manufacturing units via the ISO

9000 implementation.

1.7 My own value system as a researcher

When the researcher joined the Indian Railways, he found on the table of a railway

engineer, underneath a transparent glass sheet, a chart which read as

Error Punishment

Inspection not done Withhold annual increment in salary

Not reporting on time Decrease in grade of salary

Jumping the signal Demotion

Accident Dismissal from service

When he checked up, it was explained that since there were so many cases of these

types of ‘errors’, to make the decision making simpler for the engineer, this chart came in

handy in deciding what level of punishment was required for different categories of errors.

Apparently the railway engineer was a robot who would mechanically hand over punishment!

The researcher wondered what happened to the staff who had made an error of other than an

‘accident’? They obviously continued in the system, but at what level of efficiency?

9

Notwithstanding this managerial mind set, the researcher has always been impressed

by the fact that though close to 50% of its staff are illiterate, and it has only one engineer for

every 500 workers, Indian Railways manufactures, maintains and runs technologically

advance locomotives and coaches. Further, during the last 18 years, Indian Railways has

reduced its workforce by 300,000 without any formal voluntary retirement scheme or golden

handshake and there has not been a murmur of protest in the job scarce India. Yet he used to

hear ‘You cannot do much in the Indian Railways’. ‘The politicians will not allow you to do’.

‘The staff is not interested in working’. This made him wonder whether the tendency for

external locus of control has been manifested in the working of Indian Railways. Thus in his

professional work, the researcher tended to stretch his subordinates and his superiors beyond

their conventional standard of working. To their credit, he did not find the subordinates

shirking in meeting the stretched expectations or the superiors and peers shirking in their

stretched assistance to him. This made the researcher undertake a formal study of Indian

Railways to get an academically validated study of this organization.

When the researcher started this research, the initial aim was to look for ways to bring

about improvement in the Indian Railways which was by and large acceptable to its

stakeholders and which was also implementable. TQM appeared to him one such way. He

thought he would do this by juxtaposing the basics of TQM on to the ground realities of

Indian Railways. As a student, his initial grounding has been in the field of mathematics.

Therefore he has always tried to get an unbiased estimate of the reality out there. However

after joining the service, as more and more varieties of reality began to unfold before him, he

began to realize the shortcoming of trying to get an unbiased estimate of reality. The situation

became more complex when he realized that in a social situation, even within one type of

reality, there were so many variables which interacted with each other that it was impossible

to isolate the impact of one variable from another. This showed to him the importance of

context in decision making. The context in decision-making became the boundary condition

within which a social system like an organization worked. This has been reflected in this

research also. Until chapter 4, this research is largely defining the boundary conditions of

Indian Railways.

Another major way this research differs from other research is that data as it emerges

during research has been compared with other emerging data or with existing literature. The

data has not been kept in isolation till the end when they will be compared with other data or

existing literature. This approach has made the research more focused without losing rigour

in the context in which the research was done. Thus there are cross comparisons to other

10

parts of literature in the literature review itself and research data have been compared with

earlier data as they emerge in later chapters of the thesis.

2.0 Conclusion

This chapter has provided an overview of the thesis. A synopsis of each

chapter of the thesis has been dealt with. A detailed description of each chapter now follows.

11

Chapter 2 Literature Review

Introduction

This research aims at studying TQM as a model for bringing about organisational

transformation in Indian Railways and identifying ways for effective implementation of that.

Thus the broad research question has been framed as follows:

Can TQM be used as a model for organisational transformation of Indian Railways?

If yes, how can it be effectively implemented in Indian Railways?

The purpose of this chapter is to carry out a literature search on TQM as a model of

change and understand the key issues involved in the implementation of TQM in Indian

Railways.

Concept map

Based on this question, the concept map for literature review is shown in Figure 2.1. The two

parent disciplines, organizational change and TQM are discussed in sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.2.

Their interaction has been discussed in sections 2.1.3 (TQM as a philosophy of change).

These form the basis for literature review of the immediate discipline wherein the

focus is on the interaction between different aspects of TQM. Different immediate disciplines

have been taken up as they naturally emerge during discussion. That is, the immediate

disciplines have not been taken based on any given a-priori set or point of view or school of

thought. Thus the flavour of the discussion is rather eclectic. Each major theme is also

reviewed in the Indian context so that the focus remains on the research question mentioned

earlier.

12

Figure 2. 1 Concept map for literature review

Source: developed for this research.

2.2 Immediate discipline

2.2.1 TQM- a systems perspective

2.2.2 Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for TQM

2.2.3 Different international quality awards

2.2.4 Synthesis of system dynamics, CSFs and quality award

criteria

2.2.5 TQM and ISO

2.2.6 TQM and culture

2.2.7 Indian bureaucracy

2.2.8 TQM and transformational leadership

2.3 Summary of above and overview of

central problem

2.4 Identification of the gaps which need

investigation

Parent discipline 1 2.1.1Organisational change

Parent discipline 2 2.1.2 Total Quality Management

2.1.3 TQM as a philosophy of change

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2.1 Parent discipline

2.1.1 Parent discipline 1-Organisational Change

Organisational change models closely parallel how organizations have been viewed

over time. From ‘scientific management’ to ‘organisational development’ and ‘organisational

studies’, the study of organization has moved from a study of mechanical functions from a

closed system perspective to a study of complex adaptive functions from an open system

perspective. Within open systems theory, contingency theory materialised as a means of

accounting for change within an organization. Contingency theory states that depending on

the level of turmoil within an organization, different systems theories should be adopted for

facilitating change. Thus in a government organization where stability and bureaucracy cause

change to occur slowly, a more mechanistic model should be adopted (McElyea 2003, p.63).

Within the field of organisational change, a comparison of the traditional change

model and complex adaptive model of organization change is shown in Table 2.1.

14

Traditional Models of Organisational Change

Complex Adaptive Model of Organisational Change

Few variables determine outcome

Innumerable variables determine outcome

The whole is equal to the sum of its parts (reductionist)

The whole is different from the sum of its parts

Direction is determined by design and power of a few leaders

Direction is determined by emergence and the participation of many people

Individual or system behaviour is knowable, predictable and controllable

Individual or system behaviour is unknowable, unpredictable and uncontrollable

Causality is linear: every effect can be traced back to a specific cause

Causality is mutual: every cause is also an effect and every effect is a cause

Relationship are directive

Relationship are empowering

All systems are essentially the same

Each system is unique

Efficiency and reliability are measures of value

Responsiveness to the environment is the measure of value

Decisions are based on facts and data

Decisions are based on tensions and patterns

Leaders are experts and authorities Leaders are facilitators and supporters

Table 2. 1 Traditional change model vs. complex adaptive change model

Source: McElyea (2003, p. 63).

Mastenbroek (1996) looks upon organisational change in historical perspective and

emphasises that organizational change is essentially a duality management, a balance

between autonomy and interdependence, between steering and self-organization. From this

perspective, strategies such as empowerment cannot be corrected without strong steering.

Top-down reengineering cannot be balanced without the responsibility and creativity of work

units. Mastenbroek says that TQM and continuous improvements often do not live up to their

promises because the line organization is involved in rather awkward ways. All kinds of

analysis and research, internal and external consultants obstruct the development of steering

and self-organization in the line organization. This impedes the cultural change necessary to

give continuous improvement momentum. Capacities for steering and self-organization are

critical assets for such a culture. It is to be noted that this approach does not ask for an

absolute participative management style, rather a balance between participative and directive

style. A similar view has also been expressed by Cunha, Cunha and Dahab (2002). They have

15

called for a dialectic synthesis between the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ (‘yin’ and ‘yang’) side of

management to get a better look at TQM as shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2. 2 The yin-yang of TQM

Source: Cunha, Cunha and Dahab (2002).

2.1.2 Parent discipline 2– Total Quality Management

2.1.2.1 Historical background

Today, TQM has become a part of corporate management on a global scale (Lakhe &

Mohanty 1994; Melan 1998; Yusof & Aspinwall 2000). Quality today is studied under the

overall umbrella of ‘Total Quality Management’. The improvements brought about by TQM

in the Japanese industry are too well known to merit repetition here. Quality as a concept has

moved from being an attribute of the product or service to encompass all the activities of an

organization.

The core philosophy of TQM as it is understood today is that each step in a

production process is seen as a relationship between a customer and a supplier (whether

internal or external to the organization). The suppliers will have to meet the customer’s

Norm Standardization Control Methods Statistics Participation Inspection trust Planning creativity Top Down Leadership Suggestions Quantity self-control

bottom up leaders collaboration democratic leadership quality autonomy

16

requirements, both stated and implied, at the lowest cost. Waste elimination and continuous

improvement are ongoing activities.

The early development of total quality management was influenced by a few quality

‘gurus’: Deming, Juran, Feigenbaum, Crosby and Ishikawa. Their key contribuitions to the

quality movement will now be looked at.

The work of Deming: The main thesis of Deming is that by improving quality, it is possible

to increase productivity which results in improved competitiveness of a business enterprise.

According to Deming, low quality results in high cost which will lead to loss of competitive

position in the market. His approach can be summarised in his 14 point programme (Gaither

& Frazier 1999, p. 634):

(i) Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service.

(ii) Refuse to allow commonly accepted levels of delay for mistakes, defective material, defective

workmanship.

(iii) Cease dependence on mass inspection to achive quality.

(iv) Reduce the number of suppliers. Buy on statistical evidence, not price.

(v) Constantly and forever improve the system of costs, quality, productivity and service.

(vi) Institute modern methods of training on the job.

(vii) Focus supervision on helping people to do a better job.

(viii) Drive out fear.

(ix) Break down barriers between departments. Encourage problem solving through team work.

(x) Eliminate numerical goals slogans, posters for the workforce.

(xi) Use statistical methods for continuing improvement of quality and productivity and eliminate

work standards prescribing numerical quotas.

(xii) Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.

(xiii) Institute a vigorous program of education and training.

(xiv) Clearly define management’s permanent commitment to quality and productivity.

From these initial concepts, Deming later developed what he called the ‘system of

profound knowledge’ (Bauer, Reiner & Schamchale 2000, p.412). This means appreciation

of a system, knowledge about variation, theory of knowledge and psychology. Deming said

that only if the top management is able to understand the company as a complex system, are

they able to successfully improve the structures of the system ( Bauer, Reiner & Schamschule

2000, p.412).

The work of Juran : Unlike Deming whose approach was more process oriented, the ideas

of Juran were having a managerial flavour (Kruger 2001). His main contribution was that

17

quality control must be an integral part of the management function. This broadened the

understanding of quality. Visible leadership and personal involvement of top management is

important in inspiring quality across the organisation.

According to Juran (1988), to demonstrate commitment to quality the management

should establish a quality council which would coordinate the company’s various activities

regarding quality. Further, the management should establish a ‘quality policy’ which should

guide the managerial action. The management has to establish quality goals which should be

expressed in numbers and should have a time frame. Once a specific goal has been

established by the management, it is the responsibility of the management to provide the

necessary resources to achive the quality goals.

Juran developed the improvement spiral showing that quality improvement is a

continuous process and not just a programme with start and end point (Bauer, Reiner &

Schamschule 2000). Later these very concepts were incorporated in the ISO 9000: 2000

standard.

The work of Ishikawa: He recognised that for TQM to be sucessful, the tools and

techniques of using data to make decisions must be understood by the workers and first-line

supervisors /managers. Accordingly, his techniques and the explanation for application are

simple and straightforward. For him, the ultimate purpose of data is to take action based on

data. Thus data can be used for understanding the actual situation, analysis, process control

and regulation as well as for the traditional acceptance and rejection decisions.

The work of Crosby: While Deming and Juran described the TQM philosophy and

Ishikawa provided the tools and techniques, Crosby offered a detailed guide to

implementation. He proposed a quality management grid that described the stages of TQM

implementation relative to management’s understanding and problem-solving techniques, the

organisational approach, and the results achieved. Each stage of Crosby’s matrix represents

an increasingly mature implementation of the TQM philosophy (Crosby 1981).

The work of Feigenbaum: He can be considered the originator of the concept of total

quality control. His main contributions are two:

(i) Quality is the responsibility of everyone in an organisation. Quality is produced not only

by the production department, but also by marketing, finance, purchasing, and any other

department. It is the total participation of all employees and the total integration of all the

company’s technical and human resources that will lead to long term business success.

Feigenbaum thus developed the concept of quality at source which means that every

employee will have to do his/her work with perfect quality. In total quality control, where

18

product quality is more important than production rate, the worker is given the power to stop

the production if a quality related problem occurs.

(ii) He recognised the cost of non-quality which according to him consists of cost of control

and cost of failure of control. Both have to be minimised. Cost of control should be measured

by prevention cost (e.g. quality training of employee) which should keep defective part from

occuring and appraisal cost (e.g. quality audit costs) which covers the costs of maintaining

the quality level of the company. The cost of failure of control is also measured in two areas:

internal failure cost (e.g. scrap) and external failure cost (e.g. customer complaints, reworked

material).

Thus the emphasis of Feigenbaum is not so much to create managerial awareness

about quality as to assist an organisation to design its own quality system which involves

every employee (Kruger 2001, p.152).

2.1.2.2 Commonalty among quality gurus:

Though the approach of each one of the quality gurus mentioned above has been different,

there are commonalities in their work. A summary of their commonalities is shown in Table

2.2.

19

Concept/ Author

Crosby (1979,1996)

Deming (1982, 1986)

Feigenbaum (1951, 1961, 1983, 1991)

Ishikawa (1985) Juran (1951,1962, 1974, 1988, 1989, 1992)

Customer satisfaction

Maturity grid: from goodness and delighting the customer to satisfaction and conformance.

Customers define quality; consumers are the most important part of the production line.

Quality is what the customer says it is; customer focus is embedded in the management of quality.

Total quality control (TQC) means having a consumer orientation.

Customer satisfaction which drives market share and profits comes from product satisfaction.

Cost reduction The price of non-conformance means that quality is free.

Doing it right first time means less waste, less rework, and lower costs.

Controlling quality costs less than correcting mistakes.

TQC reduces cost over the long term, not the short term.

Costs of poor quality remain unknown, but they are very high.

Leadership and top management commitment

Leadership by example- commitment is demonstrated by participation and attitude.

Management’s job is leadership (to show constancy of purpose in their focus on quality).

Requires complete support of top management, who realize that it is not a temporary cost reduction project.

Top management commitment should be shown by adopting the lead role in implementation.

Top management’s job is motivation, which includes participation in quality program.

Training and education

Use training in quality, from the CEO down, to internalise concepts; training and education should be continuous.

Vigorous, continuous program for (re) training employees in new knowledge and skills; statistical methods to check training efficacy.

Training (on-the-job, classroom, problem solving) and education are fundamental to achieving full commitment to quality.

TQC is a revolution in thinking, so training and education must be continuous for all employees (from CEO down).

To make quality happen, training should include the entire hierarchy, starting at the top: purpose of training is to create or update skills.

Teams Use management team for quality for internal communication, quality council for internal/external communication

Cross-functional teams can create improvement in product, service, and quality and reduce costs.

Quality control committees should have representatives from all functional areas.

Cross-functional management committees (teams) facilitate the responsible development of quality assurance.

Major quality improvement projects are multi- functional in nature, thus requiring multi-functional teams.

Culture Quality commitment- genuine belief by employees in importance of good quality, workmanship, good designs and service.

A new philosophy is required: drive out fear (of quotas, questioning accepted methods, etc.), and instil pride in quality

Quality control is a “spirit of quality mindedness”, from CEO to the shop floor; it is a communication channel and means of participation.

TQC requires organization wide participation; where there are no voluntary quality circle activities, there is no quality control.

Changing to a company-wide quality system means changing existing cultural patterns; there may well be cultural resistance

Table 2. 2 Commonalities among seminal TQM work

Source: Reed, Lemak and Mero (2000, p. 8).

20

Looking at the commonalities of concepts among different gurus of TQM, it can be

noted that ‘customer satisfaction’ and ‘reducing costs’ are the two achievable- the two

outcomes of TQM. On the other hand, leadership, training, use of teams and ‘having the

appropriate culture’ are the four processes by which the two outcomes can be achieved.

A review of research related to each of the four processes of leadership, training, use

of teams and culture is now done.

TQM and leadership: Research on TQM has consistently found strong link between

successful TQM implementation and leadership (Ehrenberg & Stupak 1994; Rao,

Raghunathan & Solis 1997; Zairi 2002). In general they have argued that top management’s

ability to create a vision and promote change is at the heart of successful implementation of

TQM. In the specific context of a railway – Mass Transit Railway Corporation, Hong Kong -

the importance of visionary leadership has been emphasized for successful implementation of

TQM (Chan et al. 2002). Leaders must understand culture and recognise those elements that

cannot be changed. They must be able to create an environment where they can empower

others to act both independently and interdependently. They must provide a vision that

focuses on quality and meeting customer’s expectations. In other words, top management

need transformational leadership skill. On the other hand, the role of middle management in

initiating and institutionalising small, incremental improvements has been noted by Frohman

(1997).

TQM and culture: The aspect of culture has been emphasised by the founding fathers of

TQM. TQM de-emphasises status distinctions and empowers employees to make decisions

and use their own intelligence (Crosby 1981; Deming reported by Tata & Prasad 1998, p.

705). The aspect of culture has been emphasised by other authors also (Chin & Pun 2002;

Lakhe & Mohanty 1994; Pun 2001; Sahay & Walsham 1997). Tata and Prasad (1998) have

reasoned that one of the reasons for failure of TQM implementation is that culturally many

organizations were unprepared to change.

In a similar vein, it been reported that implementation of TQM is one of the most

complex activities that any company can attempt, due to the fact that it involves a change in

the working culture and impacts on people (Mani, Murgan & Rajendran 2003). In the

Chinese context, the successful adoption of TQM depended largely on the management of

cultural dynamics and organisational complexities of the enterprise (Pun 2001).

21

Emphasising the need of cultural change during TQM implementation, it has been argued

that TQM calls for a new way of managing business, requiring a new thinking style- the

thinking for quality (Yusof & Aspinwall 2000). According to them this is the basic reason for

the success of TQM in Japan.

Culture has been found to be an important factor in empirically validated studies

which aimed at arriving at ‘critical success factors (CSF)’ for successful implementation of

TQM (Black & Porter 1996). It has also been corroborated by another empirical study of

CSF for TQM in the Indian context (Wali, Deshmukh & Gupta 2003).

TQM and training: The review of literature corroborates the importance of training as an

important factor for successful TQM implementation (Palo & Padhi 2003; Quazi, Hong &

Meng 2002). Training is considered a vehicle for implementing and reinforcing quality

practice (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002). Effective training and employee involvement have

also been found to be important for initiating quality management practice in Indian context

(Joseph et al 1999).

TQM and (cross functional) team: Teams are appropriate when there is a need for

coordination of activity, when major breakthroughs in performance are required. Research

has corroborated the importance given to team by the founding fathers of TQM (Black &

Porter 1996; Gupta 2000; Mandal et al. 2000). It has been reported that teams are very useful

for integration of activities, generating production efficiencies (Quazi, Hong & Meng 2002)

and for providing innovative approaches to production issues (Eisenhardt & Tabrizi 1995). In

the specific context of a railway unit – Mass Transit Railway Corporation, Hong Kong - the

importance of team has been highlighted for successful implementation of TQM (Chan et al.

2002, p.294).

Above, the literature in the area of organisational change and TQM has been briefly

gone through. Now the literature dealing with the interrelationship between organisational

change and TQM will be reviewed.

2.1.3 TQM as a philosophy of change

In the context of organisational change, TQM has been an important and popular

management innovation and change programme in the 1990’s (Reed, Lemak & Mero

22

2002;Yong & Wilkinson 2002). Notwithstanding its popularity, there has also been criticism

of TQM. TQM works better in the manufacturing sector than in service sector (Boyne &

Walker 2002, p.119). The implementation of TQM has not been an easy task for many

organizations (Yusof & Aspinwall 2000, p.291). Thus the success rate of TQM

implementation has been around 25% to 30% (Umesh, Bhusi & Kumar 2000). It has been

said that the TQM model provides a self-assessment protocol outlining the criteria for

business excellence, but without solid guidance on ‘how’ to achieve it (Chan et al. 2002).

Only about half of organizations have experienced improvements through TQM (Tata &

Prasad 1998). The same authors go on to suggest that this is because of the failure to pay

sufficient attention to the cultural and structural variables that influence TQM

implementation. However, others have considered TQM as a ‘long term journey with

substantial hardship at the beginning which Juran calls sporadic spikes’ (Noronha 2002,

p.215). Noronha further says that this positive view towards uncertainty provides the basis

for a healthy attitude towards TQM.

At a more ideological level, TQM has been dismissed as a managerial control

mechanism loosely disguised as a method of worker empowerment (Boje & Windsor quoted

by Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002). Another criticism of TQM has been that it provides a

rhetoric that is individually interpreted and therefore carries inconsistent meaning across

contexts (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2002).

Cao, Clarke and Lehany (2000) studied TQM based organisational change

programmes. According to them, the approaches to organisational change can be classified

into four categories:

(i) Changes in process

(ii) Changes in functions (structural changes)

(iii) Changes in values (cultural changes)

(iv) Changes in power within the organization

They contend that for TQM to be successful, an approach which addresses all the

above types of change is required. ‘However, since TQM as an approach, focuses almost

entirely on the changes in process, a systemic approach is needed for successful

implementation of TQM or its application needs to be restricted to those contexts where

process dominates’ (Cao, Clarke & Lehany 2000, p.5). Thus, Cao, Clarke and Lehany

concluded that the success of TQM programmes is in sharp contrast to its popularity.

23

In view of this criticism and given the multi attribute characteristics of TQM as

emphasised by the founding fathers of TQM and supported by later research mentioned in

section 2.1.2, a question arises that what are the different parameters or organisational

attributes which are required for an effective implementation of TQM as it is understood

today.

Three approaches have been used by different researchers to answer this question.

The approaches are

(i) TQM from a systems perspective.

(ii) Understanding the critical success factors (CSF) of TQM.

(iii) TQM as understood from different quality award models.

The basic thrust of this research is to understand whether TQM can be used for

organisational transformation of Indian Railways. Thus understanding the parameters which

account for the success or failure of TQM implementation will be useful for this research.

Therefore at first, each approach will be looked at in a global context and then focus

will shift to Indian context. The global context will help understand TQM from the three

approaches more generally and then their Indian context will explain their specific

application in India.

This focuses the attention to the immediate discipline of this literature review.

2.2 Immediate discipline

2.2.1 Total Quality Management- a systems perspective

The first approach to the understanding of TQM is from a systems perspective.

System thinking developed in the 1950s as an alternative to traditional management thinking

(McElyea 2003, p.59). The systems school grew out of the ‘general systems theory’

developed by the biologist Bertalanffy (McElyea 2003, Mirvis 1996) and the quantitative

techniques- operations research and systems analysis—that were developed during the

second world war. Further, Simon’s contributions on bounded rationality, satisficing, and

incremental decision making recognised the complex environment in which post-war

managers made decisions (Ehrenberg & Stupak, 1994, p. 77). System thinking school is

aware that traditional management thinking does not have a full picture of situations in

organizations. The system school views organizations as complex interrelationships amongst

input, throughput (process), output, and feedback. From a systems point of view, an

organization is an open and complex system with varying degrees of process flexibility and

24

many feedback loops which are used adaptively by an organization for its survival. In the

context of organisational change, Harrington, Carr and Reid (1999) have explained three

interrelated concepts of system, emergent properties and complexity. It is briefly explained

now.

System is a set of different elements which together can perform a function which the

constituent elements cannot perform alone. Emergent properties are those functions, good or

bad, which would not exist except for the operation of the system. Complexity is something

that is composed of interconnected elements that function as a system to produce emergent

properties. In the context of system, Deming gave the example of automobile – a collection

of wheels, engine and transmission do not make them a system. To become a system they

must possess the complexity of having been designed in a particular way and then be inter-

connected in a particular way. Then they become a system called automobile which provides

the emergent property called ‘transportation’ and thereby makes it valuable. Thus it is the

complexity which gives rise to the emergent properties which define a system and make it

valuable.

But complexity is also the source of problem. Complexity is on the cusp between

stability and chaos and a small amount of perturbation can push the system one way or the

other. Systems with the order of complexity as small as three elements with two

interconnections per element can produce chaotic behaviour. Lack of chaos is not always

desirable. Bankruptcy and death are examples of stable but undesirable states.

Thus more the complexity more is the chance that the system will degenerate into a

chaotic state or a stable but undesirable state.

An interface is a point where two elements come together and exchange something.

Interface is the key to design an effective system. The interfaces should be clear and defined

and should not be complex. A complex interface results in people developing means to ‘work

around’ the complexity. Thus in an organization, a complex inter departmental interface

results in people developing ‘ a personal relationship’ to manage the poor inter departmental

interface. Interfaces which are ambiguous, grey and subject to interpretation will result in

variations in behaviour. High inter-element complexity and ill-defined interfaces will result

in disaster. An ideal organization is one in which the elements have a high order of internal

and a low order of external complexity. Thus each element must be as independent as

possible.

Most good systems have good feedback control mechanisms. Feedback is used to

maintain and improve the system. But feedback is also a source of complexity and thus has

25

advantages and risks. A good system is one that manages perturbation and change as a

system. If feedback results in a perturbation which does not die out before the next

perturbation, the system will result in chaos or a stable but undesirable state.

The systems view of organization is shown in Figure 2.3. It shows an organization in

which the main sub-systems are marketing management, operations / production and finance.

It is an example of open system where the customer gives feedback to the marketing sub

system of the organization about his/her product choice and its quality requirement. It also

gives feedback to the operation / production sub system about the quality of output. The more

effective the feedback loops are in a system, the ‘softer’ the system (i.e. the more flexible and

response-able to change). According to Cusins (1994) the quality management system (QMS)

can be thought of as the servomechanism for the organization. It runs in the reverse direction

to the operational systems. Information on outputs from operations form input to QMS and

outputs from QMS form inputs to operations. Total quality management consists in making

effective boundary judgement at every system interface within the organization and between

the organisational system and the user system.

26

The business environment Supplier systems (peri-organizational environment) Customer systems

Figure 2. 3 Simplified example of an organization as a system

Source: Cusins (1994, p. 23).

Marketing

system

Management system

Operation/ production system

Financial System

Customer requirements Product specification

Goals and targets Decisions Plans Schedules

Product Services (Waste)

Marketing information People

Contracts

Environment information Marketing information Competitor information

Management information People

Machinery Materials

Energy

Cash out Value of (inputs)

Cash in Value of (outputs)

Feedback about quality of output

feedback about quality / product requirement

27

Thus from the point of view of system theorists, the quality judgement is a judgement

made at the boundary between the supplier system and the user system about what passes

across it. Further, whether an output is a product or waste is a judgement on its quality. A

satisfactory output is a product. An output which cannot be used by the user system is a

waste. Waste can collect in the production system, or in the user system or both. Nature often

becomes the user system of the waste. Cusins further defines ‘dynamic quality factors’ and

‘static quality factors’. The dynamic quality factors are individual and unique and situation

dependent. Their addition will create an image of high quality. The static quality factors are

general and common to all customers. They are not situation dependent. Their absence will

create an image of poor quality. (Cusine 1994, p. 27)

In the context of TQM, systems approach has made a lasting impact. According to

McElyea (2003) the birth of most management models like TQM, HPO (High Performance

Organization), etc stems from a systems view of organization. Deming who is the father of

TQM, also developed what he called ‘the system of profound knowledge’ (Bauer, Reiner &

Schamschule 2000, p. 412).

System thinking suggests that instead of reductionist approaches to management, a

holistic view should be adopted (Taiwo 2001). Taiwo adds that while there is no single

model which can capture an organisational situation fully, some of the methodologies which

can be used to capture the inter-relationship and intra relationship of an organization are

classified as ‘hard’, ‘soft’, ‘cybernetic’ or ‘emanicipatory’ depending on the effectiveness of

their feedback loop. These methodologies, if used adequately, complement the customer

focus, process improvement and employee involvement principles of TQM.

From the point of view of systems theory, TQM fits within the open and the rational

systems perspective. Thus TQM process is a system with interactive components.

Committing to just one part of the system is unlikely to produce the desired effects.

Therefore, from systems theory point of view, TQM is more than leadership; it is more than

culture, or training or teams. It is all of these factors together. Further, successful

implementation means that effort and perseverance are required to find the right balance for

each organization. Thus it is desirable that each firm explores its own needs for leadership,

education and training, the use of teams, and the culture development to fit its own particular

brand of TQM (Reed, Lemak & Mero 2000).

As per the system theorists, implementing a complex system like quality management,

with all its serial interactions, is a difficult task and many of the ‘TQM failures’ can be

28

attributed more to the failure to implement and manage them as a system. It is not because of

any inherent weakness or fundamental flaws in the system or its components (Reed, Lemak

& Mero 2002).

Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000) parallel the systems thinking with the growth

of quality systems as shown in Figure 2.4 and Figure 2.5. Business excellence 1990

TQM 1980

Quality assurance 1970

System thinking 1960

System Dynamics 1950

Operations Research 1940

Human Relations 1924

Taylor 1913

Figure 2. 4 Milestones of organisational roots

Source: Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000).

Knowledge management

Value management

Customer focus

Customer orientation

Business excellence

Management systems

Process quality

Product quality

1970 1980 1990 2000

Figure 2. 5 Milestones of quality development

Source: Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000).

Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000, p.412) say that today, what was earlier known

as TQM has morphed into business excellence. All the quality awards are today known as

models of business excellence. It really makes the two conceptually the same. Both are

dominated by a comprehensive systems approach which includes a systemic control of all

resources including social and cultural ones.

29

2.2.1.1 TQM and System Dynamics

The understanding of TQM from the point of view of systems thinking led Bauer,

Reiner and Schamschule (2000) to develop a model of quality from the point of view of

system dynamics. System dynamics is a tool which can capture the interactions among a

range of system variables and predict the implication of each over a period of time (Khanna,

2003). Khanna et al. (2002) have quoted a study by Forrester wherein he used system

dynamics to investigate how strategy, decision-making, structure and delay influence the

growth and stability of organizations. In the context of quality, through the use of system

dynamics software, Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000) showed the interdependence of

different organisational sub systems for quality. This is shown in Figure 2.6.

People

(The arrows indicate the information flow)

Figure 2. 6 Quality and business results

Source: Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000).

Taking the study of TQM through system dynamics further, Khanna et al. (2002)

have studied the dynamic interactions among TQM subsystems in the Indian automobile

sector. Using the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Model (MBNQA) of USA and

modifying it to suit Indian socio-cultural conditions, they identified 12 TQM variables which

help in implementing the TQM philosophy. They developed causal relationships among

Leadership

People Management

Business Result

Customer Satisfaction

Processes

30

different variables and clustered seven of them as enablers and five of them as results. The

definitions of the full set of variables are given in Table 2.3 and Table 2.4. The table also

links the variables with the emphasis given by the founding fathers of TQM and with the ISO

quality management system.

Leadership Senior managers who provide clear vision and

values that promote total quality. It is the most

important enabler for driving a total quality

management culture

Crosby, 1981;

Deming, 1993

Strategic

planning

Business strategies incorporate long-term and short-

term goals based on customer and market

expectations

Ishikawa, 1985

Information

management

Effective information and communication systems

for continuous improvement of all work

Ishikawa, 1985

Human

resource focus

Maximize opportunities for all employees to realize

their full potential

Juran, 1995

Customer and

market focus

Customer (internal and external customer)

relationships must be managed to secure clear

understanding of requirements

ISO 9000 -

2000,

Supplier focus Suppliers are treated as partners in the process of

improvement

ISO 9000-

2000

Process

management

Systems approach to quality control of all operations

including appropriate use of “quality tools”

ISO 9000-

2000

Table 2. 3 Definition of variable for enablers

Source: Khanna et al. (2002, p. 367).

TQM variables: enablers

Variables Definition Reference

31

TQM variables: results

Variables Definition References

Impact on society Societal

responsibilities/environmental

management

ISO 14001/ OHSAS

18001

Human resource

satisfaction

All employees are motivated and

dedicated to continuous

improvement – feeling empowered

and valued

ISO 9000/2000,

ISO/TS 16949/2002

Customer satisfaction Internal and external customers

know that their needs are important –

and addressed

ISO/9000-2000,

ISO/TS 16949-2002

Supplier satisfaction Suppliers want to do repeat business

– as partners

ISO/9000-2000,

ISO/TS 16949-2002

Company specific business

results

Do the company’s results

demonstrate effective performance

Mody, 1996

Table 2. 4 Definition of variables for results

Source: Khanna et al. (2002, 368).

2.2.1.2 Systems theory, TQM and organisational learning

Organisational learning is another concept which is rooted in systems theory and

which is linked to TQM. One definition of organisational learning is that it is the capacity or

processes within an organization to maintain or improve performance based on experience

(Nevis, DiBella & Gould 1995, p.73). Since implementing TQM involves substantial

organisational change (Ehrenberg & Stupak 1994, p. 81), a TQM organization has been

defined as an organization that has developed the continuous capacity to adapt and change.

Therefore quality movement has been considered the forerunner in creating learning

organizations (Elkjaer 1999; Senge 1994, p.61; Zhao & Bryar n.d.) and organisational

learning has been considered a necessary outcome of a TQM initiative (Barrow 1993, p.39;

Sohal & Morrison 1995). A learning organization adopts TQM commitment to continuous

improvement (Garvin 1993, p.78). In the American context, Robbins (1997, p. 735) has dealt

32

with different aspect of learning organization. He says that a learning organization among

other things supports the importance of disagreements, constructive criticism and other forms

of functional conflict. However, there is some evidence that the way organization learns also

depends on the culture of that organization. For example, Kumar (2000), Snell & Chak (1998)

and Tsang (1997, p. 83) have shown Indian, Singaporean and Chinese theories of

organisational learning respectively which are dependent on the specific culture of the

country. Thus Easterby-Smith and Araujo (1999, p.14) advocated a culture and institution

based theory of organisational learning.

One important way to understand organisational learning is through a theory of action.

Argyris and Schön have described organisational learning as a theory of action (Elkhaer 1999,

p.79). Action learning postulates that people learn most effectively when working on real

time problems occurring in their own setting (Raelin 1997, p.21). Burgoyne, Pedler and

Boydell (1994) have shown culture based differences in organisational learning between the

US and UK models of action learning. Zimmer (2001) says that using a systemic

action-learning cycle at the level of second-order cybernetics, it is possible to reduce conflict

in the organization and maintain autonomy. According to Zimmer, first order cybernetics is

about first order feedback system –‘I plan and do, I sense and I check’. Second order

cybernetics is about second order feedback system wherein ‘I share my reflection and

feedback with those from another person – you’. Zimmer further says that respect for

autonomy is a powerful tool to manage complexity. It lets mutually supportive order emerge.

In western culture though, much order is imposed. This causes conflict, which only adds to

the complexity.

Another approach to organisational change is through innovation. Innovation is a

specialised kind of change wherein a new idea is applied to initiating or improving a product,

process or service (Kanter quoted in Robbins 1997, p. 732). Bart (2004) has studied the link

between innovative practices and organisational learning. Innovative organizations have a

culture that rewards both successes and failures (Robbins 1997).

Schein (1993) identifies three types of learning: (i) knowledge acquisition and insight,

(ii) habit and skill learning and (iii) emotional conditioning and learned anxieties. Most

organisational learning theories focus on knowledge acquisition and insight (Schein 1993,

p.2). Schein (1996) has also identified three cultures in an organization – the operator culture,

the engineering culture and the executive culture. According to him, organizations will not

learn effectively unless they recognise and confront the implications of these three

33

occupational cultures. For example, he views the executive culture and the engineer culture

as major problems because they do not sufficiently consider human factors.

This brings into focus the aspects of the content and process of organisational

learning. However, organisational learning has not so much been defined in terms of

processes (Nonaka 1994, p.16). It has more been identified in terms of outcomes (Huysman

1999). Prange (1999) has therefore argued for a linkage between the content and process of

organisational learning.

2.2.1.3 Organisational knowledge creating process

Within organisational learning, Nonaka (1994) has dealt with the organisational

knowledge creating process. He argues that organisational knowledge is created by

continuous dialogue between two types of knowledge – tacit knowledge and explicit

knowledge. Explicit knowledge is the codified knowledge which is transmittable in formal,

systematic knowledge. It is captured in the records of the past such as libraries, databases and

archives and is assessed on sequential basis. Tacit knowledge has a personal quality which

makes it hard to formalize and communicate. It involves both cognitive and technical

elements. The cognitive element comes from the ‘mental models’ which includes schemata,

beliefs, paradigms that help individuals to perceive and define the world. The technical

element of tacit knowledge covers skills, concrete know-hows and crafts that apply to

specific contexts. Sharing of tacit knowledge involves parallel processing of the complexities

of current issues. Organisational knowledge is created, enlarged and enriched by the

individuals of an organization. It is carried out by the interactive amplification of tacit and

explicit knowledge held by individuals, organizations and societies in a spiral fashion.

Organization plays the role of a forum where the spiral of knowledge creation takes place

through socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation (SECI). The SECI

model is shown in Figure 2.7.

34

Tacit Knowledge Explicit Knowledge

To

Tacit knowledge

From

Explicit

Knowledge

Figure 2. 7 Modes of knowledge creation in an organization

Source: Nonaka (1994).

For parallel processing of knowledge, Nonaka emphasises middle-up-down

management where all members work together both horizontally and vertically. He de-

emphasises the charismatic role of top management or the entrepreneurial role of lower

management. He looks upon the middle managers as the knowledge engineers who

synthesise the tacit knowledge of top managers and frontline employees into new knowledge

and new learning. He disagrees with Argyris and Schön that double loop learning is difficult.

He argues that double loop learning is in-built in his knowledge-creating model because

‘organization constantly creates new knowledge by reconstructing existing practices,

perspective or frameworks on a day-to-day basis’ (Nonaka 1994, p.19).

In the context of learning, Reason (2001, p.185) has identified four levels of

knowledge:

(i) Experiential knowing is through direct face- to-face encounter with person, place or thing;

it is knowing through empathy and resonance, and is almost impossible to put in words.

(ii) Presentational knowing emerges from experiential knowing, and provides its first

expression through forms of imagery such as poetry, drawing, sculpture, movement, dance

and so on.

(iii) Practical knowing is knowing “how to” do something and is expressed in a skill, knack

or competence.

(iv) Propositional knowing is knowledge “about” something and is expressed through ideas

and theories a. It is expressed in abstract language or mathematics.

Bawden (1991, p.17) has considered these four dimensions of learning as opposites

yet integrated to each other as shown in Figure 2.8.

Socialisation Externalisation

Internalisation Combination

35

Experiential

learning for

praxis

Propositional Practical

learning learning

for knowing for doing

Intuitive

learning for

fitting in

Figure 2. 8 The four types of learning as polar opposites

Source: Bawden (1991).

According to Reason, knowing will be more valid – richer, deeper, more true to life

and more useful – if these four ways of knowing are congruent with each other; that is if our

knowing is grounded in our experience, expressed through our stories and images,

understood through theories which make sense to us, and expressed in worthwhile action in

our lives. There is much in common between Reason’s concept and the concept of action

learning referred earlier.

2.2.1.4 Learning and second order change

In a different approach to organisational change, Torbert (1989) has said that first

order change is like changing the efficiencies and effectiveness within the existing

assumptions. It is akin to the single loop learning of Argyris, Putnam and Smith (1985).

36

Second order change involves change in assumptions, change in structure and strategy and

change in goals. First order changes are those that occur in a stable system that itself remains

unchanged while second order change occurs when fundamental properties or states of the

system are changed (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson 2002, p.388). According to Torbert,

second order change is very rare. But it is the second order change which is truly

transformational. Also it can rarely be planned. Most of the planned changes are first order

change. Torbert (1989, p.89) thus doubts the transformational changes which have been

documented by many authors such Bass and Tichy and Devanna.

2.2.2 Critical success factors for TQM

The second approach which has been used to assess the organisational requirements

for successful implementation of TQM is through the identification of critical success factors

(CSF). In an attempt to establish empirically validated factors that influence successful

implementation of TQM, Black and Porter (1996) have identified ten factors which affect

successful implementation of TQM. They are:

(i) Corporate quality culture

(ii) Strategic quality management

(iii) Quality improvement measurement system

(iv) People and customer management

(v) Operational quality planning

(vi) External interface management

(vii) Supplier’s partnerships

(viii) Teamwork structures

(ix) Customer satisfaction orientation

(x) Communication of improvement information

An early exploratory attempt to arrive at CSF in the Indian context was made by

Motwani, Mahmoud and Rice (1994) wherein they arrived at nine critical factors for

effective management of quality in Indian manufacturing industry. As the TQM literature in

India moved from introductory level discussion on TQM (Lakhe & Mohanty 1994) to more

robust research work, the emphasis also shifted from a mere duplicating of western models of

quality to trying to develop indigenous models. Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta (2003) made a

37

review of various critical success factors which different authors including the founding

fathers of TQM like Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Crosby, Feigenbaum, and Garvin had

recommended. Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta started from the early work of identification of

the critical success factors (CSF) by Saraph, Benson and Schroeder (1989) to the more recent

one by Ahire, Golhar and Waller (1996). From there, they attempted to identify the critical

success factors (CSF) for adoption of TQM in the Indian context. Their study claims that

these ‘CSFs are derived based on actual practices followed by Indian organizations and it

was based on a statistically validated instrument and factor analysis. It was not based on

constructing a priori set of pre-defined CSFs and then matching it with actual practice’ (Wali,

Deshmukh & Gupta 2003, p. 12).

The study by Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta (2003) is perhaps the first comprehensive

empirical study of quality practices in the Indian context. Thus it is worthwhile to look in

detail at the twelve factors identified by them. They are listed below in decreasing order of

importance.

(i) Leadership, Creativity and quality strategy: Successful quality performance requires that

the leadership is dedicated to quality. It must also provide initiative and resource support. It

must enable creativity to be nurtured and accordingly chalk out the strategy. Given the

importance of leadership, it is not surprising to find that, in all quality awards, leadership

issues are placed at the top of the list of criteria. Such leadership will drive quality strategy in

an organisation and nurture creativity.

(ii) Worker – Manager interaction : This means that healthy interaction between worker and

manager is important from quality point of view. The manager provides the direction for

improvement and accordingly, workers are motivated to take initiative. In case of any

difficulty, the worker interacts with the manager to improve the situation.

(iii) Results and Recognition : Crosby (1979) considers recognition as one of the most

important steps of the quality improvement process. The organisation should reward their

employees for their contribution to quality. There should be a quick recognition system for

outstanding performance by the employees. These rewards may not be purely financial.

(iv) Work culture : The work culture must be very conducive. There should be an active

interaction amongst the peers and support from supervisors. The critical importance of the

employee’s involvement in the quality process of an organisation should be based on the

belief that the best process innovation idea comes from the people actually doing the job.

38

(v) Information and Data management : Information is the critical enabler of TQM. This

factor emphasises that the key processes are regulary measured and quantified. There should

be focus on benchmarking which provides a stimilus for improvement. The facts and

information should be made available to all. This is mainly relevant for managing quality

costs.

(vi) Customer Focus : Quality should be customer driven. …. Employees should be well

aware of the concept of internal and external customers. They should care about meeting and

exceeding the customer expectations. There must be a focus on customer feedback and

accordingly the process should be driven.

(vii) Value and ethics : It is important for the people in an organisation to live up to the

highest ethical standards. There should be perception of fair treatment to all. The organisation

must be guided by the value and ethical standards.

(viii) Communication across the organization: Effective communication channels must exist

in the organization between various work units. With the help of information technology,

comunication can be made effective. Effective comunication is vital in aligning the

workforce towards corporate expectations.

(ix) Team working: According to Crosby (1979), team work is a critical element of TQM.

Teamwork delivers synergistic enhancement of quality efforts. Employees must demonstrate

cooperative behaviour and positive attitude towards working in a team.

(x) Congenial inter – personal relations : The atmposphere in the organisation must be

highly congenial to promote active interaction. There must be mutual respect and faith

among employees.

(xi) Delegation and empowerment: In a TQM setting, both delegation and empowerment are

required. People must share responsibility for the success or failure of their work.

(xii) Process improvement: Employees must identify opportunities for continuous

improvement. If employee involvement is key to the attainment of customer satisfaction,

managing the process is key to engaging an organisation’s employees to take responsibilites

for what they are doing in relation to satisfying the customers.

2.2.3 Different International Quality Awards

The third approach towards the understanding of TQM is through different quality

awards. As TQM became popular around the world, the concepts of TQM were embodied in

39

various national quality awards. Thus a comparison of different quality awards can provide

insight into the similarities and differences in the understanding of TQM across the world.

Bauer, Reiner and Schamschule (2000) have said that these quality awards are today

looked upon as models of excellence. The basis for considering a quality award framework as

a model of business excellence is that now it usually contains a set of quality criteria that

encompass all areas of an organization’s operation.

2.2.3.1 History of quality awards The Deming Prize (DP) is the oldest quality award instituted in 1951 by the Union of

Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). It is awarded to both individuals and groups that

have made significant contributions to quality control (QC) research and to companies that

have excelled in applying QC programs. When the TQM concept was brought to the US, the

Malcolm Baldridge award was established in 1987 in the U.S. It is awarded in the categories

of manufacturing, small business and service. In 1991, the European Quality Award was

instituted for European companies, almost on the same lines as the Baldridge award. In 1992,

the Australian quality award was instituted. Since these are the earlier awards, a comparative

analysis of them is now set out.

Vokurka, Stading and Brazeal (2000) have compared the Deming Prize and the

western models of quality awards on the basis of their objectives, quality principles and

criteria. It is shown in Table A1.1 at Appendix 1. The comparison shows the commonalities

among different quality awards. The commonality is that they all use a minimum of seven

criteria –

(i) Leadership

(ii) Strategic planning

(iii) Customer and market focus

(iv) Information and analysis

(v) Human resource focus

(vi) Process management

(vii)Business results.

They all emphasize customer driven quality control through streamlining processes,

product design, leadership, human resource development and customer focused strategic

plans. In all the models, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and community

satisfaction are emphasized. However the criteria differ on what they understand by the

40

seven quality areas – leadership, planning, customers, suppliers, employees, processes and

results. The same is shown in Table A1.2 at Appendix 1. In addition they also differ on the

weightage they assign to each criteria (see Figure A1.1a to Figure A1.1e at Appendix 1).

A comparison of these quality criteria show that except for the Deming Prize, all

other award models have common factors. They all assign considerable weightage to the

results. However, the researcher is of the opinion that if the enabling factors are robust, the

results should automatically follow. In this sense, the result is a dependent variable and the

enablers are the independent variables. The researcher considers it a weakness of the quality

award models except the Deming Prize that they consider the independent variables and

dependent variables on a uni-dimensional additive scale.

Coming back to the quality awards, since other award models, except the Deming

Prize are based on MBNQA, Vokurka, Stading and Brazeal (2000) have also mapped the

different award criteria onto MBNQA categories. It is shown in Table A1.3 at Appendix 1.

The mapping shows that in the year 2000, as compared to the Baldridge award, the

Deming Prize accorded more emphasis to process control which is perhaps expected, given

the strong statistical background which TQM has in Deming’s teaching. However, customer

and market knowledge were accorded little consideration in the Deming Prize. The Baldridge

award criteria assigned about half of its weightage to business results. But ‘business result’ as

a criteria was missing in the Deming Prize.

Over time other countries, notably from the non-developed and developing belt, also

instituted national quality awards. The commonalities and differences among quality awards

of both developed and developing countries are compared with the early quality awards viz

Deming award, MBNQA and EQA. Hui and Chuan (2002) made a comparison of the

national quality awards of nine countries. Their criteria are indicated in Table A1.4 at

Appendix 1. The CII_EXIM award of India is also shown for the sake of quick comparison.

It is noteworthy that all the criteria in Table A1.4 can be grouped into two classes of

enablers and results as envisaged in the European Quality Award model shown in Figure 2.9.

This is perhaps a pointer to certain consistency in the selection of criteria of quality awards

by different countries. Different countries have however, given different emphasis to the

above-mentioned criteria. The differences in emphasis have been shown in Table A1.5 at

Appendix 1.

41

Enablers Results

Figure 2. 9 European Quality Model

Source: Sankaran (1993, p. 98).

2.2.3.2 Commonality and differences among different quality awards

The matrix in Table A1.5 compares the different emphases laid down by different

quality awards on 39 aspects. U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia can be said to represent

similar cultural and political systems. Together, they occupy 39*4 = 156 matrix points in

Table A1.5. Out of these 156 matrix points, there are differences only on 20 matrix points

amongst them. That is, only on 13% of the matrix points, these four countries lay different

emphasis. However, if these four countries are compared as a group with a significantly

different country like Japan, there are 11 aspects out of 39 aspects (i.e. 28%) on which this

group has a significantly different orientation in comparison with Japan. The thesis now

looks at some of the aspects where there are significant differences between them.

From Table A1.5, it is seen that staff empowerment is strongly emphasized by the

Baldridge award, Canadian, European and Australian awards. But the same is not addressed

in the other countries’ award model including that of Japan. However, innovation, a concept

complementary to empowerment (Hui & Chuan 2002, p.58) finds mention in all the award

models. ‘Leadership by example’ is strongly emphasized in the Japanese award model, but it

is not mentioned in other award models. ‘Ethical decision making’ is strongly emphasized in

Japan, Singapore and Australian award model, but not in the rest. All the models have

Leadership

People management

Policy & strategy

Resources

Processes

People satisfaction

Customer satisfaction

Impact on society

Business results

42

customer focus, but the Japanese and the Singapore models strongly emphasize ‘personalized

service for enhanced customer satisfaction’. ‘E-technology and other high-tech activities’ are

strongly emphasized only in the Baldridge model. ‘Good working relation’ between the boss

and subordinate is strongly emphasized in the Japanese, Singaporean and the South African

model, but is not directly described in the Baldridge, Canadian, European or Australian

framework- maybe because most western society do not emphasize power structure in

managing boss-subordinate relationship. These are pointers to the possibility that different

countries may use overlapping as well as different criteria to measure their country-specific

conception of total quality and organizational excellence (Hui & Chuan, 2002, p.62). Tan et

al. (2003) have studied the differences in the modelling of 53 National Quality Awards

(NQA). They found that in most of the NQA models, the economic structure, social

characteristics and the total quality maturity level have been taken into account. Their study

has shown that most of the European countries have modelled their NQA on the EQA. ISO

9000:2000 and ISO 14000 have also been used as a framework for NQA especially by

developing countries. 12 out of 53 NQAs studied by Tan et al. (2003) were of Asian

countries and 10 of these 12 Asian NQAs were having their own distinctive framework. That

is, they were not based on the MBNQA, EQA, ISO 9000 or ISO 14000. Tan et al. (2003)

therefore concluded that the cultural and demographic background of a country should be

taken into account in designing a NQA. Tan and Khoo (2002) have found Confucianism

relevant for effective implementation of NQAs in the Southeast Asian countries. Thus, it

needs to be seen that in the context of India, what factors have been identified for successful

implementation of TQM.

2.2.3.3 Change in the criteria of quality awards over time

In section 2.2.3.2, a comparison among quality awards of different countries was

made as they were in the year 2000. However, it may be worthwhile to see how these criteria

have evolved over time. Maybe, this will give some indication of the changing understanding

of TQM over the last many years.

Since the literature, till now, had shown that the Deming Prize was the pioneer and

most of the western award models are based on the Baldridge award, the changes brought in

these two awards since 1992 is now compared. Then the two awards are compared as they

were in the year 2004. The viewpoints of Deming Prize as in 1992 and in 2000 are compared

in Table A1.6 at Appendix 1. In making the comparison, checklists of 1992 are shown in

43

column 1 and its conceptually similar checklist in 2000 (rephrased as viewpoint since 2000

by the Deming committee) is shown in column 2. The differences between them are shown in

column 3. The differences between them are reproduced in Table 2.5 for ready reference.

Differences in the set of viewpoints for 2000 with respect to those in 1992. The following were either new

viewpoints or there were significant changes in them ( significant changes shown in italics)

(i)The entire ‘policy’ viewpoint of 1992 becomes a part of the ‘policy management’ under ‘TQM framework’

in 2000.

(ii)‘2.4 Relationship to ISO 9000 and ISO 14000’ finds a place in 2000.

(iii)‘2.5 Relationship to other management improvement programs’ finds a place in 2000.

(iv) ‘2.6 TQM promotion and operation’ gets emphasised as a long lasting activity in 2000.

(v) 5. The emphasis shifts from a mere ‘quality oriented training’ to HRD which gets recognised in its own

right in 2000.

(vi) ‘5.3 Respect for people’s dignity’ is an important culture based addition in 2000.

(vii) ‘6.2 Information system’ is a reflection of the systemic orientation in the current Deming model.

(viii) The concept of ‘control of systems’ gets subsumed in many other viewpoints in 2000. However,

‘Management system for business elements’ can be said to be the conceptual successor to what was perhaps

intended by ‘control’ in 1992. Also, ‘management systems’ gets recognised as an important ‘viewpoint’ in its

own right which is a measure of the increased emphasis which DP gives to ‘organisational management’ in

2000 as compared to ‘operational management’ in 1992.

(ix) Cross-functional management, environment management, safety, hygiene and work cost management

are individualised entries in 2000 which were not there in 1992.

(x) The scope of results is enlarged more in line with the MBNQA

(xi) 1.1 The concept of leadership finds a place.

(xii) 1.2 The aspect of vision and strategies gets more emphasis in 2000. The overall emphasis shifts from

‘operational management’ to ‘organisational management’.

Both these changes are in line with MBNQA.

Note: The numbers given in the above table correspond to the section number in DP criteria 2000.

Table 2. 5 Differences in checklists of Deming Prize 1992 and Deming Prize 2000

Source: developed for this research.

Now it will be seen how the other prominent quality award – the MBNQA – has

changed during the last 12 years. The set of criteria for MBNQA in 1992 and in 2004 are

compared in Table A1.7 at Appendix 1. Their differences are reproduced in Table 2.6 for

ready reference.

44

Differences in MBNQA (1992) and MBNQA (2004)

(i) Leadership gets more weightage. Also, ‘management for quality’ of 1992 gets subsumed in a more ‘general

management’

(ii) Information recognised as an asset which need to be managed.

(iii) In 2004, ‘strategic quality planning’ of 1992 gets subsumed in the overall ‘strategic plan’.

(iv) In 2004, ‘quality plan’ of 1992 gets subsumed in over all ‘action plan’. In fact in place of an exclusive ‘quality and

performance plan’ in 1992, there is the mention of ‘human resource plan’ and of ‘benchmarking of performance’ in 2004.

(v) There is less weightage on human resource focus in 2004.

(vi)Process, the core of quality management in 1992, gets much less weightage in 2004.

(vii) In 2004, ‘Business results’ as against mere ‘quality result’ becomes the hallmark of success. In 2004, financial results

and HRD gets recognised as a necessary component of organisational excellence.

(viii) There is substantial increase in weightage on business results

(ix) Customer, who was the ‘king’ in 1992 with 30% weightage, gets much less weightage.

Table 2. 6 Differences in the criteria of MBNQA 1992 and MBNQA 2004

Source: developed for this research.

Review of literature till 2003 indicates that, in general, there has been a lack of clear

understanding of how the Deming Prize is awarded and it’s marking criteria. JUSE which

administers the award also recognised it (What is the Deming Prize n.d., p.6). In recognition

of this, in 2003 in its ‘The guide for the Deming Application Prize 2003’ JUSE for the first

time elaborated its marking criteria and how the Deming Prize is awarded to ‘make the

examination process more transparent and to make the intentions of the Deming Prize more

clear’ (What is the Deming Prize n.d., p.6). Yet it cautions that ‘the committee’s basic stance

on the examination criteria remains unchanged that is the criteria should reflect each

applicant organization’s circumstances’ (What is the Deming Prize n.d., p.6). Thus there is

no model which a company is supposed to conform to. ‘Rather, the applicants are expected to

understand their current situation, establish their own themes and objectives and improve and

transform themselves company-wide…. The DP committees view the examination process as

an opportunity for “mutual development” rather than examination.’ (What is the Deming

Prize n.d., p.6).

Therefore it can be seen that the approach of DP is entirely different from those of

other quality awards. Considering that it is the oldest quality award, and after all its mutations

over the last 50 years, the Deming Committee still finds it worthwhile to retain an altogether

different approach, the researcher considers it desirable to highlight its difference with that of

MBNQA which, as the literature review has shown, is the source of most other awards (Tan

et al. 2003).

45

2.2.3.4 Commonalities and differences between DP (2004) and MBNQA(2004)

The major differences between them in 2004 are indicted below.

(a) The examination of an organization under DP is conducted under evaluation criteria and

judgement criteria. The evaluation criteria itself consists of ‘basic categories’, ‘unique

activities’ and ‘role of top management’. Thus, DP assesses an organization on three different

dimensions of ‘basic categories’, ‘unique activities’ and ‘role of top management’ while

MBNQA assesses the organization on the single additive dimension of a composite score.

This makes DP a more detailed examination.

(b) As per the judgement criteria of DP, an organization will have to achieve 70% in each of

the three evaluation criteria. But in MBNQA, the overall points obtained is the sum of the

points obtained in each of the seven criteria and two organisations which secure the highest

and the second highest overall points get the award. So while MBNQA is more competitive,

DP can be taken as more benchmarking oriented. Little wonder the DP committee views the

examination process as ‘mutual development’ and ‘TQM diagnosis’ in the preceding year is

a precondition for applying in the subsequent year.

(c) Except for leadership, all other criteria of MBNQA are reflected in the ‘basic categories’

criteria of DP. The relationship among different constituents of ‘basic categories’ was, for the

first time made public by JUSE in its ‘Deming Application Guide 2003’ (www.juse.or.jp).

However, the set of interrelationships among different constituents of MBNQA were known

since the beginning of MBNQA.

(d) In case of the Deming Prize, even within ‘basic categories’, the examination

subcommittee can make changes in its ‘items’ and ‘points’ which are not there in MBNQA.

Thus unlike other quality awards, DP fully recognises that an organization can have, for its

development, its unique set of quality related activities. ‘In fact the emphasis of the

examination is on whether or not the company has developed a unique brand of TQM

suitable for its business and scale’ (What is the Deming Prize n.d, p.5)…… ‘For any

company, the shortest way to win the DP is to manage its business in the most appropriate

manner to the company’ (What is the Deming Prize n.d, p.5). DP also gives full recognition

to organization specific TQM by examining ‘unique activities’ of an organization as a

separate dimension. The existence of ‘unique activities’ indicates that DP allows different

flavours of quality management to grow and get institutionalised in different organizations.

But the MBNQA criteria are fixed..

46

(e) Unlike what some literature on the Deming Prize indicate ( Vokurka, Stading & Brazeal

2000, Khoo & Tan 2003), ‘role of top management’ is very strongly emphasized in the

Deming Prize. In fact it is one of the three dimensions for examination in DP while it is just

one criterion in MBNQA. Further, a deeper look at the points which are examined in ‘role of

top management’ in DP, indicates that now there is a good deal of congruence in the role of

leadership as postulated by DP and by MBNQA. However, DP talks about leadership’s

enthusiasm about TQM, as it talks about the enthusiasm of every one else in ‘basic

categories’ (The guide for Deming Application Prize 2004, p.34) which perhaps points to an

attitudinal slant of DP examination.

(f) In MBNQA 45% of the weightage is given to ‘result’, but in DP, ‘result’ as a category is

only seen to have been alluded to in the list of ‘viewpoints’ as ‘Contribution to Realization of

Corporate Objectives’.

(g) Unlike what has been reported in some research (Izadi, Kashef & Stadt, 1996, Lee 2002,

p.144) DP does not require advanced statistical methods to be used in an organization (What

is the Deming Prize? n.d, p.5).

(h) The DP committee members undertake the examination free. However JUSE charges JPY

500,000 (US $ 5000) as the administrative fee. The MBNQA charges US$ 5000 as

application fee and between US $ 10000 to US $ 35000 for site visit.

(i) What is most noteworthy about DP is that in spite of all the mutations it has undergone in

the last 12 years, it has retained its basic congruence with the philosophy of Deming – the

Deming 14 points (see section 2.1.2.1). It also continues to pay attention to whether the

organization is free from the seven deadly diseases (Deming 1993) which are listed below:

(i) Lack of constancy of purpose.

(ii) Emphasis on short-term profit.

(iii) Evaluation of performance, merit rating, or annual review.

(iv) Mobility of management, job-hopping.

(v) Management by use of visible figures, with little consideration of figures that cannot be

made visible.

(vi) Excessive medical costs (peculiar to US industry only)

(vii) Excessive cost of liability

That DP still calls its process ‘challenging and developmental’ indicates that one

needs to have constancy of purpose for this. It still insists that it will take three years or more

to be ready to win the prize- so one does not expect a short term jump in profit by quickly

going for DP. It still insists that one year before, the organization will have submit to TQM

47

diagnosis ‘so that the organization receives a diagnosis - a recommendation for the

introductory or promotional stage of TQM’ (Deming Application Guide 2003, p. 36). It still

insists on a ‘on site visit’ – the core of the examination (Deming Application Guide 2004,

p.19) – so that it can get information beyond ‘visible figures’.

Thus from among many TQM award models, the researcher decided to use the

Deming Prize as the preferred model in this research.

A question arises: ‘In spite of the differences, are there any commonalities between

the DP and the MBNQA’ ?

A look at the changes which have come about in these two awards between 1992 and

2004, shows that in 1992, the emphasis in both was on excellence in product/ service quality.

But by 2004, the emphasis shifted from a mere technical quality to emphasis on quality of all

organisational processes. That is, quality had now acquired a strategic dimension. That is, by

the year 2004, TQM award had come to mean organisational excellence and long-term

business success. In fact almost all the national awards now look upon their award model as a

model of organisational excellence (Tan et al. 2003, Lee 2002). Thus today, TQM is

considered a set of business strategy which aims at harnessing the full capacity of all

organisational resources (Kruger 2001). From this point of view, TQM can be accepted as a

model of organisational excellence.

The researcher considers it an important understanding, arrived at from literature

review, that today, TQM is akin to organisational excellence.

2.2.3.5 TQM and awards in public sector

All the awards that have been looked at, started with private sector organizations in

mind. A question arises whether these awards need to look different in the context of public

sector.

In recognition of the different framework which public sector may require, the

Federal Quality Institute (FQI) was established in U.S.A. (Research Results Digest 1994, p.4).

FQI also administers the ‘President’s award for Quality’ for the public sector in the US.

However, there is no equivalent of FQI in India.

The President’s Award was instituted in 1988 for the top federal public sector

performer in the USA. The President award, though based on the Baldridge Award, was

governed by a briefer and less stringent set of criteria. (Harwick & Russell 1993, p.34). Also,

the Baldridge section ‘on public responsibility’ was not included in the President award

48

(Harwick & Russell 1993, p. 36). The contenders for the President Award must qualify by

first winning a prototype award - the President Prototype Award (Harwick & Russell 1993,

p.34). The President Prototype Award was instituted to encourage less developed

departments into the quality process.

Outside the U.S.A., awards like the ‘National Quality Award for the Public

Transportation and Traffic Industry’ was instituted by the Brazilian National Public

Transport association (www.antp.otrg.br). This quality award is also an adaptation of the

MBNQA model. ( International Awards n.d.). Thus, the answer to the question whether there

are separate set of yardsticks in quality awards for public sector appears to be ‘no’. Even in

the Indian context, though the Indian Peacock award is divided into three categories, one of

them being for government organizations, the criteria for all the three categories are the

same..

However, beyond the limited ambit of quality awards, another approach which

governments across the world used for better public management in the 1980s and 1990s

was the reform movement. Realising the importance of quality in government, there has been

instances of innovation in different government departments across the world (Kamarck 2003,

p.26). For example, the United States adopted Customer Service standards for its federal

agencies. In Europe, ‘Citizen Charters’ were the response of the British government for the

introduction of a quality movement in the public sector. These charters articulated explicit

performance for everything from waiting times at the National Health Service to expectations

for the punctuality of the railway system. Portugal established Quality Charters for public

services and Ireland established Northern Ireland Quality Awards for excellence in Northern

Ireland public sector organization. This award model was based on the European Foundation

Quality Management’s (EFQM) Business Excellence Model (McQuillan 2003). In 1998, the

Australian government embarked upon a major reorganisation of 78 different social service

programs affecting 7 million customers. It was called ‘centrelink’ and it has been reported to

be one of the most studied instances of quality and customer driven government in the world

(Kamarck 2003, p.24). It flattened hierarchies, put the most experienced people in the front,

instituted performance pay. All this helped in creating a customer culture. A more detailed

review of the infusion of quality consciousness in government working will be undertaken in

the study of bureaucracy.

The literature review till now focussed on the development of TQM in Japan and in

the western countries. An attempt was then made to understand TQM through the lens of

49

TQM awards. The growth and status of TQM in India and the Indian quality awards are now

reviewed.

2.2.3.6 TQM in India and Indian quality awards

The literature review, till now, shows that in the western literature, TQM has been an

important field of study for the last two to three decades. In the Indian context however, the

TQM initiative was first set up by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in the early

1980s. In 1987 and 1988, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) invited the Juran

Institute to India to conduct workshops and in 1989 a team from India attended the Deming

seminar in London.

Because of the strategic tie-up between many Japanese automobile manufacturers and

Indian automobile manufacturers, there have been TQM implementations in some Indian

automobile companies such as Maruti and TVS Suzuki. It has been reported that some Indian

companies - mostly ancillary suppliers to large automobile manufacturers in India had tied up

with Japanese consultants to implement total quality (Business Today reported by Jagadeesh

1999). Jagadeesh further adds that, in general, the manufacturing sector in India is well aware

of the importance of quality but the service sector, mostly government owned, lags behind

the manufacturing sector in all aspects that imply quality.

Also, there are large variations in the depth and the spread of quality culture among

Indian organizations. Some are comparable to the best in the world, but the bulk of Indian

companies are yet to make use of the various techniques for continuous improvement. In

what is perhaps one of the few studies of TQM in the Indian public sector, Gyani (1995) talks

about implementation of TQM in Indian Oil wherein all the workers were involved through

small group activities at the shop floor. The special point about this TQM attempt was that

the TQM project began at the shop - floor level involving workers and then moved onto the

middle management levels. Blythe and Shahani (1997) have described a continuous

improvement initiative at Glaxo which has been successfully implemented. In this report, in

order to give TQM the right organisational connotation, they named their initiative as 'Glaxo

Excellence Process'. They cited commitment from the top as one of the key enablers (Blythe

& Shahani 1997, p.16). Blythe, Rao and Shahani (1997, p.104) further add that ‘the simpler

the process used, the better it works’…. ‘The basic rules are to determine the starting point,

define the destination, map the route, put in place a structured and organized training

50

programme for all staff, set goals and measurables and launch the recognition system’.

Gondhalekar and Karamchandani (1994) have described a kaizen improvement system

started at Godrej. They identified the variables which affected this improvement system and

further classified them into two categories:

(i) Attributes of individuals

(a) organisational level (higher the better)

(b) age (middle age 30-50, better than extreme age)

(c) recognition,

(d) communication ability

(e) type of work (shopfloor better than desk)

(ii) attributes pertaining to design of the system

(a) visible top management commitment

(b) mandatory participation.

In a countrywide survey of competitiveness of Indian manufacturing industry, it has

been reported that quality is the topmost competitive priority of Indian firms (Chandra &

Sastry 2001). In a study of propagation of quality management practices among Indian

manufacturing companies since 1985, Mandal et al. (2000) have stressed the improvement of

organisational culture in the direction of team working, harmony and participation. The same

study also reports that there were a small number of companies which have started using

SQC techniques but the bulk of the focus continued to be on inspection as a means of

achieving quality. In fact, it has been remarked (Harrington reported by Jagadeesh 1999) that

companies with poor performance went bankrupt in other parts of the world but were still

surviving in India. This means there is still scope for bad products in India.

As the concept of quality began to be internalised by the Indian industry, spurred to a

great extent by competition, quality awards were instituted on the lines of Malcolm

Baldridge award and European Quality award. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality

Award (MBNQA) was introduced in 1987, and the European Quality Award was introduced

in 1991. In comparison, the first Indian quality award - Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award

(RGNQA) - was instituted in 1991. Thereafter a number of quality awards were also

announced. This was a measure of the maturing of quality related concepts in India. In Table

2.7, different Indian quality awards and their criteria have been compared.

In order to understand the philosophy behind these awards, a quote from CII-EXIM

award is reproduced: ‘The purpose of creating this award was to set a challenge for industry

to scale new heights of quality and leadership. It does this in part by creating “role model”

51

organizations, which exemplify the application of the TQM approach to the achievement of

business success - this is business excellence’(Wali, Gupta & Deshmukh, 2000, p. 287). It is

thus noted that in the Indian quality awards also, TQM is considered as the equivalent to

business excellence.

52

Awards Golden Peacock Award

2003

CII-EXIM

Award

IMC

Ramkrishna

Bajaj Award

Rajiv Gandhi

National Quality

Award (1999)

Organizations Institute of Directors,

New Delhi

Confederation of

Indian Industry

and Export-

Import Bank of

India, New Delhi

Indian

Merchant’s

Chamber

Bombay

Bureau of Indian

Standards, New Delhi

Criteria

Enablers

Organisational 120

leadership

Strategic 100

planning

Human resource 100

Management

Information analysis 60

Process 120

Management

Sub total 500

Leadership 100

Policy and 80

strategy

People 90

management

Resources 90

Processes 140

Sub total 500

Leadership 100

Strategic 80

planning

Human 100

resource

development and

management

Information 80

analysis

Process 140

management

Sub total 500

Leadership 100

Policies and strategies

100

Human resource

management 50

Resources 100

Processes 150

Sub total 500

Results

Customer 150

Satisfaction

Employee 100

Satisfaction

Impact on society 100

Business results 150

Sub total 500

Total 1000

Customer 200

satisfaction

People 90

satisfaction

Impact 60

on society

Business 150

Results

Sub total 500

Total 1000

Customer 100

satisfaction

Business 400

Focus

Sub total 500

Total 1000

Customer 200

satisfaction

Employee 50

satisfaction

Impact on 100

environment and

society

Business 150

results

Sub total 500

Total 1000

Table 2. 7 Major Indian National Quality Awards

Source: developed for this research.

53

It is seen from the table that all the four Indian awards have given almost the same

weightage to different quality criteria.

2.2.3.7 Indian quality awards vs. MBNQA & EQA

When these quality awards were instituted, they were generally based on western

quality models of MBNQA and EQA ( Chandra & Adur 1999). Even now, the comparison

of Indian quality awards with MBNQA and EQA show that there are striking similarities

among the ‘enablers’ and the ‘results’ of the Indian quality awards vis-à-vis the

corresponding enablers and results of the western quality awards. The relative weightage

given by Indian quality awards on different criteria are also similar to those given by EQA

and MBNQA as shown in Table 2.8.

54

Table 2. 8 Comparison of Indian Quality Awards with MBNQA & EQA

Source : developed for this research.

Golden

Peacock

Award 2003

CII-EXIM

Award

IMC

Ramkrishna

Bajaj Award

Rajiv Gandhi

National

Quality Award

MBNQA EQA

Organisational

leadership 12%

Strategic quality

planning 10%

Human resource

utilization 10%

Information 6%

management

Process 12%

management

Sub total 50%

Leadership 10%

Policy and 8%

strategy

People 9%

management

Resources 9%

Processes 14%

Sub total 50%

Leadership 10%

Strategic 8%

planning

Human 10%

resource

development and

management

Information

analysis 8%

Process 14%

management

Sub total 50%

Leadership 10%

Policies and

strategies 10%

Human resource

management 5%

Resources 10%

Processes 15%

Sub total 50%

Leadership 11%

Strategic

planning 8%

Human resource

focus 10%

Information &

analysis 8%

Customer &

market focus 8%

Process 10%

management

Sub total 55%

Leadership 10%

Policy

& strategy 8%

People

management 9%

Resources 9%

Processes 14%

Sub total 50%

Customer 15%

Satisfaction

Employee 10%

Satisfaction

Impact on 10%

society

Business results

15%

Sub total 50%

Total 100%

Customer 20%

satisfaction

People 9%

satisfaction

Impact 6%

on society

Business 15%

Results

Sub total 50%

Total 100%

Customer 10%

satisfaction

Business 40%

Focus

Sub total 50%

Total 100%

Customer 20%

satisfaction

Employee 5%

satisfaction

Impact on 10%

environment and

society

Business 15%

results

Sub total 50%

Total 100%

(customer

focused result,

human resources

result,

organisational

effectiveness

result,

supplier &

partner result,

fin & market

result) 45%

Sub total 45%

Total 100%

Customer

satisfaction 20%

People

satisfaction 9%

Impact on 6%

Society

Business 15%

Result

Sub total 50%

Total 100%

55

Since these Indian awards are based on western award models, a question arises that

how do these Indian quality awards compare with the critical success factors referred to

earlier in this research. Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta (2003, p. 9) in their study have compared

the CSFs with one of the Indian quality awards - CII EXIM Business Excellence Award

(CEBEA). The same are indicated in Table 2.9.

Factors proposed Corresponding CEBEA criteria

Leadership, Creativity and Quality Strategy Leadership/Policy & Strategy

Worker Manager Interactions *

Results and recognition Business Result/Impact on society

Work culture *

Information and Data Management *

Customer Focus Customer satisfaction

Values and Ethics *

Communication across the organization People Satisfaction

Team Working People Management

Congenial inter-personal relations People Management/ People Satisfaction

Delegation and Empowerment People Management /People Satisfaction

Process Improvement Processes

Table 2. 9 CSFs for TQM and CEBEA criteria

Source: Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta (2003, p. 9).

It is worthwhile to compare the commonalities between the CSFs discovered by Wali,

Deshmukh and Gupta with the TQM implementation at Glaxo and the Kaizen improvement

at Godrej mentioned earlier. Training, communication, top management commitment and

recognition are common among them which perhaps pointed to the universality of these

factors.

It was noted in section 2.2.3.3 that in the case of Deming Prize, the very approach to

quality award was different. It was also noted in section 2.2.3.2 that studies have shown that

the South Asian awards have a different flavour which takes into account the specific culture

and demography of this region. Viewed in this background, the similarities between the

Indian quality awards and the western quality award indicate that in designing the Indian

56

awards, perhaps, no specific care of the Indian context was taken. A comparison of CSFs of

Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta and CII-EXIM award criteria (see Table 2.9) also shows critical

success factors for which there are no corresponding criteria in the CII – EXIM model.

Thus the researcher takes a stand that while the Indian quality award models may be

taken as a measure of reasonable prevalence of TQM in an Indian organization, but from a

developmental point of view, for the implementation of TQM in the Indian Railways, the

Indian or for that matter, international quality award models need not be taken as the starting

point.

2.2.4 Synthesis of system dynamics, CSFs and quality award criteria

Since the survey of the Western, Japanese and Indian studies for the identification of

factors for successful implementation of TQM is now completed, it is worthwhile to compare

these factors to understand their commonalities and the differences.

The commonalities are that across the world, leadership, policy and strategy, human

resource management, process management, information and data management, customer

and market focus and supplier focus are the factors or enablers which contribute to the

success of TQM. This is confirmed by the three sources of studies: (a) the study of different

award models (Hui & Chuan 2002; Tan et al. 2003; Vokurka, Stading & Brazeal 2000); (b)

by empirical research done in arriving at CSF for TQM (Black & Porter 1995 in the

European context; Motwani, Mahmoud and Rice 1994 in the Indian context; Saraph et al.

1989 in the American context; Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta 2003 in the Indian context) and (c)

by the modelling of TQM on the lines of system dynamics (Bauer, Reiner & Schamschule

2000; Khanna et al. 2002).

However, different countries tend to look at these factors differently. For example, the

cultural pattern of a country and within a country the organisational values of different

companies have been found to be variables which affect TQM implementation. Another

difference is with respect to the path followed by organizations of these countries in their

pursuit of TQM. Given the birth of TQM in Japan, it is not surprising that the Japanese

organizations have readily gone for TQM implementation. But the western countries have in

general used ISO as the first tentative step towards TQM. Indian organizations too, have in

general used ISO as their first step towards development of a quality consciousness. Thus

Melan (1998) has suggested a contingency approach for the implementation of TQM in an

organization. Chin and Pun (2002, p.274) have quoted Lewis and Smith who have identified

57

six common approaches which have been used to develop and/or to implement TQM. They

are:

(a) Guru approach. Here the writings of Deming’s 14-point model, Crosby’s 14 steps and

Juran’s triology are used for analysis and implementation.

(b) Japanese model approach. This uses the writings of Japanese writers such as Ishikawa

and the educational guidelines (e.g. Kaizen, 5S, etc) of the Union of Japanese Scientists and

Engineers.

(c) Total quality element approach. This uses elements (e.g. quality circles, statistical process

control and quality function deployment) of continuous improvement rather than full

implementation.

(d) Hoshin planning approach. This focuses on successful planning, deployment and

execution and diagnosis of quality practices and performance measurement.

(e) Quality awards/ business excellence criteria approach. This includes MBNQA, EQA,

Australia Quality Award and similar quality awards to identify areas of improvement.

(f) Industrial company/leader model approach. This is where leaders from one organization

visit an organization using TQM, identify its system and integrate this information with their

own to create a customised approach. Visiting and learning from the quality/excellence

award winners is an example of this approach.

While all these approaches work, the most useful TQM implementation plan is an

integrated blend of them (Lindsay & Petrick 1997).

The moderating influence of culture on TQM implementation and the adoption of

ISO path by many western organizations as the first step towards adoption of TQM indicate

that the worked done in these areas need to be studied in detail. Thus another set of

immediate disciplines which need to be studied for implementation of TQM in the Indian

Railways are –

(i) TQM and ISO.

(ii) TQM and culture.

(iii)The Indian cultural values.

(iv) The organisational values of Indian Railways.

Since Indian Railways is part of Indian government our study of organisational

values of Indian Railways should begin with the study of Indian bureaucracy and then shift to

Indian Railways.

First the work done in the areas of TQM and ISO will be reviewed.

58

2.2.5 Total Quality Management and ISO

Starting as a management and quality assurance guidelines in 1987, today ISO 9000:

2000 standard is a structured basis to develop systematic programs for quality improvement.

ISO certification has been one of the popular routes for organizations across the world in

their quest for quality.

In a cross-country study to assess the impact of ISO 9000: 1994 on quality

management, Rao, Raghunathan and Solis (1997) studied firms in the USA, Mexico, India

and China which were then consolidated to form a global perspective. This study found

significant differences between ISO 9000 registered and non-registered firms in terms of

quality management practices. The ISO 9000 registered companies exhibited higher levels of

quality leadership, information and analysis, strategic quality planning, human resource

development, quality assurance, supplier relationships, customer orientation and quality

results. Hill, Hazlett and Meegan (2001, p.153) have reported that in the UK organizations

seek ISO 9000 certification first, and then move towards TQM. Agus and Abdullah (2000) in

their study of Malaysian manufacturing companies found that companies with ISO

certification and long-term TQM adoption were better quality implementers which could give

them an edge over their competitors. Escanciano, Fernández and Vázquez (2001) found in

their study of Spanish companies that ISO 9000 certification contributes to a company’s

progress towards total quality. They also found that companies which went for certification

mainly for internal reasons progressed well towards TQM (Escanciano, Fernández and

Vázquez 2001, p.492). Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2002) have found compelling evidence in a

study of ISO certified companies in Greece that when a company’s true motive behind ISO

certification was only advertisement or external pressure, there was no significant correlation

with TQM based performance improvement. But when the true motive was to improve their

internal operations and product, it was significantly correlated with TQM base performance

improvement (Gotzamani and Tsiotras 2002, p.165). Similar result has been reported by

Poksinska, Dahlgaard and Antoni (2002) for Swedish companies. A study by Sun (1999)

found that among Norwegian firms, ISO certification was significantly correlated with

quality results especially the reduction of defective products and customer complaint.

However, it had little influence on market position and competitiveness. They concluded that

‘it seems as if there is a tendency for the ISO 9000 standards to be taken as part of a TQM

programme in the future……Yet it will be long journey for the Norwegian companies to

continue the TQM implementation’(Sun 1999, p.901). A study in North America found that

59

ISO 9000: 1994 was being adopted as one tool in a larger strategy of achieving competitive

advantage through quality management and in this sense, it complemented rather than

substituted TQM (Anderson, Daly & Johnson 1999).

On the other hand, in a review of the effects of ISO 9000: 1994 certification on small

Singaporean firms, Quazi, Hong and Meng (2002) found that ISO certification did not affect

quality management practices and quality results. However, they qualified their conclusion

with the observation that the composition and characteristics of the firms in the sample may

be the reason for such differences in findings. Lack of relationship between ISO 9000: 1994

and TQM implementation was also found by Sun and Cheng (2002) in their study of

Norwegian firms. According to them, ISO 9000 aims to standardize certain process and

maintain the quality level while TQM aims to establish a quality culture and continuously

improve quality level (Sun and Cheng 2002, p. 437). However they also qualified that in

order to incorporate the two, ISO 9000: 1994 may be required to be updated to the new

version. Curry and Kadasah (2002) found that in Saudi Arabia, ISO 9000 was in itself not

sufficient in establishing an effective quality management system nor was it sufficient to

produce quality product. They also found that ‘to achieve registration merely to have the

certificate with little in the way of supporting infrastructure often causes more problems than

it solves’(Curry & Kadasah 2002, p.214).

In the context of railways, Lee and Lam (1997) have reported a study on Kowloon-

Canton Railway Corp where starting from ISO 9001:1994 they progressed to a TQM

programme called ‘quest for excellence’ through which they reported significant

improvement in their working. Two of its activities are worth reporting:

(i) The quality procedures and the work instructions were prepared by persons who

were directly responsible for, and therefore most clear about, the work processes covered by

them. An important part was that the persons were required to consult their staff during the

preparation process to ensure that the resultant procedures and instructions were practicable.

It created a sense of ownership. This was very much like hoshin – planning.

(ii) There was no separate quality audit team. The duties of internal audit were

assigned to the section managers and line officers selected from different sections. This

avoided a conflict of interest with the additional benefit of better understanding of other

sections and the exchange of best practices.

It is to be noted that all the studies referred above were based on firms which

complied with the ISO 9000: 1994 version. In fact during the literature review the researcher

could not come across any study made about the impact of ISO 9000: 2000 on the quality

60

management system. This could be because the latest version of ISO came only in December

2000 and it gave a three-year time frame to companies to shift from old standard to the new

standard.

Therefore, the conceptual similarities between ISO 9000: 2000 and TQM are now

assessed.

2.2.5.1 ISO 9000:2000 and TQM

The ISO 9000 version 2000 published in December 2000 is based on eight principles listed

below (www.iso.org ):

Principle 1: Customer Focus

Principle 2: Leadership

Principle 3: Involvement of People

Principle 4: Process Approach

Principle 5: System Approach to Management

Principle 6: Continuous Improvement

Principle 7: Factual Approach to Decision Making

Principle 8: Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

It is to be noted that principle 5 of ISO 9000:2000 does recognise the systems approach to

management. Not only this, the eight principles mentioned above also closely resemble the

enablers for TQM implementation as synthesised in section 2.2.4. Thus it has been argued

that ISO 9000:2000 closely reflects the basic principles of TQM (Kartha 2002). The ISO

9000:2000 family of standards consists of three documents: ISO 9000:2000, Quality

Management System – Fundamentals and Vocabulary; ISO 9001:2000, Quality Management

Systems – Requirements; and ISO 9004:2000, Quality Management Systems – Guidelines

for Performance Improvement. ISO 9004:2000 is a business management tool which

companies can use to go above and beyond the foundational elements of ISO 9001. It

includes information from different national quality awards such as MBNQA, EQA and JQA

(Babicz 2001). Thus ISO 9000:2000 is conceptually closer to the TQM model of excellence.

Pheng (2001) have shown the similarities between ISO 9000:2000 and the Japanese ‘5S’

principles. All these show the coherence of concepts between ISO 9000:2000 and TQM. In

61

fact continuous improvement is the focus of the process based model of ISO 9000:2000

shown in Figure 2.10.

Value-adding activities Information flow

Figure 2. 10 Model of a process-based quality management system

Source : ISO 9001:2000 standard.

Another similarity between TQM and ISO 9000:2000 has been attempted by Magd

and Curry (2003). They have mapped the Deming’s system of profound knowledge with the

components of ISO 9000:2000. The same is shown in Table 2.10.

Continual improvement of the quality management system

Customers Requirements

Customers Satisfaction

Management Responsibility

Resource management

Product realization

Measurement, analysis and improvement

Product

62

ISO 9000 Process 9000 assessment The initial assessment is a detailed review of the company’s quality systems and

procedures compared with ISO 9000 requirements. This process defines the scope of

the ISO project.

Quality assurance

manual

While ISO 9000 standards do not require a quality assurance and policy manual, they

do require the company to document everything it does and every system that affects

the quality of the finished product. The quality manual is often used because it is a

good way to get all the necessary documentation together in one place.

Training Everyone, from top to bottom, needs training in two areas. First, they need an overall

understanding of ISO 9000 vocabulary, requirements , role of the quality manual, and

benefits that will be derived from the system. Second, they need to be aware of the

actual day-to-day process of upgrading and improving procedures.

Documentations of

work instructions

Processes that have been improved will need new documentation. Once completed,

this manual should outline every process a company undertakes that affects the quality

of a finished product.

Registration audit The final step in ISO 9000 program is an audit by company-chosen register to see that

the system is working as described in the quality manual and that the system meets

ISO 9000 requirements.

Deming’s system of profound knowledge Knowledge about

the system

The system contains inter-related components working together in harmony. Managers

should ensure communication and co-operation among the different parts of the system

and each component has a duty to contribute to the whole system. Therefore, it is not

important if any of the components is losing money as long as it contributes to the

success of the other components.

Knowledge about

variation

Deming emphasises the need to understand variations between people, processes,

products, and outcomes; nothing remains constant. Managers should consider

variations in process capability and control charts, and most importantly, variations in

people.

Theory of

Knowledge

Practice based on past experience is a very important element for managers. Deming

claimed that there is no true value of any conditions; any experience might yield

different results when different procedures are used.

Knowledge of

psychology

Management should understand the human side of organization and the human

interaction of employees. People differ, and management should use these differences

for optimisation providing incentives and motivation to succeed.

Table 2. 10 ISO 9000 and Deming’s system of profound knowledge

Source: Magd and Curry (2003).

63

Magd and Curry (2003) have said that the first three elements of Deming’s profound

knowledge and the ISO 9000:2000 process/system approach complement each other.

However, Deming’s Knowledge of Psychology is not evident in ISO 9000 because ISO 9000

does not focus on human interactions (Magd & Curry 2003, p. 248). They concluded that

‘ISO 9000 can be implemented first to create stability and consistency in the organization’s

work, then the implementation of TQM can enhance employee motivation and operational

efficiency, and achieve overall organisational success and performance’(Magd & Curry 2003,

p.252).

Biazzo and Bernardi (2003) have compared the ISO 9000:2000 with MBNQA

and EFQM to assess their conceptual convergence. It is shown in Table 2.11.

MBNQA Model

(2001)

EFQM Model (1999) ISO 9000 (2000)

Visionary leadership Principle developed in the

same way

Principle developed in the same way

Customer-driven

excellence

Principle developed in the

same way

Principle developed in the same way

Organisational and

personal learning

Principle developed in the

same way

Principle developed in the same way (focus on

continuous improvement of company

performance)

Valuing employees

and partners

Principle developed in the

same way

Principle developed partially in the same way

(focus on both personnel and supplier

development)

Agility Principle not developed Principle not developed

Focus on the future Principle not developed Principle not developed

Managing for

innovation

Principle given less emphasis Principle not developed

Management by facts Principle developed in a

similar way, but with more

emphasis on processes

Principle developed in a similar way, but with

more emphasis on processes and on their

interconnections

Public responsibility

and citizenship

Principle developed in the

same way

Principle not developed

Focus on result and

creating values

Principle developed in the

same way

Principle developed in the same way

Table 2. 11 Comparison of MBNQA, EFQM and ISO 9000

Source: Biazzo & Bernardi (2003).

64

The above studies indicate that it is reasonable to conclude that ISO 9000:2000,

unlike ISO 9000:1994 has embodied many concepts of TQM.

If ISO 9000 and TQM are so interrelated, what are the key factors which facilitate a

successful transition from ISO 9000 to TQM?

2.2.5.2 Factors affecting transition from ISO to TQM

Hill, Hazlett and Meegan (2001) studied more than 100 ISO registered companies

over a period of time and concluded that the key factors affecting transition from ISO to

TQM are:

(i) Transformational leadership Hill, Hazlett and Meegan (2001) said that visionary or

transformational leadership is of key importance throughout the transition process. They also

quote Smith (Hill, Hazlett and Meegan 2001, p.153) who has highlighted the need for the

leader to enrol others as co-creators of the vision arguing that ‘people who are enrolled or

committed, identify themselves with the vision and apply themselves to effecting its

realisation’. Bass (1990) also emphasised the need for more transformational leaders at

higher levels in an organization as then lower level employee will emulate transformational

behaviour.

(ii) A capacity and willingness to learn ISO 9000 certification facilitates in ‘learning how

to learn’(Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001). ‘Organisational learning is, again related to visionary

leadership’(Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001, p. 153) because ‘major influences on the

motivation to learn includes leader behaviour’ (Bass & Avolio quoted in Hill, Hazlett &

Meegan 2001, p.153). Innovative thinking reinforced through a tolerance of risk and error

and teamwork can be effective in organisational learning (Schein 1993). Thus the

willingness to learn is seen to be dependent on visionary or transformational leadership.

Hackman (1990, p.84) found that learning from experience leads to performance

enhancement of a team. He also found that that capacity to learn depends on the amount of

trust among team members (Hackman 1990, p.84).

(iii) Executive mind set. This depends on three parameters:

(a) Understanding quality concepts, why the transition is being attempted, what it will entail

and the potential benefit derived from the effort.

65

(b) Executive motivation It is what drives the underlying behaviour. ‘If the senior

management’s primary behaviour in pursuing ISO 9000 is to have a “badge of

competence”……., then the drive to move beyond the standard will be weak’ ( Hill, Hazlett

& Meegan, 2001, p. 150). One aspect of motivation is goal setting – both personal goals and

goals for others. Once again the role of transformational leaders comes to the fore because

‘they articulate goals, build an image and arouse motivation’ ( Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001,

p.152).

(c) Executive intent This refers to the difference between espoused theory (what they say)

and theories-in-use (the implied theory in what they do). Thus it is a measure of the

difference between what managers say about TQM and what they actually do. This is also in

consonance with the observations by Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2002) and Curry and Kadasah

(2002) referred in section 2.2.5 that the true reason behind ISO certification has an impact on

an organization’s transition to TQM.

Hill, Hazlett and Meegan (2001) have concluded that the obsession for winning

and/or commitment to a compelling vision have the potential to strengthen intentions and to

increase behavioural control at both individual and corporate levels.

This discussion about factors which affect transition from ISO to TQM shows that a

transformational leadership has substantial bearing on the other two factors. This makes

transformational leadership a crucial area to study. This has been done in section 2.2.8.

Till now the impact of ISO on quality orientation of companies outside India has been

reviewed. What has been the impact of ISO on quality management of Indian companies?

The same is now reviewed.

2.2.5.3 Quality movement in India and ISO

Mandal et al. (2000) made a study of the propagation of quality management practice

since 1985 and concluded that with the opening up of the Indian economy and subsequent

increased competition, Indian companies are becoming more quality conscious. In February

1991, an Indian company obtained the first ISO 9000 certificate in India (Jagadeesh 1999).

By December 1998, about 3500 companies were certified in India (Mehta 1999, p.649). In

1996, the Government of India set up the Quality Council of India (QCI) which acts as

national agency for quality certification and it also administers the National Quality

Campaign.

66

Gupta (2000), in what is perhaps the first study to assess the differences between the

ISO and non-ISO organizations in India, found that the following four statistically significant

differences do exist between them:

(i) Product design

(ii) Training

(iii) Use of quality in strategic planning

(iv) Team building

ISO 9000 is now generally recognised as a launching pad for implementation of TQM.

(Khanna et al. 2002; Umesh, Bhusi & Kumar 2000). Acharya and Ray (2000) did a study of

about 1200 ISO 9000 certified organizations in India. They have found that ISO

implementation has benefited these companies in the following three areas:

(i) Better understanding of process/ activities being performed.

(ii) Better understanding of responsibilities/ authorities.

(iii) Better linkage to other functions across the organization.

The study also found that ‘quantitative techniques are rarely used in analysis of non-

compliance, customer complaints and control of processes and “find and fix it” approach is

still in usage rather than a disciplined problem-solving approach’(Acharya & Ray 2000,

p.266). Rao, Raghunathan and Solis (1997) also found that the level of training in basic and

advanced statistical techniques is low. They also reported that the effectiveness of employee

involvement and the level of employee participation were low. This is perhaps a pointer that

the Indian industry is still in its infancy as far as complete assimilation of tools and

techniques of TQM are concerned. Similar opinion has been echoed by Umesh, Bhusi and

Kumar (2000) wherein they have indicated that ‘unless our society becomes quality

conscious, TQM/ISO will be only bandwagons ( In Japan quality started from society and

came to industry). As long as quality does not become a way of life, (entire society adopts it),

TQM will only be in books’ (Umesh, Bhusi and Kumar 2000, p.170).

Acharya and Ray (2000) go on to add that the three most important lessons learnt by

the organizations in the process of ISO certification are

(i) Teamwork is essential.

(ii) People make the system work.

(iii)Cooperation and information sharing are needed.

The researcher believes that the aspects mentioned above can be called the soft side

of an organization, which emanate largely from the culture of an organization. Thus now

another major immediate discipline - TQM and culture will be reviewed.

67

2.2.6 TQM and culture

The review of quality awards and critical success factors for TQM has shown that

culture influences the definition of TQM in a country and it also affects the operationalisation

of TQM in a country. Deming also has said that TQM is a management philosophy that

requires a radical cultural change from traditional management to continuous improvement

management (Yen, Krumwiede & Sheu 2002). However, there has been less attention to how

the principles of TQM have been adapted to existing cultures (Chin & Pun 2002, p.274).This

necessitates that the impact of a country’s culture and organization’s own culture on the

implementation of TQM is studied.

Noronha (2002) has studied the impact of Chinese culture on TQM. He concludes

that ‘whether a TQM program will sustain or fail will depend upon how TQM itself fuses

with the quality climate, which is in turn influenced by the national culture setting’ (Noronha

2002, p.221).

Triandis and Bhawuk (1997) have referred to a pioneering study by Hofstede who

identified four factors on which culture of different countries differ. The four factors are

collectivism-individualism, power distance, masculinity-feminity and uncertainty avoidance.

Kanungo and Mendonca (1996) have provided a model to explain the internal work culture

of organizations in developing countries based on these four dimensions and one additional

dimension of associative thinking-abstractive thinking. The model is shown in Figure 2.11.

68

Figure 2. 11 Characteristics of internal work culture of organizations in developing countries in the context of their sociocultural environment

Source: Kanungo and Mendonca (1996).

High power distance cultural dimension means the less powerful members of society

accept unequal distribution of power and rewards. A high uncertainty avoidance culture

means the extent to which people feel the need to avoid ambiguous situations, and the extent

INTERNAL WORK CULTURE

Descriptive assumption about human nature

External Locus of

control Limited and fixed

potential Past & Present

orientation Short-Term

perspective

Prescriptive assumption about the principles that ought to govern human conduct

Passive and reactive stand

Moralism Authoritarian &

paternalistic Context dependent

69

to which they try to manage such situations by providing explicit rules and regulations. In a

high uncertainty avoidance culture, people feel uncomfortable without the structure of

policies and procedures and employee do not desire a great deal of discretion. Low

masculinity in work setting implies that the orientation of the employees is towards

personalised relationship rather than towards performance (Kanungo & Mendonca 1996,

p.70).The dimension of ‘high associative thinking’ and ‘low abstractive thinking’ implies that

people are guided less by abstract rules and principles ( as they apply uniformly to every

situation) and more by the existing contextual and historical considerations (Kanungo &

Mendonca 1996, p.71).It is akin to context sensitiveness proposed by Sinha and Kanungo

(1997). Collectivistic culture refers to ‘societies in which people from birth onwards are

integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout their lifetime continue to protect

them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty’ (Hofstede quoted in Walumbwa & Lawler

2003, p.1087).

Tata and Prasad (1998) have assessed the impact of two cultural constructs - ‘ power

distance’ and ‘uncertainty avoidance’- on TQM implementation. According to Tata and

Prasad (1998) high power distance and high uncertainty avoidance culture give rise to control

oriented organisational culture and mechanistic organisational structure. However, ‘since

TQM introduces significant changes in the distribution of power and status’ …. ‘it may result

in failure of TQM implementation’ (Tata & Prasad 1998, p. 706). Companies which have

flexibility-oriented cultures and organic structures are more likely to implement TQM

successfully. Similar views have been expressed by Chin and Pun (2002, p.275) that

individuals dominated by high power distance and /or a strong uncertainty avoidance do not

necessarily want the responsibilities that come with TQM. Aycan et al. (2000) assessed the

way in which socio-cultural environment influences internal work culture and human

resource management practice. They found that managers who perceived paternalism and

high power distance in their socio-cultural environment did not provide job enrichment and

empowerment. Robert et al. (2000) studied the fit of empowerment and continuous

improvement with national culture using the theoretical construct of individualism-

collectivism and power distance. Collectivism here means societies where group interests

supersede individual interest (Hofstede quoted in Walumbwa & Lawler 2003, p. 1084).

Robert et al. (2000) found that empowerment was negatively associated with satisfaction in

India, but positively associated in US, Mexico and Poland. Continuous improvement was

positively associated with satisfaction in all the four countries. Since Indians are high on

collectivism (Chhokar 2000; Hofstede quoted in Sinha 1995, p. 100; Sinha et al. 2002),

70

Robert et al. (2000) concluded that ‘ a very high power distance country like India, may give

rise to negative attitudes in response to empowerment or participation types of practice’. On

the other hand, individualistic cultural dimension may not fit into the group orientation

aspects of TQM. Yen, Krumwiede and Sheu (2002) used the MBTI instrument and found

that a top manager personality who had a long-range perspective and was possibility driven,

was crucial for TQM practice. This personality dimension was not affected by cultural

factors.

In line with the studies made by western researchers, cultural change has been found

to be a major problem in implementing quality improvement program in India (Mandal et al.

2000). Crosby has said that complacency is a major problem with the Indian management

system (Jagadeesh 1999).

This necessitates that the a review of Indian work culture be carried out.

2.2.6.1 Indian work culture

Sinha and Sinha (1990) and Sinha (1991) have tried to assess the impact of Indian

social values on Indian organizations. They identified five social values which affect

organisational effectiveness in India:

(i) Power play in terms of affection (sneh)and deference (shradha): This means those

who yield to power are treated with due and undue favour and those who do not yield to

power are discriminated. This has been also termed as affective reciprocity – an intense

emotionality in caring and being cared for without asking. Affective reciprocity means those

who are close to the superior are bestowed with all kinds of and including undue favours,

while those who are not, tend to be distanced and discriminated against (Sahay & Walsham

1997, p. 421)

(ii) Preference for personalised relationship. This is akin to low masculinity of

Kanungo and Mendonca (1996).

(iii) Group imbeddedness: The members of in-group are owned and bound by

personalised relationship while others are strangers and must be distanced (Sinha & Sinha

1990, p. 710). Thus social networking is through own(apane)-other(paraye) dichotomy.

(iv) Duty and obligation over hedonism: The emphasis in Hindu religion is on self-

control and containing of impulses. Hence duty consists of appropriate role behaviour which

includes protecting in-group members and favouring them over others (Sinha 1997, p.59).

71

(v) Hierarchical perspective: Indians tend to arrange things, persons, relationships, ideas

and almost everything hierarchically. Even the Indian Gods are hierarchised. The high power

distance, status consciousness, centralisation of decision making, need to depend upon a

patron and so on are manifestation of this preference for hierarchy ( Sinha 1997, p.58).

These five social values have been called vertical collectivism by Triandas and

Bhawuk (Sinha 1997, p.59) i.e. collectivism where every one within a collective group is put

in a hierarchy.

How do these social values affect Indian work culture? Research on Indian work

culture indicates that high power distance, collectivism and affective reciprocity are major

cultural values of Indian managers (Chhokar 2000, Sinha 1997). With respect to uncertainty

avoidance earlier studies (Hofstede 1980, quoted by Sinha 1997, p.61) have said Indians are

high on uncertainty avoidance but a more recent study (Chhokar 2000, p.22) found Indians

to be moderate on uncertainty avoidance. In a cross-cultural study covering 61 countries,

Chhokar (2000) found Indians to be midway on uncertainty avoidance.

It is generally agreed that successful TQM implementation requires participatory

management style in organizations (Ishikawa 1985; Korunka et al. 2003; MBNQA 2000).

However, Kanungo and Mendonca (1996) have contended that because of the above

dimensions of work culture, the sociocultural environment of developing countries is not

conducive to participative management. They postulated that the sociocultural dimensions of

high uncertainty avoidance, low individualism, high power distance, low masculinity, and

high context-sensitive thinking are incompatible with participative management (Kanungo &

Mendonca 1996, p.276). Thus according to them participative leadership becomes a viable

option for developing countries only to the extent and degree to which its implementation

modalities address the cultural constraints and build on the cultural facilitators.

Kanungo and Mendonca (1996, p.283) mention that the environment of developing

countries are characterised by high complexity due to presence of heterogeneous elements,

low predictability due to presence of unstable and turbulent elements and low munificence

due to the scarcity of needed resources. Monetory form of compensation and job security are

therefore highly valued by Indian employees (Gopalan & Rivera 1997). Faced with

instability and uncertainty, the leader cannot rely on well-defined rules and regulations or

established procedures, but must resort to rather flexible and unconventional strategies and

courses of action.

On the same lines, Sinha and Kanungo (1997) explain the Indian organisational

behaviour on the basis of context sensitivity and balancing. Context sensitivity pertains to

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beliefs about person (patra), time (kal) and ecological (desh) components of environment.

Context sensitivity is basically a thinking principle or a mind-set that is cognitive in nature

and it determines the adaptive nature of an idea or behaviour in context (Sinha & Kanungo

1997, p.96). Balancing is a behavioural disposition to avoid extremes and to integrate or

accommodate diverse considerations. It refers to a tendency to accommodate, integrate or

tolerate while coping with the environmental context. The preference for accommodation

rather than confrontation leads to few open conflicts, but can result in a state of ‘cold war’.

Context sensitivity and balancing are related, because the persons who are sensitive to their

contexts are also aware of their diverse demands and therefore, have to balance them by

adapting their behaviour in order to cope with the environment (Sinha & Kanungo 1997,

p.96).They say that traditional systems such as Hindu religion, caste as a form of social

stratification, and agricultural mode of production have interacted with foreign invasions and

alien rules to give rise to several sociocultural characteristics such as:

(i) Group embeddedness and hierarchy while relating to people (patra).

(ii) Uncertainty about future and the resultant short term perspective while relating to time

(kal), and

(iii) Scarcity of resources, deficient infrastructural facilities and poverty syndrome related to

ecology (desh).

Sinha et al. (2004) have identified the impact of societal culture on organisational

culture in India. They found four major pan Indian societal dimensions: hypocrisy,

corruption, inaction and respect for power. Three dimensions : quick rich disposition, non-

work orientation and face keeping were differently endorsed at different location. Infra-

structural facilities had sweeping impact on societal, organisational and managerial

dimensions of beliefs, preferences and practices. People from infra-structurally adequate

place rated themselves, the people and the organization more positively. Sinha et al. (2004)

say that Hofstede’s dimension of power distance emerged as a dominant theme in this study.

However, ‘collectivism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance did not appear at the top of

manager’s mind’ (Sinha et al. 2004, p.7) while these were considered as a part of Indian

culture in an earlier study by Kanungo and Mendonka (1996). Triandis and Bhawuk (1997)

have said that Indians are shifting towards individualism. These studies bring up the

possibility that the cultural values are gradually changing in India. The next section focuses

on that.

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2.2.6.2 Duality of traditionalism and modernism in Indian culture

It was mentioned earlier that Sinha and Kanungo (1997) have explained the duality of

traditionalism and modernism in Indian culture on the three components of the environment -

person (patra), time (kal) and ecology (desh). They explain that people exhibit both a

primary expressive mode that is traditional in nature and a secondary expressive mode that is

acquired as a result of the transplantation of the western management system onto the

traditional core. Superior-subordinate relationships, work behaviour, and management

practices reflect both the primary and secondary modes in varying degree.

Based on these two concepts, Sinha and Kanungo (1997) contend that Indian

managers have the potential to integrate, blend and accommodate traditional values with

western management practice in order to render their organization effective in the face of

increasing competition (Sinha & Kanungo 1997, p.103).

The aspect of affective reciprocity and a personalised superior- subordinate

relationship against contractual relationship has also been noted by Sahay and Walsham

(1997). They also refer to ‘own-other’ syndrome which manifests in social networking. They

also say that managers internalise two set of values: those drawn from the traditional

moorings of the family and community, particularly values related to affiliation, security,

dependency and social obligations; and those drawn from modern education, professional

training and the imperatives of modern technology, such as those relating to personal growth,

efficiency and collaborative work (Sahay & Walsham 1997, p. 424). Sinha(1997, p.60) has

said that two set of values -vertical collectivism and individualism- coexist in Indian

organization.

Khandwalla (1992) in his study of corporate turnaround also notes that societies

which are transiting from the traditional to modernity, internalise two different identities, one

passive and dependent, rooted in childhood upbringing, and the other proactive, learnt

through exposure to modern institutions, ideas and mores. Which set of behaviours is evoked

at work will depend on what cues are emitted at work: to conform and obey, or to take

initiative and be dynamic (Khandwalla 1992, p.255). Public enterprises being centralised and

rule bound, generally tend to evoke feudal and servile behaviour. This leads him to

hypothesize that ‘in collectivities whose members are socialised into both passivity and

proactivity, the more bureaucratic and/or authoritarian the top leadership, the sicker will the

collectivity become, and the more dynamic and participatory the top leadership, the faster

will be its regeneration’(Khandwalla 1992, p. 255). In these environments charismatic

74

leaders who, by definition are more proactive, entrepreneurial, and change-oriented would

seem to provide a better fit for the needs of organizations than leaders who are more inclined

to maintain the status quo.

Today, charismatic leadership is considered a part of transformational leadership

(Srivastava 2003). Earlier transformational leadership was noted as an important mediating

factor for transiting an organization from ISO to TQM orientation. Thus the concept of

transformational leadership is required to be reviewed in more detail. As mentioned earlier,

this will be done in section 2.2.8.

2.2.6.3 Recent changes in Indian work culture

The review of Indian work culture in section 2.2.6.1 has continuously emphasised

the hierarchical nature, personalised relationship, affective reciprocity as the dominant work

culture of Indians. However, section 2.2.6.2 also shows the duality in the Indian work culture

on account of the impact of modernisation. It has been said that the political equality

experienced since independence has resulted in a desire to effect a decrease in power distance

(Chhokar 2000). This means that though the Indians are high power distance persons, they

exhibit a preference for reduction in the power distance if possible. Similarly the

collectivistic orientation is also under going a change (Chhokar 2000, p.22; Sinha et al. 2002,

p. 318) and people have expressed a preference towards decrease in collectivistic orientation

(Chhokar 2000, p.22). Gupta et al. (2002) have said that India and much of South Asia aspire

for much stronger future orientation and performance orientation. They also value

charismatic, team oriented and humane leadership. These call in question: “In view of the

liberalisation of Indian economy since 1991, what changes have come in the organisational

values of Indian managers”.

Pearson and Chaterjee (2001) have attempted to answer this question. Through their

study on 421 Indian managers, they have concluded that ‘in a relatively short time, the

fundamental attributes of a competitive market economy have subjugated societal qualities

reinforced over hundreds of years and thought to be unchangeable’. Among the respondents,

46% were from organizations owned by the government, 56% were holding masters degree

or above, 61.8% of them had spent their childhood in joint (extended) family. More than 75%

of them were above 40 years of age and were holding senior positions. In this respondent

profile, Pearson and Chaterjee found that such deep-rooted Indian cultural values as ‘respect

for seniority’, ‘valuing tradition over change’ were perceived to be less important and such

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new concepts as ‘quality’, ‘team work’ and ‘customer service’ were rated to be more

important.

Their result is shown in Table 2.12.

Variable Mean Std. Dev.

Quality in all work activity 3.61 2.40

Personal integrity 3.86 3.10

Team Work 4.37 2.33

Customer service 4.90 2.98

Social responsibility 5.12 3.00

Workplace harmony 6.57 2.59

Organisational learning 7.16 2.45

Respect for seniority 7.17 2.75

Innovation and creativity 7.29 3.56

Valuing tradition over change 8.82 2.72

Ordered relationship structure 8.94 3.83

Wealth and material possession 10.21 2.31

Note: The lower the mean, the higher level of the perceived importance.

Table 2. 12 Societal values of Indian managers after liberalisation

Source: Pearson and Chatterjee (2001).

Pearson and Chatterjee (1999, p.144) therefore concluded that ‘within the context of

organizations, Indian employee can embrace global work values while retaining deep

connection to their societal culture’. The final work goals held by the managers were shaped

both by the forces of the economic transformation as well as their indigenous cultural values

(Pearson & Chatterjee 1999, p. 144). Similarly, Sinha et al. (2002) found evidence that

though the core of Indians continue to be collectivist, the changing socio-economic scenario

of the country is creating a shift towards individualism. Khandwalla (1999) has also found

that the change in corporate culture seems distinctly compatible with a free, more

competitive market environment.

A question arises that if India is transiting from its traditional cultural values to more

modern cultural values, what is the appropriate leadership intervention in such a situation.

Kanungo and Mendonca (1996) claim that the ‘nurturant-task’ leadership proposed by Sinha

(1995) is an appropriate leadership style which can reduce the dysfunctional effects of

traditional values such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, low individualism and low

masculinity.

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2.2.6.4 Nurturant task leadership

Relationship orientation as against task or performance orientation has been a central

characteristics of effective Indian leaders (Chhokar 2000, p.28). Sinha (1995) has recognised

the importance of relationship and has developed a ‘nurturant-task’ (NT) leadership model.

As per this model, the NT leader ‘cares for his subordinates, shows affection, takes personal

interest in their well being, and above all is committed to their growth’, but provides this

nurturance only after subordinates perform the agreed job tasks (Sinha 1990). As per Sinha

(1990), from a state of dependency on the leader and constraints of high power distance and

authoritarian and paternalistic norms, subordinates can be developed to a state of

preparedness for participative management so that they function as autonomous work groups.

This is schematically shown in Figure 2.12. It shows that a subordinate has a bi-directional

relationship with his leader who displays a NT leadership style. With time, as the dependence

of the subordinate decreases on the leader, the leader can display a combination of NT and

participative leadership style and then a participative leadership style. Finally once the

subordinate ceases to have any dependence on the leader, both become part of an

autonomous group.

NT

S1

time NT= nurturant-task leadership style

NT/P = combination of nurturant-task and participative style, P= participative leadership style

S1, S2, S3=subordinates, arrow=direction of relationship,

Figure 2. 12 Nurturant-Task leadership process leading to participative management

Source: Sinha (1990).

Sinha (1995, p.117) defines nurturance ‘as benevolent paternalism while people

orientation in the West is primarily fraternal in nature. Fraternalism assumes equality among

members (including the leader)’. In the West, ‘the members have different resources which

NT/P

S2 S3

P

Autonomous groups

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they need to share by maintaining a supporting relationship. But in India, nurturance assumes

a hierarchical relationship where unequals are bound by “affective reciprocity” between a

senior or superior and a junior or subordinate who needs affection, guidance and direction’

(Sinha 1995, p.117). Thus, the superior is seen to be kind and the subordinate submissive.

Sekhar (2001) considers NT leadership style a modern variation of the leadership style of the

legend of Ram.

Kanungo and Mendonca (1996, p.74) said that NT leadership promotes the

relationship or people orientation by placing job objectives and recognition of successful

performance in a personalised context; and enhances the social achievement orientation

through opportunities to experience significant personal achievement for the collective good.

This gives rise to the possibility that even though the traditional Indian culture may

not be conducive to TQM, it is not an invariant, and it is possible to modulate it towards

modern management values required for TQM. Therefore in the next section, Indian culture

is compared with ‘culture for TQM’.

2.2.6.5 Juxtaposition of culture for TQM and Indian culture

Both Tata and Prasad (1998) and Tan and Khoo (2002) have mentioned that a culture

of high power distance and/or a strong uncertainty avoidance are not conducive for TQM. It

has been seen in section 2.2.6.1 that Indian culture shows high power distance and strong

uncertainty avoidance which promotes hierarchical relationship, dependency on superiors

and a preference for rules and regulations for every situation rather than having to deal with

uncertain situations where discretionary decision making is called for. Also there is a

preference for personalised relationship as against professional relationship (Sinha 1995).

Does it mean that the Indian culture is not conducive for TQM implementation? The existing

literature is silent on this issue. However, there are other Asian cultures which are similar to

Indian culture and where the moderating influences of culture on TQM have been studied.

Khoo and Tan (2003) have compared the western approach to TQM and the

Japanese approach to TQM . The same is shown in Figure 2.13.

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-Employee

development

-Customer Focus

-Social Responsibilities

- High emphasis on

leadership

- Breakthrough - Kaizen

Improvements -Keiretsu

- Autonomy -Group Learning

- Workforce Diversity - Harmony and Respect

-Employee Empowerment - Leadership by example/ethics

-Leaders Driving Creativity/ - Shintoism /Buddhism

Innovation

MBNQA Model JQA Model

Western Culture and Management Japanese Culture and Management

Figure 2. 13 Socio cultural factors in MBNQA and JQA

Source: adapted from Khoo & Tan (2003, p. 22).

The Japan specific cultural concepts which have influenced the TQM concept there

are dealt now. In a Japanese firm, planning is a task for all members of the company. The top

management policy (hoshin) is more than a planning system. It is an organization

development process throughout the company. It is recalled that the Deming Prize also looks

upon the journey to the award as a developmental process (section 2.2.3.3). Hoshin promotes

nemawashi (consensus building), ringi (shared decisions), commitment and loyalty. The

effective top down and bottom up communication encourages all employees to act

collectively in achieving shared organisational objectives (Khoo & Tan 2003). Japanese

Shintoism and Buddhism advocate respect for everyone. Keiretsu are large conglomerates of

financially linked group of companies. Owing to the cooperative nature of the Keiretsu

Overlapping Concepts

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network, part produced by companies within the group fit together so well that the result is

better quality (Khoo & Tan 2003, p.21).

2.2.6.6 Comparison between Japanese culture and Indian culture

Are there similarities between these Japanese cultural norms and the Indian culture?

Sinha(1995, p.100) says there is significant overlap between Indian and Japanese cultures. He

found dependence proneness in both cultures. Hierarchical and personalised relationships are

typical in both cultures. However, there are differences as well. Indians are much less group

embedded than the Japanese are. Further, Indian work group is internally fragmented in terms

of own (apana) and others (paraya). The concept of ‘own’ is based on ethnic, caste and

religious similarities. But the Japanese linkages for ‘own’ are based on seniority and personal

loyalty. Second, work is central to the life of the Japanese, but Indians value work if it is part

of a positive personalised relationship (Sinha 1995). Still, ‘if it is possible to change the

collective orientation of Indians from the primordial “own –others” to “work groups”, the so

called dysfunctional Indian social values can play a facilitating role in developing a

synergetic work culture’ (Sinha & Sinha 1990, p. 712).

Another difference between Indian culture and Japanese culture is that though both

are collectivist in nature, Indian collectivisim is vertical collectivism, where members of a

group try to differentiate among each other while Japanese collectivism is more like

horizontal collectivism where members of a group do not tend to differentiate among each

other (Triandis & Bhawuk 1997, p. 16). A comparison between vertical collectivism and

horizontal collectivism is given in Table 2.13.

Dimension Vertical collectivism Horizontal collectivism

Kind of self Emphasises difference from

others within the in-group

Emphasises sameness with

others within the in-group

Sociality Communal sharing

Authority ranking

Communal sharing

Equality matching

Political system Low equality

Low freedom

High equality

Low freedom

Universal value Values hierarchy Values harmony

Table 2. 13 Comparison between vertical collectivism and horizontal collectivism

Source: Triandis and Bhawuk (1997, p. 27).

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Horizontal collectivism displays a sense of oneness with members of the in-group.

Vertical collectivism also displays a sense of serving the in-group and sacrificing for the

benefit of the in-group (Triandis & Bhawuk 1997, p. 17). The difference between them lie in

the orientation that the vertical collectivism emphasises on how an in-group members are

different on certain aspects, the horizontal collectivism emphasises how an in-group

members are having the same self. There is equality of status in a horizontal collectivist

society, but in a vertical collectivist society, hierarchy is emphasised within a social in-group.

Therefore vertical relations are more common in societies high on power distance and

horizontal relations are most common on societies low on power distance (Triandis &

Bhawuk 1997, p. 17). It has been reported that in the collectivist culture of Japan, harmony is

taken to be more important than fairness (Sinha 1997, p.60).

In the context of leadership, leadership theorists in both the countries ‘have given a

major role to context as a determinant of what will be good leadership and what will be not’

(Earley & Erez 1997, p. 631).Thus given these comparisons, it is possible to postulate that

TQM can be successfully implemented in a government organization like Indian Railways,

provided, the Railway specific organisational values are identified and is modulated to suit

the tenets of TQM. This begs the question: What are the organisational values of Indian

Railways in the context of TQM?

The existing literature is silent on this. In fact, there has not been any study on the

Indian Railways from the organisational point of view. However, there are some studies on

Indian bureaucracy of which Indian Railways is a part. Therefore studies on Indian

bureaucracy will now be reviewed.

2.2.7 Indian Bureaucracy

Collective decision-making in the form of Panchayat has survived to this date in

India. It has now evolved into a democratic government. Today, the policies made by the

elected representative are implemented by bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is supposed to be a

rational organisational system. Some regard it as the best way to deal with the masses (Ballé

1999). However in practice, many bureaucracies do not work efficiently. Myrdal (1968) has

differentiated the bureaucracy in terms of ‘soft state’ and ‘hard state’. In hard states,

administration is based on the basis of rational bureaucratic principles as propounded by

Weber. In a soft state, as in India, administrators habitually circumvent law and regulations.

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‘In the soft state political accountability of the rulers to the people, the accountability of the

bureaucrats to his/ her boss, …. and the rule of law which enables individuals or groups to

seek redressal against each other or the state, all get eroded’ (Khandwalla, 1999, p.126).

Taking this logic further, Chhokar (n.d.) and Kumar (2000, p. 60) have said that the Indian

state is neither coercive nor enabling. Whatever be the nature of Indian bureaucracy, people

have generally been losing their confidence in bureaucracy (Chhokar 2000, p.7). Sinha and

Sinha(1990, p. 706) have ascribed the soft work culture to the ‘socially determined’ work

forms.

2.2.7.1 Characteristics of Indian bureaucracy

Some of the characteristics of Indian bureaucracy are given below. The first

three have been summarised from Khandwalla (1999, chapter 2).

(a) Tunnel vision – They tend to stress the perspective afforded by their own

speciality and ignore other perspective that may be relevant in a situation. Thus, conflicts

between specialist departments flare up. They tend to solve the problem of coordination by

bringing in other specialists which worsens the problem. Thus teamwork is not the hallmark

of a bureaucratic culture (McHugh & Bennett 1999). In fact a movement towards teamwork

constitutes a major cultural change in bureaucratic set-up (McHugh & Bennett 1999, p.89).

(b) Rule orientation- Rule orientation cues the staff to minimum acceptable behaviour

that satisfies rules. Related to rules and regulations is the unintended consequence of creating

a culture of mistrust whereby people try to shirk risky work, and that justifies layers and

layers of rules and regulations that further chokes collaboration and initiative taking. Since

people in bureaucracy are rewarded for following rules and standard procedures, it tends to

invert goals and means. That is, adherence to the means – the rules and regulations –

becomes the goal. Thus bureaucracy finds it difficult to adapt to change and generally resists

it.

(c) Monolithic- At the structural level Indian bureaucracy is quite monolithic. It has

standardized recruitment procedures, salary structure, rules for conducting business and

audits and accounting procedures. At the functional level, there are powers delegated to make

routine decisions, but power to make discretionary decision tends to be centralised (Narain

1990). There are many checks and balances which slow down decision-making, discourage

initiative taking and adaptation to local circumstances (Narain 1990). Monolithic systems

tend to be rigid and inertial, and often exhibit the phenomenon of punctuated equilibrium: a

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long period of relative inflexibility during which the perception of inadequacy of the system

in coping with changes and challenges accumulates, until a situation arises when the system

falls into disrepute (Orton & Weick 1990). Orton and Weick maintain that the cost of

punctuated equilibrium system is the long delay in introducing large as well as local

innovations and therefore long periods of declining performance of the state. The challenge

therefore is to minimize the monolithic features of bureaucracy (Khandwalla 1999, p. 257).

(d) Hierarchical – The Indian bureaucracy is deeply hierarchical. It a deeply

ingrained value in the Indian government. In fact Pai Panandiker & Kshirsagar (1978, p.161)

have said that the ‘steeply hierarchical propensities and traditions of Indian bureaucracy need

to be curbed’.

(e) Poor in implementation - The Indian bureaucracy is considered weak in

implementing policies (Kumar 2000, p. 58). This is partly because of emphasis given by

traditional Indian ethos to ‘thought’ over ‘action’. Another reason is that Indians are prone to

idealistic thinking as against pragmatic thinking which makes one seek perfect solutions.

This either results in no action or very delayed action (Kumar 2000, p.61). However, this gap

between thought and action, instead of leading to dissonance are balanced, accommodated,

integrated and allowed to coexist (Marriott quoted in Sinha 1997, p.61 emphasis in original).

There are diverse conclusions on the managerial style of Indian bureaucrats. A few

studies have found the managerial style to be directive or manipulative rather than

participatory (Pai Panandiker & Kshirsagar 1978; Mehta 1988; Sharma 1992). However

Ramamurti (1987) has said that when Indian managers in the public sector are free to act

independently, they can be expected to follow strategies which increase profit and resist

those that seek to reduce profit. But, when they are not free to act independently, their

decision depend on more complex factors. Sahay and Walsham (1997, p. 419) have linked

the Indian social system and Indian bureaucracy and said that the Indian bureaucracy rigidly

adheres to rules yet there is personal alliance between businessmen and bureaucrats leading

to personal gratification (we again see here the Indian tendency of personalised relationship

cropping up –researcher’s note). Little wonder, the Indian government has been rated as one

the most corrupt in the world (Khandwalla 1999, p.219). Gupta (1995), Myrdal (1968) and

Sinha et al. (2004) have dealt with different aspects of corruption in Indian bureaucracy.

Though there have been many reports about how to make the Indian bureaucracy more

responsive, it is felt that only cosmetic changes have been achieved (Pai Panadiker &

Kshirsagar 1978, p. 158).

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2.2.7.2 Changing the bureaucracy

Resistance to change is well documented (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson 2002, p. 376;

Robbins 1997, p. 723). In the context of the public sector, Kamarck (2003) reports that there

is little incentive to innovate in the public sector. Yet, there have been many attempts to

reform bureaucracy the world over. Some of them have failed and some have succeeded.

Caiden (1991) has identified several reasons why reforming the bureaucracy fails:

(a) Imposed implementation often does not work. Cooperation and participation of

the affected staff is important.

(b) Recipes applied without taking into account local culture and activities often do

not work.

(c) Unattainable objectives- they are abstract or too ambitious.

(d) Obstructive structure, such as excessive or inadequate hierarchy, poor

communication mechanisms and poor conflict resolution mechanism.

(e) Indecisiveness

(f) Narrow vision- There is wide choice of instrumentalities for the reform process,

such as public enquiries, changes in law, scientific management, budgeting, automation,

decentralisation, privatisation, debureaucratisation and so forth. Often, reforms fail because

the reformer may over rely on just one or two instrumentalities such as change in law or

changes at the top.

(g) Poor monitoring

Notwithstanding the failure of public sector reform, there have been instances of

successful reforms in the public sector including some in the third world countries. Campos

and Root (1996) have examined how the bureaucracy was made growth oriented in east

Asian economies. They found that one crucial institutional innovation was the creation of

competent, powerful but accountable bureaucrats. This was achieved by taking the following

steps:

(a) The politicians were able to convince officials that economic growth was the over-

riding national objective as in Taiwan. In South Korea, there was close interaction between

the top political executives and the bureaucracy. The President would visit each ministry to

discuss goals and strategies and review the performance during the next visit.

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(b) Institutionalising a meritocracy in bureaucracy. Non-performance and corruption

were punished.

(c) Relatively low differential in public and private sector compensation. Government

compensation in Singapore was about 15% higher than in the private sector.

(d) Most states framed service rules to protect officials from their seniors and from

politicians as in Japan.

This shows that it is possible to make significant change in bureaucracy

notwithstanding its many shortcomings. An example of changing the working style of

bureaucracy in a third world country comes from Malaysia. TQM was required to be

implemented in different government agencies (Hamid 1995; Khandwalla 1999, p.63). In

1989, the Malaysian government launched a countrywide ‘Excellent Work Culture’

programme. Different state agencies reviewed their operations with full participation of its

employees. Quality awards ranging from national level- called Prime Minister Quality Award

– to district and local level were instituted. Fundamental values like productivity, quality of

service, innovativeness, customer orientation, discipline, integrity and accountability, and

professionalism were stressed. Three important factors which contributed the most in

adoption of these values were: consensus building for change, support from top most political

leadership and keen monitoring by it, and a reward structure which reinforced excellence

In the context of railways, Japanese National Railways (JNR) was a public sector

unit. Much like Indian Railways, it had about 200,000 surplus employees, and it had to

invest in unprofitable, remote routes. However, it was able to convert a loss of US$ 4 billion

in 1986 to a profit of US$ 3.6 billion in 1990 without raising freight and passenger fare. This

was achieved by reorganising JNR into smaller units, reducing the staff and giving these

units freedom from parliamentary approval of budget and also permission to diversify into

other businesses (Khandwalla 1999, p.133). JNR was subsequently privatised. However it

has been reported that application of TQM in railway corporations is slow due to their

traditional management style and emphasis on operational safety (Gaffney & Chan quoted in

Chan et al. 1998).

In the Indian context, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) brought about

increase in milk production and distribution. Its ‘operation flood’ has been hailed as a

massive achievement by the UN. It has been reported that NDDB staff demonstrated high

commitment and morale, despite absence of financial incentives for individuals (Khandwalla

1999). The charismatic leadership of its chairman Mr. Kurien has been reported to be one of

the major reasons behind the success of this government organization (Srivastava 2003).

85

Khandwalla(1999, p. 119) has reported that developing a mission participatively about the

kind of contribution a government unit can make to the quality of life and then brainstorming

to find ways to pursue it under an empowering and participative leadership was critical for

the success of NDDB.

Similar significant changes in bureaucracy have been reported in Britain, Canada,

Australia, New Zealand and Singapore (Khandwalla 1999). Different countries have used

different methods to make the bureaucracy more effective. In South Korea, the development

commitment of the political masters was made credible to the bureaucracy. In Singapore, the

state was fragmented into relatively autonomous entities with clear mandate and professional

management, and in UK and Malaysia, the bureaucratic organization was made more

customer friendly through citizen charters and customer councils.

In a study of bureaucratic reform in government sector Kaul and Collins(1995) have

listed several supporting conditions for successful reforms:

(i) Political commitment for change is critical. This was also noted by Campos and

Root (1996) in their study of east Asian countries quoted earlier.

(ii) Reform has to be paced appropriately. Where reform has been held up for a long

time because of the defensiveness and rigidity of the system, and a political consensus for

reform has finally emerged, administrative reforms can be swift and radical. This process has

been called punctuated equilibrium, meaning spurts of major change within long period of

stability. Where a culture of change has been institutionalised, reforms and innovations can

be gradual based on continuous trial and error learning so that changes are gradual and time

tested, but over a period of time amount to a revolution.

(iii) The successful reform of a bureaucratic system requires involving the staff in the

change process from the beginning.

(iv) There has to be a balance between the increasing service expectation by

consumers and bureaucracy’s internal drive for change.

(v) There should be a system that recognises and rewards good performance and

penalizes poor performance. Remuneration needs to be merit based.

(vi) It has been suggested that the large organisations should be managed as if they

are made up of smaller organisations ( Peter &Waterman quoted by Khandwalla 1999, p. 96).

‘This way the strength of the small organization – fresh thinking, flexibility, teamwork – is

yoked to the strength of the large organization – large resources, risk-bearing ability,

management systems and market clout’ (Khandwalla 1999, p. 96). Fragmentation of

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bureaucracy into smaller autonomous bodies has shown good result in England, Canada and

Malaysia (Khandwalla 1999).

2.2.7.3 TQM and change in government bureaucracy and in public sector

Since Indian Railways is a public sector, it will be instructive to look at the state of

TQM in government bureaucracies and in the public sector.

Deming had no doubt about the importance of TQM in government services:

In most governmental services, there is no market to capture. In place of capture of the market, a

governmental agency should deliver economically the service prescribed by law or regulation. The

aim should be distinction in service. Continual improvement in government service would earn

appreciation of the American public and would hold jobs in the service and help industry to create

more jobs (quoted in Ehrenberg & Stupak 1994, p. 88).

Though the service sector and the public sector have direct interaction with customers, yet,

innovative practices like TQM have been practiced more in manufacturing rather than in

service and public sector (Yasin & Wafa 2002, p. 596). It has been postulated that

implementation of TQM in a public sector may require a different orientation (Ehrenberg &

Stupak 1994). It has also been reported that it is difficult to implement and institutionalise

TQM in public service organization (Moon & Swafin-Smith 1998; Robertson & Seneviratne

1995; Stringham 2004; Yusof & Aspinwall 2000). Some works have tried to identify some of

the impediments which require special attention in implementing TQM in public sector.

These impediments have been variously described as emphasis on procedure over efficiency,

a layered structure, a short-term perspective due to frequent change of the top leadership,

separation of power which necessitates negotiation and consensus building in decision

making(A SCANS report for America 2000, p.20). Ehrenberg and Stupak(1994, p. 89), in an

early study of TQM in the public sector have said that the public sector has less incentive to

reduce costs, they have a near-term focus, external constraints, and complex, diverse, inter-

and intra-organisational relationships. Thus a different kind of quality management may be

required for public services (Yong & Wilkinson 2002). Boyne and Walker (2002, p.127) said

that a significant difference between public and private firms is the role of government

program of management reforms. Whereas private sector firms largely choose their own

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approach to management, a government may require a program of public sector TQM to be

adopted by its agencies.

However against this theoretical observation, a study of TQM implementation in

Malaysian government agencies found that there was no need to modify TQM for public

sector (Fei & Rainey 2003).Similarly McAdam, Reid and Saulters (2002) found that in the

UK the Business Excellence Model (BEM) was found to be the preferred model for

implementation of TQM. It is in keeping with the earlier observation made during the review

of quality awards in section 2.2.3.5 that TQM is invariant across public sector and private

sector.

In the critical success factors for TQM, teamwork and empowerment have been

identified as two critical success factors (section 2.2.2 of this thesis). However, studies have

found that the hierarchical orientation of bureaucratic organization does not facilitate

teamwork or empowerment (Garland 1995; Kanter 1997; McHugh & Bennett 1999). In such

a situation, the organization ends up trying to improve its performance within its old structure,

norms and culture (McHugh & Bennett 1999). Team appraisal in place of individual

appraisal and group recognition will facilitate team working because individualist culture and

emphasis on individual achievement is not conducive for teamwork (Hackman 1990). With

this qualifying remark, some implementation of TQM in bureaucracy will now be seen.

TQM in western government bureaucracies In Europe, the concept of TQM has spread

among the public sector organisations under the name ‘New Public Management (NPM)’

(Scharitzer & Korunka 2000). NPM is more in the nature of reforming government working

through TQM concepts. Korunka et al. (2003) found that employee participation, high-

quality training and professional change management are key for successful NPM

implementation. In England, a Citizen Charter was launched that aimed to improve the

quality of services provided by the government to the citizens (Khandwalla 1999, p. 72). A

total of 38 charters, including one for rail passengers were published. Quality systems were

established which aimed at assessment of quality performance and continual monitoring of

customer satisfaction. In the USA, President Clinton established the National Performance

Review and introduced a government-wide TQM programme. At a micro level, there are

reports of TQM being applied by government sectors in West. For example in municipal

councils in U.S. (Berman & West 1995) and in New York department of Parks and

Recreation (Cohen & Eimicke 1994), TQM has been used with good results. Ehrenberg and

Stupak(1994, p. 95) have postulated that ‘because government culture may be difficult to

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change, it may be necessary to start with smaller organisations or sub-elements of a large

organization in order to establish TQM as a useful template for organisational success in the

years ahead’. This is in line with the observation made in section 2.2.7.2.

TQM in Asian government bureaucracies A TQM approach was established in the Hong

Kong government (Chan et al. 1998). In a study of implementation of TQM in Malaysian

government agencies, Fei and Rainey (2003) found that though Malaysian organisational

culture tends to emphasise hierarchical authority, organisations with more successful TQM

implementation showed leadership patterns and organisational cultural features similar to

those espoused by TQM experts.

Also award winning TQM organisations in the Malaysian government reported higher

levels of ‘organicity’ in organisational structure ( Fei & Rainey 2003, p. 161). An organic

management system is characterised by promotion of cross-functional teams, cross-

hierarchical teams, free flow of information, decentralisation and low formalisation and wide

spans of control (Robbins 1997, p.568). The managers there scored higher on the cultural

dimensions of job challenge, communication, trust, and innovation with particularly large

difference on communication and innovation. It is to be noted that Khandwalla (1999) has

also found organicity a precondition for organisational excellence in Indian organisations.

Tata and Prasad (1998) also recommended organic structure for TQM implementation.

2.2.7.4 Summary of TQM in bureaucracy

In a recent review of innovations in government around the world, quality in

government working has been recognised as one of the six universal components of

government reform ( Kamarck 2003, p. 15). It also identified the following problems in

creation of quality culture in the public sector around the world.

(i) Public sector has difficulty competing with the private sector for the talent needed

to run the government.

(ii) Public sector faces a severe skill shortage.

(iii) Public sector employees are in general paid less.

(iv) The civil service is so bound up in rules and regulations that people are not

rewarded for performance.

(v) Excessive political patronage undercuts merit principles.

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(vi) Public servants do not always operate under the rule of law.

These are in line with the findings of Campos and Root (1996) mentioned in

section 2.2.7.2 in the context of his study of east Asian bureaucracies.

In a review of quality movement adaptation to the public sector, Campos and Root

(1996) identified the following themes:

(i) Set up of ‘one-stop shop’ or places where a person, usually a business owner, can

conduct all their transactions with the government at once.

(ii) Attempt to find out from citizens what they want and expect from government

services.

(iii) Allow citizen inputs to shape bureaucratic organization and behaviour.

(iv) Measure performance and publish whether or not the standards were met.

(v) Involve employees in the redesign of the organization.

(vi) Train government employees in customer service and organise internal incentives

around the accomplishment of quality standards.

2.2.8 TQM and transformational leadership

In section 2.2.5.2, it was seen that transformational leadership is one of the factors

that influence successful transition from ISO to TQM (Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001).

Transformational leadership has supported implementation of TQM (Reed, Lemak & Mero

2002). Robbins(1997, p.735) says that transformational leadership is needed in a learning

organization to implement a shared vision. In his study of organisational turnaround,

Khandwalla (1992, p.262) also has noted that organisational turnaround requires

transformational leadership skills. He says that change through a new mission and vision of

excellence is possible. ‘A vivid, superior, inspiring but credible alternative to the status quo

needs to be identified and communicated to the rank and file and other stakeholders, not

once but again and again, affirmed in small acts and decisions as in large, until that social

mission and/or vision of collective excellence seizes people’s imagination and pushes them

to strive for glory. The process is one of restructuring the Freudian superego (Khandwalla

1992, p.262)’. In the context of TQM, TQM award winning government agencies in

Malaysia had leaders who demonstrated transformational leadership behaviour (Fei &

Rainey 2003). These leaders demonstrated higher vision, staff development, trust,

cooperation, thinking in new ways, adherence to clear value, pride and respect (Fei & Rainey

2003, p.161). These studies show the importance of transformational leadership skills for

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successful implementation of TQM based change. Thus, this thesis looks at transformational

leadership in more detail.

Krishnan (2002) says transformational leadership has four components: charisma,

inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. In contrast,

tools used in transactional leadership are power brokering, withholding favours, and quid pro

quo. ‘It is always tied to position power. Transactional leaders take the values, needs,

motivation and purposes of followers as given and unchanging, but transformational leaders

do not’ (Krishnan 2002, p.20). ‘A transformational leader looks for potential motives in

followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower’ (Banerji

& Krishnan, 2000, p.407) It has been suggested that the display of determination and

persistence by a transformational leader demonstrates courage and conviction in the vision

and mission, and thus inspires, empowers and motivates followers. Other studies (Project

Globe n.d.; Chhokar n.d.) have shown that transformational leaders are team builders. Bass

(1990, p.25) has suggested that transformational leaders through intellectual stimulation are

likely to build cohesion among team members. Bass and Avolio (2000) have now developed

a full range leadership model called Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X). Bass

and Avolio have divided leadership on a continuum of nine factors. Based on Bass and

Avolio (1997), the nine components of MLQ are explained now:

(i) Idealised influence (Charisma) attributes: Idealised influence is defined with respect to

associate’s reaction to the leader. Associates identify with and want to emulate their leader.

Such leaders are thoroughly respected and have much referent power. A sample item to

assess this component is ‘The leader reassures others that obstacle will be overcome’.

(ii) Idealised influence (Charisma)behaviour: It is also a part of charisma. However, here the

associates react more to the leader’s behaviour. They have complete faith in their

charismatic leader, who is seen as having attainable mission and vision. A sample item to

assess this component is ‘The leader emphasises the importance of having a collective sense

of mission’

(iii) Inspirational leadership: It involves the arousal and heightening of motivation among

followers. The leader here provides symbols, metaphors and simplified emotional appeals to

increase awareness and understanding of mutually desired goals. A sample item to assess this

component is ‘The leader articulates a compelling vision of future’.

(iv) Intellectual stimulation: Intellectual stimulation arouses in followers the awareness of

problems and how they may be solved, and stirs the imagination and generates thoughts and

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insights. A sample item to assess this component is ‘ The leaders gets others to look at

problems from many angles’.

(v) Individualised consideration: It means leader treats individuals differently but equitably

on one to one basis. The leader recognises associates’ needs and raises their perspectives.

With individualised consideration, assignments are delegated to associates to provide

learning opportunity. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader spends time

teaching and coaching’.

(vi) Contingent reward: Clarifies what is expected from followers and what they will receive

if they meet expected levels of performance. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The

leader makes clear what one can expect to receive when performance goals are achieved’.

(vii) Active management by exception: The leader monitors to make sure mistakes are not

made and allows status quo to exist without being addressed. A sample item to assess this

component is ‘ The leader directs attention towards failure to achieve standard’.

(viii) Passive management by exception: Tends to react only after problems have become

serious to take corrective action. A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader takes

no action until complaints are received’.

(ix) Laissez-faire: It indicates absence of leadership or the avoidance of intervention or both.

A sample item to assess this component is ‘The leader avoids getting involved when

important issues arise’.

Bass considers the first five factors as transformational, the next three factors as

transactional and the ninth factor as abdication of leadership (Block 2003, p. 321).

Krishnan (2002, p.30) in an empirical study on American subjects further found that

subordinates whose terminal value systems match their leader’s value system are likely to see

their leader as more transformational irrespective of whether the leader’s terminal value

system is congruent with the organization’s or not. One of the managerial implications of

this is that one should pay attention to terminal values of subordinates if a change is

contemplated. This brings the issue of impact of cultural factors on transformational

leadership.

2.2.8.1 Impact of cultural factors on transformational leadership

From a study spanning 60 cultures, Globe Research Project (2002) developed the

hypothesis that certain aspect of transformational leadership are universally endorsed across

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cultures. These aspects are motive arouser, foresight, encouraging, communicative,

trustworthy, dynamic, positive, confidence builder and motivational. Certain aspects were

cultural specific like risk taking, ambitious, self-effacing, compassionate, sincere and

sensitive. Walumbwa and Lawler (2003) examined the impact of cultural factors like

collectivism in moderating the influence of transformational leadership on work related

outcomes. He used a field survey of 577 employees from banking and financial sectors of

emerging economies, namely: China, India and Kenya. He found that collectivism supports

the relationship between transformational leadership and work related outcomes such as

organisational commitment, job satisfaction and perceptions of organisational withdrawal

behaviour. The study also supported the view that transformational leadership might be

effective across cultures.

Here the importance of collectivism lies in the fact that collectivism can be argued to

be positively related to TQM implementation. In collectivistic culture, achievement

motivation is socially oriented. That is, it does not matter who chooses the task within the in-

group; it is just as satisfying and motivating as it is if any of the in-group chooses the task.

The meaning of work is different in collectivistic cultures. Collectivists emphasize co-

operation, endurance, persistence and obedience. They tend to have long-term orientation ,

leading to long-term commitment to the organization (Bass quoted by Walumbwa & Lawler

2003, p.1087), - a requirement critical for success of TQM in an organization (Yen,

Krumwiede & Sheu 2002). Further, studies have shown that collectivism and power distance

are highly correlated (Sinha 1995). However, collectivistic society tends to be more

hierarchical ( Walumbwa & Lawler 2003, p.1084) – which is not conducive for TQM

implementation.

2.2.8.2 Transformational leadership in India

In the western context, work on transformational leadership has been done by

Bass(1990), Tichy and Devanna (1986) and Globe Research Project (2002) . Singh and

Bhandarkar (1990) and Srivastava (2003) have studied transformational leadership in the

Indian context. The following attributes have been found in the Indian transformational

leaders:

(i) They are change agents.

(ii) They are visionary.

(iii) They are courageous.

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(iv) They do things differently.

(v) They are passionate in their commitment to task and people.

(vi) They involve and empower people.

(vii) They are interactive.

(viii) They set personal examples.

(ix) They are very ambitious.

(x) They are future oriented.

(xi) They inspire employees to meet new challenges.

(xii) They focus on long-term goals rather than short-term goals without compromising the

core values and principles.

There are many similarities between the above and the five transformational factors

postulated by Bass and mentioned in section 2.2.8. However, an important addition by

Srivastava (2003) is that transformational leaders are change agents. Chhokar (2000)

supports this when he says that action orientation and charisma are most important

characteristics for effective leadership in India. Srivastava further found that Indian

transformational leaders exhibit consultative leadership style. A consultative leader listens to

everyone but finally makes his own decision (Kalra 2002). Kalra considers consultative

leadership more participative that NT leadership (see section 2.2.6.4) and suitable for

followers less dependent and less hierarchical than the traditional Indian followers.

2.3.Summary of literature review and overview of the central problem

It is recalled that the basic focus of this research is ‘Can TQM be used as the basis for

organisational transformation of Indian Railways? If yes, how can it be effectively

implemented in Indian Railways?’

A review of the literature showed the following:

(i) TQM , as it is understood today, is akin to organisational excellence. It has come out

clearly both in the context of private organisations and in the context of government

bureaucracies where TQM has been successfully implemented. Thus it can be said with

reasonable certainty that TQM can be used for organisational transformation of Indian

Railways. Therefore what needs to be focused now is that how it can be effectively

implemented.

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(ii) On a global scale, TQM is a well-established field of study. But notwithstanding its

popularity, the success rate of TQM implementation is not very high. In general, the

implementational emphasis of TQM has been prescriptive. Non-adaptation of TQM to

organization specific culture and values and the tendency to look at TQM as a tool and not as

a system have been the major reasons for its failure.

(iii) Organisational learning is an outcome of TQM. However the process which leads to

learning is not well explained in the present literature.

(iv) The TQM enablers are almost invariant across countries. Across the world, leadership,

policy and strategy, human resource management, process management, information

management, customer and market focus and supplier focus with suitable adaptations are the

factors or enablers which contribute to the success of TQM. Of all the factors, leadership is

of critical importance. Also, TQM in public sector need not be any different from that in the

private sector.

However, though the enablers of TQM are identified, they have not yet been

integrated into a model which can used by organizations for attaining TQM.

(v) The modification of the ISO 9000 standard in the year 2000 has given it a TQM

orientation. However, till now there has not been much reported study about the impact of

IS0 9000:2000 on organizations. Further, though ISO 9000 standard has been used as the first

step towards implementation of quality in organisations, no scale has been developed which

can objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.

(vi) Factors which affect the transition of an ISO organization to a TQM organization are

transformational leadership and a capacity to learn that is, morphing of an organization into a

learning organization. Empowerment and participative management also promote TQM.

Hierarchical set up hinders TQM implementation. However, the success of TQM in many

high power distance countries in Asia gives rise to the possibility that it is possible to have

country specific adaptation of the cultural enablers of TQM.

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(vii) In the Indian context, the TQM literature is not very rich which is perhaps a pointer

that TQM as a model of organisational excellence has not caught up with Indian companies

in general.

(viii) The Indian quality awards are implants of western quality awards. Though they can

be used as a measure of attainment of a respectable level of TQM proficiency, they should

not be used as a model to begin an organization’s tryst with TQM. On the other hand, the

developmental orientation of the Deming Prize makes it a preferred model for an

organization embarking on a journey towards TQM.

(ix) The traditional Indian cultural values which have seeped into Indian organisations may

not be conducive for immediate internalisation of the tenets of TQM. The Indian

organisational values are a mix of traditional values and western values. The status

consciousness, dependency proneness and personalised relationship tendencies of Indian

people need to be carefully handled. Though Indians are group oriented, the group orientation

is socially contextualised in terms of religion, language and family and not a work based

group orientation like those of the Japanese. Indian ‘Nurturant – Task’ (NT) leadership is

one Indian grown leadership model which promises progressive shifting from these

tendencies to a more participative tendencies. The recent liberalisation of Indian economy

and consequent market driven forces have strengthened the shift to a more participative and

global work values.

(x) Indian bureaucracy is still a traditional bureaucracy untouched by bureaucratic reforms.

Its value system is not conducive for TQM.

(xi) The implementation of TQM in bureaucracy indicates that TQM should begin in smaller

units of Indian Railways.

(xii) There has not been any systematic organisational study of the Indian Railways. It is

almost a virgin field in India.

The summary discussed above is pictorially summarised in Figure 2.14. It also shows the

gaps in the existing literature. The question mark in the Figure 2.14 is for the research issues

which this summary throws up. This is dealt with in sub section 2.4.

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Figure 2. 14 Summary of literature review and gaps in existing literature Source: developed for this research.

organisational values and organisational practices of Indian Railways from the point of view of an excellent company Not known

Congruence between the two Not Known

congruence between the two Not known

TQM for railways

TQM in India should pay attention to

• leadership • policy & strategy• HRM • process

management • Information

management • customer focus • supplier focus

ISO 9000:2000 is the desired path to be followed. It is facilitated by

• transformational leadership

• executive mind set

• capacity and willingness to learn

?

Indian bureaucracy is • rule bound • monolithic • tunnel vision • directive

(non participative)

TQM on date draws from -System theory -Critical success factors -Quality awards -Organisational learning

TQM is the same as organisational excellence

Quality management in India

• through ISO

Indian culture • hierarchical • dependency

prone • own-other

syndrome • context

oriented • balancing

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2.4. Identification of the gaps which need investigation

The gaps are

(i) There has not been any organisational study of the Indian Railways.

(ii) Though the modified standard of ISO 9000 - ISO 9000: 2000 - has been framed with a

distinct TQM slant, there is no scale which can objectively measure the transition of an ISO

certified organization towards TQM.

(iii) Perhaps because of the prevalence of the prescriptive style of TQM implementation,

there are relatively few studies of TQM implementation with organisational members as the

focus that is, a bottom-up process involving the organisational members in planning,

implementing and evaluating the quality management system. This approach focuses on

successful planning, deployment, execution and diagnosis of quality practices and

performance measurement. This approach draws heavily on the Japanese concept of

planning (Hoshin) which promotes consensus building (nemawashi), shared decision(ringi),

commitment and loyalty. The researcher takes a stand that it is worthwhile to study this

method of ISO certification as the first step towards TQM.

(iv) Though the enablers of TQM are identified, they have not yet been integrated into a

model which can used by organizations for attaining TQM.

(v) The literature recognises the importance of transformational top management as the

prime driver towards TQM. However, the literature is silent about the role of middle

management in organisational transformation towards TQM. The literature review could not

come across any study which identifies effective middle management leadership styles which

supports a transformational top leadership style in an organization’s journey towards TQM.

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Chapter 3 Research questions and research methodology

The gaps identified in literature review gave rise to the research questions

listed in Table 3.1.

3.1 Research questions Gap in literature Research question

(i) There has not been any

organisational study of the Indian

Railways.

(i) What are and what should be Indian

Railways’ core values, style of management,

growth strategies, competitive strategies and

changes in organisational structure /

management system so as to transform Indian

Railways into an excellent organization.

(ii) Though the modified standard of ISO

9000- ISO 9000/ 2000 - has been framed

with a distinct TQM slant, there no scale

which can objectively measure the

transition of an ISO certified organization

towards TQM.

(ii) What is the impact of ISO 9000

implementation in Indian Railways?

(iii) To what extent has the implementation

of ISO 9000 brought about a TQM orientation

in Indian Railways? Answering this question

will involve the development of a scale which

can objectively measure the transition of an

ISO certified organization towards TQM.

Table 3.1 (cont’d…)

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Table 3.1 (cont’d…) Gap in literature Research question

(iii) There are relatively few studies of

TQM implementation with organisational

members as the focus that is, a bottom up

process involving the organisational

members in planning, implementing and

evaluating the quality management system.

This approach draws heavily on the

Japanese concept of planning (Hoshin)

which promotes consensus building

(nemawashi), shared decision(ringi),

commitment and loyalty. The researcher

takes a stand that it is worthwhile to study

this method of ISO certification as the first

step towards TQM.

(iv) Will a bottom-up methodology build

learning capacity among the railway

personnel?

(iv) Though the enablers of TQM are

identified, they have not yet been integrated

into a model which can used by

organizations for attaining TQM.

(v) How can the enablers of TQM be integrated

in a model for attaining TQM within the ISO

framework?

(v) While the moderating influence of

transformational top leadership is well

documented, the literature is silent about

the leadership role of middle management

in organisational transformation towards

TQM..

(vi) What is an effective leadership style for

middle managers for effective transition from a

ISO company to a TQM company?

Table 3. 1 Research questions for this work

Source: developed for this research.

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3.2 Different research paradigms

For the above research questions, a research map was to be designed which could act

as a guide to provide answers to the earlier research questions. However, research question

vi was left out as a matter of deliberate choice because the focus of this study would then

have become leadership oriented. However, this can be an area for future research.

In order to develop a research map, it was desirable to understand different

philosophies and methodologies in the area of social science research. In social science, there

is a spectrum of research methods available which could be used. Each one of the research

methods has a philosophical underpinning as to how the world is viewed (ontology), what is

the relationship between the reality and the researcher(epistemology) and what technique the

researcher is using (methodology) (Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 1991, p. 26). A detailed

description of different philosophical bases and the corresponding research designs are

available in many publications (Creswell 1998, Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 1991, Guba &

Lincoln 1994, Neuman 1997). For the purpose of this study, a brief integrative review of

different research methods is presented here.

A positivist holds the opinion that the processes of the external world and their

property can be objectively observed, defined and measured, rather than ‘subjectively

inferred through sensation, reflection and intuition’ (Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 1991, p. 22).

As against this, there is another view which says that the world is not objective and external.

The happenings of the world are socially constructed. That is, one should try to understand

why different people have different experience of the same situation, rather than trying to

look for external causes and fundamental laws to explain their behaviour. This philosophical

position came to be known as phenomenological or social constructionist point of view.

Easterby, Thorpe and Lowe (1991, p. 22) have quoted Morgan and Smircich who have

identified six ontological positions based on one’s perception of nature of reality. The six

ontological positions are shown in Figure 3.1.

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Subjectivist Objectivist

Figure 3. 1 Different assumptions about nature of reality

Source: Easterby, Thorpe and Lowe (1991).

The different underpinnings shown above has given rise to four scientific paradigms –

positivism, realism, critical theory and constructivism. A paradigm can be regarded as the

‘basic belief system or world view that guides the investigator’(Guba & Lincoln 1994, p.

105). Evered and Louis (1981, p. 385) define paradigm as ‘the entire constellation of beliefs,

values, techniques and so on, shared by the members of given (scientific) community’. Perry,

Riege and Brown (1999) have summarised the four different paradigms in the context of

ontology, epistemology and methodology as shown in Table 3.2.

Projection of human imagination

Social construction

Symbolic discourse

Contextual field of information

Concrete process

Concrete structure

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Table 3. 2 Basic belief systems of alternative enquiry paradigms

Source: Perry, Riege and Brown ( 1999, p.17) based on Guba and Lincoln (1994).

Healy and Perry (2000) have compared the quality criteria for the above four research

paradigms. It is shown in Table 3.3.

PARADIGM

Item

POSITIVISM REALISM CRITICAL

THEORY

CONSTRUCTIVISM

Ontology näive realism:

Reality is real

and

apprehensible

critical realism:

Reality is ‘real’ but

only imperfectly

and

probabilistically

apprehensive and

so triangulation

from many sources

is required to try to

know it

historic realism:

‘Virtual’ reality

shaped by social,

economic,

ethnic, political,

cultural, and

gender values,

crystallised over

time

critical relativism:

Multiple local and

specific ‘constructed’

realities

Epistemology objectivist:

Findings true

modified

objectivist:

Findings probably

true

subjectivist:

Value mediated

findings

subjectivist:

Created findings

Methodology experiments/

survey:

Verification of

hypothesis,

chiefly

quantitative

methods

case studies,

convergent

interviewing:

Triangulation,

interpretation of

research issues by

qualitative and

quantitative

methods such as

structural equation

modelling

dialogic,

dialectical:

Researcher is a

‘transformative

intellectual’ who

changes the

social world

within which

participants live

hermeneutical,

dialectical:

Researcher is a

‘passionate participant’

within the world being

investigated

103

Table 3.3 (cont’d…)

Criteria for

realism

research

Case study techniques

within realism paradigm

Criteria for

case

research

Criteria

for

construct-

ivist

Criteria for

qualitative

research

Criteria

for

positivism

research

Major

authors

Yin (1994) Lincoln

and Guba

(1985)

Miles and

Huberman

(1994)

Chia

(1997),

Neuman

(1997)

Ontology

1.

Ontological

appropriate-

ness

2. Contingent

validity

Research

problem deals

with complex

social science

phenomena

involving

reflective

people

Open “fuzzy

boundary”

systems (Yin

1994) involving

generative

mechanisms

rather than

direct cause and

effect

Selection of research

problem, for example, it is

a how and why problem

Theoretical and literal

replication, in-depth

questions, emphasis on

‘why’ issues, description

of the context of the cases

Internal

validity

‘Truth

value’ or

credibility

‘Truth

value’ or

credibility

Internal

validity /

credibility /

authenticity

Internal

validity /

credibility /

authenticity

Internal

validity

Internal

validity

Epistemology

3. Multiple

perceptions

of

participants

and of peer

researcher

Neither value

free nor value

laden, rather

value aware

Multiple interviews,

supporting evidence, broad

questions before probes,

triangulation, self-

description and awareness

of own values. Published

reports for peer review

Neutrality

or

confirma-

bility

Objectivity /

confirmability

Value-

free, one-

way

mirror

(Guba &

Lincoln

1990)

104

Table 3.3 (cont’d…)

Table 3. 3 Quality criteria for different research paradigm

Source: modified from Healy and Perry( 2000).

Criteria for

realism research

Case study techniques

within realism

paradigm

Criteria for

case

research

Criteria

for

constructi

vist

Criteria

for

qualitative

research

Criteria

for

positivism

research

Methodology

4. Methodolog-

ical trustworthin-

ess

Trustworthy –

the research can

be audited

Case study database,

use in the report of

relevant quotations and

matrices that summarise

data and of descriptions

of procedures like case

selection and interview

procedures

Reliability Consiste-

ncy or

dependab-

ility

Reliability

/

dependabil

-ity /

audibility

Reliability

5. Analytic

generalisation

Analytic

generalisation

(that is, theory

building) rather

than statistical

generalisation

(that is, theory-

testing)

Identify research issues

before data collection,

to formulate an

interview protocol that

will provide data for

confirming or

disconfirming theory

External

validity

through the

specification

of

theoretical

relationships

, from which

generalisati-

ons can be

made

Applicabil-

ity or

transferab-

ility

External

validity /

transferabi-

lity

/fittingness

6. Construct

validity

Use of prior

theory, case

study

database,

tria-

ngulation

Construct

validity

Construct

validity

Note: critical theory has not been included in this table as no criteria that distinguishes it from constructivism could be

found

105

A positivist view is appropriate in natural science where a single apprehensible

reality whose nature can be known and categorised is to be defined and measured (Perry,

Riege & Brown 1995, p. 16). Here the researcher believes that he/she has identified the

variables which have causal relationship among them which are invariant across time and

context. Thus sample survey and controlled experiments are the primary data collection

techniques. The objective of the researcher is to test a theory or to confirm a hypothesis

(Zikmund 2000). A positivist approach may not be suitable in social science research where

each situation is unique and a person within a situation can give different responses

depending on the nature of reality as he/she perceives it. Also where the emphasis is to

explore the structure and the process of a phenomenon, there are many variables which

interact with each other. It may not be possible to establish a cause and effect relationship

among all the variables. However, wherever it is possible to identify and define constructs

which are invariant across situations, a positivist approach has the advantage of being

generalisable and reliable. Further, a positivist approach which uses a deductive approach is

useful in theory testing and not in theory building which requires an inductive approach

(Perry, Riege & Brown 1999).

Constructivism holds the view that truth is a particular belief system held in a

particular context (Healy & Perry 2000, p. 120). That is each person has his/her own reality

in his/her mind and it is the researcher’s job to interact with many persons so as to get

multiple construction of that reality. Meaning carries more importance than measurement

because perception itself is the most important reality (Perry, Riege & Brown 1999, p.18).

Using hermeneutical techniques, the different constructions are compared and contrasted

through a dialectical interchange so as to arrive at a consensus construction (Guba & Lincoln

1994, p.111). This approach is useful in understanding such deeply held values as beauty,

prejudice and religion (Healy & Perry 2000, p. 120).

Critical theorists aim at transforming social, political, cultural, economical, ethnic and

gender values (Healy & Perry 2000, p. 119). A critical theorist aims at changing the world in

which the participants live. Here knowledge does not accumulate, but grows and changes

through a historical revision that continuously erodes ignorance and misapprehensions and

enlarges more informed insights (Guba & Lincoln 1994, p.114). For a critical theorist, this is

the process of knowledge accumulation. The end goal of the study might be to transform

(through praxis) the underlying order of social life – those social and systemic relations that

constitute society (Creswell 1998, p.81). According to Creswell (1998, p. 82), critical theory

may emphasize multiple methodologies ( qualitative and quantitative) and multiple

106

perspectives (class, race and gender). Examples of critical theory researchers are Marxists,

feminists and action researchers (Perry, Riege & Brown 1999, p. 17).

Realism believes much like positivism that there is a reality out there but it is not

possible to comprehend that fully and perfectly (Guba & Linclon 1994, p. 110). Thus the

attempt of the researcher should be to apprehend that reality as closely as possible through

widest possible critical examination. Triangulation should be used as a way of falsifying

(rather than verifying) hypotheses. By an increased utilisation of qualitative techniques, and

by doing inquiry in more natural settings, collecting more situational information, the

postposivist attempts to get closer to the reality.

In a different context, Miles and Huberman (1994) have also talked about using

qualitative and quantitative techniques together for arriving at more robust conclusions.

‘Qualitative data are useful when one needs to validate, explain or reinterpret quantitative

data gathered from the same sitting’ (Miles & Huberman 1994, p.10). They further say that

qualitative data are useful for exploring a new area which can lead to development of some

hypotheses. Thus from the point of view of robustness of research, it can be seen that not

only can qualitative data be used as authentically as quantitative data but also that both data

types can be used to reinforce each other’s findings.

Some of the strengths of qualitative data are:

(i) They focus on naturally occurring, ordinary events in natural setting. Thus the possibility

of understanding latent, non-obvious issues is strong.

(ii) It is rich and holistic providing a vivid picture of a situation in a particular context.

Quantitative techniques, on the other hand provides ‘sensitivity and power to

individual judgement when one attempts to detect and describe patterning in a set of

observations’ ( Weinstein & Tamur quoted in Miles & Huberman 1994, p. 40).

It has been suggested that that to get broader insights into the issues being

investigated the researcher should try to mix research methods (Ticehurst & Veal 2000, p.20).

Accordingly in this research also, instead of following a particular approach, both qualitative

and quantitative approaches have been used dictated by the needs of the situation.

3.3 Development of research map

With above introductory comments about different research methods in the

background, the research map which was used to guide the research to answer the research

questions is shown in Figure 3.2.

107

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Note: M.R.= Management Representative

Figure 3. 2 Research map

Source: developed for this work.

survey A

Survey among Indian Railways persons on different dimensions of organisational policies and practices which promote excellence

survey B Assess Indian Railways persons on the culture specific dimensions of hierarchy

Take an unit of Indian Railways which is undergoing ISO certification and do its in-depth study so as to triangulate the findings from above

survey D Develop and administer an instrument ‘ TQM transition questionnaire’ , to the M.R. /head of unit of the same shortlisted railway units. Ask them to evaluate the unit on ‘one year before ISO certification’ and ‘today’ basis.

Shortlist ISO certified units of Indian Railways on certain criteria

survey C Administer the questionnaire of Acharya and Roy to the M.R./ head of unit of the shortlisted railway units

108

3.4 Research Design for stage 1

3.4.1 Survey A - Assessment of organisational policies and practices in the Indian Railways

Survey A sought to find an answer to the first research question: ‘What are and what

should be Indian Railways’ core values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive

strategies and changes in organisational structure / management system so as to transform

Indian Railways into an excellent organization’?. One of the gaps which the literature review

had shown is that there has not been any organisational study of Indian Railways. Thus there

was no prior set of information available on which this research could build on or cross

verify with.

Thus some known model which could help assess Indian Railways’ organisational

values and practices in the context of organisational excellence needed to be identified.

Khandwalla (2002) has assessed the response of Indian public sector organisations

and private sector organisations to liberalisation and arrived at a model of organisational

policies and practices which he calls a community of adaptive “best” policies and practices

that yield performance excellence in an competitive and liberalised environment which

Indian organisations are facing today (Khandwalla 2002, p. 443). Khandwalla has developed

a questionnaire which assesses the prevalence of these policies and practices in an

organization. A detailed discussion about the reliability and validity of the questionnaire is

available in Khandwalla (2002). Part of that questionnaire consists of open ended and pre-

coded questions about core values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive

strategies and changes in organisational structure / management system which an excellent

organization follows. This part of the questionnaire labelled ‘assessment of organisational

policies’ is shown in Appendix 2. Since the questionnaire developed by Khandwalla was

used to assess excellence in Indian companies and the objective of survey A was to assess

prevalence of different aspects of organisational excellence in Indian Railways,

Khandwalla’s questionnaire was used for survey A of this research.

Question I of the questionnaire consists of open-ended questions. Question II to

question VI are the pre-coded questions. An open-ended question provides the respondents

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freedom to give their opinions. Also, this can provide such dimensions of information which

a Likert scale based questions may not be able to elicit from the respondents. Since the

answers to the first research question was expected to throw light on the organisational

policies and practices of Indian Railways, which, in turn could explain much of what this

study was to subsequently uncover in stage 2 and stage 3, the more the ways in which

answers to the first question were tapped, the more reliable were to be the conclusions. Thus

the use of a questionnaire which included open ended questions and pre-coded questions as

in this questionnaire added to the reliability of the conclusion.

Sampling strategy: The questionnaire was given only to the chairman, board

members, general managers and principal heads of departments of Indian Railways as they

were the persons who could be said to have enough exposure to the strategic part of Indian

Railways to do justice to the full questionnaire. It was noted that Khandwalla, in his study too,

had administered the questionnaire to the chairmen and managers who reported to the

chairman of an organization. (Khandwalla 2002, p. 436). Also, senior staff can provide more

reliable information about their organization than junior staff (Ticehurst & Veal 2000, p.143).

In the bureaucratic set up of Indian Railways, the tenure of the chairmen and board

members are normally not more than one to two years because one can reach that level just

before retirement. Thus, for the sake of comprehensiveness, the questionnaires were sent to

all the chairmen and board members who retired since 1991 and whose contact details were

available. The Indian industry has opened up to the global economy and to the concept of

TQM roughly since 1991, therefore soliciting the opinion of board members and chairmen

since 1991 was considered desirable. The data collection and data analysis of this survey is

dealt with in chapter 4.

3.4.2 Survey B - Assessment of cultural values of Indian Railway personnel

Survey A provided insight on work specific policies and practices about the Indian

Railways. However, it did not assess the impact of Indian culture on the organisational

values of the Indian Railway personnel. It is recalled from the literature review (section

2.2.6.1) that hierarchical relationship, tendency for personalised relationship and dependency

on the superior have been identified as some of the culture based organisational values which,

however, are reported to be changing in view of the liberalisation of Indian economy. It is

also recalled that hierarchical relationship is not conducive for TQM implementation, but

collective orientation is conducive for TQM. Thus, it was all the more important that one

110

looked for an instrument through which one could measure culture specific dimensions

among the Indian Railway personnel.

A perusal of the work on NT leadership by Sinha (1995) indicated that he has

developed a questionnaire which measures hierarchical tendencies among Indian managers.

The questionnaire is shown in Appendix 3. The hierarchical tendencies are measured through

the three constructs of ‘status consciousness (S)’, ‘personalised relationship (P)’ and

‘dependence proneness (D)’. These three constructs are defined below (Sinha 1995, p.99):

(i) Status consciousness – It is a tendency to obey and respect seniors and superiors.

Anger and hostility against a superior are suppressed and displaced. The seniors are listened

to more deferentially. The tendency is to direct one’s effort to appease the superior who in

turn must help, protect and guide the subordinates.

(ii) Dependence proneness – Preference for hierarchy fosters dependence proneness.

It is a tendency to seek support, guidance and encouragement in situations where one is

apparently competent to make decisions.

(iii) Preference for personalised relationship – It is a tendency where a subordinate

expects to be taken care of in a personal way, to solve his/her problem, tell him/her what to

do .

The questionnaire was administered to Indian Railway personnel to assess their

culture specific value of hierarchy.

The reliability and validity of the instrument is dealt with at the end of Appendix 3.

Sampling strategy: Indian Railways has about 8000 persons in the managerial

category. They are called officers. About 4000 of them are called class-1 officers or more

formally group ‘A’ officers. They are directly recruited into the managerial cadre on the basis

of an all India examination. (In Indian organisational context, a cadre means a group of

professionals belonging to a particular category). The balance 4000 are class-2 officers or

more formally group ‘B’ officers. They join the railways in the worker/ supervisor cadre as

class-3 ( or group ‘C’ ) employees and then rise up to become class-2 officers. Almost 95%

of them retire at the first or second rung of the managerial cadre.

Since class-2 officers are generally less educated and are less exposed to position of

responsibility in their work, it was postulated that they should show higher hierarchical

tendencies than class-1 officers. On the same logic class-3 employees should show higher

hierarchical tendency than class-2 or class-1 officers.

The literature review has shown the deeply embedded hierarchical tendencies among

Indians. However, recent studies (Pearson & Chaterjee 2001) have also shown changes in

111

this value. It was thus postulated that younger employees should show lesser hierarchical

tendencies than older employees.

Based on the above reasoning, three hypotheses were framed for testing -

(i) Class-1 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class-2

officers.

(ii) Class-2 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class-3

employees.

(iii) Younger employees show lesser hierarchical tendencies than older employees.

To test these hypotheses, samples of railway employees were collected in the

following categories:

Class-1 Class-2 Class-3

Age less than 30 years Age less than 30 years Age less than 30 years

Age between 30 years

to 50 years

Age between 30 years to 50

years

Age between 30 years to 50

years

Age more than 50 years Age more than 50 years Age more than 50 years

The rationale behind this grouping was this: The process of liberalisation in India

started around 1991. Those who were less than 15 years old at that time were less than 30

years old in 2005. It was reasonable to postulate that this age group was exposed to a social

system which was in transition because of the opening of the Indian economy. Further, the

age group of ‘more than 50 years’ is roughly one generation above the youngest group. Thus

these two group presented two contrasting categories for comparison.

The data collection and data analysis of this survey is dealt with in chapter 4.

3.5 Research design for stage 2

Stage 2 of the research sought answers to the following two research questions:

Research question no ii: What is the impact of ISO 9000 implementation in Indian Railways?

112

Research question no iii: To what extent has the implementation of ISO 9000 brought about

a TQM orientation in Indian Railways. This therefore involved development of a scale which

could objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.

3.5.1 Survey C – Assessment of the impact of ISO 9000 in the Indian Railways

A review of literature showed that several surveys have been conducted by

researchers about the impact of ISO 9000: 1994 certification. One such survey was

conducted by Acharya and Roy (2000) on about 1200 ISO certified units in India. A slightly

modified form of that survey was administered to a short listed group of ISO certified units in

Indian Railways. This provided answer to the question ‘what is the impact of ISO

implementation in Indian Railways’. The questionnaire is shown in Appendix 4.

Reliability and validity: The thrust of this survey was to gather information from ISO

certified railway units. There was no construct which survey C tried to measure. So the

aspect of reliability and validity was not relevant here.

3.5.1.1 Sampling plan for survey C

Selection of railway units was a key decision in seeking an answer to the research

question no ii. Whether to go for qualitative research or quantitative research was also an

issue here.

Qualitative research usually works with a small sample. The small number of cases

are nested in their context and studied in depth unlike quantitative research where large

number of context stripped cases ( individuals) are used to provide statistical significance.

Thus, a small number of randomly selected sample can make the conclusions biased.

Qualitative samples also tend to be purposive. This is because the initial domain of

study is smaller than that in a quantitative study. Further, social processes have a logic and a

coherence which is lost in random sampling. Thus it was decided that the survey C would be

qualitative and purposive sampling would be carried out in this survey. However, the term

‘purposive sampling’ has been used with different meaning in connection with subjective

methods of sampling (Goon, Gupta & Dasgupta 1986, p.209). Thus a review of different

purposive sampling strategy was done.

113

Creswell (1998) identified 16 purposive sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry.

They are shown in Table 3.4. A detailed explanation of each of the sampling plan is given in

Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 28).

Type of sampling Purpose

Maximum variation Documents diverse variations and identifies important common

patterns

Homogeneous Focuses, reduces, simplifies, and facilitates group interviewing

Critical case Permits logical generalization and maximum application of

information to other cases

Theory based Find examples of a theoretical construct and thereby elaborate on

and examine it

Confirming and

disconfirming cases

Elaborate on initial analysis, seek exceptions and looking for

variation

Snowball or chain Identifies case of interest from people who know people who know

cases are information rich

Extreme or deviant

case

Learn from highly unusual manifestations of the phenomenon of

interest

Typical case Highlights what is normal or average

Intensity Information-rich cases that manifest the phenomenon intensely but

not extremely

Politically important

cases

Attracts desired attention or avoids attracting undesired attention

Random purposeful Adds credibility to sample when potential purposeful sample is too

large

Stratified purposeful Illustrates subgroups and facilitates comparisons

Criterion All cases that meet some criterion, useful for quality assurance

Opportunistic Follow new leads; taking advantage of the unexpected

Combination or mixed Triangulation. Flexibility; meets multiple interests and needs

Convenience Saves time, money and effort, but at the expense of information

and credibility

Table 3. 4 Typology of sampling strategies in qualitative inquiry

Source: Creswell (1998, p. 119).

114

Qualitative sampling can be a combination of ‘within-case sampling’ and ‘multiple-

case sampling’.

Within case sampling helps us to see a local configuration in some depth. Within-

case sample is almost always nested, that is working from outside into the core of a setting.

The sampling must be theoretically driven – either the theory is pre-specified or

emerges as the study progresses. The choice of informants, episodes and interactions are

being driven by a conceptual question, not by a concern for representativeness. To get to the

construct, one needs to see different instances of it, at different moments, in different places,

with different people. The prime concern is with the conditions under which the construct or

theory operates, not with the generalisation of the findings to other settings.

Within-case sampling has an iterative quality, working in progressive ‘waves’ as the

study progresses.

Multiple-case sampling, on the other hand, adds confidence to findings. That is, it

adds to the precision, validity and stability of the findings. It follows a replication strategy. If

a finding holds in one setting and also in a comparable setting, but not in a contrasting setting,

the finding is more robust. It is to be noted that here, the generalisation from one case to

another is on the basis of a match to the underlying theory, not to a larger universe. The

choice of case is usually made on conceptual grounds and not on representative grounds. A

multiple case sampling has to be guided by the research questions and the conceptual

framework, either pre-specified or emergent.

With this background information on different sampling strategies, it was decided that

instead of doing a complete random sampling in the selection of railway units, let the insight

gained about TQM in literature review guide the sample selection process:

First criteria for selection of railway unit in the survey C: A list of ISO certified

railway units (corrected up to 15 Oct 2003) is shown at Appendix 9. There are 89 units which

are certified to ISO 9000 standard. The list shows that there are some units which are both

ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified. ISO 14000 has been taken up in Indian Railways after

ISO 9000 certification. Thus a unit gets more time to institutionalise improvements. Further,

ISO 14000 is more stringent in the sense that even if there is a single non conformance (NC),

ISO 14000 certification is not granted. ISO 14000 calls for very elaborate housekeeping and

the Japanese have shown through their adherence to ‘5S’ that improvement in housekeeping

is a significant step towards TQM (Pheng 2001). Thus it was reasonable to postulate that a

115

railway unit which was both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified, should show more progress

towards TQM. Hence the survey C could provide better contrasting insight if the sampling

included some railway units which were only ISO 9000 certified and some railway units

which were both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified units.

Second criteria for selection of railway unit in the survey C: There was yet

another way one could make a judicious sampling of railway units. This was based on the

organisational power delegated to the railway units and the assessment of the extent to which

this organisational power was able to do justice to different clauses of ISO 9000. This aspect

is explained now.

A simplified organisational structure of Indian Railway is shown in Appendix 7. It

can be seen from there that the Indian Railways’ organisational structure is functional at the

headquarters level and matrix at the divisional level. Thus all the divisional departmental

heads report to the Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) in the field unit and to their Chief

level officer at the headquarters. All the functional departmental heads and the DRMs report

to the General Manager (GM). Other than the division, there are maintenance units and

warehousing units which are headed by Chief Workshop Manager and Deputy Chief

Materials Manager respectively. It can be seen from Appendix 7 that only the DRM and the

GM have officers of all departments under them.

With this background information, a perusal of the list of ISO certified units of Indian

Railways gave rise to following observations:

(i) In the railways, most of the ISO certified units were engineering based. That is, they

were locomotive or coach manufacturing units and maintenance shops. Considering that the

initial development of ISO system and its adoption was in engineering companies, it was

expected. Thus, though the Indian Railways is a service organization, very few service units

in it have gone for ISO certification.

Among the engineering units, the locomotive or coach manufacturing shops are

called production units. These production units are headed by a General Manager who

possesses both the formal and the informal power for effecting organization wide changes. In

a production unit, all the ten departments of railways function under the unified command of

a General Manager. Thus, the organisational set up of a production unit has the requisite

autonomy to take organization wide decisions.

The coach and wagon repair units are headed by Chief Workshop Managers (CWMs).

A CWM also has managers from all the departments except civil engineering, signal and

medical. However, in terms of delegation of power, he does not possess autonomy in the

116

areas of machine and material procurement, selection / promotion of managers and

investment decisions. The CWMs report to the Chief Mechanical Engineer who sits at the

headquarters and who in turn reports to the General Manager. The CWM is dependent on the

CME and GM for machine and material procurement, selection / promotion of managers and

investment decisions. For work in the areas of civil engineering and medical, the CWM is

supposed to liaise with the local DRM who like a General Manager has all the ten

departments under his administrative control.

A Deputy Chief Materials Manager (Dy. CMM) is responsible for material supply to

all the repair workshops and locomotive maintenance units. Like a CWM, he also has

managers from all departments except civil engineering, signal and medical. Like the CWM,

he does not possess autonomy in the areas of selection /promotion of managers and

investment decisions. However, being a materials manager, he has a limited amount of power

for material procurement. The bulk of the material procurement is done at the headquarters

level collectively by the stores department (headed by Controller Of Stores), accounts

department (headed by Financial Advisor & Chief Accounts Officer) and the user department.

The locomotive maintenance units are headed by Division Mechanical /Electrical

Engineers (DME/DEE). They report to the Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) who is

their field level boss. Besides, they also report to their departmental boss (CME/ CEE) at the

headquarters. Thus a Divisional Electrical Engineer reports to the Chief Electrical Engineer

at the headquarters and to the DRM in the field as in a matrix structure. Under a Divisional

Mechanical/Electrical Engineer, only mechanical / electrical engineers work. The managers

from other support service like personnel, finance, materials do not work under him. He is

supposed to liaise with the divisional heads of these departments who work under the DRM.

Thus, the Divisional Mechanical /Electrical Engineer, like the CWM, is dependent on the

divisional heads under the DRM in the areas of civil engineering, security, medical,

promotion of supervisors, and financial decision making, and on the CME and GM for

machine and material procurement, selection / promotion of managers and large investment

decisions.

It should be clear from the above discussion that there can be unity of purpose only at

two levels - at the level of DRM and at the level of GM. Also, since they have all wings of

railways under them, DRMs and GMs expect inter-department coordination from their

subordinates. Other than these two levels, the line of decision making in a particular

department of Indian Railways is along the vertical hierarchy. This traditional functional

silos in Indian Railways is shown in Figure 3.3.

117

Coordinational vector

Functional vector

Work vector

Mech = mechanical

Elec=electrical

Fin= finance

Pers=personal

Stor=stores

Figure 3. 3 Existing functional silos in Indian Railways

Source: developed for this work.

In Figure 3.3 different departments of Indian Railways have been shown along the

periphery of a horizontal circle. This model has borrowed the concept of vector from

Gyllenpalm quoted in Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson (2002, p.437). The work force vector

(shown by black arrows) is a measure of the work which different departmental functionaries

do in Indian Railways. The work force vector has two components – functional force vector

(shown by purple arrow) and coordinational force vector (shown by blue arrow). The

functional force vector is exerted by the functional superiors within a department. This

functional force vector is reinforced by the vertical collectivism (see Table 2.13) tendency of

GM/DRM

118

Indians which supports the hierarchy of a department and also develops a clannish feeling

among the departmental members. That is, the feeling of in-group is confined within the

department. The coordinational force vector is caused by the extent of coordination force

exerted by the General Manager (GM) or Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) the only two

levels where effective inter department coordination is practised in the Indian Railways. The

intensity of functional force vector depends on: (i) function specific knowledge of a superior

(ii) the interaction among the functional in-group. This interaction vector in turn depends on

(i) the prevalence of bureaucratic value in that functional unit (ii) prevalence of social values

between the superior and subordinate. These concepts are mathematically shown by the

researcher below:

W= F + C, where

W = Work force vector, F = Functional force vector, C = Coordinational force vector,

F= K+I , where

K= functional knowledge of the superior, I = Interaction among the functional in-group,

I = B+S, where

B= Bureaucratic values in the functional unit, S=Social value in the functional unit.

It has been mentioned here that effective coordination occurs only at the GM and

DRM level. However the list of ISO certified units at Appendix 9 shows that no ISO

certification has been taken at the divisional level or headquarter level. It has however been

taken at intra divisional levels like a diesel loco shed, an electric loco shed etc. ISO

certification has also been taken in railway workshops headed by CWMs, and by

warehousing units headed by Dy. CMMs. There are also a few cases where the ISO

certification has been taken only for part of a workshop.

This situation was analysed in the background of the continual improvement loop of

ISO 9000.

The ISO 9000:2000 standard has incorporated the continual improvement theme in a

process-based approach as shown in Figure 3.4.

119

Value-adding activities Information flow

Figure 3. 4 Model of a process-based quality management system

Source: ISO 9001:2000 standard.

A juxtaposition of the clauses of ISO 9000:2000 in the areas of purchasing and

resource management against the power delegated to different unit heads has been shown in

Table 3.5.

Continual improvement of the quality management system

Customers Requirements

Customers Satisfaction

Management Responsibility

Resource management

Product realization

Measurement, analysis and improvement

Product

120

ISO clause

(taken from ISO 9000:2000 manual)

Units

headed by

GM

Units headed

by CWM/ Dy.

CMM

Units

headed by

DME/ DEE

‘6.3 Infrastructure

The organization shall determine, provide

and maintain the infrastructure needed to

achieve conformity to product

requirements. Infrastructure includes, as

applicable

a) building, workspace and associated

utilities,

b) process equipment (both hardware

and software), and

c) Supporting services (such as transport

or communication)’.

He/she has

the required

delegation of

power and

organization

to provide it.

He/she does not

have the

required

delegation of

power and the

organization to

provide it.

He/she does

not have the

required

delegation of

power and

the

organization

to provide it.

‘7.4 Purchasing

7.4.1 Purchasing processes

The organization shall evaluate and select

suppliers based on their ability to supply

product in accordance with organization’s

requirements. Criteria for selection,

evaluation and re-evaluation shall be

established. Records of the results of

evaluations and any necessary actions

arising from the evaluation shall be

maintained. (see 4.2.4)’.

He/she has

the required

delegation of

power and

organization

to ensure its

compliance.

He/she does not

have the

required

delegation of

power and the

organization to

ensure its

compliance.

He /she does

not have the

required

delegation of

power and

the

organization

to ensure its

compliance.

Table 3. 5 Analysis of different categories of railway units on clauses of ISO 9000:2000

Source: developed for this research.

From the above table, it was clear that except for production units, the heads of the

workshops, warehousing units and locomotive maintenance units were not organisationally

empowered to satisfy all the clauses of ISO 9000:2000.

121

Thus it was possible to propose a hypothesis at this point: ‘Production units will

show better transition towards TQM concepts’.

This insight was used for doing a theory based purposeful sampling of ISO certified

units within Indian Railways.

Therefore it was reasoned that if the production units were the most probable

candidates for a successful transition towards TQM, they should first be studied in detail and

conclusion drawn from them could then be tested further. Therefore, it was decided that the

questionnaire of survey C should be sent to all the six production units – CLW, DLW,

DCW, RCF, ICF and WAP.

Third criteria for selection of railway unit in the survey C: It had been noted in

the literature review that the ISO 9000 certification could be used as the stepping stone for an

organization’s journey towards TQM (Lee & Lam 1997; Hill, Hazlett & Meegan 2001;

Escanciano, Fernández & Vázquez 2001). Further ISO 9000:2000 is specially designed for

developing a continuous improvement culture in an organization. The literature review had

also shown that the following factors are critical for taking an ISO 9000 certified

organization towards TQM:

(i) Transformational leadership

(ii) Executive mind set

(iii) Capacity and willingness to learn

Among these factors, it was learnt from the literature review that transformational

leadership favourably disposes an organization in developing the correct executive mindset

and the willingness to learn. Thus these two factors could be considered to be dependent on

transformational leadership. However the literature review did not bring about any

relationship between transformational leadership and the capacity to learn. Therefore in the

study of transition of ISO certified units towards TQM, one needed to address the intervening

influence of only two variables: (a) transformational leadership and (b) capacity to learn.

Here, in stage 2 of the research design, only the moderating impact of

transformational leadership was dealt with. The moderating impact of capacity to learn was

dealt with in stage 3 of the research. This was because researcher believed that ‘capacity to

learn’ was closely linked with research question ‘iv’ which was ‘will this bottom up

methodology build learning capacity among the railway personnel?’

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Thus the third criteria to include railway units in survey C was: ‘include some units

which have been headed by transformational leaders and some units which have been headed

by non-transformational leaders’.

For assessing the transformational leadership, Bass’ Multifactor Leadership

Questionnaire -MLQ 5X was administered to the managers of different railway units.

The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X) by Bass and Avolio (2000) is

the most widely used instrument for assessing transformational leadership ( Antonakis,

Avolio & Sivasubramaniam 2003; Block 2003). They are shown in Appendix 6. It has nine

constructs. The nine constructs and their operational definition are:

(i) Idealized Influence - Attributed-(II A) – It is a sub component of charisma. Charisma is a

desire to identify with the leader. It measures the influence which a subordinate attributes to

the leader.

(ii) Idealized Influence - Behaviour- (IIB) - It is also a sub component of charisma. It

measures the influence which a subordinate draws from the behaviour of their leader.

(iii) Inspirational Motivation (IM) – It provides followers with a clear sense of purpose that is

energizing; a role model for ethical conduct which builds identification with the leader and

his/her articulated vision.

(iv) Intellectual Stimulation (IS) – It gets followers to question the tried and true ways of

solving problems; encourages them to question the methods they use to improve upon them.

(v) Individualized Consideration (IC) – It focuses on understanding the needs of each

follower and works continuously to get them to develop to their full potential.

(vi) Contingent Reward(CR) – It clarifies what is expected from followers and what they will

receive if they meet expected levels of performance.

(vii) Management-by-Exception Active (MBEA) – Here the leader focuses on monitoring

task execution for any problems that might arise and correcting those problems to maintain

current performance levels.

(viii) Management-by-Exception Passive (MBEP) – Here the leader tends to react only after

problems have become serious to take corrective action.

(ix) Laissez-Faire (LF)– It shows a lack of leadership where, often, no decision will be made

at all.

Of the above nine constructs, the first five constructs are considered transformational

in nature, the next three are considered transactional in nature while the last one shows an

abdication of leadership responsibilities (Block 2003, p.321).

123

The questionnaire measures the above constructs on a scale of 0 (not at all) to 4

(frequently if not always). Table 3.6 shows the percentiles for individual scores on the five

constructs of transformational leadership and one construct of transactional leadership (CR).

It can be seen from the table that Bass and Avolio (2000, p.53) found that only 5% of the

leaders got scores of 3.7 and above on the five constructs of transformational leadership. It

shows that transformational leaders though sought after, are not easily found in organizations.

II(A) II(B) IM IS IC CR N= 2,080 2,080 2,080 2,080 2,079 2,078 Percentile MLQ Scores

95 3.7 3.8 3.8 3.7 3.9 3.5 90 3.5 3.6 3.6 3.5 3.7 3.3 80 3.2 3.4 3.4 3.2 3.4 3.0 70 3.1 3.2 3.2 3.0 3.2 2.7 60 2.9 3.0 3.0 2.8 3.1 2.5 50 2.7 2.8 2.8 2.7 2.9 2.3 40 2.5 2.6 2.6 2.4 2.6 2.0 30 2.2 2.3 2.3 2.2 2.3 1.8 20 1.9 0.9 1.9 1.8 1.9 1.4 10 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.3 1.2 0.9 5 0.9 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.5

Table 3. 6 Percentiles for individual scores, based on others’ ratings on MLQ

Source: Bass and Avolio (2000, p.53).

The three criteria which were used in selection of railway units for survey C are

summarised now:

(i) Include some ISO 9000 certified units and some ISO 9000 plus ISO 14000 certified units.

(ii) Include all production units of Indian Railways.

(iii) Include some railway units headed by transformational leaders and some headed by non-

transformational leaders.

The railway units selected for survey C, the data collection and data analysis are dealt

with in chapter 4.

124

3.5.2 Survey D - Development of scale to measure the transition of ISO certified organisations towards TQM

For assessing the TQM orientation in ISO certified units, a questionnaire labelled

‘TQM transition questionnaire’ was developed. It is shown in Appendix 5. Its questionnaire

design has been separately taken up in section 3.6.

3.6 Questionnaire design and administration for survey D

The questionnaire design and administration process for survey D is schematically

shown in Figure 3.5.

Figure 3. 5 Plan for development of ‘TQM transition questionnaire’

Source: developed for this research.

Develop measurement scale

General issues in drafting the questionnaire

Question content and wording

Sequence Physical characteristics

Pre-test, revise and prepare final draft

Questionnaire administration

Reliability and validity of the questionnaire

Develop and evaluate questionnaire

125

The different steps involved in the questionnaire design are now dealt with.

3.6.1 Development and evaluation of questionnaire

The objective behind developing the instrument was not to assess an organization on

a known model of TQM. The objective here was to develop an instrument which could

measure the progress of an unit towards the TQM philosophy. Section 2.2.5 of the literature

review had already shown that ISO by itself does not catapult an organization into TQM

orbit. However, it is definitely the first significant step.

The literature review had also identified factors which enable inculcation of a TQM

orientation in an organization. They have been indicated in sections 2.2.4, 2.2.5.3, 2.2.6 and

2.2.8 of this thesis. The factors are alphabetically reproduced below:

(i) Customer focus

(ii) Communication across organization/ information and data management

(iii) Continuous improvement

(iv) Delegation and empowerment

(v) Leadership

(vi) Process improvement

(vii) Result and recognition

(viii) Strategy

(ix) Supplier focus

(x) Team working

(xi) Values and ethics

(xii) Work culture / congenial inter personal relationship / worker manager interaction

The ISO 9000 version 2000 published in December 2000 is based on eight principles

(www.iso.org ):

Principle 1: Customer focus

Principle 2: Leadership

Principle 3: Involvement of People

Principle 4: Process Approach

Principle 5: System Approach to Management

Principle 6: Continuous Improvement

126

Principle 7: Factual Approach to Decision Making

Principle 8: Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

Based on this understanding, a questionnaire was developed. It is shown in Appendix

5. The factors which each of the questions attempted to test are also indicated there.

The operationalisation of the 12 factors which the questionnaire attempts to measure are

given in Table 3.7.

Sr.no Factor Operational definition Based on the

work of

1 Customer

Focus

Quality should be customer driven.Employee

should be well aware of the concept of internal and

external customers. They should care about

meeting and exceeding the customer expectations.

There must be a focus on customer feedback and

accordingly the process should be driven.

Deming;

Wali,

Deshmukh

and Gupta

(2003); ISO

9000:2000

standard;

2 Communication

across the

organisation

Information

and Data

maangement

Information is the critical enabler of TQM. The

facts and information should be made available to

all. Effective communication channel must exist in

the organisation between various work unit. With

the help of information technology, comunication

can be made effective. Effective comunication is

vital in aligning the workforce towards corporate

expectations. This factor emphasises that the key

processes are regulary measured and quantified.

There should be focus on benchmarking which

provides a stimilus for improvement.

Deming;

Ishikawa;

Wali,

Deshmukh

and Gupta

(2003); ISO

9000:2000

standard;

Table 3.7(cont’d…)

127

Table 3.7(cont’d…) Sr.no Factor Operational definition Based on the

work of

3 Continuous

improvement

Employees must identify opportunities for

continuous improvement. They must be trained

to identify opportinities for improvement.

There must be top management comitment to

monitor the implementation of improvements

suggested.

Deming; ISO

9000:2000

standard;

4 Delegation and

empowerment

In TQM setting, both delegation and

empowerment are required. People must share

responsibility for the success or failure of their

work.

Deming; Wali,

Deshmukh and

Gupta (2003)

5 Leadership Successful quality performance requires that

the leadership is dedicated to quality. It must

also provide initiative and resource support. It

must enable creativity to be nurtured and

accordingly chalk out the strategy.

Deming; Crosby;

Wali, Deshmukh

and Gupta(2003);

ISO 9000:2000

standard

6 Process

improvement

If employee involvement is key to the

attainment of customer satisfaction, managing

the process is key to engaging an organisation’s

employees to take responsibilites for what they

are doing in relation to satisfying the

customers.

Deming; Wali,

Deshmukh and

Gupta (2003);

ISO 9000:2000

standard

7 Results and

Recognition

The organisation should reward their

employee for their contribution to quality.

There should be quick recognition system for

outstanding performance by the employees.

These rewards may not be purely financial.

Deming; Juran;

Wali, Deshmukh

and Gupta (2003)

Table 3.7 (cont’d…)

128

Table 3.7 (cont’d…)

Table 3. 7 Operationalisation of different factors of ‘ TQM transition questionnaire’

Source: developed for this research.

Sr.no Factor Operational definition Based on the work

of

8 Supplier focus Organisation should buy on statistical evidence,

not price. Long term relationship with suppliers

should be encouraged.

Deming; ISO

9000:2000 standard

9 Team Work Departmental barriers should be broken down.

The organisation should encourage problem

solving through team work. Employees must

demonstrate cooperative behaviour and

positive attitude towards working in a team.

Deming; Wali,

Deshmukh and

Gupta (2003); ISO

9000:2000 standard

10 Value and

ethics

It is improtant for the people in an

organisation to live upto the highest ethical

standards. There should be perception of fair

treatment to all. The organisation must be

guided by the value and ethical standards

Deming; Wali,

Deshmukh and

Gupta (2003)

11 Work culture Employees should not be afraid of making

mistake. They must feel pride in their

workmanship. Organisation should practice

a policy of cooperative planning involving

every one.

Deming; Wali,

Deshmukh and

Gupta

(2003);Hoshin

planning;

12 Strategy Organisation should demonstrate

management’s permanent commitment to

quality and productivity.

Deming; Ishikawa;

Wali, Deshmukh

and Gupta (2003);

ISO 9000:2000

standard

129

3.6.2 Development of measurement scale

Each of the above factors was measured by three items. The existence of a multiple

item measurement scale made the observed scores more reliable. A ten point Likert scale was

used for the instrument. This is because though Likert scale is an ordinal scale, by going for a

ten-point scale, it is possible to use it as interval scale when a number of responses for a

particular construct are averaged. Also to eliminate the ‘between sample’ variation (Statistica

for Windows 2001) among respondents, the items were framed to be answered on ‘before’

and ‘after’ format. A copy of the questionnaire titled ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ is

available at Table A5.1. The difference in the score ‘today’ and ‘1 year before ISO

certification’ was taken as a measure of the emergence of the corresponding underlying item.

The difference in scores for a particular factor was the average of the ‘difference score’ for

its three corresponding items.

3.6.3 General issues in drafting the questionnaire

The general issues involved in drafting the questionnaire were question content,

response format, sequence and physical characteristics. With respect to the question content

and wording, the questions are simple to understand and not vague or double barrelled.

Further, railway specific wording are used so that the respondents can understand the correct

nuance of the meaning. For example, the ‘delegation of power’ in the Indian Railways is

formally done through a document called ‘Schedule of Power (SOP)’. Thus during the

exploratory research stage, the wording of question seven was modified. The instrument

contains some questions on Pareto analysis and ‘corrective and preventive actions’ which are

indicative of the emergence of a basic quality awareness and use of simple statistical tools.

Questions like ‘quality and not price is the basis for supplier selection’, ‘team working’

indicate assimilation of additional TQM factors. Cultural factors are most difficult to change.

They are indicative of still higher level of assimilation of TQM concept. They have been

represented through ‘People in the work unit take pride in their work’ and ‘Making a mistake

is not feared. It is recognised as a part of learning’.

130

3.6.4 Pre-test, revision and final draft

Pre-testing helps to uncover biased or ambiguous questions before they are

administered at large (Sekaran 2000, Zikmund 2000). For the pre-test, the questionnaire was

personally administered. The response for each item was examined. Such items which did not

discriminate between respondents were discarded. An important step taken in the pre-test

stage was to send the initial draft to the head of quality department of the Deming Prize

winners in India and incorporate the changes suggested by them.

3.6.5 Reliability and validity of the instrument

Reliability A measurement is reliable when it offers similar result over time and across the

various items in the instrument. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured by split

half reliability. It was .70. The Guttman split half reliability was .67. The use of Guttman

split half reliability is that it does not presume equal reliabilities or equal variances of the two

halves (Statistica for Windows 2001, p. 3131).

This being an exploratory study, this level of reliability was considered acceptable.

Validity: It concerns the instruments adequacy for the measurement of the concept or idea

that it measures. That is, the degree to which the elements of the instrument fully cover the

phenomenon that is measured. The following validity types were tested:

Content validity: It measures the extent to which the instrument actually covers the area

under study. It can only be checked subjectively, by its approval from experts on the subject.

Extensive literature review can also assure content validity. In this questionnaire, the content

validity was established by linking the questionnaire with the literature, pre-testing of

questionnaire and sending a copy of the questionnaire to academicians who have worked in

the area of TQM in India. Their suggestions were incorporated. In the operational definition

of the factors (Table 3.7), the literature references are mentioned which also helped establish

the content validity of this questionnaire.

Construct validity: It is established when a measured construct is significantly related to

another construct with which it should be theoretically related. It is assessed through

convergent validity and discriminant validity. Ideally, convergent validity is established

131

through factor analysis. However, for a reliable factor analysis, for each item in the

questionnaire, there should be about ten responses (Statistica for Window 2001). Since there

are 36 items in this questionnaire, it required 360 respondents. Thus factor analysis was not

possible because of the small sample size. Therefore criterion validity was used to assess the

validity of the instrument.

Criterion validity: Criterion validity is established if the results are in agreement with another

measure of the same construct. The criterion validity was established by administering the

questionnaire to three Deming Prize-winner organizations in India. It was found that on all

the questions in the final draft of the questionnaire, a high total score was obtained by the

Deming Prize winners. This was indicative of the criterion validity of the instrument. This,

therefore, showed that the instrument could be used to measure the transition of an

organization towards a TQM organization. To check its discriminant validity, it was

administered to five ISO certified units in Indian Railways. It was found that different units

scored differently on the test. Units which scored high on the instrument were ancedotically

rated as successful implementation of ISO and units which rated low were ancedotically

considered not successful cases of ISO implementation. Thus this instrument was able to

discriminate between successful and unsuccessful cases of ISO implementation. The scores

obtained by the three Deming Prize winners and the five ISO certified railway units on the

‘TQM transition questionnaire’ is shown in Table A5.2 in Appendix 5. A summary of the

scores for each of the 12 factors is shown in the Table 3.8.

132

Note: info – information, mgt - management

Table 3. 8 Summary of scores obtained on the TQM transition questionnaire by DP winners in India and different ISO certified units of Indian Railways

Source: developed from survey data.

The above discussion showed that the questionnaire could be treated as a valid

instrument to assess an organization’s transition towards TQM after ISO certification.

Argyris (1999, p.452) has said that reliability and validity scores are best obtained

with observers who manifest a relatively high level of competence in the variables being

studied. Further the more the subjects are involved in planning and designing the research,

the more we learn about the best ways to ask questions, the kind of resistance each research

method would generate and the best way to gain genuine and long term interest in the

research (Argyris 1999, p. 451). Thus during the development and validity testing phase, the

instruments were administered to the head of TQM division of the Deming Prize winner

organisations and in Indian Railways, it was administered to the head of an organization or

the divisional heads within an organization.

Deming Prize winners in India

ISO certified railway units in India

TQM factor Sona

Steering M&M Rane Brake DLW AMV PRL BPL DCW

Customer Focus 3.00 6.00 3.00 3.13 2.33 1.00 3.00 .66 Comm, info& data mgt 3.33 4.67 3.33 2.93 2.17 0.33 1.50 .33 Delegation & empowerment 2.33 3.00 4.00 0.93 0.17 2.00 0.00 .66 Continuous improvement 2.67 4.33 3.00 3.47 2.33 4.33 3.33 3 Results and recognition 2.00 2.67 2.33 1.40 0.17 1.33 0.83 0 Leadership 4.00 3.33 3.33 2.20 0.50 1.00 1.83 .33 Process improvement 3.33 4.00 3.00 3.20 1.33 0.66 1.67 1.66 Supplier focus 2.33 2.00 3.00 2.27 0.33 0.00 0.67 .66 Team work 2.33 1.67 4.00 1.73 1.00 0.00 0.17 .66 Value & ethics 2.33 1.67 2.66 1.40 0.50 0.00 0.33 .33 Work culture 2.67 0.67 3.33 1.60 1.00 1.66 0.00 .66 Strategy 3.67 3.00 3.66 1.27 1.33 0.66 0.00 1.33 Total 34.00 37.00 37.66 25.33 13.17 13 13.33 10.33

133

3.6.6 Survey method

The same persons who took survey C were requested to take survey D also. The instrument

was mailed by post or electronically to the management representatives and the unit heads of

ISO certified units of Indian Railways.

3.7 Research design for stage 3

After obtaining the insight which the research in stage 1 and stage 2 provided, stage 3

sought answers to the research question no. ‘iv’ and research question no. ‘v’ developed in

section 3.1. The research questions were:

Research question iv: Will a bottom up methodology build learning capacity among

the railway personnel?

Research question v: How can the enablers of TQM be integrated in a model for

attaining TQM within the ISO framework?

It was recalled that in section 3.5.1.1 (p. 121), ‘capacity to learn’ was found to be an

intervening variable which affected the assimilation of TQM concepts in an organization.

3.7.1 Development of research design for stage 3

In the Indian Railways, ISO 9000 implementation is perhaps the only organization

wide formal change initiative which has been taken up on a sustained basis. Literature review

had shown that ISO 9000:2000 quality system has many similarities with TQM. It had also

been mentioned in the literature review that one of the weaknesses of TQM implementation

had been the prescriptive style which therefore ignored the tacit factors (Joseph et al. 1999).

A summary of the impact of ISO implementation in different units of Indian Railways is

shown in Appendix 9. It shows that almost all implementations had been consultant guided.

There have been only few instances of involvement of employees in the planning and

implementation process.

134

In contrast, in the literature review, it was noted that in the Japanese culture, top

management planning (hoshin) is more than a planning system. It is an organization

development process throughout the company. It is recalled that the Deming Prize also looks

upon the journey to the final award as a developmental process (see section 2.2.3.3). Hoshin

promotes consensus building and shared decisions, commitment and loyalty. The effective

top down and bottom up communication encourages all employees to act collectively in

achieving shared organisational objectives (Khoo & Tan 2003). Japanese Shintoism and

Buddhism advocate respect for everyone. The literature review had shown the similarities

between the Indian culture and the Japanese culture (section 2.2.6.6). Thus there was enough

theoretical underpinning to believe that a bottom up approach of ISO implementation might

be better for developing learning capacities so as to internalise the TQM values of customer

satisfaction and continuous improvement.

Since the focus here was the progressive assimilation of core values of TQM, one

needed to select a research methodology which facilitated both organisational learning by a

group and also academic learning for the purpose of research.

Action research (AR) methodology was one research methodology which was

suitable to do this. The action research project which was used is discussed in chapter 5.

3.8 Ethical considerations

Stage 1 and stage 2 of this research involved surveys. All respondents to the surveys

were assured that their identities would remain confidential. They were also informed that

their participation was voluntary and that they were free to withdraw from the survey if they

so desired at any time. They were also briefed about the purpose of the survey and why they

were requested to participate in the survey. Thus the respondents were free from any stress

on account of their participation in the survey.

Stage 3 of this research involves action research methodology. For this also, a team of

co-action - researchers was made at the Jhansi warehousing unit of Indian Railways. They

were made the co-researchers with their consent and with the consent of the head of the

warehousing unit.

The questionnaires and the formation of action research team were also cleared by the

ethical committee of Southern Cross University vide their letter ECN-04-95.

135

3.9 Conclusion

This chapter dealt with the research methodology which was used to seek answers to

the research questions framed at the beginning of the chapter. Justifications for different

research methods, the sampling techniques and the ethical consideration associated with the

research methods have been explained. The next chapter discusses data collection and data

analysis for different surveys.

136

Chapter 4 Data collection and data analysis This chapter deals with the data collection methods and the analysis of different

surveys.

4.1 Data collection and data analysis for survey A

Survey A was concerned with assessing the organisational practices and policies of

Indian Railways. A copy of the survey instrument is shown at Appendix 2. Through the

open-ended question I, this survey attempted to understand what new policies/practices the

organization should adopt in the new scenario of liberalisation and globalisation. Question II

to question VI of the survey seeked respondent’s opinion on ‘what is’ and ‘what should be’

the Indian Railways’ core values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive

strategies and changes in organisational structure / management system. Part ‘a’ of these

questions sought the ‘what is’ status and part ‘b’ of these questions sought the ‘should be’

status.

The questionnaire was sent by post. Before sending the questionnaire, the respondents

were spoken to in person or telephonically and the purpose of the survey was explained to

them. After sending the questionnaire, all the possible respondents were also reminded

telephonically. Out of 25 questionnaires sent, 20 responses were received which made the

response rate very high. The high response rate was possibly because the researcher and the

respondents were both railwaymen. Thus the respondents were able to relate to the research

work done. However not all the respondents answered all the questions. Therefore, in

Appendix 2A, against each question, the number of respondents is indicated. The profile of

the respondents is shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4. 1 Respondent profile for survey A

Source: developed from survey data.

Organisational rank Number of respondents

Years of service in Indian Railways

Ex- chairmen and ex-board

members of Indian Railways

13 More than 35 years

Senior administrative grade

and up to General Manager

7 From 27 years to 35 years

137

The questions and their responses are now analysed:

Question I- What new policies /practices you want the organization to adopt in the

new scenario of liberalisation and increased competition?

17 respondents had answered this question. A total of 89 different types of policies

/practices were identified by them. They have been termed ‘responses’ in this data analysis.

These responses were coded using Miles and Huberman (1994) concept of data coding.

Depending on their conceptual similarity, these 89 responses were first reduced to 28 level -1

codes. At a second level, using networks of codes, they were further reduced to 13 level-2

codes. It was recalled that these responses were respondent’s opinion about the policies and

practices which they felt Indian Railways should adopt in the liberalised scenario. It was then

compared with the factors of TQM which were summarised in Table 3.7. It was found that 10

of the codes matched with TQM factors either partly or fully. These are shown in Table 4.2.

Level 1 coding No. of

responses (%

of respondents

who

mentioned the

code)

Level 2

coding

No. of

responses (%

of respondents

who

mentioned the

code)

Corresponding

factor of the

TQM model

shown in

Table 3.7

Multi modal transport 3 (17.6%)

Customer orientation 4 (23.5%)

Customer

oriented

transportation

7 (41.1%) Customer

Focus

Faster decision

making

2 (11.7%)

More flexible rules 5 (29.4%)

Freedom to engage

manpower at short

notice

2 (11.7%)

Empowerment 9 (52.9%) Delegation

and

Empowerment

Profit orientation 6 (35.3%)

Cost cutting 1 (5.9%)

Better accounting

system

3 (17.6%)

Rational pricing 4 (23.5%)

Commercial

orientation

14 (82.35%) none

Table 4.2 (cont’d…)

138

Table 4.2 (cont’d…) Level 1 coding No. of

responses

(% of

respondents

who

mentioned

the code)

Level 2

coding

No. of

responses (%

of respondents

who

mentioned the

code)

Corresponding

factor of the

TQM model

shown in

Table 3.7

Innovation 3 (17.6%)

Remove fear of failure 3 (17.6%)

Work culture 6 (35.3%0 Work culture

Less role of finance

department

2 (11.7%)

Less departments in

railways

7 (41.1%)

Team work 1 (5.9%)

Team work 10 (58.8%) Team Working

Competitive advantage 2 (11.7%)

Outsource, get out of

non core area

4 (23.5%)

Focussed

working

6 (35.3%) None

Level playing field with

road sector and

compensation for social

responsibility of

railways

5 (29.4%) Strategic

governmental

support

5 (29.4%) None

Transparency 3 (17.6%) Ethical

working

3 (17.6%) Values and

ethics

Executive development 3 (17.6%)

Staff training 4 (23.5%)

Training 7 (41.1%) Training

BPR 1 (5.9%)

TQM 1 (5.9%)

Technological

upgradation

5 (29.4%)

Process

improvement

7 (41.1%) Process

improvement

Table 4.2 (cont’d…)

139

Table 4.2 (cont’d…) Level 1 coding No. of

responses

(% of

respondents

who

mentioned

the code)

Level 2 coding No. of

responses (%

of respondents

who

mentioned the

code)

Corresponding

factor of the

TQM model

shown in

Table 3.7

More tenure for

higher level posts

2 (11.7%)

Merit based

promotion

3 (17.6%)

Better salary 1 (5.9%)

Recognition 6 (35.3%) Result and

recognition

Better discipline 2 (11.7%) People

management

2 (22.5%) Congenial

inter-personal

relations

High level of

professional work

7 (41.1%) Management’s

commitment to

quality and

productivity

7 (41.1%) Strategy

Total number of

response

89

Table 4. 2 Comparison of codes developed in survey A with the CSFs of TQM

Source: developed from survey data.

The three level–2 codes which did not match with TQM factors are commercial

orientation, focussed working and strategic government support. Together, these three codes

accounted for 25 responses out of 89 responses received. The balance 64 responses (72%)

were such that they were related to TQM based practices.

In terms of frequency, 82% of the respondents felt that ‘developing an commercial

orientation’ should be a desirable policy to be adopted by Indian Railways. The

preponderance of ‘developing a commercial orientation’ as the desirable change in the policy

140

of Indian Railways indicates that the importance of what TQM award models call ‘business

result’ was also realised by the senior railway managers in India. 58.8% of the respondents

felt that team working should be a desirable policy to be adopted by Indian Railways. 52.9%

of the respondents felt that ‘empowerment’ should be a desirable policy to be adopted by

Indian Railways. 41.1% of respondents felt that ‘customer focus, training, process

improvement and strategy’ should be among the desirable policies to be adopted by Indian

Railways

Thus, it can be said that the model which senior railway managers have in their mind

about way things should change in Indian Railways is conceptually similar to the TQM

model.

The analyses of the responses to other questions of this survey (survey A) were then

used to support or disapprove this emerging understanding. Question II to question VI

attempted to understand what are and what should be the organisational values, management

style, growth strategy, competitive strategy and organization structure for the Indian

Railways. These questions contained pre-coded options while question I contained an open

ended question. This was done so that comparison made across these different question types

could make the conclusions more rigorous.

The details of the responses received to these questions are shown in Appendix 2A.

From these responses, for the five dimensions of organisational values, management style,

growth strategy, competitive strategy and organization structure, two most often quoted

responses have been shown in the Table 4.3. These responses have again been compared with

the TQM factors shown in Table 3.7.

The table shows that the existing core values of Indian Railways are to be a ‘fair and

just employer’ and ‘making a useful contribution to society’. As against this, ‘total quality in

every operation’ and ‘customer focus’ are the two values which Indian Railways should have.

These two values are the very core of TQM.

The management style of Indian Railways is ‘cautious, with clear formal reporting

relationship and a clear distinction between those who give orders and those who implement

them’. In the opinion of the researcher, these indicate a bureaucratic and hierarchical style

which, given the bureaucratic and cultural background of Indian Railways employees, are not

surprising. However, the senior managers of Indian Railways strongly want a ‘bold but

calculating risk taking’ management style characterised with ‘flexibility, informality and

resourcefulness’, a management style which is ‘professional and system oriented’. This is the

141

same as an innovative organisational culture discussed in section 2.2.1.2 of literature review

which finally leads to continuous improvement which is again a TQM based concept.

The existing growth strategies of Indian Railways are ‘related and unrelated capacity

building and geographical expansion of railway network’. As against this, the desirable

growth strategies are ‘empowerment and rapid expansion of customer base by weaning

customer back’. Empowerment has already been identified as one of the critical success

factors for TQM.

Indian Railways’ existing competitive strategies have been to compete on the basis of

price and by offering service to specific market segments. There is almost total unanimity

that the desirable competitive strategies should be to compete on the basis of quality and by

offering novel or unique services. Once again quality strategy and innovative culture are the

desirable directions of change.

With respect to organisational structure and management system, Indian Railways is

trying for ‘greater delegation of authority’ and ‘a sophisticated management and control

system’. The senior managers felt that ‘greater delegation of authority’ and ‘a leaner

organization’ should be the desirable changes. ‘Greater delegation of authority’ is same as

empowerment- a TQM enabler.

This analysis showed that TQM itself and many core concepts of TQM like

continuous improvement, empowerment, customer focus, quality based organisational

strategy, systems approach have been identified by the respondents as the desirable changes

which Indian Railways should initiate.

142

Table 4. 3 Existing and proposed organisational dimensions for Indian Railways by senior railway managers

Source: developed from survey data.

Dimensions Existing Proposed Corresponding TQM

factor

Being a fair and just employer (70%) –

welfare state (researcher’s interpretation)

Total quality in every operation

(80%)

TQM itself ii. Core values

Making a useful contribution to society

(41%) – welfare state (researcher’s

interpretation)

Customer orientation (45%) Customer focus

Cautious, stick to knitting management that

greatly values stability, good profit and

steady growth (77%) - bureaucratic style

(researcher’s interpretation)

Bold but calculating risk

taking, a lot of

entrepreneurship, commitment

to fast growth (80%)

Innovative

organisational culture

(akin to continuous

improvement)

Management greatly emphasises clear

formal reporting relationships, roles,

procedures and accountability (77%) -

bureaucratic style (researcher’s

interpretation)

Strong emphasis on flexibility,

adaptability, informality and

resourcefulness (73.7%)

Innovative

organisational culture

(akin to continuous

improvement)

iii. Management

style

Strongly discipline oriented management,

clearly separates those who give orders

from those who must obey them (72%) –

hierarchical system (researcher’s

interpretation)

Highly professional, system

oriented management (73.7%)

Systems approach

Related capacity building (53%)

Unrelated capacity building ((31%)

Geographical or locational expansion of

railway network (31%)

Empowerment (empowering

front line managers to tap and

capture new markets by

offering locally relevant,

potentially ‘star’ services with

locally fixed tariffs) (73.7%)

Empowerment iv.

Organization’s

growth strategy

Rapid expansion of present customer base

by weaning customers back to railways

(31%)

Rapid expansion of present

customer base by weaning

customers back to railways

(73.7%)

Customer focus

Compete on the basis of high

quality of service (100%)

Quality strategy v. Organization’s

competitive

strategy

Compete on the basis of price (81%)

Compete by developing and offering

services to cater to the needs of specific

market segments (62%) Compete on the basis of

innovative and offering novel

or unique new services (95%)

Innovative

organisational culture

(akin to continuous

improvement)

Contract out various functions

and activities to make the

organization much leaner

(80%)

None vi. Organization

structure and

management

system

Greater delegation of authority at operating

levels (70%)

More sophisticated information and control

system (63%)

Greater delegation of authority

at operating levels (70%)

Empowerment

143

It was thus noted that the open ended question I and the pre-coded question II to

question VI threw up similar approaches of change for Indian Railways. Further, these

approaches were conceptually similar to different factors of TQM which the literature review

had identified. Literature review had shown that TQM could be used as a model for

organisational transformation. This survey showed that the managers of Indian Railways also

suggested a model of change which was conceptually similar to TQM.

It is to be noted that the open-ended question was the first to be answered by the

respondents and then they answered the pre-coded questions. This eliminated the possibility

that the options in the pre-coded questions might have biased the respondents towards giving

TQM oriented responses.

4.2 Data collection and data analysis for survey B

4.2.1 Data collection If TQM is the proposed model of change for Indian Railways, to what is extent there

congruence between TQM oriented organisational culture and the cultural values of Indian

Railway personnel? Section 2.2.6.6 had shown that there is no study in this area. Since

hierarchy was found to be having strong negative influence on TQM implementation (Tan &

Khoo 2002, Tata & Prasad 1998), survey B attempted to assess this among the employees of

the Indian Railways.

The instrument for survey (S004 available in Appendix 3) was personally

administered by the researcher during visits to different units of the Indian Railways.

Personally administering the instrument had the advantage of explaining the rationale of the

survey and clarifying any doubt by the respondents before they could start filling the

questionnaire. This also took care that there were no missing responses in the filled

questionnaire. This helped at the time of data analysis.

A total of 311 responses were collected from the survey. The distribution of the

respondents is shown in Table 4.4.

144

Category of employee:

class 1 officers

Category of employee:

class 2 officers

Category of employee:

class 3 supervisors

No of respondents 144 No of respondents 61 No of respondents 106

respondent’s age

less than 30 years

44 respondent’s age less

than 30 years

nil respondent’s less than

30 years

8

respondent’s age

between 30 years to

50 years

89 respondent’s age

between 30 years to 50

years

27 respondent’s between

30 years to 50 years

77

respondent’s age

more than 50 years

11 respondent’s More than

50 years

34 respondent’s more than

50 years

21

Table 4. 4 Number of respondents in different categories for survey B

Source: developed from field data.

In Indian Railways, for the field postings, there is no direct recruitment at the class 2

level. The class 3 supervisors after putting in certain years of service take a departmental

promotion examination. Those who qualify through this are promoted to the level of class 2.

Thus most of the class 2 officers are more than 30 years old. Hence during the survey, no

class 2 officer less than 30 years of age could be accessed. In the category of class 1 officers

less than 30 years of age, all were trainee officers, that is, they had not yet joined a working

post. Since the training period for them is two years, they had not put in more than two years

of service in the Indian Railways. Thus it could be said that their values were not influenced

by railway specific experiences and it was more a reflection of their experiences in the Indian

society.

4.2.2 Data Analysis

For the data analysis, the scores obtained on the dimensions of ‘status consciousness’,

‘tendency for personalised relationship’ and ‘dependency proneness’ were symbolised by S,

P and D scores respectively. The class 1, class 2 and class3 employees were symbolised by

the suffix 1, 2 or 3 respectively after S, P or D. Thus D3 means ‘dependency proneness’

score for class 3 employees of Indian Railways. The scores were further divided age group

wise as shown in the Table 4.5 which is self-illustrative.

145

Dimensions of hierarchy Status consciousness

Personalised relationship

Dependency proneness

category of employee: class 1 officers

S1_<30yr P1_<30yr D1_<30yr respondent’s age less than 30 years (n= 44) score 2.4818 2.9113 2.4522

S1_31-50 P1_31-50 D1_31-50 respondent’s age between 30 years to 50 years (n=89) score 2.4292 3.0224 2.6112

S1_>50 P1_>50 D1_>50 respondent’s age more than 50 years (n=11) score 2.3454 2.8909 2.4454

average score for class 1 officers (n=144)

S1= 2.43 P1 = 2.98 D1 =2.55

category of employee: class 2 officers

S2_<30yr P2_<30yr D2_<30yr respondent’s age less than 30 years (n=0) score

n.a. n.a. n.a.

S2_31-50 P2_31-50 D2_31-50 respondent’s age between 30 years to 50 years (n=27) score 2.0296 2.7703 2.1259

S2_>50 P2_>50 D2_>50 respondent’s age more than 50 years (n=34) score 2.2147 3.0323 2.2323

average score for class 2 officers (n=61)

S2=2.13 P2=2.92 D2=2.18

category of employee: class 3 supervisors

S3_<30yr P3_<30yr D3_<30yr respondent’s age less than 30 years (n=8) score

1.6750 2.6500 1.7625

S3_31-50 P3_31-50 D3_31-50 respondent’s age between 30 years to 50 years (n=77) score 1.7909 3.0103 1.7441

S3_>50 P3_>50 D3_>50 respondent’s age more than 50 years (n=21) score 1.8333 3.1428 1.7666

average scores for class 3 supervisors (n=106)

S3=1.79 P3=3.01 D3=1.75

average scores for the class1, class2 & class3 combined (n=144+61+106 =311)

S=2.1578 P=2.9768 D= 2.2057

n.a.= not available

Note: quite true-1 true-2 undecided–3 false-4 quite false-5

Table 4. 5 Scores obtained on the three dimensions of ‘status consciousness (S)’, ‘personalised relationship (P)’ and ‘dependency proneness (D) ’ by different categories of employees of Indian Railways

Source: developed from survey data.

146

In Table 4.5, the lower the scores, the higher the measured tendency of ‘status

consciousness (S)’, ‘personalised relationship (P)’ and ‘dependency proneness (D) ’ .The

Statistical package ‘Statistica’ was used to analyse the data. Wherever ANOVA was used, the

following assumptions of ANOVA were verified to be true before conclusions were made

based on ANOVA:

(i) Homogeneity of variance

(ii) Lack of correlation between the mean and variance.

Since for all ANOVA based analysis, the sample sizes were more than thirty and also

because the violation of normality assumption does not affect the robustness of F test

(Statistica 1998, p. 1710), the test of normality was not specifically done.

The analysis began by verifying whether there was any difference between the S

score, P score and D scores given below. The lower the score, the higher was the tendency of

‘status consciousness (S)’, ‘personalised relationship (P)’ and ‘dependency proneness (D)’.

Symbol Mean value Valid N

S 2.1578 311

P 2.9768 311

D 2.2057 311

All Groups 2.4468

The details of the analysis done are shown in step 1 at Appendix 3A.

The analysis showed that in the Indian Railway staff, among the three components of

hierarchy, the dimension of ‘tendency for a personalised relationship’ was significantly

weaker than those of ‘dependency on superior’ and ‘status consciousness’. Further, there was

no significant difference on the scores obtained on the dimensions of ‘status consciousness’

and ‘dependency on the superior’.

Then it was assessed whether there was any difference among class 1, class 2 and

class 3 staff of the Indian Railway on the three dimensions. The details of the analysis are

available in step 2 at Appendix 3A.

The analysis showed that the ‘status consciousness with respect to the superior’ and

‘dependency on the superior’ increased from class1 to class 2 and from class 2 to class 3

employees. However, there was no difference in their ‘tendency for personalised

relationship’ with their superior which in any case was significantly weaker than that of

147

‘status consciousness with respect to the superior’ and ‘dependency on the superior’ as seen

from the analysis done in step 1 of Appendix 3A.

The analysis further showed that within a category of employee (class 1, class 2, class

3) there was no significant difference in their scores on the two dimensions of ‘status

consciousness’ and ‘dependency on the superior’ from younger (less than 30 years of age) to

older (more than 50 years of age) employees. The details of the analysis are shown in step 3

at Appendix 3A.

On the dimension of ‘tendency for personalised relationship’, the analysis carried out

in step 4 at Appendix 3A showed that there was no difference in P scores across different age

groups and across different classes of employees. That is, the ‘tendency for personalised

relationship’ is consistently weak across different age and class groups in the Indian

Railways.

The hypotheses made in section 3.4.2 are now reproduced for convenience:

(i) Class 1 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class 2 officers.

(ii) Class 2 officers show lower hierarchical tendencies in comparison to class 3 employees.

(iii) Younger employees show lesser hierarchical tendencies than older employees.

In terms of hypothesis testing, hypothesis i and hypothesis ii were accepted on two

dimensions of hierarchy – ‘status consciousness’ and ‘dependency proneness’. But

hypothesis i and hypothesis ii were not accepted on the third dimension of hierarchy -

‘personalised relationship’.

Hypothesis iii was not accepted on the two dimensions of ‘status consciousness’ and

‘dependency proneness’. That is, in the Indian Railways, the younger employees are as

hierarchical in nature as their superiors who joined service roughly 25 years ago.

148

4.3 Data collection and data analysis for survey C

Based on the three criteria for selection of units for survey C mentioned in section

3.5.1.1, the railway units short-listed for this survey and the criteria they satisfied are shown

in Table 4.6.

Railway unit

ISO 14000 certified

Unit headed by a transform-ational leader

Requisite delegation of authority to the head of unit

Parel workshop (PRL) No No No Diesel Components Works (DCW) No No Yes Alambagh warehousing unit (AMV) No Yes No Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) Yes No Yes Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) Yes No Yes Bhopal workshop (BPL) Yes Yes No Wheel and Axle Plant (WAP) Yes No Yes Rail Coach Factory (RCF) Yes No Yes Integrated Coach Factory (ICF) Yes No Yes

Table 4. 6 List of short-listed railway units for survey C

Source: developed from fieldwork. The survey questionnaire was sent by e- mail after the management representative

(MR) or the head of the unit of these units was telephonically advised of the purpose of the

survey. They were then reminded telephonically to complete and return the survey. Two units

CLW and RCF did not respond.

Salient points of the survey are shown in Appendix 4A. Some of the common

conclusions were:

(i) The reason for certification was to initiate a structured way for continuous improvement.

(ii) Top management had been very involved in the quality system.

(iii) Customer feedback is taken as a part of quality system implementation.

(iv) Except DLW, there was no resistance to change from any unit.

(v) The structure of procedure for WAP showed a different approach. It was basically

designed for each business process i.e. it truly reflected the process approach enshrined in

ISO 9000:2000 standard.

(vi) Five out of six units said that implementation of document control ‘prevented non

conformities on account of use of obsolete documents or no documents’.

149

(vii) Except WAP no unit calculates process capability index like Cpk. At WAP, the use of

statistical techniques has been good. In the other five units, the use of statistical techniques

has been either ‘low’ or ‘somewhat’.

(viii) Five out of six units said that certification resulted in ‘better understanding of process &

responsibility’ and ‘linkage to other functions’.

(ix) ‘Team work’ came out as the most important lesson learnt followed by the realisation

that ‘people make the system work’.

(x) Except AMV, no other unit involved all departments in the ISO certification.

From the above conclusions, the following are relevant in the context of this research:

(i) Continuous improvement was the reason behind certification. The literature review had

shown that ‘management intent’ behind ISO certification was an intervening variable in an

organization’s transition towards TQM (see section 2.2.5.2).

(ii) Top management was very involved in the quality system. Literature review had shown

that leadership; particularly transformational leadership was a crucial intervening variable in

an organization’s transition towards TQM. However, it must be cautioned here that

‘leadership involvement’ is one thing; ‘transformational leadership’ is another thing. That is,

a non-transformational leader can also be very much involved in the certification process

without showing the traits of transformational leadership.

(iii) There was almost no resistance to change. This was contrary to the findings in the

western literature on management of change (see section 2.2.7.2).

4.3.1 Understanding the impact of ISO implementation on railway units in terms of intervening variables

In Table 4.6, the railway units were short-listed based on three intervening variables –

ISO 14000 certification, presence of transformational leadership and presence of requisite

authority to the head of the unit.

Now, after the survey, based on the survey C and the literature review, additional

intervening variables were used to assess their moderating impact on an unit’s journey

towards TQM. The intervening variables which were now considered as having a moderating

impact on the unit’s journey towards TQM were:

(i) time elapsed from ISO certification till Jan 2005

(ii) ISO 14000 certification

150

(iii) presence of transformational leadership

(iv) involvement of all departments in ISO certification process

(v) presence of requisite authority to the head of the unit

(vi) use of statistical techniques.

That took the research to survey D.

4.4 Data collection and data analysis for survey D

The purpose of survey D was to assess the development of TQM orientation in ISO

certified units of Indian Railways. The instrument ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ developed

in section 3.6 was used to get an objective assessment of a unit’s transition towards TQM.

The units short-listed for survey C were used for this survey also so that the effect of

intervening variables could be seen. The questionnaire was e-mailed to the management

representative (M.R.) or the head of the unit after a telephonic discussion about the purpose

of the questionnaire. In three cases (AMV, DLW and WAP), the questionnaire was

personally handed over to the M.R.

The scores obtained on the TQM transition questionnaire by different units of Indian

Railways are shown in Table 4.7. The table also shows the status of intervening variables in

the units which were assessed on TQM transition questionnaire.

151

Railway Unit

Score on TQM trans-ition scale

No. of years since ISO 9000 certificat-ion till Jan 2005

ISO 14000 certif-ied

Unit head-ed by a trans-form-ational leader

Involvement of all depar-tments in the ISO certifi-cation process

Requisite delegation of authority to the head of unit

Use of statist-ical techni-que

Parel workshop (PRL)

13 3 No No No No Non existent

Alambagh warehous-ing unit (AMV)

13.17 1 No Yes Yes No Some-what

Bhopal workshop (BPL)

13.33 4 Yes Yes No No Some-what

Diesel Locomot-ive Works (DLW)

25.33 8 Yes No No Yes Some-what

Diesel Compon-ents Works (DCW)

10.33 7 No No No Yes Low

Wheel and Axle Plant (WAP)

37.66 10 Yes No No Yes High

Integrated Coach Factory (ICF)

21.33 9 Yes No No Yes Some-what

Table 4. 7 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors

Source: developed from survey data.

It can be seen from Table 4.7 that the top leader at Parel, Alambagh and Bhopal were

not having requisite delegation of authority. Further, only the leaders at Alambagh and

Bhopal were transformational leaders. The transformational leadership scores of the leaders

at Alambagh (AMV) and Bhopal (BPL) measured through Bass Multifactor Leadership

Questionnaire are shown at Appendix 6.3. Except for AMV, no other unit had involved all

152

departments in the certification process. The presence of a transformational leader and

involvement of all department perhaps explains why just one year after certification process,

Alambagh registered a score of 13.17 on the ‘TQM transition scale’ which was the same as

the scores of Bhopal and Parel, even though Bhopal was headed by a transformational leader.

The leaders at DLW, DCW, WAP and ICF were not transformational. But they had the

necessary delegation of authority. With respect to ISO 14000 certification, it was seen that

except BPL, all ISO 14000 certified units (WAP, ICF and DLW) obtained relatively higher

scores. This was in line with the proposition made in section 3.5.1.1 that ISO 14000

certification, because of its emphasis on cleanliness, positively intervenes in an

organization’s journey towards TQM. WAP had the highest on the TQM transition scale.

This could partly be explained by the longer period for which it was ISO certified. However,

DLW and ICF were also ISO certified for the last 8 years and 9 years respectively. In the

case of WAP, the use of statistical technique was high. This could be one possible

explanation as to why WAP got higher scores on the TQM transition scale than DLW and

ICF. Still, the rather large difference of scores between DLW and WAP made the researcher

feel that there were other intervening variables which were not considered in Table 4.7 which

could explain the difference in the scores between DLW and WAP.

This insight was carried forward to the rest of the research discussed in chapter 5 and

chapter 6.

153

Chapter 5 The action research project

In section 3.7.1, action research was mentioned as a possible research methodology to

seek answers to the following research questions:

Research question iv: Will a bottom up methodology build learning capacity among

the railway personnel?

Research question v: How can the enablers of TQM be integrated in a model for

attaining TQM within the ISO framework?

This chapter deals with these issues in detail.

5.1 Situating Action Research in a Research Paradigm AR is the process of systematically collecting data about a system (e.g. organization)

relative to some goal or need of the system (Aguinis 1993, p.419). Lewin has however

clarified that introduction of action into the scientific model ‘by no means indicate that action

research is any less scientific or “lower” than pure science’ (quoted by Aguinis 1993, p. 419).

This means that the data collection is not arbitrary. It is systematic in the sense that the action

researcher is guided by hypotheses and assumptions about the nature of organization and its

sub-systems. The data is fed back to the system and action taken as a consequence. Part of

the action involves modifying the hypothesis if the data so indicate.

Action research in its most basic form is shown in Figure 5.1.

Reflect Plan

Observe Action

Figure 5. 1 The action research cycle

Source: Kemmis and McTaggart (1988).

154

Planning involves identifying the problem, formulating a hypothesis about the

situation, identifying the theory in use and planning the action to be taken. The action is then

undertaken. The action is observed with data collected. The fourth stage is reflection which

relates to what the experience means, what can be learnt from it, does theory match practice

or does the theory need to be adjusted in light of the practice. This process is then repeated

until theory accurately predicts the practice.

In the context of learning, Kolb has expressed the cyclic learning as shown in

Figure 5.2. Here there is no need to identify the theoretical assumption underlying the initial

action. Instead an event is selected for reflection and a record of experience kept. Using the

record, the experience is analysed in terms of what happened and why, what was expected to

happen and what does it mean? A meaning is abstracted from it which may result in a theory

or a personal record of what has been learnt. In the fourth stage what has been learnt is tried

out and the cycle is repeated.

Concrete

Experiencing

Active Reflective observation

experimentation

Abstract

conceptualisation

Figure 5. 2 The experiential learning cycle

Source: Kuit, Reay and Freeman (2001, p. 128) adapted from Kolb

Cowan (1998) has taken the experiencing learning cycle of Kolb shown in

Figure 5.2 and shown how the cycle can be modified to give rise to generalisation about

learning which can then be tested. Cowan says that the step from reflective learning to

generalisation about that learning is essentially an iterative process in which the learner

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oscillates between reflection and generalisation a number of times before he/she can arrive at

a testable generalisation. This is shown in Figure 5.3.

Experiencing

Test Reflecting

Generalize

Figure 5. 3 The oscillation between reflection and generalisation

Source: based on Cowan (1998, p. 44).

Action research cycle has been regarded as a learning cycle (Dick 2000;

Kemmis & McTaggart 1988; O’Brien 1998). The literature review (section 2.2.1.3)

identified four forms of knowing - experiential, presentational, propositional and practical.

Extending knowledge into research, Reason (1994, p. 326) has said that ‘in research on

persons, the propositional knowledge stated in the research conclusions need to be rooted in

and derived from the experiential and practical knowledge of the subjects’. ‘When formalised

in research, propositional knowledge is the researched world’. Reason has further identified

second person action research –“co-operative inquiry” - as the method which integrates these

four forms of knowing and develops learning organization (Reason 2001, p.185).

Positioning action research in the paradigm of knowledge, de Guerre (2002, p. 333)

said that there are three forms of logical inference and not just two – deduction and induction

- as were generally supposed. He talks about abduction (or retroduction) as a kind of

inference that yields reasonable ex-post facto hypothesis. ‘It was only by this ability to arrive

at reasonable hypotheses, that we could advance scientific knowledge’. ‘Retroduction is

reasoning from the consequent to the antecedent and thus after the fact extracting the

hypothesis’ (Emery & Emery quoted in de Guerre 2002, p.340). Reason has looked at these

three approaches in terms of three paradigms which are shown in a tabular form in Table 5.1.

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Positivist Paradigm Interpretive

Paradigm

Paradigm of Praxis

O’ Brien (1998) has said that

logical positivism is based on a

belief in objective reality,

whose knowledge can be

gained only from data which

that can be directly

experienced and verified

between independent

observers. Phenomena are

subject to natural laws that

humans discover in a logical

manner through empirical

testing, using inductive and

deductive hypothesis derived

from a body of scientific

theory. It uses quantitative

measures with relationships.

Positivism has been considered

by many to be the antithesis of

the principles of action

research.

It is characterised by

a belief in a socially

constructed,

subjectively based

reality, one that is

influenced by culture

and history.

Phenomenology,

ethnography and

hermeneutics are the

approaches which are

used here.

It also retains the

ideals of researcher

objectivity and

researcher as a

passive collector but

expert interpreter of

data.

Aristotle defines Praxis as

the art of acting upon the

conditions one faces in order

to change them. He contrasts

it with Theoria – those

science and activities that are

concerned with knowing for

its own sake. According to

him both are needed. That

knowledge is derived from

practice and practice

informed by knowledge is an

ongoing process is a corner

stone of action research.

Action researchers also

reject the notion of

researcher neutrality,

understanding that an active

researcher is reflecting upon

his/her experience based on

his/her bias and past

experiences.

Table 5. 1 Comparison between three paradigms of knowledge

Source: based on Reason (2001).

Within the three paradigms, action research has been used as a research

method in the paradigm of praxis. To further posit action research as a specific research

methodology, a comparison has been made between the positivist science and the action

research in Table 5.2.

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Points of comparison Positivist science Action Research

Value position Methods are value neutral Methods are social systems

and release of human

potential

Time perspective Observation of the present Observation of the present

plus interpretation of the

present from knowledge of

the past, conceptualisation

of a more desirable future

Relationship with units Detached spectator, client

system members are object

of study

Client system members are

self reflective subjects with

whom to collaborate

Treatments of units studied Cases are of interest only

as representative of the

population

Cases can be sufficient

source of knowledge

Language for describing

units

Denotative, observational Connotative, metaphorical

Basis of assuming existence

of units

Exists independently of

human beings

Human artefacts for human

purposes

Epistemological aim Prediction of events from

propositions arranged

hierarchically

Development of guides for

taking actions that produce

desired outcomes

Strategy for growth of

knowledge

Induction and deduction Conjecturing, creating

settings for learning and

modelling of behaviour

Criteria for confirmation Logical consistency,

prediction and control

Evaluating whether actions

produce intended

consequence

Basis for generalisation Broad, universal and free

of context

Narrow, situational and

bound by context.

Table 5. 2 Comparison between positivist science and action research

Source: Susman and Evered (1978, p. 600).

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The above table shows that the value position action research takes is social system

based. Thus action research within the context of systems theory is now looked at.

5.2 Situating action research within systems theory

5.2.1 Soft System methodology

In the early phase of systems theory, an organization was treated as a physical entity –

a first order reality - which really exists and which can be defined, designed and engineered

objectively (Gold 2001, p.558). This was taken as the ‘hard’ system’s approach towards the

study of organization. In the context of organisational study, Checkland changed this

approach of systems school. Checkland developed the concept of soft system methodology.

Soft system methodology (SSM) has been advocated as a flexible approach to problem

solving in the context of complex human situations (Gold 2001, p. 558). Schön (quoted by

Checkland & Scholes 1990, p.276) has said that the complex and less clearly defined

problems of business management cannot be solved by technical rationality. According to

SSM, it is not possible to analyse the complex problems of business through a case study

approach (which it considers inadequate). The complex problems can be analysed through

the trick of shifting the focus of systemicity from the world to the process of enquiry about

the world. ‘In hard system, the world itself is considered to be a set of system i.e. is systemic

and these set of systems can be systematically engineered to achieve objectives. But in the

soft tradition, world is assumed to be problematic’ (Checkland 1999, A 49). In SSM, ‘the

system’ is no longer some part of the world which is to be engineered and optimised. ‘The

system’ is in the process of inquiry itself. ‘If that is formalised as a learning system which the

practitioner consciously enacts, then the reflection in action becomes analysable…. Out of

that more tranquil reflection, after the event, general lesson may be extracted’ (Checkland &

Scholes 1990, p. 277). In other words, ‘assumed systemicity is shifted from taking the world

to be systemic to taking the process of inquiry to be systemic’ (Checkland 1999, A 49). For

example, a well-defined problem such as improving the horsepower of an automobile can be

handled well by hard systems. But implementing a superior quality system in an organization

so that it can institutionalise the changes necessary for manufacturing of engines with

improved horsepower is better handled by soft system methodology. Thus instead of trying

to objectively observe the characteristics of organization, one should attempt to understand

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different ways of seeing the situation. Therefore Checkland’s soft system methodology does

not attempt to model the real world. He recognises that the chaos and complexity of

organization is viewed differently by different members of organization. ‘He treated

organization as an ongoing and dynamic arrangement of people and objects in relationship’

(Gold 2001, p.558). These different views are contributions to a debate about possible change.

They indicate what activities are necessary to achieve a purpose meaningful from a particular

point of view. Thereby, the participants in a problem situation are able to learn their way to

what changes are systematically desirable and culturally feasible given the meanings and

relationships that currently exist in the situation (Jackson 2000). From such different views of

organization, if sufficient meaning is derived, it becomes the basis for action (or non action)

(Gold 2001, p. 559). That also makes SSM a learning system. Thus soft system methodology

is more suitable for studying ill-defined, messy problems. Soft System Methodology had a lot

in common with ‘appreciative system theory’ developed by Vickers (Checkland 1994).

Checkland started with Mode 1 approach to SSM. However, now he has shifted to

Mode 2 approach. The differences between these two approaches is shown in Table 5.3

Mode 1 Mode 2

Methodology-driven Situation-driven

Intervention Interaction

Sometimes sequential Always iterative

SSM as external SSM as internalised model

Table 5. 3 Dimensions of SSM types

Source: Gold (2001).

Mode 1 of the soft system methodology involved a seven-stage learning system using

the mnemonics CATWOE (customers, actors, transformational process, world-view, owners,

environmental constraints). It recognised that there are many ways to describe a situation

depending on the point of view one takes. A different way of conceiving the problem

situation will give rise to a different root definition. Thus a prison can be taken as a

punishment system, a rehabilitation system, a system for taking revenge, a system to protect

society or a system that constitutes a university of crime (Jackson 2000, p. S5). It suggested

that the view which is most insightful or most relevant in exploring the situation should be

selected. Often non- written ways of expressions like story telling and rich pictures (pictorial

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and cartoon like pictures) aid in grasping the contentious aspect of a situation. From these,

root definitions are developed which grasp the essence of the relevant system. Each root

definition reflects a particular worldview of the problem situation. Later, Checkland

considered the methodology driven Mode 1 too restrictive for practicing managers who are

more often driven by the pressures of their environment. From their perspective, Mode 1

SSM is cut off from the day to day working of an organization. Thus he developed situation

driven Mode 2 of soft system methodology. Mode 2 SSM is driven by situational logic and

situational culture. The cultural stream has three types of enquiry (Jackson 2000, p. S7):

Analysis 1- It considers the intervention itself and the roles of client, problem solver and

problem owner.

Analysis 2 – It is called the social system analysis. It looks at social roles, norms of

behaviour and what values are used in judging the performance.

Analysis 3 - This examines the politics of the problem situation and how power is obtained

and used.

Though Checkland considers Mode 1 and Mode 2 as a spectrum of possible uses and

not mutually exclusive (Checkland & Scholes 1990), it has been said that ‘it is not easy to

capture SSM in a way that does justice to both Mode 1 and Mode 2 (Jackson 2000, p. S8).

Also Mode 2 based SSM, where problem solvers are able to internalise the methodology,

employ it as a way of thinking as an insider, has not been often used (Gold 2001, p.558).

5.2.2 Soft system methodology as action research

Since SSM involves individuals to take part in the action based on their worldview,

and not simply to observe the action as external watcher, Checkland considers SSM as action

research (Checkland 1999, p. A39). This realisation that all real-world problem situations are

characterized by human beings seeking or wishing to take purposive action led purposeful

action being treated as a system concept (Checkland 1999, p. A54). Different purposeful

activities express different worldviews. Comparison between different worldviews and a

perceived real situation gives rise to a set of action – action which is culturally feasible for a

particular group of people in a particular situation with its own particular history (Checkland

1999, A 55).

The current SSM is based on constitutive rules which guide the process of interaction.

It is these rules which make research on the methodology possible and allow the methods and

techniques which support SSM to be continually improved. At the same time, though SSM

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sets out principles for method use, it does not determine their use. It provides a different

response in each situation depending on the user and the nature of the situation (Jackson 2000,

p. S9).

5.3 Justification of Action Research as the research methodology for this thesis

Action research is used when the research is expected to be responsive to situation

(Dick 2000) or when the circumstances require flexibility and organisational change must

take place quickly or holistically (O’Brien 1998, p.5). Action Research is a powerful

methodology for large-scale change and transformation along with knowledge creation

(Bradbury & Reason 2001, p.449; Kotnour 2001). Action research has been considered more

appropriate than traditional research for improving practice (Jorgensen, Boer & Gertsen 2003;

Kofoed, Gertsen & Jorgensen 2002) and for professional and organisational learning

(Coughlan et al. 2002; Zuber-Skerritt & Perry 2002). Use of action research methodology is

in keeping with recent articles in the area of change management in operations and logistics

based companies (Coughlan et al. 2003; Harland & Knight 2001; Mileham et al. 1999). In a

review of AR, Coughlan and Coghlan (2002) found action research appropriate when the

research questions related to describing an unfolding series of actions over time which

implementation of ISO 9000 certification would involve. In fact, given the now understood

importance of contingency factors like the change process, its manner of facilitation and the

behavioural factors in TQM implementation (Melan 1998), AR seems to be the natural

choice so as to take care of the ‘full range of variables which may not otherwise emerge’

(Westbrook 1994, p.18). The relationship between change and action research has been

considered as a ‘bottom-up approach specially designed as a response to the theory-practice

gap’ (Suderman et al. 2000, p.571). Action research develops context specific knowledge

which is evolved by the participants. Their collective insight promotes transformational or

paradigm changes (Suderman et al. 2000, p.571). In the specific context of the ISO 9000

standard, Boon and Ram (1997), Haversjo (1999) and Castka et al. (2004) have provided case

studies of implementation of ISO 9000 using the action research methodology. Lilford,

Warren and Braunholtz (2003) have noted that both TQM and action research are cyclical

activities involving examination of the existing processes and affecting change through active

participation of stakeholders. Pace and Argona (1991) have used participatory action research

in a change initiative which merged ‘Quality of Work Life’ with TQM at Xerox. Webb (1989,

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p.405) considers action research similar to a case study with the difference that in action

research, the emphasis should be on getting multiple representations and ‘presentation of

evidence in forms which are open to multiple interpretations’. On similar lines, Gummeson

(2000, p.116) considers action research as ‘the most demanding and far-reaching method of

doing case study research’.

From a theoretical angle, if a comparison is made between the PDCA cycle of ISO

9000:2000 (borrowed from TQM), and the plan-act-observe-reflect cycle of AR, the

methodological commonality between the two is clear: TQM has its origin in operations

management. Therefore, the purpose of PDCA is to understand a problem systematically,

solve it, and then, pick up the next problem and so on. Over a period of time, the repetitive

identification and solution of problems bring about the culture of continuous improvement in

an organization. However, in TQM there is no attempt to develop learning from these

continuous problem-solving cycles which could also possibly become an input to the next

level of problem solving and facilitate it. On the other hand, the action learning cycle

‘dwells’ and emphasises upon ‘learning’ which it develops through ‘reflection’ in each cycle.

Because action learning had its origin in systems theory, it looks upon ‘improvement’ of

operations management from a more gestaltist angle and calls it ‘change’ and again because

of its systems background, it is able to recognise the interrelationships and possibly, the

thematic similarities, between different instances of ‘change’ or ‘improvement’ in an

organization, instead of looking upon them as disjointed events. Therefore while the learning

of a PDCA gets dissipated after improvement (change) has taken place, the AR preserves it

by reflection and uses that as an input to the next process of change or ‘improvement’. Thus

the difference lies in their focus. Perhaps, it can be said that action research is a richer way of

undergoing the PDCA loop. Once a ‘learning bias’ is added to the PDCA loop and one

begins looking for data (with a view to analyse them, understand them and benefit from them

in subsequent PDCA loops), the basic skeleton of action learning is already there. After

getting the data, for the purpose of learning, the thematic similarity among different data, the

frequency of occurrences of different set of data need to be ‘reflected upon’, instead of

‘regressed upon – as in regression analysis’- and you arrive at learning. Here, mind, in

contradistinction to mathematics, is the processor which processes perceptual or cognitive

data as against classificatory, ordinal, interval and ratio data. As against mathematical

modelling, mental models (Checkland 1999, p. A58) are used to make sense of the perceptual

or cognitive data. From there, a progressive loop of learning through subsequent intra-

organisational or inter-organisational confirmation, and at a larger scale, through intra-

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methodological and inter-methodological confirmation gives rise to a theory – a theory

whose theory building will be perhaps more eclectic in approach than conventional theory

building and where the experiment of scientific research is replaced by the intervention of the

action research.

Thus TQM and action research can be integrated as shown in the Figure 5.4.

Figure 5.4 shows that in the context of TQM, each cycle of PDCA brings about an

improvement (or change) which can then become the basis for planning next cycle of

improvement (or change). From the PDCA cycles emerges the learning. In the context of

learning, at the individual’s/ group’s level, the experience of undergoing the PDCA cycle

make(s) her/them reflect on her/their experience(s). She/they draw(s) on theories and

constructs to make sense of her/their experience. That is, the theories and constructs known

to her/them till then are used to interpret and find answers to the questions posed in the

reflection. These answers are the new learning to the individual/group. As a consequence of

this new learning, the individual/group learn(s) to act differently in the organization. Thus in

the next cycle (cycle 2), this learning is part of her/their theory and construct which in turn

moderates her/ their experience, reflection and interpretation. However, the experiential

learning arrived above cannot be elevated to the status of knowledge unless it can be

generalised and then verified to be correct.

This is done in the action research cycle. Here, the learning which emerges during

reflection and interpretation needs to be generalised and tested. For this, the data which

emerges during different experiential learning cycles can be compared among themselves or

with other data sources to make the generalisation more robust. Then, it is knowledge.

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Cycle 1 improvement Cycle2 ……………and so on

The TQM cycle Plan----Do-----Check-----Act Plan---Do---Check--Act

learning

The experiential Experience--Reflect--Interpret--Act (in Experience--Reflect--Interpret-Act(in

learning cycle organisational organizational

context) context)

emergence of data emergence of data

knowledge

The action research cycle Generalise---Test (in research Generalise---Test (in research

context) context)

time axis

Figure 5. 4 Conceptual link between TQM and AR

Source: developed for this research.

The time axis in the above figure indicates that improvement precedes learning which

in turn precedes knowledge.

5.4 Research model for Action Research

From the point of view of thesis writing, an action research model has been proposed

by Perry and Sankaran (2002). This model is shown in Figure 5.5.

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2 Act

1 Plan 3 Observe

4 reflect

Ch. 3 Collect data

Figure 5. 5 Two-project model for AR based thesis

Source: adapted from Perry and Sankaran (2002).

This divides the research into two distinct projects. One is the core action research

project which solves an organisational problem. The thesis action research project then takes

up the data generated from the core action research project, analyses them and then arrives at

the learning gleaned from it both for the organization and for the academic community.

The conceptual link shown in Figure 5.4 was modified and integrated with the two-

project model shown in Figure 5.5 so as to suit an ISO based change process through action

research. It is shown in Figure 5.6. This was the research model which was used for the

action research in stage 3.

Core action research project about group thematic concern = pure action research

Thesis action research project about its research problem concern = thesis

action research

Ch. 2 lit. review Ch. 4 analyse data

Ch. 5 contribution to literature

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Figure 5. 6 Research model used in stage 3 shown within the AR framework

Source: developed for this research (adapted from Perry & Zuber-Skerrit 1994).

Conclude 1st draft of thesis

Thesis Action research Plan the research problem

Act By initiating core action projects

CORE AL PROJECTS

Plan

Act

Observe

Reflect

Plan

Act

Observe

Reflect

Plan

Act

Observe

Reflect

Stage 2 development of

Quality Procedure

Stage3 development of work instruction

Plan Final draft

Thesis Writing Act

Write final draft Conclude these

evaluate seek comments/revise

Submit thesis Further Research

Evaluation Observe/reflect/

theorise

Stage 1 Development of Quality Policy

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As per the manual of ISO 9000:2000, the implementation of ISO 9000 is divided into

three sub-areas-

(i) Development of the ‘quality policy’. This leads to the

(ii) Development of the ‘quality procedure’. This leads to the

(iii) Development of the ‘work instruction’.

In the model shown in Figure 5.6, each of the above three steps have been integrated

into an action learning cycle. The advantage in this integration was that the progression from

one level of learning (cycle) to the next level of learning (cycle) also marked from quality

angle, a journey deeper down the ISO framework and lower down the hierarchy of the

organization and to that extent, entwined the two naturally. That is, the quality policy was

first cycle of action learning which was proposed to be done with the managers of the

warehousing unit. The next action learning cycle was kept for development of quality

procedures which is a 2nd tier ISO document. Thus, it was proposed to be done with senior

supervisors of the warehousing unit. Further, in order to ensure that the ISO documents thus

developed, did not become yet another chiselled ‘management learning’ deliberately

percolated down by the management to become ‘worker learning’, it was proposed that for

each cycle, and, because of the above integration, for each level of ISO document

development, the members of the team (or the co-researchers in the language of action

learning), who would develop the documents, would be drawn from the cross section of

organization. Thus, the quality policy was proposed to be developed not by the top

management of the unit, but by a set of people who represented different functional domain

and different ‘level’ domain of the organization. After all, if TQM is about breaking down

the hierarchy, about empowerment and about development of enquiring culture, it made

sense that the structure for ISO implementation took care of these aspects right from the

beginning. Thereby, the quality policy, the quality procedures and the work instructions,

when developed, would have a flavour, created and savoured by the organisational members.

5.5 Rigour and validity in the Action Research

As per the traditional research yardstick, scientific experiment is repeatable, though

the interpretation of the finding can be varied. From the point of view of the positivist school,

one of the criticisms which AR has faced is whether the ‘knowledge’ produced by it is

scientific as per the traditional research yardstick that is whether the observed or assumed

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relationship are true. Susman and Evered (1978, p.601) have said that action research is not

compatible with the criteria of scientific explanation taken in traditional positivist school.

Webb (1989, p.405) has quoted Greenwood who says that ‘face validity in action research

guarantees that findings fit reality and that reliability can be checked by ensuring agreements

between the interpretations of the researcher and the participants’. Echoing a different point

of view, Coghlan and Brannick (2001, p.10) have said that action research is evaluated within

its own frame of reference and that questions of reliability, replicability and universality do

not pertain to the action research approach. For them, an action research should be able to

answer three questions:

What happened? The relating of a good story.

How do you make sense of what happened? This involves rigorous reflection on that story.

So what? This most challenging question deals with the extrapolation of usable knowledge or

theory from the reflection on the story.

Bradbury and Reason (2001, p.447) have indicated that some authors such as

Schwandt and Wolcott have not considered validity an issue in action research. Others have

taken less extreme views. For example, Dickens and Watkins (1999) have mentioned that

some of the criticism of action research has been its supposed lack of internal and external

control and lack of the rigour of true scientific research. Gummesson (2000, p.221) takes a

stand that ‘since the natural state of an organization today is change’, it is more important to

show that a theory works in a specific context than to show that ‘it possesses a wide range of

general and approximate application’ (Gummesson 2000, p. 219). Therefore, from

Gummesson point of view, a theory can be modified (instead of generalised) by its

application and validity in subsequent actions. Thus the theory never gets finalised but is

continually being transcended (Gummesson 2000, p.208). Looking at AR from a qualitative

angle, Coghlan and Brannick (2001, p.15) consider action research as genuinely scientific in

its emphasis on careful observation and study of the effects of behaviour on human systems

as their members manage change. But they accept that it has lost its role as a powerful

conceptual tool for uncovering truth on which action can be taken. Checkland and Holwell

(1998, p.16) have attended to the specific weakness of AR if it is adjudged from a

quantitative angle and accepted that ‘AR cannot produce law-like generalisations from

involvement in a single situation …. but it can be made to yield defensible generalisations’.

For this, ‘action research should be based on research themes as against research hypothesis’.

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That is, the action researchers should be able to establish that the research theme they are

going to research is worthy of being investigated and exploring this theme further is going to

bring about real world benefit (West & Stansfield 2001, p.265). Checkland and Holwell

further accept that AR based research is not repeatable but if the process of AR is

recoverable, ‘it helps to justify the generalisation and transferability of AR (or case study)

research’ (Checkland & Holwell 1998, p.17). Thus it is the notion of recoverability, as

against the notion of repeatability, - so important for knowledge acquisition in natural science

(West & Stansfield 2001, p.277)- which makes action research rigorous.

In order to make the AR recoverable, Checkland and Holwell (1998, p. 18) and

Checkland (1999, p. A40) have suggested:

Action research should be conducted in such a way that the whole process is subsequently

recoverable by anyone…. This means that there should be a declared-in-advance methodology

(encompassing a particular framework of ideas) declaring explicitly, at the start of the research, the

intellectual framework and the process of using them which will be used to define what counts as

knowledge in this piece of research. The thought process and the models which enabled the team to

make their interpretations and draw their conclusions should be made available to the interested

observer. By declaring the epistemology (the methodology and its framework of ideas) of their

research process in this way, the researchers make it possible for outsiders to follow the research and

see whether they agree with the findings. If they disagree, well-informed discussion and debate can

follow. This would the give AR a ‘truth claim’ though less strong than that of laboratory

experimentation. Also the learning gained in … action research may concern any or all of: the area

focused in the research, the methodology used or the framework of ideas embodied in the

methodology.

However, Checkland holds the opinion that action researches which have been

designed with the above framework are not many (1999, p. A39). Therefore it is not

surprising that ‘there are actually very few action researchers who have made major

contribution to the scientific community’ (Gronhaug & Olson 1999, p.13). They go on to add

that the weakness of action research studies is that the researchers do not mention their

research in detail – about their research activities and how step-by-step they have arrived to

their interpretations. Subjectivity is the main methodological weakness of action research

(Westbrook 1994).

The researcher takes a stand that the approach suggested by Checkland is

theoretically sound. But it tends to take AR as a stand-alone research paradigm. However, it

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is possible to add rigour to AR if it is used in conjunction with other research approaches.

Mixed method research approach for action research has also been identified by others (Eden

& Huxham 1996; Gummessson quoted in Coghlan & Brannick 2001, p. 7; Lilford, Warren &

Braunholtz 2003). Thus formal quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques are all

appropriate to different situations (Coghlan & Brannick 2001, p. 9).

However, the researcher considers Checkland’s emphasis on recoverability a

necessary criterion for ensuring the rigour of AR. How these aspects were taken into account

in the conduct of action research is dealt with in the section 5.5.5.

Some other methods which can be used to make the action research more rigorous are

now dealt with.

5.5.1 Falsification

Falsification is another way to enhance the rigour of the action research. In positivist

paradigm, it involves matching the hypothesis with the data empirically collected. The degree

of correspondence indicates the appropriateness of the hypothesis (Aguinis 1993, p.418). It is

possible to use the criteria of falsification in action research also. Heron (1988, p.52.)

suggests that for falsification in AR, ‘an inquirer would read out from the records of the

different cycles, their impression of other’s reality. Any other inquirer could then come

forward as devil’s advocate and sceptically attack these impressions reducing them to purely

naturalistic explanation. The defendant now has three options: to give a reasoned defence of

the impressions as valid impressions of other’s reality, to yield to the devil’s reductionist

explanation as being most reasonable or to stick out their intuitive guns even though unable

to argue the case’.

Dick (1999) has also suggested similar ideas for making action research rigorous. He

uses dialectics to generate agreement from disagreement. Here a person does not persuade

the other person to his/her point of view but presents evidence which he/she think others may

have overlooked. He/She also adds to his/her list those items from other person’s list which

were earlier omitted by him/her but he/she is now prepared to accept. He/she then provides

his/her own list giving reason why it should be added to the other person’s list. Then the

other persons revise their list. This process continues till consensus emerges. Thus Dick says

that ‘while a consensual process operates by identifying agreements and an adversarial

process operates by choosing one of the competing views, dialectical process uses

disagreements to generate agreement’ (Dick 1999, p.24).

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Triangulation can also be used to falsify an emerging hypothesis. The concept of

triangulation involves the use of more than one research approach in a single study to gain a

broader understanding of the issues being studied (Duffy 1987). Duffy has identified four

ways of triangulation:

(i) Analysing data in more than one way.

(ii) Using more than one sampling strategy.

(iii) Using different interviewers, observers and analysts on one study.

(iv) Using more than one methodology to gather data.

5.5.2 Reflection and three levels of learning

Learning through reflection has been considered central to action research (Cowan

1998, Eden & Huxham 1996, Heron 1988, Reason 2001). Zimmer (2001) has explained

reflection at three levels of action learning. His ideas were used to improve the quality of

reflection in the action research project. A summary of the three levels of reflection is shown

in Table 5.4.

172

First order

learning

Second order learning Third order

learning

Concrete

experience

I notice what I am

getting from the

system in focus

(You) and I

imagine what I will

be getting from it

(You).

There is only one

layer of sense

making involved

which is ‘I-it’.

I offer You My

receptiveness thereby

inviting Your reflections

from Your own

perspective- and then await

them.

Thus it has two layers of

sense making involving ‘I-

You’. It thus permits

communication.

My sensing becomes

listening to Your

perspective.

I monitor My

communication with

You, My sense of

your communication

with Me and My

sense of Our

communication

together.

Reflective

observation

I note how I feel

when I compare

what I think I will

be getting from the

system (You) with

what I need

I offer you My

understanding and thereby

positively including Your

reflections – and await

Your receptiveness as

confirmation.

Thus My checking

becomes acknowledging to

check Your perspective.

I check Our

togetherness as I

experience it, for

conflict vs.

cooperation.

Abstract

conceptualisation

I want to do

something toward

the system (You) in

order to get what I

need and …

My planning becomes

thinking and speaking to

put Your perspective

together with Mine

I offer You My

reflective, receptive

understanding,

thereby inviting

Yours in return –

and if necessary, I

actually request it.

Table 5.4 (cont’d…)

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Table 5.4 (cont’d…) First order

learning

Second order learning Third order

learning

Active

experimentation

If I can, I do it.

My acting takes into

account Your needs and

vice versa. Thus I can

negotiate with You to see

what You and I actually

can do to get both Your

needs and My needs met.

Here the two cycles

helps each other

along. If there is

conflict, We look for

parts of the cycle

that is missing.

Comment It is manipulative

rather than

communicating. I

am treating the

system (You) as an

object to be

subjected to my

prediction and

control. Thus most

of what one hears in

first order learning

is dogma, demand

and judgement.

This leads to

conflict.

Thus there is no conflict.

Also, it has in-built

autonomy for I and You.

Offering You, My

reflection, offering You,

My receptiveness and

offering You, My

understanding provides the

core of successful

communication which

prevents conflict.

The transformation

process here is one

in which I

experience the two

of Us at becoming

more and more as

one – while

remaining as

individuals, totally

free. This kind of

action learning is

not very often, yet it

is possible.

Table 5. 4 First order, second order and third order learning

Source: based on Zimmer (2001).

Bartunek et al. (1993) and Coghlan and Brannick (2001) have indicated how to do

action research within one’s own organization. Ross and Roberts (1994) have shown how it

is possible for an insider to balance advocacy and inquiry to begin changing a large

organization from within. There is much similarity between what they have suggested and

the second order learning suggested by Zimmer (2001). Since Ross and Roberts have

174

indicated a practical way of how to do the balancing, it was explained to the co-action

researchers. The same is summarised in Table 5.5.

Situation Way to handle

Protocols for improved

advocacy

(i) Make your thinking process visible (walk up the ladder of

inference slowly)

(ii) Publicly test your conclusions and assumptions

Protocols for improved

inquiry

(i) Ask others to make their thinking process visible.

(ii) Compare your assumptions to others.

Protocols for facing a point

with which you disagree

(i) Inquire about what has led the person to that view.

(ii) Listen for larger meanings that may come out of honest, open

sharing of mental models

Protocols for when you are at

an impasse

(i) Embrace the impasse and tease apart the current thinking. (you

may discover that focusing on data brings you all down the

ladder of inference.)

(ii) Consider each persons mental model as a piece of larger

puzzle.

(iii) Look for information which will help people move forward.

(iv) Do not let the conversation stop with an “agreement to

disagree”

Table 5. 5 Skills of balancing inquiry and advocacy

Source: based on Ross and Robert (1994).

Coghlan (1993) has looked within the process of reflection and used a model called

ORJI developed by Schein. It focuses on what goes on inside the head of action researchers

and how it affects their overt behaviour. Briefly, it says that when we observe (O), we react

(R) emotionally to what we observe, we make judgement (J) based on our observations and

feelings and then we intervene (I) so as to make something happen (Schein quoted in

Coghlan 1993). Thus the ORJI process focuses on the spontaneous emotional reaction as

they arise rather than later and provides a framework whereby learners can recognise feelings

and distinguish it from cognitive processes. This adds sophistication to the reflection in the

sense that it improves observational ability and avoids premature judgement and

175

inappropriate behaviour (Coghlan 1993, p.93). This concept is schematically shown in Figure

5.7.

Concrete

Experiencing

Active O R Reflective observation

experimentation

I J

Abstract

conceptualisation

Figure 5. 7 The ORJI within experiential learning cycle

Source: based on Coghlan (1993).

The broken arrow indicates that the reflection process at the emotional level can also

back from intervention (action) to judgement to reaction to observation. This deeper

reflection at the emotional level was used in the AR project.

5.5.3 Intervention

Intervention or action is the output of an AR cycle. The rigour of action research will

improve if intervention is studied in detail. Coghlan and Mcdonagh (1997) have quoted four

types of interventions. They are shown in Table 5.6.

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Intervention type Aim Assistance to the client

Exploratory Getting the basic story In addition to providing the story, it

also builds relationship between the

client and the action researcher.

Diagnostic Enables the client to do a

diagnosis of the situation

Here the researcher helps the client to

interpret what is taking place and test

theories of what is happening

Action alternative Helping the client clarify

and review courses of

action

It focuses on possible actions and

strategies.

Confrontive Confronts limitations of

thought, attitude and

behaviour

It exposes the thinking patterns

around the content of the issues

Table 5. 6 Types of intervention

Source: Coghlan and Mcdonagh (1997).

5.5.4 General criteria for assessing rigour in AR

Reviewing the study of action research, Bradbury and Reason (2001) have identified

five choice points for assessing the rigour of an action research. They are:

(i) Relationship - The action research should be explicit in developing a praxis of relational

participation. That is whether the action research group is set up to ensure maximum

participation. Whether best decisions are those which ensure maximum participation.

Whether less powerful people are helped by their participation in the inquiry.

(ii) Practical outcome - The action research should be guided by reflexive concern for

practical outcomes. That is, the research is validated by participant’s new way of acting in

light of the work. At the end the participants should be able to say – that was useful. I am

able to use what I have learnt.

(iii) Extended ways of knowing - The action research should be inclusive of a plurality of

knowing. That is,

177

(a) The action research should ensure conceptual-theoretical integrity. A well-written

AR study should be such that it can be used by fellow inquirers with similar concern to ‘see

as if’ and illuminate their own situation.

(b) It should embrace ways of knowing beyond the intellect that is artful ways of

expression such as song and dance, video, poetry, and photography.

(c) The AR should intentionally choose appropriate research methods. The choice of

methods should be ecologically sensitive to the context in which it is being used.

(iv) Pay attention to what is worthy of attention- How do we decide where to put our effort?

At the heart of this process is to always ask the question – what values do we hold vis-à-vis

the value of work with which we engage. ‘Since the AR community is committed to bring an

attitude of inquiry towards questions of fundamental importance, we would do well to find

ways to address the question of what purposes are worthy of more direct attention. It is

worthwhile to articulate positive, life enhancing qualities in a situation and to amplify these

than to seek problems and try to solve them. It is thus better to ask appreciative questions

than critical questions. The emphasis should be to ask the right research questions so that we

are convening a process which will generate the outcome we want’ (Bradbury & Reason

2001, p. 453).

(v) Enduring consequences - The AR should emerge towards a new and enduring

infrastructure. This means that the dyadic, small group micro engagement of people should

manifest into an ongoing new patterning of behaviour at a macro level even after the action

researchers have left the scene (Bradbury & Reason 2001, p. 445).

Bradbury and Reason acknowledge that a given AR project cannot address all these

points. A dissertation can be reviewed on its strength and weakness using the above five

choice points as the yardstick. An action researcher can explain these points to co action

researchers (Bradbury & Reason 2001, p.454). Quality and validity in AR involve

encouraging debate and reflection on all these issues among all those involved.

5.5.5 Rigour and validity in this Action Research

From the above review, notwithstanding the apprehension expressed by some critics

about lack of rigour in AR, the researcher was satisfied that it was possible to conduct a

research using the action cycles, fully meeting the requirements of rigour and validity.

Based on the discussions above, a model for making the action research rigorous was

developed for this work. It is shown in Figure 5.8

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Cycle 1

Plan----act-----observe-----reflect

emergence of data

Figure 5. 8 Model for validation of learning which occurred in each cycle by using different methods, different sources of data and different types of data

Source: adapted from Checkland (1999), Coghlan & Mcdonagh (1997), Dick (1999), Eden & Huxham (1996), Ross & Robert (1994), Susman & Evered (1978), Zimmer (2001).

Diff

eren

t obs

erve

rs (i

,ii,…

)

Data set A(a,1,i ) Data set

A(b,2,ii )

Test agreement between different overlapping data set

Explain disagreement between different overlapping data set

Interpretations are gleaned

Interpret through

reflection, comparison

etc

Cycle 2- plan---act--check--reflect

Lateral data input from lit., other sources

Interpretations are cross confirmed

Input for next cycle: (a) validated interpretations, (b) refined question, (c) refined methodology

Ignore non- overlapping data

disagreement

Different methods (a,b,….)

agreement

179

The model shows that after conducting an AR cycle, different datasets - A(a,1,i),

A(b,2,ii) - were available which had been generated by different combination of methods (a,

b…. etc), persons (1,2….etc) and observers(i, ii….etc). The topics mentioned by more than

one dataset defined the topics which were to be further questioned. That is, the overlapping

topics were the ones which needed further analysis. Any topic mentioned by only one dataset

was to be ignored. Now, the overlapping topics could be in agreement or in disagreement.

The agreements were tested across different datasets and the disagreements were explained

across different datasets. This can be called intra-cycle validation. The interpretation thus

arrived at was considered fit for carrying forward to the next cycle. However, before they

could be accepted as a valid input into the next cycle, they were further tested for their

validity by cross comparing with data made available from independent sources if any. This

can be called inter-cycle validation. Only such interpretations which passed through this were

to be taken as valid inputs for the next cycle. The interpretations thus developed also served

another useful function- they helped in refining the questions and methodologies with which

a given cycle had started. These three inputs – observation from a cycle, intra cycle

validation and inter cycle validation - therefore modulated the planning for the next cycle and

made it more precise and often more economical. ‘Delphi face-to-face’ method (Dick, 1999)

was used to attain time economy. A progressive convergence of interpretations finally led to

a conclusion. This conclusion was used to support, refute or modify the original research

questions. Thus the conclusions were arrived at much in the same manner as the conclusions

arrived at by any other research methodology. At this point of time, for its final verification,

the conclusions were compared with the literature just as any other research output would

have been compared. However, in the case of AR, one can extend the validation process

further. Just as the proof of a pudding lies in eating it, the ‘test of a research also lies in

finally implementing the change it claimed, it would bring about’ (Lewin, quoted in Dickens

& Watkins 1999, p.139). If it could do that, and not merely tinkle with the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’

of a business process, that is the final vindication for a methodology. Thus in the context of

this research work, if ultimately, it was found that the AR methodology did succeed in

bringing about a change towards TQM in a railway unit, that was to be its final validation.

Data collection: The aspect of collecting data from many sources and through many

methods have been emphasised earlier. Therefore, at the data collection stage, different

viewpoints were taken so that personnel bias was minimised. Multiple sources of information

were looked for during each cycle. Thus, data were collected in the form of field notes,

180

participant presentations, discussion etc. It also included feedback, observation and

interviews. A number of railway personnel are semiliterate or illiterate. Thus there was a

need to encourage and look for non-textual data. It has been said that observation can be a

powerful tool during the hypothesis building process (Ticehurst & Veal 2000, p. 123). Hence

observation and story telling (Checkland, 1999) were used to encourage non-formal ways of

data generation and data collection. The root definitions (Gold 2001, p.571) which AR

viewpoints generated were validated with data generated from other methods. In this

connection, the learning gleaned from stage 1 and stage 2 were useful in triangulating the

learning which took place during the action research cycles.

Therefore, it was possible to draw arguably valid conclusions from the action research

cycles.

5.6 Action research at Jhansi Stores Depot

5.6.1 Selection of unit for action research The warehousing and material distribution unit of Indian Railways at Jhansi was

selected for the action research project. The warehousing and material distribution unit is

called stores depot in the Indian Railways parlance. The Jhansi stores depot is responsible for

supplying all the material required for the North Central Railway of India. Formal permission

from the head of the depot was taken for the project. A team of five co- action researchers

was put together at Jhansi.

5.6.2 About Jhansi Stores Depot

The Jhansi wagon maintenance workshop and warehousing unit were established in

1884. The wagon maintenance workshop and the warehousing unit are abutting each other

separated by a wall. Daily, in the morning, the shop foreman would come to the warehouse

with a list of items. These were then issued by the warehouse in-charges against issue tickets

and the cost of the material issued would be debited at average book rate through posting in a

computer. This activity was over during the first half of the day. During the second half, the

warehousing unit had virtually no work.

181

The organisational chart of Jhansi workshop is shown in Appendix 10. All the

managers who are not from the mechanical engineering department, besides reporting to the

Chief Workshop Manager (CWM), also report to their departmental heads at the headquarter

(see Appendix 7). The Workshop Accounts Officer (WAO) was vested with the power of not

having to agree with the CWM and the CWM could not overrule him. In case of any

difference of opinion between them, the matter had to be reported to the Financial Advisor &

Chief Accounts Officer (FA&CAO) and the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) together. If

they do not agree, the matter had to be reported to the General Manager (GM) who alone had

the power to overrule the FA&CAO (or for that matter any finance officer). Even then, the

FA&CAO had the power to submit a note of dissent to the Railway Board.

The total staff strength of Jhansi warehousing unit headed by Dy CMM was about

400. Out of this four were managers. 150 were technical supervisors and clerks and 250 were

labours. The warehouse used to work from 8 AM to 4 PM with 30 minutes lunch break.

Around 1300 items were stocked in the warehouse. The warehouse was divided into different

storage wards. Each storage ward used to stock about 300 items. In addition, there were

receipt and inspection wards which used to receive material from different vendors, inspect

them and send them to storage wards for storage. It was the responsibility of the warehouse

to assess the demand for material for the next year, generate indents which were then sent to

the headquarter for placement of purchase orders, liaise with different vendors for timely

supply of the material, stock them and distribute them to the workshop and other end users

across the railway system.

The overall atmosphere both in the workshop and the depot was laid back. Both, in

general, wore an unkempt look. From an engineering point of view, the workshop was

saddled with a 100-year-old layout which was now outdated but not yet changed. Shortcuts in

production and shoddy workmanship were generally overlooked in the name of achieving the

target. The shop staff were generally very critical of the material shortage which according to

them was affecting their targeted output. However, during detailed discussion, it was

revealed that often, they used the materials shortage as a convenient scapegoat to hide the

shop’s failure in meeting the desired production targets.

The warehousing staff were aware of the items in short supply, however, they would

not react fast enough to prevent a stock out or would not react at all unless poked by the shop

staff. In the warehousing unit, almost all the ferrous items were kept in the open in gunny

bags. During rainy season, if the gunny bag had weathered off, the items were lost in the mud.

There were layers of dust in number of godowns. Even though the warehousing staff were

182

almost free of regular work in the second half of the day, the aspect of improving the

housekeeping would not cross their or their manager’s mind.

During the last 100 years or so, there has not been any planned change initiative in the

warehousing unit. However, ISO 9000:1994 was implemented in part of the wagon workshop.

As per the shop staff, ‘only paper certificate was taken and certification per se had not

brought about any improvement in the shop’. Apparently, being a part of government set up,

there was no need to change because there was no demand for change.

Against this backdrop, the researcher made a proposal to the head of the depot to

initiate a change initiative through action research methodology. The head of the depot (Dy

CMM) had arrived at Jhansi in March 2004 on transfer from a sister railway and was quite

dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the depot. He was aware of the fact that the Jhansi

workshop and depot were going to seek ISO 9000: 2000 certification. He thus wanted that

the change initiative should aim at ISO certification for the depot.

The depot head and his immediate subordinate were advised about the action research

methodology. They were also told about the Plan-Do-Observe-Reflect cycle of action

learning. They were explained that customer satisfaction was one of the central concerns for

ISO 9000: 2000 which could form the initial theme to initiate change towards attainment of

ISO certification. A thematic concern defines a substantive area in which a group decides to

focus its improvement strategies (Kemmis & McTaggart 1988, p.9). It is different from

‘method’ which might be used to improve things. Identification of a theme was in line with

the suggestion given by Checkland and Holwell (1998) and West and Stansfield (2001)

mentioned in section 5.5. The action research cycles are dealt with in section 5.6.3.

In the action research cycles, this thesis identifies the head of the depot as Dy. CMM

and his immediate subordinate as DMM.

5.6.3 The action research cycles

The action research consisted of three major cycles. The three cycles and the themes

covered in these cycles are shown in the Table 5.7.

183

Cycle

no.

Time

duration

Objective Outcome

1 April 2004

for three days

Explanation of the purpose of

intervention, understanding the ‘as is’

situation. Explanation of process

orientation using Figure 3.4 and the

related concept of continuous

improvement and customer satisfaction

Emergence of the

concept of the next

person in the process as

the customer and

acceptance of the

concept of customer

satisfaction as a valid

organisational motto

2 April 2004

for two days

and May

2004

Finalisation of action plan for

improvement in depot house keeping

Agreement on depot

improvement action plan

3 May 2004 for

1 week

Iterative development of work instruction

and quality procedures,

Preparation of work

instructions, quality

procedures

Table 5. 7 The AR cycles

Source: developed from field data.

Selection of co-action researchers: Reflection is difficult when done in isolation. It

works best when done in collaboration with others (Kuit, Reay & Freeman 2001, p. 140).

Kuit, Reay and Freeman (2001, p. 138) have quoted Beaty as having said that for planning

changes emanating from reflection on experience, the question ‘so what’ should be asked.

Asking the question ‘so what’ is the most challenging part of the cycle as it involves the

extrapolation of usable knowledge or theory from the reflection on the experience (Coghlan

& Brannick 2001, p.24). Partly because of this and partly to ensure that the opportunity went

beyond the private reflection of the researcher, the researcher decided to have co-action

researchers. To begin with, the Dy CMM and one DMM were included as co-action

researchers. The reason behind taking the managers was to secure enough organisational

clout so as to be able to handle any future organisational politics (Coughlan & Brannick 2001,

184

p.63). Later more co-action researchers were included. The names of co-action researcher are

available at Appendix 8. Enlarging the number of action researchers enabled the co-action

researchers to come up with more reasons to explain the mismatch between expectation and

reality. The Dy CMM was a class 1 officer, the DMMs and the AMM were class 2 officers

and the rest of the co-action researchers and also the staff of the Jhansi warehousing unit

were class 3 supervisors.

The different action cycles and reflection cycle are now dealt with.

185

PDCA Cycle no 1 (from 20.4.04. to 22.4.04)

Mini

cycle1.1

Day1 Plan

1.1

Do 1.1

Check 1.1

Get the staff of the depot to focus on a theme which can act as a trigger to

initiate a change initiative in the depot. Use this interaction to develop an

‘as is’ situation.

22 supervisors and all the four managers were called for what was

described as a brainstorming session to improve the working standard of

the depot. The session began by asking everyone to write down

(i) How do you measure how well you are working?

(ii) Who are your customers?

(iii) What are the problems faced by the depot?

Based on ‘Delphi face to face’ (Dick 1999), persons working in similar area

were then grouped together. They were explained that since they were from

the same functional discipline they have been grouped together so that

collectively they can compare their responses. After getting the responses,

they were discussed.

Not everybody answered all the questions.

(i) For the first question, the most popular answer received was ‘through

turn over ratio (TOR) of the inventory’. ‘Does the shop care for this’? ‘No,

they do not’. ‘Then why do you use it’? ‘Because this is our departmental

objective and on 31st March, we are supposed to meet the departmental

target fixed by HQ. If required we issue the material on paper to shop so as

to reduce our closing inventory and get the required TOR. ‘Why don’t the

shop staff care for it’? ‘Because their objective is production’.

(ii) The answer to the second question generally drew a blank. Some

however mentioned the passengers as the customer for Indian Railways.

(iii) ‘The server is very often down’ and ‘lack of material handling

equipment’ were the most cited problems. ‘Suppliers often do not supply

the material on time. This gives the workshop opportunity to complain

about lack of material’. ‘But it is not our problem. It is of course a problem

for the shop’. It also drew defensive statements such as ‘we do our work

186

Reflection

1.1

perfectly’; ‘there are constraints, but work is anyway getting done’; ‘there

is nothing much we can do as the purchase order is placed by HQ, if the

firm does not supply, we often make local purchase, but that is not

adequate’; ‘shop does not know its own requirement, their forecasting is

erratic’.

The above session lasted for one day. The co-action researchers and the

researcher then reflected on the proceedings. The researcher began by

saying whether the lack of awareness about customer was because we, the

logistics and warehousing personnel, did not yet think that we create an

output. From this point of view a component could be considered an output

for a vendor. We were only passing that output to the shop. Thus the shop

was the customer for the vendor. However, the co-action researchers did

not appreciate the logic of the researcher’s reasoning. They shared with the

researcher, their own lack of understanding about the workshop being their

customer. ‘We do know our functional requirement. But we would like to

know how our functional role gets integrated with the customer approach

which you say is important for bringing about an enduring improvement’

asked a co-action researcher.

The emphasis on a departmental objective –TOR- which bore no

relationship with the expectations of the customer, made the researcher

reflect before the co-researchers whether, this was a pointer to the existence

of bigger departmental silos which made each department in railway look at

its departmental objectives or improvements only. However, since the

awareness of customer itself was non-existent, this issue was kept pending

for future reflection.

Two abstract conceptualisations from this cycle were (i) Jhansi

warehousing unit was steeped in its traditional role. This conclusion was

considered as a valid conclusion because it was mentioned by more than

one member of the Jhansi warehousing unit.

(ii) The employees lacked a systemic focus for the organization. They had a

departmental mindset which made them look at their activities from their

own point of view instead of their customer’s point of view. In fact the

concept of customer was alien to them at that point of time. However this

conclusion was arrived at by the researcher without any confirmation from

187

Intervent-

ion 1.1

the co-researchers. Thus the researcher decided to treat it only as a tentative

conclusion till it was validated more rigorously.

The following interventions were decided by the researcher –

(a). Since it was apprehended that the employees do not have an

organization wide focus, it was decided to first explain them the process

orientation inherent in an organisational working.

(b) The next action planning was to impart to the members of warehousing

unit the concepts of customer and customer satisfaction.

(Mini cycle

1.2) Day 2

Plan & Do

1.2

Check 1.2

For the action plan mentioned above, the researcher was interested in using

a framework which could integrate all the above concepts so that the

pedagogy could become simpler. The central process orientation diagram of

ISO 9000 standard (shown in Figure 3.4) was used as the framework to

explain the process orientation, the concepts of customer, customer

satisfaction and continuous improvement. The group was also explained the

concept of internal customer and external customer. Thereafter, all the

participants were asked to indicate the following:

(i) Who are your internal and external customers (ii) Which aspect of your

work affect the customer (iii) How you can improve your work so as to

satisfy your customer better.

They were able to correctly identify their external and internal customers.

As a group they were able to identify activities that contributed to their

customer’s satisfaction. The activities were:

(a) For receipt ward, ensuring the correct quality.

(b) For storage ward, preserving the material properly.

(c) For ledger section, ensuring that there is no stock-out situation.

(d) For scrap ward, proper lot formation and ensuring that lot is available

for delivery after auction.

However, that it should be their endeavour to satisfy their customer was

not appreciated by them. ‘The shop fellows will never be satisfied. Also,

then we will be at the receiving end because by virtue of being our

customer, the shop staff will only demand and we would be expected to

satisfy their demands come what may’. ‘Then they will always have an

upper hand before CWM. Now we are at least equal’. ‘As it is, we are not

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Reflection

cycle 1.2.1

Day 3

working under our departmental boss, we are working under CWM who is

an officer from the mechanical engineering cadre and the shop is a

mechanical shop. On top of it, if we actively begin to satisfy them, these

mechanical chaps will have an upper hand’. One of the co-action researcher

said, ‘After all why will they say that they are satisfied with us. The

moment they say this, the responsibility of low production is on them’.

The researcher said ‘ Can you collectively figure out whether they can give

you additional trouble’. They were then requested to think it over and

come the next day.

The session with the co-action researchers was held. They repeated the

apprehension expressed by every one during the day that they cannot

formally declare that satisfying their customer would be their motto. ‘This

way we will only be inviting trouble for ourselves. Because no one in turn

is going to listen to our problems. If the railway decides to go for ISO

certification simultaneously for the purchase office, for other warehousing

units, for accounts office, then it would make sense, because then we will

also be their customers. Otherwise, how can we do something better than

what we are already doing’. The researcher responded that ‘may be now we

are able to appreciate how the system called Indian Railways need to be

interlinked with customer focussed performance parameters’. This was

agreed by the co -action researchers. However, they could not agree that

warehousing unit should make a proactive attempt to satisfy their

customers. Faced with this situation, the researcher mentally referred to

Ross and Robert protocol (Table 5.5) which dealt with the situation when

there was difference of opinion among the co-action researchers. The

researcher verbalised his thought process to the co-action researchers that

he wanted to understand the larger meaning behind their and their staff’s

apprehension in willing to satisfy their customer. It was agreed that the next

day we should try to understand the interpretation of the concept of

customer satisfaction. It was noted that we had requested the staff to mull

over the issue and come the next day.

The next day, every one assembled. One person had come up with a

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reflection

cycle 1.2.2

(done with

a larger

group

consisting

of the co-

action

researchers

and the

staff)

probe

question

definition of customer satisfaction - ‘cust’ in Hindi means ‘pain/ problem’,

‘mer’ in Hindi means ‘to die’. Thus he reasoned, ‘customer is a person who

gets satisfaction while we die trying to solve his problem’. It was an

amusing metaphor but it found a ready echo among others. Everyone

agreed that it would be akin to dying if they began to satisfy the whimsical

demands of their customer – the workshop staff. After some discussion, one

person from the ledger section said “If I am giving material to the shop as

per their monthly quota how can they complain before CWM about

material stock-out. In that case, let them first increase their annual

requirement and get it vetted by finance. Then we will place the order. Only

then they can say that we are not meeting their specified requirement. I do

not think customer satisfaction means trying to fulfil even the unreasonable

expectations of the customer”.

-‘And who will decide what expectations are unreasonable’ some one

asked.

- ‘I think we should decide it before hand. After all when we go to bank,

don’t we see that the bank has publicly displayed that the time required to

encash a cheque is 10 minutes. We have to decide something on these lines.

Say that the stock-out situation will not be more than 2%’, the man from

ledger section replied.

This was picked up by others. Progressively, they began to agree that if

there could be a way to predetermine the customer’s expectation of service,

then one could attempt to achieve it and once achieved one could attempt to

improve upon it.

-‘May be our work will increase. Perhaps we have to work more’.

- ‘Perhaps, this is why we are not keen for customer satisfaction’. There

was laughter all around. However one of them clarified that it was more of

a mind set. ‘We are used to ensuring that our boss is satisfied with our

work. He has been the ultimate arbiter and the ultimate judge of our work.

That now, we, should endeavour that the workshop - and not the boss - is to

be satisfied with our work, is a totally new concept’.

The co-action researchers wanted to confirm that their new

understanding of customer satisfaction is correct. So as a probe question,

they asked all the groups to write that with respect to the activities

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Interven-

tion 1.2

Reflection

1.2.3

identified on day 2, an action that will enhance their customer’s

satisfaction.

The following actions were identified as improvement actions-

(a) For receipt ward – The drawing and specifications for all the items were

not available. Updating the drawing and specifications was taken as the

improvement action for the receipt ward.

(b) For storage ward – There were many chemicals and rubber items, which

were supposed to have shelf life. But the concept of shelf life was not in the

warehousing unit. Thus it was decided that all items which had a shelf life

would be identified and a process would be developed so that they could all

be consumed within shelf life.

(c) For ledger section – Since material demand was generated from there,

they needed to closely liaison with storage ward so that self-life items were

not over stocked.

(d) For scrap ward – A number of unaccounted vouchers and scrap material

in thousands of tons were awaiting entry into books. The accounting system

needed to be up-to-date.

The responses indicated that the depot staff had correctly learnt the concept

of customer and customer satisfaction. Some of the staff suggested that

since these actions for improvement had now been identified, let us discuss

them for their implementation.

After deliberation, the following action plans were decided-

For storage ward – improvement in house keeping was identified as the

first step for improved storage conditions.

For other three wings of the warehousing unit the improvement action

indicated earlier were retained as the action plan.

At the end of day 3, the action research team reflected on the day’s

proceedings.

(i) One of the co-action researchers began with extending the concept of

mindset expressed during reflection cycle 1.2.2. He said ‘thinking back on

the last three days, it occurred to me that within railway set up, keeping my

boss happy is my main objective. A mental orientation that the customer

should be given what he wanted was there, but I cared for him because I

was afraid that he would complain against me to my boss. Thus again it

191

came back to our boss. Now we understand that keeping the customer

happy should be the motto of our working in railway. He is our new boss’.

‘May be. This would mean dispensing with our internal measures of

efficiency’.

‘Now the measure should be more customer oriented. I think that will

change our very approach to work’.

‘I am wondering why we had been continuing with our departmental

measures of efficiency. I had always been knowing that it was an artificial

contraption’.

We went back to our reflection no. 1.1 where we had raised the issue of

railway being a departmental organization. We all being railway persons,

we reasoned with ourselves that within the railway system, we spend a

substantial portion of our time only with our departmental members. Even

outside the office, in railway clubs and other social functions, our

interactions are more often with our departmental members. Thus we

become more clannish in our outlook which makes us difficult to work with

other professional groups within the railway system. Thus there were

expressions of unease at having to work under CWM who was an officer

from the mechanical engineering department. Thus it was natural for us to

think that keeping our departmental boss satisfied with our departmentally

defined professional parameters was our main objective. That perhaps

explained why we were all outraged when we were told to care for our

customer and not our departmental objectives. To probe this question more

deeply, it was necessary to seek viewpoints from other sources. A search of

the literature indicated that development of effective interpersonal

relationships in non-familial setting and outside one’s caste have been a

problem for Indians (Kumar 2000). ‘Indians feel very insecure in inter

personal relationship’ (Chaudhari, quoted in Kumar 2000, p.64). The

researcher decided that the aspect of departmental bias should be validated

from other surveys being done as a part of this research work. Thus, this is

further dealt with in the generalisation arrived at the end of first cycle.

(ii) The action researchers were now satisfied that the concepts of customer

and customer satisfaction have been learnt by the staff of Jhansi

warehousing unit. However the concept of continuous improvement was

192

not yet broached before the depot staff. Again, the co-action researchers

expressed their reservation about how can any thing be continuously

improved. ‘Once we reached a target, we can rest. After all, the target is a

measure of whatever level of proficiency we wanted to achieve’. The

researcher decided not to broach the aspect of continuous improvement at

that point. We agreed that let us first concentrate on implementing the

improvements we had identified in this cycle.

Learning in cycle 1– (i) Understanding the concept of customer and customer satisfaction

by the employees of Jhansi warehousing unit.

Generalisation based on action learning cycle 1

Generalisation (i): Indian Railways is fragmented into different departments.

Validation of the conclusion from different sources –The survey A conducted among

senior managers of Indian Railways had also brought out that internally Indian Railways is

fragmented along departments. In Table 4.2, 41% of the respondents wanted to have fewer

departments in Indian Railways and 11.7% of the respondents wanted a lesser role for

finance department. Thus more than 50% of the respondents were in favour of reducing the

departmentalism in the Indian Railways. The departmental fixation makes the Indian

Railway employees look only at their departmental efficiency with a corresponding lack of

concern for customer or organisational efficiency. Reducing the number of departments

and developing more team-oriented work was one of the desirable changes which these

senior managers had suggested.

A second source of validation came from the survey ‘C’ of ISO certified units in Indian

Railways. A review of the ISO certified units showed that except for Alambagh

warehousing unit, none of the units thought it fit to include finance, HRM and security

departments in their ISO 9000:2000 change initiative, even though systems approach and

team working are amongst the basic principles of ISO 9000:2000 standard. The

contribution of these departments in overall railway working was admitted. But ‘ISO was

treated as a technical activity. Thus these non-technical departments could be left out’, said

one of the workshop unit head. Another reason was that ‘I do not know whether they will

like to get into this. Unless their FA&CAO or CPO tell them, they may not go for it’ said a

M.R. On the other hand managers of these department felt that ‘because we are not in the

mainstream, GM/ CWM perhaps thought we could be left out’. ‘Unless the GM/CWM is

from our department, we will continue to be left out like this on the plea that we are not

193

into production’. All these showed lack of free and honest communication across

departmental boundaries.

Literature on Indian Railways indicated that the Rakesh Mohan committee had also

identified departmentalism a major problem in the Indian Railways and had recommended

a single managerial cadre instead of ten cadre existing at present.

Thus these three different data sources validate the conclusion that Indian Railways

is departmentally fragmented.

Emerging hypothesis i - At the fundamental level, the caste driven Indian ethos gets

reflected in the working life also.

In India, just as a person is born in a caste and dies in the same caste, likewise, when

he/she joins railway service, it is as if he/she also joins a professional caste – which is the

railway department he/she joins. The lack of movement from one department to another

strengthens his/her bond with his/her professional caste. Just as one’s biological caste

defines one boundary of one’s early socialisation in India (Kumar 2000, Deshpande 2003),

his/her professional caste in the Indian Railways – his/her working department - decides

his/her boundary of adult socialisation within the Indian Railways. Just as an Indian

develops a feeling of own-others (apne-paraye) with loyalty towards ‘own’ and

apprehension towards ‘others’ (Sinha 1991, Sinha 1995), he/she also develops an irrational

affiliation for his/her department and is apprehensive of the moves and intention of

members of other departments. This was amply demonstrated by the persistent

apprehension of Jhansi warehouse staff towards the intention of the workshop staff. This

was also the reason why the staff were more comfortable with their departmental boss Dy

CMM than with their non-departmental superior CWM.

After this, the researcher looked for additional evidence for this line of reasoning.

Among the Indian grown organizations, the researcher zeroed on the Indian Army. The

Indian Army was founded by the British about 150 years ago; around the same time Indian

Railways came into existence. The entry into the Indian Army at that time was made on

linguistic and regional lines, a practice which continues even today. Thus the Indian Army

has a Maratha regiment which recruits soldiers who are Marathas i.e. those who hail from

the state of Maharashtra. The Punjab regiment consists of only the Punjabis i.e. those who

hail from the state of Punjab and the Gurkha regiment is having its soldiers from Nepal

only. This reflected the intuitive understanding by the British of what the social researchers

in 20th century termed as the ‘own-other’ (apne-paraye) syndrome of Indians. To

strengthen their hold on India, the British needed the army more than any other institution.

194

They intuitively realised that in order to maintain discipline, develop team spirit and a

sense of belongingness to the army, it was necessary that the members of a regiment

belong to the same ‘in-group’ – be it region based or be it caste based. One wonders what

would have been the fate of the Indian Army if the British had foisted upon it a region-

neutral recruitment policy and the resultant heterogeneous composition which they

practiced in their own British Army and also in all other institutions they developed in

India including the Indian Railways. It is worth noting that though this practice started 150

years back, it is prevalent even today, though India is now a democracy claiming to

provide equal opportunity and no discrimination on the basis of region or caste. That this

institution of region-based recruitment has continued in the Indian Army, strengthened the

researcher’s hypothesis that in India, ‘the caste driven Indian ethos gets reflected in the

working life also’.

Generalisation ii: There is a general lack of genuine concern about customer satisfaction

in Indian Railways.

Validation of conclusion from different sources: A perusal of the performance

yardsticks of Indian Railways (Indian Railways year book 2002-2003) showed that there is

not a single yardstick within its set of more than 50 statistics which can be said to be

customer-centric. All the statistics are nothing but combination of operational and financial

data which are internally relevant to Indian Railways but carry no meaning to its

customers. Since Indian Railways is bureaucratic, customer satisfaction does not come

naturally to its members. Further, the societal induced organisational value does not make

one look beyond one’s departmental perspective.

Emerging hypothesis ii – The caste system has reinforced the bureaucratic propensity of

lack of teamwork in the Indian Railways.

Earlier it has been seen that the caste-based mentality has given rise to value system

related to functionality, status, power and relationship among the Indian Railway

employees. Thus on the social side, there is hardly any felt need for inter-group interaction.

Both inside and outside the office, the socialisation is more within members of a

department. On the organisational side, till the process of liberalisation started in India in

early nineties, Indians have been used to a bureaucratic working style in almost all walks

of life as large government organizations dominated most of the professions. Literature

review has shown that bureaucracies are not known to espouse teamwork (McHugh &

Bennett 1999). The researcher therefore reasoned that both the caste system and the

bureaucratic set up have worked in tandem which has resulted in poor teamwork among

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Indian Railway personnel. Sinha and Sinha (1990) have mentioned how personal

relationship (in contrast to professional relationship) is has seeped into Indian

organizations as a social value.

Probe activity: It was decided by the researcher to test this hypothesis as and when the

opportunity arose in the subsequent action research cycles. The opportunity to test it came

during the action cycle 4 dealt with in chapter 6.

PDCA Cycle 2 (from 23.4.2004 to 24.4.2004 and during May 2004)

Cycle 2

Plan &

Do 2

Check

2

In this cycle, the co-action researcher directly dealt with the staff of Jhansi

warehouse. The researcher was present only as an observer.

The discussion concentrated on planning for the improvements discussed in

cycle 1.The groups assembled in cycle one continued. Each group was asked to

make a process sheet of their work and identify ways through which the

improvements suggested in cycle one could be implemented. After the process

sheet was made discussions were held about the steps for improvement.

The general conclusion was that it was better if they could visit other ISO

certified warehousing units so that they can get a practical feel of the

improvements made by them. They decided that they would visit DLW and

DCW which were reported to have superior warehousing systems. A group of

five persons visited these two manufacturing units in May 2004. On their

return, they narrated their experience about what they saw and the specific steps

needed for initiating the improvement at Jhansi. The specific steps identified for

improvement were:

(i) Each stocking item should have an identified location in the warehouse. For

this, different storage bins and ground space should be allocated a distinct

location number. There should be a location register indicating the part number

and its corresponding location number. The overall cleanliness should be

improved using the principles of ‘5S’.

(ii) There is lack of material handling equipment at Jhansi. The only forklifter is

under breakdown since the last seven years. The electric trolleys are very few

and they are in a very bad shape.

(iii) Jhansi depot does not have an updated list of drawings and specifications

for its inspection wing.

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Act 2

(iv) The unloading of scrap from wagons takes lot of time. It needs to be

improved so that wagon detention is reduced.

In order that the improvement activities get integrated with the ISO related

change initiative the co-action researchers decided that ISO awareness program

should continue concurrently with the above improvement activities.

PDCA cycle 3 (May 2004)

Cycle 3

Day 1

& day

2, Plan

& Do

3.1

Check

3.1

Reflect

3.1

Starting from Figure 3.4, the quality policy, quality procedure and work

instruction were explained to the co-action researchers and a group of 22

supervisors by the researcher. The researcher had planned that in line with the

research model proposed in Figure 5.6, first quality policy, then quality

procedure and finally work instruction would be dealt with in three cycles.

However when feedback was taken from the participants, they expressed

difficulty in differentiating between ‘quality policy’ and ‘quality procedure’, and

between ‘quality procedure’ and ‘work instruction’. It was found that the whole

terminology of quality policy, quality procedure and work instruction were too

esoteric for the staff and they were not able to differentiate amongst these

terminologies.

The reflection in this cycle was done with the co-action researchers. The five

criteria of good action research (Bradbury & Reason 2001) were told to the co-

action researchers. In section 5.5.4, the researcher has mentioned about

Bradbury and Reason (2001) observation that action research should include

‘extended ways of knowing’ like song and dance, poetry etc. Scanning the

literature of organisational learning, it was found that Nonaka (1994) had

theorised that ‘metaphor plays an important role in associating abstract,

imaginary concepts’ (p.21). He said that ‘the essence of metaphor is

understanding one kind of thing in terms of another’ (p.20). Similarly Prange

(1999) had also emphasised the use of metaphors in organisational learning

(p.39). He looked upon metaphor as a ‘way of thinking’ (p. 37) which ‘liberate

imagination and thereby encourage varied perspectives for understanding

organisations’ (p.37).

One of the co-action researchers said that perhaps it was too much for them to

visualise what should be the quality policy of Jhansi depot. ‘Policy making is

the job of senior officers, how can we do it?’. However, they were aware of the

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cycle 3,

Day 3,

PDCA

3.2

actual work they were doing and after seeing the work at DLW and DCW, it

was possible for them to decide a way of working which could improve the

working at Jhansi. Thus at a physical level they were able to understand the gap

between their work and the work of a better railway unit like DLW and DCW,

but at a conceptual level, they were not able to understand the differences

among the ISO terminologies like quality policy, quality manual, quality

procedure and work instruction.

When they were told of Bradbury and Reason’s extended way of knowing and

of metaphors, one of them linked the ISO terminologies with the constitution of

India. The Indian constitution has a preamble, then articles, sub articles and Acts

which flow from the sub articles. From this he developed a metaphor which was

as follows –

My intentions are my quality policy. This is like the preamble of the

constitution.

The way I plan to implement my intentions is my quality manual. These are like

the articles of the constitution.

What I do as per the above planning is quality procedure. These are sub-articles

of the constitution.

How I should do what I am supposed to do is my work instruction. Work

instructions are like the Acts which are supposed to be in consonance with the

articles and sub articles of the constitution.

This analogy went well with other co-action researchers. It was then decided to

use this analogy to explain the ISO terminologies to the staff. This analogy

was quickly grasped by the staff also. Now they were able to differentiate

among different ISO terminologies. Now they were conceptually ready to frame

the quality procedures and work instructions. However, they did not agree to the

scheme suggested in Figure 5.6. Instead they reversed it. They first made the

work instructions. Then they ensured that their actual working was as per the

work instructions. Then they made the quality procedure. From there, they

framed their quality policy.

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Generalisation based on cycle 3

(iii) Developing a metaphor was crucial for understanding of new concepts and their

effective internalisation in the warehousing unit.

Probe activity: The workshop attached with the warehousing unit at Jhansi was also

planning for ISO certification. A team of staff from the workshop was sent for training at a

weeklong lead auditor course. They had returned after completing the training program.

They asked one of the co-action researchers whether he could explain the difference

between ISO terminologies as it was not clear during the lead auditor training. It was

decided that the co-action researcher would explain the ISO terminology to the whole team

of the workshop. The team met. The same analogy which was developed during cycle 3

was explained to them. They were able to grasp it. Buoyed with this understanding, the

workshop staff requested for another day long session with a larger group of about 80 staff

members from the workshop

Emerging hypothesis iii – Metaphors are important in developing learning capabilities.

Validation of this hypothesis: Even after doing a formal week long training at

accredited ISO training program, the program participants were not able to understand the

difference between different terminologies used in ISO standard, but they were able to

grasp it when explained in terms of the metaphor developed in cycle 3.

5.6.4 Experiential learning during action research

The experiential learning cycle which the researcher underwent is now dealt with.

Experiential learning cycle by the researcher

Experience

1.1

During June 2003 and July 2003, the researcher had worked in the store depot

for about 45 days as the head of the unit. The employees of this unit were

aware that the researcher was pursuing higher study under the sponsorship of

the Indian government. Thus the researcher was not new to employees. The

researcher felt this helped him in developing a rapport with the employees.

Coming to the specific experiences, during all the first three days, whenever

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Reflective

observa-

tion 1.1

Abstract

conceptua-

lisation 1.1

the researcher entered the class, every one would get up in deference. It was a

normal Indian practice which the researcher had not paid heed to till then.

However, now as an action researcher, it was taken as a possible data point

which could provide important clues to the underlying social dynamics.

The researcher decided to ask them at the end of second day as to why did

they get up when he would enter the class. They were quite surprised that

such normal behaviour could be questioned. After a significant pause, some

of them replied that it was part of their collective upbringing that they were

expected to show respect to their superiors which according to them, the

researcher was. The researcher provoked them by saying that let them not do

it from next time. However, there were murmurs of mild protest. A few of

them got up and said that even the researcher must be getting up when his

superior would walk in, so ‘why should you object when we get up’? A few

others said ‘Some officers mind if we don’t get up. They take it as an affront.

So why take a chance’?

The researcher perceived a status difference between him and the employees

who were being trained by him. ‘Are they considering me as their boss’? The

researcher was concerned whether it would promote or hinder free

communication between the learners and him. The researcher reflected back

on the literature review which had pointed out how the hierarchical

orientation is deeply engrained in the Indian psyche as well as in the Indian

bureaucracy and how hierarchical orientation works against ‘team work’ and

‘empowerment’. However, the researcher recalled from the literature review

(Sinha & Sinha 1990) that it was possible to convert these societal values into

organisational strengths. The researcher decided to attempt that.

The researcher perceived the power equation in the classroom as a superior-

subordinate relationship. He decided to change the power equation of the

group from that of ‘superior – subordinate’ to ‘teacher – student’: All the staff

had been students in past and the student – teacher relationship in India,

though hierarchical, is not power laden. Also if it were a student-teacher

relationship, it would be conducive for learning and the change might not

look directive i.e. being imposed by the researcher.

200

Active

experim-

ent 1.1

On the first day, the researcher had requested them to form groups

amongst themselves so that they can discuss the issues in small groups. About

half of them could not make groups for themselves. Also, not all groups were

able to discuss effectively. The researcher decided on two things. One was to

ask them to make presentation in teams during the next session which was to

take place one week later. Second was that the rest of the groups would

comment on the presentation on a paper and give to the researcher. The

researcher then used these comments to initiate discussion and arrive at a

consensus. This scheme was borrowed from Dick’s (1999) ‘rigour without

number’.

Experience

1.2

Reflective

observa-

tion 1.2

Abstract

conceptua-

lisation 1.2

ISO training was the first ever training which was imparted to the employees

of the unit. The researcher was surprised at the ease with which they grasped

the concepts and were able to relate it to their work place. After the concepts

of customer, customer satisfaction and how ISO could contribute to it were

internalised by the staff, they did not show any resistance in going for a large-

scale change in their working systems.

The literature generally talks about ‘resistance to change’. However here the

situation was different. The staff willingly started a self-sustaining change

program. There was no unfreezing (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson 2002,

p.380) required to be done as suggested in the literature on change.

As I reflected on this I reasoned with myself that the prolonged static style of

working in the Indian Railways has developed a pent up dissatisfaction

among the railway personnel against its working procedures. At an informal

level, they understood it. But they were not sure how to get out of it. A

support from their superior and perhaps the pride of changing their working

style in consonance with an international standard called ISO, induced them

on a self sustaining change path. Their inability to grasp the sequential

division from quality manual to quality procedure to work instruction and the

consequent reversal of the scheme suggested in Figure 5.6 could also have

instilled in them a sense of achievement which then pumped them on an

autonomous path of self directed change.

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Generalisation from the experiential learning cycle 1

(i) The action research at Jhansi showed there is no resistance to TQM oriented change in

the Indian Railways

Validation of this generalisation: In the ISO survey done with different railway units, it was

asked whether there was any resistance to change (see Appendix 4, Q. D6). The summary

of ISO survey is shown in section 4.3. One of the findings of the survey was that except at

DLW there was no resistance to change at other units. This perhaps shows that the

employees of Indian Railway are amenable to a large-scale change initiative if it is

undertaken in a participative manner i.e. involving them.

A special feature of the action research was the opportunity for frank communication

for the warehousing employees. The need for clear and open communication during period

of change has also been highlighted in literature (Robbins 1997, p.390). At a more basic

level, since an ISO based change by itself involves a lot of upward and downward

communication, a lot of participation gets generated during the ISO certification process

which thus builds up employee involvement. The researcher reasoned that this reduced the

resistance to change.

As another possible explanation, the researcher decided to look at the issue from

another angle. Earlier survey A was done to understand the manner in which Indian

Railways should change from the point of view of its senior managers. The survey brought

out that even though Indian Railways is at present a bureaucratic organization,

empowerment and following an informal and flexible management style was supported by

the senior managers. It was thus reasoned by the researcher that since the ISO based changes

were associated with a shift towards more empowerment for the staff and a more informal –

‘hands-on’ management style – in contradistinction to a bureaucratic management style, it

was in tune with the privately held belief of the Indian Railway personnel. Hence there was

no resistance to change.

Emerging hypothesis iv: Indian Railways is amenable to a participative TQM

implementation. Since it is non-threatening to different stakeholders, it is also

implementable.

In May 2004, the work instruction, the quality procedure and the quality manual for

the Jhansi warehouse were ready. The team has got off to a good start. Getting off to a good

start is often crucial to enable a team run on a self-sustaining course (Hackman 1990, p.503).

The staff of the warehousing unit were now willing to modify their work methods in line

202

with the ISO documentation. From the ISO implementation point of view, the quality

objectives were yet to be identified for the warehousing unit. At that time, the researcher

decided to withdraw from the scene. He told the managers at Jhansi that since they were

aware of the specific steps required to modify their work in line with ISO guidelines, he

would now return. But if they needed, they could call him back.

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Chapter 6 Reflection after action and development of ‘TQM transition model’

6.1 Reflections after action This chapter deals with five reflections after action.

6.1.1 Reflection after action- 1

The lack of resistance to change across different units of Indian Railways continued

to nag the researcher to come up with more fundamental explanation than what has been put

forward at the end of chapter 5.

As he reflected on his experience at Jhansi, he recalled that during his trip around the

warehouse, whenever he would go with the head of the warehouse to different storage wards,

those staff of the ward who were sitting idle, would move towards the open area around the

ward and start plucking the grass weeds from the ground. The researcher was quite amused

by this conditioned response of the ward staff. He asked them why they resorted to plucking

of grass weeds the moment they saw us. They said that it was the instruction of the Dy CMM

(the head of the warehousing unit) that whenever the staff had no work to do, instead of

sitting idle, they would remove the grass weeds from the ground so that the area around their

ward remained clean. Thus whenever they saw the Dy CMM, they would start plucking the

grass weeds lest he gets annoyed. The researcher asked them that if the purpose was to keep

the area clean of the grass weeds, why not do it at one go and be done with it. The staff said

that the instruction of Dy CMM had to be obeyed. That it could also result in a clean

surrounding was just as well. Dy CMM also did not seem to mind that the staff tended to get

into the mere ritual of plucking the grass weeds irrespective of whether the primary objective

of cleanliness was achieved or not.

The researcher felt that there was a marked tendency among the staff to obey the

instructions of their boss. He also linked this with the lack of resistance to change towards

ISO certification reported in survey C by different railway units. He then reflected back on

204

the ‘dependency proneness’ tendency among the Indian Railway employees found in survey

B. He wondered whether the lack of resistance to change was because of the strong sense of

identity which subordinates had with their leader – the head of their group – in line with own-

other syndrome mentioned in the literature review, and high power distance with respect to

the leader reflected through the hierarchical tendency of ‘dependence proneness’ on their

boss (leader). Was it that together these two factors made the subordinates more amenable to

an internal leader’s instruction? Was it that their strong tendency to identify with their boss

made them less critical of the change initiatives if the change initiatives were in consonance

with their privately held belief about how change should occur.

The researcher went back to the literature review (section 2.2.6) where many studies

had said that in India, the power laden organisational interaction emanating from hierarchical

cultural trait is dysfunctional for participative working. The researcher reflected on it and

tried to understand as to how hierarchy introduces dysfunctionality in organisational set up.

After all Japanese culture is also hierarchical (Sinha 1995, p.100). He argued as this:

Hierarchy gives rise to power distance. This differential power status does not permit open

discussion between the superior and the subordinates and perhaps it also tends to legitimise

coercive behaviour. He then tried to understand different types of power from literature. They

are shown in Table 6.1.

Power type Definition

Coercive power The perceived ability to provide sanction, punishment or

consequences for not performing

Reward power The perceived ability to provide things people will like to have

Legitimate power The perception that it is appropriate for the leader to make

decisions because of title, role or position in the organization

Connection power The perceived association of the leader with influential persons

or organizations

Referent power The perceived attractiveness of interacting with the leader

Information power The perceived access to, or possession of, useful information

Expert power The perception that the leader has relevant education, experience

and expertise

Table 6. 1 Different types of power

Source: based on Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson (2002, p.210).

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Among the above power categories, in the context of organization, coercive power,

reward power, legitimate power and perhaps connection power can be thought to come from

the position one holds in the organization. On the other hand, referent power, information

power and expert power can be thought to come from the person. The researcher felt it is the

position based power types which can be said to stifle frank professional discussion between

superior and subordinate. However if the source of power is transferred to personal bases like

referent power, information power and expert power, the same power laden, hierarchical

organisational situation can in fact be used advantageously. He reflected back on the

reflection cycle 1 where the initial superior-subordinate power structure was replaced by a

teacher-student relationship. That still retained the power differential, but the bases of power

shifted from coercive, connection and position to information, referent and expert. Hierarchy

remained, but now instead of stifling discussion and dissent, it promoted curiosity. This

promoted discussion which in turn promoted learning and learning led to change. The

researcher recalled that India has a strong tradition of guru-shishya (teacher - student)

relationship, which though hierarchical in nature has not been dysfunctional. Ancient Indian

scriptures like Upnishad make a special mention of the relationship between a teacher and a

student:

O almighty God, you protect both of us (the teacher and the student) together; you bear both

of us together, may both earn the shakti (power of learning) together, may our learning be

luminous (impressive); may we never bear ill-will towards each other ( from kathopnishad

shwetayashawaropnishad quoted in preface to Rig Ved).

Even in modern India, a student always addresses his teacher by ‘sir’, and never by

the teacher’s name – even decades after he passes out from school /college. But this respect,

this differential power relationship does not stifle discussion or difference of opinion, nor

does the tendency for an individualised teacher-student relationship make a teacher favour a

particular student at the cost of other students. Thus the researcher hypothesised that

hierarchy per se was not problematic. What matters is what is the source of hierarchy. On

what dimension does hierarchy differentiate. If it is differentiating on higher dimensions of

power like information power, referent power and expert power, it develops a resonance with

the Indian tradition of teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship and then, it is conducive

for learning and therefore it is conducive for change. Thus hierarchy can be an advantage – it

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can promote compliance towards change if it is based on such bases of power which invoke a

teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship between the boss (leader) and the subordinate

rather than a superior-subordinate relationship. A review of literature showed that Indians

have a preference for leadership by gurus (teachers)(Sekhar 2001, p.361). Sekhar (2001)

found Indians to rate teachers to be ethically far ahead of other professions as compared with

Americans. Ancient Indian scripture like Gita also supports a raj-rishi model of leadership

where the king (raj) is also a learned one (rishi –a guru, a teacher ) (Chakraborty 1996;

Radhakrishnan 1949, p.383). Ashok is an example of philosopher-king (raj-rishi) in ancient

India (Chhokar 2003, p.13). There is a contemporary example to show that teachers are

intuitively more acceptable as leaders in India. After the last general election in India in the

year 2004, a coalition government was to be formed. The Congress party being the largest

coalition partner suggested three names from its members of parliament as the possible

candidates for the Prime Ministership. Two were veteran politicians with decades of political

experience. The third one was Dr. Manmohan Singh, an academician whom all considered

politically naïve. He was regarded more as a university teacher. However, all the coalition

partners unanimously preferred Dr. Manmohan Singh as the next Prime Minister of India to

the other two seasoned politicians.

Thus teachers in the role of leadership have an intuitive acceptance for Indians.The

researcher felt he got an insight as to why there was no resistance to change at the six ISO

certified railway units and also at Jhansi. He reasoned that during the process of change, the

subordinates had to learn many new things whose fundamental validity appealed to them. For

example ensuring that there was no item at Jhansi warehouse whose shelf life had expired

had a natural validity to the employees. This learning oriented change, induced teacher-

student relationship between the boss and subordinate which in turn invoked higher power

bases like information power and expert power among the subordinates towards their boss.

That is, between the boss and the subordinate, the change situation acquired a teacher-student

relationship which was learning oriented. This coupled with subordinate’s strong existing

tendency to comply with their boss’s instruction because of their socially induced

‘dependence’ relationship with the boss, made the subordinates go for the change process

without any resistance.

This led the researcher to formulate the fifth hypothesis.

Emerging hypothesis v: Hierarchical teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship

with leader invokes personal bases of power which promotes change in India.

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Thus the position power and coercive power if replaced by information, reward or

referent power will still maintain the hierarchy, but it will take the dysfunctionality out of the

power relation.

This hypothesis has important policy implication for Indian Railways and indeed for

Indian organisations. It shows that a TQM oriented change initiative should generally be

supported by the managers and staff because of the learning bias it generates.

Further, the researcher linked the positive teacher-student (guru-shishya) orientation

with intellectual stimulation factor of transformational leadership (see section 2.2.8) and

reasoned that this teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship is conceptually similar to the

intellectual stimulation factor of transformational leadership. He also noted that literature

(Bass 1990) has said that intellectual stimulation develops team orientation (see section

2.2.8). On similar lines Hackman (1990, p. 503) found in his study of teams that coaching by

leader facilitated good work by a team.

6.1.2 Reflection after action- 2

The researcher then reflected on the tendency of personalised relationship among

Indians and tried to arrive at a fundamental basis to explain this: In Hindu religion, there is

singular interaction with God. In contrast, there is collective interaction with God both in

Christianity and in Islam. In both these religions, a group of worshippers collectively bow in

church or in mosque, but in a temple, a Hindu will jostle with others in a long queue under

the sun, and wait for his turn to make his very individual and very personal offering to God.

If at the time of offering, he is the only person before the deity, he is so much more satisfied

as a worshipper – after all, he could make his exclusive individual obeisance to God. Making

a collective obeisance along with many others - who are so different from him - is almost an

anathema to him. Thus there is a ritualised collective worshipping –the Friday ‘namaaz’ and

the ‘Sunday mass’- among Muslims and Christians respectively. As against this, there is

ritualised individual ‘puja’ among Hindus. (The collective worshipping in Hindus is limited

to within family members only who are part of the own group). God is powerful. He can do

much harm and good to the worshipper in his spiritual world. Thus every Hindu prefers his

very personal rapport with his God – to the exclusion of others. The researcher looked for

validation of this line of reasoning in literature: Nakamura (1964, p.111) has said that

Indians harbour an ardent desire to have a direct relation with the absolute and refuse to have

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any intermediate agent. In fact all the three religion which developed in India – Hinduism,

Buddism and Jainism assert that salvation of one’s soul should be attained only by one’s own

effort without relying upon others. Jainism for example says that ‘others cannot protect thee

or help thee’(Nakamura 1964, p.111). The researcher extrapolated this sub-conscious thinking to an office where the boss is

the presiding deity who can do many harm and good to a person in his temporal world. To an

illiterate worker, the boss is the mai- baap (literary meaning the parents. Figuratively it

means ‘like a parent, he holds all the cards for the well being of his son – the subordinate’).

To an educated manager, the boss is the person who writes his confidential report and

decides his career progression. But, both for the illiterate worker and the literate manager, the

basic orientation towards boss remain the same. Boss represents power in the temporal world

just as God represents power in the spiritual world. Thus it is just as well that an Indian

prefers a personalised relationship with his boss to the exclusion of others. The personalised

relationship is his hot line to ‘God’ – whether spiritual or temporal. ‘It makes explaining

things to him so much simpler when things go wrong’ as one of the supervisors told the

researcher.

Then, the researcher brooded on the next question: In organisational context, what is

the problem with this ‘personalised relationship’ and its related concept of ‘own-others’

which different studies in section 2.2.6 have referred to? Perhaps, the problem here is that

personal considerations begin to influence organisational decisions. ‘I promote my favourite

subordinate because I like him’. So the problem is not personalised relationship per se. The

problem is the extraneous influence it begins to wield on organisational matters. Thus the

right approach is to retain the personalised relationship, but not let it cloud professional

decision. Then the researcher thought of what Bass calls ‘individualised consideration’ as one

of the factors of transformational leadership (see section 2.2.8). The researcher pondered

whether there was something common between ‘personalised relationship’ and

‘individualised consideration’: The common point between the two is that both believe in one

to one relationship between the boss and the subordinate- the boss does treat a subordinate as

a distinct individual with his distinct set of needs and aspirations. The difference between the

two is that the propensity for ‘personalised relationship’ makes the boss give disproportionate

reward to his own (say favourite) subordinates to the exclusion of others, on the other hand

the propensity for ‘individualised consideration’, makes the boss relate with the subordinates

on a relationship which is equitable (Bass & Avolio 1997, p.36). This emphasis on equity is

the crucial difference between ‘personalised relationship’ and ‘individualised consideration’.

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Thus, the researcher argues that it is possible to take this Indian propensity for ‘personalised

relationship’ and elevate it to the status of ‘individualised consideration’, thereby cleanse it

of its dysfuntionality. Survey B (see section 4.2.2) found that the tendency for ‘personalised

relationship’ though present, is significantly lower than those of ‘status consciousness’ and

‘dependency proneness’. Thus the tendency for ‘personalised relationship’ is a weaker

tendency among the three hierarchical tendencies. Therefore, the researcher argues, it would

be more amenable for modulation into a slightly different mould.

The researcher thus argues that instead of having an abstract professional relationship,

if a subordinate prefers a personal relationship with his boss which is weakening, why not

turn this propensity to develop work oriented ethos in place of a bureaucratic ethos. The

researcher goes back to literature review (section 2.2.6.2) where Khandwalla (1992, p.255)

had said that ‘whether a traditional behaviour or a modern behaviour will be evoked depends

on what cues are emitted at work’ and Sinha and Kanungo(1997) had discussed the high

‘context sensitivity’ of Indians. Thus if the boss could zero in on a battery of professional

expectations for his subordinates, and deal with his subordinates on an individual basis and

reward the subordinate subject to his satisfactory fulfilment of the desired professional

expectation, then the very ‘personalised relationship’ would stand modulated into what Bass

calls ‘individualised consideration’. The high context sensitivity of Indians would now act as

a facilitating factor which would make the subordinates more inclined to accept the

professional cues emanated by the boss.

Emerging hypothesis vi: The ‘personalised relationship’ with a more equitable slant

can be modulated to the status of ‘individualised consideration’.

6.1.3 Reflection after action- 3 Then the researcher reflected on other factors of the transformational leadership

model and wondered if they could be linked with any Indian specific leadership model.

If the transformational leadership model is compared with the Indian specific

nurturance task (NT) leadership model discussed in section 2.2.6.4, conceptual similarity

between the ‘contingent reward’ factor of transformational leadership and the nurturance task

leadership can be seen. ‘Contingent reward’ is a transactional leadership construct within the

transformational leadership model (see section 2.2.8). Sinha also does not consider NT model

as transformational (Sinha 1995). Both aim at satisfactory work performance by the

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employees. In the contingent award, the award is contingent upon satisfactory completion of

work. In the NT model, nurturance is the award which is given after satisfactory completion

of work. The difference between contingent reward and NT is that contingent reward is non-

personal in its approach, but a NT leader is more personal in his handling of the follower. He

cares for his subordinates, shows affection, takes personal interest in their well-being, and

above all is committed to their growth (Sinha 1990).

Emerging hypothesis vii: The NT leadership model is conceptually similar to the

contingent award factor of transformational leadership.

The emerging hypotheses v, vi and vii led the researcher to create a link between the

components of transformational leadership and its proposed equivalent set in Indian cultural

set up. They are shown in Table 6.2.

Components of transformational leadership model of Bass

Indian cultural equivalent

Intellectual stimulation Hierarchical teacher-student (guru-shishya)

relationship

Individualised consideration Equity based personalised relationship

Contingent reward Nurturant task

Table 6. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their proposed Indian cultural equivalent Source: developed for this research.

6.1.4 Reflection after action- 4

Armed with these insights, the researcher wondered if TQM could be adapted to the

Indian context. The opportunity came in August 2004. In August 2004, the researcher was

invited by Railway Staff College to deliver lecture on TQM to the senior managers of Indian

Railways. Railway Staff College is the nodal training institute for training of senior managers

of Indian Railways. Almost all the managers who attended the 5 days long training

programme were engineers. They had knowledge of ISO and quality management. They had

heard of TQM and some of them were practising many of its tools like fishbone diagram,

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Pareto analysis, control charts etc. However, they were unaware of TQM as an integrative

concept which could act as a vehicle of organisational change. Thus the researcher planned to

orient their thought to TQM in its totality. Among other things, the researcher explained to

them the critical success factors of TQM mentioned in section 3.6.1. They are reproduced

below for the sake of convenience:

(i) Customer focus

(ii) Communication across organization/ information and data management

(iii) Continuous improvement

(iv) Delegation and empowerment

(v) Leadership

(vi) Process improvement

(vii) Result and recognition

(viii) Strategy

(ix) Supplier focus

(x) Team working

(xi) Values and ethics

(xii) Work culture / congenial inter personal relationship / worker manager interaction

The feedback the researcher got from them was that if so many individual factors

were responsible for successful implementation of TQM, it was not surprising that TQM’s

success rate was only around 25% to 30%. ‘How can an organization emphasise on all these

factors simultaneously’? ‘And how do I operationalise these factors in actual situation. What

if there is a conflict between these factors in business situations’?

As the researcher reflected on these CSFs of TQM and his own unsuccessful attempt

in trying to explain TQM as an aggregate of these CSFs, he correlated this with the difficulty

experienced by Jhansi employees in trying to understand the differences between quality

policy, quality procedure and work instruction in action cycle 3. The researcher wondered

whether the reductionist western approach of breaking TQM to its sub components had taken

the essence of TQM out of it. He also wondered that if senior managers were finding it

difficult to accept TQM as a combination of various factors, how this could be explained to

the lower level employees of Indian Railways. This reflection gave the researcher the insight

that if TQM as a concept had to be internalised by the Indian Railway employees, it must be

viewed in a more Gestaltist manner. The gestalt may subsume in it the individual factors, but

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these individual factors should not be emphasised as the basis for developing an

understanding of the concept of TQM. It has to be reverse. Implementation of TQM should

begin with a singular Gestaltist idea. With time, this idea should gradually lead to the

unfolding of other enabling factors like a dénouement. Then TQM becomes a sequential

concept. This means that not all CSFs of TQM are equally important at the beginning nor it is

possible to begin a TQM oriented change program with simultaneous emphasis on all the

factors. This only leads to confusion and scepticism among the employee as it did with the

railway managers. Rather, there should be a sequential emphasis on these factors starting

with the most basic at the beginning. Literature has also said that ‘it takes between 5 to 7

years before quality is solidly ingrained’ (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson 2002, p.402). The

Deming Prize also maintains a developmental orientation in its TQM model (see section

2.2.3.3, p. 44). This realisation led to the next emerging hypothesis:

Emerging hypothesis vii: There is a sequential relationship among the CSFs of TQM.

Thus a model of TQM based on sequential relationship among these factors should be

more successful than a model which is based on simultaneous application of these factors.

Identification of the central concept of TQM: The emerging hypothesis vii led the

researcher to search for the most basic factor for successful beginning of TQM

implementation. Since the factor was to be such which had to appeal to a cross section of

employees, the researcher began to realise that basically he was not looking for a mere factor.

He was looking for a value – an all pervading value which could supplant the existing

bureaucratic value of Indian Railways, a value which was both generic enough to have pan

organisational validity and which was also ethical enough to be acceptable to people across

organisational ladder. Once this value was identified, it could piggyback on the cultural trait

of an Indian’s strong identification with their leader (boss) for its dissemination and

acceptability. The researcher looked at TQM in its totality. He reasoned with himself that of

all the components of TQM, customer satisfaction was that component which should be

propagated as a value rather than as a measure – a la customer satisfaction index - across an

organization: If it becomes a value which pervades the nooks and corners of an organization,

it will become an underlying current, the new ethereal medium – like air - which people

breathe. Employee and their organization will asphyxiate if this new ether is sucked out of

their organizational space. Thus in this new organization – call it customer-centric

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organization -the boss should both propagate and reward only such behaviour which is in line

with the value called customer satisfaction. For this to happen, the staff should be able to

relate with customer satisfaction in an intuitive way. It will then become a value. It will then

not remain an abstruse concept to be measured mathematically. The reason for choosing

customer satisfaction was its universal validity across different types of organizations. The

ethical relevance of customer satisfaction was developed as follows: In the action learning

cycle 1, one of the staff had mentioned about how banks had decided that they would encash

a cheque in 10 minutes. This logic was taken further: In his/her day-to-day life an Indian goes

to a bank, to a municipal office, to an electric supply company office or to a hospital. The

common theme in all these institutions is that he/she is a customer and he/she wants his/her

problem to be addressed efficiently. However, the general experience in India is that

interaction with these institutions leaves a bad taste in mouth. If the staff in the Indian

Railways are explained that the common theme lacking in these organizations is a customer

orientation, they should be able to understand its relevance to their organization. In fact then

customer orientation does not merely remain a value, rather, it becomes a meta-value i.e. all

other values are then reinterpreted to facilitate the meta value called customer satisfaction.

Since Indians are prone to think in totality rather than in a reductionist way, the

understanding of customer satisfaction as a meta-value valid across different organizations

will make them understand the big picture and their own role in that big picture. Once they

are able to fathom that customer satisfaction is the new mantra, and once they are able to

draw the big picture for customer satisfaction and the role in it for themselves, then a jumbled

puzzle called organisational change should gradually begin to make sense and start taking a

meaningful shape. The resulting process orientation should create a fertile field in which will

sprout such enabling factors as teamwork, delegation and empowerment, communication

across organization etc. Because of the subordinate’s strong identification with their boss, if

the boss supports customer satisfaction as the new mantra, then due to its general intuitive

appeal across employee categories, customer satisfaction has the potential to become the new

organisational value. The survey C of railway units also showed that development of

customer orientation has been one of the consistent outcomes of ISO certification. That is,

while ISO certification might or might not have resulted in inculcation of other aspects of

TQM, it did develop a customer orientation in the employees at the ISO certified railway

units.

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6.1.5 Development of TQM transition model

With these insights, the researcher began framing a model for TQM implementation

within the framework of ISO 9000 suitably aided by the emerging hypotheses developed

earlier in this research. The model developed is shown in Figure 6.1.

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legend: mech- mechanical

stor-stores elec- electrical pers-personal

fin - finance

Work culture

Autonomy (delegation & empowerment)

Teamwork, communication across organization

Figure 6. 1 Model for sequential development of TQM factors using the ISO framework

Source: developed for this research.

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The model in Figure 6.1 shows the sequential development of different factors of

TQM within the ISO framework. It begins with the TQM factor called process orientation. A

process is defined ‘as a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of inputs and

creates an output that is of value to the customer’ (Hammer & Champy 2001, p.38). This

definition shows that adding value to the customer is central to the concept of a process. Thus

process orientation is closely related with customer focus. The model shows that the first step

is to replace the functional orientation of different departments by process orientation. This

can be affected by developing process based ISO documents instead of function based ISO

documents. This process orientation is the first activity which should kick start congruent

behaviour disposition among members of different functional units in an organization. ISO

9000 has a concept of corrective and preventive action (CPA). This aims at identifying

deficiencies in the organisational working and developing ways to eliminate them. The

process-oriented documentation of ISO 9000 should give rise to such CPAs which transcend

a functional boundary. The compulsion of CPA should necessitate interaction across

functional silos and therefore gradually inculcate teamwork. Coordination and information

management across different functional units should then be a by-product of these activities.

Progressive improvements thus brought about by CPAs should imbue a feeling of autonomy

among the employees. This feeling of autonomy is itself empowering – that is, in this

situation, empowerment is not something which is delegated by superiors. The employees

feel empowered. All these give rise to a work culture which promotes worker manager

interaction and congenial interpersonal relationship. Thus, the initial trigger is process

oriented ISO documentation. This will give rise to process oriented quality objectives. Thus

functional orientation begins to get de-emphasised from the very lowest level.

The model shown in Figure 6.1 should be contrasted with the functional model shown

in Figure 3.3. In Figure 3.3, the vertical purple lines are indicative of functional orientation

and the blue horizontal lines are indicative of coordinational orientation.

Figure 6.1 is different from Figure 3.3 in four respects. The first difference between

Figure 3.3 and Figure 6.1 is that there is no centralised focus in Figure 3.3. Each department

defines its own objectives and ways of working. But in Figure 6.1 the customer focus gives

rise to process orientation. This process orientation is essentially a way to operationalise the

customer focus in terms of the nuts and bolts of organisational working.

The second difference is that the spiral vortex of CPA (see blue spiral arrow in Figure

6.1 – shown in blue because CPA creates the coordinational orientation) sucks all the

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departments towards the focus of customer satisfaction. Thus the functional cylinder of

Figure 3.3 is transformed into a funnel in Figure 6.1.

The third difference is that the coordinational vector which was confined at the level

of GM/DRM in Figure 3.3 is now at all levels in Figure 6.1 represented by the blue CPA

spiral vortex.

The fourth difference is that coordination is no longer required to be attempted by

GM/DRM as in Figure 3.3. It gets integrated in the work vector itself. In Figure 3.3, the work

vector (shown in black arrow) consists of two components – the coordinational vector

(shown in blue horizontal arrow) exerted by GM/DRM and the functional vector (shown in

purple vertical arrow) exerted by functional superiors within a department. That is, the work

which an employee performs is reducible into two mutually independent components of

coordinational work and functional work. However, in Figure 6.1, there is only one vector -

the black work vector (shown as the contours of the funnel). The mutually independent

functional vector and coordination vector of Figure 3.3 is now subsumed in this single work

vector because of the pull exerted across levels and across functions by the CPA vortex even

though the functional departments retain their individual identities.

Where does leadership fit in this model? The facilitating role of leadership is shown

at different levels of transition to TQM by the semi circular arrows which provide the

required vortex at the beginning (at the lowest level which is the first TQM level) by

emphasising the process orientation. Then as the CPA vortex draws the organization up

towards continually improved working, appropriate leadership and appropriate reward and

recognition system at the subsequent higher levels of TQM will further facilitate this vortex.

It is to be noted that this model does not presuppose a transformational top leadership as has

been mentioned in earlier literature (see section 2.2.5.2). A good transactional leader with an

understanding of this model should be sufficient to make a beginning. However

transformational leader will definitely facilitate the creation of vortex by emphasising the

process orientation.

Further, the model till now is independent of the contextual role of organization or

country specific values and culture. Their contextual role gets operationalised at the level of

leadership and reward. In the Indian context, drawing from Table 6.2, the role of leadership is

that of a facilitator who maintains a reward and recognition system which is hinged on the

three Indian specific values of equity based personalised relationship, hierarchical teacher-

student relationship and ‘nurturance’ based on satisfactory ‘task’ completion. These are

pictorially shown in Figure 6.2.

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Work culture

Autonomy (delegation & empowerment)

Teamwork, communication across organization

Figure 6. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in India using the ISO framework

Source: developed for this research.

219

The model synthesises the current literature of TQM with the Indian specific cultural

values, Indian specific organisational values and Indian specific leadership style and

therefore can be considered as a valid TQM implementation model in the Indian context.

This model shows that making a beginning with a NT leadership style, the leader should

develop an equity based personalised relationship with the subordinates. He/she should also

orient the superior –subordinate relationship with subordinates into a teacher- student (guru-

shishya) relationship. This will create the cultural groundswell in which the subordinates will

be ready for an ISO based change targeted towards TQM. Then to create the customer focus,

process based ISO document should be created. Once work starts on the lines of process

based documents, then the CPAs generated as a result of ISO implementation should be

implemented and the employees should be rewarded for generating and thereafter

implementing the CPAs. This process orientation is the first activity which should kick start

congruent behaviour disposition among members of different functional units in an

organization. The process-oriented documentation of ISO 9000 should also give rise to such

CPAs which transcend a functional boundary. This will give rise to teamwork and

communication across organization. Progressive improvements thus brought about by CPAs

should imbue a feeling of autonomy among the employees. This feeling of autonomy is itself

empowering – that is, in this situation, empowerment is not something which is delegated by

superiors. The employees feel empowered. All these give rise to a work culture which

promotes worker manager interaction and congenial interpersonal relationship. Therefore, the

primordial affiliation to one’s professional caste – his/her department in railways- begins to

get de-emphasised from the very lowest level. Similarly, the feeling of autonomy and

empowerment also begins to de-emphasise the ‘dependency proneness’ upon superiors. The

continuous improvement brought about by the CPAs keeps the organization focussed onto

the customers.

After this model was developed, the researcher looked for an opportunity to validate

this model.

6.2 Jhansi revisited .

In December 2004, the head of the Jhansi warehousing unit telephoned the researcher

to come to the Jhansi for few days. He said he wanted to show the improvements which had

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come about in the depot and to seek suggestions for further improvement. The researcher

visited the depot for three days. The broad areas of improvement which were identified in

cycle 2 in May 2004 and their status in December 2004 are indicated in Table 6.3.

Improvement steps

identified in May 2004

Their status in December 2004

(i) Each stocking item

should have an

identified location in the

warehouse. For this,

different storage bins

and ground space should

be allocated a distinct

location number. There

should be a location

register indicating the

part number and its

corresponding location

number. The overall

cleanliness should be

improved using the

principles of ‘5S’.

(i) All the 1300 items were having a specified location in the

warehouse. Different storage bins and ground space were

allocated distinct location number. A location register was

maintained for each storage ward. Each item was now

identified by its part number and description. Some of the

storage wards were whitewashed and painted by the

warehousing staff themselves even though formally this was

supposed to be done by the civil engineering department. The

normal refrain earlier was that since civil engineering did not

bother about proper upkeep of this century old structure,

things would naturally be shabby. However, this time, the staff

did not wait for the civil engineering department. They did all

the painting and cleaning by themselves. According to the

warehousing staff, it was for the first time in decades that

these wards were cleaned and scrubbed.

(ii) There is a lack of

material handling

equipments at Jhansi.

The only fork lifter is

under breakdown since

the last seven years. The

electric trolleys are very

few and they are in a

very bad shape

(ii) Proposal was made for replacement of electric trolleys and

fork lifter. In the railway system, every proposal for

replacement of old machinery is required to be cleared by the

finance department. However, this proposal was not cleared by

the finance department. These material handling equipments

were more than 15 years old and their original purchase

documents were not available. Because of this procedural

weakness, the proposal was returned back by finance. The

matter rested there i.e. the depot continued to live with the

problem of lack of material handling equipment.

Table 6.3 (cont’d…)

221

Table 6.3(cont’d…) Improvement steps

identified in May

2004

Their status in December 2004

(iii) Jhansi depot does

not have an updated list

of drawing and

specifications for its

inspection wing.

(iii) The staff of Jhansi depot found out that soft copies of most

of the drawings were available at the Research & Development

centre of Indian Railways. They had collected the soft copy of

the drawings and specifications of the wagon components. The

soft copy was in the process of getting integrated with the

computer system of the warehouse.

(iv) There are certain

items like paints,

electrodes, varnishes

which have limited

shelf life. However, the

concept of shelf life

was not there.

(iv) All items with limited shelf life were identified. The

preservation methods for the shelf life item were collected from

other railway units. Work instruction was developed to

formalise the preservation methods for different types of shelf-

life items. The concept of matching the consumption pattern

with the in-bound material supply was developed so that there

was no excess build-up of stock for shelf-life items.

Table 6. 3 Improvement steps identified in May 2004 and their status in December 2004

Source: developed from fieldwork.

Table 6.3 shows that the changes in the depot which were within the control of depot

were successfully implemented. However, the depot could not get any of the material

handling equipment because the proposal for their replacement was not cleared by the

finance department. The finance wing worked under the same Chief Workshop Manager

(CWM) under whom the warehouse worked with the proviso that the CWM could not

overrule or even modify the decisions taken by his Finance Manager. The researcher asked

the Dy CMM whether he approached either the head of the finance or the CWM to intervene.

He had not done that. The researcher then went to the head of the finance and asked him

whether he was satisfied that material handling equipment of the depot were required to be

changed. He answered in the affirmative. ‘Then why did you not give financial clearance for

the purchase of those equipments’? ‘That was partly because we wanted to see how serious

the depot was to buy these equipment and partly because we as a matter of convention do not

222

give financial clearance at the first go. They will then take us for granted’. ‘Did you not give

financial clearance because all the required papers were not available’? ‘No, that was just an

excuse to return the proposal uncleared. In this case, I know the papers are not available.

However, after returning the file two three times, I will finally accord the financial clearance.

But for that, Dy CMM should talk to me personally and request for the same’. ‘Why should

he talk to you?’ the researcher asked. ‘Because if he requests personally, even though it is an

official matter, it can be treated differently’.

Confirmation of emerging hypothesis ii: The success of the change initiatives in such areas

which were under the control of the warehouse and the failure of the change initiative where

it required inter-departmental dealing made the researcher go back to the emerging

hypothesis ii: ‘The caste system has reinforced the bureaucratic propensity of lack of

teamwork in the Indian Railways’. The researcher took this instance as the confirmation of

emerging hypothesis ii. It was yet another example of the impact of the caste induced value

of own (apne) – others (paraye) on organisational working which has resulted in poor team

working ability among Indians. The warehousing unit was ‘others’ (paraye) for the finance

department. Thus it did not feel the necessity of giving the financial clearance to the proposal

of the warehousing unit. For the members of the warehousing unit also, it was just as well

that the finance department did not give the clearance. The Dy. CMM said ‘the finance is a

separate (read “other” –paraye) department. So they do not care. But whatever “we” had

planned in May 2004, we have done’ (read apne –own – do not create problem for each

other).

As the researcher reflected on this instance, he reasoned that as a railwayman, he had

been aware of the importance of personal relationship in getting inter departmental issues

settled. In fact, his experience has been that good personal equation across departments and

not just professional excellence has often been the key differentiator between a good team

person and a poor team person in the Indian Railways. It has been reported that collectivist

managers perform poorly when they work with out-group members as compared to in-group

members (Sinha 1997, p.59). The researcher referred back to the literature review where

Myrdal (1968) and Khandwalla (1999) have mentioned about India being a soft state where

accommodation and not confrontation between different groups are preferred (Sinha & Sinha

1990) and where problems are allowed to simmer instead of getting solved at the cost of long

term dysfunctionalities. At Jhansi also, the problem of lack of material handling equipment

was allowed to simmer.

223

6.2.1 The next action cycle

The ISO certification process had started in December 2004 and a certifying body

was identified which was to do the certification for the workshop and the warehouse. Dy

CMM therefore wanted a set of quality objectives to be developed for the warehouse. Thus

started one more PDCA cycle. The researcher used this cycle to validate the sequential TQM

model developed in Figure 6.2.

PDCA cycle 4 (December 2004)

Plan 4 Develop the quality objectives for the warehousing unit

Do 4 The six-month period from June 2004 to November 2004 gave practical experience

to the warehousing staff about ISO oriented working. Now they wanted to develop

quality objectives for the warehousing unit. The quality objectives were explained

as a measure which could be used to adjudge how well the warehousing unit was

working. Then the staff were asked to frame the quality objectives for their areas of

work.

Check

4

The group of staff came up with a wide range of statements. Some of them narrated

what they were doing -‘the work of line delivery section is to distribute consumable

items to different railway stations’. Some of them came up with what was an

improvement activity for the warehouse- ‘to keep the material in the bins and not on

the ground’. As in PDCA cycle 3, once again a metaphor helped in explaining the

concept. The metaphor was ‘Your heart works all the time. How will you know

how good is your heart’? The answer was ‘by measuring the blood pressure’.

‘Similarly, you are working all the time in the warehouse. But how do you know

how bad or good is your work. This is what quality objective does. It measures your

work quality’. After prolonged discussion, they were able to come up with

quantifiable quality objectives. But the quality objectives were functionally defined

e.g. ‘number of stock sheets in storage ward’, ‘time taken in placing a purchase

order’. At this time, the researcher decided to explain to them that during the earlier

interaction in April 2004 (refer PDCA cycle 1 in chapter 5), they had understood

that the basic objective of their work was customer satisfaction. Thus a valid quality

objective should be customer oriented and not function oriented.

cont’d…

224

cont’d… Act 4 The quality objectives suggested by the head of the warehousing unit were:

(i) Time taken in material accountal after it is received in the warehouse.

(ii) Time taken in putting up a lot for auction after it is received.

However, there were murmurs of protest about how could one decide how well

was the ‘receiving ward’ doing when the time taken in material accountal

depended on three different wings of the warehouse –receipt, inspection and

storage. ‘Receipt ward quality objective should be based on receipt ward work

only’. ‘But this begs the question what work is receipt ward doing? ‘Receipt

ward is only doing invoice matching’. The MR interjected, ‘If we are talking in

the context of ISO, then the quality procedure of receipt ward is the

authoritative document to say what work receipt ward does’. ‘If what receipt

ward does is given in its quality procedure, then we should first change the

quality procedure. Let quality procedure say that material accountal is one work.

Let it not say that invoice matching is one work. Then only we should assess

how well this single work is being done’. Thus began the discussion about

reframing the quality procedure for ISO 9000. Till then there were eight quality

procedures made more or less on the functional lines. On the third day, the

number of quality procedures was reduced to two. These two quality procedures

were (i) supply of material to the workshop (ii) sale of scrap to merchants.

These two quality procedures cut across different functional wings of the

warehouse. For example supply of material to the workshop involved ledger

section, receipt section, inspection section and the storage section. Thus it was

based on a process - material supply – which added value to the customer- the

workshop. Therefore the quality procedure was now aligned with Hammer’s

definition of a process – a process is a set of activities which provides value to

the customer (Hammer & Champy 2001). The understanding of quality

procedure developed in PDCA cycle 3 was that quality procedure tells you what

you do. Thus if ‘what I do is part of a process, then I am willing to accept a

process based quality objective’ – as one of the co-action researcher put it. Now,

there was more agreement in accepting the two quality objectives as valid

measures of what the staff were doing. ‘Now I know what I am supposed to do

– I am supposed to work in a manner that the material is quickly accounted for

225

so that it can be quickly supplied to the workshop and that will decide how well

I am working. Like a horse wearing his side blinds and pulling a tonga (cart),

my work should gallop forward towards the customer and not lurch sideways’.

Now the staff were able to accept that their individual work was part of a bigger

work process and that it was that bigger work process which provided value to

the customer not their individual work. Therefore ‘since customer satisfaction is

the ultimate objective, we should aim to improve the bigger work process even

if it means sub optimisation of a section within that bigger work process. But

this sub optimisation should not be viewed against me’.

Reflection

4

The way this cycle started, it once again confirmed the earlier finding about lack

of team orientation. However, the new thing here was that once the quality

procedures were made process oriented there was a change in the staff

orientation towards their specific work. Now, they were willing to accept

quality objectives which went beyond their individual task. By ab-initio

creating two process based quality procedures in place of eight functional

quality procedures, the ISO system introduced process based ‘what we do’ in

place of function based ‘what we do’. Indians who have an inbuilt tendency to

look at a situation in more gestaltist manner were thus able to appreciate the

work in its totality. Therefore, it also appealed to them intuitively. Once

organization gave them the cue (by framing process based quality procedures)

that it was the total working across a process which would now matter, they

were mentally able to reorient themselves towards this.

In addition, they now knew that the rewards would be on group working. Thus

the reinforcing effect of reward and recognition would further strengthen their

group-oriented behaviour. The changed focus of the work group was – ‘now we

know what we are supposed to do. We are together supposed to work in a

manner that the material is quickly accounted for so that it can be quickly fed to

the workshop and that will decide how good we are’. The researcher tried to

look at this change in the context of Indian specific values. He reasoned that the

vertical collectivism (see Table 2.13) earlier confined within a section of the

warehouse, now became organization wide. People retained their collectivism; it

only became wider and thus aided in organisational output. This is how the

collectivistic orientation of Indians can contribute in TQM oriented change

within ISO framework.

226

The PDCA cycle 4 more or less satisfied the researcher about the importance of

establishing process based quality procedures for inculcating teamwork among the

employees which creates the initial vortex (see Figure 6.2). This led to the framing of another

hypothesis:

Emerging hypothesis viii: Framing process based quality procedures and quality

objectives leads to development of team orientation in the context of TQM implementation.

However, other crucial aspects of the model were the importance of corrective and

preventive action (CPA) and the reward system for continued propagation of vortex. They

remained to be tested. This has been dealt with in section 6.3.

6.2.2 Action Research revisited

After PDCA cycle 4 in December 2004, the researcher had no interaction with Jhansi.

In April 2005, he held a discussion with his supervisor at Banglore, India. Thereafter, he

decided to check the state of affairs at Jhansi. The researcher held an interview with the

action research team of Jhansi. By then three of them were transferred elsewhere. The other

two informed that:

(i) They had instituted two awards – one for the best ward and the other for the best office.

Ward reflected the material flow process, office indicated the support system process.

(ii) The Jhansi warehousing unit was adjudged the best warehousing unit in the North Central

Railway.

(iii) For another process – scrap disposal, Jhansi was adjudged the best in the Indian

Railways and in recognition of this, the head of the warehousing unit was personally awarded

by the Railway Minister of India.

(iv) In contrast, the workshop attached with the warehouse was still struggling to get its

quality procedures and work instructions ready, even though they had appointed a consultant

to assist them in documentation.

(v) In the area of information technology, a ‘Material Management Information System’ was

initiated for implementation in the warehouse. It was made ready for inaguration by the

Additional Member (Stores) of the Indian Railways in March 2006.

227

Another unit ‘Electric Loco Shed, Jhansi’ was used to cross verify some of the

conclusions drawn earlier. This unit was ISO 14000, OHSAS 18000 and ISO 9000 certified.

Sicne it added to the rigour of the conclusions, it has been dealt with in section 7.4.

According to Weisbord (1987, p. 373) concept of improvement evolved in four stages.

The first stage was ‘experts solving problems piecemeal’ based on Taylorism. The second

stage was ‘everybody solving problems piecemeal’ based on participative management. The

third stage was ‘experts improving whole systems’ based on system thinking. The fourth

stage was ‘everybody improving the whole system’ based on what he calls the ‘third wave’

action project. In the third wave, one goes beyond the design limits, one tends to reach

beyond the boundaries of realism so that people can realise their full human potential

(Weisbord 1987, p. 374).

At the end of the AR cycles, the researcher felt because ‘everybody was improving the

whole system’, a large-scale transformation could be implemented in a short time.

6.3 Validation of the TQM transition model

In April 2005, during his visit to Banglore, the researcher visited the Wheel and Axle

Plant of Indian Railways. This was one of the railway units which were earlier surveyed

during survey C and survey D. It was also the first unit in the Indian Railways to get ISO

9000 certification in 1994. It was learnt that in the year 2004, WAP was awarded the Golden

Peacock award - one of the three Indian TQM awards (see Table 2.7). It was then decided to

use WAP to further validate the model developed in Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2. At the end of

section 6.2.1, it was mentioned that the aspect of CPA was yet to be validated. Therefore, the

number of CPAs and rewards given in WAP were compared with corresponding figures in

other six units. It was also recalled that after Table 4.7, it was postulated that there were other

intervening variables which were not obvious at that time which could explain the difference

in the scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ between DLW and WAP. Thus for the sake

of comparison, the Table 4.7 with the number of CPAs and rewards added as additional

column was modified as Table 6.4.

228

Railw-ay unit

Score on TQM trans-ition scale

No. of years since ISO 9000 certi-fication till Jan 2005

Unit headed by a trans-form-ational leader

Invol-vement of all depar-tments in the ISO certif.-cation process

Requi-site delega-tion of autho-rity to the head of unit

Use of statist-ical techni-que

Num-ber of empl-oyees

Aver-age no of CPA raisedper year since 2001

No of awards given last year

Parel work shop (PRL)

13 3 No No No Non existe-nt

1850 15 6

Alamb-agh ware-housing unit (AMV)

13.17 1 Yes Yes No Some-what

805 5 nil

Bhopal work shop (BPL)

13.33 4 Yes No No Some-what

1800 11 13

5800 141 57 Diesel Locom-otive Works (DLW)

25.33 8 No No Yes Some-what

(2 tier CPA, one at AU level and another at apex level)

3786 12 32 Diesel Comp-onents Works (DCW)

10.33 7 No No Yes Low

(2 tier CPA, one at AU level and another at apex level)

2300 More than 100

1725 during 2004-2005

Wheel and Axle Plant (WAP)

37.66 10 No No Yes High

(2 tier CPA, one at AU level and another at apex level)

Integral Coach Factory (ICF)

21.33 9 No Yes Some-what

7250 18 67

Table 6. 4 Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors including no. of CPA and no. of reward

Source: developed from survey data.

229

Table 6.4 shows that what singled out WAP from other units were the large number

of CPAs generated by the employees of WAP and the large number of awards given to them

in recognition thereof. 1725 awards were given during 2004-2005 in WAP where the

employee strength is 2300. Each year, More than 100 CPAs were raised there. Against this,

at DLW less than 100 employees were awarded but 141 CPAs were raised each year. DLW

has staff strength of 5800. Thus though the number of CPAs were more in DLW, as a ratio of

employee strength, WAP was much ahead of DLW. However as a group, both DLW and

WAP were ahead of other units in terms of CPA raised and awards given. This was in line

with the model suggested in Figure 6.1 which emphasised the use of CPA and reward for

continued upward whirling of the vortex. Because WAP had the largest number of CPAs and

awards as a ratio of employee strength, it scored the highest on the ‘TQM transition scale’.

DLW had the second largest number of CPAs and awards and it score the second highest on

the ‘TQM transition scale’. Further, both WAP and DLW were having two-tier CPA system

– one at the auditing unit (AU) level and another at the apex level. Presence of two-tier CPA

system was indicative of deeper assimilation of CPA concepts in these two units. It was also

noted that WAP had process based ISO documents which DLW did not have. The

importance of process-based documents was brought out in PDCA cycle 4. Thus WAP

became another source to validate emerging hypothesis viii. WAP was not led by a

transformational top leader from 2000 to 2004. (MLQ questionnaire could not be used for the

top leader prior to 2000 at WAP as the persons who could talk about him were transferred out

of WAP). This was again in line with the model in Figure 6.2 which does not presuppose

transformational leadership for progression towards TQM, though it accepts the facilitating

role of transformational leadership. The large number of CPA in WAP showed that perhaps

the transformational leadership was relaced by ‘transformational team’ – a set of self

empowered staff who were sailing on the vortex created by CPA and reward.

This validation of the ‘TQM transition model’ lead to the formulation of another

hypothesis:

Emerging hypothesis ix: A multi tier CPA reinforced with reward and recognition system

positively intervenes in the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.

The research showed that among the seven units which were included in the survey,

WAP could be classified as being a TQM organization followed by DLW. In the case of

WAP, the use of corrective and preventive action mechanism of ISO was crucial for

230

implementation of a number of small improvements which was reinforced by an

institutionalised reward system. WAP also used statistical techniques quite extensively. WAP

however was not led by a transformational leader in the last four years. However its leader

had the requisite delegation of authority. DLW also had a well-established 2-tier CPA system

and was not led by a transformational leader. But its reward system was nowhere near that of

WAP. Thus DLW could not get a reasonably high score on the TQM transition questionnaire.

In the case of BPL, the presence of transformational leader alone without the requisite

delegation of authority to the leader and without the involvement of all departments could not

bring the unit closer to TQM. In the case of AMV, the presence of transformational leader

and the involvement of all departments brought it in one year at par with units like BPL

which were ISO certified more that 3 years back.

231

Chapter 7 Conclusion

7.1 Introduction

This thesis started with the research issue whether TQM could be used as a model for

organisational transformation of Indian Railways? If yes, how could it be effectively

implemented in Indian Railways? In trying to seek answer to this research issue, the

researcher developed some research questions in chapter 3. The next section summarises the

findings of this research with respect to those research questions.

7.2 Conclusions about research problems

The first research question was: ‘What are and what should be Indian Railways’ core

values, style of management, growth strategies, competitive strategies and changes in

organisational structure / management system so as to transform Indian Railways into an

excellent organization’.

As per the senior managers of Indian Railways, ‘developing a commercial

orientation’, ‘team working’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘customer focus’ are the desirable policies

to be adopted by Indian Railways.

This shows that as an internal working model, TQM based change initiatives should

find a ready echo among senior railway managers. This understanding is more remarkable

when it is realised that the respondents were having complete freedom to indicate any type of

policy change they felt desirable, yet a common set of factors with a pronounced TQM slant

emerged as the desirable policy change.

Being ‘a fair and just employer’ and ‘making a useful contribution to society’ are the

two existing organisational values of Indian Railways which emanates from the welfare state

policy of the Indian government. As against this, ‘total quality in every operation’ and

‘developing a customer orientation’ are the two desirable values which Indian Railways

should acquire.

The existing management style of Indian Railways is ‘cautious, with clear formal

reporting relationship and a clear distinction between those who give orders and those who

implement them’. In the opinion of the researcher, these indicate a bureaucratic and

hierarchical style which, given the bureaucratic and cultural background of Indian Railway

232

employees, are not surprising. However, the senior managers of Indian Railways strongly

want a ‘bold but calculating risk taking’ management style characterised with ‘flexibility,

informality and resourcefulness’, a management style which is ‘professional and system

oriented’. This is same as innovative organisational culture discussed in section 2.2.1.2 of

literature review which finally leads to continuous improvement which is again a TQM based

concept.

The existing growth strategies of Indian Railways are ‘related and unrelated capacity

building and geographical expansion of railway network’. As against this, the desirable

growth strategies are ‘empowerment and rapid expansion of customer base by weaning

customer back’. Empowerment has already been identified as one of the critical success

factors for TQM.

Indian Railways’ existing competitive strategy has been to compete on the basis of

price and by offering service to specific market segments. There is almost total unanimity

that the desirable competitive strategies should be to compete on the basis of quality and by

offering novel or unique services. Once again quality strategy and innovative culture are the

desirable directions of change.

With respect to organisational structure and management system, Indian Railways is

trying for ‘greater delegation of authority’ and ‘a sophisticated management and control

system’. The senior managers felt that ‘greater delegation of authority’ and ‘a leaner

organization’ should be the desirable changes. ‘Greater delegation of authority’ is same as

empowerment- a TQM enabler.

This analysis shows that TQM itself and many factors and core concepts of TQM like

continuous improvement, empowerment, customer focus, quality based organisational

strategy, systems approach have been identified by the respondents as the desirable changes

which Indian Railways should initiate.

If TQM is the proposed model of change for Indian Railways, to what extent there is

congruence between TQM oriented organisational culture and the cultural values of Indian

Railway personnel. Towards this, this thesis specifically assessed the hierarchical orientation

among the Indian Railway persons. It showed that the hierarchy is a deeply engrained

culturally induced organisational value among the Indian Railway persons. Younger

employees (less than 30 years of age) and older employees (more than 50 years of age) have

similar hierarchical orientation. Since hierarchy is supposed to be having strong negative

influence on TQM implementation (Tan & Khoo 2002, Tata & Prasad 1998), this conclusion

has important implications for the Indian Railways.

233

The second research question was: ‘What is the impact of ISO 9000 implementation

on Indian Railways’?

It was generally agreed that certification resulted in ‘better understanding of process

& responsibility’ and ‘linkage to other functions’. The researcher therefore concluded that it

helped in developing a process orientation among the employees of Indian Railways. ‘Team

work’ came out as the most important lesson learnt followed by the realisation that ‘people

make the system work’.

Implementation of document control ‘prevented non conformities on account of use

of obsolete documents or no documents’. Except at WAP, there was not much use of

statistical techniques at other units.

Some other observations, relevant in the context of this research are:

(i) Continuous improvement was the reason behind certification. Literature review (section

2.2.5.2) had shown that ‘management intent’ behind ISO certification was found to be an

intervening variable in an organization’s transition towards TQM.

(ii) Top management was very involved in the quality system. Literature review had shown

that leadership (section 2.2.2, 2.2.3.1, 2.2.3.7); particularly transformational leadership

(section 2.2.5.2) has been a crucial intervening variable in an organization’s transition

towards TQM.

(ii) There was almost no resistance to change. This is contrary to findings in western

literature on management of change (section 2.2.7.2).

The third research question was: ‘To what extent has the implementation of ISO 9000

brought about a TQM orientation in Indian Railways’. This involved development of a scale

which could objectively measure the transition of an ISO certified organization towards

TQM.

The research showed that among the seven units which were included in the survey,

WAP could be classified as being a TQM organization followed by DLW.

Cleanliness and delegation of authority commensurate with organisational

responsibility were the necessary prerequisite for beginning a journey towards TQM.

Extensive use of CPA with reinforcing reward and recognition system supported by good

transactional leadership was seen to be a stronger enabling factor than transformational

leadership alone. However, in the absence of CPA with reinforcing reward and recognition

system, transformational leadership most strongly intervened in an organization’s transition

towards TQM.

234

The fourth research question was: ‘Will a bottom up methodology build learning

capacity among the railway personnel’?

The various action research cycles found out that in contrast to consultant supported

training, a bottom up action learning based training provided more enduring learning and also

faster learning. Development of metaphor was crucial to make the participant understand new

and esoteric concepts. It was in keeping with the findings of Nonaka (1994, p.21) that

‘metaphors plays an important role in associating abstract, imaginary concepts’

The fifth research question was: ‘Can the enablers of TQM be integrated in a model

for attaining TQM within the ISO framework’?

Figure 6.1 is the model which integrates the enablers of TQM within the ISO

framework. It also shows the sequential relationship between different enablers of TQM.

Figure 6.2 shows the same model contextualised to the Indian cultural values and leadership

style.

7.3 Conclusion about research issue

With the specific research questions now answered, the researcher returns to the

original research issue which was whether TQM could be used as a model for bringing about

organisational transformation of Indian Railways. If yes, how could it be effectively

implemented in the Indian Railways? It is recalled that after literature review, this thesis had

concluded in section 2.3 that TQM could indeed be the model for bringing about

organisational transformation of the Indian Railways. Figure 2.14 was then developed which

showed the gap in effective implementation of TQM in Indian Railways. Figure 2.14 is

reproduced as Figure 7.1.The question of how TQM could be implemented remained

unanswered at that stage. The Indian Railway specific model for TQM implementation which

emerged in Figure 6.2 as one of the outputs of this research is shown as Figure 7.2 which fills

the gap shown in Figure 7.1 (original Figure 2.14).

235

Figure 7. 1 Reproduction of Figure 2.14 showing gaps in existing literature

Source: developed for this research.

organisational values and organisational practices of Indian Railways from the point of view of an excellent company Not known

Congruence between the two Not Known

congruence between the two Not known

TQM for railways

TQM in India should pay attention to

• leadership • policy & strategy• HRM • process

management • Information

management • customer focus • supplier focus

ISO 9000:2000 is the desired path to be followed. It is facilitated by

• transformational leadership

• executive mind set

• capacity and willingness to learn

?

Indian bureaucracy is • rule bound • monolithic • tunnel vision • directive

(non participative)

TQM on date draws from -System theory -Critical success factors -Quality awards -Organisational learning

TQM is the same as organisational excellence

Quality management in India

• through ISO

Indian culture • hierarchical • dependency

prone • own-other

syndrome • context

oriented • balancing

236

Work culture

Autonomy (delegation & empowerment)

Teamwork, communication across organization

Figure 7. 2 Model for implementation of TQM in Indian Railways using the ISO framework thereby filling up the gap shown in Figure 7.1

Source: developed for this research.

237

7.4 Assessment of Rigour in this Action Research

Since a substantial part of this thesis was based on action research, the researcher

considers it worthwhile to assess the rigour of the action research work. In section 5.5.4 this

thesis had discussed the choice points identified by Bradbury and Reason (2001) to assess

rigour in an action research based thesis. The extent to which this research satisfied the

choice points is now assessed

Choice points The presence of choice point in this thesis

Relationship There was an action research team which consisted of members from the

managerial and non-managerial cadre. More fundamental than this, most

of the decisions were taken by the supervisors of the warehousing unit.

For example they decided to visit different units on the Indian Railways

and they decided to reverse the document preparation from ‘quality

policy to work instruction’ to ‘work instruction to quality policy’.

Practical

outcome

The participants did begin to behave in a new way after they had decided

what was the new way to work.

Extended ways

of knowing

The AR cycles mentioned in chapter 5 and chapter 6 maintained a

conceptual-theoretical integrity in the sense that any other action

researcher in the area of TQM can place himself/herself in this situation

and get suitable answers to his/her ‘as if’ questions. However, use of

other data forms such as dance, poetry and rich pictures were not used.

Pay attention to

what is worthy of

attention

The AR cycles were not framed as a general problem solving session.

Rather, the emphasis was to seek only such questions which were related

to the objective of ISO certification for the warehouse.

Enduring

consequences

Even after the researcher left the Jhansi warehousing unit, the unit

continued to improve as brought out in sections 6.2 and 6.2.2.

Table 7. 1 Assessment of rigour in this action research thesis

Source: based on this research.

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Thus the action research thesis fully satisfied four criteria laid down by Bradbury and

Reason and it partially satisfied one criterion. Thus it can be concluded that the action

research was a rigorous work.

Another way to assess the rigour of action research was understand the impact of ISO

9000 certification at another railway unit at Jhansi – ‘Electric Loco Shed (ELS), Jhansi’.

Based on his field visits, training imparted to staff and subsequent interviews with the head

of the unit, the researcher was able to corroborate the following conclusions drawn from the

action research cycles:

(i) There was no resistance to change from the staff side at the ELS once they

understood that it was going to be ultimately beneficial to them.

(ii) Cleanliness was a big facilitator of overall improvement. The emphasis on

cleanliness at ELS Jhansi can be understood from the fact that in February 2006, it secured

the environmental running trophy in the Jhansi Commissionary. This field based experience

supported the survey based conclusion in section 4.3.1 that cleanliness due to ISO 14000

positively intervenes in TQM imlementation.

The head of the ELS was now planning to initiate a ‘TQM based Business Excellence

Model’ framed by Confederation of Indian Industry.

The aspect of cleanliness being a precursor to TQM was further confirmed based on

the feedback received on a paper on 5S (Kumar & Sankaran 2005) developed from ISO

certification in an unit of Indian Railways.

7.5 Contribution to literature The contribution to literature has been divided into three categories: findings which

support the existing literature, findings which are contrary to the existing literature and

findings which are contribution to the existing literature.

7.5.1 Findings which support the existing literature

The research supports the suggestion given by Nonaka (1994) about the importance

of metaphor in developing learning capabilities.

This research supports the finding by Pheng (2001) that cleanliness is the first step

towards TQM.

239

This research supports the findings by Fei and Rainey (2003); Hill, Hazlett and

Meegan (2001) and Reed, Lemak and Mero (2002) that transformational leadership

positively intervenes in an organization’s journey towards TQM.

7.5.2 Finding which is contrary to existing literature This research does not support the findings reported in western literature (Hersey,

Blanchard & Johnson 2002; Robbins 1997) about resistance to change. The guru-shishya

(teacher-student) relationship which learning oriented change invokes in India has been

postulated to be the reason behind this lack of resistance to change.

7.5.3 Findings which are contribution to existing literature

The model developed in Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2 is a contribution to literature. It

provides a specific way about how an organization can lead to TQM via the ISO route.

Further, this research has made following contributions to theory. Since they need to

be validated further, they have been termed as hypotheses.

Hypothesis i: At the fundamental level, the caste driven Indian ethos gets reflected in the

working life also in the form of affiliation to ‘professional caste’.

Hypothesis ii: The caste system has reinforced the bureaucratic propensity of lack of

teamwork in the Indian Railways.

Hypothesis iii: Hierarchical teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship with leader invokes

personal bases of power which promote change in India. This ‘teacher-student (guru-shishya)

relationship’ is conceptually similar to the ‘intellectual stimulation’ factor of transformational

leadership.

Hypothesis iv: The ‘personalised relationship’ with a more equitable slant can be elevated to

the status of ‘individualised consideration’ factor of transformational leadership.

Hypothesis v: The NT leadership model is conceptually similar to the contingent award

factor of transformational leadership.

Hypothesis vi: There is a sequential relationship among the CSFs of TQM.

Hypothesis vii: Framing process based quality procedures and quality objectives lead to

development of team orientation in the context of TQM implementation

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Hypothesis viii: A multi-tier CPA reinforced with reward and recognition system positively

intervenes in the transition of an ISO certified organization towards TQM.

The hypothesis iii, hypothesis iv and hypothesis v are shown in tabular form in Table

7.2.

Components of transformational leadership

Indian cultural equivalent

Intellectual stimulation Hierarchical teacher-student (guru-shishya)

relationship

Individualised consideration Equity based personalised relationship

Contingent reward Nurturant task

Table 7. 2 Components of transformational leadership and their Indian cultural equivalent

Source: developed from this research.

7.6 Contribution to policy and practice

The contributions to policy and practice have been divided in three categories: those

specific to the Indian Railways, those specific to the Indian organizations and those valid for

all organizations.

7.6.1 Implications for Indian Railways

(i) This research showed that Indian Railways is amenable to a participative TQM

implementation. Since it is non-threatening to different stakeholders, it is also implementable.

(ii) One major implication for policy for Indian Railways is to reduce the number of

departments in the Indian Railways. There are a few public and private sector organizations

in India which are comparable to Indian Railways in terms of turnover. (Indian Oil and

241

Reliance Industries for example). They have only one managerial cadre. Within the Indian

bureaucracy, Indian Ordinance Factory has only two services – one to man the technical

posts and the other to man the non-technical posts. The researcher believes that reduction in

the number of departments does not mean that the departmental functionaries lose their

functional expertise. They only lose their functional identity.

(iii) ISO certification will not bring about significant improvement unless it involves

all departments and unless the head of the certifying unit has been delegated the

organisational power commensurate with the requirements of ISO. If this is not done, it does

not make sense for maintenance sheds, workshops and trains or railway stations to go for ISO

certification. Ideally ISO certification should begin at the divisional level. However if it is

too big a level to be handled at the first instance, then the railway unit going for ISO

certification should also include such other units with which it interacts. For example, if a

workshop is getting certified, it should include all the departments of that workshop and it

should also include the associate civil engineering department which is under the control of

DRM but the workshop is dependent on it for its civil engineering works.

7.6.2 Implications for Indian organisations

If the Indians are technically sound as engineers, as doctors, as software experts, but

poor managerially and poor in teamwork, it is because the Indian organizations they work in,

do not provide an all pervading professional value which can supplant their social value of

power laden hierarchy, of sticking to their primordial group. The top manager is as used to

clannish signals and as much imbued with position power as the middle and the lower

managers. Thus they continue to cling to their societal values. This research showed that the

Indian organizations should be able to morph these socially learned values into professionally

acceptable values by using interventions derived from Indian cultural mores. The value

which can be imparted to the Indian employees is that of customer satisfaction. ‘Customer

satisfaction’ has a pan-organisational validity in India and the employees can relate to it at an

intuitive level. The inculcation of customer satisfaction as a value among organisational

members can wean the employees away from their primordial group to a more work-centric

group. It can also keep the organisational members focussed on their objective. The way to

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impart this to the Indian employees and continually strengthen this is by using the Indianised

constructs of transformational leadership shown in Table 7.2.

7.6.3 Implications for organisations in general

The implications for all organisations are with respect to transformation of an

organization into a TQM organization using the ISO route. They are:

(i) The quality objectives and the quality procedures in the ISO documents should be

process based and not function based.

(ii) Corrective and preventive action should be used as the vehicle to invite all members

of an organization to join the journey towards TQM. Process based quality objectives and

quality procedures piggybacking on the CPA vehicle should be able to foster cross-functional

transformational team spirit.

(iii) The reason for developing self propelled ‘transformational teams’ has a practical

utility. Bass and Avolio (2000) have given the percentile distribution of transformational

leadership traits in about 2000 leaders (see Table 3.6). A perusal of this table shows that there

are not many transformational leaders available in this world to chart an organization’s

course of events. The table shows that on the five constructs of transformational leadership

only 5% of the leaders could score more than 3.7. That is, less than 5% of the leaders were

demonstrating the transformational leadership traits ‘frequently if not always’. Thus though

transformational leadership is a very appealing concept; this world does not have many

transformational leaders. Therein lies the importance of transformational teams mentioned in

section 6.3. In the absence of transformational leaders, these self-motivated transformational

teams could move on their own to change the course of an organization as long as they have

a good transactional leader. WAP was an example where even though the top leadership

during the last 4 years was not transformational, the organization could bag one of the Indian

TQM awards.

7.7 Contribution to methodology

(i) The action research module of this research was divided into three phases – the

first phase was when the researcher was physically present at the Jhansi warehousing unit.

The second phase was when the researcher was not present and the co-action researchers

243

continued on their own based on the learning learnt in the first phase. During this period, the

researcher was however available as a guide as and when required. The third phase was when

the co-action researchers were able to bring about a level of improvement which brought

them many accolades. During the third stage, the guidance of the researcher was not

available to them. The basic idea behind this progressive withdrawal of the researcher was to

inculcate in them a sense of autonomy, to cease their dependence on a mentor/guide/leader so

that they could work on their own and become self-propelled ‘transformational teams’. This

progressive weaning of a guide/researcher is a useful method within the AR methodological

umbrella which other action researchers can try for creating enduring change.

(ii) Another implication for methodology is the use of inter-cycle and intra-cycle

validity shown in Figure 5.8. The researcher experienced that it brought brevity to the

research effort without sacrificing rigour. The model developed in Figure 5.8 can be used by

other action researchers.

(iii) This thesis uses the basic philosophy of design of experiment without resorting to

quantitative techniques. The Tables 4.6, 4.7 and 6.4 show how it is possible to progressively

assess the impact of different intervening variables by their progressive inclusion without

going for an ANOVA based design of experiment.

(iv) The researcher could find some research using action research by Indian authors

(Devid & Tandon 1983). However, in the area of management, this is perhaps the first

doctoral study using the action research methodology in India. Thus to the Indian academic

community it shows an additional way a thesis can be done.

7.8 Limitations

The model shown in Figure 7.2 does not incorporate two CSFs of TQM –(i) values

and ethics and (ii) strategy. To that extent the model has a limitation. Also, all the data

collection was done within Indian Railways. Though care was taken to define values as

specific to Indian Railways, the extrapolation of conclusions drawn within the Indian

Railway to other organization needs to be qualified.

Further in order to test the general validity of the conclusions drawn in the context of

Indian Railways, a summary of the thesis was sent to Indian Railway persons both retired and

working. Very few responses could be received. However the responses received agreed with

one of the research findings that Indian Railway should have fewer departments. A larger set

of responses would have thrown more light on such agreements or disagreements.

244

7.9 Implications for future research

The limitation mentioned above also sets the agenda for future research – to enlarge

the model shown in Figure 7.2 so as to incorporate the factors of ‘values and ethics’ and

‘strategy’ in it. Also a study of additional ISO certified units on the model shown in Figure

7.2 would further strengthen the model’s validity. Another area for future research is to do a

factor analysis of the ‘TQM transition questionnaire’. Similarly more responses about the

research summary mentioned in section 7.8 can be structured along the lines of convergent

interviewing as suggested by one of the reviewers of this thesis.

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Chapter 8 Researcher’s ruminations

When I started this research, I looked for a research methodology which could make

use of each significant cue around me. ‘The richness of data around me and the intellectual

fascination of putting theory on it’ (Coghlan 2001, p.219) made me adopt the action research

methodology. I wanted to grasp the data lying around and wring it till it gave insight. Action

research methodology was indeed the most economic way of doing it. I am fairly convinced

that had I used any other research methodology, I would not have been able to come up with

so many research hypotheses, develop a model for change and also validate it.

As a manager I now realise that my role in the AR project was to manage the

boundary and help others gain the skill. In the words of Weisbord (1987, p.373) it mixed

training, problem solving and purposeful focus so that people learnt just what they needed

and when they needed. The ‘reflection after action’ was perhaps the richest intellectual

journey for me in this thesis. I could understand why a theory building requires a qualitative

grasp of the different shades of data which a quantitative approach would have missed.

I learnt two major things from this thesis. The first learning for me has been about

how to deal with Indian employees in a western organisational set up. Today, Indians have

made their mark as software experts, as knowledge workers, in BPOs and India is a preferred

destination for setting up manufacturing outposts. Almost all these are knowledge-based

activities. Today knowledge is a raw material just as land, labour and capital were in the

industrial era. The Indian ethos of teacher-student (guru-shishya) relationship which has been

discussed in this thesis is perhaps the basic reason why Indians are able to grasp knowledge

so easily. I can now say that an understanding of this Indian ethos and how it can be

seamlessly blended with western models of team working and transformational leadership

has a great practical significance for organizations based in India.

Secondly, this research has made me wonder whether Indians are more adaptable than

what they are normally credited with. The origin of this thought goes back to the lack of

resistance to change which has been reported in this research. As I go beyond the realm of

Indian Railways, and look at many large Indian organisations, I begin to feel that Indians

have been able to create a massive industrial base after independence. But, they were not

handling it efficiently in a western-economic sense – perhaps because they were not expected

to look at it only economically- after all India was a socialist welfare state. But once that

246

approach was jettisoned in the early nineties, instead of getting overwhelmed by the

supposedly more efficient economic order of western countries, Indians have been able to

profit from it -look at the transfer of jobs to India from USA. This is what Sinha and

Kanungo (1997) have called ‘context sensitivity’ (see section 2.2.6.2). If you are sensitive to

the context in which a particular activity is being done then you do not have any history to

pull you back from that activity. Then you do not feel any excessive need to justify whatever

you have been doing till then. When you do not suffer from the need to justify your past or

current activities, you are temperamentally more amenable to change your current activity

into any other activity. Earlier I was doing a job with one mindset – call it a conservative

Indian, socialist welfare mindset - because that was expected of me in the context in which

the work was then defined. Now if a new set of activity looks justifiable in a new context, I

may as well do this and do this with full gusto – whether it is ISO certification at the Jhansi

warehousing unit or whether it is working in a highly competitive world-class organization in

India. Such mentality does not create any resistance to change as long as that change does not

trample upon ‘my hot line to God – whether spiritual or temporal’ (see p. 207). It is perhaps

this lack of resistance to change or more formally the adaptability of Indians, wherein lies the

transformational promise for Indian Railways or for that matter, for most of the Indian

bureaucracy and indeed for the whole of India. Perhaps this also explains why India has been

able to do well in many industry segments which emerged post 1990 – the context told them

‘work better’ and they immediately rebooted themselves for this – no resistance to change- I

no longer look back to justify my looking forward.

This leads me to think whether there is any philosophical similarity between what

Checkland calls soft system methodology and what Sinha and Kanungo have called ‘context

sensitivity’ and ‘balancing’ of Indians. It was mentioned in literature review (section 2.2.6.1)

that context sensitivity pertains to beliefs about person (patra), time (kal) and ecological

(desh) components of environment. ‘Context sensitivity is basically a thinking principle or a

mind-set that is cognitive in nature and it determines the adaptive nature of an idea or

behaviour in context’ (Sinha & Kanungo, 1997). Related to the concept of context sensitivity

is that of balancing. Balancing is a behavioural disposition. It refers to a behaviour which

tends to integrate and accommodate while coping with the environment. It was mentioned in

section 2.2.6.1 that context sensitivity and balancing are related, because the persons who are

sensitive to their contexts are also aware of their diverse demands and therefore, have to

balance them by adapting their behaviour in order to cope with the environment. Thus

everyone assesses his/her own context and acts accordingly. In this situation, there is nothing

247

objective or ‘hard reality’ about what a person sees or does. His/her context or situation

decides his/her action. On similar lines, Checkland’s soft system methodology does not

attempt to model the real world. The mode 2 of SSM is situation-driven and always iterative

(see Table 5.3) wherein a person internalises what he/she sees, understands it and then acts

according to his/her understanding of the situation or should we say according to his/her

understanding of context. Now, when you are always iterative you are also always flexible

and then you do not feel the need to offer any resistance to change – why because now the

context has changed and thus your internal model of action which interprets the cues of the

external world has got modified. Little wonder in a messy India, the context sensitivity is

echoing what Checkland calls soft system methodology for studying ‘ill-defined, messy

problems of this world’ (Gold 2001). In fact it is possible to formally integrate context

sensitivity and balancing within SSM.

In order to integrate the context sensitivity within soft system methodology, let us

first see how mode 2 of SSM draws from Vicker’s concept of appreciative system

(Checkland 1994):

In Vicker’s appreciative system, the worldview of a person is represented by the interacting

flux of events and ideas. They are represented by ‘two-stranded rope’, the strands being inseparable

and continuously affecting each other. There is a recursive loop in which the flux of events and ideas

generate appreciation. Appreciation leads to action. Both appreciation and action also contribute to

flux. A person appreciates the flux of events and ideas and makes judgement about it based on his/her

own standard of facts and values: standards of what is – the facts, and standards of what is good or

bad, acceptable or unacceptable – the values. Also the very act of using the standard may itself

modify them. Thus, there is no ultimate source for standards by means of which what is noticed is

deemed good or bad, important or unimportant. The source of the standard is the previous history of

the system itself (emphasis in original). Action results from the meaning which members of an

organization attribute to their act and to the acts of others. Meanings are socially sustained and

meanings are socially changed.

This discussion on appreciative system is pictorially shown in Figure 8.1.

248

time the flux of events and ideas

Figure 8. 1 The structure of an appreciative system

Source: Checkland (1994, p.83).

The standard here is defined as an individual judgement of what is good or bad,

acceptable or unacceptable and Checkland says that the source of the standard is the previous

history of the system. A question arises at this stage: Is it possible to represent the previous

history of the system in some frame of reference. That is, is there any culturally, socially

constructed frame of reference within which a person assesses and modifies his/her standard

or is it that the standard just evolves from a random drift and the resultant temporary mental

amalgamation of previous history? The researcher believes that at least in India, the three

dimensions of context sensitivity - person (patra), time (kal) and ecology (desh) provide the

frame of reference within which an Indian defines his/her standard. Thus though the standard

Appreciation: • Perceive • Judge, in terms

of facts and value

• Envisage desired relationship

Standards (of fact and value)

Action

249

keeps changing, the change in the standard are along the three coordinates of ‘person’, ‘time’

and ‘ecology’. A person’s belief, values and action can be placed on these three coordinates.

(Here, ecology refers to the pattern of relationship of a person with his/her social or physical

surroundings).

Further, while responding to the three components of environment, a person in India

expresses a primary expressive mode which is traditional in nature and also a secondary

expressive mode that is acquired as a result of the transplantation of the Western

management concepts onto a traditional Indian core (Sinha & Kanungo 1997, p.100). The

researcher argues that it is the same as what Checkland has called Gemeinschaft and

Gesellschaft (Checkland 1994, p.77). Gemeinschaft is the family or the tribe in which a

person is born and Gesellschaft is the formally created group as when a person joins a

company. Checkland (1994, p.78) says that the traditional organisational theory has

emphasised the Gesellschaft aspect of the organization which has led to hard system thinking.

However, as against this, the researcher argues that Sinha and Kanungo recognise the

Gemeinschaft based response of a person also. They consider the Gemeinschaft based

response of a person as his/her primary expressive mode and the Gesellschaft based response

of a person as his/her secondary expressive mode. The researcher argues that it is along this

continuum of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft that the coordinates of person, time and ecology

get differentiated.

The above discussion is pictorially shown in Figure 8.2. It unbundles the standards of

fact and value into three components of time, person and ecology and also positions them

along the Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft continuum.

250

Historical Manifestations Contemporary

influence influence

(Gemeinschaft) (Gesellschaft)

(Gemeinschaft) (Gesellschaft)

Figure 8. 2 Unbundling of standards of fact and value into three components of time, person and ecology and their positioning along the Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft continuum.

Source: developed for this research based on Sinha and Kanungo (1997) and Checkland

(1994).

Thus what has been referred to merely as ‘standard’ in Checkland’s model can now

be unbundled using Sinha and Kanungo’s notion of context sensitivity.

Relating to people (patra) Primary Mode Secondary mode In-group embeddedness -------Individualism Hierarchy ------------- Egalitarianism

Relating to time (kal) Primary Mode Secondary Mode Past & present -----------------Future planning orientation Avoidance -------------------------Taking risk

Relating to ecology (desh) Primary Mode Secondary Mode Moralism --------------------------- Pragmatism Poverty syndrome --------------- Growth

oriented

Hinduism Caste Agriclutural mode of production Invasions Alien rules

Technologocal and industrial expansion Modernisation Western management education

251

In fact Sinha and Kanungo have quoted research which says that most of Eastern

countries like China, South Korea and India behave in a context dependent fashion.

What Checkland calls ‘action’ is akin to ‘balancing’ of Sinha and Kanungo. Action

arises from meaning which members of an organization attribute to each other’s act

(Checkland 1994, p.78). The action is based on accommodation between different conflicting

perspectives. Action is what is culturally feasible for a particular group of person in a

particular situation with a particular history (Checkland 1994, p. 94). Balancing is also trying

to seek a middle path which in general avoids the extreme path (Sinha & Kanungo 1997, p.

96). It also tends to accommodate between different environmental contexts (Sinha &

Kanungo 1997, p. 96).

Thus it is now possible to integrate the mode 2 of soft system methodology with

context sensitivity and balancing. It is pictorially shown in Figure 8.3. It shows that context

sensitivity is the mental map which provides a different response in each situation depending

on the user and the nature of the situation. And providing a different response in each

situation depending on the user and the nature of the situation is what Jackson (2000, p. S9)

calls SSM.

252

time the flux of events and ideas

Figure 8. 3 Integration of mode 2 of SSM with context sensitivity and balancing

Source: developed for this research.

Standards of fact and value Gemeinschaft Gesellschaft

Appreciation: Perceive Judge in terms of fact and value Envisage desired relationship

Action Balancing of behaviour or coping with the environment

253

In spite of above integration of context sensitivity with the soft system methodology,

there are differences between them. The difference lies in their approach. Both are purposive.

Both are adaptive. Both take the soft system and not the hard system around them in

consideration. The difference lies in that while SSM gives rise to purposive action, context

sensitivity gives rise to purposive coping. It has been shown in Figure 8.3. Because of the

action learning approach, SSM is today a methodology which is relevant more in an

organisational situation. But because of the behavioural science approach of context

sensitivity, it is relevant more in an individual situation. The learning through SSM can be

both at the individual level and at the group level. However, through context sensitivity, the

learning is generally at individual level. Soft system methodology (SSM) has been advocated

as a flexible approach to problem solving in complex organisational situations, context

sensitivity is a flexible approach to social interaction in complex social situations. SSM has

an action bias – it decides about an individual’s action after considering the environment in

its totality from his/her point of view, context sensitivity has an interaction bias – it decides

about how a person interacts with his/her environment after considering the environment in

its totality. But both emphasise the totality of situation and both lead to adaptable behaviour.

At the end, to paraphrase Khandwalla (1992, p. 267) far too much social science

remains compartmentalised, so that insights from studying the family or group are seldom

used by organization theorists and vice versa. Such insights from one kind of collectivity can,

at least, supply provocative hypotheses for other kinds of collectivities. A deliberate attempt

was therefore made in this concluding chapter to link the terminology of organisational study

(SSM) to that of collectivity (context sensitivity). And that is where the defence rests.

254

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281

Appendices

Appendix 1. Tables and figures about quality awards

Malcolm

Baldridge

award (US)

European

Quality

award

Deming

prize

(Japan)

Canadian

quality award

Australian

quality

award Objective To help improve

performance practices

and capabilities.

To facilitate

communication and

sharing of best

practices among US

organizations.

To serve as a working

tool for understanding

and managing

performance, planning,

training and

assessment

To stimulate and

assist European

organizations in

improving

customer and

employee

satisfaction,

impact on

society and

business results.

To support

Europe

managers’

efforts to initiate

total quality

management

and achieve

global

competitive

advantage

To evaluate and

recognize

methods of

company wide

quality control

To encourage the

adoption of quality

principles, practices

and processes in

Canada.

To improve the

profitability,

responsiveness and

efficiency of

organizations

through continuous

improvement.

To bring higher

living standards to

Canadians

To give

Australian

organizations the

drive and

knowledge for

achieving the

world’s best

quality practices.

To secure the

Australian quality

council as the

commonwealth’s

principal quality

organization.

To create national

wealth

Table A1.1 (cont’d…)

282

Table A1.1(cont’d…) Malcolm

Baldridge

award (US)

European

Quality

award

Deming

prize

(Japan)

Canadian

quality award

Australian

quality

award Quality

principles

Companies must have

direction and customer

focus.

Quality and

performance are

judged by customers

Organizational and

personal learning are

required.

Employees and

partners are vital to

company success.

Success requires

capacity for change

and flexibility.

Market leadership

requires a future

orientation.

Making meaningful

change requires

innovation.

Management requires

factual analysis.

Public responsibility is

important.

Performance

measurement should

focus on results.

A systems perspective

is required.

Customer focus.

Supplier

partnership

People

development

and involvement

Processes and

facts

Continuous

improvement

and innovation

Leadership and

consistency of

purpose

Public

responsibility

Result

orientation

Create a vision

and demonstrate

commitment

Learn the new

philosophy

Understand

inspection

Stop making

decisions purely

on the basis of

cost

Improve

constantly and

forever

Institute training

Institute

leadership

Drive out fear

Optimise the

efforts of team

Eliminate

exhortations

Eliminate

management

quotas and

management by

objective

Remove barriers

to pride in

workmanship

Encourage

education and

self-improvement

Take action

Cooperation +team

+partnering = win-

win.

Leadership =

involvement +

example

Primary focus =

customer

Respect and

encouragement

heighten employee

potential

Strategies should be

process oriented and

prevention based

Companies should

continuously

improve methods

and outcomes

Decisions should be

made based on

factual data or

information

Companies are

obligated to

stakeholders and

society in general

The customer

defines quality

All processes are

variable

Improved process

= improved

output

Decisions should

depend on facts

Improvement

should be

planned

People work in a

system

People = most

important

resource

Leadership =

direction +

support

Continuous

improvement

requires continual

learning

Table A1.1 (cont’d…)

283

Table A1.1(cont’d…) Malcolm

Baldridge

award (US)

European

Quality

award

Deming

prize

(Japan)

Canadian

quality award

Australian

quality

award

Criteria Leadership

Strategic planning

Customer and market

focus

Information and

analysis

Human resource focus

Process management

Business results

Leadership

Policy and

strategy

People

management

Resources

Processes

Customer

satisfaction

People

satisfaction

Impact on

society

Business results

Policies (hoshin)

Organization

Information

Standardization

Human resources

Quality assurance

Maintenance

Improvement

Effects

Future plans

Leadership

Planning

Customer focus

People focus

Process management

Supplier focus

Organizational

performance

Leadership

Strategy, policy

and planning

Information and

analysis

People

Customer focus

Quality of

process, product

and service

Organizational

performance

Table A1.1 Comparison between the objectives, quality principles and criteria of

different quality awards

Source: Vokurka, Stading and Brazeal (2000).

284

Table A1.2 Understanding of the seven criteria in different quality awards

Source: Vokurka, Stading and Brazeal (2000, p. 48).

Malcolm

Baldrige award

(US)

European quality

award

Deming prize

(Japan)

Canadian

quality award

Australian quality

award

Leadership Executive,

company and

community

leadership

Inspiration, support

and promotion of

total quality

management

Policy,

organization and

helpful

supervision

Strategic

direction,

involvement and

improvement

Executive, community

and strategic process

Planning Strategic direction,

plan development,

plan deployment

and performance

tracking

Product of policy and

strategy

Future plans,

quality control

initiative and

policy focus

Development,

assessment,

deployment and

improvement

Policy, value

integration and

strategic process

Customers Market

requirements,

customer

relationships and

satisfaction

Measurement of

customer satisfaction

Service activities

and customer

relationships

Knowing

customer needs,

relationship

management,

customer

satisfaction and

improvement

Customer need

awareness,

relationships and

satisfaction

Employees Human resource

development and

participatory

environment

Release of full

potential through

people management

Training and

motivation of

skilled labour

personnel

Human resource

planning,

participation,

learning and

improvement

People management,

involvement, training,

communication and

satisfaction

Processes Process design,

implementation,

management and

improvement

Identification,

management, review

and improvement

Standardization,

quality assurance,

maintenance and

improvement

Design, control,

analysis and

change, and

improvement

Quality of product

design and services,

supplier relationships

and improvement

Suppliers Improvement of

partnering process

and evaluation of

supplier

performance

Leadership

involvement with and

management of

supplier resource

Vendor training

and associations of

related companies

Partnership,

supplier quality

and improvement

Quality of

relationships

Results Customer,

financial, human

resource, supplier,

operational and

competitive

Objective

achievement,

stakeholder

satisfaction, financial

success and impact on

society

Quality, delivery,

cost. profit, safety

and environmental

effects of quality

control

Product,

operational,

customer,

employee and

financial

Organizational

performance with

customers,

shareholders,

employees and

community

285

Strategic planning 8% Information and analysis 8% Business results Customer and 45% market focus 8% Process management 10% Human resource focus 10%

Leadership 11%

Impact on society 6% Customer satisfaction 20%

Policy and strategy 8% Resources 9% People Business satisfaction results 15% 9% People management 9% Processes 14% Leadership 10%

Figure A1.1a Percentage emphasis of Baldridge Figure A1.1b Percentage emphasis of award criteria European award criteria

Future plans 10% Policies(Hoshin) 10% Effects 10% Organisation 10% Improvement Information 10% 10% Maintenance Standardization 10% 10% Quality Human assurance 10% resource 10%

Supplier focus 5% Planning 10% Organisational performance 24% Leadership 10%

Process Customer management 17% focus 17% People focus 17%

Figure A1.1c Percentage emphasis of Deming Figure A1.1d Percentage emphasis of Canadian Prize Criteria Quality award criteria

Strategy policy and planning 8% People 20% Information and analysis 8% Organisational performance Quality of 12% process 20% Leadership 14% Customer focus 18%

Leadership 5% Policies and strategies 5% Processes7. 5% Resources.5% Human resource management 2.5% Customer satisfaction 10% Employees’ satisfaction 2.5% Business Impact on environment results 50% and society 7.5%

Figure A1.1e Percentage emphasis of Australian Figure A1.1f Percentage of emphasis of Rajiv Quality award criteria Gandhi award criteria Source: based on Vokurka, Stading and Brazeal (2000).

286

Malcolm Baldridge award

requirement

European quality

award

Deming

prize

Canadian

quality

award

Australian

quality

award 1. Leadership: How senior leaders and the leadership system address values, company directions, performance direction,

stakeholder (customer) focus, learning and innovation 1.1 Organisational leadership 1a-d,2c,3c,3e,4a,5a-b 1.6,2.2-2.5 1.1-1.4 1.1,1.2

1.2 Public responsibility and citizenship 8a-b 6.9 1.2 1.3

2. Strategic planning: How the company sets strategic directions and develops strategies of action plans. Also, how plans are

deployed and company builds customer relationship and measures customer satisfaction.

2.1 Strategic development 2a-b,2d,5a 1.3, 8.1,8.2,10.1 1.1,1.3,2.1,2.2,2.4 2.2

2.2 Strategy deployment 2c-d,3a,3c,4b-

e,5c,7b

1.1,1.2,1.4,1.5, 10.2-

10.6

1.1,2.3 2.1

3. Customer and market force: How the company determines customer (market) requirements, expectations and preferences.

Moreover, how the customer builds customer relationships and measures customer satisfaction.

3.1 Customer and market knowledge 6a-b none 3.1,3.5 5.1

3.2 Customer satisfaction and

relationship

6a-b 6.11 3.2,3.3 5.2,5.3

4. Information and analysis: How effectively information is selected, managed and used to support key processes, strategic

plans and performance management systems.

4.1 Measurement of organisational

performance

2a,5a,6a-b,7a-b,8b 3.1,3.2,3.4-3.6 3.1,3.3,6.1 3.1

4.2 Analysis of organisational

performance

1b, 2a, 4a, 5a, 5c, 6a-

b,7a-b

3.1,3.2,3.3,6.3,

8.4,9.3

2.2,3.3,4.3 , 4.4 3.1,3.2

5. Human resource focus: How the company enables employees to achieve their full potential in alignment with company

objectives. Also, how the company’s work environment encourages excellent performance, full participation and personal/

organisational growth.

5.1 Work systems 1d, 3b-e, 5d-e 2.1,5.2,5.5 4.1,4.2,4.6 4.1-4.3,4.5

5.2 Employee education, training and development 3b 5.1,5.3,5.4 4.3, 4.6 4.1-4.3,4.5

5.3 Employee well-being and satisfaction 3b-c,3f,7a-b 5.3 4.4,4.6 4.6

6. Process management: How key processes are designed, implemented, managed and improved to achieve better

performance.

6.1 Product and service processes 4a, 4c-e, 5a-e 4.1-4.6,6.1-6.8,

6.10,6.12,7.1-7.6,

8.5,8.6

5.1-5.3,5.5 5.1,6.3,6.4

6.2 Support processes 4b, 4d-e,5b-e 4.1-4.6,6.1-6.6,

6.8,6.10,6.12,7.1-

7.6,8.5,8.6

5.1-5.3,5.5 6.3,6.4

6.3 Supplier and partnering process 4c,5b-c 2.6,5.6,6.1,6.2 ,

6.7,6.10,7.1-7.6,8.6

6.1,6.3 6.2

Table A1.3 (cont’d…)

287

Table A1.3 (cont’d…) Malcolm Baldridge award

requirement

European

quality

award

Deming

prize

Canadian

quality

award

Australian

quality

award

7. Business results: How the company performs and improves in customer satisfaction, financial and marketplace

performance, human resource results, supplier/ partner performance, operational performance and competitive performance.

7.1 Customer focused results 6a-b 9.1,9.2,9.4 3.4,7.1,7.3 7.1

7.2 Financial and market results 9a 9.1,9.2 7.3,7.5 7.1

7.3 Human resource results 3c,7a 9.4 4.5,7.4 7.1

7.4 Supplier and partner results 4c 9.5 6.2,7.2 7.1

7.5 Organisational effectiveness results 8a,9b 9.6 5.4,7.2 7.1

Table A1.3 Mapping of different quality award criteria on the Baldridge award

Source: Vokurka, Stading and Brazeal (2000).

288

U.S. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality

Award (2001/2)

Leadership

Strategic Planning

Customer and Market Focus

Information and Analysis

Human Resource Focus

Process Management

Business Results

Japan Quality Award (2000)

Management Vision and Leadership

Understanding and Interaction With Customers

And Market

Strategic Planning and Deployment

Human Resource Development and Learning

Environment

Process Management

Sharing and Utilization of Information

Results of Enterprise Activities

Customer Satisfaction

European Quality Award (2001)

Leadership

Policy and Strategy

People

Partnership and Resources

Processes

Customer Results

People Results

Society Results

Key Performance Results

Costa Rica Excellence Award (2000)

Customer Satisfaction

Managerial Leadership and Strategic Planning

Human Resources

Quality System and Processes

Innovation and Technology

Environment Management

Canadian Award for Excellence (2000)

Leadership

Planning

Customer Focus

People Focus

Process Management

Partner/Supplier Focus

Organizational/Business Performance

South African Excellence Award (2000)

Leadership

Policy & Strategy

Customer & Market Focus

People Management

Resources & Information Management

Processes

Impact on Society

Customer Satisfaction

People Satisfaction

Supplier and Partnership Performance

Business Results Table A1.4 (cont’d…)

289

Table A1.4 (cont’d…)

Australian Business Excellence Award (2000)

Leadership and Innovation

Strategy and Planning Process

Data, Information and Knowledge

People

Customer and Market Focus

Processes, Products and Services

Business Results

Jordan: King Abdullah II Award for

Excellence (2000)

Leadership

Strategic Planning

Process Management

Resource Management

Results

Singapore Quality Award (2001)

Leadership

Planning

Information

People

Processes

Customers

Results

CII_EXIM Business Excellence Award

(India)- CEBEA (2002)

Leadership

Policies and strategies

People management

Resources

Processes

People satisfaction

Customer satisfaction

Impact on society

Business results

Table A1.4 Summary of National Quality Award criteria

Source: based on Hui and Chuan (2002, p. 63).

290

Aspects of

Organizational

Excellence

USA Canada Europe Austr

-alia

Singa-

pore

Japan Costa

Rica

South

Africa

Jordan

Establish mission &

vision A A A A A A A A A

Leadership by example x x x x x SE x x x Create strong customer

focus A x x x x A A x x

Provide moral support x x x x x x x A A Form policies and

strategies A A A A A A A A A

Balance shareholder

needs A A A x A x x A x

Consider market/business

risks x x x A x x x A x

Documentation of

strategies/plans x x x x x x x A x

Avoiding non-

compliance as a part of

strategic planning

x x x x x x x x x

Commitment to

Excellence SE A A A SE A A A A

Leaders as role model of,

or commitment to

excellence

x x A x x A x A x

Use of high tech tools to

create excellence SE x x x x x x x x

Leadership constancy of

purpose x x x A x x x x x

Create appropriate

climate/ culture x x x x SE x A A x

Ensure financial, moral

and personal support x x x x x x x x A

Management vision and

ethics A A A SE SE A A A A

Corporate citizenship A x x A A A x A x Enterprise ethics/ ethical

decision making x A x SE SE SE x x x

291

Table A 1.5 (cont’d…) Aspects of

Organizational

Excellence

USA Canada Europe Austr

-alia

Singa-

pore

Japan Costa

Rica

South

Africa

Jordan

Actions/behaviours

displayed by leaders x x A A A A A A A

People development:

education, learning,

training etc

SE A A SE SE A A A N

Top mgmt commitment

to learning A x x x A A x A A

Documentation of HR

development x x x x x x A x x

Employee empowerment SE SE SE SE x x x x x Innovation A A A A A A A A x People well-being: body

& mind A A A A A A A A N

People well-being: spirit x x x x x x x x x Balanced & healthy life

style x x x SE x x A SE x

Understanding culture x x x x x x x A x Use of new technologies SE A A A A A SE A x e-technology, software

systems as part of new

tech.

SE x x x x x x x x

Customer care, service &

satisfaction A A A A SE SE A A N

Personalised services to

enhance customer

satisfaction

x x x x SE SE A SE x

Documentation of

customer satisfaction x x x x x x A x x

Supplier/partner

relationship A SE A A SE SE A A A

Sharing of know-how

with suppliers x x x x x A x x x

Good work relations

between bosses and

employees

N N N N SE SE A SE A

292

Table A1.5 (cont’d) aspects of

Organizational

Excellence

USA Canada Europe Austr

-alia

Singa-

pore

Japan Costa

Rica

South

Africa

Jordan

Trusting relationships

between bosses and

employees

x x x x x x x x x

Responsibilities to the

public ( impact on

society)

A A A A A A SE SE A

Environment

management and

pollution control

x x x x x x SE SE x

Legend: SE – strongly emphasized, A- Addressed, N- not clearly described, X- not mentioned

Table A1.5 Summary of various approaches and emphasis for organizational excellence

Source: Hui & Chuan (2002, p. 64).

293

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

DP examination checklist (1992)

Corresponding DP examination

viewpoint (2000)

They were last modified in 1998. The

word ‘checklist’ was replaced by the

word ‘viewpoint’ in the year 2000.

(www.deming.org/demingprize, p.2)

Difference In the set of viewpoints

applicable for 2004 the following

were either the new viewpoints or in

them there were significant changes

(shown in italics) in the emphasis

with respect to those in 1992.

1. Policy

1.1 Policies pursued for management,

quality and quality control

1.2 Methods for establishing policy

1.3 Justifiability and consistency of

policies

1.4 Utilization of statistical methods

1.5 Transmission and diffusion of

policies

1.6 Review of policies and the results

achieved

1.7 Relationship between policies and

long and short term planning

2.3 Policy management

The entire ‘policy’ viewpoint of 1992

becomes a part of the ‘policy

management’ under ‘TQM

framework’.

2. Organization

and its management

2.1 Explicitness of the scope of

authority and responsibility

2.2 Appropriateness of delegations of

authority

2.3 Interdivisional cooperation

2.4 Committees and their activities

2.5 Utilization of staff

2.6 Utilisation of quality control circles

2.7 Quality control diagnosis

2. TQM framework

2.1 Organizational structure and its

position ( Interdepartmental activities

are coordinated, meetings and

committees are working efficiently).

2.2 Daily management – operational

accountabilities are established.

Through maintaining and improving

standards, favourable results are

obtained

4.1 Cross-functional management and

its operation

‘2.4 Relationship to ISO 9000 and

ISO 14000’ finds a place.

‘2.5 Relationship to other

management improvement programs’

finds a place.

‘2.6 TQM promotion and operation’

gets emphasised as a long lasting

activity.

Table A1.6(cont’d…)

294

Table A1.6(cont’d…)

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

DP examination checklist (1992)

Corresponding DP examination

viewpoint (2000)

They were last modified in 1998. The

word ‘checklist’ was replaced by the

word ‘viewpoint’ in the year 2000.

(www.deming.org/demingprize, p.2)

Difference In the set of viewpoints

applicable for 2004 the following

were either the new viewpoints or in

them there were significant changes

(shown in italics) in the emphasis

with respect to those in 1992.

3. Education and dissemination

3.1 Education programs and results

3.2 Quality control circle activities

3.3 Teaching and extent of

dissemination of statistical concepts and

methods

3.4 System of suggesting ways of

improvements and its conditions

3.5 Grasp of effectiveness of quality

control

3.6 Education of related entities:

contractors and vendors

3.7 Quality and control consciousness,

degrees of understanding of quality

control

5. HRD

5.1 Positioning of people in

management

5.2 Education and training

5.3 Respect for people’s dignity

(employee exhibit their autonomy

and creativity fully, demonstrate their

high morale and enthusiasm in group

activities).

5. Emphasis shifts from a mere

‘quality oriented training’ and HRD

gets recognised in its own right and

the

Further, ‘5.3 Respect for

people’s dignity’ is an important

culture based addition’..

4.. Collection, dissemination and use of

information on quality

4.1 Collection of external information

4.2 Transmission of information

between divisions

4.3 Speed of information

transformation

4.4 data processing, statistical analysis

of information and use of results

6. Effective utilization of information

6.1 Positioning of information in

management

6.2 Information systems

6.3 Support for analysis and decision

making

6.2 Information system is a reflection

of the systemic orientation in the

current Deming model.

5. Analysis

5.1 Selection of key problems and

themes

5.2 Propriety of the analytical approach

5.3 Utilization of statistical methods

5.4 Linkage with proper technology

5.5 Quality analysis, process analysis

5.6 Utilization of analytical results

5.7 Assertiveness of improvement

suggestions

8. Scientific methods

8.1 Understanding and utilization of

methods

8.2 Understanding and utilization of

analytical and design oriented

problem solving methods

Table A1.6 (cont’d…)

295

Table A1.6(cont’d…)

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

DP examination checklist (1992)

Corresponding DP examination

viewpoint (2000)

They were last modified in 1998. The

word ‘checklist’ was replaced by the

word ‘viewpoint’ in the year 2000.

(www.deming.org/demingprize, p.2)

Difference In the set of viewpoints

applicable for 2004 the following

were either the new viewpoints or in

them there were significant changes

(shown in italics) in the emphasis

with respect to those in 1992.

6. Standardization

6.1 Systematisation of standards

6.2 Methods of establishing, revision or

abolition of standards

6.3 Outcome of establishment, revision

or abolition of standards

6.4 Contents of the standards

6.5 Utilization of statistical methods

6.6 Accumulation of technology

6.7 Utilization of standards

6.4 Standardisation and

configuration management

7. Control

7.1 Systems for the control of quality

and related costs

7.2 Control items and control points

7.3 Utilization of such statistical

control methods as control charts

7.4 Contribution to performance of

quality control circle activities

7.5 Actual conditions of control

activities

7.6 State of matters under control

4. Management systems for business

elements

4.3 Cost management

4.2 Quantity/ Delivery management

4.4 Environment management

4.5 Safety, Hygiene, and work

management

4.1 Cross-functional management and

its operation

The concept of ‘control of systems’

gets subsumed in many other

viewpoints in 2004. However,

‘Management system for business

elements’ can be said to be the

conceptual successor to what was

perhaps intended by ‘control’ in

1992. Also, ‘management systems’

gets recognised as an important

‘viewpoint’ in its own right which is a

measure of the increased emphasis

which DP gave to ‘organisational

management’ in 2004 as compared to

‘operational management’ in 1992.

Cross-functional management,

environment management, safety,

hygiene and work cost management

are now individualised entries which

were not there earlier.

Table A1.6(cont’d…)

296

Table A1.6 (cont’d…)

Table A1.6 Deming Prize in 1992 and 2000

Source: developed for this research based on The Comparison of the Deming Prize and the Baldrige

Award (n.d., p.2) and Deming Prize Criteria And accompanying Viewpoints (n.d.).

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

DP examination checklist (1992)

Corresponding DP examination

viewpoint (2000)

They were last modified in 1998. The

word ‘checklist’ was replaced by the

word ‘viewpoint’ in the year 2000.

(www.deming.org/demingprize, p.2)

Difference In the set of viewpoints

applicable for 2004 the following

were either the new viewpoints or in

them there were significant changes

(shown in italics) in the emphasis

with respect to those in 1992.

8. Quality assurance

8.1 Procedure for development of new

products and services

8.3 Process design, process analysis,

and process improvement 8.4 Process

capability8.7 Quality assurance system

and its audit 8.5 Instrumentation 8.9

Evaluation and quality of audit 8.10

Actual state of quality assurance8.8

Utilization of statistical methods

8.6 Equipment maintenance and control

of purchases

8.2 Safety and immunity from product

liability

3. Quality assurance system

3.2 New product and new

technology development

3.4 Test, quality evaluation, and

quality audits 3.1 Quality assurance

system 3.3 Process control 3.4 Test,

quality evaluation and quality audits

3.6 Purchasing, subcontracting and

distribution management

4.5 Safety, hygiene, and work

environment management3.5

Activities covering the whole life

cycle

9. Results

9.1 Measurement of results

9.2 Substantive results in quality,

services, delivery time, cost, profits,

safety, environments etc

9.3 Intangible results

9.4 Compatibility between prediction

of effects and actual records

10. Contribution to realization of

corporate objectives

10.1 Customer relations 10.2

Employee relations 10.3 Social

relations 10.4 supplier relations 10.5

shareholder relation

10.6 Realization of corporate

mission 10.7 Continuously securing

profit

10.Planning for the future

(none)

10.1Grasp of the present state of affairs

10.2 Measures for overcoming defects

10.3 Plans for future advances

10.4 Linkage with long term plans

1. Top management leadership,

vision and strategies

1.1 Top management leadership

1.2 Organisational vision and

strategies

The scope of results gets enlarged

more in line with the MBNQA

1.1 The concept of leadership finds a

place.

1.2 The aspect of vision and

strategies gets more emphasis. The

overall emphasis shifts from

‘operational management’ to

‘organisational management’. Both

these observations are in line with

MBNQA.

297

MBNQA criteria (1992) MBNQA criteria( 2004) Difference

1. Leadership (9%)

1.1 Senior executive leadership

1.2 Management for quality

1.3 Public responsibility

1. Leadership (12%)

1.1 Organisational leadership (7%)

(a) senior leadership direction ( setting and

deployment of values, its communication to employees,

key suppliers and partners. creation of an environment

for empowerment, innovation, organisational agility

and learning, fostering of ethical behaviour)

(b) organisational governance (addressing of key

factors such as fiscal and management accountability,

protection of stockholder and stakeholder interest)

© organisational performance review ( translation of

OPR into priorities for CI and breakthrough

improvement and into opportunities for innovation,

evaluation of performance of senior leaders and use of

OPR to improve their leadership effectiveness)

1.2 social responsibility (5%)

(a) responsibilities to public( proactive handling of

company’s product service, operations on society and

achieving and surpassing their regulatory and legal

requirements. (b) Ensuring ethical behaviour. (c)

Identification and strengthening of key supporters.

Leadership gets more

weightage. Also,

‘management for

quality’ gets subsumed

in a more general

management

2. Information and analysis (8%)

2.1 Scope and management of

quality data and information

2.2 Competitive comparisons and

benchmarks

2.3 Analysis and uses of company

level data

4. Measurement, analysis and knowledge management

(9%)

4.1 Measurement and analysis of organisational

performance (4.5%)- (a) How do you collect and

integrate data and information for tracking daily

operations and how they are used for organisational

decision making and innovation

(b) How do you analyse the data to support

organisational level strategic planning and performance

review and how they are communicated.

4.2 Information and knowledge management- How

your organization ensures the quality and availability of

needed data and builds its knowledge assets.

Information recognised

as an asset which need

to be managed.

Table A1.7 (cont’d…)

298

Table A1.7 (cont’d…) MBNQA criteria (1992) MBNQA criteria( 2004) Difference

3. Strategic quality planning (6%)

3.1 Strategic quality and

company performance planning

process

3.2 Quality and performance plans

2. Strategic planning (8.5%)

2.1 Strategy development (4%)

(a) strategy development process – its key steps and

participants, its correlation with customer and market

needs / opportunities, innovation, social and economic

risk and changes

(b) strategic objective – its formulation and its ability to

balance short and long term goals, key stakeholders,

does it address the challenges identified in

‘organisational profile’

2.2 Strategy deployment (4.5%)

(a) Action plan development and deployment and

tracking of action plan for achieving key strategic

objectives. Key human resource plan

(b) Performance projection – of key performance

indicators and its comparison with key benchmarks,

goals.

In 2004, strategic quality

planning gets subsumed

in the overall strategic

plan.

In 2004, quality plan

gets subsumed in over all

action plan. In fact in

place of an exclusive

quality and performance

plan, now there is the

mention of human

resource plan and of

benchmarking of

performance.

4. HRD and management (15%)

4.1 Human resource management

4.2 Employee involvement

4.4 Employee performance and

recognition

4.3 Quality education and training

4.5 Employee well-being and morale

5. Human resource focus (8.5%)-

5.1 work systems- (a) how your organization manages

work to promote empowerment, innovation agility and

skill sharing.

(b) How does compensation, performance management

system hiring and career progression enable employees

to achieve high performance.

5.2 Employee learning and motivation- (a)How your

employee education and training support superior

performance and organisational objectives.

(b) how do you motivate employees to develop and

utilize their full potential and attain their career and

learning objectives.

5.3 Employee well being and satisfaction – How your

organization maintains a work environment and an

employee support climate that contribute to the well-

being, satisfaction and motivation of all employees.

There is less weightage

on human resource focus

in 2004.

Table A1.7(cont’d…)

299

Table A1.7(cont’d…) MBNQA criteria (1992) MBNQA criteria( 2004) Difference

5. Management of process quality

(14%)

5.1 Design and introduction of

quality products and services

5.2 Process management-product

and service production and delivery

process

5.4 Supplier quality

5.5 Quality assessment

5.3 Process management-business

processes and support services

6. Process management (8.5%)

6.1 Value creation process (5%) – How you determine

key value creation processes, how you determine its

requirements from customers, suppliers and partners.

How do you design and implement these processes.

How do you improve the value creation process to

reduce variability, to improve product and service and

how do you share these improvements with other units

and processes. How do you minimize overall cost of

inspection and process/ performance audit, rework,

warranty

6.2 Support processes (3.5%) - how your organization

manages its key processes that support your value

creation process.

Process, the core of

quality management, in

1992, gets much less

weightage in 2004.

6. Quality and operational results

(18%)

6.1 Product and service quality

results

No corresponding indicator

No corresponding indicator

6.2 Company operational results

6.3 Business process and support

service results

6.4 Supplier quality results

7. Business results (45%)

7.2 Product and service quality result( 7.5%) – current

level and trend in key measures of product and service

performance and their comparison with competitor’s

figure

7.4 Financial and market result (7.5%) – current level

and trend in key measures of financial performance

7.3 Human resource results (7.5%) – current level and

trend in key measures of work system performance,

employee learning and development and employee

satisfaction

7.1 Customer focused results (7.5%) – current level and

trend in key measures of customer satisfaction, their

loyalty and retention and their comparison with

competitor’s figures. (researcher’s note – it is related to

3.2 shown below)

7.5 Organisational effectiveness results (7.5%) –

current levels and trends in key indicators of (a)

operational performance of key value creation process,

(b) key support processes including productivity and

cycle time, (c) supplier and partner performance and

organisational strategy and action plan

In 2004, ‘Business

results’ as against

mere ‘quality result’

becomes the hallmark

of success. In 2004,

financial results and

HRD gets recognised

as a necessary

component of

organisational

excellence.

There is

substantial increase in

weightage on business

results

Table A1.7(cont’d…)

300

TableA1.7(cont’d…) MBNQA criteria (1992) MBNQA criteria( 2004) Difference

7. Customer focus and satisfaction

(30%)

7.6 Future requirements and

expectations of customers

7.4 Customer satisfaction results

7.1 Customer relationship

management

7.2 Commitment to customers

7.3 Customer satisfaction

determination

7.5 Customer satisfaction

comparison

3. Customer and market focus (8.5%)

3.1 Customer and market knowledge (4%)

(a) Customer and market knowledge- how do you

determine the expectations and preferences of

customers and markets to ensure the continuing

relevance of your products and services and to develop

new opportunities

3.2 Customer relationship building and customer

satisfaction (4.5%)- how your organization build

relationships to acquire, satisfy and retain customers,

increase their loyalty and determines customer

satisfaction. How do you use your customer satisfaction

information vis-vis competitor/ industry benchmark.

Customer, who was the

‘king’ in 1992with 30%

weightage, gets much

less weightage.

Table A1.7 Comparison of criteria between MBNQA (1992) and MBNQA (2004)

Source: developed for this research based on Sankaran (1993, p.94) and Baldrige

National Quality Program 2004.

301

Appendix 2. Assessment of organisational policies

Southern Cross University

Graduate School of Management

Tweed, Gold Coast, Australia

Informed Consent Form

Dear Sir,

I am pursuing a doctoral study in management in the area of ‘ Total Quality

Management as the basis for organisational transformation of Indian Railways’. As a part of

this, a survey is being done by me.

The purpose of this survey to understand the about the top management practices of Indian

Railways as perceived by the top managers of Indian Railways themselves. The perceived

performance, the perceived corporate policies and the perceived style of management of

Indian Railways from your point of view is an important source of feedback for the study. A

sample of such feedbacks would be merged to form an overall summary. This summary will

be an input to understand the readiness of Indian Railways for organisational transformation

through Total Quality Management (TQM).

In this connection, may I request you to spare some time and respond carefully to the

enclosed questionnaire? I would request you to answer ALL the questions.

While responding to the questions, please think of the current railway organization

you are working in and not of the Indian Railways as such.

I would like to assure you that this survey is being taken only for academic purposes. The

confidentiality of the responses will be maintained. While I look forward to you responses to

the questionnaire, you participation is totally voluntary and you are free to withdraw from

completing this survey at any time..

If you have any query, please do contact at the address given below.

Any complaints or queries regarding this project that cannot be answered by the person

responsible for this research project should be forwarded to:

302

Mr John Russell

Ethics Complaints Officer

Graduate Research College, Southern Cross University

PO Box 157, Lismore, 2480

Ph: (02) 66203705 Fax: (02) 6626 9145 Email: jrussell@scu.edu.au”

You are requested to send the filled questionnaire by registered post at the Varanasi address

given below ( as I have not received some replies sent by ordinary post).

Thanking you,

Researcher: Madhu Ranjan Kumar

Dy CMM/ N.C. Rly. e_mail- madhu_ranjan@yahoo.com

address: Bunglow no. 50, DLW, Varanasi 221004 ph: 0542-2641017

Supervisor

Dr Shankar Sankaran, Associate Prof. Graduate School of Management, SCU, Tweed Head,

Gold Coast, Australia, e mail:- ssankara@scu.edu.au

_______________________________________________________________________ This questionnaire is based on a questionnaire developed by Prof. Khandwalla of IIM Ahemadabad and the

permission to use his questionnaire is greatfully acknowledged. It has been used in many public sector and

private sector organisations in India.

303

Assessment of organisational policies

Date: Age:

Rly Service or Designation: Grade:

Railway unit: Location:

I. What new policies/practices you want the organization to adopt in the new

scenario of liberalisation and globalisation?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

304

II( a) What are the “core” values of the management, that is, values to which the

management is most strongly committed? Given below is a list of fairly widely encountered

management values. Please underline those five to which your management is most strongly

committed:

01. Business integrity

02. Being customer driven

03. Giving best value for money

04. Making a useful contribution to society

05. Growth and development of staff

06. Being a fair and just employer

07. Concern for environment

08. Patriotism

09. Innovativeness and creativity

10. Total quality in every operation

11. Maximising returns to government

12. Pioneering, trailblazing

13. Being a trustee for the interests of all stakeholders of Indian Railways

14. Helping the underprivileged

15. Simple living and high thinking

16. Hard work, efficiency, and thrift

17. Respect for seniors, old traditions

18. Being pragmatic and flexible

19. Achieving goals no matter what is the cost

20. Professionalism

21. An international mind set

22. Other (please specify)

II (b) What do you feel should be the five most important core values of the

management of your organization in the new scenario?

01.

305

02.

03.

04.

05.

III(a) What are the three most important characteristics of the style of management of your

organization? Please tick three items that most fully capture your management’s style of

running the organization.

01. Cautious, stick-to-the knitting management that greatly values stability, good profits,

and steady growth.

02. Bold but calculating risk taking, a lot of entrepreneurship, commitment to fast growth.

03. Participative management, seeking broad consensus on issues.

04. Nurturing and caring management that treats staff like family members.

05. Management strongly emphasises clear formal reporting relationships, roles,

procedures, and accountability.

06. Strongly emphasises flexibility, adaptability, informality and resourcefulness.

07. Strongly discipline oriented management; clearly separates those who give orders

from those who must obey them.

08. Altruistic, ethical, idealistic management.

09. Highly professionalised, systems oriented management.

10. A management that greatly values experience, good judgement and playing by the ear

over a lot of analysis and high formal qualifications.

306

11. Other (please specify)

III (b) What three attributes listed above of management style do you strongly prefer for

your organization in the new scenario of liberalisation?

01.

02.

03.

IV( a) What is your management’s growth strategy for the organization? Please tick the

three most important items below:

307

01. Rapid expansion of present customer base by weaning customers back to the

railways

02. Related capacity building

03. Unrelated capacity building (e.g. doubling, rolling stock augmentations even if they

are not required)

04. Forward and backward integration with other logistic provider

05. Joint venture with domestic travel/ transport partners

06. Variable pricing

07. Empowerment( empowering front line managers to tap and capture new markets by

offering locally relevant, potentially

08. Geographical or locational expansion of railway network

09. Other (please specify)

IV ( b) What do you think should be the organization’s growth strategy in the new scenario?

01.

02.

03.

04.

308

05.

V(a) What is your management’s competitive strategy for the organization? Please tick the

three most important items below:

01. Compete on the basis of price by cutting costs and /or keeping low margins.

02. Compete on the basis of product differentiation and brand equity through

heavy advertising and promotion.

03. Compete on the basis of high quality of service.

04. Compete on the basis of innovating and offering novel or unique new services.

05. Compete by entering into joint ventures with local regional transport agencies or

other arrangements that raise your market power.

06. Compete on the basis of excellent “add on” services to customers.

07. Compete by developing and offering services to cater to needs of specific

market segments.

08. Compete by tailor making services to the requirements of individual

customers.

09. Other (please specify)

V(b) What do you feel should be your organization’s competitive strategy in the emerging

scenario?

01.

02.

309

03.

04.

05.

VI(a) What are the significant changes in organisational structure and management systems

that your management is attempting? Please tick the six most important items below:

01. Greater delegation of authority at operating levels.

02. Flatter structure

03. More profit centres and divisions

04. Greater use of matrix structure (dual responsibility, project organization, etc.)

05. More sophisticated management information and control system

06. A more human resource development oriented personnel management

07. Greater participative management at staff and worker levels

08. A special group or division for joint ventures

09. More team management at managerial levels, use of cross-functional team

10. Greater centralisation of major staff functions like finance, HRD, R&D, MIS

11. Fairly extensive downsizing through retrenchment, VRS, attrition, etc.

12. Spin offs/ subsidiaries for larger ventures or joint ventures.

13. Contracting out various functions and activities to make the organization

much leaner

310

14. Greater representation of professionals at the divisional/ zonal/ Rly board level

VI(b) What major changes in organization structure and management systems do you

want in the new scenario?

01.

02.

03.

04.

05.

311

Appendix 2A Summary of responses to question no.II to question no. VI of the questionnaire ‘assessment of organisational policies’ (Survey A)

Question IIa. What are the core values of the management, that is, values to which

the management is most strongly committed?

Total number of respondents = 17

Percentage of

respondent who

gave the

response

Business integrity 17.6%

Being customer driven 23.5%

Giving best value for money 29.4

Making a useful contribution to society 41.1%

Growth and development of staff 35.3%

Being a fair and just employer 70.6%

Concern for environment 11.7%

Patriotism 17.6%

Innovativeness and creativity 11.7%

Total quality in every operation 29.4%

Maximizing return to government 17.6%

Pioneering, trailblazing 5.9%

Being a trustee for the interests of all stakeholders of Indian Railways 41.1%

Helping the under privileged 11.7%

Simple living and high thinking 5.9%

Hard work, efficiency and thrift 35.3%

Respect for seniors, old traditions 29.4%

Being pragmatic and flexible 17.6%

Achieving goals no matter what is the cost 23.5%

Professionalism 23.5%

An international mind set 0%

Other (please specify) 5.9%

312

Question IIb: What you feel should be the five most important core values for the

management of your organization in the new scenario?

Total number of respondents = 20 Number. of

respondents

who gave the

response

Percentage of

respondent who

gave the

response

Customer orientation 9 45%

Profitability 2 10%

Least cost movement 2 10%

Total quality in every operation 16 80%

Fair and just employer 4 25%

Market driven 1 5%

Trustee of all stake holders of Indian Railways 2 10%

Professional decision making 4 25%

Business integrity 6 30%

Innovation and creativity 4 25%

Financial viability 2 10%

Flexibility 1 5%

Outsource non core areas 2 10%

313

Question IIIa: What are the three most important characteristics of the style of

management of your organization?

Total number of respondents = 18. Percentage of

respondent who

gave the

response

01. Cautious, stick-to-the knitting management that greatly values

stability, good profits, and steady growth.

77.8%

02. Bold but calculating risk taking, a lot of entrepreneurship,

commitment to fast growth.

0%

03. Participative management, seeking broad consensus on issues.

11.1%

04. Nurturing and caring management that treat staff like family

members.

22.2%

05. Management strongly emphasises clear formal reporting

relationships, roles, procedures, and accountability.

77.8%

06. Strongly emphasises flexibility, adaptability, informality and

resourcefulness.

0%

07. Strongly discipline oriented management; clearly separates those

who give orders from those who must obey them.

72.2%

08. Altruistic, ethical, idealistic management. 5.5%

09. Highly professionalised, systems oriented management. 16.7%

10. A management that greatly values experience, good judgement

and playing by the ear over a lot of analysis and high formal

qualifications.

16.7%

11. Other (please specify) 11.1%

314

Question IIIb: What three attributes of management style do you strongly prefer for

your organization in the new scenario of liberalisation?

Total no. of respondents= 19 Number. of

respondents

who gave

the

response

Percentage

of

respondent

who gave

the

response

Cautious, stick to knitting management that greatly values

stability, good profit an steady growth

1 5.2%

Bold but calculating risk taking, a lot of entrepreneurship,

commitment to fast growth

15 80%

Participative management seeking broad consensus on issues 6 31.5%

Nurturing and caring management that treats staff like family

members

3 15.8%

Management strongly emphasises clear formal reporting

relationships, roles, procedures and accountability

2 10.5%

Strong emphasis on flexibility, adaptability, informality and

resourcefulness

14 73.7%

Strong discipline oriented management, clearly separates those

who give orders from those who must obey them

2 10.5%

Altruistic, ethical, idealistic management 0 0%

Highly professional, system oriented management 14 73.7%

Management that greatly values experience, good judgement

and playing by ear over a lot of analysis and high formal

qualification

0 0%

Others 1 5.2%

315

Question IVa: What is your management’s growth strategy for the organization?

Please tick the three most important items.

Total number of respondents = 19. Percentage of

respondent who

gave the

response

01. Rapid expansion of present customer base by weaning customers

back to the railways

31.6%

02. Related capacity building 52.6%

03. Unrelated capacity building (e.g. doubling, rolling stock

augmentations even if they are not required)

31.6%

04. Forward and backward integration with other logistic provider 15.8%

05. Joint venture with domestic travel/ transport partners 21%

06. Variable pricing 15.8%

07. Empowerment( empowering front line managers to tap and capture

new markets by offering locally relevant, potentially “star” services with

locally fixed tariffs

21%

08. Geographical or locational expansion of railway network 36.8%

09. Other (please specify) 5.3%

316

Question IVb: What do you think should be the organization’s growth strategy in the

new scenario?

No. of respondents = 19 Number. of

respondents

who gave

the

response

Percentage

of

respondent

who gave

the

response

Rapid expansion of present customer base by weaning

customers back to railways

14 73.7%

Related capacity building 12 63.2%

Unrelated capacity building (e.g. doubling, rolling stock

augmentations even if they are not required)

0 0

Forward and backward integration with other logistic provider 7 36.8%

Joint venture with domestic travel / transport partners 11 57.9%

Variable pricing 10 52.6%

Empowerment (empowering front line managers to tap and

capture new markets by offering locally relevant, potentially

‘star’ services with locally fixed tariffs)

14 73.7%

Geographical expansion of railway network 2 10.5%

Others 14 73.7%

317

Question Va: What are your management’s competitive strategies for the organization?

Please tick the three most important items below:

Total number of respondents = 16. Percentage

of

respondent

who gave the

response

01. Compete on the basis of price by cutting costs and /or keeping low

margins.

81.2%

02. Compete on the basis of product differentiation and brand equity

through heavy advertising and promotion.

6.2%

03. Compete on the basis of high quality of service. 18.7%

04. Compete on the basis of innovating and offering novel or unique new

services.

37.5%

05. Compete by entering into joint ventures with local /regional transport

agencies or other arrangements that raise your market power.

25%

06. Compete on the basis of excellent “add on” services to customers. 6.25%

07. Compete by developing and offering services to cater to needs of

specific market segments.

62.5%

08. Compete by tailor making services to the requirements of individual

customers.

25%

09. Other (please specify) 12.5%

318

Question Vb: What do you feel should be your organization’s competitive strategy in

the emerging scenario?

No. of respondents = 20 Number. of

respondents

who gave

the

response

Percentage

of

respondent

who gave

the

response

Compete on the basis of price by cutting cost and / or keeping

low margins

9 45%

Compete on the basis of brand equity through heavy advertising

and promotion

3 15%

Compete on the basis of high quality of service 20 100%

Compete on the basis of innovative and offering novel or

unique new services

19 95%

Compete by entering into joint venture with local / regional

transport agencies or other arrangements that raise your market

power

12 60%

Compete on the basis of excellent ‘add-on’ services to

customers

3 15%

Compete by developing and offering services to cater to needs

of specific market segments

7 35%

Compete by tailor making services to the requirements of

individual customers

9 45%

Others 8 40%

319

Question VIa: What are the significant changes in organisational structure and management

systems that your management is attempting? Please tick the six most important items below:

Total number of respondents = 19. Percentage of

respondent

who gave the

response

01. Greater delegation of authority at operating levels.

68.4%

02. Flatter structure 0%

03. More profit centres and divisions 36.8%

04. Greater use of matrix structure (dual responsibility, project

organization, etc.)

15.8%

05. More sophisticated management information and control system 63.1%

06. A more human resource development oriented personnel

management

36.8%

07. Greater participative management at staff and worker levels 15.8%

08. A special group or division for joint ventures 10.5%

09. More team management at managerial levels, use of cross

functional team

21%

10. Greater centralisation of major staff functions like finance, HRD,

R&D, MIS

36.8%

11. Fairly extensive downsizing through retrenchment, VRS, attrition,

etc.

26.3%

12. Spin offs/ subsidiaries for larger ventures or joint ventures. 21%

13. Contracting out various functions and activities to make the

organization much leaner

26.3%

14. Greater representation of professionals at the divisional/ zonal/ Rly

board level.

15.8%

320

Question VIb: What major changes in organisational structure and management

systems do you want in the new scenario?

No. of respondents = 20 Number. of

respondents

who gave

the response

Percentage of

respondent who

gave the response

Greater delegation of authority at operating levels 14 70%

Flatter structure 6 30%

More profit centres and divisions 6 30%

Greater use of matrix structure (dual responsibility,

project organization, etc)

1 5%

More sophisticated MIS and control system 6 30%

A more human resource development oriented

personnel management

9 45%

Greater participative management at staff and worker

levels

3 15%

More team management at managerial levels, use of

cross functional team

8 40%

15%+40%

= 55%

A special group or division for joint ventures 1 5%

Spin offs / subsidiaries for larger ventures / joint

ventures

3 15%

Greater centralisation of staff functions like finance,

HRD, MIS, R&D

2 10%

Fairly extensive downsizing through retrenchment,

VRS, attrition etc

7 35%

Contract out various functions and activities to make

the organization much leaner

9

7+9 =

16

45%

35%+45%

=80%

321

Appendix 3. Behaviour preference scale ( S 004)

Southern Cross University

Graduate School of Management

Tweed, Gold Coast Australia

Informed Consent Form

Dear Sir,

I am pursuing a doctoral study in management with a topic titled ‘ Total Quality

Management as the basis for organisational transformation of Indian Railways’. As a part of

this study, a survey on leadership will be carried out by me.

The purpose of the survey is to understand about the leadership style of railway managers.

I would like to assure you that this survey is being taken only for academic purpose. The

confidentiality of the responses will be maintained. While I look forward to your responses to

the questionnaire, you participation is totally voluntary and you are free to withdraw from

completing the survey at any time.

In this connection, may I request you to spare some time and respond carefully to the

enclosed questionnaire. It will take about 45 minutes to fill the questionnaire.

Any complaints or queries regarding this project that cannot be answered by the person

responsible for this research project should be forwarded to:

Mr John Russell

Ethics Complaints Officer

Graduate Research College, Southern Cross University

PO Box 157, Lismore, 2480

Ph: (02) 66203705 Fax: (02) 6626 9145 Email: jrussell@scu.edu.au”

Thanking you,

Researcher: Madhu Ranjan Kumar

Dy CMM/ N.C. Rly/,e_mail- madhu_ranjan@yahoo.com

address: Bunglow no. 50, DLW, Varanasi 221004

322

ph: 0542-2641017

Supervisor

Dr Shankar Sankaran, Associate Prof. Graduate School of Management, SCU, Tweed Head,

Gold Coast, Australia, e mail:- ssankara@scu.edu.au

______________________________________________________________________ This questionnaire was developed by Prof. J B P Sinha of ASSERT Management Institute, Patna, India. The permission to

use this questionnaire is greatfully acknowledged.

I have read the information above and agree to participate in this study as a leader whose

management style is to be assessed using the questionnaire SOO1, S002, S003 S004,

leadership effectiveness rating and leadership style. I am over 18 years of age.

Name ……………………………………………………

Name of Witness (who shall be independent of the project)

Signature of the Witness: Date:

323

I certify that the terms of the form have been verbally explained to the subject, that the

subject appears to understand the terms prior to signing the form, and I asked the subject if

he needed to discuss the project with an independent person before signing and he declined.

Signature of the researcher: Date:................................

324

Behaviour preference scale (S 004) Date: Rly unit (div/workshop/HQ/depot/others): Designation:

Service: Grade: No. of years of

service done in Rly:

Age Location: Education:

The items below ask for your beliefs, practices and preferences in dealing with your immediate superior. Each item is followed by five alternatives. Please encircle the alternative which comes closest to your judgement. Please do not write your name on this questionnaire so that the anonymity of response can be maintained. Items:

Legend: quite true-1 true-2 undecided–3 false-4 quite false-5

01. S I have high respect for my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

02. D I often seek advice and direction from my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

03. P I try to maintain personalised relationship with my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

04. D Before doing anything new, I prefer to seek the approval of my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

05. S I feel bad if a subordinate smokes in front of his superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

06. P I often pay social visit to the house of my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

07. S I try to keep my words humbly low when I talk to my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

08. D When faced with a problem, I prefer to consult my superior first.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

325

( S 004)

09. S I do not expect my superior to greet me first.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

10. P I help my superior or his family members in case of medical or other emergencies.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

11. P I feel good when my superior discusses his personal problems with me.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

12. D I am not sure of my decision unless my superior approves it.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

13. S I gladly accept the authority of my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

14. D I want that my superior should notice and appreciate my good performance.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

15. P I try to oblige my superior by doing something personal for him.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

16. S Whenever there is a difference of opinion between me and my superior, I concede

to make him feel good.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

17. P Those who keep close contact with superior are better off.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

18. D It is always safe to discuss with your superior before you take a decision.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

19. S I do not reply back to my superior even if he is harsh on me.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

326

(S004)

20. D I expect my superior to tell clearly what I should do.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

21. P I feel pleasure in doing some personal work of my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

22. D I feel good when my superior pays attention to what I am doing.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

23. S I blindly obey my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

24. P I often invite my superior on dinner or socials.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

25. D I do not like to disagree with my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

26. P I often enquire about the well-being of the family members of my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

27. S I always address my superior with ‘Sir’.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

28. D I do not go against the wishes of my superior even if it means inconveniences to

me.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

29. P I feel pleasure in discussing my personal problems with my superior.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

30. S I behave humbly and submissively with my superior, even if it is not necessary.

Quite true true undecided false quite false

327

Reliability and validity: Sinha (1995, p.118)) have dealt in detail about the reliability and

validity of the above questionnaire. Specifically, he has quoted a study by Prasad (1990)

wherein the three constructs of dependency, personalised relationship and status

consciousness were found to be highly reliable and inter-correlated. The questionnaire

consists of 30 items, 10 each for dependency (D), personalised relationship (P) and status

consciousness (S). Regarding validity, Sinha (1995, p.98) have quoted independent studies

which also identified these three constructs. These studies are mentioned in table A2.1.

construct studies

Dependency Pareek (1968)

Personalised relationship Kumar & Singh (1976), Dayal

(1976)

Status consciousness Dumont (1970), Kothari

(1970)

Table A2.1 Validity of the three constructs of hierarchical orientation

Source: developed for this research.

Thus the questionnaire can be considered to be a valid instrument for assessing hierarchical

orientation among Indian managers.

328

Appendix 3A Data analysis for the questionnaire S004 (survey B) Legend: quite true-1 true-2 undecided–3 false-4 quite false-5

Step 1 analysis The analysis began with verifying whether there is any significant difference between the S

score, P score and D score given below.

Symbol Mean value Valid N

S 2.1578 311

P 2.9768 311

D 2.2057 311

First the assumption of homogeneity of variances between S, P & D was verified

using Hartley F max, Cochran C and Bartlett Chi-square values.

Hartley Cochran Bartlett F-max C Chi-sqr df p VALUE 1.304074 .367904 6.008716 2 .049585

It was seen that the difference in variance are only marginally significant at 5% p

level. Further, it has also been reported that violation of this assumption does not seriously

affect the conclusions of ANOVA (Statistica 1998, p.1711).

The next assumption of correlation between mean and standard deviation was tested.

It is graphically shown in Figure A3.1. Though r = .69, the regression coefficient is only 0.06.

The significance of this regression coefficient was tested.

Sums of Mean

Squares df Squares F p-level

Regress. .001719 1 .001719 .920435 .513192

Residual .001868 1 .001868

Total .003587

It was seen that the p level was not significant. Thus the regression coefficient was

not significant. Thus there was no significant correlation between the mean and variance of S,

P and D. Thus both the assumptions of ANOVA were satisfied.

329

Regression95% confid.

Plot of Means vs. Standard Deviations; variable: VALUEStandard Deviations = .45585 + .06381 * Means

Correlation: r = .69199

Means

Sta

ndar

d D

evia

tions

0.55

0.57

0.59

0.61

0.63

0.65

2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1

Figure A3.1 Correlation between mean and variance of S. P and D scores

Source: developed from survey data.

Hence ANOVA could be used to test the difference between the means of S, P and D

scores.

Then ANOVA was used to test whether the mean values of S, P and D are same. The

result is shown below:

df MS df MS

Effect Effect Error Error F p-level

2 65.70 930 .37 174 0.00

n=311, k=2.

This showed that there are significant differences on the three dimensions of S, P & D.

Next, using Scheffe test it was found that the P score was markedly different from the S score

and D score.

330

Scheffe test:

{1} {2} {3}

2.16 2.98 2.21

S {1} 0.00 .62

P {2} 0.00 0.00

D {3} .62 0.00

Result of Scheffe test to assess the significance of differences between the sample

means of S, P and D scores

This showed that among the three components of hierarchical dimension, the

dimension of ‘tendency for a personalised relationship’ was significantly weaker than those

of ‘dependency on superior’ and ‘status consciousness’. There was no statistically significant

difference on the scores obtained on the dimensions of ‘status consciousness’ and

‘dependency on the superior’.

Step 2 analysis

Then it was assessed whether there is any difference within class 1, class2 and class 3

staff of the Indian Railways on the three dimensions of S, P and D scores. Since the sample

size was more than 30, the test of normality was not done. The analysis began with the S

score difference among class1, class2 and class3 staff.

Sample mean N

S1 2.43 144

S2 2.13 61

S3 1.79 106

Tests of homogeneity of Variances between S1, S2 & S3-

Hartley Cochran Bartlett

F-max C Chi-sqr df p

VALUE 1.352412 .382749 1.853278 2 .395893

This shows that the difference in variance of S1, S2 and S3 are not significant. Then the

correlation between the mean and variance was assessed. It is shown in Figure A3.2.

331

Regression95% confid.

Plot of Means vs. Standard Deviations; variable: VALUEStandard Deviations = .35576 + .06365 * Means

Correlation: r = .55894

Means

Sta

ndar

d D

evia

tions

0.44

0.46

0.48

0.50

0.52

0.54

1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5

Figure A3.2 Correlation between mean and variance of S1, S2 and S3 scores Source: developed from survey data. Since the value of regression coefficient was only .063, its significance was tested using

ANOVA.

Analysis of Variance

Sums of Mean

Squares df Squares F p-level

Regress. .000980 1 .000980 .510457 .605062

Residual .001919 1 .001919

Total .002899

The low F value (or the high p level) showed that the regression coefficient is not significant.

Thus there was no significant correlation between the means and variances of S1, S2 and S3

scores.

Thus ANOVA could be used to test the difference between S1, S2 and S3. The result of

ANOVA is

df MS df MS

Effect Effect Error Error F p-level

2 12.85 308 .23 54.33 .000

The significantly low p- level showed that the three sample means were significantly

different. Thus Scheffe test was used to assess the difference between them.

332

Scheffe test:

{1} {2} {3}

2.44 2.13 1.79

S1. {1} .00026 .00000

S2 {2} .00026 .00009

S3 {3} .00000 .00009

This showed that class 1 officers were less status conscious of their superiors in comparison

to class 2 officers who in turn were less status conscious of their superiors than the class 3

supervisors of Indian Railways.

Similar test was done to assess the difference among class 1, class 2 and class3

employees on the dimension of personalised relationship

Sample mean N

P1 2.978472 144

P2 2.916394 61

P3 3.009434 106

The difference in their variance were not statistically significant as can be seen from the tests

of homogeneity of variances between P1, P2 & P3 below-

Hartley Cochran Bartlett

F-max C Chi-sqr df p

VALUE 1.252194 .371156 .983970 2 .611416

The correlation between the means and variances of P1, P2 and P3 were assessed.

Regression95% confid.

Plot of Means vs. Standard Deviations; variable: VALUEStandard Deviations = -1.568 + .74377 * Means

Correlation: r = .98100

Means

Sta

ndar

d D

evia

tions

0.59

0.61

0.63

0.65

0.67

0.69

2.90 2.92 2.94 2.96 2.98 3.00 3.02

Figure A3.3 Correlation between mean and variance of P1, P2 and P3 scores

Source: developed from survey data.

333

The regression coefficient was seen to be high. The significance of the regression

coefficient was assessed from the p level of their regression.

Analysis of Variance:

Sums of Mean

Squares df Squares F p-level

Regress. .002499 1 .002499 26.82212 .121429

Residual .000093 1 .000093

Total .002592

Though the p-level was still low at 0.12, it was not significant at 5% level. Thus

ANOVA was not used to test the difference between P1, P2 and P3.

Therefore, non-parametric test Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks was used.

Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 311) = 2.001803 p =.3676.

This shows that there was no statistically significant difference among the class 1,

class 2 and class 3 staff of Indian Railways on the dimension of ‘tendency for personalised

relationship’.

Then the difference on the ‘dependency relationship’ among class 1, class2

and class3 staff were was tested.

Mean N

D1 2.55 144

D2 2.18 61

D3 1.75 106

All Groups 311

Tests of Homogeneity of Variances between D1, D2 & D3-

Hartley Cochran Bartlett

F-max C Chi-sqr df p

VALUE 1.401909 .371443 3.465783 2 .176789

This showed that the differences in their variances were not statistically significant.

Then the correlation between the mean and variance of D1, D2 and D3 were tested. It is

shown in Figure A3.4.

334

Regression95% confid.

Plot of Means vs. Standard Deviations; variable: VALUEStandard Deviations = .29773 + .10266 * Means

Correlation: r = .86082

Means

Sta

ndar

d D

evia

tions

0.45

0.47

0.49

0.51

0.53

0.55

0.57

1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8

Figure A3.4 Correlation between mean and variance of D1, D2 and D3 scores

Source: developed from survey data.

The significance of the regression coefficient was assessed through the F statistics (or p level)

of the regression.

Analysis of Variance

Sums of Mean

Squares df Squares F p-level

Regress. .003397 1 .003397 2.310859 .370423

Residual .001470 1 .001470

Total .004867

The low F value (or the high p value) showed that the correlation is not significant. Thus

ANOVA could be used to test the difference between D1, D2 and D3.

df MS df MS

Effect Effect Error Error F p-level

2 19.55393 308 .270071 72.40305 .000000

This showed that there was significant difference among the sample means D1, D2 and D3.

Thus Scheffe test was used to identify the means with significant difference.

335

Scheffe test:

{1} {2} {3}

2.55 2.18 1.75

D1 {1} .00004 .00000

D2 {2} .00004 .00000

D3 {3} .00000 .00000

This showed that the class 1 officers were less dependent on their superior as compared to

class 2 officers who in turn were less dependent on their superior than the class 3 supervisors.

Step 3 analysis

The analysis in this step aimed at assessing whether there were differences on the S, P and D

scores within a class of staff at three different age groups of ‘up to 30 yrs’, between ‘31yrs to

50 yrs’ and ‘more than 50 yrs’. Since the sample sizes in this category were less than 30,

ANOVA was not used as the assumptions of ANOVA could not be verified. Non-parametric

Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) ANOVA by rank was used.

Score N

S1_30yr 2.4818 44

S1_31-50 2.4292 89

S1_>50 2.3454 11

Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks

Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR

Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 144) = .4386395 p =.8031.

The high P value showed that among class 1 employees, there was no difference across the

generation gap in their tendency for status consciousness towards their superior.

Results of K-W test for other categories are shown below:

Score N

S2_31-50 2.029630 27

S2_>50 2.214706 34

Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks

Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR

Kruskal-Wallis test: H (1, N= 61) = 1.531847 p =.2158

336

Score N

S3_30yr 1.675000 8

S3_31-50 1.790909 77

S3_>50 1.833333 21

Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks

Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR

Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 106) = 1.029577 p =.5976

Score N

D1_30yr 2.452273 44

D1_31-50 2.611236 89

D1_>50 2.445455 11

Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks

Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR

Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 144) = 3.823290 p =.1479

Score N

D2_31-50 2.125926 27

D2_>50 2.232353 34

Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR

Kruskal-Wallis test: H (1, N= 61) = .2595876 p =.6104

Score N

D3_30yr 1.762500 8

D3_31-50 1.744156 77

D3_>50 1.766667 21

Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks

Independent (grouping) variable: AGE_GR

Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N= 106) = .5360950 p =.7649

The analysis showed that within a category of employee (class1, class 2, class3) there

is no significant difference in their scores on the two dimensions of status consciousness and

337

dependency proneness from younger (less than 30 years of age) to older (more than 50 years

of age) employees.

Step 4 analyses

Since it was concluded from the analysis in step 2 that there were no differences on

the P scores among class1, class2 and class3 employees, it was desirable to test whether there

was any difference on the P scores in any age group and in any class of the employees. Since

some of the sample sizes were less than 30, non-parametric K-W test was used.

test for difference in P score

VALUE

P1_30yr 2.911364

P1_31-50 3.022472

P1_>50 2.890909

P2_31-50 2.770370

P2_>50 3.032353

P3_30yr 2.650000

P3_31-50 3.010390

P3_>50 3.142857

Kruskal-Wallis test: H (7, N= 311) = 7.858904 p =. 3452

The high p level showed that there was no difference in P score across different age groups

and different class of employees in the Indian Railways.

338

Appendix 4. ISO 9000 Survey

Southern Cross University

Graduate School of Management

Tweed, Gold Coast, Australia

Informed Consent Form

Dear Sir,

I am pursuing a doctoral study in management in the area of ‘ Total Quality

Management as the basis for organisational transformation of Indian Railways’ under the

sponsorship of Department of Personnel and Training. As a part of this, a survey is being

done by me.

The purpose of this survey is to understand the impact which ISO certification has

made in your organization. A sample of such impact of ISO on different railway units would

be merged to form an overall summary. This summary will be an input to understand the

readiness of Indian Railways for organisational transformation through Total Quality

Management (TQM).

In this connection, may I request you to spare some time and respond carefully to the

enclosed questionnaire? I would request you to answer ALL the questions.

I would like to assure you that this survey is being taken only for academic purposes.

The confidentiality of the responses will be maintained. While I look forward to you

responses to the questionnaire, you participation is totally voluntary and you are free to

withdraw from completing this survey at any time.

If you have any query, please do contact at the address given below.

339

Kindly do not write your name on the questionnaire so that anonymity of responses

can be maintained. When responding to the questionnaire, pl. think of your unit and not of

other units.

You are requested to send the filled questionnaire by registered post at the Varanasi

address given below (as I have not received some replies sent by ordinary post) or by e-mail.

Researcher: Madhu Ranjan Kumar

Dy. CMM

email- madhu_ranjan@yahoo.com

address: Bunglow no. 50, DLW

Varanasi 221004

ph: 0542-2641017

Supervisor

Dr Shankar Sankaran, Associate Prof. Graduate School of Management, SCU, Tweed Head,

Gold Coast, Australia, e mail: - ssankara@scu.edu.au ...............................................................

Any complaints or queries regarding this project that cannot be answered by the person

responsible for this research project should be forwarded to:

Mr John Russell

Ethics Complaints Officer

Graduate Research College, Southern Cross University

PO Box 157, Lismore, 2480

Ph: (02) 66203705 Fax: (02) 6626 9145 Email: jrussell@scu.edu.au”

_______________________________________________________________________ This questionnaire is based on a questionnaire developed by Prof. Acharya of Indian Statistical Institute,

Banglore, India and the permission to use his questionnaire is greatfully acknowledged.

340

ISO 9000 SURVEY

A. UNIT AND ITS PROFILE

1. Unit’s name:

2. Rly:

3. Product or Service:

4. No. of employees:

(a) in production/marketing or service:

(b) in quality (includes quality assurance, inspection, quality management):

© in support activities(includes procurement, planning):

(d) in finance and administration( includes personnel):

5. Which of the following departments were outside the scope of ISO certification:

(a) stores (b) accounts (c) personnel (d) security (e) EDP centre

6. Date of ISO 9000 certificate:

ISO 9000:1994 ISO 9000:2000 ISO 14000

date

7. Accreditation body:

B. ABOUT THE CERTIFYING AGENCY

1. Name of the certifying agency:

2.Reason for choosing the agency (more than one option can be chosen):

(a) cost was competitive

(b) preferred by the consultant

© good reputation in the Rly circuit

(d) any other

341

3. What was the emphasis of the auditors during surveillance audits(1 indicates least focus, 6

indicates most focus):

(a) focus on number of outstanding NCs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

(b) focus on conformance to documentation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

© focus on continuous improvement 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

(d) focus on going through the motion of audit because railway units anyway can be

taken as OK. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

(e) any other

C. REASON FOR CERTIFICATION

1. Why did you go for certification? ( 1 indicates least important reason, 6 indicates most

important reason)

(a) to install a formal system (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

(b) for its publicity value (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

© to initiate a structured way for continuous improvement (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

(d) was directed to do so by the HQ/ boss wanted it (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

(f) to prevent non-conformance(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

(g) customer demanded (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

(h) an organization wide change was long over due. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

D. IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS

1. Top Management involvement

(a) very involved

(b) somewhat involved

© minimal

(d) not at all involved

2. Was the customer involved?

(a) Yes, if yes how?

(b) No

342

3. Was any supplier involved?

(a) Yes, if yes, how?

(b) No.

4. Length of time taken for successful registration

Time expected Actual (from – to)

< 1yr

1-1.5 yr

1.5-2 yr

2-2.5 yr

2.5-3 yr

> 3yr

5. Was there any break in the registration process? If yes, the reason for break and why it

started again?

6. Was there any ‘resistance for the process of implementation’ from

(a) old timers

(b) middle management level

© workers

(d) union

the type of resistance-

(a) another gimmick

(b) extra work

© only paper work

343

(d) long drawn process

7. Did you have a consultant to guide the process?

(a) yes

(b) no

8. Who has prepared the procedures?

(a) People concerned

(b) Consultant

© MR

(d) Any other

9. What is the total size of documentation?

(a) number of procedures-

(b) number of work instructions-

10. How the documentation process was managed?

(a) top down

(b) bottom up

11. Which of the following clauses were most difficult to (a) understand (b) to implement, in

the beginning?

(a) Document and data control (4.5 under ISO 9000:1994) i.e. clause 5.5.6 ( control of

documents) under ISO 9000:2000

(b) Control of Inspection, Measuring and test equipment (4.11 under ISO 9000:1994),

i.e. clause 7.6 (control of measuring and monitoring devices) under ISO 9000:2000

© Corrective and Preventive action (4.14 unde ISO 9000:1994), i.e. clause 8.5.2

(corrective action) & 8.5.3 (preventive action) under ISO 9000:2000

(d) Statistical technique (4.20 under ISO 9000:1994) i.e. clause 8.4 (analysis of data)

under ISO 9000:2000

344

(e) any other (pl. specify)

12. Were you practicing contract review (under clause 4.3 under ISO 9000:1994) prior to

ISO 9000 implementation?

(a) yes

(b) no

If, no, what problems you faced for installing formal contract review procedures?

13. What methodology has been used for design verification?

14. What method has been used for design validation?

15. Do you feel that implementation of document control resulted in

(a) increased paper work only

(b) delay in providing documents to users

© prevented non conformities on account of use of obsolete documents or no

documents

(d) any other

16. Did you have any difficulty in preparing the list of approved vendors?

(a) yes, if yes, how did you finalise the list?

(b) no

345

17. Has the implementation of purchasing (4.8) clause hindered the procurement cycle time

of following types of products

(a) subcontracted

(b) direct supply

© imported

18. Did you declare any of your operations as special process?

(a) yes, If yes, how did you qualify those processes and the concerned operators?

(b) no.

19. Do you calculate Cp, Cpk ( or any other) indices for your processes?

(a) yes, if yes, what is the trend?

(b) No

20. How is the trend of production cycle time before and after ISO certification?

21. What problems did you have in satisfying clause 4.11 (Control of IMTs) of ISO 9001 i.e.

clause 7.6 (control of measuring and monitoring devices) under ISO: 2000?

22. What is the methodology you are adopting for identifying

(a) corrective action,

and

(b) preventive action

© how many CPAs have been raised and closed in the last three years.

346

23. Have you installed a customer complaint analysis procedure?

(a) yes, if yes, what is the present trend?

(b) No

24. Are you using any statistical technique in the framework of ISO 9000?

technique Area/ function purpose

25. No. of lead auditors in the organization:-

26. No. of internal auditors:-

27. Awareness of SQC/SPC concepts now

(a) non existent

(b) low

© somewhat

(d) good

28. No. of trained personnel on SQC related topics/ concepts-

29. Number of hours of training program imparted on the following subjects-

Topic Number attended Total duration

ISO 9000 awareness

347

ISO 9000 document

preparation

Internal quality audits

SQC topics (specify)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

30. How many internal audits were gone through before registration?

E. BENEFITS OF CERTIFICATION:

1. ISO certification resulted in (if you choose more than one option, please indicate their

order of importance)

(a) established a system where none existed previously

(b) consistent product quality

© better understanding of process and responsibility

(d) uniting of different departments of the organization into a team.

(e) any other

2. How far it has contributed to superior performance in terms of

(a) better performance vis-a vis similar Rly unit which is not ISO certified

348

(b) Any visible improvement in product / service quality?

F. CURRENT FOCUS ON QUALITY 1. The focus is on {pl. grade them on a scale of 1(low) to 6(high)}

(a) continuous improvement 1 2 3 4 5 6

(b) delivery performance 1 2 3 4 5 6

© supplier documentation & procedures 1 2 3 4 5 6

(d) retain the certificate 1 2 3 4 5 6

G. LESSON LEARNT

1. Most important lesson was that

(a) team work is essential 1 2 3 4 5 6

(b) people make the system work 1 2 3 4 5 6

© cooperation and information sharing is needed 1 2 3 4 5 6

(d) nothing new or significant 1 2 3 4 5 6

(e) Any other

H. If you are to go for certification now, what would you do differently? (you can choose more than one option)

(a) more emphasis on training

(b) better process management

© more emphasis on proper documentation of procedures

(d) learn from others going through the process

(e) top down planning

(f) bottom up planning

I. General information {pl. grade them on a scale of 1(low) to 6(high)} 1. What is the level of respect for system /procedures?

(a) by top management 1 2 3 4 5 6

(b) by middle management 1 2 3 4 5 6

© supervisory staff 1 2 3 4 5 6

349

(d) operators 1 2 3 4 5 6

2. Emphasis in quality policy is on

(a) quality as an output strategy 1 2 3 4 5 6

(b) vendor relation 1 2 3 4 5 6

© customer relation 1 2 3 4 5 6

(d) quality activities at all stages 1 2 3 4 5 6

(e) ISO system implementation 1 2 3 4 5 6

4. Does the CEO of the organization participate in the management review? Also, pl. indicate

your quality objectives and its measurement in the last three MRMs?

Quality objectives Target

(if

any)

Date of MRM:

Result in 3rd last

MRM

Date of MRM:

Result in 2nd last

MRM & dt of

MRM

Result in last

MRM & dt of

MRM

5. Other than ISO, was any structured change initiative attempted in your unit during

the last decade? Is yes, pl name it.

350

Appendix 4A Summary of survey C in six ISO certified units of Indian Railways Aspect Unit AMV BPL DCW DLW ICF WAP

Turn over (in millions of rupees)

Not available

Not available 3000 8000 5500 3180

ISO 9000:1994 date

Not applicable

2001 Sept 2001 Feb 1997 Jan 1996 Nov 1994

ISO 9000: 2000 date

Jan 2004 Aug 2004 April 2005 Jan 2003 Jan 2003 Mar 2001

Departments not in ISO preview

none Fin, Per, Security

Fin, Per, Security

Security Fin, Per, Security

Fin, Per, Security

Employees in organization

805 1800 3786 3786 7250 2300 (total)

Employees in quality

Not available

Quality certified by direct worker himself

Not available Not available

1650 Not available

Employees in support

236 100 Not available Not available

1500 Not available

Employees in fin & adm

61 75 Not available Not available

2300 Not available

Reason for choosing the certifying agency

Preferred by consultant

Competitive cost

Competitive cost

Competitive cost

Competitive cost Good reputation in rly ckt

Good reputation in rly ckt

Reason for certification

To initiate a structured way for CI To install a formal system HQ wanted For its publicity value To prevent non conformance

Quality will be focused To initiate a structured way for CI HQ wanted

To initiate a structured way for CI To install a formal system

Quality will be focussed

Quality will be focused To initiate a structured way for CI Desire for bringing about an improved management system

To initiate a structured way for CI To install a formal system

Involvement Top mgmt -very involved Customer involved- yes thru feed back

Top mgmt – very involved Customer involved – yes thru feed back Supplier involved - no

Top mgmt – very involved Customer involved – yes thru feed back Supplier involved - no

Top mgmt – very involved Customer involved – yes thru feed back Supplier involved- no

Top mgmt – very involved Customer involved – No Supplier involved - No

Top mgmt – very involved Customer involved – yes Supplier involved - No

Appendix 4A (cont’d…)

351

Appendix 4A(cont’d…) Aspect Unit AMV BPL DCW DLW ICF WAP

Any break in regn

No No Yes No No No

Resistance to change

No No No Yes, from middle management (extra work)

No No

Who did documentation

People concerned

People concerned

People concerned and consultant

People concerned and consultant

MR People concerned

No of procedure 14 11 47 Not known 11 Apex procedure for wheel, axle, material finance, common activities

No of WI 78 370 496 Not known 380 All work station

Documentation process

Bottom up Bottom up Top down Top down Top down Top down, no consultant for ISO 9000:2000

Clause most difficult to understand

Doc and data control, Customer satisfaction

CPA to implement, data analysis to understand

CPA, stat. Tech.

Control of IMT – to implement, CPA to understand

Establishment of process measure in tune with the PDCA cycle as suggested in the standard

stat. tech., Customer satisfac-tion

Implementation of doc control resulted in

prevented non conformit-ies on account of use of obsolete documents or no documents

nil prevented non conformities on account of use of obsolete documents or no documents

prevented non conformities on account of use of obsolete documents or no documents

prevented non conformities on account of use of obsolete docum-ents or no docum-ents

prevented non conformit-ies on account of use of obsolete documents or no documents

Do you calculate Cpk

No No No No No Yes, it is within limit

Appendix 4A(cont’d…)

352

Appendix 4A (cont’d…) Aspect Unit AMV BPL DCW DLW ICF WAP

Prod. cycle time before and after registration

Not applicable

Improved by 30%

Reduced in some cases

Not available

Not much changed

Improved

CPA implementation

From internal audit, customer feedback, AU ensures compliance or else put up to MRM

Shop level meeting, customer feedback, employee suggestion

IA, sp.qual. audit & customer feedback

The audit process, or otherwise any staff can generate a CP which if accepted by the MR gets included in the level II CPA meeting and is closed only after the problem is eliminated

From IA and sp. Audit team to bring up NCs

Identify NC product/ process Make use of statistical technique to identify priorities Put up problems to quality teams Implement suggested corrective or preventive action review

No of CPA and rewards

CPA- 5 Reward- nil

CPA –11 Reward- 13

CPA-12 Reward-32 two tier CPA (one at AU level and another at the apex level)

Avg. no of CPA since yr 2000- 141 reward – 57 (two tier CPA since yr 2000-one at AU level and another at the apex level)

CPA- 18 Reward -57

CPA- >100 Reward - 1725 (Two tier CPA one at AU level and another at the apex level)

Customer. Complaint. Analysis exists?

Yes, it reduced customer complains

Cost and cycle. time reduc, less 100 days sick marking

Yes, customer complaint outstanding for >90 days= 5

Yes, There is no complaint more than 6 months

Yes, improvement in customer satisfaction.

Yes customer satisfaction index shows improving trend

No of LA/IA 6/40 5/20 5/78 3/167 7/20 Use of SQC somewhat somewhat Low (pareto,

cause& effect diagram)

Some-what (pareto)

Good(X,R chart, Pareto. Trend analysis)

Appendix 4a(cont’d…)

353

Appendix 4A(cont’d…) Aspect Unit AMV BPL DCW DLW ICF WAP

No of trained staff on SQC

25 0 65 Not available

3 All supervisors (200)

Certification resulted in

Better understand-ing of process & resp Consistent product quality Linkage to other function

Better understanding of process & resp Consistent product quality, Established a system

Better understand-ing of process & resp, Linkage to other functions, Substantial improvement in working after ISO.

Better understand-ing of process & resp Linkage to other functions Established a system where none existed previously

Consistent product quality, Linkage to other functions, Visible improvement in product quality

Better understand-ing of process & resp, Consistent product quality Linkage to other functions Established a system where none existed previously

Current focus (rating on 1 to 6 scale)

CI-6, del-6, retain the cert-6

CI-4, del-6, retain the cert-6.

CI-5, del-5, retain the cert-5, supplier doc & procedure- 5

Del perf- 6, CI-4, Supplier doc -4

CI-4, del. perf-5, retain the cert-6.

CI-6, del-5, supplier doc & procedure- 4, retain the cert-6

Lesson learnt (rating on 1 to 6 scale)

Team work-5, people-5, coop & info sharing-6

Team work-6, people-6, coop & info sharing-5

Team work-5, people-5, coop & info sharing-5

Team work-6, people-6, coop & info sharing-6

Team work-6, people-6, coop & info sharing-5

Team work-6, people-6, coop & info sharing-6

What would you do if go all over again

Better process mgt, better documenta-tion, learn from others

Better process mgmt, bottom up plg

More emphasis on trg, Better process mgmt Learn from others

Bottom up plg

Bottom up plg

better process managem-ent

Respect for sys/proc (rating on 1 to 6 scale)

Top mgt-6 mid mgt-6 Sup-5, operator-5

Top mgt-5 mid mgt-5 Sup-4, operator-4

Top mgt-5 mid mgt-5 Sup-5, operator-4

Top mgt-6 mid mgt-6 Sup-5, operator-3

Top mgt-2 mid mgt-2 Sup-2, operator-1

Top mgt-6 mid mgt-6 Sup-6, operator-5

House keeping (rating on 1 to 6 scale)

6 6 5 4 2 5

CEO attends MRM

yes yes yes yes yes yes

Appendix 4A(cont’d…)

354

Appendix 4A (cont’d…) Aspect Unit AMV BPL DCW DLW ICF WAP

Improvement in quality objectives

yes Not available yes yes Yes, % of rework reduced from 16% in Dec 2003 to 8% in June 2004

Reduced rejection, rework and cost, more customer focus

Note: The responses of PRL have not been incorporated above due to lack of space.

355

Appendix 5. TQM transition questionnaire

Date: Rly unit (div/workshop/HQ/depot/others): Designation:

Service: Grade: No. of years of

service done in Rly:

Age No of years of service in this rly unit: Education:

This questionnaire attempts to assess the extent to which ISO certification has

resulted in development of TQM orientation in Railway units.

Pl. comment on the prevalence of the following statements on a scale of 1 to 10 in your

organization.

Against each of the following statements, please write the number that best applies

to your unit’s management practice before ISO 9000 certification and today. For example,

if you feel ‘before certification’ the emphasis given on cost reduction of your product could

be rated as 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, please write 3 under the heading before certification.

‘Today’, if the emphasis on cost reduction can be rated as 4 on a scale of 1 to 10, pl. write 4

under the heading ‘Today’.

356

Q.no. &

Factor

Question Situation 1

year before

ISO

certification (1

shows less

prevalent,

10 shows

more

prevalent)

(B)

Situation today

(1 shows less

prevalent

10 shows more

prevalent)

(A)

(A-B)

1 Customer Focus

People in the organizationknow who their internal andexternal customers are.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

2 Customer Focus

All departments of myorganization includingfinance, personnel, stores andsecurity care about meetingtheir internal customer’sexpectation.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

3 Customer Focus

Both, the internal and externalcustomers are asked for theiropinions about the quality ofwork/ services/ products theyreceive from the organization.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

4 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement

The resources, facts andinformation needed to do agood job are available to thepeople in the work unit.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

5 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement

Effective communicationacross different departmentsso as to improve inter-department cooperation andalign the work force towardscorporate expectation

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

Table A5.1(cont’d…)

357

Table A5.1(cont’d…) Q.no. &

Factor

Question Situation 1

year before

ISO

certification (1

shows less

prevalent,

10 shows more

prevalent)

(B)

Situation

today

(1 shows less

prevalent

10 shows more

prevalent)

(A)

(A-B)

6 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement

The quality managementsystem contributes to collectionand integration of informationwhich are then used fororganisational decision making

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

7 Delegation and empowerment

The Schedule of Power (SOP) ismodified so as to providemanagers authoritycommensurate with theirresponsibilities

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

8 Delegation and empowerment

Employees are empowered totake corrective decisions on thespot without looking up tomanagers for their approval

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

9 Delegation and empowerment

There is complete formal and/orde-facto autonomy to the headof this unit for taking decisionswhich affect the working of thisunit.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

10 Continuous improvement

There is great emphasis on employee training for continuous learning of new things

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

11 Continuous improvement

Improvement of all operations including personnel and financial activities are monitored in MRM

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

12 Continuous improvement

Number of suggestions comefrom staff to improve the cross-functional work processeswhich are then implemented .

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Table A5.1 (cont’d…)

358

Table A5.1(cont’d…) Q.no. &

Factor

Question Situation 1

year before

ISO

certification (1

shows less

prevalent,

10 shows more

prevalent)

(B)

Situation

today

(1 shows less

prevalent

10 shows more

prevalent)

(A)

(A-B)

13 Results and recognition

People in the work unit receivepromotions because theydeserve them.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

14 Results and recognition

There is a system of quickreward/recognition of people inthe work unit for outstandingperformance

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

15 Results and recognition

The reward / recognitionpolicies are viewed withwidespread satisfaction.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

16 Leadership

Leader(s) in the organizationask people about ways toimprove the work produced, bysetting examples of qualityperformance in their day-to-daydecision-making and activities.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

17 Leadership

Senior managers providing clearvision and values that promotequality

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

18 Leadership

The manager provides thedirection for or improvementand accordingly, workers aremotivated to take initiative. Incase of any difficulty, workerinteracts with the manager to toimprove the situation

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

19 Process improvement

Use of corrective and preventive action mechanism of ISO for process improvement

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

TableA5.1(cont’d…)

359

TableA5.1(cont’d…) Q.no. &

Factor

Question Situation 1

year before

ISO

certification (1

shows less

prevalent,

10 shows more

prevalent)

(B)

Situation

today

(1 shows less

prevalent

10 shows more

prevalent)

(A)

(A-B)

20 Process improvement

Use of pareto analysis and other statistical techniques

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

21 Process improvement

Key processes in the organization are regularly benchmarked and undergo quality auditing

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

22 Supplier focus

Quality and not price is the prime criteria in supplier selection

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

23 Supplier focus

Long term relationship with suppliers is encouraged

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

24 Supplier focus

Suppliers are treated ascustomers whose feed back areimportant in the quest forimprovement

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

25 Team work

Emphasis on team basedproblem solving approach ratherthan individual/departmentbased problem solving approach

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

26 Team work

People in the work unit shareresponsibility for the successand failure of their work

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

27 Team work

Members of differentdepartment voluntarily comeforward to jointly solve anorganizational problem.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10

28 Value & ethics

The organization emphasizesdoing things right the first time.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

29 Value & ethics

Managers in the organization

live up to high ethical standards

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Table A5.1(cont’d…)

360

Table A5.1(cont’d…) Q.no. &

Factor

Question Situation 1

year before

ISO

certification (1

shows less

prevalent,

10 shows more

prevalent)

(B)

Situation

today

(1 shows less

prevalent

10 shows more

prevalent)

(A)

(A-B)

30 Value & ethics

People in the organization arecommitted to produce highquality output rather thanadopting short cuts whichultimately affect quality

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

31 Work culture

People in the work unit take pride in their work

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

32 Work culture

Making a mistake is not feared.It is recognised as a part oflearning.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

33 Work culture

A lot of inter level and interdepartment discussions takeplace to build consensus beforea policy is instituted.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

34 Strategy

Meeting and exceedingcustomer expectation isaccorded a higher strategicpriority than short-termproduction target.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

35 Strategy

Streamlining the working ( i.e.business) processes of theorganization

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

36 Strategy

Leaders in the organization tryto plan ahead for technologicaland organisational changes thatmight impact theorganization’s futureperformance.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Table A5.1 TQM transition questionnaire

Source: developed for this research. @ This questionnaire is based on the work done by Wali, Deshmukh and Gupta ,2003 -

‘ Critical success factors of TQM: a select study of Indian organizations’, Production Planning & Control

Systems vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 3-14. Further assistance by Prof. S. G. Deshmukh of IIT Delhi in developing this

questionnaire is greatfully acknowledged

361

Validity test scores for the TQM transition questionnaire (survey D) The scores here indicate (A-B) score i.e. (After –Before) score obtained for Table A5.1.

Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &

Factor

Question

Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW 1 Customer Focus

People in the organizationknow who their internal andexternal customers are. 2 5 3 2 2.0 5.5 4.6 0

2 Customer Focus

All departments of myorganization includingfinance, personnel, storesand security care aboutmeeting their internalcustomer’s expectation. 3 5 2 0 1.5 2 2.8 0

3 Customer Focus

Both, the internal andexternal customers are asked for their opinionsabout the quality of work/services/ products theyreceive from theorganization. 4 8 4 1 3.5 1.5 2 2

4 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement

The resources, facts andinformation needed to do a good job are available to thepeople in the work unit.

2 5 3 0 2.5 2.5 3.2 0 5 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement

Effective communicationacross different departmentsso as to improve inter-department cooperation and align the work forcetowards corporateexpectation 3 5 4 1 1.5 1 3.6 0

6 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement

The quality managementsystem contributes tocollection and integrationof information which arethen used for organisationaldecision making

5 4 3 0 2.5 1 2 1 Table A5.2(cont’d…)

362

Table A5.2 (cont’d…) Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &

Factor

Question Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW7 Delegation and empowerment

The Schedule of Power (SOP) is modified so as toprovide managers authoritycommensurate with theirresponsibilities 3 5 4 0 0.5 0 1.2 2

8 Delegation and empowerment

Employees are empoweredto take corrective decisionson the spot without lookingup to managers for their approval 2 2 4 0 0.0 0 1.4 0

9 Delegation and empowerment

There is complete formaland/or de-facto autonomy tothe head of this unit fortaking decisions whichaffect the working of thisunit. 2 2 4 6 0.0 0 0.2 0

10 Continuous improvement

There is great emphasis onemployee training forcontinuous learning of newthings 2 5 2 6 3.0 5.5 3 2

11 Continuous improvement

Improvement of alloperations includingpersonnel and financialactivities are monitored inMRM 2 5 3 3 1.5 3 4 4

12 Continuous improvement

Number of suggestionscome from staff to improvethe cross-functional workprocesses which are thenimplemented . 4 3 4 4 2.5 1.5 3.4 3

13 Results and recognition

People in the work unitreceive promotions becausethey deserve them. 2 2 1 0 0.0 0 0.2 0

14 Results and recognition

There is a system of quickreward/recognition ofpeople in the work unit foroutstanding performance 2 3 3 2 0.5 1 2.2 0

15 Results and recognition

The reward / recognitionpolicies are viewed withwidespread satisfaction. 2 3 3 2 0.0 1.5 1.8 0

Table A5.2 (cont’d…)

363

Table A5.2 (cont’d…) Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &

Factor

Question Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW16 Leadership

Leader(s) in theorganization ask peopleabout ways to improve the work produced, by settingexamples of qualityperformance in their day-to-day decision-making and activities. 4 3 4 2 0.5 0 2.2 0

17 Leadership

Senior managers providingclear vision and values thatpromote quality 4 3 3 0 0.5 1.5 2 1

18 Leadership

The manager provides thedirection for orimprovement andaccordingly, workers aremotivated to take initiative.In case of any difficulty,worker interacts with themanager to to improve thesituation 4 4 4 1 0.5 4 2.4 0

19 Process improvement

Use of corrective andpreventive actionmechanism of ISO forprocess improvement 4 4 3 1 0.5 0 2.8 2

20 Process improvement

Use of pareto analysis andother statistical techniques

4 5 3 1 1.5 3 4.6 1 21 Process improvement

Key processes in theorganization are regularlybenchmarked and undergoquality auditing 2 3 3 0 2.0 2 2.2 2

22 Supplier focus

Quality and not price is theprime criteria in supplierselection 3 2 4 0 0.5 0 2.4 0

23 Supplier focus

Long term relationship withsuppliers is encouraged 2 1 2 0 0.0 0 2.2 0

24 Supplier focus

Suppliers are treated ascustomers whose feed backare important in the questfor improvement 2 3 3 0 0.5 2 2.2 2

25 Team work

Emphasis on team basedproblem solving approachrather thanindividual/department basedproblem solving approach 1 0 4 0 1.0 0.5 2.2 1

Table A5.2(cont’d…)

364

Table A5.2 (cont’d…) Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &

Factor

Question Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW26 Team work

People in the work unitshare responsibility for thesuccess and failure of theirwork 2 2 4 0 1.0 0 0.8 0

27 Team work

Members of differentdepartment voluntarilycome forward to jointlysolve an organizationalproblem. 4 3 4 0 1.0 0 2.2 1

28 Value & ethics

The organization emphasizesdoing things right the first time. 1 0 3 0 0.5 0 0.8 0

29 Value & ethics

managers in the

organization live up to high

ethical standards 2 0 1 0 0.5 0 0.6 1

30 Value & ethics

People in the organizationare committed to producehigh quality output ratherthan adopting short cuts which ultimately affectquality 4 5 1 0 0.5 1 2.8 0

31 Work culture

People in the work unittake pride in their work 3 0 3 0 0.0 0 2 1

32 Work culture

Making a mistake is notfeared. It is recognised as apart of learning. 2 0 3 0 1.0 0 0.6 1

33 Work culture

A lot of inter level and interdepartment discussions takeplace to build consensusbefore a policy is instituted. 3 2 4 5 2.0 0 2.2 0

34 Strategy

Meeting andexceeding customerexpectation is accorded ahigher strategic priority than short-term productiontarget. 3 2 4 0 0.5 0 1.6 1

35 Strategy

Streamlining the working( i.e. business) processes ofthe organization 3 3 3 0 2.0 0 0.8 1

Table A5.2 (cont’d…)

365

Table A5.2 (cont’d…) Deming prize winner Railway units Q.no. &

Factor

Question Sona M&M Rane PRL AMV BPL DLW DCW36 Strategy

Leaders in the organizationtry to plan ahead fortechnological andorganisational changes thatmight impact theorganization’s futureperformance. 5 4 3 2 1.5 0 1.4 2

total 102 111 113 39.0 39.5 40 76.6 31

Sum of factor scores for thequestionnaire (total/3) 34 37 37.66 13 13.17 13.33 25.33 10.33

Table A5.2 Scores obtained by different organizations on the ‘TQM transition

instrument’ at the final draft stage

Source: developed from survey data.

366

Score obtained by WAP and ICF on the ‘TQM transition questionnaire’

WAP ICF Question no. and factor

Question Raw

score Factor score

Raw score

Factor score

1 Customer Focus

People in the organization know who their internal and external customers are. 6 5

2 Customer Focus

All departments of my organization including

finance, personnel, stores and security care about

meeting their internal customer’s expectation. 4 1

3 Customer Focus

Both, the internal and external customers are asked for their opinions about the quality of work/ services/ products they receive from the organization. 5 5 3 3

4 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement

The resources, facts and information needed to do a good job are available to the people in the work unit.

5 2 5 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement

Effective communication across different departments so as to improve inter-department cooperation and align the work force towards corporate expectation

4 2 6 Communication across the organisation Information and Data maangement

The quality management system contributes to collection and integration of information which are then used for organisational decision making

5 4.66 5 3 7 Delegation and empowerment

The Schedule of Power (SOP) is modified so as to provide managers authority commensurate with their responsibilities 1 0

8 Delegation and empowerment

Employees are empowered to take corrective decisions on the spot without looking up to managers for their approval 4 1.66 3 2

Table A5.3 (cont’d…)

367

Table A5.3(cont’d…) WAP ICF Question no.

and factor Question

Raw score

Factor score

Raw score

Factor score

9 Delegation and empowerment

There is complete formal and/or de-facto autonomy to the head of this unit for takingdecisions which affect the working of this unit. 0 3

10 Continuous improvement

There is great emphasis on employee training for continuous learning of new things

4 5 11 Continuous improvement

Improvement of all operations including personnel and financial activities are monitored in MRM 4 6

12 Continuous improvement

Number of suggestions come from staff to improve the cross-functional work processes which are then implemented . 2 3.33 2 4.33

13 Results and recognition

People in the work unit receive promotions because they deserve them. 0 0

14 Results and recognition

There is a system of quick reward/recognition of people in the work unit for outstanding performance 4 1

15 Results and recognition

The reward / recognition policies are viewed with widespread satisfaction. 5 3 1 .66

16 Leadership

Leader(s) in the organization ask people about ways to improve the work produced, by settingexamples of quality performance in their day-to-day decision-making and activities. 5 2

17 Leadership

Senior managers providing clear vision and values that promote quality 1 2

18 Leadership

The manager provides the direction for or improvement and accordingly, workers are motivated to take initiative. In case of any difficulty, worker interacts with the manager to to improve the situation 2 2.66 1 1.33

19 Process improvement

Use of corrective and preventive action mechanism of ISO for process improvement

4 3 20 Process improvement

Use of pareto analysis and other statistical techniques

5 2 21 Process improvement

Key processes in the organization are regularly benchmarked and undergo quality auditing

4 4.33 0 1.33 22 Supplier focus

Quality and not price is the prime criteria insupplier selection 2 2.33 2 2

Table A5.3 (cont’d…)

368

Table A5.3 (cont’d…) WAP ICF Question no.

and factor Question

Raw score

Factor score

Raw score

Factor score

23 Supplier focus

Long term relationship with suppliers is encouraged 1 0

24 Supplier focus

Suppliers are treated as customers whose feed

back are important in the quest for improvement 4 4

25 Team work

Emphasis on team based problem solving approach rather than individual/department based problem solving approach 5 5

26 Team work

People in the work unit share responsibility for the success and failure of their work 2 0

27 Team work

Members of different department voluntarily come forward to jointly solve an organizational problem. 4 3.66 0 1.33

28 Value & ethics

The organization emphasizes doing things right the first time. 2 0

29 Value & ethics

managers in the organization live up to high ethical standards 1 2

30 Value & ethics

People in the organization are committed to produce high quality output rather than adopting short cuts which ultimately affect quality 3 2 0 .66

31 Work culture

People in the work unit take pride in their work 2 1

32 Work culture

Making a mistake is not feared. It is recognised as a part of learning. 2 0

33 Work culture

A lot of inter level and inter department discussions take place to build consensus before a policy is instituted. 4 2.66 3 1.33

34 Strategy

Meeting and exceeding customer expectation is accorded a higher strategic priority than short-term production target. 3 0

35 Strategy

Streamlining the working ( i.e. business) processes of the organization 2 0

36 Strategy

Leaders in the organization try to plan ahead for technological and organisational changes that might impact the organization’s future performance. 2 2.33 1 .33

total 123 41 64 21.33

Note: Factor score = sum of raw scores for a factor/3. Table A 5.3 Score obtained by WAP and ICF on the ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ Source: developed from survey data.

369

Appendix 6. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire

Southern Cross University

Graduate School of Management

Tweed, Gold Coast Australia

Informed Consent Form

Mr.

Dear Sir,

I am pursuing a doctoral study in management with a topic titled ‘Total Quality

Management as the basis for organisational transformation of Indian Railways’. As a part of

this study, a survey on leadership is being carried out by me.

The purpose of the survey is to understand about the leadership style of senior managers who

have worked in railways and who have been able to make a difference to their organizations.

Anecdotically, you have been considered as a leader who has made significant difference in

his area of work in the Indian Railways. As a student of leadership, it is worthwhile to

formally study your leadership style.

In this connection, enclosed please find a questionnaire called ‘leader form’ which you are

required to fill. Also attached is another questionnaire called ‘ratter form’ and

‘transformational leadership in Indian context’. They will be given to managers who have

worked under you. The managers will assess you leadership style. It is being sent to you so as

to seek your consent for the same.

May I request you to spare some time and respond to the enclosed questionnaire.

I would like to assure you that this survey is being taken only for academic purposes. The

confidentiality of the responses will be maintained. While I look forward to you responses to

the questionnaire, you participation is totally voluntary and you are free to withdraw from

completing this survey at any time..

Any complaints or queries regarding this project that cannot be answered by the person

responsible for this research project should be forwarded to:

Mr John Russell

370

Ethics Complaints Officer

Graduate Research College, Southern Cross University

PO Box 157, Lismore, 2480

Ph: (02) 66203705 Fax: (02) 6626 9145 Email: jrussell@scu.edu.au”

You are requested to send the filled questionnaire by registered post at the Varanasi address

given below ( as I have not received some replies sent by ordinary post).

Thanking you,

Researcher: Madhu Ranjan Kumar

Dy. CMM/ N.C. Rly/ email- madhu_ranjan@yahoo.com

Postal address: Bunglow no. 50, DLW,Varanasi 221004

Ph: 0542-2641017

Supervisor

Dr Shankar Sankaran, Associate Prof. Graduate School of Management, SCU, Tweed Head,

Gold Coast, Australia, e mail:- ssankara@scu.edu.au

________________________________________________________________________ The questionnaire was developed by Bass of Binghamton University, New York.. The permission to use the questionnaire is

greatfully acknowledged.

I have read the information above and agree to participate in this study as a leader whose

management style is to be assessed using the Multi Factor Leadership questionnaire. I am

over 18 years of age.

371

Name ……………………………………………………

Name of Witness (who shall be independent of the project)

Signature of the Witness: Date:

I certify that the terms of the form have been verbally explained to the subject, that the

subject appears to understand the terms prior to signing the form, and I asked the subject if

he needed to discuss the project with an independent person before signing and he declined.

Signature of the researcher: Date:

372

Appendix 6.1 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Leader Form

My Name:__________________________________________________________Date:_____

This questionnaire is to describe your leadership style as you perceive it. Please answer all items on this

answer sheet. If an item is irrelevant, or if you are unsure or do not know the answer, leave the

answer blank.

Forty-five descriptive statements are listed on the following pages. Judge how frequently each statement

fits you. The word "others" may mean your peers, clients, direct reports, supervisors, and/or all of these

individuals.

Use the following rating scale:

Not at all

0

Once in a while

1

Sometimes

2

Fairly often

3

Frequently, if

not always 4

1. I provide others with assistance in exchange for their efforts……….……….……..0 1 2 3 4

2. I re-examine critical assumptions to question whether they are appropriate……… 0 1 2 3 4

3. I fail to interfere until problems become serious……….………………………… .0 1 2 3 4

4. I focus attention on irregularities, mistakes, exceptions, and deviations

from standards………………………………………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

5. I avoid getting involved when important issues arise……………………………… .0 1 2 3 4

6. I talk about my most important values and beliefs ..…………………………………0 1 2 3 4

7. I am absent when needed…………………………………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

8. I seek differing perspectives when solving problems ………………….……………0 1 2 3 4

9. I talk optimistically about the future …………………………………………. . ..….0 1 2 3 4

10. I instil pride in others for being associated with me ………………………………0 1 2 3 4

11. I discuss in specific terms who is responsible for achieving performance targets…0 1 2 3 4

12. I wait for things to go wrong before taking action.………………… ……………0 1 2 3 4

13. I talk enthusiastically about what needs to be accomplished……………………….0 1 2 3 4

14. I specify the importance of having a strong sense of purpose… ………………0 1 2 3 4

15. I spend time teaching and coaching……………………………… ………………0 1 2 3 4

373

cont’d . ..

Not at all 0 Once in a while

1

Sometimes

2

Fairly often

3

Frequently, if

not always 4

16. I make clear what one can expect to receive when performance

goals are achieved…………………………………………………………………….0 1 2 3 4

17. I show that I am a firm believer in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

18. I go beyond self-interest for the good of the group,…………………………………0 1 2 3 4

19. I treat others as individuals rather than just as a member of a group………………. 0 1 2 3 4

20. I demonstrate that problems must become chronic before I take action…………… 0 1 2 3 4

21. I act in ways that build others' respect for me……………………………………….0 1 2 3 4

22. I concentrate my full attention on dealing with mistakes, complaints,

and failures…………………………………………………………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

23. I consider the moral and ethical consequences of decisions,………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

24. I keep track of all mistakes………………………………………………………… .0 1 2 3 4

25. I display a sense of power and confidence………………………………………… .0 1 2 3 4

26. I articulate a compelling vision of the future,………………………………………..0 1 2 3 4

27. I direct my attention toward failures to meet standards ,…………………………….0 1 2 3 4

28. I avoid making decisions,……………………………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

29. I consider an individual as having different needs, abilities, and

aspirations from others………………………………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

30. I get others to look at problems from many different angles………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

31. I help others to develop their strengths…………………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

32. I suggest new ways of looking at how to complete assignments………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

33. I delay responding to urgent questions,…………………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

34. I emphasize the importance of having a collective sense of mission……………… 0 1 2 3 4

35. I express satisfaction when others meet expectations……………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

36. I express confidence that goals will be achieved……………………………………0 1 2 3 4

37. I am effective in meeting others' job-related needs ,………………………………..0 1 2 3 4

38. I use methods of leadership that are satisfying ,…………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

39. I get others to do more than they expected to do , ………………………………….0 1 2 3 4

40. I am effective in representing others to higher authority ,…………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

374

cont’d…

41. I work with others in a satisfactory way ,………………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

42. I heighten others' desire to succeed ,……………………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

43. I am effective in meeting organizational requirements…………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

44. I increase others' willingness to try harder…………………………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

45. I lead a group that is effective……………………………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

Not at all

0

Once in a while

1

Sometimes

2

Fairly often

3

Frequently, if

not always 4

375

Appendix 6.2 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Rater Form Date: Rly unit (div/workshop/HQ/depot/others): Designation:

Service: Grade: No. of years of

service done in rly:

Age Location: Education:

Forty-five descriptive statements are listed on the following pages. Judge how frequently

each statement fits the person who is your immediate superior at your work place. You have

worked under the person for ……. years. He is in ………………(SS/JAG/ SAG/HAG/GM/

board member) grade.

Use the following rating scale:

Not at all

Once in a while Sometimes Fairly often Frequently,

If not always

0 1 2 3 4

code Sr.no. THE PERSON I AM RATING. . .

CR 1. Provides me with assistance in exchange for my efforts……………………….0 1 2 3 4

IS 2. Re-examines critical assumptions to question whether they are appropriate. ...0 1 2 3 4

MEP 3. Fails to interfere until problems become serious… ………………….... 0 1 2 3 4

MEA4. Focuses attention on irregularities, mistakes, exceptions, and deviations

from standards………………………………………………………… .0 1 2 3 4

LF 5. Avoids getting involved when important issues arise……………………. 0 1 2 3 4

IIB 6. Talks about their most important values and beliefs………………………0 1 2 3 4

LF 7. Is absent when needed……………………………… ……………… … 0 1 2 3 4

IS 8. Seeks differing perspectives when solving problems………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

IM 9. Talks optimistically about the future……………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

IIA 10. Instils pride in me for being associated with him/her…………………… 0 1 2 3 4

CR 11. Discusses in specific terms who is responsible for achieving

performance targets…………………………………………………… .….0. 1 2 3 4

cont’d…

376

MEP 12. Waits for things to go wrong before taking action .………………………0 1 2 3 4

IM 13. Talks enthusiastically about what needs to be accomplished………….. 0 1 2 3 4

IIB 14. Specifies the importance of having a strong sense of purpose… ……… 0 1 2 3 4

IC 15. Spends time teaching and coaching………………………………… ……..0 1 2 3 4

CR 16. Makes dear what one can expect to receive when performance

goals are achieved…………………………………………………….…… 0 1 2 3 4

MEP 17. Shows that he/she is a firm believer in "If it is not broken, don't fix it."…0 1 2 3 4

IIA 18. Goes beyond self-interest for the good of the group………………… … 0 1 2 3 4

IC 19. Treats me as an individual rather than just as a member of a group …….. 0 1 2 3 4

MEP 20. Demonstrates that problems must become chronic before taking action .. 0 1 2 3 4

IIA 21. Acts in ways that builds my respect for him………………………… …. 0 1 2 3 4

MEA 22. Concentrates his/her full attention on dealing with mistakes, complaints,

and failures………………………………………………….………………… 0 1 2 3 4

IIB 23. Considers the moral and ethical consequences of decisions…… …… 0 1 2 3 4

MEA 24. Keeps track of all mistakes……………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

IIA 25. Displays a sense of power and confidence……………………… ……0 1 2 3 4

IM 26. Articulates a compelling vision of the future…………………… …0 1 2 3 4

MEA 27. Directs my attention toward failures to meet standards………………0 1 2 3 4

LF 28. Avoids making decisions………………………………………… …. 0 1 2 3 4

cont’d…

Not at all

Once in a while Sometimes Fairly often Frequently,

If not always

0 1 2 3 4

377

IC 29. Considers me as having different needs, abilities, and aspirations

from others………………………………………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

IS 30. Gets me to look at problems from many different angles…………… 0 1 2 3 4

IC 31. Helps me to develop my strengths……………………………… …..0 1 2 3 4

IS 32. Suggests new ways of looking at how to complete assignments…… . 0 1 2 3 4

LA 33. Delays responding to urgent questions……………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

IIB 34. Emphasizes the importance of having a collective sense of mission… 0 1 2 3 4

CR 35. Expresses satisfaction when I meet expectations………………… … 0 1 2 3 4

IM 36. Expresses confidence that goals will be achieved…………………… 0 1 2 3 4

EFF 37. Is effective in meeting my job-related needs………………….…….0 1 2 3 4

S 38. Uses methods of leadership that are satisfying………………… ……0 1 2 3 4

EE 39. Gets me to do more than I expected to do………………………… …0 1 2 3 4

EFF 40. Is effective in representing me to higher authority……………… ……0 1 2 3 4

S 41. Works with me in a satisfactory way………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

EE 42. Heightens my desire to succeed…………………………………… … 0 1 2 3 4

cont’d…

Not at all

Once in a while Sometimes Fairly often Frequently,

If not always

0 1 2 3 4

378

EFF 43. Is effective in meeting organizational requirements……… ……..…. 0 1 2 3 4

EE 44. Increases my willingness to try harder……………………………..… 0 1 2 3 4

EE 45. Leads a group that is effective………………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

Reliability and validity: The reliability and validity of MLA questionnaire are extensively

dealt with in Bass and Avolio (2000). They are briefly reproduced below.

Reliability: The reliability of different components of Multi Factor Leadership

Questionnaire (MLQ) is indicated below.

Total Sample (N = 2154)

Scale II(A) II(B) IM IS IC CR MBEA MBEP LF EE EFF SAT

Mean 2.56 2.64 2.64 2.51 2.66 2.20 1.75 1.11 .89 2.60 2.62 2.57

SD .84 .85 .87 .86 .93 .89 .77 .82 .74 1.16 .72 1.28

Reliability .86 .87 .91 .90 .90 .87 .74 .82 .83 .91 .91 .94

Table A6.2.1 Reliability Scores for MLQ 5x

Source: Bass & Avolio (2000, p.16).

The inter-correlation between different components of the MLQ are shown below.

Not at all

Once in a while Sometimes Fairly often Frequently,

If not always

0 1 2 3 4

379

II(A) II(B) IM IS IC CR MBE MBE LF EE EFF

II(A) -

II(B) .79* -

IM .85* .86* -

IS .76* .84* .85* -

IC .82* .82* .87* .84* -

CR .68* .69** .73* .70* .75* -

MB - -0.3 - - - .03 -

MB - - - - - - .28*

LF - - - - - - .18* .74* -

EE .68* .69* .73* .69* .74* .62* .03 - - -

EFF .51* .44* .46* .41* .44* .32* - - - .45*

SAT .25* .22* .21* .18* .27* .19* .06 - - .23* .15*

TableA6.2.2 Intercorrelations among MLQ Factor Scores

Source: Bass & Avolio (2000).

Validity: Bass and Avolio (2000) used Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test the

convergent and discriminant validities of each MLQ 5X scale by examining the structural

relations among latent constructs. It confirmed the 9-factor conceptual model proposed by

them. Their item selection process also included an extensive content analysis. Further, Bass

and Avolio also ran a series of CFAs to determine if there were other competing models

which better describe transformational leadership. Specifically, they tested several competing

models to see which factor structure solutions best represented the current MLQ 5X data. The

competing models included:

one general or global leadership factor model;

a two correlated factors model (active versus passive leadership);

a three correlated factors model (transformational, transactional leadership and

non-leadership); and

a nine correlated factors "full range of leadership" model (IIA, IIB, 1M, IS, IC, CR,

MBEA, MBEP, and LF). Each CFA was based on the maximum likelihood estimation

method.

The Table A6.2.3 shows the comparison of several fit measures as well as the chi-square test

results of the competing factor/model solutions. All of the fit measures and chi-square tests

380

improved as the model progressed from a one-factor solution to the full range leadership

model solution (nine factors model). According to Bass and Avolio (2000) “improvement

became substantial as one progressed from the two-factor model to the three-factor model

and again from the three- factor model to the full nine-factor model. In particular, the

goodness of fit index (GFI) of .91 for the full model exceeds the .90 cut-off criterion

recommended in the literature (Bentler, 1990; Bollen, 1989). Also, the root mean squared

residual (RMSR) of .04 of the full model satisfies the cut-off criterion of less than .05

recommended by Joreskog & Sorbom (1989)”. Thus it is reasonable to conclude that the

MLQ leadership model can be used for assessing transformational leadership among the

Indian Railways managers.

Fit measure One factor two factor three factor Nine factor (full range)

model model model model

Chi square/ df

GFI*

AGFI**

RMSR***

5,674 /594 5,260/593 3,529/591 2,394 /558

0.75 0.77 0.86 0.91

0.72 0.74 0.84 0.89

0.07 0.08 0.05 0.04

Table A6.2.3 Comparison of overall fit measures among several factor models

Source: Bass and Avolio (2000)

*Goodness of fit index **Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index ***Root Mean Squared

Residuals

381

Factor

Item II(A)

Factor

Item II(B)

Factor

Item IM

Factor

Item IS

Factor

Item IC

II(A)21 0.73 II(B) 3 0.63 IM25 0.69 IS17 0.71 IC 9 0.60

II(A)31 0.71 II(B)23 0.76 IM35 0.68 IS47 0.73 IC39 0.82

II(A)61 0.85 II(B)33 0.70 IM64 0.79 IS57 0.79 IC49 0.77

II(A)67 0.65 II(B)71 0.72 IM72 0.77 IS73 0.81 IC59 0.73

Item Factor

CR

Factor

Item MBEA

Item Factor

MBEP

Item Factor

LF

CR16 0.65 MBEA 6 0.59 MBEP20 0.73 LF 2 0.57

CR40 0.65 MBEA22 0.37** MBEP36 0.83 LF18 0.51

CR56 0.70 MBEA30 0.60 MBEP44 0.37** LF42 0.71

CR80 0.78 MBEA46 0.65 MBEP52 0.88 LF50 0.68

*Item numbers are for the MLQ5x form and for the current study.

** This item loading was below minimum cut-offs, but retained to provide a broader

assessment of the construct.

Table A6.2.4 The squared parameter estimates of the full range of leadership

model. All of the indicators loading on each construct were statistically

significant, indicating that these respective scales each have satisfactory levels of

internal consistency.

Source: Bass and Avolio (2000).

382

MLQ Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire

Scoring Key (5x) Short My

Name:_______________________________________________________Date:__________

Scoring: The MLQ scale scores are average scores for the items on the scale. The score can

be derived by summing the items and dividing by the number of items that make up the scale.

All of the leadership style scales have four items, Extra Effort has three items, Effectiveness

has four items, and Satisfaction has two items.

Idealized Influence (Attributed) total/4= Management-by-Exception (Active) total/4 =

Idealized Influence (Behaviour) total/4= Management-by-Exception (Passive) total/4

=

Inspirational Motivation total/4 = Laissez-faire Leadership total/4 =

Intellectual Stimulation total/4 = Extra Effort total/3 =

Individual Consideration total/4 = Effectiveness total/4 =

Contingent Reward total/4 = Satisfaction total/2 =

1. Contingent Reward……………….………………………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

2. Intellectual Stimulation………………………………….………………………….0 1 2 3 4

3. Management-by-Exception (Passive..)……………..………….……………… ..0 1 2 3 4

4. Management-by-Exception (Active)…………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

5. Laissez-faire Leadership………………………………………..………….0 1 2 3 4

6. Idealized Influence (Behaviour)………………………………….………0 1 2 3 4

7. Laissez-faire Leadership………………………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

8. Intellectual Stimulation………………………………….…………………………0 1 2 3 4

9. Inspirational Motivation…………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

10. Idealized Influence (Attributed)…………………………….………….0 1 2 3 4

11.Contingent Reward………………………………………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

12. Management-by-Exception (Passive)…………………………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

383

cont’d…

13. Inspirational Motivation………………………………………...0 1 2 3 4

14. Idealized Influence (Behaviour)…………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

15. Individual Consideration………………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

16. Contingent Reward…………………………………………………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

17. Management-by-Exception (Passive)……………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

18. Idealized Influence (Attributed)…………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

19. Individual Consideration………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

20. Management-by-Exception (Passive)………………………………………..0 1 2 3 4

21. Idealized Influence (Attributed)…………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

22. Management-by-Exception (Active)………………………………….… 0 1 2 3 4

23. Idealized Influence (Behaviour)……………………………………0 1 2 3 4

24. Management-by-Exception (Active)…………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

25. Idealized Influence (Attributed)………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

26. Inspirational Motivation…………………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

27. Management-by-Exception (Active)………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

28. Laissez-faire Leadership……………………………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

29. Individual Consideration…………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

30. Intellectual Stimulation……………………………………………………………….0 1 2 3 4

31. Individual Consideration…………………………….0 1 2 3 4

32. Intellectual Stimulation……………………………………………………………….0 1 2 3 4

33. Laissez-faire Leadership……………………………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

34. Idealized Influence (Behavior)…………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

35. Contingent Reward …………………………………………………………………..0 1 2 3 4

36. Inspirational Motivation…………………………………………0 1 2 3 4

37. Effectiveness………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

38. Satisfaction………………………… .0 1 2 3 4

39. Extra Effort………………………0 1 2 3 4

40. Effectiveness……………………………………0 1 2 3 4

41. Satisfaction………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

42. Extra Effort………………………0 1 2 3 4

43. Effectiveness…………………………………… 0 1 2 3 4

44. Extra Effort…………………………. 0 1 2 3 4

45. Effectiveness………………………………….. 0 1 2 3 4

384

Appendix 6.3 Scores obtained on the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (rater form)

Leader J P Pandey( Alambagh)

Leader Pradhan (Bhopal)

No of respondents n 2 2

Dimensions

Satisfaction SAT 3.66 3.55

Extra effort EE 3 3.83

Effectiveness EFF 3.5 3.87

Idealised influence (attribute) IIA 3.5 3.87

Idealised influence (Behaviour) IIB 3.33 3.87

Inspirational motivation IM 3.5 3.5

Intellectual Stimulation IS 3.16 3

Individualised consideration IC 3.25 1.87

Contingent reward CR 3.08 3.75

Management by exception

(active)

MEA

3.41

3

Management by exception

(passive)

MEP

0.58

.625

Laissez Faire LF 0 0

385

Appendix 7. Organization chart of Indian Railways (Entries in violet are field managers. Entries in black are head quarter managers. Most

of the field managers work under the dual control of their immediate superior field manager

and their headquarter manager. For example a Divisional Operating Manager (DOM) works

under his immediate superior - a Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) and also under his

headquarter superior – Chief Operating Manager. DRM and GM are from any department

other than medical and security).

GM COM CCM CSC CEE COS CME CPO FA& CAO CSTE PCE CMO CMM CWM CWE, CRSE

Dy CMM Dy CMM Dy CME DMM APO IPF WME WEE WPO SFM DMM IPF DRM

DOM DCM DSC DEE DMM DME DPO DFM DSTE DEN MS GM – General Manager, COM – Chief Operations Manager, CCM – Chief Commercial Manager, CSC – Chief Security Manager, CEE – Chief Electrical Engineer, COS – Controller of Stores, CME – Chief Mechanical Engineer, CPO – Chief Personnel Officer, FA & CAO – Financial Advisor & Chief Accounts Officer, CSTE – Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer, PCE – Principal Chief Engineer, CMO – Chief Medical Officer, CMM – Chief Materials Manager, CWE – Chief Workshop Engineer, CRSE – Chief Rolling Stock Engineer, Dy. CMM – Deputy Chief Materials Manager, Dy. CME – Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer, DMM – Divisional Materials Manager, APO – Assistant Personnel Officer, SFM – Senior Finance Manager, IPF – Inspector of Protection Force, WME – Workshop Mechanical Engineer, WEE – Workshop Electrical Engineer, WPO – Workshop Personnel Officer, DOM – Divisional Operating Manager, DCM – Divisional Commercial Manager, DSC – Divisional Security Commissioner, DEE – Divisional Electrical Engineer, DME – Divisional Mechanical Engineer, DPO – Divisional Personnel Officer, DFM – Divisional Financial Manager, DSTE – Divisional Signal & Telecommunication Engineer, DEN – Divisional Engineer, MS - Medical Superintendent

386

Appendix 8. Intimation about co- action researchers

Southern Cross University

Graduate School of Management

Tweed, Gold Coast, Australia

Informed consent form

dt 20.4.2004

Sub: intimation about co- action researchers

To,

Mr. Sunil Agrawal,Deputy Chief Materials Manager

General Stores Depot, North Central Railway, Jhansi, India

Dear Sir,

For the purpose of implementation of ISO 9000 standard in a structured way at Jhansi

warehousing unit of North Central Railway, a team of co-researchers for the action research

team is requested to be made.

The learning gleaned from this action research will constitute a part of the doctoral study in

management which the undersigned is pursuing on a topic titled ‘ Total Quality Management

as the basis for organisational transformation of Indian Railways’ from Southern Cross

University, Australia.

I would like to assure you that the learning gleaned from this action research study will be

used only for academic purposes. While I look forward to co-researchers, their participation

is totally voluntary and they will be free to withdraw at any time. However, the information

gleaned till will be used.

If you have any query, kindly do contact us.

Further, any complaints or queries regarding this project that cannot be answered by the

person responsible for this research project should be forwarded to:

Mr John Russell

Ethics Complaints Officer

Graduate Research College, Southern Cross University

387

PO Box 157, Lismore, 2480

Ph: (02) 66203705 Fax: (02) 6626 9145 Email: jrussell@scu.edu.au”

Researcher: Madhu Ranjan Kumar

Dy CMM/ N.C. Rly, e_mail- madhu_ranjan@yahoo.com

Postal address: Bunglow no. 50, DLW, Varanasi 221004

ph: 0542-2302807

Supervisor

Dr Shankar Sankaran, Associate Prof. Graduate School of Management, SCU, Tweed Head,

Gold Coast, Australia, e mail:- ssankara@scu.edu.au

388

To,

Madhu Ranjan Kumar

Dy COS/ NCR

Ref: your letter regarding ISO implementation at Jhansi depot through action research

With reference to your letter, the following members of Jhansi depot will be associating

themselves for the ISO implementation as the co-researcher. Their participation is voluntary.

1. Sunil Agrawal- Deputy Chief Material Manager

2. Shashi Bala Srivastava – Divisional Material Manager

3. Rajiv Chaturvedi – Divisional Material Manager

4. U.C Pandey - Depot Material Superintendent –1

5. B.B. Kalra - Depot Material Superintendent - 1

6. A.U. Siddiqui- Assistant Materials Manager

Sunil Agrawal

Deputy Chief Materials Manager

Jhansi depot, North Central Railway

India

389

Appendix 9. List of ISO certified units in the Indian Railways

1 Units Certified Under ISO Quality System (corrected upto 15.10..2003) 2 A B D F G H I

3 S.No. Type of Unit

W.Shop/Diesel shed/Training

Centre Rly. Name of Unit Staff

strengthDate of

Certificat-ion

Standard

4 Units already Certified 5 1 Production Units/RDSO 6 1.1 Res. Centre RDSO RDSO/LKO 2500 08.07.1999 9001:19947 1.2 PU RCF Kapurthala 5800 6/30/98 9001:19948 1.3 PU RCF Kapurthala 5800 26.09.01 9001:20009 1.4 PU RCF Kapurthala 5800 21.07.99 ISO-1400110 1.5 PU RCF Kapurthala 5800 12.7.02 ISO-1400111 1.6 PU DCW Patiala 3900 08.9.1998 9002:1994

12 1.7 PU CLW Chittaranjan 14230 13.7.96 9001:1994

13 1.8 PU CLW Chittaranjan 14231 26.4.02 14001:1996

14 1.9 PU ICF Chennai 13,687 20.1.2003 9001:2000

15 1.10 PU ICF Chennai 13,687 24.12.2001 14001:199616 1.11 PU RWF RWF/ Yelahanka 2345 19.11.94 9001 17 1.12 PU RWF RWF/ Yelahanka 2346 28.6.99 14001 18 19 2 Workshops 20 2.1 Mechanical Workshops

21 2.1.1 W/S CR Parel 1850 25.02.02 9001:2000

22 2.1.2 W/S CR Matunga 9600 03.07.01 9001:2001

23 2.1.3 W/S CR Matunga 9600 20.6.02 14001:1996

24 2.1.4 W/S WCR Bhopal 2200 12.6.01 9001:2000

25 2.1.5 W/S WCR Bhopal 2200 14.4.2003 14001:1996

26 2.1.6 W/S WCR Jhansi 700 13.6.01 9001:200127 2.1.7 W/S WCR RSK W/Shop 435 21.9.01 9001:200128 2.1.8 W/S ER Liluah 8400 2.1.2003 9001:200029 2.1.9 W/S NR Kalka NA NA 9002 30 2.1.10 W/S NER Gorakhpur 669 17.9.2001 9002:199431 2.1.11 W/S NER Izatnagar 80 7.1.2002 9001:200032 2.1.12 C&W SCR Lallaguda NA 19.1.2000 9002 33 2.1.13 Carriage W/S SCR Tirupati NA 21.5.99 9002 34 2.1.14 Wagon W/S SCR Guntupalli NA 24.3.99 9002

390

Appendix 9 (cont’d…)

S.No. Type of Unit

W.Shop/ Diesel shed/

Training Centre Rly. Name of Unit Staff strength

Date of Certificat-

ion Standard

35 2.1.15 W/S SWR MYS NA NA 9002 36 2.1.16 W/S SWR MYS NA 31.3.2003 14001 37 2.1.17 C&W W/S SWR Hubli 3354 28.10.99 9002:94 38 2.1.18 W/S SR Perambur NA NA 9002 39 2.1.19 Loco W/Shop SR Parambur NA NA 9001

40 2.1.20 W/S SER Dsl. POH/KGP Coil Mfg. Section 50 02.01.01 9002

41 2.1.21 W/S SER Kharagpur, Roller Bearing Section,

Wheel shop 57 21.3.2002 9002

42 2.1.22 W/S ECoR Mancheswar 1870 10.1.2003 9001 43 2.1.23 C&W W/S WR Ajmer NA 27.6.2001 9002 44 2.1.24 C&W W/S WR Ajmer NA NA 14001

45 2.1.25 W/S WR Lower Parel Mar.2000 9002:1994

46 2.1.26 W/S WR Mahalaxmi 4814

May-00 9002:199447 2.1.27 W/S WCR Kota NA NA 9000

48 2.1.28 W/S WR Pratapnagar 550 Sept.2001 9002:1994

49 2.1.29 W/S WR Dahod 2298 Jan.2002 9002:199450 51 2.2 Engineering Workshops 52 2.2.1 Engg. W/S CR Manmad 918 23.12.2000 9002:94 53 2.2.2 Engg W/S CR Sithouli NA NA 14001 54 2.2.3 Br W/S NR Jalandhar 624 21.1.2000 9002:199455 2.2.4 Br W/S NR Lucknow 840 20.4.2001 9002:199456 2.2.5 CPOH NCR Allahabad 117 NA 9002:199457 58 2.3 S&T Workshop

59 2.3.1 S&T W/S SR Podanur (All sections except Q Relays) 716 24.10.2002 9002:1994

60 2.3.2 S&T W/S SR Podanur (Q Relays) 161 24.6.1998 9002:199461 2.3.3 S&T W/S SR Podanur (Q Relays) 161 23.11.2001 9002:199462 63 2.4 Electrical Workshops

64 2.4.1 Loco W/S CR ELW,Bhusawal 1609 17.1.2002 9001:2000

65 2.4.2 TM W/S CR TMW,NKRD,Nagpur 559 17.1.2002 9001:200066 2.4.3 EMU W/S NR Ghaziabad NA 25.9.02 9000:200067 2.4.4 Loco W/S SCR Lallaguda NA NA 9001 68 69 3 Diesel Sheds & Diesel Training Schools 70 3.1 DLS ER Andal 750 5.5.2003 9001:200071 3.2 DLS NR Tuklakabad 1182 18.2.2000 9002:199472 3.3 DLS NR Ludhiana 1500 6.12.2000 9002:199473 3.4 DLS NR Alambagh 1034 26.12.2001 9002:199474 3.5 DLS NR Shakur Basti 163 6.7.2001 9002:1994

391

Appendix 9 (cont’d…)

S.No. Type of Unit

W.Shop/ Diesel shed/

Training Centre Rly. Name of Unit Staff strength

Date of Certificat-

ion Standard

75 3.6 DLS NWR Bhagat Ki Kothi NA NA 9002:1994 76 3.7 DLS SR Golden Rock NA 9.9.1998 9002 77 3.8 DLS SR Erode NA 21.9.2002 9002 78 3.9 DLS SCR Gooty 1000 31.5.2001 9002 79 3.10 DLS SCR Guntakal 700 28.5.2001 9002 80 3.11 DLS SCR Kazipet 1000 31.5.2001 9002 81 3.12 LOFP/SC SCR Secunderabad 99 28.5.2001 9002 82 3.13 DLS SWR KJM NA 20.2.2001 9002

83 3.14 DLS WR Ratlam 983 31.3.2003 9001:2000

84 3.15 DLS WR Vatva 848 2.11.2001 9002:1994 85 3.16 DLS WR Sabarmati 959 29.10.01 9002:1994 86 3.17 Dsl Trg Sch WR Sabarmati 14 29.10.01 9002:1994 87 3.18 Dsl Trg Sch WR Ratlam 33 31.3.03 9001:2000 88 89 4 Electric/EMU/MEMU Sheds 90 4.1 ELS CR ELS,AQ,Ajni 902 Sept.2002 9001:2000 91 4.2 ELS NCR Kanpur 1070 11.5.2001 9002:1994 92 4.3 EMU Shed NR Ghaziabad NA 3.10.2002 9000:2000

93 4.4 EMU W/Shop SR Avadi 442 24.10.2000 9002

94 4.5 ELS SCR Lallaguda 768 3.12.2002 9001:2000 95 96 5 Carriage & Wagon 97 5.1 ROH Depot 98 5.1.1 ROH Dpt NR KJGY 172 04.05.02 9002 99 5.1.2 ROH Dpt SR Jolarpettai NA NA 9002

100 5.1.3 ROH Dpt WR Vatva 179 Mar.2002 9002:1994

101 5.1.4 ROH Dpt WR Sabrmati 362 Mar.2002 9002:1994

102 5.2 Coaching Depot

103 5.2.1 C/ Dpt WR Bandra 324 Dec.2001 9002:1994

104 5.2.2 C/ Dpt WR Ahmedabad 516 Mar.2002 9002:1994 105 5.2.3 C/ Dpt WR Mumbai Central 881 Jan.2001 9002:1994 106 5.2.4 C/ Dpt WR Indore 243 Jan.2002 9002:1994 107 5.2.5 C/ Dpt WR Kankaria 516 Feb.2002 9002:1994 108 5.3 Wagon Depots 109 5.3.1 W/ Dpt CR Kalyan Freight Depot NA 31.5.2003 9001:2000 110 111 6 Training Institutes 112 6.1 Trg Inst CR Bhusawal NA NA 9002 113 6.2 Trg Inst SR Podanur NA NA 9002 114 115 7 Store Office 116 7.1 Pur Off SR Perambur 80 23.8.2002 9001:2000 117

392

Appendix 9 (cont’d…)

S.No. Type of Unit

W.Shop/ Diesel shed/

Training Centre Rly. Name of Unit Staff

strengthDate of

Certificat-ion

Standard

118 8 Trains 119 8.1 Train CR Bhopal-Nizammuddin NA NA 9001:2000 120 121 9 Construction Units 122 9.1 Con ECOR Bhubhaneswar NA NA 9001:2000 123 9.2 Con ECOR Bhubhaneswar 340 17.2.2003 9001:2000 124 125 10 Operating / Commercial Activity Centres 126 10.1 Res.Enq NCR Jhansi NA Jul-03 2001:2000 127 10.2 Ret.Rm NCR Gwalior NA Jul-03 2001:2000 128 10.3 Stn WCR Habibganj, Rly. Stn NA 15.05.03 9001:2000 129 10.4 Cntl Off WCR Bhopal NA Aug.2003 2001:2000

130 10.5 Cntl Off WCR Divisional Control unit, BPL NA 15.05.03 9001:2000

131 132 11 Running Rooms 133 11.1 Running Rooms NCR Jhansi NA Jul-03 2001:2001

393

Appendix 10. Organisational Chart of Jhansi workshop unit of Indian Railways

CWM- Chief Workshop Manager, Dy CMM – Deputy Chief Materials

Manager, Dy CME – Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer, WPO – Workshop Personnel Officer, WAO – Workshop Accounts Officer, DMM – Divisional Materials Manager, WME – Workshop Mechanical Engineer, WEE – Workshop Electrical Engineer, AAO – Assistant Accounts Officer, IPF – Inspector Protection Force.

CWM

Dy CMM Dy CME WPO WAO

DMM WME, WEE AAO

IPF