Total Quality Culture

Total Quality Culture: Changing Hearts, Minds, and Attitudes

PRAVIN ASAR http://www.linkedin.com/in/pravinasar Page 1

Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Total Quality Culture ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Cultural change for TQM ............................................................................................................................... 4
Laying the foundation ................................................................................................................................... 5
Characteristics of Quality Culture ................................................................................................................. 7
Change is difficult ........................................................................................................................................ 10
Paradigm for Effective Change.................................................................................................................... 12
Resistance to Change .................................................................................................................................. 13
Strategy to overcome Resistance to Change .............................................................................................. 15
Strategy to Establish a Quality Culture ....................................................................................................... 17
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 22
References: ................................................................................................................................................. 24



Abstract

All the creative breakthroughs in quality must originate with people. The people you want
in your organization, regardless of position, want to grow in personal and group leadership
skills. They want to be "led," not driven.
This white paper presents an approach that systematically designs and builds a culture in
which a total emphasis on quality reaches and affects all policies, practices, processes and
people. The insights and tools provided here are blended into a purposeful and focused life
and leadership style, quantum leaps in quality will occur.
About Author

Pravin has over 20 years of experience in the engineering and software industry. His
experience includes CAD/CAM and PLM software customization, integration and custom
engineering software solution development. He has handled multiple roles in the areas of
new product introduction, product development, engineering services, engineering process
engineering and project management. He has experience in product design and
development and NPI, and has contributed to number of NPI programs. He has also
managed several strategic consulting assignments in the product development and lifecycle
management domain for major automotive, power generation and aerospace
organizations. For his significant contribution, he received Scientist/Engineer of the Year
2012 from NASA Kennedy Space Center.

Pravin has a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with focus CADCAM from
Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and master’s degree in Project Management with
concentration in strategic innovations and engineering management from Florida
Institute of Technology, Melbourne FL.



Total Quality Culture

Culture includes who we are, what we believe, what we do and how we do it.

To understand a Quality Culture, one must first understand an Organizational
Culture. Organizational culture is an amalgam of traditions inherited from the past,
shared values and beliefs, a common mindset, characteristic behaviors and symbols.
It is for this reason that corporate culture should be incorporated into
organizational processes aimed at managing strategic change. Organizational
culture can be defined as the ways things routinely operate, what people can take
for granted about their organizational life and how people can be expected to be
treated. An organizational culture is net sum of Business Environment,
Organizational Values, Cultural Role Models, Organizational Rites, Rituals and
Customs and finally Cultural Transmitters. Good results quality are an indicator of
aligned organizational culture, where people’s actions, beliefs and experiences align
with the requirements results .

Figure 1 Organizational Culture
A quality culture Goetsch, Davis 2012 is:

An organizational value system that results in an environment that is
conducive to the establishment and continual improvement of Quality.



Another definition as cited by Viljoen and Waveren July 2008 is:

Quality culture encompasses an organization’s practices, central values and
philosophy and can be defined as the concentration of all people and
resources in a never‐ending quest for greater quality and service in every
dimension of the organization. Therefore, quality culture refers to a specific
part of the organizational culture related to an organization’s quality
initiatives, whereas organizational culture refers to the entire culture of an
organization.
Cultural change for TQM

According to Goetsch and Davis 2012 , the TQM approach involves more than simply
meeting goals of traditional approach do not fix it if not broken and rejection rate
standards . The end result of TQM is the efficient and effective use of all organizational
processes in providing consistent quality at a competitive price.
Implementing a total quality management system has become the preferred approach
for improving quality and productivity in organizations. TQM, which has been adopted
by leading industrial companies, is a participative system empowering all employees to
take responsibility for improving quality within the organization. Instead of using
traditional bureaucratic rule enforcement, TQM calls for a change in the corporate
culture, where the new work climate has the following characteristics:
 An open, problem‐solving atmosphere
 Participatory design making
 Trust among all employees staff, line, workers, managers
 A sense of ownership and responsibility for goal achievement and problems solving
 Self‐motivation and self‐control by all employees
According to Viljoen and Waveren, The TQM philosophy is a long‐term endeavor that
links people and processes in a system that alters the corporate culture to become one
where quality is the core aspect of business strategy. A common accepted vision,
accepted responsibilities; customer‐focus and group cohesiveness needs to be done to
pave the way for a total quality culture. That is why when cultivating the TQM
philosophy, implementation strategy must involve a focused effort on the part of every
employee within the organization. It cannot be applied successfully on a piecemeal
basis.



As cited by Salum and Qin, TQM requires that management, and eventually every
member of the organization, commit to the need for continual improvement in the way
work is accomplished. Business plans, strategies, and management actions require
continual rethinking in order to develop a culture that reinforces the TQM perspective.
The challenge is to develop a robust culture where the idea of quality improvement is
not only widely understood across departments, but becomes a fundamental, deep‐
seated value within each function area as well. Common mistake is to work with top of
the Organizational culture pyramid Figure 1 . More effects are put in actions to get
better results. The fact that people think their beliefs and that there are reasons their
past experience why people think the way they do are ignored.
Working with bottom of the pyramid experiences and beliefs can yield more
significant, long‐lasting change, but it also takes more effort long term endeavor .
When people’s past experiences mostly bad are erased/readdressed with good
experiences positive information flow with management , their beliefs are changed for
good. Doing things actions the right way becomes a people’s second nature. All of this
leads to good results quality .
We can name this culture change as fostering the “culture of accountability”, when in
everyone management and employees in organization makes a personal commitment
to achieving the organization’s results customer satisfaction .
Laying the foundation

“Character is like the foundation of a house ‐ it is below the surface.”
– Unknown source
Same way a solid foundation is perquisite for establishing good characteristics in a
quality conscious organization. Following building blocks/steps Goetsch and Davis
2012 could be applied to establish good quality culture foundation
Understand:
• Organizations concept of quality and organizational goals
• Desires to tweak or change the quality culture
• Define problem/opportunity.
• Define processes/service to be addressed.
• Define measure s of success.
• Define stakeholders, customers and team.



Assess:
• Assess organizational goals and current performance.
• Determine most important problems and biggest opportunities.
• Determine customer needs.
• Translate customer needs into service features.
• Benchmark other service providers.
Plan:
• Comprehensive implementation plan.
• Involve employees at all levels of organization to establish feasibility of
implementation.
• Receive inputs and try to in‐corporate good inputs in the revised plan.
Expect:
• Set quality‐related goals, requirements for all teams, units, departments, and
divisions in the organization.
• Define the requirements relating to quality in the organization’s strategic plan
• Define quality in the job descriptions of all personnel
• Define quality in all of the organization’s team charters
• Define quality criteria in all of the organization’s performance appraisal
instruments,
• Talk about quality at all levels in the organization,
• Recognize and reward quality‐positive attitudes and behavior
• Provide quality‐related training for personnel at all levels
Model:
• Identify role models generally Executives, managers, and supervisors
• Management personnel must walk the talk; make sure role models consistently
relay positive quality‐related attitudes and reinforce the expectation of
personnel.
• Orient. Provide guidance and training. Set Quality‐related expectations to new
entrants in an organization teach good habits to being with .
Training and Mentor:
• Provide training and mentoring current as well as new employees,
• Cultivate quality‐positive attitudes and behaviors
• Make them aware of their role in TQM and ultimately how their contribution
leads to organizational success.



Monitor:
• Monitor the exceptions inappropriate attitudes and behaviors
• Track the effectiveness of TQM initiative
Reinforce and maintain:
• To maintain a quality culture, reinforce the quality‐related attitudes and
behaviors
• Incentives could be recognition and reward systems
• Tie raises, promotions, and recognition awards with level of quality standards
met by individuals performance based compensation
• Maintain process if working

Characteristics of Quality Culture

To better understand these characteristics/values let's state the opposite end of the
spectrum John A. Woods, 1998 . These characterize the assumptions behind the
behavior and approach of corporations with traditional approach to quality.
In an organization with a traditional culture, the primary focus is return on investment
and short‐term profits.
 The boss knows best. Managers think and employees do.
 Lack of team spirit. Everyone for him or herself. Creates an unnecessary strain
between co‐workers. “MVP” Syndrome, organization depends on few
individuals “heroes” to help in tough time. Focus on individual work; work in
silos
 Keep communication limited and secretive. Keep most information at the top,
and share it only when necessary.
 Success is everything; no tolerance for failure. Success is measured by immediate
bottom line without much concern for long term growth and survival.
Enough said about traditional culture. So organization with Quality Culture has to be
opposite of traditional culture, as this approach does not seem to work most of the
times.
A quality culture is led by management who believes in the systems view and
understands that their company exists to create a mutually beneficial relationship
between itself, its people and its customers. Modified ISO9000 process model ISO



2009 can be treated a system view of quality culture Figure 1 . The bidirectional input
links between company and external world mainly customer represent an
information flow.

Figure 2 Modified Process model of the ISO 9000 family of standards
Characteristics of company with quality culture can be listed as follows:
1. Widely shared philosophy of management
“WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER: COMPANY, SUPPLIERS, CUSTOMERS”
This is the natural place to start. This comes from the idea that companies are
systems. "We're all in this together" reminds us that individual success depends on
how everyone in the company works together and that the company's success
depends on all individuals doing their work well.
For this to happen, a company must be a place where people feel they are part of
something bigger than themselves. Then they must identify their personal success
on the job with that something. This can result in people understanding that by
working hard for the company, they look out for themselves at the same time.
2. Emphasis on the importance of human resources to the organization
3. Informal rules of behavior
4. Effective internal network for communicating the culture
5. Recognition and rewards for successful employees
6. Ceremonies to celebrate organizational events
7. Strong value system
8. High standards for performance



9. Definite organizational character

Characteristic #1 helps everyone define the company not just as the buildings,
assets, and employees, but also customers and suppliers. Individual is valued with
the company. It highlights that the company's welfare is directly tied to that of its
suppliers, employees, and customers.

Companies throw away the hierarchies in communication channels. Instead, they
see all kinds of new organizational structures that center on teams, processes, and
projects. Of course, companies have organization structure/hierarchy for chain of
command. Information Technology helps tremendously in breaking communication
carrier and still maintain the chain of command by individuals roles and
responsibility tied to their access to information , but all relevant information for
carrying out the job is available across the company. This brings in an informal rule
of behavior; e.g. mechanic can communicate with CEO via email about the
suggestion to improve safety without any appointment. CEO can evaluate the
suggestion and respond accordingly.

Focus is on collaborative problem solving and process improvement. As result any
failure is likely to be viewed as learning experience. The goal is consistently win‐
win‐win for all parties. In this kind of culture, people share a concern for everyone
in the company continuously improving what they do for the mutual benefit of the
company and its customers, and they have set up methods for institutionalizing
process improvement. This promotes teams and teamwork, mutual trust and
loyalty.

Management takes a role of Leadership role to promote quality culture and change
for better company rather than traditional role of supervision. As of result of all of
the above result is a strong organizational character.

Commitment to quality cannot be faked. As cited by Walker 2010, page 94‐95 ,
organization’s quality characteristics can be summarized as:



Characteristics Organizational Commitment
Innovation and risk‐
taking
Degree to which employees are encouraged to be
innovative and take risks.
Attention to detail Degree to which employees are expected to exhibit
precision, analysis, and attention to detail.
Outcome orientation Degree to which management focuses on results or
outcomes rather than on technique and process.
People orientation Degree to which management decisions take into
consideration the effect of outcomes on people within
the organization.
Team orientation Degree to which work activities are organized around
teams rather than individuals
Aggressiveness Degree to which people are aggressive and competitive
rather than easygoing.
Stability Degree to which organizational activities emphasize
maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth.

Change is difficult

Every coin has two sides. Similarly two sides of change are “Advocates” and
“Resisters”.
They do not see eye‐to‐eye. Hence a clash and sometimes a result is failure of a
company.

Figure 3 Two separate organizational cultures relating to the change
Continual improvement means continual change. To ensure continual improvement,
one must be able to facilitate continual change. Based on the experience, one can say
people understand the need for change, but organizational change is resisted.



To be an effective agent of change, one must understand why it is resisted. Joseph
Juran describes organizational change as a “clash between cultures.”
Change is resisted in any organization. Resistance to change is a normal
organizational behavior. In this regard, an organization is similar to a biological
organism. From the perspective of organizational culture, the alien is change, and
the organism is the organization to be changed.
Advocates and Resisters tend have different perceptions of the same proposed
change.
For example: with regards to process automation, advocates are selling the
improved productivity. On the other hand resisters feel threat to job security.
Goetsch and Davis 2012 have listed quite a few such examples.
Advocates focus on the anticipated benefits of the change. Resisters, on the other
hand, focus on perceived threats to their status, beliefs, habits, and security. Often
both advocates and resisters are wrong in how they initially approach change.
Advocates are often guilty of focusing so intently on benefits that they fail to take
into account the perceptions of employees who may feel threatened by the change.
Resisters are often guilty of focusing so intently on threats to the status quo that
they refuse to acknowledge the benefits. These approaches typically divide an
organization into warring camps that waste energy and time instead of focusing
resources on the facilitation of change.



Paradigm for Effective Change

Source: Quality Management for Organizational Excellence: Introduction to Total Quality
Figure 4 Steps in Facilitating Change
Advocates should work with Resisters of change to be successful. As pro‐change, this
responsibility falls to its advocates.
Begin with a new advocacy Paradigm
The first step in facilitating change is to adopt a facilitating paradigm. Juran
summarizes the traditional paradigm of change advocates as follows:
Advocates of change tend to focus solely on expected results and benefits.
 Advocates are often unaware of how a proposed change will be perceived by
potential resisters.
 Advocates are often impatient with the concerns of resisters.
If change is to happen, advocates must begin with a different paradigm. When a
change is advocated, ask such questions as the following:
 Who will be affected by this change, and how?
 How will the change be perceived by those it affects?
 How can the concerns of those affected be alleviated?



Understand Concerns of Potential Resisters
 Understand the concerns of resisters like
 Fear
 Loss of control
 Uncertainty
 More work
Implement Change Promoting Strategies
 Involve Potential Resisters
 Avoid Surprises
 Move slowly at first
 Start Small and be flexible
 Create a positive environment
 Incorporate the change
 Respond Quickly and Positively
 Work with Established leaders
 Treat people with dignity & Respect
 Be Constructive
Resistance to Change

Change is inevitable and it does not come easy for many people. John Simone, Sr. once
said, “If you're in a bad situation, don't worry it'll change. If you're in a good situation,
don't worry it'll change.”
It can be extremely difficult however; change is part of everyday living. It should be
expected and anticipated. The process of change can cause a sense of insecurity and
that is primary reason is it so difficult for people.
The primary reasons why people resist change Goetsch and Davis, 2012 are:
Fear
Change brings with it the unwanted specter of the unknown, and people fear the
unknown. Worst‐case scenarios are assumed and compounded by rumors. In this
way, fear tends to feed on itself, growing with time.
In other words, change is scary. We’re essentially cavemen and our bodies and
minds haven’t really caught up with the 21st century. Instinctively therefore we



don’t like the exponential rate of change that we have to cope with. Inertia is
powerful force of nature. Despite the fact that many people profess to be happy with
change because it’s required , in reality they are not.
More work
Change sometimes means more work, at least at first. This concern includes work in
the form of learning. To make the change, people may have to learn more
information or develop new skills. For an undefined period, they may have to work
longer hours.
In other words, changes calls for adjustments. Alterations in a well‐known behavior
are not always simple. New adaptations can be extremely uncomfortable and
unwanted. When a happy couple has their first child this calls for major
reconstruction. The couple that had each other’s undivided attention are now
involved in sharing their time and attention with another. Adjustment with the birth
of a child can bring contentment but that does not mean that the change is easy.
People like having a sense of control over their lives. There is security in control.
Change can threaten this sense of security and cause people to feel as if they are
losing control of their lives, jobs, areas of responsibility, and so on.
In other words, change can create a “funeral‐like” environment. This is like a death.
What once was is no more. Anytime a death takes place it calls for a time of
mourning and readjustment. This is not only true with humans; this is also true for
organizations. The death of certain patterns of behavior is just that – a death. This
introduces feelings of loss and sadness for some. This type of behavior cannot be
ignored if an organization expects to have a healthy future. It would be beneficial to
acknowledge changes that create a sense of loss. To completely ignore these
feelings would be destructive for any organization.
Anatole France said, “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy;
for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we
can enter another.”
Uncertainty
It is difficult to deal with uncertainty. For better or worse, people like to know
where they stand. Will I be able to handle this? What will happen to me if I can’t?
These are the types of questions people have when confronted with change.
In other words, change can create an environment of insecurity. Because a change
introduces a new direction or a new idea there will be those who are not



comfortable with the new direction. Change breaks an established pattern and
erodes the established foundation of an organization. This creation of insecurity is
why teamwork and the establishment of working together are essential. A strong
team can help counter the feelings of insecurity due to the changes that have taken
place.
Strategy to overcome Resistance to Change

“Change is the only constant” ‐ Heraclitus, Greek philosopher
What was true more than two thousand years ago and is just as true today Mindtools,
2012 .
We live in a world where "business as usual" is change. New initiatives, project‐based
working, technology improvements, staying ahead of the competition – these things come
together to drive ongoing changes to the way we work.
Whether you're considering a small change to one or two processes, or a system‐wide
change to an organization, it's common to feel uneasy and intimidated by the scale of the
challenge. You know that the change needs to happen, but you don't really know how to go
about doing delivering it. Where do you start? Whom do you involve? How do you see it
through to the end?
As citied by Goetsch and Davis 2012 , Juran provided a comprehensive strategic approach
to overcome the resistance to change, as detailed below:
Involve Potential Resisters

By involving resisters from the outset in planning for the change, organizations can
ensure that potential resisters understand it and have adequate opportunities to
express their views and concerns about it. The primary reasoning for this is at some
point in the process, those affected by change potential resisters will have to take
ownership of the change, or it will fail. This type of involvement will help potential
resisters develop a sense of ownership in the change that can, in turn, convert them
to advocates.

Avoid Surprises

People do not like surprises. Predictability is important to people. Change is
unpredictable it brings with it the specter of the unknown. For this reason, it is
better to bring potential resisters into the process from the outset. Surprising
potential resisters will turn them into committed resisters.



Move Slowly at First

Slowly and steadily win the trust of resisters. To gain the support of potential
resisters, it is necessary to let them evaluate the proposed change, express their
concerns, weigh the expected benefits, and find ways to alleviate problems. This can
take time. However, if advocates are perceived as rushing the change through,
potential resisters will become distrustful and “dig in their heels.”

Start Small and Be Flexible

1. Change will be more readily accepted if advocates start small and are flexible
enough to revise strategies that are not working as planned. This approach offers
several benefits, including the following:
2. Starting with a small pilot test or experiment is less threatening than a broad‐based,
all encompassing implementation.
3. Conducting a small pilot test can help identify unanticipated problems with the
change.
4. Using the results of a pilot test to revise the plans for change ensures that valuable
resources are not wasted moving in the wrong direction.

Create a Positive Environment

The environment in which change takes place is determined by reward and
recognition systems and examples set by managers. A reward and recognition
system that does not reward risk taking or that punishes employees for ideas that
don’t work will undermine change. Managers that take “Do as I say, not as I do”
attitudes will also undermine change. Well‐thought‐out, sincere attempts to make
improvements should be recognized and rewarded even when they fail. Managers
should “roll up their sleeves” and do their share of the work associated with change.
This approach will create a positive environment that is conducive to change.

Incorporate the Change

Change will be more readily accepted if it can be incorporated into the existing
organizational culture. Of course, this is not always possible. However, when it can
be done, it should be done. An example might be using an established equipment
maintenance schedule to make major new equipment adaptations e.g., retrofitting
manually controlled machine tools for numerical control .

Provide a Quid Pro Quo

This strategy could also be called require something, give something. If, for
example, change will require intense extra effort on the part of selected employees
for a given period of time, offer these employees some paid time off either before or



immediately after the change is implemented. Using a quid pro quo can show
employees that they are valued and their concerns are addressed.

Respond Quickly and Positively

When potential resisters raise questions or express concerns, advocates should
respond quickly and positively. Making employees wait for answers magnifies the
intensity of their concerns. A quick response can often eliminate the concern before
it becomes a problem, and it will show employees that their concerns are
considered important.

A quick response does not mean a surface‐level or inaccurate response made before
having all the facts. Rather, it means a response made as soon as one can be made
thoroughly and accurately. It is also important to respond positively. Advocates
should not be offended by or impatient with the questions of potential resisters. A
negative attitude toward questions and concerns only magnifies them.

Work with Established Leaders

In any organization, some people are regarded as leaders. In some cases, those
people are in leadership positions supervisors, middle managers, team captains,
etc. . In other cases, they are informal leaders highly respected employees whose
status is based on their experience or superior knowledge and skills . The support
of such leaders is critical. Other employees will take cues from them. The best way
to get their support is to involve them in planning for the change from the outset.

Treat People with Dignity and Respect

This strategy is fundamental to all aspects of total quality. It requires behavior that
acknowledges the human resource as the organization’s most valuable asset.
Without this strategy, the others won’t matter.

Strategy to Establish a Quality Culture

Establishing a quality culture involves specific planning and activities for every business or
department. Goetsch and Davis 2012 cite the strategies those foster the quality culture
can be listed as:

 Identify the changes needed
 Apply courtship strategies
 Put the planned changes in writing
 Develop a plan for making the changes
 Understand the emotional transition process



 Identify key people and make them advocates
 Take a hearts‐and‐minds approach
 Support
Similar theory on how to "do" change originates with leadership and change management
guru, John Kotter, a world‐renowned change expert. Kotter 1995 introduced his eight‐
step change process. We look at his eight steps for leading change below.
Step One: Create Urgency Identify the changes needed
For change to happen, it helps if the whole company really wants it. Develop a sense
of urgency around the need for change. This may help you spark the initial
motivation to get things moving.
This isn't simply a matter of showing people poor sales statistics or talking about
increased competition. Open an honest and convincing dialogue about what's
happening in the marketplace and with your competition. If many people start
talking about the change you propose, the urgency can build and feed on itself.
What you can do:
 Identify potential threats, and develop scenarios showing what could happen
in the future.
 Examine opportunities that should be, or could be, exploited.
 Start honest discussions, and give dynamic and convincing reasons to get
people talking and thinking.
 Request support from customers, outside stakeholders and industry people
to strengthen your argument.
Kotter suggests that for change to be successful, 75% of a company's management
needs to "buy into" the change. In other words, you have to really work hard on Step
One, and spend significant time and energy building urgency, before moving onto
the next steps. Don't panic and jump in too fast because you don't want to risk
further short‐term losses – if you act without proper preparation, you could be in
for a very bumpy ride.
Step Two: Form a Powerful Coalition Apply courtship strategies
Convince people that change is necessary. This often takes strong leadership and
visible support from key people within your organization. Managing change isn't
enough – you have to lead it.



You can find effective change leaders throughout your organization – they don't
necessarily follow the traditional company hierarchy. To lead change, you need to
bring together a coalition, or team, of influential people whose power comes from a
variety of sources, including job title, status, expertise, and political importance.
Once formed, your "change coalition" needs to work as a team, continuing to build
urgency and momentum around the need for change.
What you can do:
 Identify the true leaders in your organization.
 Ask for an emotional commitment from these key people.
 Work on team building within your change coalition.
 Check your team for weak areas, and ensure that you have a good mix of
people from different departments and different levels within your company.
Step Three: Create a Vision for Change Develop a plan for making the changes
When you first start thinking about change, there will probably be many great ideas
and solutions floating around. Link these concepts to an overall vision that people
can grasp easily and remember.
A clear vision can help everyone understand why you're asking them to do
something. When people see for themselves what you're trying to achieve, then the
directives they're given tend to make more sense.
What you can do:
 Determine the values that are central to the change.
 Develop a short summary one or two sentences that captures what you "see"
as the future of your organization.
 Create a strategy to execute that vision.
 Ensure that your change coalition can describe the vision in five minutes or less.
 Practice your "vision speech" often.
For more on creating visions, see our Mind Tools article on Mission Statements and
Vision Statements.
Step Four: Communicate the Vision Put the planned changes in writing
What you do with your vision after you create it will determine your success. Your
message will probably have strong competition from other day‐to‐day
communications within the company, so you need to communicate it frequently and
powerfully, and embed it within everything that you do.



Don't just call special meetings to communicate your vision. Instead, talk about it
every chance you get. Use the vision daily to make decisions and solve problems.
When you keep it fresh on everyone's minds, they'll remember it and respond to it.
It's also important to "walk the talk." What you do is far more important – and
believable – than what you say. Demonstrate the kind of behavior that you want
from others.
What you can do:
 Talk often about your change vision.
 Openly and honestly address peoples' concerns and anxieties.
 Apply your vision to all aspects of operations – from training to performance
reviews. Tie everything back to the vision.
 Lead by example.
Step Five: Remove Obstacles Identify key people and make them advocates
If you follow these steps and reach this point in the change process, you've been
talking about your vision and building buy‐in from all levels of the organization.
Hopefully, your staff wants to get busy and achieve the benefits that you've been
promoting.
But is anyone resisting the change? And are there processes or structures that are
getting in its way?
Put in place the structure for change, and continually check for barriers to it.
Removing obstacles can empower the people you need to execute your vision, and it
can help the change move forward.
What you can do:
 Identify, or hire, change leaders whose main roles are to deliver the change.
 Look at your organizational structure, job descriptions, and performance and
compensation systems to ensure they're in line with your vision.
 Recognize and reward people for making change happen.
 Identify people who are resisting the change, and help them see what's
needed.
 Take action to quickly remove barriers human or otherwise .
Step Six: Create Short‐term Wins Understand the emotional transition process
Nothing motivates more than success. Give your company a taste of victory early in
the change process. Within a short time frame this could be a month or a year,



depending on the type of change ; you'll want to have results that your staff can see.
Without this, critics and negative thinkers might hurt your progress.
Create short‐term targets – not just one long‐term goal. You want each smaller
target to be achievable, with little room for failure. Your change team may have to
work very hard to come up with these targets, but each "win" that you produce can
further motivate the entire staff.
What you can do:
 Look for sure‐fire projects that you can implement without help from any
strong critics of the change.
 Don't choose early targets that are expensive. You want to be able to justify
the investment in each project.
 Thoroughly analyze the potential pros and cons of your targets. If you don't
succeed with an early goal, it can hurt your entire change initiative.
 Reward the people who help you meet the targets.
Step Seven: Build on the Change Take a Hearts‐and‐Minds Approach
Kotter argues that many change projects fail because victory is declared too early.
Real change runs deep. Quick wins are only the beginning of what needs to be done
to achieve long‐term change.
Launching one new product using a new system is great. But if you can launch 10
products, that means the new system is working. To reach that 10th success, you
need to keep looking for improvements.
Each success provides an opportunity to build on what went right and identify what
you can improve.
What you can do:
 After every win, analyze what went right and what needs improving.
 Set goals to continue building on the momentum you've achieved.
 Resisters start to understand the Idea of continuous improvement. Seek their
inputs for improvement.
 Keep ideas fresh by bringing in new change agents and leaders for your
change coalition.



Step Eight: Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture Support
Finally, to make any change stick, it should become part of the core of your
organization. Your corporate culture often determines what gets done, so the values
behind your vision must show in day‐to‐day work.
Make continuous efforts to ensure that the change is seen in every aspect of your
organization. This will help give that change a solid place in your organization's
culture.
It's also important that your company's leaders continue to support the change. This
includes existing staff and new leaders who are brought in. If you lose the support of
these people, you might end up back where you started.
What you can do:
 Talk about progress every chance you get. Tell success stories about the
change process, and repeat other stories that you hear.
 Include the change ideals and values when hiring and training new staff.
 Publicly recognize key members of your original change coalition, and make
sure the rest of the staff – new and old – remembers their contributions.
 Create plans to replace key leaders of change as they move on. This will help
ensure that their legacy is not lost or forgotten.
Conclusion

We examined the two change strategies namely; “Strategy to overcome resistance to
change” and “Strategy to establish a quality culture”, we can see many similarities.
The most important factors are information flow communication , people
involvement and long term commitment.
But Strategy for culture change is more important for long term quality results,
because when a quality is aligned experiences, beliefs are in unison ; the actions
can give good result. Good results quality are an indicator of aligned
organizational culture, where people’s actions, beliefs and experiences align with
the requirements results .



Figure 5 Organizational Culture
TQM requires that management, and eventually every member of the organization,
commit to the need for continual improvement in the way work is accomplished.
Business plans, strategies, and management actions require continual rethinking in
order to develop a culture that reinforces the TQM perspective.
The challenge is to develop a robust culture where the idea of quality improvement
is not only widely understood across departments, but becomes a fundamental,
deep‐seated value within each function area as well. More effects are put in actions
to get better results resistance to change strategy . The fact that people think their
beliefs and that there are reasons their past experience why people think the way
they do are ignored.
But the strategy of culture works with bottom of the pyramid experiences and
beliefs which can yield more significant, long‐lasting change, but it also takes more
effort long term endeavor .
When people’s past experiences mostly bad are erased/readdressed with good
experiences positive information flow with management, retraining, experience
sharing with the experts, etc. , their beliefs are changed for good. Doing things
actions the right way becomes a people’s second nature. All of this can lead to
consistent good results quality .
We can name this culture change as fostering the “culture of accountability”, when
in everyone management and employees in organization makes a personal
commitment to achieving the organization’s results customer satisfaction .



References:

David L. Goetsch, Stanley Davis, Quality Management for Organizational Excellence
Introduction to Total Quality, 7th Edition 2012, Pearson
Viljoen, S.J, Waveren, C.C, July 2008 An improved model for quantifying an
organizational quality culture, p 1781‐1789
Salum Soud Mohamed, Qin YuanJian; “The impact of the Organizational Culture on
the implementation of TQM Programs”, CCCM '08 Proceedings of the 2008 ISECS
International Colloquium on Computing, Communication, Control, and Management
‐ Volume 03, p386‐389
CWL Publishing Enterprises, “John A. Woods: THE SIX VALUES OF A QUALITY
CULTURE”, Retrieved on February 29, 2012,
http://my.execpc.com/~jwoods/6values.htm
ISO.org “Selection and use of the ISO 9000 family of standards”, Retrieved on March
4, 2012, http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_9000_selection_and_use‐2009.pdf
Robyn Walker, Strategic Management Communication for Leaders, 2nd Edition,
South‐Western College Pub, 2010
Dale Roach, “Why is Change So Difficult for Some People?” Retrieved on March 2,
2012, http://www.likeateam.com/why‐is‐change‐so‐difficult‐for‐some‐people.html
Mindtools, “Implementing change powerfully and successfully“, Retrieved on March
5, 2012, http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_82.htm
John Kotter, Leading the Change, 1st Edition, Harvard Business Review Press, 1996

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