The Executive Guide to Understanding and Implementing Employee Engagement Programs: Expand Production Capacity, Increase Revenue, and Save Jobs (The Asq ... Division Economies of Quality Book Series)
The Executive Guide to Understanding and Implementing Employee Engagement Programs: Expand Production Capacity, Increase Revenue, and Save Jobs (The Asq ... Division Economies of Quality Book Series)
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Manufacturer: Amer Society for Quality
Author: Pat Townsend
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 2007-07-13
Publisher: Amer Society for Quality
Label: Amer Society for Quality
Number Of Pages: 77 Features:
Editorial Review:
This book describes and discusses the whys and hows of 100% employee involvement in improving everything an organization does, as well as the integral and all-important role of leadership in achieving 100% participation. Given the proven return-on-investment of an effective 100% continual improvement effort in terms of time alone, this presents the only logical, intelligent, and defendable approach. Ideas are presented in such a way as to make it evident that success is possible and that positive results are within reach through the theory and tools presented. This book is for anyone who is currently in a position to impact the future of an organization or anyone who hopes to be in position to lead or support such an effort in the future. This includes not only for-profit business enterprises, but any organization. For many, this approach to performance excellence will require a willingness to re-think their approach both to other people and to the workplace. Once you head down this path, everything changes. The research and concepts in this book are particularly well-suited for the "once burnt, twice shy" crowd who, over the last few decades, have seen an enormous amount of money spent on incomplete "quality solutions": reengineering, Six Sigma, and ISO, to name a few. While all powerful tools, the implementation of them often suffered from a lack of employee involvement and managerial leadership. This book corrects those shortcomings and gives readers all the tools to ensure improvement efforts are effective and sustained. Cached date: AWS Called=true You may also be interested in these products:
There may not be a greater challenge now facing companies. 2008-09-28
Note: I rated this document on its quality and value as a booklet, not as a full-length book. (It offers only 77 pages of text including Index). Those in need of wider and (especially) deeper coverage of this important subject are urged to check out other resources, including the volumes identified within this review.
Recent research conducted by the Gallup Organization indicates that 29% of the U.S. workforce is engaged (i.e. loyal, enthusiastic, and productive) whereas 55% is passively disengaged. That is, they are going through the motions, doing only what they must, "mailing it in," coasting, etc. What about the other 16%? They are actively disengaged in that they are doing whatever they can to undermine their employer's efforts to succeed. They have a toxic impact on their associates and, in many instances, on customer relations. These are stunning statistics. How to explain them? Reasons vary from one organization to the next. However, most experts agree that no more than 5% of any given workforce consists of "bad apples," troublemakers, chronic complainers, subversives, etc. How to get as many as possible among the other 50% to become positively engaged?
In this booklet, part of the ASQ Quality Management Division's Economics of Quality Book Series, Townsend and Gebhardt share their thoughts about how to "expand production capacity, increase revenue, and save jobs." Any one of these subjects us well worth an entire book (or several) but unless and until a sufficient number of employees are actively and enthusiastically engaged, these goals cannot be achieved. The authors identify a perfectly sensible formula: Quality + Leadership = Performance excellence. "Leadership is the creation of an environment in which others can self-actualize in the process of completing the job." However, I presume to add two caveats. First, beware of the "Fielder's Dream Syndrome" (i.e. "If we build it, they will come") because workers know much better than do their supervisors what kind of an workplace environment will be most attractive to them. Also, with all due respect to Abraham Maslow, an insignificant percentage of millions of workers interviewed by Gallup indicated that they were self-fulfilled at work. For most of them, work is simply a job that must be done (and kept) so they can afford a personal lifestyle.
This booklet's narrative consists of 58 pages, followed by three appendices whose content could have been (and probably should have been) integrated within the narrative. There are frequent references to "performance excellence" as Townsend and Gebhardt devote most of their attention to "two tools" to achieve that objective, "100 per cent employee involvement and leadership." Actually, these are not "tools"; rather, they are components of a complete quality process (CQP). Moreover, I know of no company (with more than a dozen employees) that has ever achieved100% involvement. (If Townsend and Gebhardt have during their own research, there is no indication of it in their booklet. ) It is important to add that the authors offer almost no information and counsel concerning the design a CQP program.
After discussing the impact of a CQP on cost or revenue in Chapter 3, they proceed to implementation of a CQP in the next and final chapter. Also, given the authors' emphasis on the importance of leadership (i.e. "Quality + Leadership = Performance excellence), it seems curious to me that the leadership functions and responsibilities they discuss are at the executive level when in fact the success of quality initiatives requires leadership at all levels as well as in all areas of the given enterprise. Obviously, "executives in an organization that practices leadership-driven 100 per cent employee involvement have far greater opportunities to `listen down' and develop a strategic plan" because creating an "upward flow of information" can "greatly enrich the thinking" invested in the formation of that plan. A high percentage of quality initiative programs fail and two of the most common reasons are that there is no representation on the leadership team below the executive level, nor is there cross-functional representation during the planning, implementation, and monitoring of a quality program.
Without exception, effective employee engagement programs require what is frequently referred to as a "culture of candor," one that is transparent in terms of access to information, and one in which efficient and productive cooperation and (especially) collaboration are among its highest priorities. Such a culture cannot be achieved, much less sustained within a hierarchy and its command and control leadership style. The authors dwell briefly on the costs of a quality department. My own experience indicates that many organizations cannot afford the costs of a quality department but can at least afford the costs of a cross-functional leadership team (CFLT), some of whose members can then serve on a barrier removal team (BRT) during implementation of the program. The authors also devote a page or so to each of several other subjects that include measurement, process analysis, a results-driven timeline, and recognition/gratitude/celebration of progress throughout and at the conclusion of the CQP. The importance of each of these and other subjects (e.g. plucking "low-hanging fruit," program updates, interaction with customers) cannot be exaggerated.
As indicated, what we have here is a booklet rather than a book. As its title suggests, it was written primarily for executives and its purpose is to serve as their guide to understanding and implementing employee engagement programs. Townsend and Gebhardt offer no head-snapping revelations, nor do they make any such claim. Rather, their material provides what can serve as a basic introduction to many of the issues that must be addressed when considering the possibility of sponsoring a CQP. Those in need of wider and (especially) deeper coverage of employee engagement, especially when involved in organizational change initiatives, are urged to check out David Croston's Employee Engagement: The People-First Approach To Building A Business, Sarah Cook's The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement: Better Business Performance through Staff Satisfaction, Peter Garber's 50 Activities for Employee Engagement, John Smythe's The CEO Chief Engagement Officer: Turning Hierarchy Upside Down to Drive Performance and Contented Cows Give Better Milk co-authored by Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden.
