Organizational Change: Analysis of Effectiveness of Two Change Management Tools

Organizational change refers to any changes within an organization’s structure or it’s processes. In today’s highly competitive business environment, organizational change is seen not only as a must for businesses to thrive but as a way for management to create products and services that adhere to the needs and principles of people. This business goal is articulated in dichotomies such as creating a common ground between short-term and long-term goals, understanding what business growth in relation to business advocacies, and making management leaders accountable as contributing individuals to worldwide growth (Cameron and Green 2015, 3).

This essay seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of two change management tools, which are Total Quality Management or TQM and High Performance Work Organisation (HPWO), for two well-known businesses, which are Toyota Motors Corporation, a motor vehicle manufacturing company, and Shangri La Hotel in Singapore, which offers luxury hotel services. Through an analysis of the company’s profile, track records, and other publicly available information, this essay will explore Total Quality Management (TQM) and High Performance Work Organisation (HPWO) and their effectiveness in the manufacturing and service industries.

The first section will discuss how Total Quality Management as a change tool applies to Toyota. There is indeed a competition to improve transportation systems as people seek comfort, functionality, and style when they purchase automobiles. Thus, car manufacturing has been a good field of competition for manufacturers to improve and better their products. The essay will therefore analyze how values and principles of change tools such as TQM could affect change in manufacturing, particularly in the automobile industry. On the other hand, the hotel industry has continued to thrive as people seek enjoyment outside the comforts of their home. This comes with the need to experience comfort and hospitality through in-hotel stays and concierge services. With Shangri La being one of the most renowned hotel and concierge providers in the world, the essay will look into how High Performance Work Organisation (HPWO) applies to the context of Shangri La as it delivers comfort and luxury to its guests. There are also factors that come into play in the determination of quality hotel service, and these mostly include employee and staff training and competence (Wong, Dean, and White 1999). As such, the analysis will focus on these factors as they call

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Total Quality Management is basically a management approach that focuses on the greater benefit and interest of the customer through the implementation of processes that require and employ the participation of all employees as they work to have an efficient integrated system. This kind of system allows for fast decision-making through a communication system that values time and effort (ASQ Learn About Quality). TQM is ultimately about certification programs that ensure improvement. For instance, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award certification is a kind of TQM certification that looks into the quality management of companies while recognizing them in relation to an excellent implementation of quality management systems and structures (Bailey, 2015). Malcom Baldridge Awards has excellent leadership and strategy, consumer satisfaction, effective human resource, and successful day-to-day operations as basis for the recognition and certification (Lazaros, Anastasiadou, and George 2017). It is clear, that Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is one to value customer experience and satisfaction.

With this discussion Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, it is clear that the advantages of TQM results from the focus on making leadership and operations work together in order to achieve customer satisfaction through excellent product and service delivery. TQM as organizational change tool works to increase customer experience and satisfaction while reducing wastage in terms of cost and effort. Thus, in a field like marketing, particularly automobile marketing, the product themselves and customer satisfaction are the ends that TQM work towards. This means making all components of a business organization work together so that the end-product, which is the automobile, gets to a satisfied client. Changes, therefore, will have to be implemented short and long term to ensure that manufacturing systems work, while management and employees coordinate to solve tasks, look at facts and data to come up with short term and long term action strategies, and create avenues for open communication (Gartenstein 2019).

As ideal as all of these sounds, the assumption of TQM is that everything is working in harmony and that there are fully committed individual departments that aim to solve issues, anticipate problems, and create and re-create processes so that there is no unnecessary wastage at any level (Gartenstein 2019). As mentioned previously, with TQM being an encompassing change management practice that is supposed to be day-to-day, there is a chance that commitment might not always be present as human beings are not really gears and pinions to a machine.

Total Quality Management in Auto Mobile

Still, in the automobile industry that has a clear administrative body, a production and unit line, a service line, and sales and marketing agents, TQM could spell the difference in making all these units work harmoniously through an understanding of the processes that govern management and operations. Moreover, certain automobile industries have embraced change in philosophy toward manufacturing and delivery. For instance, in the case of Toyota, it has the Toyota way as the embodiment of Total Quality Management. It writes:

The Toyota Way is our simple framework for applying Toyota’s Guiding Principles and building the kind of company we want to be. The Toyota Way defines the fundamental values and business methods all our people should apply in every aspect of their day-to-day work, at every level of the company, worldwide. It is the foundation of our corporate culture. We will continue to develop the Toyota Way to keep pace and remain effective and relevant in an ever-changing world, so we keep it under constant scrutiny to see how it can be developed and improved. (Toyota Europe)

It is clear that the Toyota Way is a principle that has change as a simple and clear cornerstone in its operations. The operative phrases and ideas in the Toyota way is an embodiment of TQM, and these include “day-to-day work, at every level of the company” and “o keep pace and remain effective and relevant in an ever-changing world, so we keep it under constant scrutiny to see how it can be developed and improved.” Still, as ideal as all of these sound, implementation and actual change is something that takes a lot of hard work and compromise.

High Performance Work Organization (HPWO)

The “high performance work organization” (HPWO) is a organization change concept that brings more responsibility and, at the same time, power and decision-making at the hands of employees. The idea is to encourage more employee involvement so that employees have more stake on how a business organization is run; this leads to feelings of being appreciated and therefore motivated (Adams-Bloom 2009).

Based on the definition of HPWO, it is easy to see the advantages that come with it. First, employees are driven to work even if work gets difficult and challenging, because they are in constant communication with administration as to how work operations and conditions should go about. The trigger comes from the fact that there are timely organizational meetings that make sure that employees are heard. In this case, many claim that HPWO which seeks to employ and maximize HPWS, which are High Performance Work Systems, aim to realize a better organization that equips itself with data and knowledge that all members of the business of organization can contribute to and use in the creation of work practices that would lead the business to better financial results and eventual employee compensation (HPO Center n.d.).

Like TQM, HPWO appears to be a good ideal change management tool as it seems to take power away from a small group of people and create a kind of social environment that works to implement change through employees that are receptive to change. However, as ideal as it sounds, there are still misgivings with the change management tool. First, there appears some kind of connection between labor unions and HPWS or HPWO. In a study by Liu, Guthrie, Flood and Maccurtain (2009), the authors found that when union membership increases, there is somewhat a decrease in HPWO or HPWS. This means that members or employees when they feel slighted, ignored or unrecognized, they do lessen their participation and cooperation, and instead resort to means that would challenge the company’s leadership and administration. Overall, this suggests that HPWO and HPWS has some commonalities with the workings or ideals of a labor union. In this case, with the encouragement of HPWS or HPWO, there might be a suggestion or an impetus to actually create labor unions within a company.

High Performance Work Organization in Hotel Industry

In the case of Shangri La Hotels, HPWO could be seen as a way to empower employees. In the hotel service industry, the next thing that customers look for after the amenities and the actual rooms they stay in are the services themselves, and this basically involves employees in the front and back desk. HPWO could work in so far as employees who are front desks or front liners could chime in in so far as practices to improve services are concerned. They could meet with administrators and hotel leaders to ensure that operations are handled well and efficiently through the use and understanding of customer feedback and ratings. In this case, it appears that HPWO is the best change tool for hotel and for the hospitality and service industries. The only misgiving here is that salaries and compensations are still in the avenue and rights of labor unions. In Shangri La Malaysia for instance, workers of the world-renowned hotel eventually won a 13-year fight to have collective bargaining again in its power (IUF.org). This suggests that HPWO or HPWS may have a semblance of what workers union bring or give employees, a kind of power that could lead to disruption and issues in operations. It is therefore important to keep studying the actual implications of HPWO and HPWS in the long run.

Conclusion

From the analysis of the businesses of Toyota Motor Corporation and Shangri La Hotels, it is clear that particular change management tools fit perfectly in particular types of businesses. In this case, TQM in manufacturing, particularly automobile manufacturing works because they idea is that all individual departments that include production lines, marketing and management work to lessen losses while increasing productivity. On the other hand, HPWO works for the hotel service industries since they encourage employee participation and contribution. However, to some extent, there are still misgivings because, as ideal as it sounds, there are questions and concerns in terms of commitment in the adaption of TQM and employee abuse of power for HPWO.

To conclude, the contention is still easily supported. TQM works for manufacturing and to some extent the service industry for the very reason that both manufacturing and service industries involve the cooperation of many different individual departments that have varying amounts of resources. For the manufacturing industry, these resources need to maximize in order for losses not to occur and for production to increase significantly. For the service industry, these resources mean that they should work toward the advantage and use of the internal customers and/or internal change since changes that work toward employee welfare and happiness lead to productivity and financial gain. However, HPWO or HPWS might not be that fitting for the manufacturing industry since manufacturing values the harmony of individual departments coming up with a single product, which in the case of the discussion is an automobile. Customer satisfaction and experience occurs at a level that is external. Customers will most of the time come back only for car services after purchase. On the other hand, for the service industry, the customer experience is varied and multilayered. There is the experience of the place and the aptitude of staff and personnel, particularly in the frontline, to ensure that customers are satisfied with the experience while at the venue or at the hotel. In the end, change management tools are not a one-size-fits-all solution to company needs and desires. There will always be a constant need to analyze them, apply them, and test them for their internal and external benefits and challenges.