EMP517 FINAL PROJECT
The final project will consist of;
Write up an industry/business Quality case of your choosing.
Choose three concepts / elements from the course material to model the business/industry case review you are creating.
You must include in the case write up;
1- An Abstract or Introduction that will be a one-page summary of what your business investment will be.
One page
2 – The body of the paper, which includes;
– stating the concepts (3)to be presented,
– defining the concepts/elements, and
– Appling the concepts as examples of the component concepts you have chosen. Apply the principle/concept from the case writeup you have created.
– Explain the significance of the concept applied and how it affects supports your case (or does not support the case). Describe the impact and/or role the concept has on the case and/or how they affect, or benefit your case study.
Two – Three pages
3 – A Conclusion. This will be your assessment of the significance of the concepts applied to this industry/business case study. Your opinion.
One page
Hint Make your points clear, and recognizable. Titles help. Put a title/cover page on your work.
Approximately four to five (4-5) pages.
Three concepts
1. The importance of change
2. Senior Management
3. The Workforce
Case
The Yellow Brick Road to Quality
In the film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy learned many lessons. Surprisingly, managers can learn a lot from the Wizard of Oz also. For each of the following summaries of scenes in the film, discuss the lessons that organizations can learn in pursuing change and a performance excellence culture.
A. Dorothy was not happy with the world as she knew it. A tornado came along and transported her to the Land of Oz. The tornado dropped Dorothy’s house on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing the witch. “Ding, dong, the witch is dead!” rang through- out Munchkinland, but Dorothy had enraged the dead witch’s sister. Dorothy only temporarily lost her home support provided by family back in Kansas. All is not good, however, in the Land of Oz. Dorothy’s problem is to find her way home to Kansas. Her call to action was precipitated by a crisis—the tornado that trans- ported her to an alien land.
B. In the throes of a Kansas tornado, Dorothy is transported to an unfamiliar land. Immediately, she rea- lizes her world is different and the processes and people she encounters are different, yet bear some similarity to her Kansas existence. She is lost and confused and uncertain about the next steps to take. She realizes she is in a changed state—the Land of Oz—and must devise a plan to get home.
C. Dorothy is a hero for killing the Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda the Good Witch sends Dorothy on her way to meet the Wizard of Oz who will help her get back to Kansas. The Wicked Witch of the West tries to get Dorothy’s newly acquired ruby slippers, but to no avail. Dorothy and Toto leave for Oz via the Yellow Brick Road. Along the way, they are joined by the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion. Through their teamwork, they provide mutual support to endure the vexing journey. They overcome many risks and barriers on the way to Oz, including a field of poppies that puts them to sleep, flying monkeys, and a haunted forest.
D. Dorothy and her entourage finally reach Oz and meet the Wizard. Rather than instantly granting their wishes, the Wizard gives them an assignment—to obtain the Wicked Witch’s broom. They depart for the West.
E. Charged with the task of obtaining the broom, Dorothy and company experience several encounters with near disaster, including Dorothy’s incarceration in the witch’s castle while an hourglass counts the time to her death. In a struggle to extinguish the Scarecrow’s fire (incited by the Wicked Witch), Dorothy tosses a bucket of water, some of which hits the Witch and melts her. Dorothy is rewarded with the broomstick and returns to Oz.
F. Returning to Oz, the group talks with the Wizard, expecting him to help Dorothy return to Kansas. After defrocking the Wizard, they find out he does not know how. The Wizard tries to use a hot air balloon to return and accidentally leaves Dorothy and Toto behind upon takeoff. Glinda arrives and helps Dorothy realize she can return to Kansas on her own with the help of the ruby slippers.
G. Dorothy awakens from her dream and experi- ences a new understanding and appreciation for her home and family in Kansas. “Oh, Auntie Em, there’s no place like home.”
Concepts:
1. THE IMPORTANCE OF CHANGE
?For organizations committed to pursuing performance excellence, change is a way of life. Organizational change is needed to initiate performance excellence initiatives and constantly thereafter. In the initial stage, an effort must be mounted to begin to change the culture of the organization. Once a quality mindset is rooted in an orga- nization, continuous improvement efforts will relentlessly create changes in product designs, standard operating procedures, and virtually every other aspect of organiza- tions. Unless a culture based on customers, continuous improvement, and teamwork is established, quality will be little more than “just another one of management’s programs.” Indeed, this is often the cause of failure of TQ initiatives. ?Why do organizations find themselves in need of change? The major reason is that customer expectations and the external environment continuously evolve. Features or services that delight customers one year may be taken for granted the next, and products that customers find acceptable one year may be perceived as substandard the next. Competition continues to raise the standard for quality, and organizations must keep up (see box “Quality Never Goes Out of Style”). When first published, USA Today’s use of color and graphics was exceptional. In short order, however, newspapers copied these features so widely that exclusive use of black and white on the front page began to look old-fashioned. With the ubiqui- tous presence of the Internet today, traditional newspapers are finding themselves turning more attention to online content and services. ?Any organization that focuses on meeting a fixed set of quality goals quickly will find itself trampled into the dust by competitors racing to keep up with customers. As one Xerox executive stated, “Quality is a race without a finish line.” Change is also required because processes tend to become unnecessarily com- plicated over a period of time, even when they are initially designed in a sensible manner. Each new person working on a process adds a wrinkle or two until, even- tually, a monster has been created.
2. Senior Management
Senior managers must understand how quality can further the mission, vision, and values of the company and its impact on customers and stakeholders. Senior managers must identify the critical processes that need atten- tion and improvement and the resources and tradeoffs that must be made to fund the initiative. They must review progress and remove barriers to implementation. Finally, they must improve the processes in which they are involved (strategic planning, for example), both to improve the performance of the process and to demonstrate their ability to use quality tools for problem solving.19
3. The Workforce
The workforce must develop ownership of the quality process. Ownership and empowerment gives employees the right to have a voice in deciding what needs to be done and how to do it.22 It is based on a belief that what is good for the organization is also good for the individual and vice versa.
At Westinghouse, ownership is defined as “… taking personal responsibility for our jobs … for assuring that we meet or exceed our customers’ standards and our own. We believe that ownership is a state of mind and heart that is character- ized by a personal and emotional commitment to approach every decision and task with the confidence and leadership of an owner.” Self-managed teams, discussed in Chapter 8, are one form of ownership.
Training, recognition, and better communication are key success factors for transferring ownership to the workforce. With increased ownership, however, comes a flatter organization—and the elimination of some middle managers. Increased ownership also requires increased sharing of information with the work- force and a commitment to the workforce in good times and in bad. This might mean reducing stock dividends and executive bonuses before laying off the work- force during economic downturns. This is what Japanese companies do when the business climate turns south.
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