CHAPTER 4

WORKFORCE FOCUS
• I. IDENTIFICATION

• Directions: Fill in the blank with the correct term/word. Write your answer on the blue book.

• 1._____ is a management tool for the submission, evaluation, and implementation of an employee’s idea to save cost, increase quality, or improve other elements of work such as safety.

• 2._____ refers to the extent of workforce commitment, both emotional and intellectual, to accomplishing the work, mission and vision of the organization.

• 3._____ means believing in the inherent worth of another person.

• 4._____ is a group of people who work together and cooperate to share work and responsibility.

• 5._____ refers to responsibilities and tasks assigned to individuals.

• 6._____ means giving people authority-to make decisions based on what they feel is right, to have control over their work, to take risks and learn from mistakes, and to promote change.

• 7._____ refers to any activity by which employees participate in work-related decisions and improvement activities, with the objectives of tapping the creative energies of all employees and improving
their motivation.

• 8._____ refers to everyone who is actively involved in accomplishing the work of an organization.

• 9._____ refers to work approaches used to systematically pursue ever-higher levels of overall organizational and human performance.

• 10._____ refers to how employees are organized in formal and informal units, such as departments and teams.

• 11.­­_____ is a technique by which individual workers learn several tasks by rotating from one to another.

• 12._____ is the fundamental reason an organization exists. It inspires an organization and guides its setting of values.

• 13.­­_____ means the extent to which an individual contributes to achieving the goals and objectives of an organization.

• 14._____ are the guiding principles and behaviors that embody how an organization, and its people are expected to operate.

• 15._____ is often cited as one of the most important factors related to employee motivation.

• ll. ENUMERATION

• 16-20. Give at least five rules for effective meeting.

• 21-25. Give at least five common types of teams.

• I. IDENTIFICATION

• Directions: Fill in the blank with the correct term/word. Write your answer on the blue book.

• 1._____ is a management tool for the submission, evaluation, and implementation of an employee’s idea to save cost, increase quality, or
improve other elements of work such as safety.

• 2._____ refers to the extent of workforce commitment, both emotional and intellectual, to accomplishing the work, mission and vision of
the organization.

• 3._____ means believing in the inherent worth of another person.

• 4._____ is a group of people who work together and cooperate to share work and responsibility.

• 5._____ refers to responsibilities and tasks assigned to individuals.

• 6._____ means giving people authority-to make decisions based on what they feel is right, to have control over their work, to take risks
and learn from mistakes, and to promote change.

• 7._____ refers to any activity by which employees participate in work-related decisions and improvement activities, with the objectives
of tapping the creative energies of all employees and improving their motivation.

• 8._____ refers to everyone who is actively involved in accomplishing the work of an organization.

• 9._____ refers to work approaches used to systematically pursue ever-higher levels of overall organizational and human performance.

• 10._____ refers to how employees are organized in formal and informal units, such as departments and teams.
Organizations are learning that to satisfy customers, they must first satisfy the
workforce. Workforce refers to everyone who is actively involved in accomplishing
the work of an organization.

Workforce satisfaction is strongly related to customer satisfaction and, ultimately,

to business performance.

The workforce is an important component of a basic quality system.

THE EVOLUTION OF WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

The role of people at work certainly changed as business and technology evolved over the
years.

Workforce management (which has also been widely known as human resource
management or HRM) is the function performed in organizations that facilitates the most
effective use of people (employee) to achieve organizational and individual goals. The
objectives of an effective workforce management system are to build a high-performance
workplace and maintain an environment for quality excellence to enable employees and
the organization to achieve strategic objectives and adapt to change.

Today, workforce management is no longer just the responsibility of the HR department.

Its principles have permeated the daily responsibilities of managers at all levels.
Strategic human resource management is concerned with the contributions HR strategies
make to organizational effectiveness, and how these contributions are accomplished.
HUMAN PERFORMANCE WORK CULTURE

Performance simply means the extent to which an individual contributes to achieving

the goals and objectives of an organization.

High -performance work refers to work approaches used to systematically pursue

ever-higher levels of overall organizational and human performance. High –
performance work is characterized by flexibility, innovation, knowledge and skill
sharing, alignment with organizational directions, customer focus, and rapid response
to changing business needs and marketplace requirements.

A culture for high -performance work leads to successful results. Employees need to
understand the importance of customer satisfaction, to be given the training and
responsibilities to achieve it, and to feel that they do indeed make difference.
Creating such a culture begins with senior leadership’s commitment to the workforce.
Kay kendall and Glenn Bodison propose five “Conditions of Collaboration” that characterize a
culture of high performance: respect, aligned values, shared purpose, communication, and trust.

Respect means believing in the inherent worth of another person. Respect also is taking into
consideration the views and desires of others. When you respect another person, you consider
what is important to him or him or her when you are planning and making decisions.

Values are the guiding principles and behaviors that embody how an organization and its people
are expected to operate. Values reflect and reinforce an organization’s culture.

Purpose is the fundamental reason an organization exists. It inspires an organization and guides
its setting of values. Typically, individuals who share a purpose with the organization for which
they work are more motivated.

Communication is often cited as one of the most important factors related to employee
motivation. Communication that flows freely in all directions promotes collaboration.

Trust that management trust the workforce and vice-versa – is vital.

PRINCIPLES OF WORKFORCE ENGAGEMENT AND MOTIVATION

Workforce Engagement

one way is to create more satisfied employees is to engage them in their work and
make them a part of the “fabric” of the organization. A professor at the London
Business School noted that instead of asking, “How do we get people to serve our
company?” managers should ask, “How do we create a work environment and a
sense of belonging and purpose to develop creativity and passions?

Workforce engagement refers to the extent of workforce commitment, both

emotional and intellectual, to accomplishing the work, mission and vision of the
organization.
Employee Involvement

Engagement begins with involvement. Employee involvement (EI) refers to any

activity by which employees participate in work-related decisions and improvement
activities, with the objectives of tapping the creative energies of all employees and
improving their motivation.

One of the easiest ways to involve employees on an individual basis is the

suggestions system. An employee suggestion system is a management tool for the
submission, evaluation, and implementation of an employee’s idea to save cost,
increase quality, or improve other elements of work such as safety.
MOTIVATION

Understanding human behavior and motivation are major elements of Deming’s

Profound Knowledge. Deming spoke of motivation as being primarily intrinsic
(internal), and was suspicious of external forms of motivation, such as incentives
and bonuses.

Saul W. Gellerman defined motivation as “the art of creating conditions that allow
very one of us, warts and all, to get his work done at his own peak of level of
efficiency. A more formal definition of motivation is an individual’s response to a
felt need.
DESIGNING HIGH-PERFORMANCE WORK SYSTEMS

The design of work should provide individuals with both the intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation to achieve quality and operational performance objectives. Leading
companies view the design of work systems in a fashion similar to the design of
their key products and processes.
WORK AND JOB DESIGN

Work Design refers to how employees are organized in formal and informal units, such as
departments and teams. Job design refers to responsibilities and tasks assigned to individuals.
Both work and job design are vital to organizational effectiveness and personal job satisfaction.
Unfortunately, managers often do not understand workers needs. One research study found out
that the top five employee needs in the workplace are interesting work, recognition, feeling “in”
on things, security, and pay. Managers, however, believed pay to be number one. Many
companies understand that the best way to influence job satisfaction and motivate workers is to
make jobs more rewarding, which can entail introducing variety into work, emphasizing the
importance and significance of the job, providing more autonomy and empowerment, giving
meaningful feedback.

These core job design characteristics are:

• tasks significance: The degree to which the job gives the participants the feeling that they
have a substantial impact on the organization or the world, for example, solving a customer’s
problem rather than simply filing papers.
• Task identity: The degree to which the worker can perceive the task as a whole,
identifiable piece of work from start to finish, for example, building an entire
component rather than performing small repetitive task.
• Skill variety: The degree to which the job requires the worker to use a variety of
skills and talents, for example, physical skills in machining a part and mental skills
in using a computer to track quality measurements.
• Autonomy: The degree to which the tasks permits freedom, independence, and
personal control to be exercised over the work, for example, being able to stop a
production line to solve a problem.
• Feedback from the job: The degree to which clear, timely information about the
effectiveness of performance of the individual is available, not only from
supervisors, but also from measurements that the worker might take directly.
Several common approaches to work design­-job enlargement, job rotation, and job
enrichment-are supported by this model. IBM was apparently the first user of job
enlargement, in which worker’s job were expanded to include several tasks rather
than one single, low-level task.
Job rotation is a technique by which individual workers learn several tasks by
rotating from one to another. The purpose of job rotation is to renew interest or
motivational of the individual and to increase his or her complement of skills.
Finally, job enrichment entails “vertical job loading” in which workers are given
more authority, responsibility, and autonomy rather than simply more or different
work to do.
EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment simply means giving people authority-to make decisions based on

what they feel is right, to have control over their work, to take risks and learn from
mistakes, and to promote change.

Five of Deming’s 14 Points relate directly to the notion of empowerment:

Point 6: Institute training.

Point 7: Teach and institute leadership.

Point 8: Drive out fear. Create trust. Create a climate for innovation.

Point 10: Eliminate exhortations for the workforce.

Point 13: Encourage education and self-improvement for everyone.

Those points suggest that managers need to involve workers more directly in
decision-making processes, thus giving them the security and confidence to make
decisions and providing them with the necessary tools and training.

Empowerment can benefit customers who buy the organization’s products and
services. For instances, empowered employees can often reduce bureaucratic red
tape that customers encounter-such as seeking a supervisor’s signature-which
makes customer transactions speedier and more pleasant. Empowerment gives
manager new responsibilities. They must hire and develop people capable of
handling empowerment, encourage risk taking, and recognize achievements.
David Geisler suggests that what traditionally passes for empowerment does not
allow employees to use their skills and talents to the maximum. He promotes the
concept of self-determination as ana extension of empowerment and argues that
individual and organizational effectiveness result when employees are allowed to
achieve their own unique levels of excellence; and that personal power arises when
employees are certain that the organization is free of barriers, they are valued for
what they contribute, and they are allowed to express themselves.
Teamwork
Perhaps one of the most significant organizational changes that resulted from total
quality is teamwork. A single person rarely has enough knowledge or experience to
understand all aspects of the most important work processes; thus, team
approaches are essential for achieving quality and performance excellence.

A team is a group of people who work together and cooperate to share work and
responsibility. Teamwork breaks down barriers among individuals, departments,
and line and staff functions, an action prescribed by one of Deming’s 14 Points.
Teams provide opportunities to individuals to solve problems that they may not be
able to solve on their own.
Many types of teams exist in different companies and industries. Among the most common are the following:

 Management Teams: Teams consisting mainly of managers from various functions, such as sales and
production that coordinate work among teams.
 Natural Work Teams: Teams organized to performed entire jobs, rather than specialized, assembly line-type
work.
 Self-Managed Teams (SMTs): Specially empowered work teams defined as “a highly trained group of
employees, from 6 to 18, on average, fully responsible for turning out a well-defined segment of finished
work-also known as self-directed work teams. The segment could be a final product, like a refrigerator or
ball bearing; or a service, like a fully processed insurance claim. It could also be a complete but
intermediate product or service, like a finished refrigerator motor, an aircraft fuse-large, or the circuit plans
for a television set.
 Virtual Teams: Teams in which members communicate by computer, take turns as leaders, and jump in and
out a necessary. These types of teams use a combinations of cloud computing, e-mail, video conferencing,
and shared computer screen technologies to get their jobs done.
 Quality Circles: Teams of workers and supervisors that meet regularly to address work-related problems
involving quality and productivity.
 Problem-Solving Teams: Teams whose members gather to solve a specific problem and then disband (The
difference between these and quality circles is that quality circles usually remain in existence for a much
longer period of time).
 Project Teams: Teams with a specific mission to develop something new or to accomplish a complex task
(Project teams have been in use since World War II, and probably before that. However, project teams
recently gained a new measure of importance and respect in the context of Six Sigma).
Management teams, natural work teams, self-managed teams, and virtual teams typically work on routine
business activities-managing an organization, building a product, or designing an electronic system-and are an
integral part of how work is organized and designed.

Virtual teams present special challenges to managers. Virtual teaming requires special attention to
communication, technology, sponsorship, and leadership issues. Quality circles were one of the first types of
teams to focus specifically on quality.

Team leaders and team members need a variety of skills. Team leaders require expertise in:

 Conflict management and resolution

 Team management
 Leadership skills
 Decision making
 Communication
 Negotiation
 Cross-cultural training
Conflict management involves dealing proactively with disagreements that may occur when two or
more technical experts get together. Team management involves ensuring that project members
remain focused on the goals, time frame, and costs of their part of the project. Leadership skills
require that the project leader guide the work of the team, including team development, while
managing upward to the project champion and outward to other project teams and team leaders.
Decision making requires that good decisions be made in a timely fashion.

Some rules for effective meeting include:

 Use agendas.
 Have a facilitator.
 Take minutes.
 Draft the next agenda.
 Evaluate the meeting.
 Adhere to the “100-mile” rule.
Reaching agreement or consensus among team members is often accomplished using the nominal group
technique (NGT), developed to provide a way to prioritize and focus on important project objectives in the
project definition stage.

Peter Scholtes, a leading authority on teams for quality improvement, suggested 10 ingredients for a successful
team. These items provide some guidance during the forming stage and can mitigate issues that might lead to
“storming”.

• Clarity in team goals. As a sound basis, a team agrees on a mission, purpose, and goals.
• An improvement plan. A plan guides the team in determining schedules and milepost by helping the team
decide what advice, assistance, training, materials, and other resources it may need.
• Clearly defined roles. All members must understand their duties and know who is responsible for what issues
and tasks.
• Clear communication. Team members should speak with clarity, listen actively, and share information.
• Beneficial team behaviors. Teams should encourage members to use effective skills and practices to facilitate
discussions and meetings.
• Well-defined decision procedure. Teams should use data as the basis for decisions and learn to reach
consensus on important issues.
• Balanced participation. Everyone should participate, contribute their talents, and share commitment to the
team’s success.
• Established ground rules. The group outlines acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.
• Awareness of group process. Team members exhibit sensitivity to nonverbal communication, understand
group dynamics, and work on group process issues.
• Use of the scientific approach. With structured problem-solving processes, teams can more easily find root
causes of problems.