A major problem for large organisations is to gain and sustain the
interest and motivation of their employees on a coherent basis across the
organisation. Certification systems such as ISO9000 (and another UK
example is 'Investors in People') can provide such a stimulus. They offer
a logical basis for initiating review and change - employees (and
managers) find it difficult to contradict the programme because its stated
aims are so clearly aligned to key success criteria for the organisation.
At the same time the organisation, by adopting a certification programme,
through its success (ie award of the certificate) can be seen to be
aligned with 'best in class'; useful both for obtaining contracts and for
PR.
The process is also quite simple - most certification systems are
relatively prescriptive (a necessity to allow for ease of external audit),
and so can be translated into standardised processes and procedures.
The danger is that the processes and procedures then become bureaucratic -
it is often more important to be seen to be following the established
'quality' process than it is to be creative and to challenge the scheme.
'Not being quality' then becomes a weapon of internal corporate politics.
The trick, then, is to achieve two aims simultaneously - first, to adopt
the certification approach to help ensure high standards within the
organisation, and second to encourage a climate of creativity and
challenge which drives those standards forwards. The second part is key
to an organisation not stagnating under the delusion that it is
'accredited high quality'.
I have been involved in a major application of TQM and seen several of the
pitfalls which open before it. I will be interested to hear about
examples of organisations that have met both the criteria established
above, especially the one about sustaining healthy creativity and
challenge to established practices.
John Taylor
-- Dr John Taylor AGORA: A meeting place for mindsLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>