Triple inaugural address for the Rotating Chair for Research in Organisation and Management

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of the author(s). INTRODUCTION I have been researching the subject of quality management since 1981. During this time research funding to the order of £4.5m has been received to advance the subject of quality management. Arising from this and other non-funded research, 10 books and over 400 papers have been published. In this inaugural lecture I will discuss the key aspects of this research, focusing on that which I consider has stood the test of time. A considerable degree of selectivity has been exercised in choosing the material to be included in the presentation. For example, in a number of cases, models and guidelines developed in the eighties have been superseded and incorporated in more recent models. To close the loop I also identify some of the quality management issues which need to be considered in the future. Much of the research has been carried out with colleagues, both inside and outside UMIST, and in collaboration with students studying for higher degrees, I am indebted to them for their contribution. QUALITY CIRCLES (a) Quality Circle Failure (Hayward et al, 1985) Based on postal questionnaires surveys and case study work, evidence was gathered from UK organisations on the reasons for quality circle failure, the three major causes being: Redundancies and restructuring: The economic situation causing redundancies and/or company restructuring resulting in individual circle failure and quality circle programme suspension. Circle leadership: A lack of time on the part of circle leaders to organise and attend meetings and progress key issues relating to the project being tackled. Dale 6 Lack of cooperation from middle management and first-line supervisors: These levels of management have the power to ensure that meetings are cancelled due to production or other pressure, block access to necessary information, belittle circle achievements, frustrate implementation of circle findings and steal their ideas. These three major causes of failure are most relevant to the lack of success which organisations experience with improvement teams, in whatever form they take. In the introduction and subsequent operation of teams used within a continuous improvement process, organisations would do well to study what was written about quality circles in the mid-1980s, in terms of guidelines for success and how to avoid failure. The hypothesis was made that a circle programme has a life cycle …