Content area
Full Text
Jackie Coyle-Shapiro: University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Introduction
The notion of teamwork is central to TQM. A total quality culture is described as emphasizing holistic behaviour oriented towards co-operation (Bushe, 1988) and high-trust social relationships (Hill, 1991). At the individual level, this would manifest itself in a team orientation, collectivist values versus individualism; in behavioural terms, an individual would take initiatives above and beyond the call of duty, share information with and help co-workers (Waldman, 1994). This type of behaviour previously classified as organizational citizenship behaviour is oriented towards improving group and organizational effectiveness (Organ, 1988) and as such is consistent with a total quality culture.
Teamwork applies to all organizational members. It may be viewed from three perspectives: teamwork within a natural working group, between different departments, and between managers and employees. The focus here is on teamwork within a natural working group. Within the context of TQM, teamwork is an important outcome and a condition for continuous improvement. It facilitates collaborative efforts to solve quality problems (Waldman, 1994), places overall responsibility for quality with the team thus alleviating the potential for individual blame (Wilkinson, 1992), allows greater sharing of information within the work group (Oakland, 1989) and facilitates greater co-operation to improve continuously the functioning of the work group.
There has been a lack of empirical investigation into the effects of TQM interventions on theoretically predicted outcomes. Such empirical work would provide fruitful insights about the validity of its theoretical underpinnings and the conditions under which TQM interventions will lead to the desired outcomes. This research investigates the impact of a TQM intervention on teamwork using a longitudinally based research design. It is driven by two questions; does the TQM intervention have an impact on teamwork? If so, how does this effect occur?
The total quality intervention
This study was set within one site of a large British engineering multinational. The site has over 500 employees. Several years prior to the intervention, the site as with many other sites in the organization, was restructured along module/cell principles with a parallel introduction of single status and a payment for skills system. The TQM intervention was perceived to be consistent with, and a natural development of, previous changes.
The study commenced with the completion of...