Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Moving the quality effort forward – the emerging role of the middle manager

Moving the quality effort forward – the emerging role of the middle manager Improving quality has become the goal of many organisations and introducing such programmes has resulted in several accounts documenting the risks and failures attached to implementing these quality initiatives. Middle management resistance has been cited as a common form of resistance, though it is widely recognised, even among the managerial groups, that commitment from this level within the organisation is essential if implementation is to have any chance of success. However, some writers believe that the middle management position is misunderstood and that the quality drive by the organisation pushes this group into a stance of resistance. Regardless of whether the resistance is intentional or unintentional, there are serious managerial implications resulting from this problem, many of which carry strategic implications for the firm. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Managing Service Quality Emerald Publishing

Moving the quality effort forward – the emerging role of the middle manager

Denis Harrington; Brian Williams
Managing Service Quality , Volume 14 (4): 10 – Aug 1, 2004
Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/moving-the-quality-effort-forward-the-emerging-role-of-the-middle-6G3IVvgwTY
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0960-4529
DOI
10.1108/09604520410546833
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Improving quality has become the goal of many organisations and introducing such programmes has resulted in several accounts documenting the risks and failures attached to implementing these quality initiatives. Middle management resistance has been cited as a common form of resistance, though it is widely recognised, even among the managerial groups, that commitment from this level within the organisation is essential if implementation is to have any chance of success. However, some writers believe that the middle management position is misunderstood and that the quality drive by the organisation pushes this group into a stance of resistance. Regardless of whether the resistance is intentional or unintentional, there are serious managerial implications resulting from this problem, many of which carry strategic implications for the firm.

Journal

Managing Service Quality – Emerald Publishing

Published: Aug 1, 2004

Keywords: Quality; Quality improvement; Middle management; Empowerment

References

  • The role of top management commitment in quality management: an empirical analysis of the auto parts industry
    Ahire, S.L.; O'Shaughnessy, K.C.
  • Total quality management in California public higher education
    Aly, N.; Akpovi, J.
  • TQM?: it's as easy as ABC
    Babbar, S.; Aspelin, D.J.
  • TQM: a child takes a first few faltering steps
    Benson, T.
  • Change agents lead the way
    Bott, K.; Hill, J.
  • The structural embeddedness of resistance among public sector managers
    Brower, R.S.; Abolafia, M.Y.
  • Gray‐cloud managers
    Brown, T.
  • Life in the cell: supervision and teamwork in a manufacturing systems engineering
    Buchanan, D.; Preston, D.
  • Why TQM Fails and What to Do About It
    Brown, M.; Hitchcock, D.; Willard, M.
  • Using team – individual reward and recognition strategies to drive organisational success
    Cacioppe, R.
  • A disappointing search for excellence
    Carrol, D.T.
  • Just get me to the market on time
    Caulkin, S.
  • Principles of Modern Management
    Certo, S.C.
  • Total Quality – A Users Guide for Implementation
    Ciampa, D.
  • Quality is Free
    Crosby, P.
  • Attitudes of middle managers to quality‐based organisational change
    Davis, D.; Fisher, T.
  • The capabilities of market‐driven organisations
    Day, G.S.
  • The economic driver for the twenty‐first century: quality
    DeFeo, J.A.; Janssen, A.
  • Management of Statistical Techniques for Quality and Productivity
    Deming, W.E.
  • The challenge of managing organisational change: exploring the relationship of re‐engineering, developing learning organisations and total quality management
    Dervitsiotis, K.N.
  • Quality management initiatives and people management strategies: the need for integration in the new millennium in an Irish context
    Dwyer, G.
  • Measuring the relationship between total quality management and sustainable competitive advantage: a resource‐based view
    Escrig Tena, A.B.; Bou Llusar, J.C.; Roca Puig, R.
  • Total Quality Control
    Feigenbaum, A.
  • How managers defeat TQM
    Feinberg, S.
  • Middle management resistance to strategic change initiatives: saboteurs or scapegoats?
    Fenton‐O'Creevy, M.
  • Lower‐level management: the internal customers of change
    Frohman, M.
  • Why managing pain is good business
    Frost, P.J.
  • People empowerment: the key to TQM success
    Gatchalian, M.M.
  • Control: a contested concept in TQM research
    Godfrey, G.; Dale, B.; Marchington, M.; Wilkinson, A.
  • The five drivers of total quality
    Grahn, D.P.
  • Scale Development – Theory and Applications
    Grant, R.
  • Work Redesign
    Hackman, J.R.; Oldham, G.R.
  • An exploratory investigation into managerial perceptions of service quality in UK hotels
    Harrington, D.; Akehurst, G.
  • ISO 9000 and TQM for the new millennium: imperatives for change
    Ho, S.K.M.
  • Job enlargement, individual differences, and worker responses
    Hulin, C.L.; Blood, M.R.
  • Sustaining TQM through self‐directed work teams
    Irani, Z.; Choudrie, J.; Love, P.E.D.; Gunasekaran, A.
  • Why quality initiatives fail
    Juran, J.
  • Juran's Quality Control Handbook
    Juran, J.M.; Gryna, F.M.
  • Prophets in the Dark
    Kearns, D.; Nadler, D.
  • An evaluation of TQM and the techniques for successful implementation
    Kia Liang Tan, P.
  • TQM's challenge to management theory and practice
    Kochan, T.; Grant, R.; Shani, R.
  • Quality management: the chief executive's perception and role
    Lascelles, D.; Dale, B.
  • Virtual Teams: Reaching across Space, Time, and Organisations with Technology
    Lipnack, J.; Stamps, J.
  • Total quality management from theory to practice: a case study
    Longenecker, C.O.; Scazzero, J.A.
  • The missing piece of the total quality puzzle
    Martin, P.K.
  • TQM's value criticised in new report
    Miller, C.
  • Critical factors and performance measures of TQM
    Motwani, J.
  • Making total quality work: aligning organisational processes, performance measures, and stakeholders
    Olian, J.; Rynes, S.
  • Participation or control?
    Parker, M.
  • Marketing implementation and internal marketing
    Piercy, N.
  • The impact of information technology on middle managers
    Pinsonnealut, A.; Kraemer, K.L.
  • Organisational development: theory, practice and research
    Porras, J.I.; Robertson, P.J.
  • Total quality management as competitive advantage: a review and empirical study
    Powell, T.C.
  • Implementing total quality management
    Radovilsky, Z.; Gotcher, J.W.S.; Slattsveen, S.
  • Why Teams Don't Work: What Went Wrong and How to Make It Right
    Robbins, H.; Finley, M.
  • Middle management: the missing link
    Roth, W.
  • Why TQM fails
    Salazar, R.
  • Managerial commitment process in organisational change: findings from a case study
    Savolainen, T.I.
  • Strategies for gaining business excellence through total quality management: a Finnish case study
    Savolainen, T.
  • Empowerment: the key to quality
    Scarnati, J.T.; Scarnati, B.J.
  • The road to total quality: views of industry experts
    Schein, L.
  • Total quality management cuts a broad swathe – through manufacturing and beyond
    Schonberger, R.
  • Empowerment
    Wilkinson, A.
  • Organising for continuous improvement: evolutionary theory meets the quality revolution
    Winter, S.G.
  • TQM: Its Impact on Bottom Line Results
    Zairi, M.; Letza, S.R.; Oakland, J.S.