Human values identification and assessment tool development for TQM context

Abstract

There is not a total improvement achieved by companies in implementing total quality management (TQM), where some are seen to be not successful. One of the key factors to achieve the intended results is human factors, especially human values which are critical and potential resource for the successful implementation of TQM. These values have been overlooked in past that need to be identified in real situation and should be aligned while implementing TQM practices. Despite the number of publications on the importance of human values for TQM implementation, little research has emphasized the relevant and required human values. There is also no consensus on the techniques and procedure to identify these values in real situation. A software tool that could identify human values for TQM implementation and provide assessment of the identified values is crucial. This helps the management to shape and implement TQM practices more effectively. It is believed that there is a lack of such tool that can identify the relevant human values in a real situation that is able to assess their level of practice for TQM implementation. The main objective of this study is to develop an automated tool for identifying values in a real situation and provide assessment of the level of practice of identified values for TQM implementation. A three techniques laddering, image tagging and storytelling has been proposed based on literature that support the values identification in real situation. In order to validate the proposed techniques and to acquire the industry’s response about their practice regarding the human values identification, a survey was conducted among managers of manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The selection was based on the Malaysian Productivity Corporation (MPC) database. Two techniques of image tagging and storytelling were found to be highly important and were then used as key techniques for identifying relevant human values for TQM implementation. A human value identification and assessment (HVIA) tool was then proposed based on values identification techniques and a multi rated criteria. The multi rated criteria was adapted to assess the level of practice of identified human values for each TQM practice. Subsequently, the HVIA tool was developed using ASP.Net and MSSQL. A case study was conducted to deploy and validate the tool in industry. The tool can be used by companies for identifying the human values which are relevant and critical to implement TQM practices and to assess their level of practice on the identified human values. It is believed that this prototype tool will be able to enhance TQM implementation.