Research Proposal - Management/Employees Perception towards QMS Implementation

I am currently busy with my Research proposal for my MSc(Applied Science), my suggested topic is Management/Employees perception towards Quality Management System implementation, Any thoughts of the angle, definition of the objective.

I also need any previous studies done arround this topic

Please Help...........

It is a very interesting subject, and could be a very good paper if it's done well.

If I were to look for existing studies on the subject or related subjects, I would start with (wait for it...) Google.

But perception is a qualitative measure. You can get numerical values of 1 to 10, but they should be augmented with comments that you can count similarities with and report on, including possible solutions, insights or words of wisdom.

I would survey people using something like Survey Monkey in example companies after gaining permission from their management, so as to get a good cross representation of the population and reflect comparative data in homogenous samples (the company). I would make the survey differentiate between three subgroups: top management, middle management and the workforce - be sure to include opportunities for people to expand on their answers. These data sets can be compared against each other.

Questions should be specific enough to reflect operational aspects. The Baldrige survey "Are We Making Progress?" includes a lot of good starting places for questions that reflect the same types of QMS factors as ISO 900X. You may or may not want to use the actual questions, but I offer the example because the questions are, in my view well written and insightful.

I would not forget to ask the middle management how much they spent on the registration effort. If you want to know if they think it was worth it, get them in focus groups and ask in specific terms:

To what extent did our preparations help us avoid:

- Disruptions in workflow due to material problems
- Disruptions in workflow due to machine downtime
- Rework
- Scrap
- Contradictions in various specifications (prints to SOPs)
- Employee turnover
- Safety incidents and accidents

Be prepared to note a variety of answers and study them in tandem with what the other groups said. Are there disconnects, as in top management thinks it's just peachy while the work force thinks it was awful? Such things should be mentioned in the report, but you can't really stray into causes unless you do a seriously in-depth study using Industrial Psychology principles.

I hope this helps!

MgcinaEC said:

I am currently busy with my Research proposal for my MSc(Applied Science), my suggested topic is Management/Employees perception towards Quality Management System implementation, Any thoughts of the angle, definition of the objective.

I also need any previous studies done arround this topic

Please Help...........

Click to expand...

Management and employees together form the organization. Usually they look in different directions, and the quality management system gets overlooked. Management feels it is employees responsibility while the employees feels that management is not committed.
Both have to understand the tatwa (the essence) of a quality management system. For the management the people must come first and by the people the organizational goals must be achieved. For the employees the management commitment and involvement must be made visible. In both the thought process trust comes first and for this to come about clarity and sincearity of purpose is utmost essential. In here is the concept of process approach and systems approach to management.
It is perhaps on these lines the ISO9001 standard is made in its present form.
While management responsibilities must be understood and demonstrated by the management, the process approach must be understood and demonstrated by the employees with a common goal (The policy) and by means of measure of objectives set to achieve which aligns with meeting the policy.
It may sound somewhat bookish, but it is a pleasure when one plans to make this work in an organization, and reaps the benefits of QMS implementation.

Without knowing how much 'timing' factors into this research proposal (and execution), I think that there would also be value in comparing the before perceptions to the the after perceptions within three or four focal organizations. This could also include the change management techniques that were successfully (or not so successfully) employed to change perceptions for the better.

As with any research, ensure that both sides of the story are told and disseminate the reasons for the difference, there will be some.

Al..

Thanks for the comments, It gives me some form of direction.....