FUO Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Research, Volume 6 No. 3, September 2018 79 ORGANIZATIONAL : THE ROLE OF TOTAL QUALITY

RACHAEL DICKSON KONYEFA PhD. Department of Administration Niger Delta University Bayelsa State, Nigeria. [email protected]

ISAIAH OYEINKORIKIYE STEPHAN Department of Niger Delta University Bayelsa State, Nigeria. [email protected]

ABSTRACT This study examines and the role total (TQM) practices in work . The theoretical parameters of the paper explored through the existing literature of organizational conflict and total quality management. The critical theoretical investigation indicated that conflict occurs as result of role ambiguity, poor understanding of work procedure, goal incongruence, allocation of scarce resources, status differences and communication gap. The global best management practices also indicated that TQM promises to eradicate or reduce work place conflict. Thus the paper proposes a strategic model as an intervention strategy to reducing work place conflict through the dimensions of total quality management. It was evident in the model that well implemented TQM practices could enhance workplace harmony, therefore the paper concluded that organizational conflict is a wasteful and unproductive tendency that destroys work place harmony while total quality management has the potential to create a climate for management and employee for corporate co-existence that improves customer satisfaction. Keywords: Total quality management, organizational conflict, workplace harmony, goal ambiguity, process management, continuous improvement, information analysis, employee participation, goal incongruence, public wok organization. INTRODUCTION Organizations nowadays are facing too many challenges due to changing situations in the environment. are operating in a turbulent environment therefore looking for means to improve their performance. The management of work organization whether profit or non-profit making organizations also face the challenge of how resources can be effectively and efficiently allocated to meet and exceed the needs of employees and customers outside the organization. The inability of management to balance operational activities in any organization may lead to conflict. Conflict scholars severally have noted that conflict is inevitable in every work organization. Since conflict is unavoidable, the rationale for an organization is to integrate or combine the energy, ideas, skills and knowledge of different people to achieve the organization’s overarching goals. This shows that the

Rachael D. K. & Isaiah O. S. 80 understanding of conflict is important to the attainment of the firm’s objectives. There are differences in perception of conflict. Different people see conflict differently. Conflict is a state of disagreement caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs or interest between two or more people. There are unavoidable struggles for position of authority and power, clash over how revenues should be shared, the number of hours needed by an employee to complete his tasks, how work itself should be done, how information should be acquired and disseminated, and personality relationships such as openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, anxiety etc. are issues that can stimulate conflict in work organizations. Furthermore, the inevitability of work place conflict requires that management should develop strategy or techniques that will manage conflict situations and enhance the performance of the organization. Management needs an organizational – wide approach to continuously improve people, structure and processes/procedures to address the causes of conflict in work place, hence, the concept of total quality management (TQM). Total quality management is a holistic approach that seeks to integrate all organizational functions and roles to focus on meeting customer needs as well as the firm’s objectives (Kumar, Choisne, Grosbois and Kumar, 2008). In general, TQM involves the organization’s long – term commitment to the continuous improvement of people, structure and processes, communication systems, team work, employee empowerment and involvement, customer satisfaction, conformance to standard or specification, reduction of role ambiguity, good record keeping, employee training, commitment, timely information, clearly defined hierarchy etc appear to hold promises as a way to reducing conflict in work organization. Therefore, this study is an attempt to blend two different concepts; organizational conflict and total quality management. The paper examines the following: organizational conflict and its implication, total quality management practices in work organizations, integration of work place conflict and TQM practices, TQM as an intervention strategy to reduce organizational conflict and conclusion. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION AND LITERATURE The literature review in this study explores the theoretical parameters of two distinct concepts, organizational conflict, the causes and effect of work place conflict and total quality management practices in work organizations. This shows that the theoretical framework is justified and contributions of existing studies are intended to clarify the relatedness between organizational conflict and total quality management. Organizational Conflict The word conflict has been defined differently among scholars of conflict. This shows that different authors perceive conflict in varied ways. Generally, conflict is seen as disagreement regarding interests and ideas. Conflict is a state of disagreement caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs or interest between two or more people (Ougori, 2009; Morgan, 2009). The perception of conflict is evident in the theories of conflict. The physiological conflict theorists believe that humans beings have an innate propensity to been aggressive and this propensity is being idle until when something external arouse it (Lawrence, 1966). The economists view conflict from the perspective of competition and struggle over scarce resources (Faleti, 2016). The human needs theory of conflict states that denial, frustration and deprivation of basic needs, psychological, social

FUO Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Research, Volume 6 No. 3, September 2018 81 and spiritual – relates to conflict in an effort to protect or restore those needs (Burton, 1979). The systemic theorists of conflict believe that reasons for any social conflict lie in the social context which the conflict occurred (Morgan, 2009). The relatedness/relational theorists of conflict assume that culture and value differences and group interest influence relationships between individuals and groups, the social perspective sees society as existing in a continuous struggle between groups (Best, 2016; Anugwo, 2009). The theoretical background analyzed above is an indication of the perceived differences of conflict. Employee diversity or differences between workers in an organization is a clear indication that conflict can occur at any given time because human beings have an innate propensity to been aggressive when arouse by an external condition, perceived differences in need, status, value and interest. Conflict is inevitable in any work place since the goals of different stakeholders such as managers and employees are often incompatible (Jones, George and Hill, 2000). Conflict in work place cannot be avoided because people naturally compete or struggle for jobs, power, resources, recognition and security. Therefore, organizational conflict is a disagreement that occurs when goals, values, and interest of different individuals or groups are incompatible within the organization that frustrates goal achievement. It is a discord regarding interest and ideas (Ougori, 2009; Adomie and Arnie, 2005). Conflict in work place may occur whenever an action by one party is perceived as preventing or interfering with the goals, needs or actions of another party. Organizational conflict can also arise over multiple reasons such as incongruent goals among managers and employees, differences in the perception of facts, feelings, values, ideologies and philosophies over allocation of resources. Abdulazeez (2010) confirmed that conflict arise in group because of scarcity of freedom, position and resources. It is pertinent to note that conflict have negative and positive outcome to the individuals, employees and entire organization. Conflict can be positive when it encourages creativity, that is, total transformation of the system in terms of innovation, flexibility, speed, quality, effectiveness and efficiency and responsiveness to customers. Conflict can be negative when it creates resistance to change, work place rigidity, establishes turmoil in organizations or interpersonal relations, foster distrust, build a feeling of defeat (Jones et al, 2000). Many organizations have gone insolvent or closed down as a result of conflict between shareholders, management and employees. Again, when conflict is dysfunctional, destructive or negative, it destroys group cohesion, leads to breakdown of law and order and a total closedown of the organization (Mkpandiok, 2009). Negative conflict can lead to the following consequences; poor achievement of organizational goals, decrease performance, poor attitude towards work, exhibition of diabolic powers to suppress opponents, emotional distress, time and resources wasted. Ratzbury (2012) argued that the affective conflict can lead to team ineffectiveness by provoking hostility, cynicism, and apathy. Conflict that degenerates into strike is injurious to the organization because it can lead to loss of man hour, resources, productivity and colossal loss of earnings. The negative aspect of conflict is emphasized more than the positive side. Conflict can also lead to a productive organization especially when it is well intended and not for selfish interest or sabotage. Although, the support from a conflicting perspective to effectiveness and efficiency was not considered until recent times, when conflict is well intended, it can also lead to the transformation of the entire structure and processes. Management and leadership that is not committed to the firm’s vision, goals and programs can be corrected through the weapon of conflict. When situation like this

Rachael D. K. & Isaiah O. S. 82 happens, people or actors who are directly involved must be careful in managing the process to a logical conclusion for the interest of the entire organization. From the theoretical analysis of organizational conflict, it is evident that the following are some specific causes of conflict in work organizations; inability of workers to understand the true situation of organization’s activities, role ambiguity, goal incongruence, unclear job description, scarcity and allocation of resources, structural ambiguity, inequity in power and reward sharing, administrative incompetence, status differences, absence of fear motivation, ineffective communication, bad emotional disposition and work place romance. Thus, this study summarizes the core factors of workplace dispute as leadership commitment, strategic planning, information analysis, human resource focus, process management and employee involvement. These are also core variables of total quality management (TQM) and it has direct link to organizational performance. Therefore, it becomes imperative to diagnose and analyzes the TQM practices of work organization. Total Quality Management (TQM) Practices Total quality management is a comprehensive, all-encompassing approach to management and requires a systematic approach to long-term growth. TQM is defined as the continuous improvement of people, structure and processes of an organization focus on meeting and exceeding the needs of the customers. TQM involves the state of an organization in which all the activities of all functions designed and carried out in such a way that all external customer needs are met while reducing internal time/cost of production and enhancing the workplace climate. Hanson (2001) defined TQM as a process designed to focus on customer expectations, preventing problems, building commitment to quality in the work force and promoting open decision making. Weihrich and Kootz (2005) defined TQM as an organization’s long-term commitment to the continuous improvement of quality throughout the organization, and with the active participation of all members at all levels to meet and exceed customer expectations. Ali and Shastri (2010) described TQM as the mutual co-operation of everyone in an organization and associated business processes, in order to produce products and services which meet and hopefully exceed the needs and expectations of customers. Jung, Wang and Wu (2008) described TQM as an approach to improve competiveness, efficiency and flexibility for a whole organization. TQM is an emerging work philosophy consisting of principles, practices, tools, models and methods for effective management of an organization in a dynamic environment. The definition of TQM differs among scholars and commentators. This is because different people view quality or value differently. Many authors within the TQM area consider value to be elemental for the concept (Ali and Shastri,2010; Jung et al, 2008). To Miller, Summer and Deane (2009) TQM is characterized by five principles, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (NIST, 2001) is based on eleven core values and concepts while Arora (2009) identified eight key elements of TQM. The emergent of TQM can be traced to several management theories. TQM is a work culture or philosophy founded with the help of several other theories in management. The of Taylor is a management method that applies the principles of science to the management process of determining the one best way to do a job and sharing the rewards with the workers. Although it was criticized for its economic rationality but well intended to create work place productivity. The human relations management

FUO Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Research, Volume 6 No. 3, September 2018 83 approach (Elton Mayo) was developed to enhance the mutual relationship between management and employees for work place harmony. The systems theory of management views an organization as a social system. It relates the organization as a system that consists of interrelated parts that function in a holistic manner to achieve a common purpose. Total quality management principles and practices were drawn or developed from the processes and postulations of all these theories and several other contemporary theories including the international standard organizations (ISO 9000). The ISO 9000 standard is a base for organizations to apply and certify a in relation to quality management (Haras - Saizarbitoria, Casadesus and Marimon, 2011). TQM practices are necessary in improving the effective performance of the organization. There exist several scholars that have contributed to the development of the TQM philosophy. Edward W. Deming was the first quality expert who taught managers about quality. Deming said interpreting quality in terms of reliability, dependability, predictability and consistency of product and service, it is clear that quality improvement is analogous to reduction of variation. By 1986, Deming in his landmark work, out of the crisis, divulged the 14 principles of total quality management. Joseph M. Juran developed his TQM message with regards to improve the performance of organizations. Juran identified 3 phases of quality implementation. They are; quality planning, quality and quality improvement. Kaoru Ishikawa by 1960 developed the quality circle and known for his role in launching Japan’s quality control in which all members of an organization have to participate in quality improvement not just management – not just worker. (Arora, 2009). Central issues of Ishikawa on total quality management includes education at all level, the importance of both internal and external customers, standard quality system and procedure, extensive delegation to allow all your limited human skills to be blossom. Philip Crosby by 1979 developed and offered training programmes in the field of quality. Crosby defined quality as conformance to specifications. Crosby is most associated with the concept of zero defects or the do it right the first time approach to quality improvement. Armand V. Feigenbaun in1983 stressed the need for leadership, a commitment to incorporate quality in the organizations’ practices, and the participation of the entire work force. Furthermore, the TQM literature indicated that different views exist in the interpretation of the TQM philosophy. The TQM scholars have made several different contributions to understand the TQM practices. The international organization of standard (ISO) also noted that there are conflicting meanings of quality in different nations. Thus, the ISO-9000 insists on existence and adoption of internal quality audits which help in identification of non-conformities from the set procedures, if any, and for taking necessary corrective steps well in time (Mehra and Ranganthan, 2008). The ISO-9000 identifies the following TQM practices; customer focus, management commitment (leadership), employee involvement, system approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making, mutually beneficial supplier relationships. Thus, the TQM literature has not addressed how different TQM principles interact and affect organizational conflict. Thus this study is necessary to bridge the gap which could be regarded as an addition to the existing knowledge. TQM Practices and Organizational Conflict Nexus The pursuit of TQM has significant impact on improving quality, effectiveness and efficiency, workplace harmony and organizational performance. TQM is regarded as the

Rachael D. K. & Isaiah O. S. 84 continuous improvement of individuals, groups, departments, and organizational processes focused on meeting customer needs first time and always. Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002) found in their extensive theoretical investigation that the most frequently addressed TQM practices are; customer focus, employee training, leadership, management commitment, teamwork, employee involvement, continuous improvement, creativity and innovation, quality information and performance measurement. The TQM practices seem to have direct relationship with organizational conflict. Organizational conflict is regarded as a disagreement that occurs when goals, values and interest of indifferent people or groups are incompatible within the organization that frustrates goal achievement. Conflict arises in workplace because people compete for jobs, power, resources, recognition and security. Thus the causes of conflict in workplace include; role ambiguity, low understanding of work procedure, goal ambiguity in job description, allocation of scarce resources, status differences, communication gaps etc. Ougori (2009) noted that conflict within an individual usually arise when the person is uncertain about the task he is expected to do, if not clearly defined by the supervisor or the person in charge. Cook and Hunsaker (2001) noted that the causes of conflict are compatibility of goals, structural design, role expectations, degenerating climate and personal differences. Total quality management philosophy has been widely studied but little consideration has been made between TQM practices and organizational conflict. This area in TQM research has been neglected even when TQM practices have a link to workplace harmony. This is a gap and this study examines the following TQM practices as it relates to organizational conflict, leadership commitment, strategic planning, role expectation, information analysis, human resource focus, process management and employee involvement. These TQM practices promise to reduce workplace conflict for increase efficiency, organizational performance and firm’s competitive advantage. In this paper, the authors propose a model to systematically and analytically link total quality management and organizational conflict as a strategic approach to solve organizational problems. Thus the diagram below is idealized to support the relationship between TQM and organization conflict in work organizations. Figure One: ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT AND TQM PRACTICES NEXUS

DIMENSIONS OF CONFLICT DIMENSIONS OF TQM WORKPLACE HARMONY

STRATEGIC ROLE AMBIGUITY CUSTOMER FOCUS PLANNING

SCARCITY AND EMPLOYEE INFORMATION ALLOCATION OF TRAINING RESOURCES ANALYSIS

GOAL LEADERSHIP/ PROCESS INCOMPACTIBILITY MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT

CONTINUOUS EMPLOYEE ADMINISTRATIVE PARTICIPATION INCOMPETENCE IMPROVEMENT

LEADERSHIP POOR STRUCTURAL EMPLOYEE DESIGN INVOLVEMENT/ COMMITMENT EMPOWERMENT

SOURCE: DICKSON, R.K. & ISAIAH, O.S. (2017). ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT: THE ROLE OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN WORK ORGANIZATIONS.

FUO Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Research, Volume 6 No. 3, September 2018 85 The diagram above shows the relationship between organizational conflict and total quality management. From the diagram, a conflicting organization comes with negative workplace practices that constitute signs of danger to every well-meaning organization. These negative tendencies when kept for too long could degenerated to closing down of the entire system, thus the dimensions of conflict in the model critically emphasize such negativism to the organization. To address organizational conflict, several studies indicated that TQM promises to reduce conflict in work organizations especially well intended by the management and leadership of the organization. That is, well focused TQM practices such as customer satisfaction, employee training, leadership and management commitment, employee participation and involvement, continuous improvement and conformance to specification could lead to improved organizational performance, hence workplace harmony. The dimensions of workplace harmony include leadership commitment, strategic planning, role expectation, information analysis, process management and employee participation. These variables are systematically discussed in this study. Leadership Commitment Every organization has policies and programmes that guide and direct its activities towards the achievement of set objectives, these policies and programmes are most times initiated by the leadership and this means their commitment is key for successful implementation. This shows that the leadership of the organization must be convinced of the need for quality and must clearly communicate it to the entire organization through proper documentation (Montes, Jover and Jernandez, 2002). Organizations that have successfully, implemented TQM, the leadership climate has been proactive rather than reactive. TQM is a top management driven process in the sense that management must care passionately for the people they work with, goods and services they produce and the satisfaction of the external customers. These TQM practices promises to create clarity of purpose, enhancing the understanding of the true situation of things in the organization. When management is commitment to the activities of the organization even the most influential workers rather that steering- up the workforce against management, they will use their influence to support and strengthen the leadership of the organization. A committed leadership in organization must define challenging goals and clear description of jobs to reduce role ambiguity and role conflict. All these are TQM practices that can reduce workplace conflict. Strategic Planning Strategic planning is the process of establishing the organizations’ goals and objectives for minimum of 3-5 years and developing the strategies that manage the acquisition and use of resources to realize the organizations goals (Kudla, 1980). Strategic planning is the managerial process of defining the vision, setting objectives and crafting a strategy that will facilitate the achievement of the organizational goals. Strategic planning as a managerial tool promises to reduce goal in congruency, role ambiguity and role conflict in the organization. Given that the leadership of the organization articulates the goals in a manner that workers from every part of the organization could understand, the workers are likely to experience reduce level of organizational conflict (Ketokivi and Castener, 2004). Role Expectation A role is a set of related tasks, specific actions and behaviour that an individual or groups of persons are expected to perform. Role expectation can be influence by role

Rachael D. K. & Isaiah O. S. 86 ambiguity, role conflict and role overload. Role ambiguity exist when role set do not make clear their expectation to the holders, role conflict occurs when the behavioural expectations of the role holders and others in the role set do not agree while role overload exists when role expectations exceed the role holder’s ability to respond effectively. In this context, role expectation may be a challenge to employees because when an individual experience role ambiguity, him / her ability to visualize job performance is affected, resulting in less confidence to perform job effectively (Li and Bagger, 2008) TQM practice such as effective communication and employee training can reduce the danger of role ambiguity. Role conflict and role overload in TQM oriented organizations. Information Analysis Quality improvement efforts involve formal collection of data and analysis to enable managers to make decision in the organization (Issac, Rajendran and Anantharaman, 2004). The availability of quality and timely information can reduce workplace conflict. TQM practices in all quality driven organizations are to ensure that management and managers at all level should have timely and quality information to improve the performance of the organization. Information availability in work organizations collection and quality also enhance effective communication. When data measurement systems become more reliable the workers will experience lower levels of role conflict, role ambiguity and goal ambiguity because they are able to acquire, analyze and store quality information and certain about their role expectations and clarity of purpose. Process Management Process management involves a series of activities consciously and deliberately created by management of work organization to decently achieve the organizations goals. It increases higher levels of coordination across the entire organization for effective and efficient work system that leads to high formalization (Banner and Tushman 2002). The emergence of conflict between employee’s goals and organization’s goals can be reduced in highly formalized organization. Formalization help to clarify roles, it has the tendency to reduce role ambiguity of employees (Agarwal, 1993; Nicholso and Goh, 1983). Employee Involvement and Participation Total quality organizations achieve success by working with people, not replacing them or limiting the scope for their activities, but by seeing the work force as a source of competitive advantage. Anora (2009) noted that the objective of an organization is always growth and increase productivity through effective participation of employees. When employees are involved in work process, it means that they have been given the freedom to participate in carrying out the activities of the organization, Employees involvement causes certain glorification of the employees, pride is consumed through this involvement, derived through the creation of satisfaction in one’s own work (Macleod and Baxter, 2001: Oriaku and Oriaku, 2008; Hanson and Erickson, 2002). Employee involvement is a sign of recognizing the ability of employees by giving them responsibility. When employees fully participate in an organization, it will reduce work place conflict because it gives them the sense of responsibility for the outcome of the decision taken by them collectively. TQM as an Intervention Strategy Strategic TQM practices must be built on the management’s continuous commitment to questions concerning quality. That is, management must establish a quality

FUO Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Research, Volume 6 No. 3, September 2018 87 policy and support quality activities economically, morally and psychologically in promoting work place harmony. TQM is an invention strategy in the sense that TQM constitutes different models for problem solving; work place conflict is a problematic situation that can reduce individuals and organizational performance, hence the need for TQM practices to create work place harmony. TQM is a work culture that promises to address problems such as; lack of leadership commitment, absenteeism or poor attitude towards work, lack of employee involvement and participation, poor human relations, lack of skilled and competent manpower, inability to train and retrain personnel, poor maintenance culture, inability of management to inculcate team spirit and fellowship in work place etc. These problems if not well managed, can stimulate work place conflict, thus, TQM problem solving tools such as brainstorming and benchmarking can be used by management to avert the efficacy of the problematic situation. Thus the integration between TQM and organizational conflict is work place harmony. CONCLUSION AND RESEARCH IMPLICATION Organizational conflict is a wasteful and unproductive tendency that destroys work place harmony and decrease organizational performance. TQM practice promises to enhance work place harmony and creating a climate for team work and collective responsibility for the general interest. This assertion is clarified in the theoretical analysis of this study. Therefore, this paper concluded that there is a relationship between organizational conflict, total quality management and work place harmony. The blend or integration between total quality management and organizational conflict lack empirical evidence because little contributions have been made among scholars in this area of management discourse. Thus this paper has addressed a significant gap in organizational conflict and total quality management that will lead to work place harmony and more empirical research is needed to validate the propositions of this study. REFERENCES Abdulazeez, A. (2010). Empirical study not the effect of conflict on organizational performance in Nigeria. Http://astonjournals.com Adomi, S E.E. and Arie, S.O. (2005). Conflict management in Nigeria Universities library. Journal of Library Management, 27 (1), 520 – 530. Agarwal, S. (1993). Influence of formalization on role stress, organizational commitment and work alienation of sales persons: A cross – rational comparative study. Journal of Studies, 24 (4) 715 – 739. Ali, M. and Shatri, K.R (2010). Implementation of total quality management in higher education. Asian Journal of Business Management, 2 (1), 9 – 16. Anugwo, G.A. (2005). Personnel, and human capital management. Enugu: Computer Edge Publishers. Arora, K.C. (2009). Total quality management. New Delhi; S.K. Kataria and Soni publishers. Banner, M.J. and Tushman, M. (2002). Process management and technological innovation: A longitudinal study of photography and paint industries. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47 (4), 676 – 706.

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