Question

Jersey Dairies, Inc. faced increasing competition that threatened its dominant market share in the Pacific Northwest. Senior management at the 300-employee dairy food processing company decided that the best way to maintain or increase market share was to take the plunge into a quality management (QM) program. Jersey hired consultants to educate management and employees about the QM process, and sent several managers to QM seminars. A steering team of managers and a few employees visited other QM companies throughout North America.
To strengthen the company’s QM focus, Jersey president Tina Stavros created a new position called vice-president of quality, and hired James Alder into that position. Alder, who previously worked as a QM consultant at a major consulting firm, was enthusiastic about implementing a complete QM program. One of Alder’s first accomplishments was convincing management to give every employee in the organization several days of training in quality measurement (e.g., Pareto diagrams), structured problem solving, and related QM practices. Jersey’s largely unskilled workforce had difficulty learning this material, so the training took longer than expected and another round was required one year later.
Alder worked with production managers to form continuous improvement (CI) teams—groups of employees who looked for ways to cut costs, time, and space throughout the work process. Although Alder was enthusiastic about CI teams, most supervisors and employees were reluctant to get involved.
Supervisors complained that the CI teams were “asking too many questions” about activities in their department. Less than one-quarter of the production areas formed CI teams because employees thought QM was a fancy way for management to speed up the work. This view was reinforced by some of management’s subsequent actions, such as setting higher production targets and requiring employees to complete the tasks of those who were absent from work.
To gain more support for QM, Jersey president Tina Stavros spoke regularly to employees and supervisors about how QM was their answer to beating the competition and saving jobs. Although these talks took her away from other duties, she wanted every employee to know that their primary objective was to improve customer service and production efficiency in the company. To encourage more involvement in the CI teams, Stavros and Alder warned employees that they must support the QM program to save their jobs. To further emphasize this message, the company placed large signs throughout the company’s production facilities that said, “Our Jobs Depend on Satisfied Customers” and “Quality Management: Our Competitive Advantage.”
Alder and Stavros agreed that Jersey’s suppliers must have a strong commitment toward the QM philosophy, so Jersey’s purchasing manager was told to get suppliers “on board” or find alternative sources. Unfortunately, the purchasing manager preferred a more collegial and passive involvement with suppliers, so he was replaced a few months later.
The new purchasing manager informed suppliers that they should begin a QM program immediately because Jersey would negotiate for lower prices in the next contracts and would evaluate their bids partly based on their QM programs. Twenty months after Jersey Dairies began its QM journey, Tina Stavros accepted a lucrative job offer from a large food products company in the Midwest. Jersey Dairies promoted its vice-president of finance, Thomas Cheun, to the president’s job.
The board of directors was concerned about Jersey’s falling profits over the previous couple of years and wanted Cheun to strengthen the bottom line. Although some CI teams did find cost savings, these were mostly offset by higher expenses. The company had nearly tripled its training
budget and had significantly higher paid-time-off costs as employees took these courses. A considerable sum was spent on customer surveys and focus groups. Employee turnover was higher, mainly due to dissatisfaction with the QM program. Just before Stavros left the company, she received word that several employees had contacted the Commercial Food Workers Union about organizing Jersey’s nonunion production workforce.
A group of suppliers asked for a confidential meeting in which they told Cheun to reconsider the QM demands on them. They complained that their long-term relationships with Jersey were being damaged and that other dairies were being more realistic about price, quality, and delivery requirements. Two major suppliers bluntly stated that they might decide to end their contracts with Jersey rather than agree to Jersey’s demands.
Almost two years after Jersey Dairies began QM, Thomas Cheun announced that James Alder was leaving Jersey Dairies, that the position of vice-president of quality would no longer exist, and that the company would end several QM initiatives begun over the previous two years. Instead, Jersey Dairies, Inc. would use better marketing strategies and introduce new technologies to improve its competitive position in the marketplace.
Discussion Questions
1. What perspective of organizational effectiveness did Tina Stavros and James Alder attempt to apply in this case?
2. Describe how specific elements of that perspective related to their interventions.
3. Explain what went wrong in this case, using one or more of the other perspectives of organizational effectiveness.

Answer 1

1.. Jersey Dairies Ltd confronted increasing competition that compromised its prevailing piece of the overall industry.  Over the previous two years, Jersey Dairies has started the execution of Quality Management (QM) to keep up or increment the organization's piece of the pie. A center meaning of value the executives (QM) depicts an administration way to deal with long haul accomplishment through consumer loyalty. In a QM exertion, all individuals from an association take an interest in improving procedures, items, administrations, and the way of life where they work.

Lower costs: QM brings down expenses all through the business framework and association. Since it is a comprehensive quality administration program, QM causes various divisions to convey their necessities, issues and wants with one another, so useful arrangements can be discovered that will enable the association to reduce expenses all through the inventory network, appropriation chain, transporting and getting, bookkeeping and the executive's offices without losing profitability or the capacity to work quickly despite the change.

• Improved Reputation: QM programs have the benefit of improving corporate just as item notorieties in the commercial center, since blunders and imperfect items are found considerably more quickly than under a non-QM framework, and regularly before they are ever sent to market or found in the hands of people in general.

Fewer objections may likewise imply that the assets committed to client assistance can be decreased. A more significant level of consumer loyalty may likewise prompt expanded piece of the overall industry. Representatives will start to relate great execution to a positive result subsequently improving profitability.

3.. Dairies' employees already have a negative attitude toward QMinitiatives. The representatives at Jersey Dairies need both the regular aptitudes and scholarly abilities required to effectively finish the errands engaged with the usage of QM. When taking a gander at "Capacity" in Individual Behavior and Results, Jersey Dairies' workers have beneath normal skills that forestall predominant execution in QM. Jersey Dairies has accepted that the QM preparing gave was adequate to representatives to completely comprehend the association's expectations of such an extraordinary change in strategy. The representatives' denied abilities have made them show an absence of inspiration in effectively actualizing QM; in this manner, the explanation they're hesitant to engage in the QM procedure.

• Increasing Employee Turnover at Jersey Dairies has gotten impressively higher, basically because of disappointment with the QM program. Tina Stavros (not long before leaving Jersey Dairies), got word that few representatives had reached the Commercial Food Workers Union about sorting out Jersey Dairies non-association creation work power. As referenced before, the essential and most urgent purpose behind Jersey Dairies' expanding worker turnover is work disappointment. Occupation fulfilment is the key driver for organization achievement. At the point when the Jersey Diaries' workforce is dejected the likelihood of progress with the execution of QM is amazingly low. Representatives at Jersey Dairies (through employment disappointment) have diminished their work exertion, have placed less vitality into quality, and have expanded non-appearance and delay.

• Suppliers Displeased with QM Demands The usage of QM has made destinations and objectives contrary with Jersey Diaries' providers. The organization's contradicting objectives have made Jersey Dairies experience strife with their providers likely in light of the fact that the absence of chance, capacity, and inspiration to impart successfully. At the point when the new buying supervisor educated providers that they should start a QM program quickly, they increased their view of the contention by expressing they may choose to end their agreements with Jersey Dairies instead of to consent to Jersey's requests. This insufficient convey has caused less inspiration by Jersey Dairies and their providers to impart later on.

• High expenses of time Jersey's generally untalented workforce experienced issues learning this material, so the preparation took longer than anticipated and another round was required one year later.

The principle issue with Jersey's underlying execution of QM was that it was done pitifully. Most representatives and even directors weren't totally certain about what QM is and it appears that no one in the organization recognizes what QM is intended to accomplish. Jersey needed to watch its piece of the pie, so they received an in vogue the board style without truly understanding the standards behind.

Some suggestions:

• Knowledge of QM To enable representatives and execute QM inside Jersey Dairies as a proceeding with exertion, everybody in the association must be completely comprehended the association's expectations of such a radical change in strategy and be prepared in the methods of QM.

• Processing Time The primary issue with Jersey's underlying execution of QM was that it was not done upkeep. Accordingly, Jersey Dairies need to give adequate preparing time to representatives to completely comprehend the QM. At long last, a professional Quality Management style will improve Jersey Dairies' profile in the commercial center, which will, at last, assist them with warding off the opposition and hold or even increment their piece of the pie, which their objective in any case.