FUNDAMENTALS OF

QUALITY SERVICE CULTURE

Ryan Jeffrey P Curbano, Ph.D.
What is Organizational Culture?
• Organizational culture is basically a set of shared values and beliefs which
interact with an organization’s people, structure and systems to produce
behavioral norms.
• Organizational culture mirrors common views about “the way things are
done around here. It is the “social glue” that binds an organization’s members
together and maybe considered to be the personality of the organization.
• Values are principles held in high regard such as customer satisfaction,
employee autonomy and innovation.
• Beliefs are assumptions about what is true, such as quality work will be
rewarded, and promotions are based on merit.
• Norms are standards of expected behavior or established ways of doing
things which are developed on the job
Importance of Organizational Culture
• It increases employee commitment and loyalty because of their sense of
pride and emotional attachment to certain core values.
• It enables the attainment of strategic goals when there is a “fit” between
culture and strategies. The success of any strategy rests heavily on the
existence of a supporting culture.
• It facilitates decision making by reducing disagreements about which
premises should prevail since there is greater sharing of beliefs and values.
• It saves times as it spells out how people are to behave most of the time.
• It facilitates communications since the employees speak a “common
language” and shared values provide clues to help interpret messages.
• Organizational culture provides meaning and purpose to work.
 How Culture Develops?
THREE IMPORTANT SOURCES TO
DEVELOP CULTURE
• the beliefs and values of the founder;
• the learning experiences of group members as
their organization evolves
• new beliefs, values, and assumptions brought
in by new members and leaders.
 What is a Quality Culture?
• Quality Culture is a system of shared values, beliefs and norms that focuses on
delighting customers and continuously improving the quality of products and
services.
• In an organization with a quality culture, quality is deeply embedded in virtually
every aspect of organizational life, including hiring and promotion, employee
orientation and ongoing training, compensation, management style, decision
making, organizational structure, work processes and office layout.
• Simply put, in a quality culture, “quality” is a way of life; quality principles are
mirrored in organizational practices and behaviors
 Core Values and Beliefs of a Quality
Culture
• Customer focus
• Quality is defined and judged by the customers. The mission of
quality organizations is centered upon customer satisfaction.
Organizational processes and procedures are designed to meet the
requirements of both the external and internal customers.
• Employee involvement and empowerment
• Employees are empowered to serve customers well and believe that
they have the power to make things happen
 Core Values and Beliefs of a Quality
Culture
• Open and honest communication
• Employees speak the truth and quality issues are discussed, rather than
hidden or ignored. Quality cannot be achieved when employees fear
retribution for their candour. Employees also handle conflict constructively by
confronting and resolving it.
• Fact-based problem solving and decision making
• Facts or reliable data and not opinions or hearsay form the basis of solving
problems systematically or making intelligent decisions.
 Core Values and Beliefs of a Quality
Culture
• Continuous improvement as a way of life
• Quality is a moving target; there is no one best or optimum level of quality.
Organizations have to continuously improve the quality of their products and
services to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive business world. In short,
quality improvement is a never-ending journey.
• Teamwork throughout the organization
• In a quality culture, there is close cooperation between managers and
employees and among departments. Teamwork is crucial as it creates a sense
of ownership and commitment. Equally important, it breaks down divisional and
functional barriers.
 Core Values and Beliefs of a Quality
Culture
• Process management
• Long-lasting quality improvement is attained through preventive
management i.e. building quality into the work processes. Quality should
be attained through the prevention of errors and defects, and not through
inspection.
• Rewards and recognition
• In a quality culture, rewards and recognition are based upon attainment of
quality goals and demonstration of appropriate behavior.
Changing Organizational Culture
• Changing organizational culture is a difficult and time-consuming
process, especially in the case of a “strong” culture where the values are
deeply entrenched.
• Changing people’s values, attitudes and behaviors’ is far more challenging
than getting an organization’s quality system registered to ISO9001.
• The length of major cultural change in large companies such as
General Electric, Xerox, Nissan and British Airways ranged from
4-10 years.
• Nevertheless, organizational culture can be changed as evident by
successful turnarounds of Chrysler by Lee Iacocca, IBM by Lou Gerstner,
and General Electric by Jack Welch. Successful cultural transformation
efforts focused on clearly defined results and aligning the new culture
 Steps in
Creating and
Sustaining a
Quality
Culture
 Recognizing the need for change
• The first step in creating a quality culture is to identify compelling reasons for
culture change (e.g., financial crisis, competitor pressure, changes in customer
expectations, a merger or acquisition) and the broad desired outcomes.
• In this regard, top leaders should create a sense of urgency (or a sense of
perceived “crisis”) and discontent with the status quo.
• People need to be convinced by a compelling and clear vision (desired future
state of affairs) rather than coerced to change.
• Vision helps employees to have a sense of purpose and pride in their work.
• Top leaders should communicate their vision of required changes and a set of
appropriate strategies to attain them.
 Diagnosing Existing Organizational Culture
• Assess the characteristics of the existing organizational culture: the way
in which quality is viewed, talked about and interpreted in the
organization.
• Decide which current values, beliefs and norms can be retained and
which need to be changed.
• In undertaking this effort (through focus groups and questionnaires), it is
crucial to involve all stakeholder groups in the process, including
managers, employees, and customers.
 Determining the desired culture which
supports organizational vision and strategy
• Develop a set of norms which specify both acceptable behaviors
and unacceptable behaviors’.
• Design interventions to close the gaps between the current and
desired organizational culture.
• Ensure that the new culture is aligned with organizational vision
and strategy.
 Communicating the desired culture
to all organizational members
• Messages communicated should be few and compelling-centered
upon organizational vision, goals and core values–not with 50
messages that people have trouble remembering.
 Modeling of desired behavior by leaders

• Employees often look at their superiors as role models.

• Hence, leaders must model the desired behavior in what they
say and do; they must practice what they preach
 Conducting appropriate training at
all levels to imbibe new culture
• Training is essential to secure organizational commitment
to quality improvement efforts, minimize resistance to
change, and to enable employees to handle new task
demands.
Reinforcing the desired behavior
• To accelerate and sustain the cultural change process, the
desired behavior of employees should be reinforced through
recognition and reward systems.
 Evaluating progress towards desired
culture
• Continually monitor and evaluate the cultural change efforts to determine
if the desired behaviors were attained.
• If the cultural change efforts are not successful, take corrective action.
 Six Secondary Mechanisms For
Articulating And Reinforcing Culture
• Organizational design and structure
• Organizational systems and procedures
• Rites and rituals of the organization;
• Design of physical space, facades and buildings
• Stories about important events and people
• Formal statements of organizational philosophy, creed, and
charters.
 Making Quality a Way of Life
A. Top management must demonstrate visible commitment and explicit
involvement in efforts aimed at embedding quality into the basic fabric of
everyday organizational life. Senior managers must personally lead cultural
transformation efforts and reinforce the new organizational culture through
word and deed. Only top management has the power and organizational
influence to bring about major cultural change.
• Example: , Sam Walton established and modeled three basic values that
represent the core of Wal-Mart’s culture: (1) Respect for the individual,
(2) Service to our customers, and (3) Striving for excellence.
 Making Quality a Way of Life
B. Leaders must role model the desired behavior. Employees watch
the top leaders for signals about what matters and what does not.
• For example, Sam Walton modeled customer service behavior
by visiting his stores, meeting customers and greeting
employees by their first names
 Making Quality a Way of Life
• C. Top management needs to foster a climate of mutual trust
and teamwork which is crucial for creating and sustaining a
quality culture.
• Top managers should honor promises and commitments;
maintain open and honest communication; avoid formation of
cliques or subgroups; encourage free flow of information;
establish cross-functional teams; and encourage discussion of
key problems and issues
 Making Quality a Way of Life
D. Management should recruit new people (including for key
positions) that are compatible with the desired quality culture.
• Organizations can also utilize personality questionnaires and
interest inventories in selecting staff who will conform with the
desired culture
• For example, Motorola shows potential employees a video in
which the company’s values are succinctly explained.
 Making Quality a Way of Life
E. Management should provide appropriate training and other
support which permits employees to embrace the new culture and
to fully understand quality principles.
• Quality training should cover quality awareness, basic quality
concepts and tools, process management, communication skills,
interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, and team building.
• Organizations noted for world-class quality typically devote 40-
80 hours per year, per person to training
 Making Quality a Way of Life
F. Employees at all levels have to be engaged, have to be involved,
and have to take ownership of the cultural change.
• Management should get them involved in designing and promoting
quality improvement efforts.
• Teamwork should be promoted through establishment of steering
committees, cross-functional teams and quality circles.
 Making Quality a Way of Life
G. The desired quality culture should be reinforced by
incorporating core values in the performance management system
and basing rewards on meeting quality goals and demonstrating
appropriate behavior (besides technical competence). Management
must recognize both individual and team achievements
 Making Quality a Way of Life
• Management should use every vehicle possible (including
conferences, videos, posters, in-house magazines) to
communicate organizational direction, key values and quality
achievements by employees.
• According to Kotter, “Without credible communication, and a lot
of it, employees’ hearts and minds are never captured”
 7 TIPS FOR CREATING A QUALITY
CULTURE
• DEFINE AND OUTLINE COMPANY VALUES
• If you want to raise the standard of your quality culture, or establish a new
one, the first thing you need to do is make sure that your company values are
clearly defined.
• TRAIN EMPLOYEES IN QUALITY CULTURE
• Training is a worthwhile investment that pays dividends over the course of a
company’s development. Adept teams are formed through taking part in
various aspects of training, including activities that reinforce the values of
quality culture within their company.
 7 TIPS FOR CREATING A QUALITY
CULTURE
• PURSUE QUALITY INSTEAD OF CHASING COMPLIANCE
 7 TIPS FOR CREATING A QUALITY
CULTURE
• IMPLEMENT DOCUMENT CONTROL EARLY ON.
• Document control refers to the policies and procedures that should be in
place to ensure that there is organizational accountability for records and
other data.
• COMMUNICATE CLEARLY WITH REGULATORS
• It’s important to align yourself with regulators as much as possible. If you’re
not planning and building systems according to quality standards, your risk
of noncompliance is high and will eventually be uncovered at some point in
the process.
 7 TIPS FOR CREATING A QUALITY
CULTURE
• SEEK END-USER FEEDBACK
• A great way to enhance your quality culture, while also ensuring your product
meets quality standards, is by soliciting end-user feedback. This feedback is
invaluable to your process and can help you catch design flaws that even your
most critical engineers may have missed
• USE A RIGHT-SIZED QMS
• quality culture hinges on the efficacy of the system you use to manage your
quality - it’s essential to have the right foundation, infrastructure and tools to
oversee and maintain that quality culture, and the way you set up and manage
that operation is both important.
5 MAIN INGREDIENTS FOR QUALITY
CULTURE
• A mentality of "we're all in this together" (the company,
suppliers, and customers)
• Open, honest communication is vital
• Information is accessible
• Focused on processes
• There are no successes or failures, just learning experiences.
 References
• https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/lean-six-sigma-business-
performance/articles/key-ingredients-for-quality-culture-development
• https://www.greenlight.guru/blog/quality-culture