Question: Explain the role of training and empowerment

> List the key factors that characterize high-performance work.

> Define the term motivation. Why is motivation critical for performance excellence?

> What is employee involvement? Discuss different approaches to employee involvement.

> Explain the concept of workforce engagement. What advantages does it provide to an organization?

> Define workforce management. Explain its role from a strategic perspective.

> Summarize the key workforce-focused practices for performance excellence.

> Explain some modern practices for hiring, work force learning, and career development.

> Write a generic customer satisfaction policy that a firm might use to convey trust to its customers and as a means of determining employee values, policies, and training initiatives.

> Why is it important to consider workforce capability and capacity in designing and sustaining high performance work systems?

> Outline the characteristics of the Gallup Q12 survey instrument for employee engagement and explain the management uses for three categories in the resulting “engagement index.”

> Why is it important to assess workforce engagement and satisfaction? Describe some common approaches.

> What is 360-degree feedback? How does it differ from traditional performance appraisal approaches? How does it address the major criticisms of traditional performance appraisal processes and support TQ efforts?

> Briefly summarize traditional performance appraisal processes. From a performance excellence perspective, what objections have been raised concerning these processes? Describe some modern practices.

> Explain the key practices that lead to effective recognition and reward approaches?

> What types of compensation practices support a performance excellence philosophy?

> Describe the impact of the Taylor system on quality, productivity, and workforce management. How do TQ principles differ from the Taylor system?

> What are the steps required to perform the nominal group technique (NGT)?

> List and describe the tools needed for running an effective meeting.

> How has the Zero Moment of Truth affected your shopping experiences? Provide some examples.

> What issues must organizations consider with respect to health, safety, and employee well-being in the work environment?

> Explain the important issues an organization must consider in developing successful teams.

> Discuss the five phases that teams typically go through during their life cycle.

> Contrast the differences between quality circles and self-managed teams. What are the key characteristics of self-managed teams not found in quality circles?

> What is a team? Define the major types of teams found in organizations today.

> Explain the concept of self-determination and how it differs from empowerment.

> What is empowerment? How does it benefit both the organization and employees?

> Contrast job enlargement with job enrichment. How do they support the Hackman and Oldham model?

> Explain why there is a logical relationship between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

> Why is it important to segment customers? Describe some ways of defining customer segments

> Prepare a list of moments of truth that you encounter during a typical quarter or semester at your college or university

> Explain the AT&T customer–supplier model. Why would it be an important component in training new employees?

> Explain the difference between consumers, internal customers, and external customers.

> Describe the model used in computing the American Customer Satisfaction Index. How might a business use the information from the ACSI database?

> What is customer engagement? How does it differ from satisfaction?

> Explain the difference between satisfaction and loyalty. Why is loyalty more important?

> What is customer perceived value, and how can an organization benefit from measuring it?

> Summarize the key customer focused practices for performance excellence. Which of these are reflected in the City of Fort Collins and K&N Management?

> How is the net promoter score measured? What insights does the score provide to management?

> Why do many customer satisfaction efforts fail?

> Explain the concept of importance-performance analysis and its benefit to an organization.

> How might your school use the gap model in Figure 3.5? Figure 3.5:

> What types of questions should be included in customer satisfaction surveys?

> Why should an organization measure customer satisfaction? Describe the key steps that must be addressed in designing customer satisfaction surveys.

> How can customer relationship management (CRM) software help organizations develop and improve a focus on customers?

> Why are strategic partnerships and alliances useful to an organization?

> List the key factors that should be included in a good service recovery.

> Why should a company make it easy for customers to complain? Describe the features of an effective complaint management process.

> What are customer contact requirements? Provide some examples different from those in the book.

> What specific issues of customer focus are addressed in the ISO 9000 framework?

> Who are customer contact employees? Why are they critical to an organization?

> In the context of a fast-food restaurant, make a list of different characteristics that might describe “freshness.” Classify them by means of an affinity diagram. What does your response mean for measuring satisfaction of this attribute?

> Explain the importance of commitments to building customer relation

> What is the Zero Moment of Truth? How does it influence customer purchasing decisions and, ultimately, satisfaction

> What is a moment of truth, and how can this concept be used to improve quality?

> Explain the gap model shown in Figure 3.5. What do expected quality, actual quality, and perceived quality mean, and how do they relate with one another? Figure 3.5:

> Describe how affinity diagrams are used to organize and work with customer-related information.

> What is the voice of the customer? List the major listening and learning approaches used to gather voice of the customer information. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

> What is the Kano model, and what are its implications for quality management?

> Explain the two classifications of quality dimensions for goods and services. Contrast the similarities and differences between the two classifications for services.

> What factors influence customer value and satisfaction?

> Summarize the breakthrough sequence that Juran advocated for quality improvement.

> In a typical Baldrige assessment, examiners identify strengths and opportunities for improvement based on an applicant’s response to the Baldrige Criteria questions. Read the response to the Criteria questions in Category 6, Operations, for Arroyo Fresco

> Explain Juan’s Quality Trilogy

> Explain the implications of not understanding the components of Profound Knowledge as suggested by Peter Scholes.

> Why is it important to understand variation from a statistical perspective?

> What is a system? Why is “systems thinking” important to quality management?

> Summarize the four components of Profound Knowledge. How do they mutually support each other?

> Summarize Deming’s 14 Points. How does each point relate to the four components of Profound Knowledge?

> Explain the Deming chain reaction.

> Explain the difference between common and special causes of variation.

> What are the operational problems created by excessive variation?

> What is statistical thinking? Why is it important to managers and workers at all levels of an organization?

> In a typical Baldrige assessment, examiners identify strengths and opportunities for improvement based on an applicant’s response to the Baldrige Criteria questions. Read the response to the Criteria questions in Category 5, Workforce, in the Arroyo Fres

> State two or three practices associated with each principle of quality management.

> List and briefly explain the seven principles of quality management.

> Explain the differences among quality principles, practices, and techniques.

> Summarize the key contributions of Feigen Baum and Ishikawa to modern quality thinking.

> What are Crosby’s Absolutes of Quality Management and Basic Elements of Improvement? How are they similar to or different from Deming’s 14 Points?

> How is Juran’s philosophy similar to or different from Deming’s?

> How does Deming’s definition of quality—“A product or a service possesses quality if it helps somebody and enjoys a good and sustainable market”—compare with the definitions discussed in Chapter 1?

> Why are all quality management systems not effective? What can be done to make them effective?

> What are the principal benefits of ISO 9000?

> Briefly summarize the rationale behind ISO 9000. What are the objectives of the standards?

> In a typical Baldrige assessment, examiners identify strengths and opportunities for improvement based on an applicant’s response to the Baldrige Criteria questions. Read the response to the Criteria questions in Category 3, Customers, in the Arroyo Fres

> Deere & Company (http://www.deere.com) (also known as John Deere, after its founder) is a world-leading manufacturer, distributor, and financier of equipment for agriculture, construction, forestry, and commercial and consumer applications (lawn and grou

> What is a quality management system (QMS)? Describe the features that a good QMS should have.

> What are the lessons of the red bead and funnel experiments? Can you cite any examples in your experience where someone acted counter to these lessons?

> Explain the two fundamental mistakes that managers make when attempting to improve a process. Can you cite any examples in your personal experience in which such mistakes were made?

> Why is it important to personalize quality principles?

> What evidence exists to counter the claim that “Quality does not pay”?

> Explain the role of both design and conformance quality in improving a firm’s profitability.

> What did Philip Crosby mean by “Quality is free”?

> How does quality support the achievement of competitive advantage?

> How can business support activities help to sustain quality in an organization? Give examples of some key business support activities and their role in quality

> Explain the roles of people and information technology in providing quality service. How does The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC use employees and information technology for quality service?

> The Baldrige Materials folder on the Student Companion Site contains a document called “Baldrige Excellence Builder,” which is an abbreviated version of the Baldrige Criteria. It also contains a case study of a fictitious organization, Arroyo Fresco. Thi

> Discuss the differences between manufacturing and service organizations. What are the implications of these differences for quality management?

> Why is service quality especially important in today’s business environment?

> Explain the role of the quality function in a typical company.

> Explain how each major function of a manufacturing system contributes to total quality.