Selected proposals for reducing fear in the TQM concept
| Types of fear | Methods | Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| The fear of changes | Ensuring proper communication Thor (1993) | Providing a change-friendly environment and managers with required attitudes is a very difficult task because people value stability and resist changes |
| Ensuring a change-friendly environment, that is an adequate level of trust and empowerment Ward and Warner (1996). Ensuring managers' attitudes that are supportive, honest, informative, no-nonsense and enthusiastic O'Neal (2018) | ||
| Introducing agents of change Robison (2011) | ||
| The fear of losing power | Entrusting managers with new process owner functions, quality team leader duties, or new tasks connected, for example, with sustainability programs Dervitsiotis (2005) | It is very difficult to implement changes in such a manner so as not to bring about any losses in the case of particular employees (loss of position, remuneration, prestige), or to minimize these losses |
| If managers start to lose power, they may create separate strict control systems or interfere with the work of new teams | ||
| The fear of assessment and of failure to achieve planned results | Giving up the use of employee rankings and time-based standards Deming (1986) | Apart from qualitative objectives, there are many quantitative ones related to a short-term perspective, an employee assessment system or a remuneration system, which may have a considerable negative impact on fear reduction |
| Proper attitudes of managers (every leader's basic duty is to remove fear from the workplace). Apart from quantitative objectives, qualitative and environmental ones have to be taken into account as well Carson and Carson (1993) | ||
| The fear overcoming employees due to improper management styles | Conducting detailed analyses of managers' competences (such as cooperation skills, provision of health-related information, support for employees, etc.) Bugdol (2011) | Limitations result from deficiencies in competence assessment methods Opinions on the effectiveness of behavior-modifying training are not always positive |
| Organizing behavior-modifying training (cf. Mayer and Russel (1987) | ||
| Analyzing employees' reasons for submitting a letter of resignation | ||
| The fear of others | Using various tests diagnosing teamwork skills McClough and Rogelberg (2003) | The development of proper attitudes is very difficult because it is determined by many personal and contextual factors Psychological tests tend to be ineffective – they diagnose behaviors that are not necessarily characteristic of the work environment |
| Ensuring managers' behavior consisting in communication support, assistance offered to other people and recognition of their contribution Aronson et al. (2014). Giving up the use of rankings Deming (1986) | ||
| Conducting employee opinion surveys and team monitoring | ||
| The fear of punishment | Replacing a progressive discipline system with a positive discipline system. Grote (2006) | Apart from formal punishments that can be controlled, organizations can have complex systems of informal punishments. Fear can also be caused by situational factors |
| The fear of exclusion | Improving employment security, for example by offering employees contracts for an indefinite period of time Kopányi-Peuker et al. (2018) Diagnosing causes by means of tests examining personality, teamwork skills etc. | The fear of exclusion is very difficult to eliminate. Its real causes have to be identified (Are they personality problems, inappropriate HR management or excessive group cohesion) |
| Types of fear | Methods | Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| The fear of changes | Ensuring proper communication | Providing a change-friendly environment and managers with required attitudes is a very difficult task because people value stability and resist changes |
| Ensuring a change-friendly environment, that is an adequate level of trust and empowerment | ||
| Introducing agents of change | ||
| The fear of losing power | Entrusting managers with new process owner functions, quality team leader duties, or new tasks connected, for example, with sustainability programs | It is very difficult to implement changes in such a manner so as not to bring about any losses in the case of particular employees (loss of position, remuneration, prestige), or to minimize these losses |
| If managers start to lose power, they may create separate strict control systems or interfere with the work of new teams | ||
| The fear of assessment and of failure to achieve planned results | Giving up the use of employee rankings and time-based standards | Apart from qualitative objectives, there are many quantitative ones related to a short-term perspective, an employee assessment system or a remuneration system, which may have a considerable negative impact on fear reduction |
| Proper attitudes of managers (every leader's basic duty is to remove fear from the workplace). Apart from quantitative objectives, qualitative and environmental ones have to be taken into account as well | ||
| The fear overcoming employees due to improper management styles | Conducting detailed analyses of managers' competences (such as cooperation skills, provision of health-related information, support for employees, etc.) | Limitations result from deficiencies in competence assessment methods |
| Organizing behavior-modifying training (cf. | ||
| Analyzing employees' reasons for submitting a letter of resignation | ||
| The fear of others | Using various tests diagnosing teamwork skills | The development of proper attitudes is very difficult because it is determined by many personal and contextual factors |
| Ensuring managers' behavior consisting in communication support, assistance offered to other people and recognition of their contribution | ||
| Conducting employee opinion surveys and team monitoring | ||
| The fear of punishment | Replacing a progressive discipline system with a positive discipline system. | Apart from formal punishments that can be controlled, organizations can have complex systems of informal punishments. Fear can also be caused by situational factors |
| The fear of exclusion | Improving employment security, for example by offering employees contracts for an indefinite period of time | The fear of exclusion is very difficult to eliminate. Its real causes have to be identified (Are they personality problems, inappropriate HR management or excessive group cohesion) |
Source(s): The author's own research
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