Data collection and data analysis for survey C

Based on the three criteria for selection of units for survey C mentioned in section 3.5.1.1, the railway units short-listed for this survey and the criteria they satisfied are shown in Table 4.6.

Railway unit

ISO 14000 certified

Unit headed by a transform-ational leader

Requisite delegation of authority to the head of unit

Parel workshop (PRL) No No No

Diesel Components Works (DCW) No No Yes

Alambagh warehousing unit (AMV) No Yes No

Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) Yes No Yes

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) Yes No Yes

Bhopal workshop (BPL) Yes Yes No

Wheel and Axle Plant (WAP) Yes No Yes

Rail Coach Factory (RCF) Yes No Yes

Integrated Coach Factory (ICF) Yes No Yes

Table 4. 6List of short-listed railway units for survey C Source: developed from fieldwork.

The survey questionnaire was sent by e- mail after the management representative (MR) or the head of the unit of these units was telephonically advised of the purpose of the survey. They were then reminded telephonically to complete and return the survey. Two units CLW and RCF did not respond.

Salient points of the survey are shown in Appendix 4A. Some of the common conclusions were:

(i) The reason for certification was to initiate a structured way for continuous improvement.

(ii) Top management had been very involved in the quality system.

(iii) Customer feedback is taken as a part of quality system implementation.

(iv) Except DLW, there was no resistance to change from any unit.

(v) The structure of procedure for WAP showed a different approach. It was basically designed for each business process i.e. it truly reflected the process approach enshrined in ISO 9000:2000 standard.

(vi) Five out of six units said that implementation of document control ‘prevented non conformities on account of use of obsolete documents or no documents’.

(vii) Except WAP no unit calculates process capability index like Cpk. At WAP, the use of statistical techniques has been good. In the other five units, the use of statistical techniques has been either ‘low’ or ‘somewhat’.

(viii) Five out of six units said that certification resulted in ‘better understanding of process &

responsibility’ and ‘linkage to other functions’.

(ix) ‘Team work’ came out as the most important lesson learnt followed by the realisation that ‘people make the system work’.

(x) Except AMV, no other unit involved all departments in the ISO certification.

From the above conclusions, the following are relevant in the context of this research:

(i) Continuous improvement was the reason behind certification. The literature review had shown that ‘management intent’ behind ISO certification was an intervening variable in an organization’s transition towards TQM (see section 2.2.5.2).

(ii) Top management was very involved in the quality system. Literature review had shown that leadership; particularly transformational leadership was a crucial intervening variable in an organization’s transition towards TQM. However, it must be cautioned here that

‘leadership involvement’ is one thing; ‘transformational leadership’ is another thing. That is, a non-transformational leader can also be very much involved in the certification process without showing the traits of transformational leadership.

(iii) There was almost no resistance to change. This was contrary to the findings in the western literature on management of change (see section 2.2.7.2).

4.3.1 Understanding the impact of ISO implementation on railway units in terms of intervening variables

In Table 4.6, the railway units were short-listed based on three intervening variables – ISO 14000 certification, presence of transformational leadership and presence of requisite authority to the head of the unit.

Now, after the survey, based on the survey C and the literature review, additional intervening variables were used to assess their moderating impact on an unit’s journey towards TQM. The intervening variables which were now considered as having a moderating impact on the unit’s journey towards TQM were:

(i) time elapsed from ISO certification till Jan 2005 (ii) ISO 14000 certification

(iii) presence of transformational leadership

(iv) involvement of all departments in ISO certification process (v) presence of requisite authority to the head of the unit

(vi) use of statistical techniques.

That took the research to survey D.

4.4 Data collection and data analysis for survey D

The purpose of survey D was to assess the development of TQM orientation in ISO certified units of Indian Railways. The instrument ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ developed in section 3.6 was used to get an objective assessment of a unit’s transition towards TQM.

The units short-listed for survey C were used for this survey also so that the effect of intervening variables could be seen. The questionnaire was e-mailed to the management representative (M.R.) or the head of the unit after a telephonic discussion about the purpose of the questionnaire. In three cases (AMV, DLW and WAP), the questionnaire was personally handed over to the M.R.

The scores obtained on the TQM transition questionnaire by different units of Indian Railways are shown in Table 4.7. The table also shows the status of intervening variables in the units which were assessed on TQM transition questionnaire.

Railway

Table 4. 7Comparison of scores on ‘TQM transition questionnaire’ of different units of Indian Railways and the juxtaposition of intervening factors

Source: developed from survey data.

It can be seen from Table 4.7 that the top leader at Parel, Alambagh and Bhopal were not having requisite delegation of authority. Further, only the leaders at Alambagh and Bhopal were transformational leaders. The transformational leadership scores of the leaders at Alambagh (AMV) and Bhopal (BPL) measured through Bass Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire are shown at Appendix 6.3. Except for AMV, no other unit had involved all

departments in the certification process. The presence of a transformational leader and involvement of all department perhaps explains why just one year after certification process, Alambagh registered a score of 13.17 on the ‘TQM transition scale’ which was the same as the scores of Bhopal and Parel, even though Bhopal was headed by a transformational leader.

The leaders at DLW, DCW, WAP and ICF were not transformational. But they had the necessary delegation of authority. With respect to ISO 14000 certification, it was seen that except BPL, all ISO 14000 certified units (WAP, ICF and DLW) obtained relatively higher scores. This was in line with the proposition made in section 3.5.1.1 that ISO 14000 certification, because of its emphasis on cleanliness, positively intervenes in an organization’s journey towards TQM. WAP had the highest on the TQM transition scale.

This could partly be explained by the longer period for which it was ISO certified. However, DLW and ICF were also ISO certified for the last 8 years and 9 years respectively. In the case of WAP, the use of statistical technique was high. This could be one possible explanation as to why WAP got higher scores on the TQM transition scale than DLW and ICF. Still, the rather large difference of scores between DLW and WAP made the researcher feel that there were other intervening variables which were not considered in Table 4.7 which could explain the difference in the scores between DLW and WAP.

This insight was carried forward to the rest of the research discussed in chapter 5 and chapter 6.