Question of the Week

Q: What does ASQ offer on employee recognition and rewards, morale, motivation and satisfaction?

A: Here at ASQ's Milwaukee's headquarters, we have inspirational sayings displayed on many of our walls. One of them is this famous quote from quality guru Kaoru Ishikawa:

"The first concern of the company is the happiness of the people connected with it.  If the people do not feel happy . . . that company does not deserve to exist."

Employee satisfaction and recognition are concepts that quality-minded companies embrace. ASQ offers many resources that illustrate why, and how to get there.

Books

Recognition, Gratitude, and Celebration
by Patrick L. Townsend and Joan E. Gebhardt
This book outlines the many reasons why, and ways in which, organizations and their leaders should recognize their employees’ efforts in the workplace.

The Reward and Recognition Process in Total Quality Management
by Stephen B. Knouse
This book provides psychological theory and a framework to understand these TQM topics in regards to reward and recognition. Knouse also explains how to integrate the characteristics of the reward and recognition process with TQM.

Lean for Service Organizations and Offices: A Holistic Approach for Achieving Operational Excellence and Improvements
by Debashis Sarkar
Adopting lean puts anyone in a position more likely to build an intimate relationship with customers and build a foundation of operational excellence.

Articles:

Work-Life Balance: Achievable Goal or Pipe Dream?
by Nora Spinks
Journal for Quality and Participation, September 2004
A work-life continuum consisting of five developmental stages serves as a framework that helps create a vision of the future using a work-life lens. A sidebar article provides a checklist that can be used to rate your organization on four critical work-life program components. Open Access.

How to Develop a Meaningful Employee Recognition Program
by Gene H. Milas
Quality Progress, May 1995
Acknowledgment of employees reveals a company's principles and values. Employee recognition also is an incentive for quality and productivity improvements. However, a recognition program should not be a tool for behavior manipulation. Logged-in members/subscribers: Instant Access. Or you can buy a PDF.

Controlling for Quality: Climate, Leadership, and Behavior
by Gil Luria
Quality Management Journal, January 2008
Data collected in a food plant support the hypotheses that the quality-related behaviors of employees are not aligned with those desired by management, and that employees perform better in organizations with a high quality climate and transformational leadership. Logged-in members/subscribers: Instant Access. Or you can buy a PDF.

Are Fun and Work Compatible?
by Leslie A. Yerkes
Annual Spring Conference Proceedings, February 2003
Among the 11 principles of the described Fun/Work Fusion program(TM) are suggestions to capitalize on the spontaneous, trust the process, hire good people and get out of their way, expand boundaries for a productive and fun work community, embrace risk taking and expansive thinking, and celebrate success. Logged-in members/subscribers: Instant Access. Or you can buy a PDF.

Contented Cows Give Better Milk: Your People, Your Profit
by Richard Hadden
ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement Proceedings, Seattle, May 2005
The practices of six companies known as great places to work (Contented Cows) are compared to those of six competitors with lesser reputations (Common Cows). Based on a study of these companies' financial performance for a decade, it is shown that Contented Cows excelled in sales, revenue growth per employee, net income growth, and other bottom-line statistics. Logged-in members/subscribers: Instant Access. Or you can buy a PDF.

How to Create a Place Where People Love to Work
by Leslie A. Yerkes
Journal for Quality and Participation, December 2003
Examples illustrate that business works best when fun and work are successfully integrated, and that these companies are more able to attract and retain top performers. Logged-in members/subscribers: Instant Access. Or you can buy a PDF.

How to Get the Payback From Investment in Work-Life Balance
by David Clutterbuck
Journal for Quality and Participation, September 2004
Work-life balance sounds like a great idea from the employee’s perspective. But to an employer, it may be a frightening prospect. Find out what it takes to optimize the outcomes of this management approach. Logged-in subscribers: Instant Access. Or you can buy a PDF.

What Does Work-Life Balance Mean Anyway?
by Charlotte Burton
Journal for Quality and Participation, September 2004
The concept of work-life balance is increasingly popular, but many people overlook the "balance" part of the term and see only less work and more play. As a noun, balance means an equal distribution of weight; as a verb it means to bring into or keep in a steady condition. Balance means that nothing is absolutely static and unchanging. Routines must be flexible to maintain a balance. The success of work-life balance depends upon the ability to make decisions about what to do at any given moment. Logged in subscribers: Instant Access. Or you can buy a PDF.