Human Resource Management Lessons from a Decade of Total Quality Management and Reengineering

TQM and its high-powered sidekick, reengineering, require extensive changes in human resource management, as demonstrated by the experiences of leading-edge companies. These changes fall into four groups: people and their roles (the process improvement baton passes from experts and managers to everyone else); performance, recognition, and pay (activities and results are put on display in the workplace and the foundation for reward and recognition expands); the role and responsibilities of the human resource department (broadened jobs, expanded involvement in training, and mentally active employees cut the size of the HR staff and department); and corporate decision making and strategy (specialists come out of isolation and join cross-functional teams for interactive decision making).