Abstract

Cultural revolution takes time. It can occur efficiently if there is a balance between management style and employee involvement. This was a lesson learned at Glaxo Inc. during implementation of TQM (total quality management). An impediment to TQM had been inadequate cross-departmental communication. Glaxo quality council members took part in an experiment that helped explain the situational aspects of communication. Twenty-four council members read six case studies of managerial situations, and they rated the managers on how they handled the situations. The results showed that council members wanted managers to react appropriately to situations. According to the work of Victor Vroom, appropriateness means that autocratic, consultative, and participative situations call, respectively, for autocratic, consultative, and participative responses. Even so, the Glaxo council members did exhibit some bias toward the participative response. The experiment helped the council see that situational variables affect employee-involvement strategy and management-leadership style.