Basically, there are 3 main factors:
- Firm support from senior management;
- Incentives to those who adopt the system;
- Deterrent to those who resist the system.
Unlike many years ago, most business are operated by managers paid to do so. Although they are expected to represent the owner's benefits, that is not necessary especially when they are middle or front line managers. Therefore, it would be naive to assume that all managers will support a quality system whole-heartedly. If these middle or front line manager choose to ignore the quality system, the people they managed will certainly follow the suite. To ensure these middle or front line managers will not ignore the quality system, firm support from the senior management becomes critical and mandatory. This is because, to a large extent, the senior management is viewed by most people as their boss and people seldom go against their boss's direction.
Incentives to those who adopt the system
Collective effort always achieve better results than individual hard working. However, this could be achievable only if people are carrying positive attitudes toward the quality system and are willing to contribute actively and constructively. Unfortunately, implementing a quality system would unavoidably bring changes to the organization. It is unrealistic to assume that people will change if the changes bring benefits to the organization. The simple reason is that benefits to the organization does not necessarily in line with individual benefits. Therefore, an incentive scheme with practical benefits would be required to align their benefits with that of the organization in order to arouse their initiatives to adopt the quality system.
Deterrents to those who resist the system
Similarly, we cannot simply assume that people would change when there is incentive. There are always people already satisfy with what they got. They would resist any change if they do not need to do so. Therefore, deterrent measures would be required to give them the reasons or needs to adopt the quality system and change. However, deterrent measures are double edged sword, they could help us to defeat the blockage. But, they could also kill us easily if it is used improperly.
To be successful in implementing any quality system, all three factors must be available. However, the first factor is certainly the most important one because it could help to gain support for the other 2 factors.
