Not just for managers but also for ground-level workers. Simons tells the members of her TQM survival courses that the average manager now spends 17 hours a week in meetings. That adds up to 21 weeks of meetings a year. It's not bigger or smaller. Workers' reactions to TQM often hinge on their position, profession, personality and ambition.
Many workers see salvation from a dead-end job in the system.
Their suggestions for improvement that had gone ignored for years have finally found a venue in these new programs. When their ideas are actually put to use, they feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for the company's future. Bill Athayde, vice president of Industrial Marine Service in Norfolk, says a receptionist's idea to change the bookkeeping system meant bills began going out after three days instead of three weeks. It doesn't get old in the client's eyes. On the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding, TQM is credited for a less measurable success.