Into the Mystic: Cultural Change and TQM Teams in the NSW Public Sector

Abstract

Cultural change in the guise of quality customer service was promoted in the New South Wales public sector by former premiers Greiner and Fahey. This paper explores the impact of a management strategy of cultural change and total quality management teams within one public sector agency-Buildcorp-of the former New South Wales Department of Industrial Relations, Employment, Training and Further Education. The paper argues that cultural change failed to achieve its objective of a quality customer service culture because of workplace management practices that emphasized workforce reduction and the rationalization of work processes. Moreover, workplace managers resisted the challenge to their preroga tives that total quality management team recommendations represented. The department's strategy of total quality management teams and a quality customer service culture also failed because of the growing frustration of senior manage ment at its inability to produce measurable productivity increases.