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Part Four
Improvement
➤ What are the key implementation issues?
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Improvement efforts often fail (estimates range from half to 80 per cent of programmes failing).
Included in the reasons for this are the following.
– Top-management support may be lacking
– Senior managers may not fully understand the improvement approach
– The improvement may be ‘hyped up’ excessively, leading to unrealistic (and therefore
unrealized) expectations
– Implementation problems may not be anticipated.
ISO 9000 and its associated family of standards may be used to provide a structure around
improvement implementation. They are concerned with the processes and procedures that
support quality.
So-called ‘quality awards’ and models may contribute towards implementation of improvement
by providing a focused structure for organizations to assess their improvement efforts. The
best known of these is probably the EFQM (Business Excellence Model). This is based on a
nine-point model which distinguishes between the ‘enablers’ of quality and the ‘results’ of
quality. It is often now used as a self-certification model.
Case study
Re-inventing Singapore’s libraries 15
By Professors Robert Johnston, Warwick Business
School, Chai Kah Hin and Jochen Wirtz, National
University of Singapore, and Christopher Lovelock,
Yale University.
The National Library Board (NLB) in Singapore oversees
the management of the national, reference, regional, community
and children’s libraries, as well as over 30 libraries
belonging to government agencies, schools and private
institutions. Over the last 15 years the NLB has completely
changed the nature of libraries in Singapore and its work
has been used as a blueprint for many other libraries
across the world. Yet it was not always like this. In 1995
libraries in Singapore were traditional, quiet places full of
old books where you went to study or borrow books if you
could not afford to buy them. There were long queues to
have books stamped or returned and the staff seemed
unhelpful and unfriendly. But today, things are very different.
There are cafés in libraries to encourage people to
come in, browse and sit down with a book, and libraries
in community centres (putting libraries where the people
are). The NLB has developed specialist libraries aimed at
children, libraries in shopping malls aimed at attracting
busy 18–35-year-olds into the library while they are shopping.
There are libraries dedicated to teenagers, one of the
most difficult groups to entice into the library. These have
even been designed by the teenagers themselves so they
include drinks machines, cushions and music systems.
The library also hosts a wide range of events from mother
and baby reading sessions to rock concerts to encourage
a wide range of people into the library.
‘We started this journey back in 1995 when
Dr Christopher Chia was appointed as Chief Executive.
Looking back, we were a very traditional public service.
Our customers used words like “cold” and “unfriendly”,
though, in fairness, our staff were working under great
Source: National Library Board Singapore