Abstract
M.Comm.
As global competition among organisations intensifies, it has become increasingly important for an organisation to identify and develop a competitive advantage over its rivals. Increasingly, as service quality and customer delight has caught the attention of managers, awareness is dawning on management that they depend on employees to communicate and deliver value to customers. Therefore, although organisations declare that customer is king, reality has dictated that often the customer comes only second to employees.
Total Quality Management is a philosophy that has caught the attention of business organisations as a cost effective, inclusive quality enhancement programme that holds possible solutions to most workplace and management problems. Total Quality Management is a philosophy that seeks to transform organisational cultures into a culture of continuous improvement, employee participation through teams, and requiring inclusive and caring styles of leadership, with the aim of achieving customer delight. This philosophy has however been elusive for management within most organisations, where the existing organisational culture has failed to make room for Total Quality Management.
Employee Assistance Programmes are possible employee- and organisation focused programmes that offer a solution to facilitating the culture of caring and support within the workplace. They can be used as effective work based support programmes aimed at helping employees to cope with psychological, social, emotional, and behavioural problems affecting their performance at work. Employee Assistance Programmes are effective facilitators of quality and productivity, as well as of any programmes that depend on enhanced individual functioning and relationship building.