Using work stress measurement to develop and implement a TQM programme: a case of counter clerks in Serbian Post

Abstract

Every concept of total quality management depends on the appropriate actions of people involved in the business. Managers usually pay attention to what should be done, ignoring how their actions or directives could affect their colleagues' behaviour or their feelings. The model proposed in this paper puts employees' mental health in the centre of attention in order to design and implement a TQM programme. First of all, the parameters of the observed business process in a specific company should be defined. The actual condition of each parameter should be assessed by analysing the stress level of employees. With further analysis, conclusions can be reached about the exact part of the organisation where improvement should be done. Hence, the use of this model can help companies to achieve a successful and sustainable business. In this paper, work stress index (WSI) and employee dissatisfaction index (EDI) are defined in order to quantify employees' stress level caused by work conditions and employee's dissatisfaction about some aspects of the business process. WSI and EDI also give the possibility to compare different companies, various departments in a company or business parameters between themselves. The proposed model has been tested and verified through a research carried out at Serbian Post.

A Model for Business Performance Improvement: A Case of the Postal Company

“…Workrelated attitudes and motivation of personnel factor is proposed by most of the experts (F9). Its importance is confirmed by the research carried out by Dobrodolac et al (2014) in the same company, where the majority of examined employees expressed a dissatisfaction related to many areas of business, such as process organization, interpersonal relations, work commitment, etc. The improvement of business process requires a constant education of employees in many segments (F16).…”

“…This result indicates that the second proposed approach (A survey of employees based on specialized questionnaires) should be performed. Poor organizational commitment could be caused by many factors such as job dissatisfaction, motivation, bad leadership or organization policy (Dobrodolac et al, 2014). However, to further investigate this phenomenon, the examined psychologists in our study have recommended "The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire" to be used.…”

The Implementation of Digital Ergonomics Modeling to Design a Human-Friendly Working Process in a Postal Branch

“…This paper intends contribute to the scientific design of methods that may improve workers' safety in the postal work units, i.e., companies for mail and parcels shipment. Although the investigation of the postal clerks' well-being can be found in the literature [14], according to the authors' knowledge, there are no examples of the proposed ergonomic research in a postal branch. This was an incentive and motivation to examine to what extent the workers in the postal company are exposed to workplace risks.…”

An Analysis of the Postal Market Concerning 24/7 Courier Service Availability

“…This approach implies that the needs of users are met gradually, starting from identifying the needs and then improving the quality of service (Bergman and Klefsjö, 2010). Numerous authors have dealt with the improvement of quality and the development of business strategies in the postal sector (Dobrodolac et a., 2014). Various approaches and models have been developed to improve and determine the level of quality of postal and other public services (Spajić and Šapina, 2007;Brysland and Curry, 2001).…”