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This paper presents an in‐depth case study of a medium sized company's attempt to plan and implement a TQM program. It discusses antecedents to TQM initiation, planning issues, and challenges involved in defining and monitoring quality in such functional areas as manufacturing, sales, marketing, customer service, R&D, accounting, finance, and human resources. The focus of this paper is mainly on the humanistic aspects of planning and implementing a TQM program.

The agricultural Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was set in motion to attempt to solve the actual and projected shortfalls of food over the coming decades. Specialized hybrids of basic food crops, such as wheat, corn, and soybeans, could be created for higher yield, resistance to disease, and sustainable growth in various weather conditions and soils. The creation and widespread use of such designer plants were not, however, without its critics. One of the dangers pointed out was that since a single, specialized crop might be susceptible to an as‐yet‐unknown disease or blight or change in a weather pattern, a nation's or the world's entire harvest of that crop might be affected. The greater the diversity of seeds and crops, the less likely it would be that the system as a whole would be at risk. In addition, Malthusian forces would be in effect. That is, with more food available, world populations would tend to increase to the limits of available supply in bountiful times. Thus any future lean years would result in a crisis of far greater proportions than that then currently being faced. In general, the issue could be stated in a piece of farmers' folk‐wisdom: “Don't put all your eggs in one basket.”

After completion of the case study, students will be able to describe the crisis types and the various phases in mapping a crisis and outline appropriate actions during each phase; identify stakeholders in the context of change management initiatives and map them through their power, influence and interest needs; identify the needs and resistance present in change management initiatives through the systems-thinking perspective; recognize the leadership competencies for an effective crisis management approach; and identify the way to conduct challenging conversations with important stakeholders whose support and influence are required.

Stella Fernandez, the vice president of human resources management in a family-managed business organization, was disturbed by the media reports on rising number of cases of COVID-19 infection in India during the first week of March 2020. She thought that a continued rise in the number of infection cases could affect the business continuity as well as the safety of the employees. In her opinion, a faster introduction of a work-from-home policy could help to reduce the impact of the potential crisis. Fernandez understood that without the senior management team’s consent, she could not drive the information technology team to implement the work-from-home measure. However, she felt that there could be challenges in convincing the senior management team, who did not treat this outbreak to be of grave importance. Anticipating the unfavourable reaction, Fernandez planned her approach carefully by identifying and convincing influential members to support this change management initiative; nevertheless, to her dismay, her meticulous plan failed to convince the powerful members of the team, who continued to resist the change proposed by her. Disappointed and surprised by their reaction, Fernandez wondered what she could have done to make the senior management team to accept her proposal.

This case study is designed for use in undergraduate- or graduate-level programmes.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.