HR utilization and quality improvement: the reality and the rhetoric – the case of Greek industry

It is argued that quality improvement efforts play an important role in industrial organizations by altering the role of the human resource management (HRM) function and the human resource professional as TQM is consistent with a move towards a more strategic HRM approach. Investigates and empirically tests the current status of the quality improvement efforts in selected industrial organizations in Greece and analyzes the “HR elements” related to these efforts. Also examines the extent to which Greek industrial organizations differentiate in the way they utilise their human resources as well as in the influence their human resource/personnel departments enjoy. The main findings of the study were that HR function in Greek industrial organizations has been seriously neglected for years and the role of the personnel professionals in quality improvement efforts has been overlooked.