Development culture and TQM in Turkish healthcare: importance of employee empowerment and top management leadership

How do medication errors occur in the nursing communication process? Investigating the relationship between error types and error factors

BACKGROUND

Human error types and error factors are two important elements of error analysis. Understanding the relationship between them can contribute to new case analyses, the tendency of error occurrence statistics, error factor identification, and prevention of error recurrence.

OBJECTIVE

To provide evidence and guidance for the prevention and improvement of medication communication errors by quantitatively exploring the relationship between error types and error factors.

METHODS

Data were collected on self-reported errors in the medication administration process by nurses in all departments of three cooperative medical institutions, and an error sheet of specified style was adopted. Error types were determined by the systematic human error reduction and prediction approach method and human cognition processes. Error factors were extracted using the root cause analysis combined with Berlo's communication model, and the relationship between error types and error factors was quantitatively studied using the partial least-squares regression method.

RESULTS

After a one-by-one analysis of 303 error cases, the communication errors occurring in the nursing medication process could be explained by six error types and 12 error factors. In addition, 20 correlation patterns between the error types and error factors were quantitatively obtained, and their path coefficient distributions ranged from 0.088 to 0.467.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study may provide reference to understand errors and establish countermeasures from the statistics of error occurrence trends, extract error factors related to error types and determine key error factors.

Exploring the impact of total quality management initiatives on construction industry projects in Pakistan

The impact of total quality management on organizational performance has been studied extensively, however, the impact of total quality management initiatives on project performance is an area of ongoing research. The key objective of this research is to explore the impact of total quality management initiatives on project performance in the construction industry of Pakistan. Data was collected from 326 personnel working at different management levels across some of the leading construction firms operating in Pakistan. Analysis revealed that operational focus, management commitment, and employee involvement were deemed as dominant total quality management factors affecting project performance in the construction industry. Mediation analysis revealed a significant relationship between employee involvement and project performance mediated by management commitment. Research limitations and directions for future research have also been identified.

Multicriteria Approach for Supplier Selection: Evidence from a Case Study in the Fashion Industry

Worldwide manufactures are redesigning supply chains, often outsourcing with the aim of maintaining a competitive advantage and gaining market share. When selecting and purchasing fabrics, firms should actively cooperate with suppliers, to meet customers’ needs. In this view, the supplier selection process plays a key role in keeping a competitive edge in global markets. Therefore, this study proposes a multicriteria decision-making model (MCDM) to ease supplier evaluation and selection. Supply chain operation reference metrics (SCOR metrics) and fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) are combined to build a model for supplier selection. The former allows us to conduct a very thorough fact-based analysis of all features in the supply chain, while the combination of fuzzy theory and SCOR model allows us to deal with uncertainty. The main novelty of this method is that it incorporates a consolidated supply chain management criteria within the framework of fuzzy set theory and multicriteria decision-making model (MCDM) facilitating their application into practice. The proposed approach is tested by considering the case of a manufacturing firm in the fashion industry willing to designate the most appropriate supplier within a set of three potential ones.

Impact of soft TQM practices on employee work role performance: role of innovative work behaviour and initiative climate

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of soft total quality management (TQM) practices on employee work role performance in the manufacturing sector of United Arab Emirates. It also examined the indirect effect of innovative work behaviour and initiative climate.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on a conclusive research design and survey data was collected from 290 employees working in non-managerial positions across various manufacturing companies in UAE. The hypotheses of the empirical study are tested using structural equation modelling. The indirect effects created through moderated mediation are analysed using Hayes Process Macro.

Findings

The results show that soft TQM practices have a positive influence on work role performance. Employee innovative work behaviour acts as a partial mediator and initiative climate moderates the relationship.

Research limitations/implications

The study adopted a cross-sectional analysis and single informants are used, so it is advised that the interpretation of the results is made with enough caution.

Practical implications

Practitioners must bear in mind that when the employees are adequately trained, empowered, involved and organized as team, it would result in employee innovative behaviour and improved work role performance. The top management should be persuaded to be more committed to the above-mentioned activities for more positive employee-level outcomes.

Originality/value

Very few studies have conducted an empirical validation at the intersection of human resource management (HRM) and TQM. This is one of the first studies to examine the relationship between soft TQM and employee work role performance.

The myth of a direct relationship between organizational culture and TQM: propositions and challenges for research

Purpose

This paper aims to report the results of a comprehensive literature review concerned with exploring the distinctive roles of the underlying multidimensional psychological mechanisms through which organizational culture (OC) affects TQM.

Design/methodology/approach

A thorough review of the relevant existing studies focusing on the direct and indirect links between OC, employee readiness for change (ERFC), employee commitment to change (ECC) and TQM implementation was conducted. To identify studies to include in the review, electronic searches of prominent databases and journals were carried out for the period 1980 to 2020.

Findings

The thorough analysis of relevant studies indicates that various types of OC influence TQM through certain psychological mechanisms namely ERFC dimensions and employee affective commitment to change. As a consequence, the paper develops a set of propositions and a novel integrative conceptual framework to explain the mediating roles of ERFCs and EACC in the OC–TQM relationship and then concludes by suggesting future lines of research and highlighting practical managerial implications.

Originality/value

Drawing on academic perspectives from multiple literature streams, this study offers a more advanced understanding of the relationship between OC and TQM implementation via exploring multiple mediating paths.

TQM implementation practices and performance outcome of Indian hospitals: exploratory findings

Purpose

This paper explores and interprets the linkage between total quality management (TQM) practices and organizational performance measures for improving the healthcare firms’ performance. Indian healthcare firms are aware of TQM practices and their benefits, but the awareness level varies among the firms and staff. The study looks into the effectiveness of quality awareness to meet quality performance in Indian hospitals.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire based on previous research was circulated among the managers and medical staff. The model linking TQM and organizational performance is analyzed with structural equation modelling and confirmed the hypotheses stated. Interpretations to improve hospital performance are made.

Findings

The study identified ten relevant TQM factors and confirmed their importance towards the improved organizational performance of Indian hospitals. Top management initiative, continuous process improvement and team work are the most contributing TQM factors. Differences in the awareness levels by the management staff and medical staff are attributed. The managers and medical staff are aware of the benefits of TQM towards firm performance, but it is to be improved further.

Research limitations/implications

Cross-validation and interpretation are affected due to the limited sample size. Longitudinal study is recommended to explore the individual hospital as specific cases. Larger sample size is suggested as an extended work to overcome the demographic and infrastructural limitations of the firms included.

Practical implications

The management is more interested in TQM, but there is lack of awareness among the staff. The quality awareness and customer focus by medical staff are the most weakly loaded factors, and the weaknesses can be remedied by the lead role by the hospital management in providing proper training and thereby improving the attitude of the medical staff.

Social implications

Effectiveness of hospital operations is highly dependent on customer focus. Properly communicated, committed and trained staff with good-quality awareness can better implement TQM and thereby improve hospital performance. Lead role by the management is very important, and the paper lists ways to attain these outcomes.

Originality/value

Very little is reported from the Indian healthcare sector linking TQM and outcome performance. The quality awareness, customer focus, communication and learning by the medical staff are to be improved, and the paper suggests ways to link TQM more effectively to improve the performance in hospitals. These findings may be useful to the managers, medical staff and researchers in healthcare to bring better results.