Exploring the impact of culture on quality management

Evaluation of organizational variables of quality 4.0 in digital transformation: the study of an Indian manufacturing company

Purpose

The study aims to identify organizational variables of quality 4.0 for an Indian manufacturing company in the case of digital transformation. Furthermore, the organization enhances its quality 4.0 performances to its success based on the degree of relevance of these variables, insight into these variables and sub-factors to prioritize them.

Design/methodology/approach

Initially, two rounds of the survey were conducted with 11 decision-makers from the company made to receive organizational variables scores and prioritize the factors and sub-factors. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based research methodology has been proposed to assign the criterion weights and prioritize the identified variables.

Findings

The results of this AHP model demonstrate that “Committed Leadership” is recognized as the top positioned variable and most significant organizational variable, followed by Collaboration and Quality culture, which are developed at the next level. These essential organizational variables with their sub-categories' priorities are identified as contributing attributes.

Research limitations/implications

The findings facilitate quality 4.0 in the digitalization era, which take into contemplating the current state of the business. Furthermore, the understanding of variables provides insightful guidance to analyze, solve complex problems and assess the efficacy of quality 4.0 in digital transformation.

Originality/value

The novelty of this study is to pinpoint, and evaluate the responsible organizational variables and prioritize them that lead to high productivity and competitive advantage considering the AHP method.

The roles of national culture in affecting quality management practices and quality performance - multilevel and multi-country analysis

Purpose

This study investigates the role of national culture on the implementation and effectiveness of quality management practices. Specifically, the authors examine the dual roles of two of Hofstede's national culture dimensions (individualism and indulgence) in driving the implementation of people management practices and in moderating the relationship between people management and product quality performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors’ dataset combines a survey of 976 firms from 22 countries with Hofstede's national culture index. A multi-level analysis, at firm and country levels, is used for investigating the interplay between two dimensions of national culture (individualism and indulgence) on people management practices and product quality performance.

Findings

The authors' findings show the negative relationship between indulgence (at country level) and people management practices (at firm level) while individualism (at country level) strengthens the relationship between people management and product quality performance (at firm level). Furthermore, the finding shows that the joint interaction between individualism and indulgence (at country level) moderates the relationship between people management and product quality performance (at firm level) where the relationship is strongest when individualism is high and indulgence is low.

Practical implications

Understanding the interplay between national culture and management practices is important for managers in making decisions on the practices managers should implement under different cultural contexts to gain the expected outcomes.

Originality/value

The authors' results challenge the universalist view that suggests that quality management practices (in this case people management practices) can be applied in any context effectively to achieve high product quality performance by showing that facets of national culture influence the implementation and effectiveness of people management practices and performance. The results also provide a fresh perspective on the role of indulgence, given that it is the newest dimension in Hofstede's framework. The authors also extend previous studies which commonly only examine the main and not interactive effects of different dimensions of national culture.

Quality 4.0 – a review of and framework for quality management in the digital era

Purpose

Industry 4.0 has brought about a paradigm shift in value delivery with the introduction of disruptive technologies. This has resulted in efforts by organizations to re-invent their business processes and reskill their workforce while attempting to realize digital transformation. Quality management in the context of Industry 4.0 is still in its nascent stage with researchers trying to identify key and relevant components of quality management with respect to Industry 4.0. The current study attempts to address the knowledge gap through a literature review and subsequently provide a conceptual framework for quality in the digital transformation context.

Design/methodology/approach

An integrative literature review was conducted to analyze and abstract knowledge from the literature on Quality 4.0 and a conceptual framework was developed based on the review.

Findings

The review revealed the motivators, building blocks and challenges for Quality 4.0. The conceptual framework discusses the salient points relevant to Quality 4.0 with respect to the people, process and technology dimensions and their sub-dimensions that can be used to build 4.0 capabilities. The proposed framework is represented to depict the conceptualization and the relationships among its components.

Originality/value

This study aims to contribute to the model building efforts of researchers towards Quality 4.0. The points discussed here provide an actionable direction to augment the efforts of practitioners and organizations in quality management in the context of Industry 4.0, especially digital transformation.

Role of personal anxiety in individual kaizen behaviour and performance: evidence from Japan

Purpose

This study examines the role of anxiety in kaizen behaviour and performance by empirically testing the influence of personal anxiety (state and trait) on individual kaizen behaviours (rule adherence, initiative and perseverance of effort), which, in turn, affect individual kaizen performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were obtained from a survey of 552 employees of four companies in Japan and analysed using structural equation modelling.

Findings

The results show that state anxiety has a significantly positive effect on rule adherence and kaizen performance. Trait anxiety positively influences employees' initiative and perseverance but has a significant negative effect on kaizen performance.

Originality/value

This study contributes to kaizen and continuous improvement theory by focussing on individual kaizen, which is considered to be as important as organisation-level kaizen and investigating the relevance of personal anxiety in individual kaizen behaviours and kaizen performance.

Kaizen transferability in non-Japanese cultures: a combined approach of total interpretive structural modeling and analytic network process

Purpose

The literature on Kaizen transferability to non-Japanese culture is still evolving. The results suggest that the relevant research is still at a descriptive and explanatory stage. This study aims to identify and prioritize the importance of significant Kaizen transferability factors in a non-Japanese culture.

Design/methodology/approach

A decision theory-based prescriptive analysis methodology was used to analyze identified Kaizen transferability success factors. Firstly, a list of Kaizen transferability factors was devised from the literature using a systematic literature review. Secondly, an integrated interpretative structure modeling and analytic network process approach were applied to generate preference among factors.

Findings

A framework with a prioritized Kaizen transferability success factors included, in ascending order, organization culture, employee participation, employee discipline, employee personal initiative, top management commitment, management enforcement, employee eagerness, management support and national culture and traditions.

Research limitations/implications

Managers and decision-makers would better understand where to direct their effort and attention to implement the Kaizen management philosophy to improve firm-level productivity. Although the factors studied in this research considered the Indonesian context, the proposed framework could be replicated and extended to include other cultures.

Originality/value

The present work contributes to the limited studies and documentation on Kaizen activities' transferability challenges and the Kaizen body of knowledge in developing countries. This study should help organizations in other developing countries, assimilate how to adopt and manage the Kaizen philosophy implementation by following the framework created in this research.

Cultural diversity and operational performance: entrepreneurial orientation as a mediator

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation in the nexus between cultural diversity (CD) and firm operational performance (OP).

Design/methodology/approach

The population of the current study is foreign industrial firms listed in the tax directorate of the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI). A stratified random sampling technique was applied to select 136 firms in KRI, with a response rate of 57 per cent. Smart-PLS was used to examine the hypothesised relationships in the proposed framework.

Findings

The results indicate that CD is significantly related to a firm’s OP. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is, in turn, significantly related to a firm’s OP. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that EO plays a mediating role in the nexus between CD and a firm’s OP.

Originality/value

The study highlights the importance of CD and EO in supporting a firm’s OP. In addition, the findings will provide scholars and managers a deeper understanding of the role of EO as a mediator through which CD enhances a firm’s OP.

Implementation of marketing concept and organizational culture in SMEs in Al Buraimi – Oman

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of relationship between implementation process of marketing concepts and the culture at the small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) level of the Omani economy. The marketing culture and behavior provide a comprehensive insight into the implementation process of marketing concepts in SME sector in Oman. This paper seeks to explore the marketing culture of the firm’s members and to what extent they can support or create barriers to the successful implementation of the marketing concept in Al Buraimi region – Oman.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative approach was used to explore the impact of organizational culture on the implementation of marketing concepts on SMEs; to achieve the objective of this study, the paper based on a sample of 240 of SME sector in Al Buraimi. Simple Random Sampling was used for the sample distribution. The IBM analysis program Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to process the data sets.

Findings

The findings of this study support the argument about the positive relationship between the implementation of marketing concepts and organizational culture. In the Omani context, organizational culture is related to the whole society’s culture, which has changed over recent years due to changes in lifestyle and consumer behavior. All of this affects the SME sector and its ability to create new ideas for the marketing process.

Originality/value

The paper finds that there is a logic and structure to the culture and the implementation process of marketing concepts. It helps to identify the impact of the culture of the SME on the implementation of marketing in the SME sector on the Omani economy in light of the new orientation on the part of decision makers in terms of increasing the importance of non-oil activities.

The role of organisational climate in readiness for change to Lean Six Sigma

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organisational climate in readiness for change (RFC) with particular focus on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and to develop and operationalise an instrument to measure organisational climate to determine the organisational readiness of the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) to progress to the next stage of the LSS implementation lifecycle.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study outlining the KIM journey to LSS is described. A quantitative survey was developed based on the ten organisational climate dimensions discovered by Ekvall (1983) and redefined by Lauer (1994). This was then used to measure the climate of the case study organisation. Data were analysed to determine individual perceptions of the climate dimensions within KIM. The average score for each dimension was used to determine overall organisational performance and hence RFC.

Findings

The generally positive scores across each dimension of the survey indicate that the KIM climate is ready for the next stage of its LSS implementation lifecycle although there may be some isolated pockets (individuals or groups) of resistance to change. However, the range of scores on each dimension indicates that there is disagreement within the survey group about the overall organisational climate.

Research limitations/implications

The response rate to the climate survey questionnaire was only two-thirds of the total staff at KIM Headquarters and approximately one-fifth of all staff. The views of non-respondents are therefore not known and this may bias the results.

Practical implications

Since climate influences RFC it is essential that an organisation can measure it to ensure its environment is conducive to the implementation of change generally and LSS particularly. The developed questionnaire is easy to use, easy to analyse and easy to interpret making it an ideal climate measurement instrument.

Originality/value

Previous papers on LSS concentrate on organisational culture rather that climate as a success factor for LSS implementation. This paper addresses that omission.

The role of organisational climate in readiness for change to Lean Six Sigma

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organisational climate in readiness for change (RFC) with particular focus on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and to develop and operationalise an instrument to measure organisational climate to determine the organisational readiness of the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) to progress to the next stage of the LSS implementation lifecycle.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study outlining the KIM journey to LSS is described. A quantitative survey was developed based on the ten organisational climate dimensions discovered by Ekvall (1983) and redefined by Lauer (1994). This was then used to measure the climate of the case study organisation. Data were analysed to determine individual perceptions of the climate dimensions within KIM. The average score for each dimension was used to determine overall organisational performance and hence RFC.

Findings

The generally positive scores across each dimension of the survey indicate that the KIM climate is ready for the next stage of its LSS implementation lifecycle although there may be some isolated pockets (individuals or groups) of resistance to change. However, the range of scores on each dimension indicates that there is disagreement within the survey group about the overall organisational climate.

Research limitations/implications

The response rate to the climate survey questionnaire was only two-thirds of the total staff at KIM Headquarters and approximately one-fifth of all staff. The views of non-respondents are therefore not known and this may bias the results.

Practical implications

Since climate influences RFC it is essential that an organisation can measure it to ensure its environment is conducive to the implementation of change generally and LSS particularly. The developed questionnaire is easy to use, easy to analyse and easy to interpret making it an ideal climate measurement instrument.

Originality/value

Previous papers on LSS concentrate on organisational culture rather that climate as a success factor for LSS implementation. This paper addresses that omission.

Diagnosing National Culture Elements for Successful TQM Implementation: Case Study in Libya

This paper is to investigate the current status of national culture variables in Libyan manufacturing companies to furnish a base for TQM framework design. In order to achieve the objectives, an extensive literature review had been carried out, this was followed by a survey questionnaire conducted in major manufacturing industries in Libya (Oil & Gas Sector and Industrial Sector). SPSS software was used for performing the analysis, we found that Libyan manufacturing culture comprises of high power distance, slightly high uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and masculine society. We also found that the society is on average of individualistic collectivistic dimension. The findings compared with other studies and suggested for future improvement of the Libyan companies.