The effect of organizational culture stemming from national culture towards quality management deployment

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.

Constructing a typology of culture in organizational behavior

Purpose

– The purpose of this study is to propose a typology of culture and to present a hybrid model to be used as the base in organizational behavior and cross-cultural management research.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study provides a conceptual analysis and general review of the literature to clarify and to classify the usage of culture models and cultural orientations to reduce confusion concerning cultural studies.

Findings

– The first part of the proposed typology covers only the concept of organizational culture which has been examined around qualitative and cognitive approaches. While the second part is related to the use of socio-cultural dimensions, the third part of the proposed typology covers universal cultural orientations (patterns) framework only. The outcome of this study is the presentation of a hybrid model which provides a comprehensive methodological framework for conducting culture research.

Practical implications

– The typology of culture developed in this study would be of help for researchers designing their studies on the subject of culture, socio-cultural dimensions and cultural patternings from more appropriate theoretical perspectives and methods.

Originality/value

– The theoretical framework in this study provides insight in selecting more suitable culture models to examine the subject in managerial organizational studies.

Factors related to public health laboratory management in northern Thailand

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational-related factors of a public health laboratory in northern Thailand through the perspectives of staff.

Design/methodology/approach

– A quantitative research on organizational factors that affected management. Staff at the public health laboratory provided their perceptions and facts existing within the organization with regards to the following factors that could affect management performance; leadership, organizational culture, work environment and organizational commitment.

Findings

– It was found that leadership, work environment and organizational commitment had a significant impact on management performance while organizational culture did not.

Practical implications

– The research on management could be applied to enhance leadership, work environment and organizational commitment to achieve management performance.

Originality/value

– The quantitative research on organizational factors could help determine management performance. Moreover, leadership, work environment and organizational commitment can significantly predict the organization’s management performance.

Jung J. The verification of effective leadership style for TQM

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to verify the universal applicability of total quality management (TQM) across national boundaries. Specifically, the authors examined the validity of the isomorphic nature of TQM leadership style by comparing survey samples from both USA-based firms (n=112) and China-based firms (n=121).

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors collected the primary data through a survey research method. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were adopted to test the hypothesized research model.

Findings

– The study results did not support the universality of TQM practices. For example, the results reveal that in the USA-based firms, transformational leadership has a more significant positive influence on TQM practices, while in the China-based firms, transactional leadership has a more significant positive impact on TQM practices.

Originality/value

– Most of the existing literature on TQM assumed that the most effective TQM leadership style would be universal across organizational or international boundaries. However, our findings imply that the effective leadership style for successful implementation of TQM practices could be contingent on the cultural background embedded within the firms. Therefore, the authors anticipate the findings of the study will guide future research on TQM and create a new path to find solutions not only for optimizing the successful implementation of TQM, but also for minimizing the current high level of TQM failures.

Adopting TQM approach to achieve customer satisfaction

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey of customer satisfaction with regard to the strategy of total quality management (TQM) adopted in a wheat flour milling company.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted to learn more about customer expectations and satisfaction. The respondents were all customers of a flour‐based food processor. Quality function deployment (QFD) was applied to improve customer service performance by focusing on customer satisfaction, value and retention.

Findings

The results show that customer satisfaction has increased steadily over a period of three years. The QFD approach helped to design a competitive product by aligning the company resources to customers’ needs.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are limited to a specific food manufacturing company and for this reason they cannot be generalized to the whole in service sector. Further research is needed for other service companies.

Practical implications

The findings may support manufacturing companies hoping to achieve customer satisfaction by focusing on TQM implementation efforts. Furthermore, companies can focus their efforts on improving the way in which they meet certain customers’ needs if these needs are more extensively related to a certain component of quality management.

Originality/value

The paper presents evidence to managers of the value of implementing TQM strategy to effectively achieve customer satisfaction that ultimately leads to greater market share and profit maximization.

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.