英语论文网

Chinese cultural values and total quality climate

Carlos Noronha, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, People’s Repubic of China
Acknowledgements
Some parts of this article appear in The Theory of Culture-specific Total Quality Management: Quality Management in Chinese Regions, published by Palgrave in April 2002.
Abstract
In view of the scarcity of studies on the relationship between national culture and total quality management (TQM), this paper examines the impact of Chinese cultural values on the total quality climate. Using a sample of 189 ISO 9000 certified companies in Taiwan, results from structural equation modeling indicate that Chinese cultural values do have a positive and statistically significant influence on these organizations’ quality climate. Given the results from a quantitative viewpoint, some congruencies among Chinese values and quality climate elements are suggested. Although using the case of Chinese culture, the theoretical proposition raised should gain generalizability in other national cultures towards a culturalist approach to the theorization of TQM.
Article Type:
Research paper
Keyword(s):
National cultures; China; Quality .
Journal:
Managing Service Quality
Volume:
12
Number:
4
Year:
2002
pp:
210-223
Copyright ©
MCB UP Ltd
ISSN:
0960-4529
Introduction
There has been abundant literature stressing the importance of building a quality culture at the organizational level for successful total quality management (TQM). However, the direct impact of national culture on TQM is much less discussed and explored. According to Chapman (1998), there have been only a few discussions about national cultures on TQM, in spite of ample anecdotal evidences that such an impact is clear. One possible reason is that national culture does not directly affect TQM implementation. Rather, national culture has to be instilled in the organizational culture of the respective entity embarking on a TQM endeavor. Nevertheless, very few empirical studies have been conducted to study both national and organizational cultures in the context of TQM.
The importance to further analyze the “soft” aspect of TQM is clearly indicated in Powell’s (1995) study which has found out that most of the “hard” features of TQM, such as process management and benchmarking, do not necessarily produce advantages for the firm. Rather, certain tacit and behavioral features such as organizational climate can produce substantial advantages. Furthermore, there has been evidence showing that a universal approach to organizational transformation does not exist (Smith et al., 1989). Each TQM journey is unique to its respective cultural setting. In fact, it is rather simple for corporate managers and decision makers to implement the “hard” features of TQM, such as the popular ISO 9000 quality management system and the so-called good manufacturing practices (GMP), given the availability of human and capital investments. What is difficult is actually to come up with a sustainable system that allows maximum compatibility between the organizational climate, as influenced by the national culture, and TQM itself as a transcendent culture. Empirical studies on the association between national culture and organizational quality climate in specific cultural settings are indeed required.
The objective of the present study is t本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。