The influence of implementing total quality management in competitive policies in industrial firmsan applied study in the industrial sector in Palestine

Resumen

The Influence of Implementing Total Quality Management in Competitive Policies in Industrial Firms: An Applied Study in the Industrial Sector in Palestine Tesis doctoral presentada por Ahmad Mohammad Herzallah Directores: Profesor Dr. Leopoldo Gutiérrez Gutiérrez Profesor Dr. Juan Francisco Munoz Rosas Quality plays an important role in the overall strategy of the organization (Kaynak and Hartley, 2008). The major challenge for global companies to obtain a share in the international market is understanding the international customer. For this purpose, most companies have chosen the application of quality tools to improve the quality of their products (Liang and Zhang, 2010). Total Quality Management (TQM) strategies have been widely explored by academics, consultants and managers across the world. It has influenced major improvement in performance in most organizations that have considered quality management implementation. Companies that adopt TQM and pursue product quality will improve their competitive position, business success, and differentiate their products (Belohlav 1993; Carr 1995). There are many challenges facing the Palestinian industrial firms in local and international market. One of these challenges is the ability of Palestinian industrial firms to effectively introduce quality management approach such as TQM, increase the efficiency of people and improve their ability to respond to international competition. Many Palestinian organizations have started the quality movement and implemented quality programs including quality control, Six Sigma and ISO 9000 series. Nevertheless, in terms of improvement of quality and standards of the products, the Palestinian economy still lags behind other developing economies and the Arab countries. This research is the first study to investigate the progress of adoption of TQM in Palestine and their relationship with the competitive strategies (Porter, 1980) and financial performance. Thus, its findings will be an original contribution to the field of TQM implementation in the country. Furthermore, as there has been a shortage of research in the field of quality management generally in the Middle East countries, the researcher hopes that this study will establish a foundation for further research in the region. It is remarkable that, following March (1991) and Zhang et al. (2012), this research is the first empirical test for measuring and examining the impact of ambidexterity (Quality exploration and exploitation practices) on financial performance through competitive strategies in a QM context. The thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one is committed to an ¿Introduction¿ to the subject under study, its importance and an overview of the economy of Palestine. We introduce the interest, the purpose of the study, and a brief overview of the outline research methodology, and the organization of the thesis. The second chapter, titled ¿Literature review¿, seeks to provide an overview of the main concepts of the study. This chapter begins with the identification of the concept of TQM. Then, it includes a historical review of the concept of quality, and an analysis about the evolution of quality management and TQM main gurus. Then it delves into the knowledge of TQM through the study of the TQM definition, practices and its relationship with organizational performance. Further, this chapter includes studying the three basic competitive strategies - cost leadership, differentiation and focus-. Finally, this chapter ends studying ambidexterity, exploration and exploitation strategies and their effect on organizational performance. Chapter three of this thesis describes the research study entitled "Total quality management practices, competitive strategies and financial performance: the case of the Palestinian industrial SMEs". The main objective of this chapter was to examine the relationships between Total Quality Management (TQM) practices, competitive strategies¿cost leadership and differentiation¿and firm performance in the Palestinian economy. The results of our investigation indicate that TQM practices have indirect, positive and significant relationship with financial performance through competitive strategies. In addition, direct, positive and significant relationship between competitive strategies and financial performance was observed. Chapter four of this thesis describes the research study titled" Quality ambidexterity, competitive strategies and financial performance: An empirical study in industrial firms". The main objective of this chapter was to determine whether a positive relationship exists between the quality ambidexterity and financial performance in the Palestinian firms, and to examine how QER practices associated with QEI practices could improve financial performance. The findings of this study emphasize that quality ambidexterity practices have indirect, positive and significant relationship with financial performance through competitive strategies. The results have shown a significant and positive relationship between quality ambidexterity and all competitive strategies -differentiation, cost leadership and focus-. Chapter five of this thesis describes the research study entitled " Algorithms and R codes for the analysis of reliability and unidimensionality of measurement scales: Application to total quality management practices ". The main objective of this chapter was to illustrate the proposed algorithms by using the total number of the questionnaires. The suggested algorithm is implemented using the popular statistical software R and S-PLUS. Results conclude that this example can serve as a practical guide to show how to use the proposed R function. The proposed R function can be easily used by novel users in R, since codes are written in the form of R/S-PLUS functions and some basic notions for novel users are also given. Finally, in the last chapter, ¿Summary and Concluding Remarks¿, of this work presents the main findings, the implications of these findings involve both academically and for the management and practices, the limitations encountered when trying to perform the work and future lines of research. References Belohlav, J. A. 1993. Quality, strategy, and competitiveness. California Management Review, 35(3): 55¿67. Carr, L.P. 1995. Cost of Quality ¿ Making it Work. Journal of Cost Management, 9(1):61-65. Kaynak, H. & Hartley, J.L. 2008. A replication and extension of quality management into the supply chain. Journal of Operations Management, 26:468-489. Liang, K. & Zhang, Q. 2010. Study on the Organizational Structured Problem Solving on Total Quality Management. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(10): 178-184. March, J.G., 1991. Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning. Organization Science, 2 (1): 71-87. Porter, M. 1980. Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. London: The Free Press. Zhang, D., Linderman, K., & Schroederc, R. G. 2012. The moderating role of contextual factors on quality management practices. Journal of Operations Management, 30(1): 12¿23.