Total quality management implementation and leadership competencies : a study of Thai manufacturing companies | |
| Author | Das, Anupam |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.SM-06-08 |
| Subject(s) | Total quality management--Thailand Manufacturing industries--Thailand |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Business |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Competent leaders have a vision for change from a current or existing state to a new enhanced state and prepare people to adapt readily to compete. The same holds true for those managers wishing to implement Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM is a management philosophy. based on a set of theoretical principles that seek to mobilize organizational resources to increase stakeholders' satisfaction. While application of these TQM principles has made a substantial impact on companies in terms of quality, operational and organizational performance, study on the effectiveness of these principles and also role of leadership competencies for executing them in the context of developing countries is limited. It is particularly important to define useful TQM constructs to measure these principles, their effect on improvement of performance and identify the role of leadership competencies for executing TQM principles. This study has identified nine TQM implementation principles (constructs) and an outcome construct and also a construct for leadership competencies in the context of Thai manufacturing industry and Thai Culture. The nine TQM implementation constructs are top management commitment. Supplier quality management. continuous improvement. product innovation, benchmarking. employee involvement, reward and recognition, education and training, customer focus and the outcome construct is product quality. Empirically reliable and valid instruments have been developed to measure TQM and leadership competencies constructs based on a survey of 275-ISO 9000 certified manufacturing companies in Thailand. It is evident front the stepwise regression analysis that customer focus, continuous improvement, top management commitment, employee involvement and product innovation are significantly and positively related to product quality. Results of t-tests for difference between means of TQM construct scores for the two groups of companies with high and low leadership competencies indicated that companies with high leadership competencies execute each of the nine TQM constructs significantly better and produce higher quality products than those with low leadership competencies. Stepwise regression analysis of the two groups of companies showed that customer focus, continuous improvement, employee involvement and supplier quality management are the primary predictors of product quality in companies with high leadership competencies and top management commitment, customer focus and product innovation are the primary predictors of product quality in the companies with low leadership competencies. By analyzing the results of this study it is found that top management leadership acts as an enabler for the other environmental and infrastructural elements such as employee involvement, customer focus, continuous improvement and product innovation. Top management with high leadership competencies can play better role in implementing TQM principles and can produce higher quality products. The findings are useful for managers in developing countries, specifically Thailand, as they 'g ill be able to assess their status in TQM implementation and identify problem areas required for further improvement to enhance their business performance |
| Year | 2006 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Management |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Master of Business Administration (MBA) (Publication code=SM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Swierczek, F.W.;Paul, Himangshu (Co-Chairperson); |
| Examination Committee(s) | Sununta Siengthai;Voratas Kachitvichyanukul;Sushil; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006 |