The development of total quality management (TQM), work culture and employee performance relationship in Malaysia manufacturing industry

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy and operating approach that aims to consistently exceed the current and future expectations of all stakeholders, based on continuous improvement in all processes, goods and services.TQM is very important to the organization in order for them to survive in the global market. Korean companies have had incredible achievement by implementing quality as their competitive advantages compared to Malaysian companies. Moreover, sales value of the Malaysian manufacturing sector in February 2013 has decreased compared to last year. The main objective of this study is to develop a TQM performance model with the work culture as mediator, and ownership as moderator. A total of 350 questionnaires have been distributed to 10 manufacturing companies in Malaysia and effective sample of 294 usable completed surveys (84.0 percent usable response rate). Reliability and validity testing were conducted to test the questionnaire before pilot test was done. Statistical analysis and regression were used to predict and estimate the relationship. The model was assessed using Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings showed that TQM practices have a significant impact on employee performance with mediating effects of work culture and ownership as a moderating factor. The results also show that work culture partially mediated the relationship between TQM and employee performance. The study also showed that there were slightly differences of TQM implementation level towards employee performance between Korean and non-Korean companies