ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND QUALITY PRACTICES TQM / SIX SIGMA: A STUDY IN MANIPULATION PHARMACIES

This paper presents a strategic analysis of the importance of the relationship between organizational culture and the implementation of quality management programs, such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma. Therefore, an exploratory-descriptive and correlational study was carried out in a sample composed by forty compounding pharmacies in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The data collection identified characteristics of the companies and the level of use of quality practices, which were in turn identified in the literature. In order to evaluate the organizational culture, it was used the Competitive Values Model, considered an instrument of high academic and professional value. The results reveal the different effects of the types of culture in the adoption of quality practices and suggest that Clan and Innovative Cultures are the ones that best represent the cultural profile of pharmacies and are also more positively associated to the quality practices that the Market Cultures and Hierarchical. Understanding the advantages of each type of culture should help managers to effectively achieve the implementation of a quality management program from a holistic view of quality and culture management