Investigating the relation between Quality improvement and Employees’ involvement

Introduction Several authors have been “preaching” its importance for firms’ performance, as a way to improve competitiveness; others, studied how TQM has been applied in different kinds of organizations and/or different economic contexts; many of them searched for the main negative factors behind the lack of success of TQM’ implementation in several cases; some of them attempted to develop frameworks for TQM’s development in different kinds of organizations (very small firms, SME, large companies) and/or different economic sectors (both industries and services). In fact, several researches have been conducted over a couple of decades, attempting to clarify TQM’s concept, exploring empirically the theory behind the philosophy and looking for the main critical success factors in its principles’ implementation. Through a thorough analysis of literature published essentially by the called quality gurus and other quality issues experts, the pioneer study carried out by Saraph et al. (1989) performed a previous extraction of one hundred and twenty organizational prescriptions for an effective TQM implementation and subsequently clustered them into eight categories of critical success factors (CSF), defining these, as critical issues in managerial planning/action that must be practiced to achieve an effective quality management. The aim of this research focused on a set of concerns regarding HR initiatives focused on employees’ commitment and quality awareness, developed in smaller firms. These concerns gave rise to the research’s main focus and got materialized through the following purposes: (i) to study HR initiatives focused on employees’ commitment and consciousness/awareness about the importance of quality improvement in firms’ competitiveness; (ii) to compare employees’ attitudes toward specific issues related to quality improvement, in small firms and in medium sized ones; (iii) to test if SME’ dimension influence, somehow, initiatives developed towards employees’ commitment and quality awareness. According to Pun and Chin (1999), TQM added a new dimension to quality management issues: the redefinition of quality from the customer's viewpoint, based on marketplace evidences. As stressed by the authors, through such dramatic shift in perspective, quality may be seen as a powerful competitive weapon and included in firms’ strategic planning. In fact, as highlighted by Brah et al. (2002), TQM can’t be seen as a quick fix way, stressing that its success involves a long-term paradigm shift through significant organizational changes. Over last few decades several holistic management philosophies, involving extensive change processes (Total Quality Management, Business Reengineering, Lean Management), have been emphasizing employees’ role, through an increased participation in the process for change. In fact, the influence of employees’ involvement in firms’ changing processes has been extensively reported in both academic and practitioner journals which strongly highlight its importance and Investigating the relation between Quality improvement and Employees’ involvement Mostafa Emami Young Researchers Club, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran.