Employee acceptance of a quality improvement initiative: Development of measures and evalutation of the impact of predictors
Abstract
During the 20th century, different programs have been developed and implemented with the purpose of increasing quality and productivity in organizations. Despite some successful stories, many companies have not met their goals of implementing their programs as they were planned. Several researches addressed this problem and one of the conclusions is that a quality improvement program is an effort similar to an organizational change initiative. This research introduces the concept of acceptance of a quality initiative . The model suggested in this study assumes that if the level of acceptance is high, employees will tend to get involved and participate effectively in the implementation process of a quality improvement program, which, in turn, is a key condition for the success of the initiative. Scale construction techniques, such as factor analysis and internal reliability, were used to develop a scale to measure acceptance of a quality initiative. Possible predictors of acceptance of a quality initiative were investigated by way of statistical techniques such as Pearson's correlation and multiple regression analysis. Factor analyses produced three outcome variables and two predictors. The outcome variables are the three components of acceptance of a quality initiative: climate for quality, performance as a result of the quality program, and motivation for quality . The two predictors are top management involvement and freedom to participate in the quality program . Results allow to conclude that organizational commitment and top management involvement are the most important predictors of acceptance of a quality initiative, followed by climate-warmth and climate-support. Participation, supervisory support, and freedom to participate in the quality program present a significant relationship with at least one of the criteria. Climate-reward and general job satisfaction did not significantly explain variability in acceptance of a quality initiative. In order to enhance probability of employees to accept and take part in a quality program, managers (a) should assure that employees are committed to the organization and (b) must definitely get involved and participate in the implementation process of the quality initiative, showing their own commitment and support.
This paper has been withdrawn.