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Influence of human factors on organisational performance

Quality improvement practices as a mediator variable

Nasser Habtoor Department of Human Resource Management,

Islamic Science University of Malaysia, Nilai, Malaysia and Faculty of Business Administration, University of Aden, Aden, Yemen

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of human factors in quality management on quality improvement practices and organisational performance in the Yemeni industrial sector. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via a quantitative survey with a questionnaire distributed to 261 managers from 87 industrial companies. Replies from 210 managers give a response rate of 80 per cent. Data were analysed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 16.0, including factor analysis, reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, and correlation analysis. Structural equation modelling was carried out using Amos to evaluate the model and hypotheses. Findings – Human factors influence positively quality improvement practices and organisational performance. Quality improvement practices positively influence organisational performance. Human factors indirectly and significantly influence organisational performance via the mediator of quality improvement practices. Research limitations/implications – The findings will be useful to both researchers and managers, especially those in Yemeni industrial companies. For further work, this study can be expanded to cover companies in other Middle East countries, and it may include more human factors. Originality/value – The study is one of a few that investigate the influence of human factors on quality management. Additionally, this study is the first to carry out such research in the Yemen and the Middle East region. Keywords Total quality management, Human resource management, Organizational performance Paper type Research paper

Introduction Human factors in quality management play a central role in the implementation of quality improvement practices and organisational performance. Literature on quality management suggests that the implementation of a total quality management programme will not be successful unless great attention is paid to the human factors (Lewis et al., 2006b; Motwani et al., 1994; Wilkinson et al., 1994).

Literature on quality management divides the total quality management practices into two groups; the first group is called technical factors and the second group is human factors. Technical-factors group focuses on tools and work processes such as product design, process and statistics, benchmarking, just-in-time, continuous improvement, and control/feedback. On the other hand, human-factors group includes the human or behaviour side of quality management such as leadership, employee involvement, training and education, customer focus, teamwork, communication, supplier relations, and rewards and recognition.

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management Vol. 65 No. 4, 2016 pp. 460-484 © Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1741-0401 DOI 10.1108/IJPPM-02-2014-0016

Received 3 February 2014 Revised 17 July 2014 14 October 2014 8 January 2015 15 April 2015 27 July 2015 13 August 2015 Accepted 17 August 2015

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1741-0401.htm

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Literature suggests that there is a lack of studies emphasising the human side of total quality management; too many of them were carried out to investigate only the technical aspect. The situation is due to the technical orientation of total quality management leaders who emphasise technical factors rather than human factors (Lau and Idris, 2001; Wilkinson, 1992). According to Edwards and Sohal (2003), the lack of attention to the human factors in total quality management may lead to limiting the success of total quality management implementation.

Moreover, literature of quality management suggests that when companies implement total quality management in their processes, there is more emphasis on the technical factors in quality management rather than the human factors (Yang, 2006; Lewis et al., 2006b; Wilkinson et al., 1994). Hill (1991) noted that although the solution to the technical issues of designing appropriate systems and procedures is fully specified, there are lacunae in the treatment of social factors. Therefore, as a result of the significant influence of human factors in quality management on organisational performance and their contribution to the implementation of total quality management, the human factors need more attention when an organisation reengineers its processes to implement total quality management.

There are insufficient empirical studies which have examined the influence of human factors in quality management on organisational performance. There is no study which had examined the influence of human factors on quality improvement practice except some studies which had examined the influence of human factors on technical factors in quality improvement practices. However, they provide evidence showing the existence of both direct significant influence of human factors on technical factors in quality improvement practices and organisational performance, and indirect significant influence of human factors on organisational performance through their influence on technical factors in quality improvement practices (Flynn et al., 1995; Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Abdullah et al., 2008; Gadenne and Sharma, 2009).

In Yemen, there is a growing governmental interest in the industrial sector because of its important role in leading economic changes, in addition to its role in supporting the Yemeni economy. Furthermore, Yemeni industrial companies have adopted total quality management programme as a way to enhance their competitive advantage in order to face new challenges in the business environment. However, the implementation of total quality management is way below the expected level (Nashwan, 2008; Abdullatef, 2006).

Literature considers human factors as a vital player in the success of total quality management implementation through their direct contribution to the practices of quality improvement and company performance, besides indirect contribution to organisation performance via creating a suitable environment for the implementation of quality improvement practices (Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Abdullah et al., 2008; Gadenne and Sharma, 2009). Thus, the current study investigates the human factors in quality management in Yemeni industrial companies through examining the direct influence of human factors on quality improvement practices and organisational performance; the study also examines the direct influence of quality improvement practice on organisational performance. Furthermore, this study evaluates the indirect influence of human factors in quality management on organisation performance through their direct influence on quality improvement practices. Thus, this study can contribute to the efforts of the Yemeni Government and companies, and enhance the industrial sector through improving the implementation of total quality management.

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Finally, the framework of this study consists of six factors representing the human side of quality management; they are leadership, customer focus, supplier relation, employee involvement, training and education, as well as reward and recognition. The scope also covers quality improvement practices (involve both human and technical factors in quality management), and organisational performance represented by five dimensions. Therefore, the research question is:

RQ1. What are the direct and indirect influences of human factors on quality improvement practices and organisational performance?

The structure of this paper is constructed to investigate the aims of the study. The next section examines the human factors and discusses the critical factors in total quality management implementation identified by a set of empirical studies. It also touches on human factors in total quality management and their importance to total quality management implementation. Then, it is followed by the outline of the methodology, which includes framework, population and sampling, measurement and statistical analysis. Furthermore, an analysis of the results of the study is carried out, followed by a discussion and conclusion.

Literature review Through a literature review of total quality management, a set of total quality management practices was identified as critical factors for the successful implementation of total quality management. Oakland (2000) provided a general definition of critical factors in quality management that influence the organisational or a management system in the business environment. He defined critical factors as the critical areas an organisation should carefully examine; and it should categorise their impacts on the system as well as on the whole organisation. This is necessary to successfully manage them and achieve the effective implementation of the system and the organisation’s mission. Saraph et al. (1989) pioneered an empirical approach to identify and measure the critical factors in total quality management implementation in the USA. They argued that no systematic attempt had been made in the literature to organise and synthesise the various sets of critical factors, the measures of overall organisational management or of any individual critical factors identified by different quality gurus. Later, some authors developed a similar approach to identify and investigate the critical success factors for total quality management implementation (such as Alok and Sushil, 2013; Kaur et al., 2013; Oprime et al., 2012; Sanjiv et al., 2012; Psomas and Fotopoulos, 2010; Guion, 2010; Fotopoulos et al., 2009; Salaheldin, 2009; Wahid and Corner, 2009; Sharma and Kodali, 2008; Antony et al., 2002; Zhang, 2000; Black and Porter, 1996; Vinzant and Vinzant, 1996; Flynn et al., 1994).

Based on the message of quality, that quality is every one’s responsibility, Wilkinson (1992) emphasised the human factors in quality management. He divided quality management into two aspects, soft and hard, which correspond to the human side of quality management and work process, respectively. He claimed that the hard aspect (technical side) involves the arrangement of production techniques, including statistical process control, quality function deployment, changes in the layout, design procedures of the organisation, and just-in-time inventory, while the human side is concerned with creating customer awareness within an organisation and as such, may be seen as a form of internal marketing or employee communication.

According to Louise (1996), culture change is a major reason for the reorientation of total quality towards the human factors in quality management. The culture change

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becomes a stumbling block to many companies involved in total quality management implementation (Louise, 1996). Lau and Idris (2001) suggested that it is necessary to study the critical soft factors (human factors) of quality management due to their importance to total quality management implementations, which contribute to a change in the thinking of managers and employees, and in turn permeates the total quality management throughout the whole organisation. Yasuo (1980) claimed that to make good use of personnel is difficult, but it is an issue that is required and must be overcome. According to Tamimi and Sebastianelli (1998), 48 per cent of organisations identified human factors as barriers to total quality management.

Recently, researchers pay more attention to the dimension of human factors in quality management, and their influences and relations with the hard factors and organisational performance (e.g. Assadej, 2012; Gadenne and Sharma, 2009; Fotopoulos and Psomas, 2009; Abdullah et al., 2008; Lewis et al., 2006a, b; Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Boon and Arumugam, 2005; Sila and Ebrahimpour, 2002; Lau and Idris, 2001; Louise, 1996; Motwani et al., 1994; Wilkinson, 1992; Hill, 1991).

Controversial claims have been suggested by researchers regarding the most effective factors for implementing total quality management; for example, Black and Porter claimed that hard factors concerned with tools and systems lend support to the implementation of human factors, while Samson and Terziovski (1999) found that human factors in quality management such as executive commitment, employee empowerment, and an open culture can strengthen competitive advantage more than the technical factors such as process improvement, benchmarking, and information and analysis do. Wilkinson (1992) suggested that the whole total quality management process will be much enhanced if these issues are brought to the fore, adding positive effects such as the breaking down of department barriers and increasing employee involvement. Thus, it is difficult for quality tools to contribute in terms of quality improvement, customer satisfaction, and consolidation of its market position without the support and guidance from the human factors in quality management such as top management commitment and employee and supplier cooperation (Fotopoulos and Psomas, 2009). Lewis et al. (2006b) found that hard criteria implementation attracts more attention than soft criteria (human factors) in small and medium enterprises. He defined the human factors in quality management as criteria which are largely related to the behavioural aspects of working life such as leadership, human resource management, supplier’s relations and customer focus. Hill (1991) also suggested that there are lacunae in the implementation of social factors when organisations reengineer their systems and procedures. Lau and Idris (2001) found that human factors such as culture and trust as well as teamwork have a strong influence on quality management. The importance of human factors in quality is based on their important role in the implementation of total quality management, as a programme needs significant and continuous changes in the culture of an organisation. Motwani et al. (1994) considered the human factors in quality management such as leadership, organisational skills, and culture as a key player that acts to achieve quality performance. It is easy to quantify the hard criteria (Lewis et al., 2006a; Oakland, 2000; Louise, 1996), while the soft criteria are more open to interpretation; thus, it is more difficult to measure them (Lewis et al., 2006a; Gotzamani and Tsiotras, 2001; Samson and Terziovski, 1999).

Lewis et al. (2006a) identified 13 soft factors (human factors) and 12 hard factors as critical factors in quality management based on the Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002) study that identified 25 criteria factors in quality management. Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002)

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conducted a large-scale study to investigate total quality management practices based on the survey studies conducted between 1989 and 2000 in different countries and published in different journals within that period. Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002) found out in their survey four out of seven practices that received the highest coverage are related to the human side of total quality management; these are customer focus and satisfaction, teamwork, training, and employee involvement.

More specifically, Abdullah et al. (2008), Rahman and Bullock (2005), Ho et al. (2001), and Flynn et al. (1995) attempted to explore and investigate the relationship between hard and soft factors and their impact on organisational performance. They divided quality management practices into two groups; the first group, named the hard factors (technical factors), includes process flow management, product design process and statistics, control/feedback, JIT principles, and continuous improvement. The second group, named the soft factors (human factors), includes customer relationship, supplier relationship, training and education, workforce commitment, teamwork, and top management support. They found a positive relationship between hard and soft factors and also a positive relationship between these factors and organisation performance; both hard and soft factors have significant impact on organisational performance. They also found that the hard factors act as a mediator factor for the relationship between the soft factors and organisational performance. This finding supports the purpose of the present study.

Methodology Framework The framework of the current study connects the variables of human factors in quality management, the variables of quality improvement practices and the dimensions of organisational performance. The framework shown in Figure 1 includes independent variables represented by six human factors in quality management; they are leadership, customer focus, supplier relations, employee involvement, training and education, and finally reward and recognition. Moreover, two dependent variables are also included in this framework. The first is quality improvement practices as a mediator variable for the relationship of human factors and organisational performance. It includes six elements; they are top management support, teamwork, customer involvement, process control and improvement, product design, and quality system improvement. However, the quality improvement practices include both technical and human side of quality management. The second is organisational performance represented by five dimensions; they are customer satisfaction, employee morale, productivity, defects, and delivery in full.

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

PRACTICES

HUMAN FACTORS ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Figure 1. Framework of study

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Population and sample The target population of this study consists of Yemeni industrial companies, which had received local and international quality certificates due to their interest in total quality management implementation, with implication of international and local quality criteria reflected in their operations. In fact, 87 Yemeni industrial companies had already possessed local quality certificates, which were awarded by Yemen Standardization Metrology and Quality Control Organization, and international quality certificates (such as European Business Excellence Model, ISO 9000, and other international quality awards). These companies are located in five industrial cities; namely, Sana’a, Aden, Alhudaidah, Hadramout, and Taiz as shown in Table I.

This study emphasises the industrial sector due to its importance to the Yemeni economy, and the government’s effort to enhance this sector via improving total quality management implementation. Essentially, the researcher chose this type of company because they are interested in the implementation of total quality management and using international and local factors in their operations. Hence, these companies are familiar with the issues this study attempts to address (Curry and Kadasah, 2002).

Choosing the appropriate sample is the most important element to answer the research questions and investigate the objectives of any study (Sekaran, 2000). Based on this logic, the participants of this study are managers, who are familiar with the implementation of total quality management in their organisations and at the same time have knowledge about the performance.

Therefore, the respondents of this study consist of one top management manager and two quality managers of each selected Yemeni company. Thus, a total of 261 managers from 87 Yemeni industrial companies were listed as respondents of this study, and a questionnaire was sent to each of the 87 industrial companies in Yemen. A total of 210 completed survey forms were returned out of 261 survey questionnaire distributed; this works out to a response rate of 80 per cent, which is considered good (Roth and BeVier, 1998).

Measurement A questionnaire was designed to determine and clarify the relationship between the human factors, quality improvement practices, and organisational performance. To measure the human factors, the instrument developed by Zhang (2000) was used. This instrument had 40 items which included six factors: leadership, customer focus, employee involvement, supplier relations, training and education, as well as reward and recognition. To examine quality improvement practices, this study adopted the instrument of Flynn et al. (1994) to evaluate the human side of quality improvement practices (top management support, teamwork, customer involvement). To examine the

Industrial cities Number of companies

Alhudaidah 21 Hadramout 20 Sana’a 18 Taiz 17 Aden 11 Total 87 Source: Yemen Standardization Metrology and Quality Control Organization

Table I. Population of study

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technical side of quality improvement practices (process control and improvement, product design and quality system improvement), this study used Zhang’s (2000) instrument, which included 38 items. To measure organisational performance, the instrument developed by Samson and Terziovski (1999) was used. Prior to conducting the main study, a preliminary study was carried out among 30 quality managers of Yemen industrial companies, in order to test the clarity, comprehensiveness and acceptability of the questionnaire.

Factor analysis was carried out to evaluate the assignment of items to scale in developing the instrument of this study. According to Hair et al. (1998), the main purpose of factor analysis is to find a way of condensing or summarising the information into a smaller set of new composite dimensions (factors) with a minimum loss of information. In fact, factor analysis is a way of testing how well measured variables represent the constructs. Moreover, factor analysis results can provide evidence for the convergent and discriminant validities of theoretical constructs (Brown, 2006). Indeed, factor analysis can help to identify whether the selected items cluster on one or more than one factor. Factor loadings are used to present these relations. Hair et al. (1998) regarded factor loadings greater than 0.30 as significant factors; loadings of 0.40 as more important; and if the loadings are 0.50 or greater, they are considered very significant. The previous studies in the field of total quality management such as Saraph et al. (1989), Flynn et al. (1994), and Zhang (2000) used factor analysis and they claimed that a factor loading of 0.50 is acceptable in their studies. Therefore, in the current study, a factor loading of 0.50 or greater is considered significant.

The results shown in the Appendix present factor loadings of human factors, quality improvement practices and organisational performance, after removing the items with low-factor loading or double loading. Regarding the variables of human factors, four out of 40 items were removed after factor analysis; one of which belonged to leadership factor; thus, seven items of leadership factor remained. Another two items were removed from employee involvement factors; thus, only six items of employee involvement remained. The fourth item was removed from the group of six items of reward and recognition factor. The findings of this technique show that the loadings of remaining items range from 0.510 to 0.904. The relative explanatory power (Eigen values) for each factor of human factors is 3.550 for leadership, 3.210 for customer focus, 3.193 for supplier relationship, 3.234 for employee involvement, 3.586 for training and education, and 3.266 for reward and recognition. The value of KMO for each factor of human factors in quality management is 0.814 for leadership, 0.822 for customer focus, 0.685 for supplier relationship, 0.707 for employee involvement, 0.799 for training and education, and 0.817 for reward and recognition. Actually, these results indicated that sampling adequacy for factor analysis was appropriate. Bartlett’s test of sphericity for each variable significantly supports the factorability of correlation matrix.

For the variables of quality improvement practices, three items related to product design out of 38 items were removed after factor analysis; they were removed due to the reason that two of them were double loaded and one was low loaded (0.443). Thus, the findings of this technique show that the loading of the remaining items ranges from 0.543 to 0.922. The relative explanatory power (Eigen values) for each factor of quality improvement practices is 3.127 for top management support, 3.967 for teamwork, 2.902 for customer involvement, 5.126 for process control and improvement, 2.771 for product design, and 3.097 for quality system improvement. The values of KMO for each factor of human factors in quality management are 0.784 for top management support, 0.811 for teamwork, 0.731 for customer involvement, 0.828 for process control and improvement,

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0.768 for product design, and 0.791 for quality system improvement; these figures show the appropriateness of sampling adequacy for factor analysis. Bartlett’s test of sphericity for each variable significantly supports factorability of correlation matrix.

For organisational performance, two of seven items were removed after factor analysis. The findings of this technique show that the loading of remaining items ranges from 0.587 to 0.844. The relative explanatory power (Eigen values) for the factor of organisational performance is 3.004. The value of KMO for organisational performance is 0.781, which indicates that sampling adequacy for factor analysis was appropriate. Bartlett’s test of sphericity for each variable significantly supports the factorability of correlation matrix.

The reliability analysis was conducted to provide information about the relationship between individual items in the scale and their internal consistency, in addition to examining the properties of measurement scale and the questions that made it. Wuest et al., however, considered the calculating estimates of reliability as an essential prerequisite for the instrument’s validation. In this research, internal consistency was adopted to estimate the reliability of instrument. Internal consistency was measured by Cronbach’s coefficient α, and the higher the α value or the closer reliability coefficient to 1.0, was considered the higher of the measurement items. Therefore, in this study, Cronbach’s α values exceeding 0.7 represent acceptable reliability, while any α values over 0.8 are considered as entirely good (Nunnally, 1978; Cronbach, 1951).

The results of Cronbach’s coefficient α of the six human factors in quality management are shown in Table II. Measures of human factors were carried out based on five point Likert scale from 1 ¼ strongly disagree to 5 ¼ strongly agree. The instrument has an acceptable reliability for human factors in quality management, the Cronbach α ranges between 0.727 for employee involvement and 0.871 for reward and recognition. Measures of the six quality improvement practices (top management support, teamwork, customer involvement, process control and improvement, product design, and quality system improvement) were carried out based on five point Likert scales from 1 ¼ strongly disagree to 5 ¼ strongly agree. The instrument has an acceptable reliability for quality improvement practices, and the Cronbach α ranges between 0.700 for product design and 0.860 for teamwork. Moreover, Table II shows Cronbach’s coefficient α of the

Factor No. of items α

Human factors Leadership 7 0.824 Customer focus 6 0.817 Supplier relations 6 0.777 Employee involvement 6 0.727 Training and education 6 0.860 Reward and recognition 5 0.871

Quality improvement practices Top management support 5 0.839 Teamwork 7 0.860 Customer involvement 5 0.793 Process control and improvement 8 0.702 Product design 5 0.700 Quality system improvement 5 0.829 Organisational performance 5 0.827

Table II. Reliability analysis

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five dimensions of organisational performance (customer satisfaction, employee morale, productivity, defects, delivery in full) of this study. The instrument has an acceptable reliability for organisational performance, and the Cronbach α is 0.827.

Statistical analysis All collected data were transferred into the data entry template using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19. In addition, the Amos programme for structural equation modelling (SEM) was also used to test and evaluate the theoretical framework and its hypotheses due to their flexibility in this respect.

The SPSS statistical programme was used to test the reliability of the variables, and correlation analysis was carried out by SPSS as well to test the relationship between the variables of the study due to their flexibility in this respect. SEM was carried out by using statistical programme, Amos version 16.0 to evaluate the theoretical framework and its hypotheses, which examine the direct influence of human factors in quality management on quality improvement practices and organisational performance; furthermore, it also gauged the indirect influence of human factors in quality management on organisational performance through their influence on quality improvement practices. One of the advantages of using SEM is that if the researcher has many items, which are representative of one factor in hypothesised model, she/he can use the summated score approach or total score for the items representing that factor. This style is widely used in studies in literature of SEM (Kline, 2011; Hoe, 2008), which delivered the parsimonious explanation for the model.

Results In order to investigate the hypotheses and answer the research questions, the following procedures took place: first, the direct influence of human factors on organisational performance was analysed; then the direct influence of human factors on quality improvement practices followed by the direct influence of quality improvement practices on organisational performance were examined, respectively. Finally, the mediation role of quality improvement practices for the relationship of human factors and organisational performance was evaluated.

In this study, the correlation analysis was used to determine the strength of linear relationship between the variables. The correlation results as shown in Table III reveal that five out of six human factors in quality management are significantly related to organisational performance; they are leadership, customer focus, employee involvement, training and education, and reward and recognition, while supplier relationship does not have any relation with any dimension of organisational performance.

The correlation results in Table IV reveal a positive correlation between human factors and quality improvement practices. The results show that all six human factors (leadership, customer focus, supplier relation, employee involvement, training and education, and reward and recognition) are significantly related to the six factors in quality improvement practices (top management support, customer involvement, teamwork, process control, and improvement, product design and quality system improvement).

Table V shows the correlation test results of the relationship between quality improvement practices (top management support, teamwork, customer involvement, process control and improvement, product design, and quality system improvement) and organisational performance (customer satisfaction, employee morale, productivity, defects, delivery customer).

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To investigate the purpose of this study, structural models were established as shown in Figure 1 to examine the following hypotheses:

H1o. Human factors have no direct influence on organisational performance.

H1a. Human factors have direct influence on organisational performance.

H2o. Human factors have no direct influence on quality improvement practices.

H2a. Human factors have direct influence on quality improvement practices.

H3o. Quality improvement practices have no direct influence on organisational performance.

OP Customer satisfaction

Employee moral Productivity Defects

Delivery customer

HFQM Leadership r 0.206** 0.303** 0.334** −0.013 0.139*

p 0.003 0.000 0.000 0.847 0.044 Customer focus r 0.224** 0.249** 0.345** 0.014 0.199**

p 0.001 0.000 0.000 0.837 0.004 Supplier relations r −0.038 −0.063 −0.027 −0.116 −0.074

p 0.582 0.365 0.692 0.093 0.283 Employee involvement

r 0.222** 0.415** 0.469** 0.004 0.216** p 0.001 0.000 0.000 0.955 0.002

Training and education

r 0.236** 0.332** 0.423** 0.000 0.198** p 0.001 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.004

Reward and education

r 0.233** 0.405** 0.473** 0.020 0.178**

p 0.001 0.000 0.000 0.770 0.010 Note: **,*Correlation is significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 levels (two tailed), respectively

Table III. Correlations of

human factors and organisational performance

QIP

Top management

support Teamwork Customer

involvement

Process control and

improvement Product design

Quality system

improvement

HFQM Leadership r 0.535** 0.498** 0.437** 0.354** 0.266** 0.164*

p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.017 Customer focus

r 0.505** 0.535** 0.502** 0.512** 0.293** 0.369** p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Supplier relations

r 0.339** 0.249** 0.421** 0.217** 0.324** 0.319** p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.002 0.000 0.000

Employee involvement

r 0.532** 0.602** 0.560** 0.598** 0.460** 0.441** p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Training and education

r 0.520** 0.571** 0.528** 0.478** 0.510** 0.411** p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Reward and education

r 0.557** 0.611** 0.612** 0.539** 0.526** 0.371** p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Note: **,*Correlation is significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 levels (two tailed), respectively

Table IV. Correlations of

human factors and quality improvement

practices

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H3a. Quality improvement practices have direct influence on organisational performance.

H4o. Human factors have no indirect influence on organisational performance through their influence on quality improvement practices.

H4a. Human factors have indirect influence on organisational performance through their influence on quality improvement practices (Figure 2).

Analytically, the structural model establishes the existence of a causal relationship between human factors, quality improvement practices and organisation performance.

OP Customer satisfaction

Employee moral Productivity Defects

Delivery customer

QIP Top management support r 0.264** 0.382** 0.420** 0.042 0.157*

p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.545 0.023 Teamwork r 0.280** 0.372** 0.431** 0.030 0.215**

p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.661 0.002 Customer involvement r 0.210** 0.304** 0.330** 0.061 0.097

p 0.002 0.000 0.000 0.376 0.163 Process control and improvement

r 0.313** 0.361** 0.470** 0.056 0.221** p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.418 0.001

Product design r 0.138* 0.175* 0.285** −0.019 0.177* p 0.046 0.011 0.000 0.782 0.010

Quality system improvement

r 0.144* 0.183** 0.249** −0.021 0.153* p 0.036 0.008 0.000 0.760 0.027

Note: **,*Correlation is significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 level (two tailed), respectively

Table V. Correlations quality improvement practices and organisational performance

Human factors

0.72

Reward and Recognition

0.85 0.69

Training and education

0.83

0.83 Employee involvemente3

0.91

0.22 Supplier relationse4

0.47

0.60 Customer Focus

e5 0.77

0.37

Leadership

e6 0.61

0.63

Quality improvement

practices

0.67

Top management support

0.78

Teamwork

0.62

Customer Involvement

0.62

Process control and improvement

e10

0.26

Product design

e11

0.30

Quality system improvement

e12

0.82 0.79

0.55

0.30

Organisational performance

0.44

Customer satisfaction e130.72

Employee morale e140.68

Productivity e15

0.66

0.85

0.83

e20

0.41

Delivery e17 0.64

0.12

Defects e18

0.35

0.30

e21

0.80

0.38

0.30

0.44

0.29

0.28

0.29

0.79 0.510.88

Notes: �2 = 278.909; cmindf = 2.513; df = 111; p= 0.000; CFI = 0.923; RMSEA = 0.085

Figure 2. Structural model of the relationship between human factors, quality improvement practices and organisational performance

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Actually, this model includes independent variables represented by six human factors in quality management; they are leadership, customer focus, supplier relations, employee involvement, training and education, and finally reward and recognition. Moreover, two dependent variables also are included in this framework; first, quality improvement practices as a mediator variables for the relationship of human factors and organisational performance. It includes six elements; they are top management support, teamwork, customer involvement, process control and improvement, product design, and quality system improvement. However, the quality improvement practices include both technical and human side of quality management. Second, organisational performance represented by five dimensions; they are customer satisfaction, employee morale, productivity, defects, and delivery in full. A significance of y coefficient would indicate that a causal relationship exists between the variables. The magnitude of the relationship can be observed by the value of this coefficient.

The estimated model shows a good fit as shown by the fit indices and the significance of χ2 (see Table VI). The coefficients that reflect the direct influence of human factors on quality improvement practices and organisational performance, and indirect influence of human factors on organisational performance can be analysed. Table VI shows the structural parameters (y) and the p values, the indicator of the reliability of the structural equations.

The results presented in Table VII and Figure 1 show a positive relationship between the variables of study which reveal a positive direct influence of human factors on organisational performance; the standardised coefficient is 0.282 and the significance is at 0.05 level (p ¼ 0.033). These results support H1a that claims a positive direct influence of human factors on organisational performance.

Also, the results shown in Figure 1 and Table VII present a direct influence of human factors on quality improvement practices; the standardised coefficient is 0.797, effect size (R2) is 0.635, and significance is at 0.001 level ( p ¼ 0.000). This means that 63 per cent of quality improvement practices are accounted by human factors, which is considered as a large effect size (Cohen et al., 2003). In fact, these results support H2a mentioned earlier. The effective implementation of human factors in an organisation

Model χ2 df p CFI RMSEA

Human factors → Quality improvement → Performance 278.909 111 000 923 0.085 Note: Fit indices for the full structural models of the relationship of human factors, quality improvement practices, and organisational performance

Table VI. Fit indices for the

full structural models

Model Direct effect

Indirect effect

Total effect

Significant of indirect effect

Human factors→Quality improvement 0.797 – 0.797 0.000 Quality improvement→Organisational performance

0.296 – 0.296 0.000

Human factors→Organisational performance via quality improvement

0.282 0.236 0.518 Significant more than (0.08)

Note: Structural parameters of the mediation role of quality improvement practices for the relation- ship of human factors and organisational performance

Table VII. Structural

parameters of the mediation role of

quality improvement practices

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plays a central role in quality improvement which acts to improve performance and productivity (Abdullah et al., 2008).

Furthermore, the results of the examination of the influence of quality improvement practices on organisational performance are shown in Figure 1 and Table VII; the standardised coefficient is 0.296 and significance at 0.005 level ( p ¼ 0.26). These results support H3a which claims a positive direct influence of quality improvement practices on organisational performance. Collectively, 30 per cent of organisational performance is explained by quality improvement practices as the strongest contributor, and human factors as secondary contributor. Literature of quality management suggests that the quality improvement practices positively influence organisational performance (Abdullah et al., 2008; Flynn et al., 1994).

Moreover, the analyses of the structural parameters correspond to this model are as shown in Table VII. It is possible to draw some initial conclusions about the mediating role of quality improvement practices on the relationship of human factors and organisational performance. As can be observed in Table VII and Figure 1, there is indirect influence that incorporates the consideration of quality improvement practices as a mediation variable. Therefore, to test the mediator effect, a direct-effect model should be estimated. Hence, based on the positive direct relationship between the variables, the mediation effect of quality improvement practices for the relationship of human factors and organisational performance was examined, and the findings shown in Table VII reveal a significant relationship. The findings also show that human factors indirectly influence organisational performance through their influence on quality improvement practices; the standardised coefficient is (0.236) and significance more than (0.08).

Discussion In view of the findings mentioned earlier, all four research hypotheses are supported by the study’s findings and the researcher extracts the following discussion.

The results clearly show that the human factors in quality management have an important role in the implementations of total quality management which directly influence organisational performance (Motwani et al., 1994); hence, these factors should get sufficient attention when companies reengineer their processes to implement a total quality programme (Wilkinson, 1992). In fact there is a lack of studies emphasising human factors while many studies have been carried out to contribute to the design development and application of the total quality system (Lau and Idris, 2001).

Furthermore, to the best knowledge of the current researcher, no research to date in Middle East countries is interested in the human side of quality management and its contribution to the implementation of total quality management and organisational performance. On the other hand, in the implementation of total quality management, insufficient attention is given to the human factors due to the production orientation of the gurus of total quality management (Hill, 1991; Wilkinson, 1992; Louise, 1996).

Lau and Idris (2001) suggested that it is necessary to study the critical soft factors (or human factors) due to their important role in the implementations of total quality management, in addition to their contribution in changing the thinking of managers and employees and permeating of total quality management throughout the whole organisation. According to Tamimi and Sebastianelli (1998) 48 per cent of organisations identified human factors as barriers to total quality management. Motwani et al. (1994) considered human factors such as leadership, organisational skills, and culture as a key player acting to achieve quality performance.

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Previous studies provided evidence that human factors have an important role in the implementation of total quality management (Flynn et al., 1994; Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Abdullah et al., 2008). Following this same logic, the first hypothesis in this research established causal relationship between human factors and organisational performance and SEM was estimated to test this hypothesis. The results of this study confirm that there is a significant relationship between human factors and organisational performance, in which human factors directly influence organisational performance. Moreover, five out of the six human factors have a significant relationship with organisational performance; these factors are leadership, customer focus, employee involvement, training and education, and reward and recognition, which make this research consistent with previous studies such as (Flynn et al., 1994; Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Abdullah et al., 2008). On the other hand, the results of this study do not find any positive relationship between supplier relation and organisational performance; these results agree with the results obtained by Powell (1995) and Dow et al. (1999) who suggested that a factor such as supplier relations could only be context dependent. However, this research confirms previous studies that claimed the important role for human factors in the implementation of total quality management and organisational performance.

To evaluate the relationship of human factors and quality improvement practices, H2 was established and structural model was estimated. The results of this study reveal a positive direct influence of human factors on quality improvement practices, which make this research consistent with previous studies that brought evidence confirming the positive relationship of human factors and quality improvement practices, such as Flynn et al. (1994), Motwani et al. (1994), Anderson et al., Dow et al. (1999) and Abdullah et al. (2008).

Indeed, literature on total quality management suggests that quality improvement practices lead to higher level of organisational performance (quazi et al., 1998; Dow et al., 1999; Abdullah et al., 2008). According to Abdullah et al. (2008), effectiveness of quality improvement leads to increase in organisation performance. The structural model, established to evaluate H3, which claimed earlier a positive influence of quality improvement practices on organisational performance, shows a positive relationship of quality improvement practices and organisation performance since quality improvement practices directly influence organisational performance. These results confirm the positive direct influence of quality improvement practices on organisational performance. Thus, these results make this study in line with previous studies (Flynn et al., 1994; Dow et al., 1999; Abdullah et al., 2008).

Moreover, the literature on quality management claims that quality improvement practices are directly affected by human factors although quality improvement practices in turn directly affect organisational performance. Besides, the human factors act to create suitable environment for the implementations of quality improvement practices, which this study suggests that quality improvement practices act as a mediator factor for the relationship of human factors and organisational performance (Flynn et al., 1994; Ho et al., 2001; Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Abdullah et al., 2008).

Some previous studies evaluated the mediator role of technical factors (hard factors) for the relationship between human factors and organisational performance such as (Flynn et al., 1994; Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Abdullah et al., 2008). Actually, they provided evidence that the human factors in quality management indirectly influence organisational performance through their direct influence on technical factors in quality management.

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The results of this study confirm the previous claims of the mediator role of quality improvement practices for the relationship of human factors and organisational performance; this is consistent with previous studies such as (Flynn et al., 1994; Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Abdullah et al., 2008).

In terms of implication, this research adds knowledge in the areas of total quality management and organisational performance, which provides evidence to managers about the important role of human factors in quality management and their significant contribution to the implementation of quality improvement practices and organisational performance.

Moreover, this research confirms the importance of human factors in quality management to the success of the implementation of total quality management and improvement of organisational performance. This study cautions the companies to be aware of these human factors when they reengineer their process to implement total quality management programme and enhance their competitive advantage.

Additionally, the findings of this study shed light upon the importance of human factors in quality management to improve organisational performance and enhance the competitive advantages of the companies. This study might be helpful to the Yemeni Government by providing a strong basis to improve the Yemeni industrial sector and advance the competitive advantages of the companies.

This study confirms the important role of human factors in quality management in the implementation of total quality management. It is supported by the following evidences: first, the discussions in the foregoing sections; second, the work done by total quality management gurus (such as Deming, Grosby, Juran, Feigenbaum, and Ishikawa); third, previous studies on identifying the critical factors for the implementation of total quality management (such as Saraph et al., 1989; Black and Porter, 1996; Quazi et al., 1998; Zhang, 2000; Antony et al., 2002; Sharma and Kodali, 2008; Wahid and Corner, 2009; Fotopoulos et al., 2009; Guion, 2010); fourth, the studies that concentrated on the human side of total quality management (such as Wilkinson, 1992; Louise, 1996; Demirbag et al., 2006; Tari et al., 2007; Gadenne and Sharma, 2009; Fotopoulos and Psomas, 2009; Kumar et al., 2009; Abdullah et al., 2008). Consequently, the findings of this study is consistent with previous empirical studies that carried out to investigate the following: direct influence of human factors in quality management on quality improvement practices and organisation performance; and indirect influence of human factors in quality management on organisational performance through their influence on quality improvement practices (such as Flynn et al., 1994, 1995; Ho et al., 2001; Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Abdullah et al., 2008).

Conclusion The results of this study support the previous findings reported in literature. It has been shown that leadership is the key factor in attaining the success of total quality management implementation and organisational performance through driving the changes of processes and systems as well as setting clear standards of work for employees. In addition, it is essential to create an appropriate environment to achieve quality objectives and enhance organisational performance. In effect, these factors act as a catalyst to increase the commitment of managers and employees in implementing total quality management; as a result, organisational performance is also increased.

This research is one of a few empirical studies; it was carried out to investigate the direct and indirect influence of human factors in quality management on quality

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improvement practices and organisational performance. Moreover, this study is the first to undertake such investigation in the Middle East countries, focusing on the human factors and their contribution to quality improvement practices and organisational performance. This study is significant as it calls for more research in total quality management in the international context, especially in the Middle East countries (Dale et al., 2001).

Although the human factors are important in the implementation of total quality management and improving organisational performance, there is a lack of research in this area.

The findings of this study indicate that human factors have a positive influence on quality improvement practices and organisational performance. In addition, the findings of the study prove that human factors have indirect influence on organisational performance through their direct influence on quality improvement practices. Thus, the findings of the current study are consistent with those of Flynn et al. (1994, 1995), Ho et al. (2001), Rahman and Bullock (2005) and Abdullah et al. (2008) studies.

In view of the above discussions and based on the results of the current study, it is very obvious there is a need to focus on the effectiveness of human factors to achieve an improvement in the overall total quality management practices. In addition, human factors are very helpful in enhancing organisational performance, which are relevant to the Yemeni Government, companies and managers. Also, the effectiveness of human factors in the implementation can lead to achieving the objectives to improve the industrial sector and enhancing the competitive advantage of the companies.

This research has its deficiencies as in the case of all research studies. Pertaining to the instrument, the employee morale and customer satisfaction were evaluated by the managers’ perception, which might be relatively weak and pretty unreliable. Due to the secondary nature of the data, it cannot be concluded that indirect sourcing is equivalent to direct sourcing from the individuals about their satisfaction. Actually, the best way to measure employee satisfaction is to interview employees or ask them to complete a questionnaire. Furthermore, this study could not obtain enough information regarding the overall situation of total quality management in Yemen; this is due to the lack of studies related to the implementation of total quality management programmes as well as the weak documenting systems in the Yemeni companies; consequently, it is difficult to obtain adequate information regarding the population of study.

Due to the importance of human factors to the implementation of total quality management and organisational performance, the results of this study could be important to the practitioners and researchers. The Yemeni Government can benefit from the results of this study by enhancing its planning and improving the industrial sector through the success of total quality management programme.

This study contributes to the literature on total quality management and organisational performance in evaluating the direct and indirect influence of human factors on quality improvement practices and organisational performance. Literature of total quality management suggests that human factors could cause an improvement in organisational performance (Flynn et al., 1994; Rahman and Bullock, 2005; Abdullah et al., 2008). Furthermore, this study confirms the importance of human factors in the implementation of total quality management, in line with literature of total quality management (Wilkinson, 1992; Louise, 1996; Demirbag et al., 2006; Tari et al., 2007; Gadenne and Sharma, 2009; Fotopoulos and Psomas, 2009; Kumar et al., 2009).

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The present study also contributes to the literature on business and total quality management as the first empirical study carried out in the Middle East countries, which focuses on the human factors in total quality management and their relationship with quality improvement practices and organisational performance.

This study puts forward several recommendations for future research. As this study concentrates on the implementation of human factors in the Yemeni industrial sector, the present study can be expanded in future to include other Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia, UIA, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Jordon, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey. In fact, implementations of total quality management within the Middle Eastern countries are generally lower than in Western economies. According to Alzamany et al. (2002), the Middle Eastern countries have been preoccupied with conventional management issues and are not that aware of advanced quality thinking.

This study confines the investigation to Yemeni industrial companies, which have obtained local and international quality certifications. Future studies can include those companies that have not been awarded any quality certifications. This study examines the influence of the variables based on managers’ perception; thus, it would be better for future researchers to examine some other issues such as employee morale and customer satisfaction based on both employees’ and customers’ perceptions.

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