Abstract
This study examines the influence of four selected soft factors (management commitment, employee involvement, training and education, and reward and recognition) on quality improvement within 255 Malaysian electrical & electronics (E&E) firms. Despite extensive research on quality management and quality improvement, very little empirical research has examined this area of study specifically in the E&E sector. The results of this study revealed that management commitment, employee involvement, training and education, and reward and recognition are significantly positively associated with firms’ quality improvement practice. Also, employee involvement was perceived as a dominant soft factor for quality improvement; it was associated with significant improvements in firms’ quality improvement. This study contributes to a better understanding of the influence of soft factors on organizational quality improvement among firms within the context of the Malaysian E&E sector. Suggestions for future research are discussed.
Highlights
Business firms all over the world including the Malaysian firms have to maintain and enhance their competitiveness in the face of fierce global competition, changing markets and technological break through
This study examines the influence of four selected soft factors on quality improvement within 255 Malaysian electrical & electronics (E&E) firms
The study results suggested that soft factors such as management commitment, employee involvement, training and education, and reward and recognition are significantly positively associated with overall Quality improvement (QI)
Summary
Business firms all over the world including the Malaysian firms have to maintain and enhance their competitiveness in the face of fierce global competition, changing markets and technological break through. Since the implementation of ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreement in 1992, competition has become intense among the ASEAN countries (Zadry and Yusof, 2006) Facing this challenge, manufacturing and service firms should produce high-quality goods and services (Evans and Lindsay, 2002). Malaysian firms would lose ground to competitors if they do not responsive to the global changes To compete in this global market, Malaysian manufacturers have long realized that they need to produce quality goods and services (Agus and Abdullah, 2000). Several other empirical researches have supported the proposition that high quality has a positive relationship with firm performance (Flynn et al, 1997; Heras, 2006; Sharma, 2006, Sila, 2007; Chung et al, 2008). The quality process and December, 2008 performance among the E&E firms in Malaysia is still below the level expected to generate the required economic national growth in realizing to be a high tech industrial nation by 2020 (Idris et al, 1996; Best and Rasiah, 2003)
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