The role of perceived organizational supports and management nationality amid physical Workplace's planned quality change

Abstract

That behavioral change is a prime outcome of planned quality change has been suggested for long, but little empirical evidence was available about how organizational factors affect the relationship. For a long time, the operations management literature has been dominated by the view that operations change-intervention is self-contained without considering the fit with the organizational environment. We contribute to this research line by arguing that change intervention's success is contingent upon organizational factors' status. Specifically, this study sheds light on how the relationship between 5S, a popular workplace change-intervention and its behavioral outcome is influenced by three organizational factors: perceived organization support (POS), perceived supervisory support (PSS), and management nationality. The result supports the hypothesis that the causal relationship between 5S intervention and employees' behavior is strengthened in the presence of POS and PSS. By assessing the measurement invariance between the Chinese operators of a Japanese-managed subsidiary and a Chinese-managed company, we find that the two operator groups shared the same conceptual framework of 5S but differed in their perceived implementation rigor. The operators of the Japanese-managed company implemented 5S intervention and performed self-discipline with a higher latent means level, indicating a greater 5S intensity and integration in the company. The result supports the hypothesis that management nationality matters when implementing workplace management intervention.