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The effects of total quality management practices on employees'

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DOI: 10.1108/09544780610637677

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 The TQM Magazine
The effects of total quality management practices on employees' work-related attitudes
Noorliza Karia Muhammad Hasmi Abu Hassan Asaari
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TQM
18,1 The effects of total quality
management practices on
employees’ work-related attitudes
30
Noorliza Karia
School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, and
Muhammad Hasmi Abu Hassan Asaari
School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

Abstract
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of total quality management (TQM)
practices on employees’ work-related attitudes, such as job involvement, job satisfaction, career
satisfaction, and organizational commitment.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper proposes and tests 16 hypotheses on the relationship
between TQM practices and work-related attitude.
Findings – The results indicate that training and education have a significant positive effect on job
involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Empowerment and teamwork
significantly enhance job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational
commitment. Continuous improvement and problem prevention significantly enhance job satisfaction
and organizational commitment. Customer focus does not contribute to job involvement, job
satisfaction, career satisfaction, or organizational commitment.
Research limitations/implications – The study was unable to evaluate the wider dimensions of
TQM practices.
Practical implications – Managers should be aware that TQM practices have a positive effect on
employees’ work-related attitudes (such as job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and
organizational commitment).
Originality/value – The paper focuses on TQM in practice, rather than on TQM in theory and/or
TQM as organizational change.
Keywords Total quality management, Quality programmes, Employee attitudes, Malaysia
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Total quality management (TQM) is essentially a management philosophy, and it has
become the preferred approach for improving quality and productivity in
organizations. Various terminologies have been used to describe the general concept
of TQM. These include “total quality control”, “total quality leadership”, “total quality
improvement program”, “continuous quality improvement”, and “total quality service”
(Lemieux, 1996). However, whatever terminology is used, the three basic ingredients of
TQM are constant:
The TQM Magazine
Vol. 18 No. 1, 2006
pp. 30-43 The authors would like to express sincere appreciation to anonymous reviewers, and also to
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0954-478X
Mr Shahrier Pawanchik at the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, for his
DOI 10.1108/09544780610637677 initial editing.
 (1) quality; TQM and
(2) customer satisfaction; and employee
(3) continuous improvement. attitudes
Luthans (1995) summarized TQM as being a participative system that empowers all
employees to take responsibility for improving quality within the organization.
The nature of TQM is reflected in the criteria used in the Malcolm Baldrige National 31
Quality Award (MBNQA). In Malaysia, the same criteria are used for the Industry
Excellence Award (Quality Management Excellence Award – QMEA category) of the
Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and for the Prime Minister’s Quality
Award (PMQA) for the private-sector category (Ministry of International Trade and
Industry, 1998; National Productivity Centre, 1993). These criteria are:
.
policy on quality management;
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.
quality control circle (QCC);
.
training;
.
quality audit;
.
other quality improvement programs;
.
top leadership involvement;
.
management data and information;
.
human resource management;
.
customer satisfaction;
.
handling customers’ complaints to increase productivity;
.
support services and vendor programs; and
.
quality and operational results.

TQM thus focuses not only on the quality of product, but also on the quality of
employees. Indeed, most successful TQM implementations depend heavily on changes
in employees’ attitudes and activities. The employees who are affected most directly
are those who are the agents of change in implementing TQM or other programs for
continuous quality improvement. In theory, TQM processes produce positive effects on
employees by improving their satisfaction and commitment and by enhancing their
organizational effectiveness. Indeed, many organizations that have adopted
quality-management practices have experienced an improvement in attitude,
commitment, and effectiveness among employees. Butler (1996) found that
companies that used TQM practices achieved improvements in employee
satisfaction, attendance, turnover, safety, and health. When fully implemented, TQM
brings benefits to organization in terms of quality, productivity, and employee
development (Lawler et al., 1995) through improved teamwork, creativity, innovation,
training, communication, trust, and decision making.
The present study examines the impact of TQM practices on employees’
work-related attitudes in the Malaysian setting. More specifically, it examines
employees’ job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational
commitment as a result of TQM practices. The study addresses the following research
questions:
 TQM (1) Do TQM practices have an effect on employees’ work-related attitudes?
18,1 (2) If so, what is the exact nature of the effect of TQM practices on employees’
work-related attitudes?

The study thus provides insights into the implementation of the TQM practices from
the human resources perspective. It also provides ideas for improvement in the
32 implementation of TQM practices in Malaysian organizations and for the selection of
the TQM practices that are best suited to these organizations.

TQM practices
This study focuses on TQM in practice (that is, what an organization does to
demonstrate its commitment to TQM) rather than TQM in theory or TQM as
organizational change. In this practical sense, Zeitz et al. (1997) viewed TQM practices
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as being formal, programmatic, and behavioral. Ross (1993) defined them as a set of
practical measures, such as continuous improvement, meeting customers’
requirements, reducing rework, long-range thinking, increased employee
involvement and teamwork, process redesign, competitive benchmarking,
team-based problem-solving, continuous monitoring of results, and closer
relationships with suppliers. Clinton et al. (1994) summarized the practical effect of
TQM principles as being:
.
a focus on customers’ needs;
.
a focus on problem prevention (rather than correction);
.
continuous improvement (seeking to meet customers’ requirements on time, first
time, every time);
.
training employees in ways to improve quality; and
.
applying the team approach to problem solving.

This involves the combined efforts of all members of the organization from senior
management to workers and clerks. TQM thus has a people-oriented approach and
incorporates many aspects of organizational behavior (Luthans, 1995). Effective TQM
environments allow all employees to participate in achieving an organization’s quality
goals. All employees are held accountable for quality and are provided with tools and
training to fulfil their responsibilities. TQM is based on the assumption that the
employees who are closest to the daily operating procedures are in the best position to
understand and improve the quality of those procedures. It aims to create an
environment in which positive relationships exist between managers and employees
and in which people feel motivated to do their best.

Work-related attitudes
Personality traits or dispositions are receiving increased attention as antecedents of
work-related attitudes. Employees with positive affect are more likely to have positive
attitudes to themselves and others, and tend to have an overall sense of well-being,
whereas those with negative affect tend to feel anxious and tense (Luthans, 1995).
Guimareas (1996) identified several indicators for work-related attitudes. These
included task characteristics, job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and
organizational commitment. The same author described job involvement in terms of an
 individual’s “ego involvement” with work – that is, the extent to which the individual TQM and
identifies psychologically with his or her job. Moreover, pleasurable or positive employee
emotional states result from positive appraisals of one’s job or career. In addition, a
sense of organizational commitment induces a sense of attachment or loyalty among attitudes
employees towards the organization (Guimareas, 1996). Similarly, according to Landy
et al. (1993), employee attitude reflects job satisfaction and the individual’s
commitment to the organization. 33
Companies have used several indicators to measure the extent to which their focus
on quality leads to improvement in employees’ satisfaction, attitude, and behavior.
These indicators have included employee satisfaction, attendance, turnover, safety and
health, and number of suggestions made to improve quality and reduce cost (Butler,
1996).
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Impact of TQM
Job involvement
An important aspect of TQM is empowering employees to be more involved in their
jobs and to participate in TQM decision-making activities. TQM requires maximum
participation of employees at all levels, and employees who have a greater variety of
tasks and who deal with a greater variety of people at work feel more involved in their
jobs (Guimareas, 1996; Luthans, 1995; Kanungo, 1982). High levels of “job
involvement” enhance job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational
commitment (Igbaria et al., 1994).
TQM practices are an important aspect of successfully involving employees in
processes that lead to improvement in company performance (Mohrman et al., 1996).
The use of TQM practices can create a culture that encourages employees to work
together across the company, improve personal responsibility, and enhance a sense of
accomplishment in job tasks.

Job satisfaction
The term “job satisfaction” refers to a positive affective reaction by individuals to their
jobs. In a wider sense, “job satisfaction” refers to employees recognizing that they are
contributing to the overall achievement of organizational goals (Guimareas, 1996;
Weiss et al., 1967). Forsyth (1995) has indicated that the important factors that are
conductive to job satisfaction are mentally challenging work, equitable rewards,
supportive working conditions, and helpful colleagues.
Because TQM aims to create an environment that elicits the best from employees, it
can be expected that TQM will lead to increased job satisfaction. Indeed, Bounds (1995)
advocated the empowering of employees with increased authority and responsibility,
thus allowing them to be innovative in implementing their own solutions to problems,
and fostering a heightened recognition of the need for cooperation, communication, and
teamwork.

Career satisfaction
“Career satisfaction” refers to the overall affective reaction of individuals to their
careers (Greenhaus et al., 1990). TQM practices provide a conducive managerial
environment that enhances employee motivation and the successful accomplishment of
goals. They encourage employees to achieve their career goals by utilizing their skills
 TQM and abilities to improve the quality of their work. Satisfied employees are more likely
18,1 to provide high levels of service to their customers (Butler, 1996; Kerr, 1996) and more
likely to remain with an organization, thus reducing staff turnover (Guimareas, 1996).

Organizational commitment
“Organizational commitment” refers to the degree of attachment and loyalty felt by
34 individual employees to the organization (Guimareas, 1996; Luthans, 1995; Mowday
et al., 1979). The successful implementation of TQM increases the likelihood that
employees will be motivated to perform well and remain with the company. Employees
who are highly committed to their organizations contribute more effectively to
company growth and success.
In summary, a review of the literature suggests that TQM practices enhance job
involvement, increase job and career satisfaction, and produce greater organizational
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commitment among employees.

Methodology
As previously noted, the present study investigated the effect of TQM practices on
employees’ work-related attitudes, especially job involvement, job satisfaction, career
satisfaction, and organizational commitment.
The independent variable in the study was TQM practice. For the purposes of the
study, four broad TQM practices were considered:
(1) “customer focus”;
(2) “training and education”;
(3) “empowerment and teamwork”; and
(4) “continuous improvement and problem prevention”.

Eighteen items were used to measure the extent of these TQM practices on a five-point
Likert-type scale. The questionnaire was modified from Powell (1995).
The dependent variable in the study was work-related attitudes. The indicators of
these attitudes were:
.
“job involvement”;
.
“job satisfaction”;
. “career satisfaction”; and
.
“organizational commitment” (Guimareas, 1996).

These variables were measured as follows:

.
“job involvement” consisted of five items measured on a five-point Likert-type
scale ranging from “very high” (5) to “very low” (1) (Kanungo, 1982);
.
“job satisfaction” consisted of ten items measured on a five-point Likert-type
scale ranging from “very satisfied” (5) to “very dissatisfied” (1) (Weiss et al.,
1967);
.
“career satisfaction” consisted of five items measured on a five-point Likert-type
scale ranging from “strongly agree” (5) to “strongly disagree” (1) (Greenhaus
et al., 1990); and
 .
“organizational commitment” consisted of ten items measured on a five-point TQM and
Likert-type scale ranging from “strongly agree” (5) to “strongly disagree” (1) employee
(Mowday et al., 1979).
attitudes
From 100 public and private organizations identified through the Yellow Pages of
Telekom Malaysia, five private-sector companies and five public-sector companies were
randomly selected. Each organization received 20 copies of a questionnaire on the subject 35
under investigation. Of 200 questionnaires, 104 were completed and returned. Permission
was sought from the management of the chosen organizations to distribute the
questionnaires to employees of various levels and functions within their organizations,
and questionnaires were distributed to the respondents through an officer or a coordinator
from either the quality assurance department or the administrative department.
A model was developed to provide a general framework for examining the effect of
TQM practices on work-related attitudes (see Figure 1).
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Based on the theoretical framework, four major hypotheses and sixteen subsidiary
hypotheses were proposed:
H1. That TQM practices have a positive effect on “job involvement”.
H11. That “customer focus” has a positive effect on “job involvement”.
H12. That “training and education” has a positive effect on “job involvement”.
H13. That “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “job
involvement”.
H14. That “continuous improvement and problem prevention” has a positive
effect on “job involvement”.
H2. That TQM practices have a positive effect on “job satisfaction”.
H21. That “customer focus” has a positive effect on “job satisfaction”.
H22. That “training and education” has a positive effect on “job satisfaction”.
H23. That “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “job
satisfaction”.
H24. That “continuous improvement and problem prevention” has a positive
effect on “job satisfaction”.

Figure 1.
Theoretical framework
 TQM H3. That TQM practices have a positive effect on “career satisfaction”.
18,1 H31. That “customer focus” has a positive effect on “career satisfaction”.
H32. That “training and education” has a positive effect on “career satisfaction”.
H33. That “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “career
satisfaction”.
36
H34. That “continuous improvement and problem prevention” has a positive
effect on “career satisfaction”.
H4. That TQM practices have a positive effect on “organizational commitment”.
H41. That “customer focus” has a positive effect on “organizational
commitment”.
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H42. That “training and education” has a positive effect on “organizational

commitment”.
H43. That “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “organizational
commitment”.
H44. That “continuous improvement and problem prevention” has a positive
effect on “organizational commitment”.
For the purpose of analyzing the data, Cronbach’s alpha was used as a reliability
coefficient. Correlational analysis was undertaken to determine the relationship
between dependent and independent variables. Simple regression was used to explain
the variance in each dependent variable. In addition, individual TQM practices were
regressed against “job involvement”, “job satisfaction”, “career satisfaction”, and
“organizational commitment”. The regression equation (as obtained) was used to
confirm the significance of the independent variables.

Results
As previously noted, of 200 questionnaires distributed to the employees, 104
responded, giving a response rate of 52 percent. There were equal numbers of
completed questionnaires received from private-sector and public-sector organizations.
Slightly less than half (43.1 percent) of the respondents indicated that their
organizations had obtained ISO 9000 certification. Slightly more than half (58.8
percent) of the respondents indicated that their organizations had implemented TQM
practices for more than three years, whereas 41.2 percent indicated that their
organizations had been practising TQM for less than three years.
A profile of the respondents is presented in Table I. There were almost equal
numbers of male and female respondents in the sample. The majority of the
respondents (71.8 percent) were married. About two-thirds (66.7 percent) were high
school/diploma holders, and a third (33.3 percent) were degree/postgraduate holders.
The majority (63 percent) were of managerial level. Most of the respondents (66.3
percent) were in administration departments; other departments represented included
production, marketing, and engineering. Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of respondents
had working experience of more than five years with their current organization, and
84.1 percent of respondents had more than five years of total working experience.
 TQM and
Variable Category Frequency Percentage
employee
Gender Male 50 48.5 attitudes
Female 53 51.5

Marital status Single 29 28.2

Married 74 71.8
37
Education High school/diploma 68 66.7
Degree/postgraduate 34 33.3

Job level Non-managerial 34 37.0

Managerial 58 63.0

Job function Administration 61 66.3

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Production 12 13.0
Marketing 4 4.3
Engineering 15 16.3

Age (years) Less than 25 4 4.0

25-29 20 20.2
30-34 16 16.2
35-39 24 24.2
40-45 28 28.3
More than 45 7 7.1

Working experience with current organization Less than 5

(years) 36 35.6
5-9 15 14.9
10-15 11 10.9
More than 15 39 38.6

Total working experience (years) Less than 5 16 15.8

5-9 17 16.8
10-15 19 18.8 Table I.
More than 15 19 48.5 Respondents’ profile

The reliability analysis is summarized in Table II. The Cronbach’s alphas for all
variables (dependent and independent) were above the minimum of 0.5 (indicating that
these measures were reliable). The standard deviations for the independent variables
were quite high, indicating that the dispersion was widely spread (according to a

Variable Cronbach’s alpha Number of items

Customer focus 0.5743 4

Training and education 0.7942 4
Empowerment and teamwork 0.8758 5
Continuous improvement and problem prevention 0.8178 5
Job involvement 0.7837 5
Job satisfaction 0.8741 10
Career satisfaction 0.8991 5 Table II.
Organizational commitment 0.9478 9 Reliability analysis
 TQM normal distribution). The response for the dependent variables was positive. The
18,1 standard deviation was high, indicating that the distribution of dependent variables
was widely spread (see Table III).
The correlation coefficients between the four TQM practices and the four dependent
variables are shown in Table IV. They all achieved statistical significance at p , 0:05.
The results indicate that the four practices were significantly positively correlated with
38 the dependent variables on work-related attitudes. In particular, the following
conclusions can be drawn:
.
with respect to job involvement, “training and education” and “empowerment and
teamwork” had a significant positive effect;
.
with respect to job satisfaction, “training and education”, “empowerment and
teamwork”, and “continuous improvement and problem prevention” all had a
significant positive effect;
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.
with respect to career satisfaction, only “empowerment and teamwork” had a
significant positive effect; and
.
with respect to organizational commitment, “training and education”,
“empowerment and teamwork”, and “continuous improvement and problem
prevention” all had a significant positive effect.

Label Mean SD Minimum Maximum N

Customer focus 3.97 0.73 1.67 5.00 104

Training and education 3.63 0.75 2.00 5.00 104
Empowerment and teamwork 3.34 0.79 1.00 5.00 104
Continuous improvement and problem prevention 3.35 0.79 1.00 5.00 104
Job involvement 4.12 0.60 2.60 5.00 104
Job satisfaction 3.66 0.64 2.00 5.00 104
Table III. Career satisfaction 3.87 0.73 1.40 5.00 104
Data presentation Organizational commitment 3.91 0.80 1.33 5.00 104

Customer Training and Empowerment Continuous improvement

focus education and teamwork and problem prevention

Job involvement 0.2369 0.2616 0.3503 0.2121

p ¼ 0:015 p ¼ 0:007 p ¼ 0:000 p ¼ 0:031
Job satisfaction 0.3126 0.5350 0.2930
p ¼ 0:001 p ¼ 0:000 p ¼ 0:0002
Career satisfaction 0.3799 0.2234
p ¼ 0.000 p ¼ 0:023
Organizational 0.3178 0.4370 0.2954
Table IV. commitment p ¼ 0:000 p ¼ 0:000 p ¼ 0:0002
Pearson correlation
coefficient Notes: df ¼ 97; p , 0:1; r ¼ 0:2540
 In terms of the postulated hypotheses, the following received support: TQM and
H12. That “training and education” has a positive effect on “job involvement”. employee
H13. That “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “job attitudes
involvement”.
H22. That “training and education” has a positive effect on “job satisfaction”.
39
H23. That “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “job
satisfaction”.
H24. That “continuous improvement and problem prevention” has a positive
effect on “job satisfaction”.
H33. That “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “career
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satisfaction”.
H42. That “training and education” has a positive effect on “career satisfaction”.
H43. That “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “organizational
commitment”.
H44. That “continuous improvement and problem prevention” has a positive
effect on “organizational commitment”.
The correlation coefficients between “empowerment and teamwork” and all four
dependent variables were quite large and all had a high level of statistical significance
at p ¼ 0:0000. Thus, “empowerment and teamwork” was the most significant TMQ
practice for all dependent variables. To gain further insights into the relationship
between the four practices and the various dependent variables, multiple regressions
were conducted.
With respect to job involvement, the correlation of “training and education” and
“empowerment and teamwork” with “job involvement” was 0.352. The F statistic
(F ¼ 7:12) was significant at the 0.0013 level. The coefficient of determination, r 2, was
12.4 percent. This indicated that the two practices (“training and education” and
“empowerment and teamwork”) explained most of the variance in “job involvement”.
Thus H12 (that “training and education” has a positive effect on “job involvement”)
and H13 (that “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “job
involvement”) were verified. The greater the extent of these practices, the greater the
“job involvement”. The most important practice in explaining variance with respect to
“job involvement” was “empowerment and teamwork”, with the highest value in beta
(0.322), significant at the 0.0013 level. The positive beta weight indicates that
enhancing “empowerment and teamwork” will be of assistance if the organization
wishes to enhance “job involvement”.
With respect to job satisfaction, the correlation of “training and education”,
“empowerment and teamwork”, and “continuous improvement and problem
prevention” with job satisfaction was 0.557. The F statistic (F ¼ 14:97) was
significant at p ¼ 0:000. This indicated that the three practices (“training and
education”, “empowerment and teamwork”, and “continuous improvement and
problem prevention”) explained most of the variance in “job satisfaction”. H22 (that
“training and education” has a positive effect on “job satisfaction”), H23 (that
 TQM “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “job satisfaction”) and H24
18,1 (that “continuous improvement and problem prevention” has a positive effect on “job
satisfaction”) were therefore verified. The greater the extent of these three practices,
the greater the “job satisfaction”. The most important practice in explaining the
variance in “job satisfaction” was “empowerment and teamwork”, with the highest
beta (0.706), significant at the p ¼ 0:000 level. It is concluded that increasing
40 “empowerment and teamwork” will enhance “job satisfaction”.
With respect to career satisfaction, the correlation of “empowerment and teamwork”
with “career satisfaction” was 0.38. The F statistic (F ¼ 17:20) was significant at the
level of 0.0001. The coefficient of determination, r 2, was 14.4 percent, indicating that
“empowerment and teamwork” explained most of the variance in “career satisfaction”.
H33 (that “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect on “career satisfaction”)
was thus verified. The practice of “empowerment and teamwork” is therefore
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significant in enhancing “career satisfaction”.

With respect to organizational commitment, the correlation of “training and
education”, “empowerment and teamwork”, and “continuous improvement and
problem prevention” with “organizational commitment” was 0.44. The F statistic
(F ¼ 8:01) was significant at the p ¼ 0:001 level. The coefficient of determination, r 2,
was 19.4 percent, indicating that the three practices explained most of the variance in
“organizational commitment”. H42 (that “training and education” has a positive effect
on “career satisfaction”), H43 (that “empowerment and teamwork” has a positive effect
on “organizational commitment”), and H44 (that “continuous improvement and
problem prevention” has a positive effect on “organizational commitment”) were
verified. The three practices contribute to “organizational commitment”. The most
important practice in explaining the variance in “organizational commitment” was
“empowerment and teamwork”, which had the highest beta (0.45), and was significant
at the p ¼ 0:0021 level. Thus “empowerment and teamwork” enhance employees’
commitment.
In summary:
.
“training and education” had a significant positive effect on “job involvement”,
“job satisfaction”, and “organizational commitment”;
.
“empowerment and teamwork” had a significant positive effect on “job
involvement”, “job satisfaction”, “career satisfaction”, and “organizational
commitment”;
.
“continuous improvement and problem prevention” had a significant positive
effect on “job satisfaction and organizational commitment”; and
.
“customer focus” did not contribute to “job involvement”, “job satisfaction”,
“career satisfaction”, or “organizational commitment”.

Discussion
On the basis of the correlation analysis, “training and education”, “empowerment and
teamwork”, and “continuous improvement and prevention” have a significant positive
correlation with “job involvement”, “job satisfaction”, “career satisfaction”, and
“organizational commitment”. These aspects of “job-related” attitudes are thus
enhanced as TQM practices increase. It is recommended that human resources
 departments should review and enhance the motivation, training, and retention of good TQM and
employees, and that unions and employees should support the concept of TQM. employee
“Empowerment and teamwork” is the most important TQM practice in enhancing
employees’ “job satisfaction”, “organizational commitment”, “career satisfaction”, and attitudes
“job involvement”. The greater the extent of “empowerment and teamwork”, the
greater the enhancement of these job-related attitudes. In this respect, the present study
supports the findings of Wilkinson (1998) and Osland (1997). To the extent that 41
“teamwork” also involves senior management, it is important that senior management
be highly committed to, and engaged in, TQM practices. In addition, managers must
train employees with respect to “empowerment and teamwork”. Employees should feel
free to control and manage their own work areas. They should have influence over
decisions and have greater opportunity to show initiative in providing quality products
and/or services to their customers.
“Training and education” has a positive effect on “organizational commitment”,
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“job satisfaction”, and “job involvement”. Continuous training and education are
essential in for continuous improvement in employees’ skills. The greater the extent of
ongoing training and education in an organization, the greater the employees’
“organizational commitment”, “job satisfaction”, and “job involvement”. Training
departments must therefore provide continuous training and education in ensuring
ongoing improvement in these aspects of job-related attitudes.
“Continuous improvement and problem prevention”, which is an essential aspect of
TQM, is shown to have a positive effect on “job satisfaction” and “organizational
commitment”. In contrast, the lack of a significant relationship between this essential
aspect of TQM and “job involvement” and “career satisfaction” suggests that
management might not have demonstrated its commitment to these practices. An
important recommendation of the study is that senior management should pay more
attention to TQM practices – specifically continuous improvement and problem
prevention – and consistently examine how problems can be prevented and corrected.
“Customer focus” does not contribute to employees’ work-related attitudes. This
suggests that management has failed to communicate its commitment to this
important practice. This might be due to the lack of an established support relationship
between employees and customers. An important recommendation emerging from this
study is that organizations should pay more attention to customer feedback and
complaints as a priority.

Conclusion
TQM practices were positively correlated with employees’ work-related attitudes, such
as job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational
commitment. TQM practices encourage employees’ participation, promote
empowerment, recognize that employees play an important role in achieving the
organizations’ objectives, and treat employees as primary resources. The present study
confirms that this results in enhanced job-related attitudes.
In summary, the present study demonstrates that TQM practices enhance job
involvement, improve the level of job and career satisfaction, and encourage greater
organizational commitment. The effect of TQM practices in these respects is of the
utmost importance. Organizations should be committed to TQM practices and their
successful implementation.
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Corresponding author
Noorliza Karia is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: noorliza@usm.my
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