Review Of: The Effects of Quality Management Practices on Employees’ Well-Being
Autor: astrick • July 31, 2016 • Article Review • 809 Words (4 Pages) • 1,110 Views
A Review
The Effects of Quality Management Practices on Employees’ Well-Being
Introduction
In the Quality Management course, we’ve discussed how implementing quality management processes can improve competitive advantage, customer satisfaction, and have an overall positive impact on business performance. Whether it’s ISO 9000, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management or another quality program, the foundation of continuous improvement is the same. But can quality management also improve the overall well-being of employees?
In 2014, Nien-Chi Liu and Wen-Chung Liu of Taiwan went looking for an answer. They proposed “that QM practices alter workplace characteristics, affect employees, and improve work-related attitude and work life outcomes” (Liu & Liu, 2014). They wanted to measure the impact of QM implementation in four areas; belongingness, job satisfaction, work overload, and work stress. “The research is particularly important because employees’ well-being is an important factor that affects both work motivation and job performance (Liu & Liu, 2014).
This topic is especially interesting after spending four years at an organization with no quality management processes in place and personally experiencing high levels of work overload, work stress and a lack of belongingness. It was a difficult environment to function in especially while always trying to do my best work. The research by Liu and Liu poses a great question; would my experience have been different with the implementation of quality management processes?
Key Points
“The objective of this study was to investigate the empirical associations among QM practices and employee well-being indicators” (Liu & Liu, 2014). In Table 1, the well-being indicators are presented as defined by Liu and Liu.
Table 1 – Definitions of Well-being Indicators
Belongingness | The Need to be and the perception of being involved with others which contributes to one’s sense of connectedness |
Job Satisfaction | Positive affective reaction of individuals to their jobs |
Work Overload | When an employee has too much to do in the time allotted or feels required to work too long and too hard |
Work Stress | An employee’s ability to cope with work and social situations |
For their research, Liu and Liu proposed four hypotheses to evaluate employees’ well-being defined as “a person’s evaluation of his or her life” (Liu & Liu, 2014).
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