%0 Journal Article
%T The Effects of Total Quality Management Practices on Performance and the Reasons of and the Barriers to TQM Practices in Turkey
%A Esin Sadikoglu
%A Hilal Olcay
%J Advances in Decision Sciences
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/537605
%X Previous studies reported mixed and ambiguous results of the relationship between TQM practices and performances. This study investigated impacts of TQM practices on various performance measures as well as the reasons and the barriers of the TQM practices of firms in Turkey. We used a cross-sectional survey methodology in this study, and the unit of the sample was at the plant level. The sample was selected from the member firms to Turkish Quality Association and the firms located in the Kocaeli-Gebze Organized Industrial Zone. We obtained 242 usable questionnaires, with a satisfactory response rate of 48.4 percent. We conducted exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. This study has shown that different TQM practices significantly affect different performance outcomes. Results revealed that primary obstacles that the firms in Turkey face were lack of employee involvement, awareness and commitment of the employees, inappropriate firm structure, and lack of the resources. It is recommended that firms should continue implement TQM with all variables to improve performance. Firms should improve employees¡¯ involvement/commitment/awareness to TQM, enhance firm structure, and provide resources to overcome the barriers that prevent effective implementation of TQM practices. 1. Introduction Total quality management (TQM) is a firm-wide management philosophy of continuously improving the quality of the products/services/processes by focusing on the customers¡¯ needs and expectations to enhance customer satisfaction and firm performance. There are mixed results about the relationship between total quality management practices and performance [1¨C3]. Table 1 presents a summary of relationships between TQM practices and performance. Although most of the results of the previous studies were positive, some of the results were negative or nonsignificant [2, 3]. The reasons of the mixed results can be as follows. The previous studies used different methods, different TQM variables, and different performance measures in their research models. They were performed in different contexts such as different countries and different industries. The barriers to TQM practices might have caused to the mixed results in different studies. Table 1: A summary of the hypotheses and the related literature showing positive relationships between TQM practices and performance. Research with appropriate analytical methodologies and measuring tools can significantly contribute to investigating work on TQM which analyzed reasons of the relationship between TQM practices and
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