A Theoretical Model of the Relationship Between Organizational Culture and Quality Management Techniques

Quality Management (QM) is adopted by companies as part of their strategy to improve performance. Although there is evidence of the positive relationship between QM and firms' performance, the cases of unsuccessful and non-sustained quality initiatives are significant. Among factors listed as key factor of these results, Organizational Culture (OC) is often cited. This study aims to present a theoretical model of the relationship between organizational culture and quality management techniques. Based on literature review, hypotheses were developed identifying which QM techniques would be more suitable according to organizational cultures' profile. To investigate the proposed theoretical model and hypotheses it was developed a questionnaire which was tested for reliability. In doing so, this study also provides an instrument to collect data to study this relationship. Future empirical studies will be performed to provide more evidence about the relationship between OC and QM techniques and also to investigate the impact of this relationship on firms performance. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.