Quality motivation in China: Humanistic and technological

In this paper the quality motivation (Harris & Chaney (1969) Human Factors in Quality Assurance (New York, John Wiley); Kanji et al. (1995) Total Quality Management, 6, pp. 427-434) of a sample of mainland Chinese front-line workers is empirically investigated and analysed. Research results indicate that factual, visible work improvements and personal career development are considered as the most motivating factors of practising total quality management (TQM) in the workplace. Pooled together with the data collected by Lo and Cheng ((1997) Training for Quality, 5, pp. 112-115) on the quality motivation pattern of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region workers, factor analysis reveals that mainland and Hong Kong workers partition quality motivation into two dimensions, namely, humanistic and technological. Comparison of factor scores indicates that both groups are more motivated by the technological improvement of practising TQM. Implications for future research directions and TQM implementation strategy are drawn.