A study on the causal relationships in the Korean National Quality Award model

Abstract

This research on the Korean National Quality Award (NQA) (KNQA) aims to analyse the causal relationships among seven categories in the KNQA model. The seven categories in the KNQA model were divided into five components: (1) driver (Leadership), (2) direction (Strategic Planning), (3) foundation (Information & Analysis), (4) system (Customer & Market Focus, Human Resource Focus, Process Management), and (5) results (Business Results). In order to derive more specific relationships between the results component (5) and the other components [(1)–(4)], ‘Business Results’ is subdivided into four major performance criteria in this study, such as (1) Human Resource Results, (2) Product and Service Results, (3) Customer-Focused Results, and (4) Financial and Market Results. Empirical findings of this study suggest that driver (Leadership) plays a critical role in generating positive effects on results through its direct and indirect effects on direction and foundation. Within system categories, two categories, Human Resource Focus and Customer & Market Focus have positive effects on Process Management and all system categories have positive effects on results. Within results categories, Human Resource Results has positive effects on Product & Service Outcomes, Product & Service Outcomes has positive effects on Customer-Focused Results, and Customer-Focused Results has positive effects on Financial and Market Results.

Keywords:

• Korean National Quality Award
• quality management
• National Quality Award
• Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Dongseo University, ‘Dongseo Frontier Project Research Fund of 2009’.