The effects of quality management practices on employees' well-being

Abstract

Recently, there has been an explosion of published work in quality management (QM) journals on issues associated with QM practices. However, many of these works have focused on different relationships between QM practices and business performance and have not addressed the effects of QM practices on employees. This research was aimed at exploring the relationship between the application of QM practices and employees' well-being. We proposed that QM practices alter workplace characteristics, affect employees, and improve work-related attitudes and work life outcomes. We tested our hypotheses with a questionnaire using a sample of 344 participants from 27 business organisations. Regarding validity, all questions in the questionnaire were constructed after a thorough literature review. Subsequently, before the questionnaire was mailed to participants, scholars and Taiwanese human resources experts discussed and evaluated the questions. We conducted a hierarchical regression analysis with indicators of employees' well-being as the dependent variables. Our findings supported the hypothesised model, which suggested that QM practices not only increase employees' belongingness and job satisfaction, but also decrease their work overload and work stress. The implications for managers and researchers, as well as research limitations, are also discussed.

Keywords:

• quality management practices
• employees' well-being