HRM and TQM: association with job involvement
| Published date | 25 September 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480710822445 |
| Date | 25 September 2007 |
| Pages | 939-962 |
| Author | Ooi Keng Boon,Veeri Arumugam,Mohammad Samaun Safa,Nooh Abu Bakar |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
HRM and TQM: association with
job involvement
Ooi Keng Boon
Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Selangor, Malaysia
Veeri Arumugam
School of Management, University of Science Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Mohammad Samaun Safa
Research Centre and School of Business, Binary University College, Selangor,
Malaysia, and
Nooh Abu Bakar
Business & Advanced Technology Centre, University of Technology Malaysia,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of individual employees on the
influence of eight elements of HRM/TQM (i.e. leadership, training and development, employee
participation, reward and recognition, customer focus, empowerment, teamwork, and communication)
on employees’ job involvement in six major Malaysian semiconductor contract manufacturing
organizations. Despite extensive research and voluminous literature on HRM/TQM, very little
empirical research has examined this scope of investigative study. Therefore, the hypotheses are
developed with the intention of examining this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach – Original researches using self-completed questionnaires,
distributed to employees within these organizations, are thoroughly reported. The study sample
consisted of 377 employees, resulting in a response rate of 75.4 percent. A questionnaire developed by
Kanungo was used for ascertaining the level of overall job involvement. Data were analyzed by
employing correlation and multiple regression analysis.
Findings – The results of this study revealed that teamwork, empowerment, customer focus, reward
and recognition and communication are positively associated with employees’ job involvement. Where
empowerment was found to be a dominant practice, strong associations with employees’ job
involvement existed.
Originality/value – This study contributes in advancing the HRM/TQM research literature to a
better understanding of the association between HRM/TQM and employees’ job involvement within
the context of the Malaysian semiconductor sector.
Keywords Total quality management, Human resource management, Semiconductors,
Employee involvement,Manufacturing industries,Malaysia
Paper type Case study
Introduction
Total quality management (TQM) and human resource management (HRM) have been
an important theme in management and business research for the past few decades due
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewer, as well as Professor Tom Redman, for
insightful and constructive criticisms of an earlier version of this manuscript.
HRM and TQM:
association with
job involvement
939
Received October 2005
Revised August 2006
Accepted October 2006
Personnel Review
Vol. 36 No. 6, 2007
pp. 939-962
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/00483480710822445
to its potential to affecta range of organizationally and individuallydesired outcomes. In
today’s manufacturing environment, HRM/TQM is used as a powerful tool to quantify
the way a business functions. A number of commentators suggesting that only the
integration ofHRM and TQM managed organization willbe able to survive in the future
(Redman and Mathews,1998). There is a growing interest in theoryand in practice with
regard to the relationship between HRM and TQM, as well as the relationship between
HRM/TQM and organizational performance (Boselie and van der Wiele, 2002). Prior
empirical research(e.g. Boselie and van der Wiele, 2002; Boselie et al., 2001; Guest, 1997)
suggests significant effect of HRM/TQM on the performances of an organization. The
majority of researches on HRM/TQM focus on the effects of HRM/TQM at the
organizational level (e.g. Choi and Eboch, 1998; Arthur, 1994).
Despite the considerable body of HRM/TQM literatures that have evolved to
examine the relationship between HRM/TQM and organizational performances in
various countries as well as industries (for example, Boselie and van der Wiele,
2002; Anderson and Sohal, 1999; Terziovski and Samson, 1999; Bjorkman and
Xiucheng, 2002), there is very little empirical literature that recognizes HRM/TQM
studies within the context of the Malaysian semiconductor contract manufacturing
industry, particularly on how job involvement amongst employees were affected
by HRM/TQM practices. Since the Malaysian semiconductor manufacturing
industry is the spotlight of the Malaysian manufacturing industries and is
considered to be one of the major contributors to the Malaysian economy, with
about 30 percent of Malaysia’s current manufacturing output and 25 percent
exports (Economic Research, 2005), and thus, HRM/TQM is strategically and
tactically important for gaining a competitive advantage (Yang et al., 2003).
Moreover, the semiconductor contract manufacturing industry is unique because
the products are built strictly compliant to customers’ specifications and quality
requirements. It differs from other industries in terms of their organizational
structures, responses to the environment, managerial styles and the ways in which
they compete against other firms. The importance of the HRM/TQM culture is
enhanced through its impact on employee morale and job involvement.
Consequently, job involvement is likely to be influenced by aspects of
HRM/TQM and it is important because of well-established association with a
range of organizational outcomes. In order to bridge the gap and provide
organizations with practical assistance in dealing with HRM/TQM’s effects on
employees’ job involvement, this research uses six major organizations within the
Malaysian semiconductor contract manufacturing industry to examine whether the
application of HRM/TQM practices result in an improvement of employees’
working conditions that will inevitably contribute towards their job involvement.
In view of the absence of research on the relationship between HRM/TQM and job
involvement, this paper reports the results of a survey that was designed to address a
general research question: “What are the employee perceptions of the impact of
HRM/TQM practices on employees’ job involvement?” This study is also important in
exploring the degree of impact, in which the influence of HRM/TQM practices poses to
benefit the organization’s employees, and thus measuring its impact on job
involvement, apart from identifying problem areas and respectively, their possible
remedies and prominent improvements.
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