Integrating ISO 9000 with TQM spirits: a survey
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635579810243889 |
| Pages | 373-379 |
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| Author | Fenghueih Huarng |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
[ 373 ]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
98/8 [1998] 373–379
© MCB University Press
[ISSN 0263-5577]
Integrating ISO 9000 with TQM spirits: a survey
Fenghueih Huarng
National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan
Drawing on the results from a
questionnaire survey con-
ducted in Taiwan, this paper
discusses the experiences of
small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) in ISO
9000 certification. The
empirical results indicate that
the pursuit of ISO helps
Taiwanese SMEs gain benefits
in internationalization, quality
improvement, sales enhance-
ment, and cost reduction. The
effects of motivation and
implementing the process on
benefits from ISO are statisti-
cally significant. Implement-
ing ISO with either passive or
active motivations leads to
more internationalization.
Active motivation and docu-
mentation through auditing
lead to quality improvement
with the passage of time.
Consulting private consul-
tants in implementing ISO
decreases quality improve-
ment. Employees’ active
participation in implementing
ISO leads to sales increases
and cost reduction. A consen-
sus regarding how to imple-
ment ISO leads to cost reduc-
tion. These empirical results
show that implementing ISO
with the TQM spirit of contin-
uous improvement and com-
pany-wide employees partici-
pation could result in signifi-
cant benefits for small and
medium-sized enterprises.
Valuable assistance was
provided by Mr Chung-Jay
Jeng and he is gratefully
acknowledged.
Introduction
Drawing on the results from a questionnaire
survey conducted in Taiwan, this paper dis-
cusses the experiences of small and medium-
sized enterprises (SMEs) in ISO 9000 certifica-
tion. Since the 1960s, Taiwan has adopted an
export-oriented economic policy to accelerate
economic development. Since many, if not
most, foreign buyers require their suppliers
to obtain ISO 9000 certification, export-ori-
ented SMEs need to pursue ISO 9000 certifica-
tion to get the orders from the buyers. Some
other SMEs are aware of ISO 9000 because
they are suppliers to large companies. Expen-
sive to obtain, ISO 9000 certification should
not be just a certificate but also a tool to
enhance SMEs’ competitiveness. This study
explores issues ranging from motivation,
implementing the process, benefits from
implementing ISO, and various relationships
among them.
The first set of independent variables in
this study is motivation. Aside from citing
the motivation literature found in the field of
organizational behavior, our interest in
including motivation in our model reflects
our belief that a significant portion of organi-
zational outcomes can be predicted by partici-
pants’ disposition (Sitkin et al., 1994). Put in
the context of implementing ISO 9000, this
translates into the ability to predict the per-
formance of ISO 9000 before any step is taken
to implement it. While motivation refers to
participants’ state of mind before the imple-
mentation of ISO 9000, the whole group of
process variables depicts how they imple-
ment it. Based on the literature review
(Elmuti, 1996; Kanji, 1998; Seisler, 1998;
Webster, 1997; Zuckerman, 1998) we include
some process variables in this study. They
are: communication/integration, paperwork,
participation, top management support and
involvement, education and training, man-
agement information system, internal audit,
preparation, execution team, and organiza-
tional culture.
Our performance variables include four
subsets: quality, cost, sales, and internation-
alization. Since ISO itself requires various
documents to assure quality, the consequent
benefits include more quality awareness
(Wiele and Brown, 1997), a system of better
documentation with data (Huarng and Lin,
1996), and operations standardization (Skra-
bel et al, 1997). While better quality aware-
ness and systematization can be viewed as
the immediate benefits of implementing ISO,
the effects on product quality and sales com-
petitiveness might be more obvious after
achieving the certification (Huarng and Lin,
1996). Since Taiwan has an export-oriented
economy, ISO may bring not only the certifi-
cate itself but also international competitive-
ness. Our four subsets of performance vari-
ables are therefore included to verify the
long-term benefits of ISO. The effect of the
length of time passed after obtaining the
certificate on performance will be examined
in this study as well.
Research method
In order to explore the effects of motivations
and processes on performance in the Tai-
wanese context, a survey questionnaire was
mailed to 1,004 companies listed in the direc-
tory of the Bureau of Commodity Inspection
and Quarantine (BCIQ) in Taiwan. A conve-
nient, non-random sample is chosen because
it is more feasible to contact the certified
companies of BCIQ than to survey all the
firms in Taiwan.
The questionnaire was designed and pre-
tested by two business school professors and
three managers from ISO certified compa-
nies. The managers who were responsible for
implementing ISO 9000 were asked to rate the
degree of benefits from certification, the
degree of their motivation, and the degree of
agreement on the characteristics of the certi-
fication implementation processes in their
companies.
Of the 1,004 mailed questionnaires, 376 were
returned by respondents, resulting in a
response rate of 37.45 per cent. Six of the 376
returned questionnaires were incomplete. Of
the 370 completed questionnaires, 59 ques-
tionnaires are filled by SMEs. This paper
adopts the definition of SMEs by the Ministry
of Economic Affairs in Taiwan. It classifies
an enterprise as small and medium if its total
To continue reading
Request your trial