Lean production and quality commitment. A comparative study of two Korean auto firms
| Published date | 21 December 2007 |
| Date | 21 December 2007 |
| Pages | 5-25 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480810839941 |
| Author | Jiman Lee,Riccardo Peccei |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Lean production and quality
commitment
A comparative study of two Korean auto firms
Jiman Lee
Yonsei Business School, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, and
Riccardo Peccei
Department of Management, King’s College London, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine antecedents of employee quality commitment at
two Korean auto firms.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 644 employees at two auto plants; 331
at the high lean plant and 313 at the low lean plant. Hierarchical regression analyses were employed.
Findings – This research showed that intrinsic rewards factors were significant determinants of
quality commitment in the high lean plant sample, whereas those relating to extrinsic rewards were
major antecedents in the low lean plant sample. The study finds that the tested antecedents to quality
commitment differ in relative importance at different stages of lean production implementation.
Research limitations/implications – Sincedata were collected from 644 employees at two Korean
firms, the results may need to be modified before being generalized for other national contexts.
Practical implications – The results suggest that the relative importance of the antecedent
variables of employee quality commitment changes as lean implementation progresses, shifting in the
general direction of rewards intrinsic to the job itself. Managers sensitive to the dynamic nature of the
antecedents to employee quality commitment will be the most effective in fostering it.
Originality/value – This paper examines antecedents of employee quality commitment at two
Korean auto plants, and offers practical implications for managers starting for the effective fostering
of employee quality commitment in terms of different stages of lean production implementation.
Keywords Quality, Lean production, Job satisfaction,Loyalty schemes, Automotive industry,Korea
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Product quality is considered the key indicator in the automobile industry of a superior
production system (Womack et al., 1990). Although the traditional Taylorist
perspective holds that product quality is mainly determined by engineer specialists
in charge of planning, in so-called “best practice” firms, workers in charge of executing
on the shop floor are actually the ones most responsible for quality improvement.
Many authors maintain that production workers on the shopfloor are likely to be more
knowledgeable than planning managers about product quality (Koike and Inoki, 1990;
Ohno, 1988). Differing capabilities and attitudes towards quality improvement on the
part of workers seem to produce a quality gap between products “made in Germany”
and products of identical design “made in Brazil.” Thus, to secure a competitive
advantage on the shop floor, management needs to invest in workers’ skills so that
they can and do perform high-quality work. Many studies (Lazonick, 1990) propose
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Lean production
and quality
commitment
5
Received 22 February 2006
Revised 9 September 2006
Accepted 22 October 2006
Personnel Review
Vol. 37 No. 1, 2008
pp. 5-25
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/00483480810839941
that the quality of work performed on the shop floor is as important to corporate
competitive advantage as cost efficiency.
Despite the obvious importance of the shop floor worker to product quality, few
empirical studies have systematically examined the sources of workers’ attitudes
towards quality (i.e. quality commitment) at automobile firms. There do exist a small
number of studies that focus on quality consciousness (Wood and Peccei, 1995) and
quality commitment (Coyle-Shapiro, 1996) among workers in the field of total quality
management (TQM). For instance, Wood and Peccei (1995) have developed a
theoretical framework for understanding the mechanisms through which the elements
of TQM might affect quality consciousness at a food-processing factory in the North of
England. Their work notwithstanding, there is a general scarcity of research in this
area, and the mechanisms by which quality commitment has been instilled in workers
at automobile firms remain unclear. Little is known about how employees come to be
committed to product quality, or about what managers can do to foster quality
commitment. The present study addresses this gap in our knowledge, empirically
analyzing the sources of quality commitment at two Korean auto firms, and providing
managers with insights on fostering quality commitment in their workforce.
Indeed, this study goes a step further, evaluating the relative importance of each
predictor variable for automobile production plants at two different stages of lean
production implementation – referred to here as a “high lean” and a “low lean” plant.
For it is possible that plants at different stages of lean production implementation need
to rely on different methods of fostering quality commitment among employees. For
example, it may be that quality commitment at a high lean plant is main ly associated
with intrinsic reward factors related to job characteristics, while at a low lean plant,
quality commitment is associated with extrinsic reward factors. To test this possibility,
the study conducts a comparative analysis of the antecedents of quality commitment at
the two auto firms.
This type of exploratory research, with its comparative evaluation of quality
commitment’s predictor factors, may be important from a management policy
perspective, in that it may identify the management strategies most suitable for a
certain stage of lean production implementation. In performing this study, we seek to
provide insights into how organizations can create an environment that nurtures
employee quality commitment.
2. Research contexts: high lean and low lean plants
This study selected two Korean auto firms, referred to here as Firm A and Firm B, as
research contexts. At the time of the fieldwork, both firms had implemented new
management practices, commonly known as lean production systems, in an effort to
increase organizational efficiency and to strengthen international competitiveness. The
new management practices included autonomous team organization, training and
education programs, information-sharing channels, and fair-rewards schemes.
However, the two firms were at very different stages of implementation.
Firm A had introduced these practices in a piecemeal way over the past 20 years or
more. For example, the firm re-organized the entire shop floor workforce by creating
Japanese-style work teams. After the institution of team organization, Firm A moved to
implement other practices, such as training and education programs and
information-sharing schemes. Such practicesasteamorganization,training
PR
37,1
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