The Impact of Leadership Practices on Total Quality Management and Organizational Performance in the UAE Interior Ministry

Introduction

Many organizations around the world are implementing TQM, however, success varies depending on the approach used to accomplish the desired improvement. Leadership has been identified as one of the critical determinants in the success of TQM within organizations and it sets the culture necessary for TQM to flourish (Levin, 1993). The increasing interest in Total Quality Management (TQM) can be traced to a greater awareness of the role of management theories, practices, and organizational development on business results. TQM is usually considered as a tool to accomplish quality in the infrastructure (Zakuan, Yusof, Laosirihongthong and Shararoun, 2010), in achieving customer satisfaction (Buch and Rivers, 2001), improved results (Todorut, 2012), and continuous product and process improvement (Todorut, 2013).

Management theories such as TQM, and Human Resource Management all support leadership as expressed in management’s commitment as a success factor to TQM efforts (Hellsten & Klefsjö, 2000). Buch and Rivers (2001) found that employees perceive leadership to be committed to TQM when TQM values are integrated into departmental or organizational cultures. Quality leadership seeks to continuously empower workers, improve the hierarchical culture and elevate collaboration to reach organizational objectives and goals (Prabhakar & Yaseen, 2016). Yet, the extent to which the leadership role and practices impact TQM and affect organizational practices and performances respectively remains under-researched. (Baird, Jia & Reeve, 2011).

Overview of Conceptual Framework

Figure 1: Proposed Conceptual Framework

Problem Statement

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a nation that is progressing fundamentally in financial and advancement part, however unfit to interpret comparative rate of improvement to different regions. While these are early indications of advancement, measures have been taken to slowly enhance this by drawing on outside aptitude. In spite of this, holes remain which has educated the requirement for this exploration into assessing the connection between leadership and quality administration in the UAE. Quality administration is essential to any association, since various administration standards might be embraced and utilized by top administration to manage them and their associations to enhance their execution (de Menezes, 2012). As indicated by Choong (2013), the essential concentration of value administration is to meet the prerequisites of client and to surpass the desires of clients. Hoyle (2017) contend that pioneers at all levels need to make empowering conditions, heading and solidarity of reason that will empower the association give quality to the client. In doing this distinctive quality administration strategies and procedures might be received by pioneers to enhance quality. Consequently, this examination means to assess the connection between quality administration and initiative, and the quality administration strategies pertinent to enhancing administrations in the UAE public.

From the hypothetical viewpoint, there has not been a satisfactory examination of the issue of QM practices in public sector. As indicated by Laohavichien et al. (2011), existing administration hypothesis has not been used in the territory of QM. They express that, "A significant part of the current QM look into, notwithstanding, has not utilized any builds from initiative hypothesis to assess the significance of administration in quality administration. These researchers affirm that further research is important to consolidate both value-based and transformational administration into QM models. Likewise, Lakshman (2006) states that, "the part of leadership in overseeing quality is generally unaddressed in the initiative writing; inquire about on quality administration as a genuine part of the pioneers has not gotten much consideration. The creator stresses that his hypothetical system opens the way to additionally look into in the administration practices by analyzing the conduct of both particular and general behavioral measurements related with add up to quality administration reasoning which have not been tended to in the conventional behavioral worldview of initiative research. A comparative proposal is offered by Berson and Linton (2005), who feature the requirement for future research in looking at the connection between leadership styles and quality administration practices. States that a portion of the current research has brought up issues about the measure of impact directors have over quality change, and the confirmation demonstrating which administration activities are viable for quality change isn't solid. Sousa and Voss (2002) additionally recommend that further research ought to be directed to analyze the connection amongst QM and initiative styles. In this manner, situated in the holes distinguished, the scientist is occupied with exploring the impact of administration styles particularly identified with transformational, value-based, and free enterprise initiative on QM rehearses in broad daylight area associations in UAE.

Literature Review

TQM Practice: UAE Context

TQM is relatively new in the Middle East due to globalization (Cheng, Johansen & Hu, 2015). UAE has witnessed drastic changes in the business sector in the last three decades (Escribano, 2017). Business management in UAE is relatively different from western countries. In Islam, business values and cultural values are interwoven (de Waal & Frijnis, 2016). The current recognition for Dubai reflects the commitment of the emirates towards quality and also highlights the significant role played by the UAE in propagating TQM principles in the region. This stimulates Dubai public sectors like ministries to move away from its reactive, low-cost based strategy that relies on cheaper labor toward developing a new competitive edge based on quality.

The DQA cultivates and directs the brilliance of associations to win a quality honor, as well as to reinforce their quality activity through a useful appraisal report (Lasrado, 2016). The DQA display was seen by all associations as a way to deal with quality change and commit to quality management. In return, winning associations have displayed interesting projects created to grasp the DQA factors (de Waal & Frijin, 2016). Despite the tremendous growth potential, there is still lack of well-defined model that shows how leadership practices, OP and TQM are collectively considered as strong drivers of performance in UAE.

One empirical consideration of TQM in UAE context referred to the application of TQM to translation of Arabic and the adoption of TQM in non-profit organizations in the UAE. In this sense and generally in the UAE context, TQM is viewed based on three key principles, namely: a focus on customers and stakeholders; participation and teamwork by everyone in the organization; and a focus on process supported by continuous improvement and learning (Alhashmi, 2016). In light of this, Alhashmi (2016) affirmed that all employees are encouraged and expected to adopt the mindset that recognises that good service, goods, quality products are all essential for the survival and long-term survival of the organization.

Leadership Practices and TQM

Quality means different things to different people. Whatever the perception of quality is, it usually includes service excellence, value to customer, meeting top specifications and standards and customer satisfaction (Kudtarkar, 2014). TQM by definition implies systematic actions that are company-wide and implemented according to certain sets of procedures in a team spirit. None of these steps is possible without the full buy-in of top management. To implement TQM, leaders are needed to drive the entire organization to rethink and rework systems, processes, culture, communication and customer care so that the organization can be more competitive, achieve financial goals and increase and customer satisfaction. All of these mean that leadership is crucial to achieving TQM (Kudtarkar, 2014).

Ebrahimi and Rad (2017) also state that leadership and TQM are intertwined because both depend upon a solid responsibility from the administration and an attention to human resource development. The TQM approach focuses on ensuring that the organization is doing its best work. This means that the leadership practices must include the use of explicit criteria for measuring the quality of work along with procedures for spot-checking that goods and services live up to these expectations. Literature also suggests that some basic criteria can be used to determine whether an organization has selected the right leadership practices (Khan, 2009). These criteria are; capability for better organizational performance; improved performance in meeting customer desires; and superior knowledge and work gratification for the organization’s staff. Leadership though similar to management means more; it includes developing and maintaining a vision that responds to customer requirements. A visionary leader will exhibit a clear vision, with long-range orientation, coaching the employees, using participative change and employee empowerment towards desired organizational change (Anderson, Rungtusanatham & Schroeder, 1994). TQM theory holds that leadership is a significant role in the successful implementation of TQM practices. Ulle and Kumar, (2011) identified certain leadership practices like commitment to TQM, empowerment of employees, communication to ensure full understanding of the organization’s goals as important ingredients in TQM. Leadership is also important in building strategic partnerships with suppliers and responding to consumer’s demands (Ulle & Kumar, 2011).

Leadership and Organizational Performance

Samson and Terziovski (1999) found that some categories of TQM practices were particularly strong predictors of organizational performance. Leadership, management of people and customer focus were found to be the strongest significant predictors of operational performance (Samson & Terziovski 1999). This is consistent with literature on behavioural factors where executive commitment, employee empowerment, and an open culture have been shown to produce competitive advantage more strongly than other TQM techniques such as process improvement, benchmarking, and information and analysis (Khan, 2011).

Leadership effectiveness in the private or public sectors and the extent to which this impacts OP is also linked to leadership styles. The decision of leaders as explained by Parshuram (2015) is that aggregate quality is the duty of all individuals in an organization, with top administration assuming the chief part and that a transformational leadership style is the best style for building up the aggregate responsibility required for quality from all levels of the organization.

While this study does not aim to ascertain the best leadership style for any organization, it has used this explanation to identify specific dimensions peculiar to all effective leadership styles. For instance, transactional leadership is renowned for prioritizing and ensuring compliance from followers through both rewards and punishments (Tan, 2013). As explained by Safari and Ghasemi (2012) transactional leadership centres on the role of performance, supervision, management, reward and punishment which help organization achieve their intended goal and mission.

Research Methodology

The research design and explanations in to justify the selection of positivism, deductive, survey, quantitate, cross-sectional as essential components for conducting this study, which examines relationship between the three constructs being tested in the UAE. Therefore, data collection using a survey is appropriate in order to test problem deducted from literature in previous section. The whole research design leading to techniques and procedure for data analysis is illustrated in Figure2.

Figure2: Research process (Bergman, 2008)

Population and Sampling Methods

The organization and departments used in this study is one of the main ministries supporting public sector services in the UAE. Respondents will be drawn from three main service departments in the MOI as indicated. This population is selected because of the nature of their duties and as the key departments in MOI with significant leadership responsibilities and information that are relevant to the study area and hypotheses being tested. Furthermore, duties of these departments are also output related which makes it possible for them to comment, evaluate and provide details that can help assess organizational performance which is one of the variables being tested in this study.

The three departments selected for this study have a total of 7,000 employees. The goal was to sample at least 5% of the total staff population in each department to reduce the chance of error in the results. According to Petty et al (2009), in quantitative research, sample size must be at least 5% of the total population to be representative. This gives a minimum sample size of 350.

Instruments (Questionnaire)

Primary data for section II especially data relating to OP is collected using an adapted version of the EFQM questionnaire using the five-point Liker type rating scale for each question. As discussed, EFQM model have enablers and result components. The result components are also argued to be outcomes and performances of organizations (Kudtarkar, 2014). Based on this, the instruments for OP are based on the four result criteria i.e. customer, people, organization and society results. Questions relating to each of these four results are selected from the EFQM questionnaire. This is done with the intention to assess MOI and to determine whether the impact of TQM dimensions generate the corresponding results that mirror appropriate OP for the ministry.

A total of 75 questions were retained for the final version of the EFQM questionnaire used. Each item included options with scores ranging from a 1 to 5 for each item of the Liker scale with 5 being the most favorable response. This provided provide a total score of 75 in the following order

25 for TQM

30 for LP (10 for transformational leadership, 10 for transactional leadership, 10 for Laissez-Faire leadership)

20 Organizational performance (5 for people results, 5 for customer results, 5 for society results and 5 for key performance results)

Data Analysis & Result

Conclusion

The main result of the study there is an impact of TQM within Organization. The adjust R2 value of 4.91 shows that the regression have statistically significant. The regression analysis shows that TQM influence the organization performance.

References