IDENTIFYING THE EFFECT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT FOR ACHIEVING QUALITY PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Two organizational practices, Information Technology (IT) usage and Total Quality Management (TQM) are emergent as the most important factors in increasing the organizational performance and each has been widely researched. However, there is a limited number of research carried out to identify the relationship between IT and TQM, particularly how IT influences TQM. This research presents an empirical study which examines the interrelationship between IT & TQM and the importance of these practices on organizational performance in terms of quality performance. The empirical data was drawn from forty two Sri Lankan manufacturing organizations through a mailed questionnaire survey and the data were analyzed using  correlation analysis, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis methods. The findings indicated that, both IT and TQM practices did not have a direct significant effect on quality performance while level of IT usage on TQM dimensions had a direct significant effect on quality performance. The correlation between IT and TQM practices are also positive and significant. Further, these results justified that an extensive use of IT had a significant effect on the level of IT usage on TQM dimensions. Eventhough IT did not have a direct   significant effect on quality performance, the detailed path analysis justified that the Administrative Related IT practices had a significant effect on quality performance. The findings of the study also justified that various relationships exists among concept variables as well. The major implication of this study was, the importance of utilizing IT in order to achieve sustainable quality performance through TQM in manufacturing organizations.

Keywords: Information Technology, Total Quality Management, Quality Performance

For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk