A meta-analytical review of the relationship between total quality management practices and the operational performance of manufacturing companies

In a global society like ours where the perception of quality influences greatly the purchasing decisions of customers, organisations that seek to achieve global competitiveness and financial growth must as a matter of urgency, adopt business strategies that guarantee maximum performance excellence in quality and customer satisfaction. Although the operations management literature explicitly highlights business strategies with such prospects, Total Quality Management undoubtedly stands tall among the rest. Previous studies on the topic have however reported conflicting and ambiguous results regarding the effect of TQM implementation on operational performance. This study is therefore aimed at investigating the possibility of a statistical relationship between TQM practices (as captured in the Baldrige Excellence Framework) and the operational performance of manufacturing firms through the meta-analytical review of 21 studies published between 1997 and 2017. The study sample, obtained through a rigorous literature search of both online and offline databases, was subjected to a specific but extensive inclusion/exclusion criteria purposely designed for this analysis. Guided by the Hunter & Schmidt (2004) meta-analysis of correlation approach, the results of the study reveal a strong and positive relationship between aggregate TQM practices and operational performance. Furthermore, with the exception of Strategic planning that is non-significant and Customer focus that has a medium effect on operational performance, the other TQM constructs (Top Management Leadership, Information & Analysis, Human Resource Management and Process Management) are all positively related to operational performance. The test of heterogeneity also indicates that almost all the tested hypotheses were greatly influenced by the moderating variables; Firm size, Industry type, and Geographical location.