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Adoption of quality management practices: An investigation of its relationship with labor productivity for labor-intensive manufacturing companies

Alemu Moges Belay (Department of Engineering Design and Materials, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway and Department of Production Technology, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland)
Fentahun Moges Kasie (Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia)
Petri Helo (Department of Production Technology, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland)
Josu Takala (University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland)
Daryl J. Powell (Department of Production and Quality Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway)

Benchmarking: An International Journal

ISSN: 1463-5771

Article publication date: 25 February 2014

2253

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between quality management practice and labor productivity in labor-intensive manufacturing companies in a developing nation and benchmark with the world average.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary and secondary data were collected from 34 selected companies. The primary data were obtained using a questionnaire survey to determine the quality management adoption level of each company using the European Business Excellence Model. Secondary data also collected in order to compute labor productivity of each organization and benchmark with international norms.

Findings

In this research, labor productivity is measured by revenues per employee and total assets per employee and found that adopting quality management has strong relationships with revenue per employee unlike total asset per employee that is weakly related.

Originality/value

Several authors suggest a positive relationship between adoption quality management principles and productivity in large organizations located in developed countries. However, this paper particularly focuses on labor productivity of labor-intensive companies.

Keywords

Citation

Moges Belay, A., Moges Kasie, F., Helo, P., Takala, J. and J. Powell, D. (2014), "Adoption of quality management practices: An investigation of its relationship with labor productivity for labor-intensive manufacturing companies", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 77-100. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-02-2012-0011

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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