| Achieving the desired benefits of Quality Management System implementation is reported to occur in only one-third to one-half of organizational attempts (Burdett, 1994; Garvin, 1986; Grant, Shani, and Krishnan, 1994; Hindo, 2007; Yandrick, 1994; Naor, 2006). Even with this imperfect record of success, senior managerial leadership spends considerable energy and investment maintaining the current Quality Management System or chasing an alternative perceived superior. Consistently, implementation failures are blamed on the lack of a cultural change for quality in the target organization or the choice of an inadequate quality management system underpinning the implementation effort. This quantitative study of 44 senior managers fills a gap in the literature by combining a previously validated cultural assessment tool with a previously validated Quality Management System benefits assessment tool to show how cultural context relates to successful implementation.;Results of this study show that some qualitative benefits of Quality Management System implementation correlate with the gap between current organizational culture and the organizational culture perceived by senior management as most supportive of their current Quality Management System. Quantitative benefits, while reported by the senior manager participants to move in a direction management would consider advantageous, showed only one correlation.;Additional insight came from delineating current organizational culture and the organizational culture perceived by management as most supportive of their current Quality Management System into one of four cultural typologies (Clan, Adhocracy, Market, and Hierarchy). Some qualitative benefits of Quality Management System implementation correlate with the gap between current organizational culture and the organizational culture perceived by senior management as most supportive of their current Quality Management System for Clan and Adhocracy cultural typologies. Market culture typology correlated with one quantitative benefit, reduction in external nonconformances. |
