| The study examined the perceptions of employees in a fitness and sports therapy organization regarding the degree to which continuous quality improvement has been integrated within the organization. Also examined were changes that occurred in the organization's climate due to an intervention device developed specifically for manager familiarization with quality improvement approaches.;Respondents were asked to assess 13 different aspects of quality on a 64-item self-administered survey. The survey was administered on two different dates and times to ascertain changes in the overall mean score of employee perceptions of the organization. Respondents were asked about their knowledge of quality approaches, about their organization's openness to quality initiatives, and about their ability to contribute to the development of a quality philosophy.;Additionally, the researcher provided an intervention device to six executive-managers in the organization to determine the effect of quality improvement tools and knowledge on changes in the organization's climate. The researcher sought to measure changes by reviewing data obtained from responses to the surveys and comparing the changes in mean scores of selected questions for the two surveys.;The major findings of this study were that employees did not perceive that total quality had been integrated in their organization to the same degree as perceived by managers; lower-level employees tended to be significantly less favorable than managers toward continuous quality improvement efforts.;Employees responded most favorably to items concerning: their ability to make suggestions in their departments; their knowledge of basic process improvement tools; and, their feeling of empowerment and efforts to use team processes. They responded least favorably to the topics of: leadership delegation; quality information and departmental acceptance; numerical quotas for performance; understanding the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle; and, their ability to flowchart a process. |
