| In an era of globalization, cross-cultural studies have high value for organizations that seek to diffuse management techniques and operations management practices to other countries. Furthermore, several studies in the literature argue that further research is required in the area of international and cross-cultural operations management. In order to address this need, these three complementary thesis essays investigate the relationship between culture, quality, and performance from different theoretical perspectives and at different levels of analysis. The thesis essays use data collected from 189 electronic, machinery, and transportation manufacturing plants in Round 3 of the High Performance Manufacturing (HPM) project.; The first essay conducts a comparison between organizational culture in manufacturing plants and national culture where the plants are located, and it investigates the effect of their fit on manufacturing performance. Data in this paper is analyzed by regression analysis. The results show that the manufacturing plants' internal organizational cultures were significantly different than the national cultures in which they were set. In addition, the analysis of both objective and subjective measures of performance (cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility) indicate that the fit between plant organizational culture and the national culture does not necessarily predict high manufacturing performance. The second essay complements the first essay by investigating the direct and the co-alignment effects of four organizational culture types (group, hierarchy, developmental, and rational) on manufacturing performance. Data in this paper is analyzed using structural equation modeling method. The results indicate that the co-alignment between the four culture types is significantly and positively related to manufacturing performance.; The third essay investigates the role of culture as an exogenous driver of quality management practices and performance. The study utilizes the distinction between core and infrastructure quality practices to postulate that organizational culture has an impact on these quality practices and, as a result, their influence on performance. A model is hypothesized and analyzed by structural equation modeling method. The results imply that in the presence of a strong organizational culture infrastructure quality practices have higher impact on performance than core quality practices. |
