How quality management system components lead to improvement in service organizations : a system practitioner perspective

Service organizations use quality management systems as a part of their overall strategies to improve business processes and operations management. Nevertheless, how quality management components lead to improvement and whether task conflicts influence quality management components have not yet been identified clearly. This paper examines the mechanisms that link different quality management components to improvement and the role of task conflict in the mechanisms. Data were collected from 495 employees responsible for quality management in Macao's service organizations. Results from structural equation modeling showed that leadership i.e., the supportive behaviors of top management towards quality management has direct, significant effects on quality management components such as process approach, engagement of people, relationship management, and evidence-based decision making while customer focus has the largest total effect on improvement. On the other hand, task conflict was weakly but significantly related to relationship management. The study provides a deeper understanding of how quality management works in service contexts.