An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship between Quality Management Factors and Customer Satisfaction, Improved Competitive Position and Overall Business Performance

This study investigates the impact of quality management practices on three measures of organisational performance comprising customer satisfaction, improved competitive position and overall business performance. To investigate these relationships, a factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to determine the most salient quality management practices, which were then regressed against the three measures of organisational performance using Multivariate Analysis of Variance. The findings show that quality management factors such as top management philosophy, measurement and open organisation have significant associations with business competitive position, whereas marketing process improvement and employee training have significant associations with customer satisfaction. The results also suggest that top management philosophy, measurement and open organisation, and marketing process improvement are associated with overall business performance.