Soft TQM Practices with Transformational Leadership in SMEs of Developing Country

This research focuses on small medium enterprises (SMEs) of central Punjab, Pakistan, from the perspective of soft total quality management (TQM) practices. This study aims to assess the impact of continuous improvement, employee involvement, top management commitment, employee empowerment, teamwork, appraisal system, employee training, and employee satisfaction on work performance in the context of effort and quality with the moderating role of transformational leadership. Data were taken from 637 employees from 361 SMEs from three districts including Gujrat, Gujranwala, and Sialkot. Our results claimed that continuous improvement, employee involvement, employee empowerment, teamwork, appraisal system, top management commitment, employee training and employee satisfaction have significant positive effects on work performance. Similarly, transformational leadership positively moderates the relationship between continuous improvement, appraisal system, employee satisfaction, and employee training with work performance and strengthens these associations, contributing to the enhancement of SMEs. Moreover, transformational leadership negatively moderates the association of employee involvement, employee empowerment, top management commitment, and teamwork with work performance, which weakens the associations between these variables. All these soft TQM practices played a major role in the performance of SMEs, but transformational leadership is favorable with following soft TQM practices that involve continuous improvement, appraisal system, employee satisfaction, and employee training but unfavorable with employee involvement, employee empowerment, top management commitment, and teamwork. SMEs must prioritize the soft TQM practices in all conditions to maximize their performance. Findings revealed that by managing conflict between employees and customers, organizational leadership can improve the quality of the customer-company relationship and lead to customer loyalty. (c) CIKD Publishing