La gestión de calidad: importancia de la cultura organizativa para el desarrollo de variables intangibles

Total quality management is frequently associated with an improvement in company performance. Within the different dimensions involved in this concept, the “soft variables” have shown to be the main responsible dimensions of these improvements in organizational performance in previous studies. The objective of the present study is to analyze how companies with a quality orientation promote the development of certain organizational practices of an intangible character related with the improvement in performance. Some of these variables are organizational culture, market orientation, human resource management, and leadership.

There is no generally accepted empirical framework of the relationships between these variables. The proposed model consists of direct and mediated relationships between them, using a Structural Equation Modeling to test the model. Results show that a culture that promotes flexibility with a mixed internal and external orientation, tends to lead to total quality management, and the implementation of practices such as a customer orientation, human resources management, or a style of leadership that fosters the effect of total quality management in the company performance.