تاثیر یادگیری سازمانی و TQM بر عملکرد نوآوری در صنعت فن آوری سطح بالا

Many scholars have suggested that both total quality management (TQM) and organizational learning can individually and effectively promote innovation. However, the question remains as to whether a relationship exists between TQM and organizational learning. This study has three main goals: (1) to determine the relationships between TQM, organizational learning, and innovation performance; (2) to determine if organizational learning fosters innovation performance and plays a mediating role between TQM and innovation performance, and (3) to test a proposed model explaining the relationships among TQM, organizational learning, and innovation performance through empirical examination. Using a self-administered survey to sample Taiwanese high-tech industry companies, this study examines four hypotheses and tests the proposed model. The principal findings of this study are as follows; (1) SEM analysis shows that the TQM-organizational learning-innovation performance model has goodness-of-fit, (2) TQM has significant and positive effects on organizational learning, and (3) TQM and organizational learning have both significant and positive effects on innovation performance.

Many researchers have stated that the total quality management (TQM) strategy is a potentially useful tool for fostering learning and increasing a company's competitive advantage (Hendricks and Singhal, 2001, Martinez-Costa and Jimenez-Jimenez, 2008, Martinez-Lorente et al., 2000, Terziovski and Samson, 2000 and Walley, 2000). Rapidly changing markets require the development of technological innovation, and shorter product lifecycles constantly challenge the competitive advantage (Baker and Sinkula, 1999, Prajogo and Sohal, 2003 and Tidd et al., 1997). According to Bontis, Crossan, and Hulland (2002) and Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), learning ability can stimulate organizational innovation capability and maintain a competitive advantage in turbulent environments. Learning promotes innovation activities, and “quality” is the principal determinant of success in competitive environments (Deming, 1986). Consequently, enterprises can sustain a competitive advantage by continually reproducing product and management quality. Although Barrow (1993) suggested that organizational learning is the principal outcome of TQM, only three empirical and quantitative studies examine the relationship between TQM and organizational learning (Martinez-Costa and Jimenez-Jimenez, 2008, Martinez-Costa and Jimenez-Jimenez, 2009 and Ruiz-Moreno et al., 2005). In addition, above quantitative studies only focused on three types of firms. Most of these firms were in the manufacturing sector, with some in the service sector, and included small-to-mid sized enterprises. National economies are increasingly recognizing the contributions of the high-tech industry for achieving and sustaining growth and performance (Collins and Clark, 2003, D’Aveni, 1998 and Lien et al., 2007). Taiwan's high-tech industry has a reputation for high product quality and high innovation performance (Hung, Lien, & McLean, 2009). Whether the proposed relationship among TQM, organizational learning, and innovation applies to Taiwan's high-tech industry requires further confirmation. Although some TQM practices have proven unsuccessful, previous empirical research shows that TQM has a positive effect on organizational performance, including innovational performance (Martinez-Costa and Jimenez-Jimenez, 2008, McAdam and Armstrong, 2001 and Prajogo and Sohal, 2003). Some studies indicate a relationship between organizational learning and innovation (Baker and Sinkula, 1999 and Hung et al., 2009). Consequently, both TQM and organizational learning can individually and effectively promote innovation. However, no previous empirical studies investigate whether organizational learning mediates TQM and innovation performance. Nevertheless, how do TQM and organizational learning jointly affect organization innovation performance? Determining whether such a mediating relationship exists is worthy of further study. The purpose of this study is to examine three things. This study focuses on (1) determining the relationships between TQM, organizational learning, and innovation performance, (2) examining if organizational learning foster innovation performance play a mediating role between TQM and innovation performance, and (3) testing a proposed model to explain the relationships among TQM, organizational learning, and innovation performance through an empirical examination. This paper begins with a literature review that examines the current state of TQM, organizational learning, and innovation performance. An empirical research using structural equation modeling to test the proposed model follows. The final section presents the findings, theoretical and managerial implications, and limitations of this study, and provides recommendations for future research.

This study used Taiwanese high-tech firms as its subjects and examined the relationship among TQM practice, organizational learning, and innovation performance. The principal findings are as follows: (1) the theoretical model for TQM–organizational learning-innovation performance model has adequate goodness-of-fit via SEM analysis, (2) TQM has a significant and positive impact on organizational learning, (3) TQM has a significant and positive effect on innovation performance and organizational learning partially mediate such effect, and (4) organizational learning has a significant and positive effect on innovation performance. This study showed that the proposed model for TQM, organizational learning, and innovation performance could be supported from the literature and subsequent discussion. The model has goodness-of-fit via SEM with an empirical data set collected from Taiwan. Therefore, the theoretical model is suitable and rational. This study also showed that TQM significantly and positively affects organizational learning. This result is consistent with the results obtained by Barrow (1993). This study is also consistent with Conner and Prahalad's (1996) study, which indicates that the primary function of TQM is to generate an organizational culture of trust and sharing. This culture encourages employee involvement and fosters an identification of individual goals. It also contributes to improvements in the organizational process, inducing quality promotion, knowledge creation, and knowledge transfer/integration that further stimulate innovation. SEM analysis indicates that employee involvement (λx2 = 0.87) play a critical role in the TQM process. When introducing the TQM concept, it is extremely important to enhance employee autonomy and encouraging employees to suggest possible methods of improving task quality. With the exception of constructing an organizational culture through the learning focus, this study demonstrates that making the learning strategically is an important aspect influencing organizational learning (λy2 = 0.91). Therefore, organization management teams must form and confirm the direction and goals of learning, and develop cultures that promote it. This result confirms Watkins and Marsick's (1993) and Lien et al. (2007) theoretical framework of learning organization that assumes providing strategic leadership of learning is a crucial factor in building learning organization. Furthermore, TQM practice can significantly enhance innovation performance. This analytical result is consistent with those obtained by Prajogo and Sohal (2003) and Juran (1988). Therefore, TQM is not simply a management tool for promoting and improving quality, but can also promote a culture of sharing, trust, openness, and innovation when supported by top management, employee involvement, continuous improvement, and customer focus. This stimulates employees to enhance products, processes, and organizational innovation performance. Additionally, this study proves the hypothesis that organizational learning promotes innovation performance. Other scholars note that organizational learning theory assumes that organizational learning is the process of acquiring and developing new knowledge and capabilities, and this process can enhance organization actions (Garvin, 1993 and Lien et al., 2006). The development of knowledge is also favorable for facilitating innovation performance and improving innovation efficiency, efficacy, and ability. Efficient knowledge sharing and transfer provide members of an organization an opportunity to learn and cooperate, stimulate employees to create new knowledge, apply knowledge to product innovation, and transfer knowledge to co-workers (Tsai, 2000 and Tsai, 2001). While this study assesses the affect of TQM on the organizational learning and innovation performance of high-tech companies in Taiwan, it is not completely free from limitations. Since the study sample consisted of only homogenous high-tech firms, extraneous factors associated with different organizations in different industries were not a factor. Another limitation of this study is that it does not objectively measure organizational performance. Future studies should include a broad sample of firms from other industries and some objective assessments of organizational performance, not unlike prior studies (Ellinger et al., 2002). One more limitation of this study is that the study collects the measures using the same method (self-report). A common method variance might exaggerate the relationships among the variables. Besides the research and theoretical implications, this study provides the following practical implications for business: (1) Emphasis on employee involvement The practices of TQM demonstrated that employee involvement was the principal factor affecting TQM success. This implies that organizations should encourage employee involvement in TQM practices to generate the core values of TQM and organizational learning activities. To improve innovation performance, organizations should form strategies for implementing organizational learning. The results of this study demonstrate that the learning strategy is a critical factor for forming organizational learning. Practitioners frequently suggested that a low level of trust, a low degree of knowledge sharing, and a fear of innovating, were all factors that impeded organizational learning and knowledge management (Tang, 1998). Reconstructing or establishing a culture of trust, sharing, and innovation is extremely important for the survival of high-tech firms.