مزایای اصلی مرتبط با سلامت و امنیت سیستم های مدیریت صدور گواهینامه در شرکت پست پرتغالی مدیریت کیفیت صدور گواهینامه سیستم های کوچک و متوسط

The purpose of this study is to characterize how Portuguese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) view the Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMSs) certification process, after receiving the Quality Management System (QMS) certification. References were based on the ISO 9001 standard for a QMS and OHSAS 18001 for OHSMS. The method used to evaluate the implemented systems, was by form of questionnaire. Those questioned had to have a certified quality management system, an implemented OHSMS and be a SME. The questionnaire was sent to 300 SMEs; 46 responses were received and validated. Of them, only 12 SMEs had the OHSMS certificate according to OHSAS 18001. Within those 12 companies that participated: 7 SMEs are from the industrial sector; 3 belong to the electricity/telecommunications sector and 2 SMEs are from the trade/services activity sector. The size of the sample was small, but corresponds to Portuguese reality. Moreover, 34 SMEs did not have the OHSMS certificate. The questionnaire requested the main reasons for SMEs to opt for non-certification and it was related with high costs, while the main reasons to certificate were, among others, needed to eliminate or minimize risks to workers. The main benefits that Portuguese SMEs have gained from the referred certifications have been, improved working conditions, ensuring compliance with legislation and better internal communication about risks and hazards. Also presented are the main difficulties in achieving an OHSMS certification including high certification costs, difficulties motivating personnel, difficulties in changing the company’s culture and increased bureaucracy.

Quality management (QM) is a process that has widely applied to improve competitiveness around the world (Samson & Terziovski, 1999). QM is already a mature field of study, and future research directions must be sought (Sousa & Voss, 2002). Many studies have focused on determining the relationship between QM practices and organizational performance (Gagnon and Sheu, 2003, Girard and Doumeingts, 2004, Kaynak, 2003, Kearney and Abdul-Nour, 2004 and Mills and Smith, 2011). Improving organizational knowledge and knowledge management capabilities is an important means of improving organizations’ performance (Molina et al., 2007). Most quality improvement activities require the creation of new knowledge for the organization (Deming, 1994). The central role of the creation of new knowledge in quality improvement is evinced from Deming’s comment that efforts and hard work that are not guided by new knowledge only continue to dig the ditch (Anderson et al., 1994). It follows from the importance of knowledge creation (KC) that a successful organization should not only manage the quality of products and practices effectively but also master and apply knowledge management (Grant, 1996 and Yang et al., 2010). However, although QM and knowledge management have recently received increasing scholarly attention, the majority of researchers treat QM and knowledge management as two entirely separate fields and independent systems of management (Flynn et al., 1994, Shan et al., 2011, Söderlund, 2010 and Yang et al., 2010). In spite of the importance of knowledge management within the firm, few empirical studies examine its relationship with QM. The main studies connecting QM with organizational KC include those linking KC with idea generation from QM (McAdam, 2004), integrating the frameworks of QM practices and KC processes (Linderman et al., 2004), incorporating a KC learning model into QM (Choo et al., 2007), the total quality knowledge management system (Tsai, 2003), relating QM practices and knowledge transfer (Molina et al., 2007), examining knowledge and QM from an R&D perspective (Jayawarna & Holt, 2009), exploring the role of KC in Six Sigma project management (Anand et al., 2010), and investigating data mining and quality control (Alzghoul and Löfstrand, 2011 and Ferreiro et al., 2011). Currently, research on the quantitative impact of QM practices on organizational KC process is rare. With the growing role of information technology, organizational KC has been receiving increased interest in China. According to our survey, many firms, especially Chinese aviation firms, wish to conduct KC activities within the QM practices. However, they do not fully understand the impact of QM practices on organizational KC process. This paper addresses the research gap through an empirical study of aviation firms in China. Specifically, it aims to reveal the quantitative impact of QM practices on the KC process in aviation firms in China through presenting a model to demonstrate the influence of QM measures on KC. The next section briefly reviews the literature on QM and KC and identifies the critical factors of QM. We then develop a model revealing the impact of QM practices on the organizational KC process in Section 3. The model is tested and validated in Section 4. Section 5 discusses and presents some suggestions for the improvement of QM in Chinese aviation firms. Finally, conclusions are provided in Section 6. 2. Related works

In this paper, we have studied the impact of the QM practices on the organizational KC process. Our main finding is that some QM practices directly impact the KC process and that other QM practices have a less direct impact on the KC process. The results indicate that not all QM practices have a great impact on the organizational KC process. Some studies suggest that QM practices create knowledge and that KC leads to organizational performance (Choo et al., 2007 and Linderman et al., 2004). However, these studies do not distinguish using quantitative research the different roles of QM practices impacting the KC process. Our study offers new insights into the impact of the QM practices on the KC process, contributing to theoretical understanding about organizational QM practices and knowledge management behavior. The aviation industry in China is highly representative of industrial sectors in general. From the perspective of the aviation industry, this research has great potential for practical application. Many Chinese firms conduct QM practices and KC activities and are eager to understand the interaction between QM practices and the KC process. Firms maintaining a set of QM practices supporting KC processes should be more effective in conducting these QM practices. This study indicates that some effective QM practices, such as employee training, employee involvement, product design, benchmarking, and vision statements, should be given more attention. The insights of this study provide practical guidance for practitioners of QM and employees engaging in KC activities. Our results should be considered in light of some limitations. The sample size of 233 respondents from five aviation firms prevents us from making stronger claims about the generalizability of the results. Future studies replicating our approach but employing more participants from more firms are appropriate. This study primarily focuses on the impact of the QM practices on the organizational KC process and does not consider the impact of the KC process on QM practices. Future studies should consider the impact of an organizational KC process on QM practices.