留學生質量管理課程essay制定：Quality module assessment: article critique---Relationship between quality managementpractices and innovation

 

 

本文主要討論在工業領域以及在研究領域的管理實踐。自2000年的早期階段，研究者進行質量管理和創新之間的關系的實證研究。質量管理和創新是吸引越來越多的關注，自那時以來。許多公司都集中在質量管理和創新，才能在激烈的競爭中獲得優勢。

 

 

在這里，我選擇紙張專注于各種管理實踐和創新之間的關系。整體內容和分析其目標是在目前選定的研究工作。目的是驗證一組過程具有創造性和創新性活動的管理和積極的關系。四所選文章的局限性和差距還討論了細節，這可以為今后的研究提供了明確的信息。選擇可分為兩部分：領域的學者和工業實踐領域的影響的研究。

 

 

1. Introduction

The present article will focus on the paper named’Relationship between quality managementpractices and innovation’. This article mainly talked about the management practice in the industrial field as well as in the research field. Since the early stage of the year of 2000, investigators have conducted the practical study on the relationship between quality management and innovation.Quality management and innovation are attracting more and more attention since then. Many firms have focused onthe quality management and innovation in order to obtain advantage in the fierce competition.

 

 

2. Analysis if the overall content and its objectives

The objective of this article is to examine the relationshipbetweenthe practices of quality management (QM) and innovation process. The article investigatesthe direct and indirect relation with 5 different innovations:radical product, incremental product,radical process, administrative innovation, andincremental process. The paper furtherproposed a framework and its hypotheses based on the empirical data obtained from the service and manufacturing firms which have been certified by the ISO 9001 system. From the study, the authors found the positive relations between various QM practices and the above mentioned five innovations. 

 

They also showed that the process management had direct and positive relationships to the incremental,administrativeand radical innovation. They thought that the organizational abilityof managing process could play an essential role in the identification of routines, the establishment of a learning base, and the support of innovative activity. They furtherrevealed that the value of one QM practice is related to other QM practices. Thus, they conclude that focusing just part of the QM practices and techniques could not produce creative problem innovation and solving. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

 

The findings of this paper supported the idea that the organizational efforts to improve and create QM practices have positive relationswith innovative processes or products in the market whether its an existing market or an new emerging market. The analysis ofthearticle revealed that 17 out of 19 hypotheses can be used. In general, the article’s hypotheses which are agreed clearly showed that the sets of QM practices by process management were indirectly or directly relatedto innovation. Their findings give usa vital insight for the academics as well as for the practitioners who are delighted in the relationships between the QM practice and innovation.

 

 

The article chose 2100 service or manufacturing firms in Canada which had been certified by the ISO 9001 certifiedas their objective samples. The authors used a stratified sampling technique to get data from the above-mentioned firms with different scales: small, medium and large. The unit of the present discussion was used with organizational level because this articlewantedto find whether the QM practices could lead to the organizational innovation.Based on this aim, the author mailed a questionnaire to the above 2100 firms. Finally, anumber of 242 questionnaires had beenfinished and returned from the firms.The paper employed the structural equation modeling in order to examine the proposed hypotheses and the measurement model.They used a three-stage approach to guaranteethat the measurement issues were uni-dimensional, valid and reliable. In its first stage, reliability was measured to obtain the level to which the measurements could be free from the possible random measure-errors. In its second stage, the authorexaminedthe uni-dimensionality. In its third stage, they tested validityin terms of the discriminant and convergent validity. 

 

 

3. Gaps and limitations of the article

Any researches will face some limitations because of the limited considerations and its research methods, and this article has no exceptions. In order to make sure that the future study can be continued based on the present article, the limitations and gaps must be recognized. 

 

 

First, their empirical data are from the242 ISO 9001 certified service and manufacturing firms. They choose these firms because they fit the study’s purpose andthe firms are also familiar with the related concepts and terminologies of the QM practices. Some otherQM-intensive firmsmay be left from the present study for whichthe firms had been awarded with the quality improvement awards (i.e. the EFQA and MBNQA). If the article could use the data obtained from these firms which wasawarded with the quality improvement awards but not certified by ISO 9001, then their findings could be more promising. What’s more, their findings from the limited empirical data could not be generalized, because the above-mentioned firms may not fit their conclusions and these firms mayhave much less-developed programs of quality management practices.And I think that more researches should be done to test the relations between the QM practices and the innovation for both the firms certified by ISO 9001 and the firms which are not certified by this system. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

 

Second, the article usesthe cross-sectional data which have limitations. Although the studyhad beenconcentrated on testing the relation between QM practices and innovation from various firms, it would be promising to carry out a longitudinal research within the firms. This test would guarantee the findings of the presentstudy and improve the understanding of the relationships between QM practice and innovation. 

 

 

The third limitation of this study is that the obtained data were mainly based on the perceptual judgment from the respondents of the related firms and no comparison of the competitors in a similar industry had been investigated, considering the respondents’ performance in the firm. Furthermore, the article had no quantitative measurementsin order to evaluate the innovation. Although the present study had adaptedthe measurement item from the current and previous literatures, future investigators should develop some measurement itemswhich are more comprehensive and objective for extending the present study. 

The fourth limitation of the study is that no case studies had been done toverify how and why the QM practices could lead to the innovation. The authors used a directmethod of survey analysis, and theymainly have focused on the investigation of the relationship between the QM practices and the innovation. Their study could not answer questions clearly such as why and how the QM practices could lead to the innovation. 

 

 

4. Implications of the study’s findings

The selected article provides some implications both for the field of quality management and the field of industry. And the following will discuss them in detail.

 

 

4.1 For the field of quality management

The study and its findings make a contribution to the further development of the relating literature through the following ways. The findings of the present article enhancethe understandings of the relationship between QM practices and innovation, as well as of the inner-relation among the various quality management practices whichlead to innovation directly or indirectly. The article opens wide opportunities for the continuing study. Other variables which were not included in the proposed model could contribute to more comprehensive and objective understanding. Such variables could also include the work attitudes, such as the job satisfaction and the organizational commitment with in the firm, as well as a significant outcome variable of the QM philosophy customer satisfaction.Previousresearches were limited to just identifying a set of QM practices whichhave influence on innovationdirectly. Different from the earlierresearches, theselected articlestudiedthe direct and indirect relationsbetweenthe QM practices and it clearly revealed the positive relations between the QM practices and the innovation. What’s more, this research extends the limitations of current researches by examining the relationships between the QM practices and the first mentioned five different kinds of innovations, such as incremental process and radical product innovation. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

 

4.2 For industry practitioners

The present article also provides some empirical verifications of the importance of the process management which may helpthe firms or the managers to identify their routines, to create a learning base, and to support innovation initiatives. It will be beneficial for practitioners to develop innovation strategies and to allocate resources effectively, as needed by the type of innovation.One implication of the present finding is that the firms could benefit more from the identification and enhancementof the organizational process. Process management can help firms in establishing a learning base, creatingcreative thinking, and resulting radical and incremental innovation, which means that the firms might developthe organizational ability for supporting innovation by the application of various QM principles and techniques in order to obtain new creativity and ideas.

The study further verifies that the management practices could have directly positive relationship among the incremental, administrative and radical innovation. Therefore, the knowledge and information in a list of routines obtained through the process management can help firms to create a learning base and to facilitate the creative and innovative activities. 

 

 

5. Conclusion

Here I choose a paper focused on the relationship between various management practices and innovation. The overall contents and its objectives are analyzed in the present work.The purpose of the selected study is to verify a set of process managements and its positive relationships with creative and innovative activities. Four limitations and gaps of the selected article are also discussed in detail, which can provide clear information for future study. The implications of the study chose can be separated into two parts: for the field of academics and the field of industrial practice.