The moderating effect of slack resources on the relation between quality management and organisational learning

Recent literature in the field of strategic management suggests that firms must learn to combine internal competencies and resources in order to achieve competitive advantages. This paper examines how firms employ slack resources to enhance the relationship between quality management (QM) and organisational learning to obtain sustainable competitive advantages. The findings use empirical data gathered from 202 quality managers to support the hypotheses that: (1) there is a strong connection between organisational learning and QM; and (2) the relation between organisational learning and QM is moderated by slack resources.

[1]  S. S. Rao,et al.  A Framework for International Quality Management Research: Development and Validation of a Measurement Instrument , 1999 .

[2]  Zhihai Zhang,et al.  Developing a model of quality management methods and evaluating their effects on business performance , 2000 .

[3]  J. Dean,et al.  MANAGEMENT THEORY AND TOTAL QUALITY: IMPROVING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE THROUGH THEORY DEVELOPMENT , 1994 .

[4]  Elizabeth George,et al.  External Solutions and Internal Problems: The Effects of Employment Externalization on Internal Workers' Attitudes , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[5]  A. Moreno,et al.  Influence of support leadership and teamwork cohesion on organizational learning, innovation and performance: An empirical examination , 2005 .

[6]  Ronald D. Anderson,et al.  Causal modeling alternatives in operations research: Overview and application , 2004, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[7]  P. Quintas,et al.  Knowledge management: A strategic agenda , 1997 .

[8]  K. Boal,et al.  Strategic resources: Traits, configurations and paths to sustainable competitive advantage , 2007 .

[9]  A. L. Wilson,et al.  Organizational context, climate and innovativeness: adoption of imaging technology , 2002 .

[10]  Dennis W. Krumwiede,et al.  Efficacy of environmental and supplier relationship investments—moderating effects of external environment , 2007 .

[11]  Luis Miguel Molina,et al.  TQM and ISO 9000 Effects on Knowledge Transferability and Knowledge Transfers , 2004 .

[12]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  The myopia of learning , 1993 .

[13]  D. Clay Whybark,et al.  Inventory management: Is there a knock-on effect? , 2005 .

[14]  R. Gulati Is Slack Good or Bad for Innovation ? , 2007 .

[15]  Charles H. Fine Quality Improvement and Learning in Productive Systems , 1986 .

[16]  Roger G. Schroeder,et al.  THE ROLE OF INFRASTRUCTURE PRACTICES IN THE EFFECTIVENESS OF JIT PRACTICES: IMPLICATIONS FOR PLANT COMPETITIVENESS , 2003 .

[17]  John Denton Organisational learning and effectiveness , 1998 .

[18]  C. Verharen Black to The future , 2002 .

[19]  P. Senge,et al.  The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook , 1994 .

[20]  Moreno‐Luzón,et al.  Strategic approaches, organizational design and quality management , 1998 .

[21]  Harbir Singh,et al.  Learning and protection of proprietary assets in strategic alliances: building relational capital , 2000 .

[22]  Jayant V. Saraph,et al.  An Instrument for Measuring the Critical Factors of Quality Management , 1989 .

[23]  Antonia Ruiz Moreno,et al.  An analysis of the relationship between quality and perceived innovation: "the case of financial firms" , 2003, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[24]  Jens Leth Hougaard,et al.  Super efficiency evaluations based on potential slack , 2004, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[25]  Mark P. Sharfman,et al.  Antecedents of Organizational Slack , 1988 .

[26]  Juan Llopis,et al.  Development of a measure to assess quality management in certified firms , 2004, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[27]  G. Hult,et al.  Innovation, Market Orientation, and Organizational Learning: An Integration and Empirical Examination , 1998 .

[28]  Romano Dyerson,et al.  Learning, Teamwork and Appropriability: Managing Technological Change in the Department of Social Security , 1999 .

[29]  George Li,et al.  The impact of quality on learning , 1997 .

[30]  L. Bourgeois On the Measurement of Organizational Slack , 1981 .

[31]  A. Edmondson Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams , 1999 .

[32]  R. Sanchez,et al.  Reinventing strategic management: new theory and practice for competence-based competition , 1997 .

[33]  Daniel W. Russell,et al.  Maladaptive Perfectionism as a Mediator and Moderator Between Adult Attachment and Depressive Mood. , 2004 .

[34]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  On the evaluation of structural equation models , 1988 .

[35]  Darryl D. Wilson,et al.  An Empirical Investigation of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Causal Model , 2000, Decis. Sci..

[36]  Eric Molleman,et al.  Sociotechnical systems: towards an organizational learning approach , 2001 .

[37]  Mike Geppert,et al.  Paths of Managerial Learning in the East German Context , 1996 .

[38]  D. Garvin Building a learning organization. , 1993, Harvard business review.

[39]  Bernard L. Simonin Ambiguity and the process of knowledge transfer in strategic alliances , 1999 .

[40]  S. West,et al.  A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[41]  Steven Postrel,et al.  Shared knowledge, “glitches,” and product development performance , 1999 .

[42]  C. Coulton,et al.  Interaction Effects in Multiple Regression , 1993 .

[43]  Kaoru Tone,et al.  A slacks-based measure of super-efficiency in data envelopment analysis , 2001, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[44]  M. Shubik,et al.  A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. , 1964 .

[45]  Thomas Y. Choi,et al.  Theorizing TQM: An Austrian and Evolutionary Economics Interpretation , 2000 .

[46]  Ranjay Gulati,et al.  What is the optimum amount of organizational slack?: A study of the relationship between slack and innovation in multinational firms , 1997 .

[47]  L. J. Porter,et al.  Identification of the Critical Factors of TQM , 1996 .

[48]  Barbara W. Keats,et al.  Navigating in the new competitive landscape: Building strategic flexibility and competitive advantage in the 21st century , 1998 .

[49]  W. Edwards Deming,et al.  Out of the Crisis , 1982 .

[50]  C. Lengnick-Hall,et al.  The role of social and intellectual capital in achieving competitive advantage through enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems , 2004 .

[51]  Christopher Ittner,et al.  An Empirical Examination of Dynamic Quality-Based Learning Models , 2001, Manag. Sci..

[52]  James R. Evans,et al.  Total Quality: Management, Organization, and Strategy , 1993 .

[53]  Justin Tan,et al.  Organizational Slack and Firm Performance During Economic Transitions: Two Studies from an Emerging Economy , 2003 .

[54]  Katja Karhu,et al.  Information quality for strategic technology planning , 2003, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[55]  S. Sitkin,et al.  DISTINGUISHING CONTROL FROM LEARNING IN TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A CONTINGENCY PERSPECTIVE , 1994 .

[56]  Bruce T. Lamont,et al.  Knowledge management systems and developing sustainable competitive advantage , 2003, J. Knowl. Manag..

[57]  M. Tushman,et al.  Resource recombinations in the firm: knowledge structures and the potential for schumpeterian innovation , 1998 .

[58]  Sang M. Lee,et al.  New paradigm organizations: From total quality to learning to world-class , 1994 .

[59]  Roger G. Schroeder,et al.  A FRAMEWORK FOR QUALITY MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND AN ASSOCIATED MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT , 1994 .

[60]  Francisco Javier Lloréns Montes,et al.  Learning during the quality management process: Antecedents and effects in service firms , 2005, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[61]  Chinho Lin,et al.  An ISO 9001: 2000 quality information system in e-commerce environment , 2003, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[62]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[63]  Jay R. Galbraith Designing Complex Organizations , 1973 .

[64]  Marvin D. Troutt,et al.  A review of naturalistic decision making research with some implications for knowledge management , 2002, J. Knowl. Manag..