Cultural Influences on TQM Implementation and Financial Performance in Tunisian Firms

Some recent studies have also advocated that an organization could achieve better performance and higher efficiency through establishing right quality culture. Implementing TQM and its main components represents a dramatic challenge from those of traditional management. It requires a massive change in the social and technological components of a workforce. This study examines the relationships between corporate culture, TQM implementation and financial performance of Tunisian manufacturing firms. The model is tested using structural equations, surveying 70 Tunisian firms. The causal analysis results show no significant and direct effect of TQM implementation on Sales and operating income growth, but a negative and significant direct effect of TQM implementation on ROA and ROS. Furthermore, results show a positive and a significant relationship between corporate culture and the TQM implementation. This study also assessed the culture dimensions shared among Tunisian manufacturing firms and investigates their relationship with TQM practices. Successful adoption of TQM practices lies largely on a culture oriented innovation characterized by an openness to change, propensity to experiment and take risks and culture oriented people reflecting perceived support, cooperation, mutual respect and consideration between organizational members. The results suggested that there was no strong evidence to verify the moderator effect of the corporate culture on the relationship between TQM implementation and financial performance. The key managerial implications of these results are that firms shouldn’t get disillusioned with TQM when short-term improvements did not materialize given that TQM implementation is an expensive immaterial investment and that many cultural traits affect the benefits of effective TQM implementations.