Exploring the relationship between quality culture and organisational climate with workforce performance

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between quality culture, organisational climate and excellent work culture with particular focus on workforce performance at eight established institutions of higher learning in West Malaysia. Given the consideration of the confidence interval guidelines of 95% and margin of error at ± 3%, 1068 academic staff and quality managers were sampled to collect the data. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, in which both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used. Of the questionnaires administered, 702 were returned. The received questionnaires were then analysed (120 in the pilot study and 582 in the final study) using SEM statistical tools. The results of PCA, PA and CFA demonstrated that constructs of quality culture is represented by nine distinct factors, organisational climate by four distinct factors and excellent work culture and workforce performance by two distinct factors each. Furthermore, the results also found evidence of construct validity and reliability concerning the factors that constituted the four constructs. The proposed model of workforce performance was tested through the application of the SEM technique and the generated results show that organisational climate and excellent work culture have direct causal effects on workforce performance. The generated results also indicate that organisational climate and quality culture have indirect causal effects on workforce performance through excellent work culture. The generated results however confirm that quality culture does not have a direct causal effect on workforce performance in the context of selected universities. The findings suggest that university top management should not consider teaching as the sole criterion on which decision of staff appointment is made but should consider a variety of qualities. The findings also suggest that the university should organise quality culture programmes for academic staff to educate them about quality culture initiatives. Moreover, the findings suggest that a reward system that appreciates individual and group efforts should be introduced. Finally, the study concludes with a number of theoretical and practical implications to institutions of higher learning that were derived from the findings.