Title: Total quality management barriers: Malaysia's SME perspective

Authors: Wynnona Ching Woon Wee; Theerthana L. Baskaran; Kean Keng Woon; Pei Yee Chow; Alicia Marie Jude Mangalam

Addresses: Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia

Abstract: This paper is aimed at identifying barriers that prohibit the implementation of total quality management (TQM). It posits six hypotheses to establish the negative association between TQM barriers and TQM implementation in manufacturing SMEs. The findings are affirming that the six proposed TQM barriers have a significant negative impact towards TQM implementation. The study highlights TQM barriers to managers and enables them to devise resilient tactics to counter them. The conceptual model is simplified because the sub-barriers were classified into the main barriers making it easy to understand on which part of the organisation will be affected and the model only focuses on barriers that are relevant to Malaysian SME. This research is one of very few studies to offer insights into the topic area by emphasising on Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. Limitations have encountered from the aspects of geographical coverage, changes in SME statistics, nature of survey questions and time horizon adopted.

Keywords: TQM barriers; TQM implementation; Malaysia; total quality management; manufacturing SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises; conceptual models.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMOM.2016.081358

International Journal of Modelling in Operations Management, 2016 Vol.6 No.1/2, pp.88 - 111

Received: 23 Aug 2016
Accepted: 20 Sep 2016
Published online: 05 Jan 2017 *

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