Year

2011

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Faculty of Engineering

Abstract

This study is focused principally on the implementation of TQM in the Libyan industrial sector. The population studied covers only 65 Libyan manufacturing companies. The selected companies are from those listed in the Information Centre for Industrial and Trade Documentation (ICITD). A combination of both primary and secondary data was used in examining the relationship between TQM and OP. ISO 9000 certification and company-size were also considered as contextual factors (controlling variables). Data collected was analysed used frequency and means (descriptive statistics) and t-test, correlation and step wise regression analysis (inferential statistics). Through comprehensive survey responses, the 56 of the possible 65 companies (87%) participated. Those were classified into two categories: high and low level TQM implementation. The results showed that the correlations among the six investigated TQM elements were positive and significant. This study has investigated whether the level of TQM implementation is influenced by contextual factors including company size and ISO 9000 certification. It was found that TQM elements are not different across ISO-certified and non-ISO certified companies. The findings revealed that there is no significant difference between S&M sized companies (on each of the TQM elements) and those of large companies.

The results from the correlation analysis show that none of the six TQM elements was significantly correlated with all OP indicators, except for Supplier Quality Management; each TQM element was significantly correlated with at least one of the 9 OP indicators employed in this study. There was no significant correlation between Supplier Quality Management and any of the OP indicators. The results also showed that Process Management emerged as the most important TQM element, followed by Top Management Commitment, and then People Management and Customer Focus. In this study, there was a considerable amount of variance in OP not explained by the six investigating TQM elements. It should be noted that the values of (R square) clearly vary throughout the results. This study has also investigated whether the relationship between TQM implementation and OP is influenced by the contextual factor ‘ISO 9000 certification’. The findings showed that TQM influence on OP is only superior for those Libyan manufacturing companies with ISO 9000 in Export growth only.

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Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.