Quality Management and Organizational Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Nairobi County

Abstract

The interference of quality management practices has brought excellent impact on the rampant organizational endeavors. Previous researches have indicated that when quality management practices are applied, positive effects within the organizational networking can attest to its establishment. It is essential for the organization to implement quality management interventions to attain competitive control; externally and internally. The objectives of the study were; to establish quality management practices among manufacturing firms in Nairobi City County; to establish the performance of firms in manufacturing industry in Nairobi City County; to determine the relationship between quality management and performance of firms in the manufacturing industry in Nairobi City County. The study was guided by the three theories; quality improvement theory, theory of constraint and Resource-Based View (RBV). The research design used was descriptive survey method. A sample of 70 manufacturing firms in Nairobi County was selected which is 12.75% of the target population. The data collected comprised of primary data that was both quantitative and qualitative. Both descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data. From the data collected the respondents reported that continuous quality improvement is practiced between a very large extent and large extent. Most activities in continuous quality improvement are practiced to a large extent. From the findings all activities show that customer focus practices have been adopted in the respective organizations at large extent. All activities show that top management commitment practices have been adopted in the respective organizations at large extent. It was established that Quality management was embraced in the vision of the company to a large extent as shown by a mean of 4.02. All activities show that ISO 9000 practices have been adopted in the respective organizations at large extent with the mean ranging from 3.61 to 3.92. The successful implementation of quality programs depends on workforce. If manufacturing industry would have more trained, involved and empowered employees it is more likely to realize benefits of implementation of quality management techniques. The findings of research study suggest that management of manufacturing industry should be more involved in quality improvement programs. Therefore, this study recommends that manufacturing firms should consider adopting and implementing other quality management practices for example ISO 9000 and compare the benefits and the challenges of these quality management practices. This will provide a better platform of choosing the quality management practices that lead to improved organizational performance. The study also recommends that manufacturing firms in Kenya should benchmark themselves with the best performing firms globally in order to find out the quality management practices that the firms use in enhancing competitiveness. This will shed more light on the best quality management practices to adapt to increase organizational performance.