Free Essay: The Relationship Between Quality Management Practices and Innovation

The main aim of the paper was to identify whether the quality management practices that had been applied were in line with the five types of innovation. The five types of innovation that were put under test included the radical product, radical process, incremental product, incremental process and also the administrative innovation. There are a number of quality management processes, and each of them had to be chosen skilfully so that they could be placed under analysis by being passed through a number stages. In that case, there was a need to find out whether the kind of relationship that exists between quality management practices and innovation.

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Research Design including an evaluation of the strengths and limitations of the conceptual model and quantitative research methods

The research design, in this case, was quantitative as it entailed the collection of data from different sections and departments. The data was later on analysed, and conclusions were made to get an assurance of all that needed to be put in place. Quantitative research entails the collection of data using samples that have been put in place and also the use of questionnaires to get details of the entire issue from the respondents as well. The strength of this research is that there was the collection of data from over 2100 firms and this shows that the data was accurate having in mind that the sample was also significant. The main limitation, in this case, is that even though a total of 2100 questionnaires were sent to the firms, only 242 were completed and returned. The other thing is that about 19 of them were not completed and therefore the quantitative research ended up being erroneous. The conceptual model, in this case, was in a large number of hypotheses that had been set to have a bright idea of the relationship that exists between quantitative management and innovations.

Report of the findings/results and their analysis

The report of the findings was done perfectly and skilfully as all that was needed to know about the outcome of the research which was indicated in this section. The major problem that was seen in this report is that the results were combined under the same section with the discussion and implications. This was an aspect that contributed to one of the limitations that were connected to the paper. One who is going through this section would find it difficult to identify that the results and discussion because they were all summarised in the same section. The implications should have been in another subtopic as they are discussing outcomes which are not similar to the results that were found in the study.

The findings, in this case, proved that there was indeed a relationship that exists between quality management measures and innovation when looked from the perspective of an organization. The results showed that 17 out of 19 hypotheses that were put under test proved the same results and this was a clear indication that the assumptions were correct and they should be upheld whenever an organization wants to advance to the next level when it comes to changes that are caused by the innovation. All organizations are supposed to be able to manage the processes that seem to be beneficial instead of struggling with the ones that only utilize a lot of resources leaving aside the primary objective.

The results, in this case, were not clear on the reason as to why the firms are supposed to make sure that all the types of innovation are upheld. This means that anyone who wants to get something out of it will not be able because he or she is well conversant with the types of innovation that are supposed to be put in place in the organization at all times. Having in mind that the study was quantitative, there was an expectation that all the statistical figures that were collected were to be reflected in the results as they were calculated and compared to conclude. Even though all these factors were not there, the report still managed to make it clear that quality management measures are related to the type of innovation at hand.

Discussion of the results of the existing literature

The existing literature is on the notion that a set of QM practices have got some relations to the kind of innovation that one wants to put in place in an organization. This can be seen from the empirical studies that prove that QM practices have got the capability of providing all the people who are working in the research and development departments with the resources that they need to be able to implement all the all the innovative activities that they have been put in place over time. The literature is just giving an aspect of the kind of things have already been done in the same field.

The kind of results that were obtained after carrying out the research was supporting whatever was in the literature review based on the type of innovations that exits after a company has taken part in a quality management practice for a long while. There were over 11 hypotheses that needed to be twisted, and they were based on the fact that innovation goes hand in hand with the rules and quality management practices. For instance, H1 was on the notion that management leadership is positively associated with training and employee relations that have been put in place. In that case, the report was accurate in this case, and the critique can only be subjected to the fact that it had many hypotheses that needed to be provided.

Main contributions to the knowledge of the empirical research study.

This research was not clear on the empirical research study that needed to be carried out to get the experience that is related to the five types of innovations. Most of the results were based on abstract ideas and assumptions that needed to be put in place to make sure that all the hypotheses that were supposed to be tested came out clearly and as per the set expectations. In that case, the research was not clear when it came to the knowledge of an empirical research study.

Even though this was true, it still touched on the employee relations which has been a significant contributor when it comes to issues of innovation and implementing them in different firms. They are the ones who make sure that quality is maintained and also come up with ideas that are supposed to be implemented. The way in which the report was presented was a clear indication that only a few first-hand data was collected as the rest were obtained from the generalization of all the factors that were put in place. In that case, the empirical aspects of the research did not come out clear or as per the expectations.