Fazli Idris

The impacts of leadership style and best practices on company performances: Empirical evidence from business firms in Malaysia

Many of the organisations competing in the fast-changing business environment are in a constant search for a robust strategy to help survive the new global economic order, making achieving improved performance continuously imperative. The ability to change and adapt to the new business rules demand that organisations acquire critical capabilities. This means the foci of organisational capabilities must hinge on the ability to direct resources on learning leadership style that could drive performance. Leadership capability in the form of transformational style combined with the best practice capability is the key determinants to organisational success. This paper conceptualises these variables and tests their structural linkages to company performance. The findings show that transformational leadership is significantly related to financial performance, and best practice management has mediated their relationship. The study implies that an effective management approach is the one that nurtures organisational change, and which emphasises key aspects of future-oriented elements transformational leadership and internalising best practice. The ability to weld these capabilities into the organisations change effort proves a highly effective means to progress to world-class standard.

The Malaysian Total Performance Excellence Model: A conceptual framework

The growing interest in total performance excellence measurement (TPEM) has led to the emergence of a number of frameworks such as the European Quality Awards (EQA) model, Malcolm Baldrige, Kanjis model and several others. However, these models are based on enablers that are restricted to quality management perspectives. There are other enablers that are deemed to affect performance, as found in other studies outside the total quality management framework (see Flynn et al., 1994, Journal of Operation Management, 11, pp. 339–366; Larrache (2000), http://www.insead.fr/Research/compfit). This paper presents a new framework for TPEM for organizations in Malaysia. The framework consists of a set of dimensions that focuses on, among other things, organizational values and culture, change management, best practices, innovation and productivity. Other dimensions, typical to those in the EQA, Malcolm Baldrige and Kanjis models, are also incorporated in the TPEM framework. These include leadership, policy and str...

Advance mathematical model to study and analyse the effects of total quality management (TQM) and operational flexibility on hospital performance

Total quality management (TQM) and operational flexibility are powerful and evolving management tools that are being implemented in many organisations worldwide, particularly in healthcare services. However, such implementation is yet to be seen in developing nations, particularly in health care. In an attempted response to such a gap, this paper provides a literature review on the principles and scope of TQM and operational flexibility in the healthcare industry and proposes a mathematical model, employing artificial neural networks, to study and analyse the implementation of TQM and operational flexibility dimensions towards improving hospital performance and reducing costs and medical errors. This study is the first of its kind in the field. The results yielded a very high degree of accuracy (more than 99.2%) in relating TQM variables and operational flexibility dimensions (inputs) to hospital performance (output), implying a highly accurate and strong model that can exactly determine the weaknesses in a hospitals performance and can define and pinpoint poor application of TQM and operations flexibility, particularly upon the development of system identification for this model.

Value-based total performance excellence model: A conceptual framework for organisations

This article presents a conceptual framework for the development of a value-based total performance excellence model (VBTPEM) in organisations. This model signifies core values as a strategic component for an organisation to achieve total performance excellence. The VBTPEM is an extension of the earlier version of the TPEM proposed by Husain et al. [Husain, N., Abdullah, M., Idris, F., & Sagir, R.M. (2001). The Malaysian total performance excellence model: A conceptual framework. Total Quality Management, 12(7&8), 926–931] and Abdullah et al. [Abdullah, M., Husain, N., & Nik Hassan, N.M. (2008). Guidelines for implementing value-based total performance excellence model in business organizations. Presentations at the The Islamic Perspective Forum, Manila, Philippines]. This extension integrates the intangible parts of performance measurement that have become a pivotal issue in many organisations. Hence, this paper discussed the core values associated with each of the criteria in the TPEM framework. The significance of the study is that it contributes to the extended version of performance measurement research by integrating core values into the total performance excellence framework. The notion of values-driven total performance excellence applies to an organisation that achieves superiority in both financial and non-financial performances due to reinforcement and internalisation of balanced, viable, aligned, and authentic core values in that organisation [Hultman, K., & Gellerman, B. (2002). Balancing individual and organisational values: Walking the tightrope to success. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons].

The influence of total quality management (TQM) on operational flexibility in Jordanian hospitals

Purpose – The importance of total quality management (TQM) to organizational achievement and performance has been established by many studies. Nevertheless, studies on the implementation of TQM and its relationship to operational flexibility have been limited, particularly in the developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap by exploring the extent of the application of TQM and its influence on operational flexibility in Jordanian hospitals.Design/methodology/approach – The study covers both public (King Abdullah University Hospital) and private (Jordan Hospital and Medical Center) health care services. A survey was conducted using a quantitative approach where the researchers distributed 400 questionnaires to selected respondents. The response rate was 57 percent out of the total questionnaires distributed. TQM is an independent variable which consists of eight principles, namely, leadership, employee management, information analysis, training, customer focus, continuous improvem...

Critical success factors of quality management practices among SMEs in the food processing industry in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to identify and validate a measurement model for assessing the quality management practices among small and medium-sized enterprises, specifically for the food processing industry in developing countries such as Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was initially conducted among SMEs using a questionnaire mailed to the managing director of companies selected from the SMECorp directory. A total of 207 respondents from SMEs were used for further analysis. Two steps of analysis were undertaken to validate the measurement model of critical success factors: principal component analysis and confirmatory analysis. Findings – Eight critical success factors of quality management practices are proposed for assessing quality management practices among SMEs in the food processing industry in Malaysia. A measurement model was then developed. PCA with Varimax rotation revealed 13 components, eight of which were retained for further analysis. First- and second-order C...

The impacts of structural and infrastructural elements to service operations flexibility: The influence of technology

This study investigates the impacts of structural and infrastructural elements and service operations flexibility, particularly the influence of technology. Structural elements decisions are grouped as capacity, location, integration/networking, and technology while infrastructural elements decisions consists worker empowerment, quality leadership, and team management. Service operations flexibility is divided into internal robustness and external flexibility. A large scale survey that involved 9 service industries divided into high-low customer contact groups was conducted with the total of 254 valid responses. The relationships are tested using multiple regression analysis. All independent variables are found to be significantly influencing the two dimensions of operations flexibility with some interesting difference in the degree of standardized beta coefficients. Technology is found to be the prime factor that affects both types of flexibility. We discuss the findings and suggest implications to theory and practices.

The influence of operational flexibility on hospital performance results: a structural equation modelling (SEM) approaches

The research reported in this article has been carried out to identify the constructs and indicators for enhancing the performance in manufacturing system and their effect on business objectives of the organisation in supply chain environment prevailing in Indian textile organisations. This paper is based on the data collected from a survey of 66 Indian textile-related organisations, carried out to ascertain issues related to business objectives of the organisations and factors responsible for improvement in performance of manufacturing system of these organisations. The potential benefits of supply chain implementation are not in doubt. However, the art of designing the right supply chain for Indian textile industry is debatable. Therefore, issues related to these concerns are worthy of future research. This study is a modest contribution toward that end.

Validating dimensions of operations flexibility in Malaysian service firms: a confirmatory factor analytics approach

The main objective of this study was to examine the dimensions of operations flexibility in Malaysian service sectors by adopting the confirmatory factor analytics approach. Through this approach, a model comprising two dimensions of operations flexibility: external flexibility and internal robustness was constructed and an instrument to measure operations flexibility elements in service sectors was developed. To validate the instrument, a survey which involved operations managers from various service sectors in Malaysia was carried out. The convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs were estimated through average variance extraction (AVE) and shared variance (SV). Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to test the goodness of fit of the model. Drawing on a sample of 254 respondents, the survey findings confirm the proposed model. Practically, this research contributes to enhancing the understanding of operations flexibility in the service sector.

A review of relationship between quality management and organizational performance : A study of food processing SMEs

Without compromising the business size and nature, implementation of quality management in organizations are importance to success in market with good quality products, stimulate company competitiveness availability and vital for business survives. However, literatures show a research gap in relationship of quality management practice between organizational performance in small and medium enterprises especially in food industry. The purpose of this study is to develop a proposed conceptual model framework for in order to evaluate their relationship among variables and organizational performance. Total quality management philosophy and approaches has been considered when develop and identifying the model constructs. Then the proposed model for business excellence is develops purposely for SME in Malaysian food industry will be empirically studied.