An empirical assessment of quality: research considerations

This paper examines research design issues in quality management studies. Potential research problems are identified and suggestions provided on how these problems could be addressed through effective research design techniques. A good research design enables the researcher to address the right questions and to provide meaningful recommendations. The emphasis of this paper is on empirical research in total quality management. Empirical studies are now common in validating some of the claims associated with quality, especially its association with organizational performance. However, conclusions on tests conducted on quality hypotheses are as good as the research design. Therefore, empirical researchers in the quality management field need to focus more attention on their research design and methodology to ensure that their conclusions are indeed a reflection of their hypotheses.