The Influence of Soft and Hard Quality Management on Innovation Performance in UAE Service Sector

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the controversial nature of the relation between quality management (QM) practices and innovation performance in the service sector in the UAE. Quality management was examined from multi-dimensional perspective, namely Soft QM and Hard QM, which adds another aim for this study that is to examine the relation between soft QM and Hard QM practices in the service sector. Quantitative research methodology was followed, while regression analysis and ANOVA tests were conducted to test the hypotheses. The main finding was that soft QM practices are supporting the implementation of hard QM practices in the service sector in the UAE. In addition, both soft and hard QM practices are directly related to the innovation performance with a relatively higher influence of soft QM than hard QM on innovation performance of service organization in the UAE. The main limitation of this study was the number of service sector organizations included in the study, which three in this research are banking, education and telecommunication. Furthermore, the number of participants was not statistically strong enough to generalize the study results. The most important implication of this study for top management in the service sector is that they should concentrate more on the soft QM practices identified in this research (problem solving groups, employees’ suggestion system, and employees’ job-related training) since these practices are essential to implement hard QM practices and support the overall innovation performance of the organization.