Quality management (QM) implementation in the Kuwaiti Oil Industry
: An empirical study and a proposed generic framework

  • Reem Al-Shammari

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Philosophy

Abstract

In an Arab oil producing country in the Middle East such as Kuwait, Oil industry is considered as the
main and most important industry of the country. This industry’s importance emerged from the
significant role it plays in both country’s national economy and also global economy. Moreover, Oil
industry’s criticality comes from its interconnectivity with national security and power in the Middle
East region. Hence, conducting this research in this crucial industry had certainly added values to
companies in this industry as it investigated thoroughly the main components of the TQM
implementation process and identified which components affects significantly TQM’s implementation and its gained business results.
In addition, as the Oil sector is a large sector that is known for its richness of employees with
different national cultures and backgrounds. Thus, this culture-heterogeneous industry seems to be
the most appropriate environment to address and satisfy a need in the literature to investigate the
national culture values’ effects on TQM implementation process.
Furthermore, this research has developed a new conceptual model of TQM implementation process
in the Kuwaiti Oil industry that applies in general to operations and productions organizations at the Kuwaiti business environment and in specific to organizations in the Oil industry, as well it serves as a good theoretical model for improving operations and production level of the oil industry in other developing and developed countries. Thus, such research findings minimized the literature’s gap found the limited amount of empirical research of TQM implementation in well-developed industries existing in an Arab, developing countries and specifically in Kuwait, where there was no coherent national model for a universal TQM implementation in the Kuwaiti Oil industry in specific and Kuwaiti business environment in general. Finally, this newly developed research framework, which emerged from the literature search, was validated by rigorous quantitative analysis tools including SPSS and Structural Equation Modeling. The quantitative findings of questionnaires collected were supported by the qualitative findings of interviews conducted.
Date of Award28 Jun 2013
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • Aston University
SupervisorPrasanta Dey (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • structural equation modeling (SEM)
  • national quality awards (MBNQA)
  • operations and production
  • framework
  • Middle East

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