Open Access Journal Article

The Moderating Role of Organizational Structure Between Quality Management Systems and Organizational Resilience

by Mohammed Al Balushi a,*
a
The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
JES  2024 2(1):16; https://doi.org/10.58567/jes02010001
Received: 22 September 2023 / Accepted: 10 January 2024 / Published Online: 12 January 2024
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Abstract

Purpose: To realize the benefits a Quality Management System (QMS), an organization needs to effectively implement its principles. This includes embracing these principles within an enabling environment. Hence, organizational structure is a critical success factor for adopting quality management systems. This paper aims at understanding how the organizational structure impacts ISO 9001 QMS implementation and vise versa, besides exploring how quality management initiatives affect organizational resilience through parts. Design/methodology/approach: The research deploys a qualitative methodology, with an outsider-insider approach. 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted, plus one final reflective interview. Interview questions dealt with structural constructs: communication, employee engagement, employee empowerment, process/routine-orientation, multidisciplinarity, cross-functionality, expertise-utilization and change-readiness. The questions also dealt with how the organizational structure impacted ISO 9001 implementation and vice versa. Findings: The results show that ISO 9001 implementation was more successful and fruitful under process-orientation and to some degree under semi-process orientation, while it looked inconsistent under routine-orientation. This indicates a significant role played by the organizational structure when it comes to ISO 9001 implementation. More importantly, the results also demonstrate that ISO 9001 implementation managed to improve organizational resilience by consistently driving the organizational structure toward higher levels of process-orientation for process-oriented units, whereas it failed to realize such impact for routine-oriented units. Originality/value: This study is unique as it is the first - within the reviewed literature - to examine the moderating role of the organizational structure between the ISO 9001 standard and organizational resilience. It draws a roadmap for the successful realization of organizational resilience through quality management systems, considering organizational structure constructs.

Keywords: Organizational structure; Process-orientation; Routine-orientation; Quality management system; ISO 9001; Organizational resilience;
Copyright: © 2024 by Al Balushi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Funding

Oman Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (982/2016)

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ACS Style
Al Balushi, M. The Moderating Role of Organizational Structure Between Quality Management Systems and Organizational Resilience. Journal of Economic Statistics, 2024, 2, 16. https://doi.org/10.58567/jes02010001
AMA Style
Al Balushi M. The Moderating Role of Organizational Structure Between Quality Management Systems and Organizational Resilience. Journal of Economic Statistics; 2024, 2(1):16. https://doi.org/10.58567/jes02010001
Chicago/Turabian Style
Al Balushi, Mohammed 2024. "The Moderating Role of Organizational Structure Between Quality Management Systems and Organizational Resilience" Journal of Economic Statistics 2, no.1:16. https://doi.org/10.58567/jes02010001
APA style
Al Balushi, M. (2024). The Moderating Role of Organizational Structure Between Quality Management Systems and Organizational Resilience. Journal of Economic Statistics, 2(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.58567/jes02010001

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