Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a study comparing the performance of local authorities with two different levels of adoption of quality management (QM). Data for this study were collected from 205 managers of local authorities in West Malaysia. The results revealed that local authorities with high intensive QM secure better results as compared to local authorities with less intensive QM in performance dimensions of customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. This study contributes significantly to the literature by presenting evidence on the difference of performances achieved by high intensive and less intensive implementations of QM. This would suggest that QM implementers need to implement QM to the fullest in order to reap the optimal benefits of implementing it, since less intensive implementations gain performance at a significantly lower level as compared with more intensive implementations. The managerial implications of these findings are also discussed.

Key words: Quality management, organizational performance, public service.