Does organizational culture moderate the relationship between ISO 9000 soft factors and organizational performance?

The effective quality management system implemented can lead to improve the performance of organization and also enhance their competitive advantage in the global market. The inconsistent findings from published works on the relationship between ISO 9000 and organizational performance may due to the commitment to implement the ISO 9000 requirements or the culture that is established in the organization. Limited research has been done as well focusing only on the soft factors of ISO 9000 and organizational performance moderated by organizational culture. There are numbers of previous studied on soft factors but the factors are mainly derived from total quality management (TQM) factors. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the influence of organizational culture on the relationship between ISO 9000 soft factors and organizational performances. The respondents for this study are from the automotive companies in Malaysia. The questionnaire consists of 74 measured items using 5-point Likert scale are mail to 162 companies based on random sampling from 275 population size. Thirty-three companies responded to the questionnaires, which represent 20% of the samples selected. The data collected was analysed based on Rasch Analysis Model using WINSTEPS 3.69.1.16 as an analysis tool to perform Rasch analysis. The logit value is used instead of the ordinary number. This logit value is used as the unit of measurement, since it is obtained for a linear interval scale. This research employs Modern Test Theory (MTT) in examining the level of soft factors being implemented in the Malaysian automotive companies. The finding revealed that the organizational culture was an obstacle to the relationship between the soft factors of ISO 9000 and organizational performance. In addition to that, the result also revealed that an organization with a high ability in overcoming the organizational culture and resource management items especially employee empowerment and teamwork had a higher possibility to improve their organizational performance. Rewards, clear sense of responsibility and authority will increase employee motivation towards work. This study focuses exclusively on the soft factors of ISO 9000 requirements. However, there are other factors such as measurement and analysis, product realization and documentations etc., which may help the organizations to improve their performance. The finding of this research may assist the organization in designing the human resources policy which related to employee career enhancement. Motivated workers will increase organization efficiency and will lead to increase in organizational performance.