Performance of local authorities: Analysis on two different levels of quality adoption

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.
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