International Journal of Operations & Production Management

Achieving employee commitment for continuous improvement initiatives

Marco Lam, Mark O'Donnell, Dan Robertson,
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Achieving employee commitment Continuous

improvement
for continuous improvement initiatives
initiatives
Marco Lam 201
College of Business, Western Carolina University, Received 15 March 2013
Cullowhee, North Carolina, USA Revised 11 September 2013
3 February 2014
Mark O’Donnell 1 May 2014
Graham School of Business, York College of Pennsylvania, Accepted 6 May 2014
York, Pennsylvania, USA, and
Dan Robertson
WellSpan Health, York, Pennsylvania, USA
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Abstract
Purpose – Although prior research has found that employee participation is key to successfully
implementing quality management initiatives (Baird et al., 2011; de Menezes, 2012; Lagrosen and
Lagrosen, 2005), little research in operations management exists that investigates which management
actions and behaviors lead to employee commitment to such initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to
address this gap in the operations management literature by investigating which influence tactics are
the most effective in soliciting employee commitment to continuous improvement tasks. The paper also
examines how influence tactics affect the supervisor-subordinate relationship and the manager’s
effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement initiatives.
Design/methodology/approach – A survey instrument was used to measure supervisor-subordinate
relationship quality, usage of influence behaviors and participants’ task commitment to continuous
improvement initiatives.
Findings – The results indicate that five of the 11 influence tactics identified in the prior literature, i.e.,
collaboration, consultation, ingratiation, inspirational appeals, and rational persuasion, are significant and
strong predictors of employee commitment to continuous improvement initiatives. Further, analyses show
that these influence tactics are significant drivers of the quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship,
which was found to partially mediate the relationship between influence tactics and the supervisor’s
effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement projects.
Research limitations/implications – Since the extant CI and Total Quality Management literature
has looked at the plant or program level rather than the worker-level as in the research, the findings
offer one explanation as to why earlier studies investigating the relationship between quality
management programs and increased organizational performance reported mixed results.
Practical implications – Increasing managers’ awareness and usage of influence tactics may
increase the success rate of continuous improvement projects as well the quality of the relationship
with the manager’s subordinates.
Originality/value – While the extant literature has argued that management support and employee
commitment are key components of a continuous improvement project implementation, little has been
written about the specific management actions and behaviors that lead to success.
Keywords Task commitment, Leadership, Quality management, Continuous improvement,
Process improvement, Influence tactics, Leader-member exchange (LMX)
Paper type Research paper
International Journal of Operations
& Production Management
Vol. 35 No. 2, 2015
The authors would like to thank workshop participants at Eastern Illinois University and pp. 201-215
University of Mary Washington and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0144-3577
and suggestions. DOI 10.1108/IJOPM-03-2013-0134
 IJOPM 1. Introduction
35,2 Total Quality Management (TQM), defined by Spector and Beer (1994) as “the
continuous improvement of work processes to enhance the organization’s ability to
deliver high-quality products or services in a cost-effective manner,” is one of the most
significant research themes in operations management (Nair, 2006). Continuous
improvement, which is the ongoing improvement of products, programs, services, or
202 processes (Blazey, 2006), plays a critical role in a TQM environment (Anderson et al.,
1994), and prior research has found that ongoing improvement is one of the most
important quality management constructs that lead directly to organizational
performance (Olson et al., 2008; Yeung et al., 2005). While there is a substantial body
of research that examines the technical aspects of TQM and continuous improvement,
only a few studies have examined the role of employee attitudes in contributing to the
success of TQM and continuous improvement initiatives. Baird et al. (2011) found that an
organization’s culture, such as whether or not the organizational culture emphasized
teamwork and respect for people, was associated with the use of several TQM
practices, such as quality data and reporting, supplier quality and management, and
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product/service design. Lagrosen and Lagrosen (2005) found that an organization’s

adoption of key values, including widespread employee participation, correlated to
successful quality management.
Despite the above-noted findings that employee participation is key to successfully
implementing quality management initiatives, little research in operations
management exists that investigates which management actions and behaviors
lead to commitment (Gattiker and Carter, 2010). As noted by Schroeder et al. (2005),
although leadership has been widely studied in the management field, it has not
“been brought to bear in the quality field.” The present study aims to fill some of
these gaps in the existing operations management literature by identifying which
specific influence tactics tend to be more effective than others in soliciting employee
commitment to continuous improvement tasks, and by examining how the use of
those influence tactics affects the manager’s effectiveness in implementing continuous
improvement initiatives.
There are multiple objectives of this study. First, we investigate which influence
tactics are used most frequently by managers whose subordinates are highly
committed to continuous improvement initiatives. Second, we examine whether the
quality of a manager’s relationship with each subordinate moderates the impact that a
manager’s use of influence tactics has on the employee’s commitment to continuous
improvement tasks. Third, we investigate which influence tactics are used most
frequently by managers who have built strong relationships with subordinates. Fourth,
we explore whether the quality of a manager’s relationship with his or her subordinates
partially mediates the relationship between the manager’s use of select influence tactics
and subordinate ratings of the manager’s effectiveness in implementing continuous
improvement projects. By better understanding the particular management actions
that motivate employees to participate in continuous improvement projects and
strengthen managers’ relationships with their subordinates, continuous improvement
projects are more likely to be successful.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we discuss
the prior literature and develop our research questions and hypotheses. The
method and measures are discussed in Sections 3 and 4, respectively. In Section 5,
we cover data analysis and results. Finally, in Section 6, we provide a summary and
our conclusions.
 2. Literature review and hypotheses development Continuous
While several papers have documented a positive relationship between quality improvement
management and organizational performance (e.g. Baird et al., 2011; Boulter et al., 2013;
Chen et al., 1997; Easton and Jarrell, 1998; Lagrosen and Lagrosen, 2005; Terziovski and
initiatives
Samson, 1999; Yeung et al., 2006) several papers have documented unsatisfactory
results (e.g. Degeling and Carnegie, 1995; Brown, 1993; Tatikonda and Tatikonda, 1996;
Huq and Martin, 2000). However, the underlying practices in quality management are 203
widely believed fundamental and essential for effective management and a firm’s
competiveness (Nair, 2006).
One of the key factors often cited in the literature as essential to a successful quality
management program is top management support (e.g. Benson et al., 1991; Flynn et al.,
1995; Kathuria et al., 2010). Management support has been documented to be important
in a variety of operations management settings, including JIT purchasing initiatives
(e.g. Kaynak and Hartley, 2006), environmental projects (e.g. Gattiker and Carter, 2010),
ERP implementation (e.g. Stratman and Roth, 2002), patient safety (McFadden et al.,
2009), and TQM (e.g. Carman et al., 2010; Deming, 1986; Grover et al., 2006; Laohavichien
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et al., 2011; Saraph et al., 1989). In addition to management support, an important

construct underlying successful TQM implementations is employee involvement (e.g.
Ahire et al., 1996; Cua et al., 2001; de Menezes, 2012). Langabeer et al. (2009) found in
their survey of hospital executives that physicians were the greatest organizational
obstacle to quality initiatives.
Ahire et al. (1996) considered four contextual factors underlying employee
commitment to participation: explicitness of performance target, revocability of actions,
consequent publicity, and ownership of actions. Because the success of a TQM
program depends upon employee commitment (Lam, 1997), understanding which
influence tactics are effective in soliciting employee commitment to continuous
improvement projects, the mechanism for implementing TQM, is especially important
in a TQM environment.
Many organizations utilize a continuous improvement or quality department.
In addition, Delbridge and Barton (2002), found that many organizations recently, or
imminently, introduced at least one specialist with full time continuous improvement
responsibility. In those situations, the continuous improvement agent often has little
authority over the target persons, which makes the employment of appropriate
proactive influence tactics especially important in persuading someone to carry out an
immediate request (Yukl et al., 2008).

Influence tactics
Proactive influence tactics are actions taken in an effort to persuade someone to carry
out an immediate task objective, such as influencing someone to complete a new task
(Yukl, 2010), and the success of an influence attempt depends greatly on the tactic used
(Yukl et al., 2008). The prior literature has found support for a taxonomy of 11 proactive
influence tactics: rational persuasion, exchange, inspirational appeals, legitimating
tactics, apprising, pressure, collaboration, ingratiation, consultation, personal appeals,
and coalition tactics (Yukl et al., 2005, 2008). Each of these 11 influence behaviors is
described below.
Yukl (2010) defined rational persuasion as “[using] logical arguments and factual
evidence to show a proposal or request is feasible and relevant for attaining important
task objectives” (p. 172). Apprising is defined as “[explaining] how carrying out a
request or supporting a proposal will benefit the target personally or help advance the
 IJOPM target person’s career” (Yukl, 2010, p. 172). Inspirational appeals refers to “[making] an
35,2 appeal to values and ideals or [seeking] to arouse the target person’s emotions to gain
commitment for a request or proposal” (Yukl, 2010, p. 172), and consultation refers
to “[encouraging] the target to suggest improvements in a proposal or to help plan
an activity or change for which the target person’s support and assistance are
desired” (Yukl, 2010, p. 172). Yukl (2010) described exchange as “[offering] an incentive,
204 [suggesting] an exchange of favors, or [indicating] willingness to reciprocate at a later
time if the target will do what the agent requests” (p. 172). Collaboration is defined as
“[offering] to provide relevant resources and assistance if the target will carry out a
request or approve a proposed change” (Yukl, 2010, p. 172). Personal appeals refers to
“[asking] the target to carry out a request or support a proposal out of friendship, or
[asking] for a personal favor before saying what it is” (Yukl, 2010, p. 172). Yukl (2010)
described ingratiation as “[using] praise and flattery before or during an influence
attempt, or [expressing] confidence in the target’s ability to carry out a difficult request”
(p. 172). Legitimating tactics are defined as “[seeking] to establish the legitimacy of a
request or [verifying] authority to make it by referring to rules, policies, contracts, or
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precedent” (Yukl, 2010, p. 172). Pressure refers to “[using] demands, threats, frequent
checking, or persistent reminders to influence the target to carry out a request” (Yukl,
2010, p. 172), and coalition tactics refers to “[seeking] the aid of others to persuade the
target to do something, or [using] the support of others as a reason for the target to agree”
(Yukl, 2010, p. 172).
Only a few studies (e.g. Yukl and Tracey, 1992; Yukl et al., 2008) have examined
which of the above-noted proactive influence tactics are most likely to result in task
commitment by the subordinate. Yukl and Tracey (1992) found only four tactics
(rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, and ingratiation) to produce
a correlation with task commitment above 0.30, and only two of those tactics
(inspirational appeals and consultation) produced a correlation above 0.40. However,
the Yukl and Tracey (1992) study did not include two important influence tactics:
collaboration and apprising. In a validation study for a questionnaire that included all
11 influence tactics, Yukl et al. (2008) found four tactics (collaboration, rational
persuasion, consultation, and inspirational appeals) to produce a correlation with task
commitment above 0.30, and only rational persuasion correlated with task commitment
above 0.40 in both of the study’s two samples. However, neither the Yukl and Tracey
(1992) study nor the Yukl et al. (2008) study examined the impact of influence tactics on
task commitment exclusively in regard to continuous improvement initiatives. Hence,
we first investigate which influence tactics are most likely to result in task commitment
in a continuous improvement setting. This is formally stated as follows:

RQ1. Which influence tactics are most effective in soliciting subordinate

commitment to continuous improvement initiatives?

Leader-member exchange (LMX) as a moderator

LMX theory describes the process by which a leader (e.g. manager) develops a
relationship with each individual subordinate, and the theory emphasizes that a leader
often forms favorable relationships with some subordinates and weak relationships
with other subordinates (Dansereau et al., 1975; Graen and Cashman, 1975). There are
several benefits to establishing a high-quality relationship for both the manager and
the subordinate (see Gerstner and Day, 1997; Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995). Yukl (2010)
noted that a subordinate that has a favorable relationship with a manager is likely to
 demonstrate more support of the leader. This support of the leader and trust in the Continuous
relationship might impact the effectiveness of the various influence tactics. We improvement
therefore hypothesize that the effectiveness of the influence tactics used by continuous
improvement agents is moderated by the quality of the LMX relationship. This is
initiatives
formally stated, in the alternative form as follows:

H1. The effectiveness of the influence tactics used by managers to solicit 205
subordinate commitment to continuous improvement initiatives is moderated
by the quality of the LMX relationship.

Relationship quality as an outcome

Although the relationship between a manager and a subordinate can be assessed at a
specific point in time, it is also important to acknowledge that relationships are not static
and that a person’s working relationship with another person often changes over time.
Therefore, in addition to examining the impact that LMX has on the effectiveness of
influence tactics in producing subordinate commitment to immediate tasks, it is also
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worthwhile to explore what role influence tactics play in forming strong relationships.
Research has found numerous benefits for a manager of achieving high LMX relationships,
including increased subordinate performance, high subordinate job satisfaction, and
stronger subordinate commitment to the organization (see Gerstner and Day, 1997; Graen
and Uhl-Bien, 1995). Therefore, it is desirable for a manager to determine which actions he
or she can employ to further strengthen his or her relationship with each subordinate.
Few studies have examined the impact of influence tactics on the quality of the LMX
relationship, and we were unable to identify any studies that have examined the
relationship among influence tactics and LMX exclusively in a continuous
improvement setting. In MANOVA analyses including all 11 influence tactics, Yukl
and Michel (2006) found positive and significant relationships between LMX and
rational persuasion, consultation, collaboration, and inspirational appeals, with mixed
results for ingratiation. Yukl et al. (2008) found positive and significant correlations
between LMX and each of the five above-noted influence tactics along with apprising.
However, the samples used in both of these studies were not exclusive to organizations
employing continuous improvement initiatives:

RQ2. Which influence tactics are used most frequently by managers who have
developed strong relationships with subordinates?

Managerial effectiveness
Some managers are more effective than others in implementing continuous
improvement initiatives (e.g. Huq and Martin, 2000). In addition to likely being a
determinant of a subordinate’s commitment to an immediate task, the use of influence
tactics over time also likely impacts subordinates’ perceptions regarding a manager’s
effectiveness. Support for this is provided by the findings of Yukl and Tracey (1992)
and Yukl et al. (2008). Yukl et al. (2008) found that the use of four influence tactics
(rational persuasion, collaboration, consultation, and inspirational appeals) with
subordinates significantly distinguished the most effective managers from the least
effective managers. In an earlier study that only examined nine influence tactics Yukl
and Tracey (1992) found only rational persuasion to correlate higher than 0.30 with
subordinate ratings of managerial effectiveness, however, significant and positive
correlations were also produced for inspirational appeals and consultation.
 IJOPM Given the aforementioned benefits of establishing high-quality relationships with
35,2 subordinates (e.g. increased subordinate performance and job satisfaction) it is likely
that a manager’s effectiveness in implementing important initiatives is also impacted
by his or her ability to develop strong relationships with employees. Therefore, we
hypothesize that the supervisor’s use of influence tactics and the quality of his or
her relationship with the subordinate jointly affect the perceived effectiveness of the
206 supervisor in implementing continuous improvement initiatives. Formally stated, in
the alternative form as follows:

H2. The overall effectiveness of managers in implementing and building support for
continuous improvement initiatives is driven by the manager’s use of influence
tactics and the quality of the manager’s relationships with subordinates.
3. Method
To test the hypotheses, we designed and administered a survey in the fall of 2011.
Online surveys were sent to health care professionals employed by a large health care
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organization in the northeastern USA. The health care organization is comprised of two
hospitals, ten outpatient health centers, and physician offices in over 40 locations.
Of the 242 surveys that were completed, one contained missing data on more than
90 percent of the items and one of the surveys missed data on eight of the 66 items.
These observations were subsequently eliminated from the analysis. Of the remaining
240 responses, 38 respondents did not answer one of the questions, six respondents did
not answer two of the questions, and five did not answer three of the questions. We
used pair-wise deletion to handle the missing data.
The average age of the respondents was 46.3 years (standard deviation 10.1 years),
the average time with the organization was 11.8 years (standard deviation 9.4 years),
and the average time respondents have worked with their current supervisor was
4.9 years (standard deviation 4.6 years). Approximately 83 percent of the respondents
were female, 37.2 percent held an associate’s degree, 16.9 percent a bachelor’s degree,
16.9 percent a graduate degree while 29 percent held a high school diploma or GED.
Of the participants, 38.6 percent were directly involved with patient care (i.e. clinical
staff) and 61.4 percent were not (i.e. non-clinical).

4. Measures
The 44-item Influence Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) (Yukl et al., 2008) was used to
measure the 11 influence tactics: rational persuasion, exchange, inspirational appeals,
legitimating, apprising, pressure, collaboration, ingratiation, consultation, personal
appeals, and coalition tactics. The question stem was rephrased to clarify that participants
were to respond to items in regard to tasks or projects that were part of the continuous
improvement initiative at their organization. This change was necessary as the continuous
improvement setting is a primary focus of our study. Response options and question items
on the IBQ were otherwise unaltered. Extensive support for the validity and reliability of
the IBQ was provided by Yukl et al. (2008).
The 12-item LMX-MDM (Liden and Maslyn, 1998) was employed to measure the
quality of the LMX relationship. Validation evidence for the construct validity of
the LMX-MDM has been provided by prior research, including confirmatory factor
analyses by Erdogan and Enders (2007) and Wang et al. (2005). Evidence that the
LMX-MDM can be reliably employed as a single measure of the overall quality of a
leader’s relationship with a subordinate was provided by Eisenberger et al. (2010).
 Respondents were offered seven response options ranging from 1 ¼ “strongly Continuous
disagree” to 7 ¼ “strongly agree.” improvement
Subordinate task commitment was measured with a single item which offered a
brief definition of task commitment followed by the question, “In regard to tasks or
initiatives
projects that are part of the continuous improvement initiative at your organization,
how many influence attempts by your immediate supervisor have resulted in your
complete commitment to the requested task or project?” Participants were 207
offered seven response options ranging from “none of them” to “all of them.” This
item is an adaptation of the single-item effectiveness measure employed by Yukl
and Tracey (1992).
Perceived effectiveness of the manager in implementing a continuous improvement
initiative was measured with a one-item scale asking subordinates to rate their
respective manager’s overall effectiveness in implementing and building support for
the continuous improvement initiative. Respondents were offered seven response
options ranging from “very ineffective” to “very effective.”
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5. Data analysis and results

We used SPSS 17 and SmartPLS 2.0.M3 for measurement validation and to test our
conceptual models. To test the statistical significance of our path coefficients, we used
bootstrapping with 200 re-samples.

Instrument validation
As noted in the Measures section of the present work, the IBQ and LMX-MDM have
been validated in previous studies. To further test the psychometric properties of the
scales, we use three processes proposed in the prior literature: Cronbach’s α coefficient
(Cronbach, 1951), Fornell and Larcker’s (1981) measure of internal consistency to test
composite reliability, and item loadings. For all three measures, scores exceeding 0.70
indicate construct reliability. In addition to construct reliability, we assessed the
convergent reliability. Gefen and Straub (2005) argue that convergent reliability is
demonstrated when all the item loadings exceed 0.70 and the average variance
extracted (AVE) for each construct is above 0.50. A high AVE indicates that the
construct captures higher construct-related variance than error variance. The results of
these analyses are reported in Table I.

AVE Composite reliability Cronbach’s α

Rational persuasion 0.8238 0.9492 0.9289

Exchange 0.8363 0.8363 0.9355
Inspirational appeals 0.7801 0.9340 0.9059
Legitimating 0.7679 0.9297 0.8993
Apprising 0.8062 0.9432 0.9203
Pressure 0.7369 0.9177 0.8826
Collaboration 0.7966 0.9399 0.9149
Ingratiation 0.8345 0.9527 0.9337 Table I.
Consultation 0.8551 0.9593 0.9434 AVEs, Composite
Personal appeals 0.7257 0.9136 0.9059 reliabilities, and
Coalition 0.5530 0.8295 0.7753 Cronbach’s α’s for
LMX 0.6857 0.8956 0.8407 multi-item constructs
 IJOPM 6. Results
35,2 To investigate our first research question, we identified the influence tactics that were most
strongly correlated with subordinate task commitment. Which the exception of Personal
Appeal, all influence tactics showed statistically significant correlations with task
commitment. The influence tactics most strongly associated (correlations exceeding 0.40
and statistically significant) with commitment were: consultation, ingratiation, collaboration,
208 rational persuasion, and inspirational appeals. These results are reported in Table II.
Next, we regressed the five influence tactics most strongly correlated with
commitment to continuous improvement tasks on task commitment. The results for these
five models are reported in Table III, panel A. The variance in task commitment that is
explained by these models ranges from 16.1 to 23.4 percent. Together, the five influence
tactics that were found to be most effective in soliciting employee commitment to
continuous initiatives explained 27.7 percent of the variation in task commitment.
The model is depicted in Figure 1.
Then we tested our first hypothesis that the relationship quality as measured
by LMX moderates the effectiveness of the various influence tactics in soliciting
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subordinate commitment to continuous improvement initiatives. Regression was used

to investigate the moderating effect of LMX. The regression results are reported in
Table III, panel B. With the exception of the Ingratiation × LMX interaction, none of the
interaction terms were significant (p W 0.05).
To test our second research question we analyzed the correlation between LMX and
each of the 11 proactive influence tactics. The influence tactics most strongly
associated (correlations exceeding 0.40 and statistically significant) with the quality of

Commitment Supervisor effectiveness LMX

1. Consultation 0.489 0.603 0.677

0.000 0.000 0.000
2. Ingratiation 0.461 0.410 0.489
0.000 0.000 0.000
3. Collaboration 0.430 0.575 0.620
0.000 0.000 0.000
4. Rational persuasion 0.420 0.653 0.682
0.000 0.000 0.000
5. Inspirational appeals 0.405 0.544 0.536
0.000 0.000 0.000
Table II. 6. Apprising 0.365 0.376 0.376
Correlations and 0.000 0.000 0.000
associated p-values 7. Legitimating 0.307 0.134 0.109
between influence 0.000 0.044 0.109
tactics and 8. Pressure −0.213 −0.465 −0.619
commitment, 0.001 0.000 0.000
leader-member 9. Exchange 0.155 0.093 0.114
exchange, and 0.020 0.162 0.078
supervisor 10. Coalition 0.137 −0.111 −0.112
effectiveness in 0.037 0.094 0.040
implementing 11. Personal appeals 0.081 −0.144 −0.132
continuous 0.218 0.030 0.084
improvement 12. LMX 0.407 0.756 1.000
initiatives 0.000 0.000 0.000
 Panel A: simple linear regression coefficients and R2 Continuous
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 R2 improvement
1. Consultation 0.484** 0.234
2. Ingratiation 0.458** 0.210
initiatives
3. Collaboration 0.428** 0.183
4. Rational persuasion 0.416** 0.173
5. Inspirational appeal 0.402** 0.161
Panel B: regression coefficients and R2 209
1. Consultation 0.267*
LMX 0.095
Consultation × LMX 0.166
2
R 0.248
2. Ingratiation 0.083
LMX 0.110
Ingratiation × LMX 0.362**
R2 0.269
3. Collaboration 0.259*
LMX 0.210*
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Collaboration × LMX 0.097

R2 0.222
4. Rational persuasion 0.253*
LMX 0.227*
Rational persuasion × LMX 0.007 Table III.
R2 0.200 Regression models
5. Inspirational appeal 0.255* for commitment to
LMX 0.268* continuous
Inspirational appeal × LMX 0.056 improvement (DV)
R2 0.212 and various
Notes: *,**p-value o0.05 and p-valueo 0.01, respectively influence tactics (IV)

Rational
Persuasion

Inspirational
Appeals

Commitment
Collaboration R 2 = 0.277

Ingratiation Figure 1.
Impact of influence
tactics on
commitment to
continuous
Consultation improvement
initiatives
 IJOPM the supervisor-subordinate relationship were: consultation, ingratiation, collaboration,
35,2 rational persuasion, and inspirational appeals (see Table II). This is an interesting
finding as these are the same five influence behaviors that were found to have the
strongest positive correlations with task commitment.
Finally, we tested how the supervisor’s relationship with the subordinate and the
supervisor’s use of influence tactics affect the supervisor’s effectiveness in implementing
210 continuous improvement initiatives. Our results show that 59.9 percent of the variance
in supervisor effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement initiatives is
explained by his or her use of influence tactics and the supervisor’s relationship with his
or her subordinate (LMX). Our results also show that the five influence tactics included in
the analysis explained 57.4 percent of the variation in relationship quality. The model is
shown in Figure 2. The results suggest that influence tactics used by the manager impact
the quality of the relationship as measured by LMX and relationship quality and the use
of select influence tactics are significant predictors of perceived managerial effectiveness
in implementing continuous improvement initiatives.
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7. Summary and conclusion

Improving an organization’s ability to deliver high-quality products or services in a
cost-effective manner is the objective of TQM programs (Spector and Beer, 1994), and
continuous improvement initiatives are the mechanisms used accomplish this objective.
Prior research has identified several examples of successful continuous improvement
initiatives (e.g. Olson et al., 2008; Yeung et al., 2005). However, prior research has also
found that a large percentage of continuous improvement initiatives are unsuccessful
(e.g. Beer et al., 1990; Beer, 2003; Huq and Martin, 2000), and our study offers one
explanation as to why many of those initiatives may not have succeeded. Additionally,
our findings suggest specific actions managers can take to increase the likelihood of
success for future continuous improvement initiatives.

Rational
Persuasion

Effectiveness
Inspirational R 2 = 0.599
Appeals

0.567
Figure 2. Collaboration
Impact of influence
tactics on
relationship
quality (LMX) Ingratiation
and supervisor LMX
effectiveness in R 2 = 0.574
implementing
continuous
improvement Consultation
projects
 Prior research on proactive influence tactics suggests that all influence tactics are Continuous
not equally effective, and that different influence tactics often result in different improvement
outcomes (Yukl, 2010). Our paper offers a valuable contribution to the operations
management literature by identifying which proactive influence tactics are the
initiatives
most effective in soliciting task commitment in a continuous improvement setting.
In particular, our findings show that managers that use certain influence tactics, namely,
collaboration, consultation, ingratiation, inspirational appeals, and rational persuasion, are 211
more likely to achieve subordinates’ commitment to continuous improvement tasks.
Achieving employee commitment is essential, and while prior research has found that
employee participation is key to successfully implementing quality management initiatives
(Baird et al., 2011; de Menezes, 2012; Lagrosen and Lagrosen, 2005), prior research in the
operations management literature has not yet shown which proactive influence tactics
could be employed to achieve such employee commitment.
The findings of our study not only identify which influence tactics are most likely to
achieve employee commitment to continuous improvement initiatives, but our study
also showed that the five influence tactics we identified positively correlated with the
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quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship. Establishing positive relationships

with employees has an intrinsic value, but it is also noteworthy to acknowledge that
strengthening such relationships offers tangible benefits for managers as well. There is
a substantial body of research showing the benefits of establishing strong relationships
with employees (see Gerstner and Day, 1997), and our study further shows how the
quality of supervisor-subordinate relationships correlates strongly to a supervisor’s
effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement initiatives. In other words,
better workplace relationships contribute to better results, and our study has identified
actions managers can take to strengthen those relationships.
One purpose behind our research was to examine actions (i.e. influence tactics) that
managers can employ to improve the overall effectiveness of continuous improvement
initiatives. Our study identified five influence tactics and showed that these tactics
along with supervisor-subordinate relationship quality contributed greatly to the
explanation of whether or not a supervisor was perceived as effective in implementing
continuous improvement initiatives. Because prior TQM literature has looked at the
plant or program level rather than the worker-level as in this research, this finding
offers one explanation as to why some earlier studies found the existence of a quality
management program to result in increased organizational performance while other
studies did not find the existence of such programs to increase organizational
performance. In other words, a manager’s decision regarding which proactive influence
tactics to use may be a key factor in whether or not continuous improvement initiatives
produce the intended results.
Like all studies, this study has limitations. For instance, in this study, the subordinates’
commitment to continuous improvement tasks was measured in the aggregate, while their
commitment to individual tasks was not assessed. Future research can therefore
investigate the effectiveness of the various influence tactics in soliciting task commitment
to specific, individual tasks in continuous improvement settings. Another limitation
concerns the present study’s use of surveys. While one advantage of survey studies is
enhanced external validity this approach is not able to show causality. Future research
can therefore use an experimental approach to test the direct causal effect implied by our
models. In this study we used perceptual data. This is a potential shortcoming of all
survey research. However, the use of one health care system aids in addressing the issue.
Additionally, prior research has found a strong positive correlation between self-reported
 IJOPM measures and objective measures (Dess and Robinson, 1984; Ketokivi and Schroeder,
35,2 2004). Finally, we only use data from one large health care organization. While our results
are consistent with the findings in the leadership literature, care should be taken when
trying to generalize these results to other settings.
Our study not only provides an important contribution to the operations management
literature, but there are clear practical implications of this study as well. We provide
212 specific behaviors that have been shown to improve subordinate commitment to
continuous improvement tasks. The managers that use these influence tactics are also
more likely to have strong relationships with their subordinates and are more likely to be
perceived as effective in implementing continuous improvement in their organizations.
Hence, increasing a manager’s awareness and usage of these influence tactics, i.e.
collaboration, consultation, ingratiation, inspirational appeals, and rational persuasion,
may increase the success rate of continuous improvement projects as well the quality of
the relationships with the manager’s subordinates.
While our study focussed on identifying specific actions to help managers find
success in implementing continuous improvement initiatives, our findings invite a
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broader discussion regarding how managers should approach their duties. While it can
be easy to preoccupy oneself with the technical details of a quality management project,
managers must remember to maintain a broad perspective and offer attention to both
the technical aspects of quality management as well as the behavioral component of
management. This is consistent with the suggestion by Bolman and Deal (2013) that
successful managers tend to be those who focus on not only structure and task but also
human behavior. Just as a highly motivated group of employees will be unsuccessful if
they are asked to operate within a poorly structured quality management program,
even the most technically precise quality management program will fail if employees
are unmotivated and lack commitment to the program’s success.
Prior operations management research has acknowledged that organizational culture
and employee participation are important when implementing quality management
(Baird et al., 2011; Lagrosen and Lagrosen, 2005), and the findings of our study encourage
a discussion of how to best achieve such participation. When examining the specifics of
our findings, what this means for practice is that managers now have information on
specific actions they can take to increase the likelihood of success for a continuous
improvement initiative. On a broader level, our findings remind managers that success is
achieved by offering attention to not only the technical aspects of a quality management
program but to the critical role of human behavior as well.

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About the authors

Dr Marco Lam is an Associate Professor of Accounting. His research interests include judgment
and decision making and performance measurement.
Dr Mark O’Donnell is an Assistant Professor of Management. His research interests include
leadership behavior, influence, leader-member relationships, motivation, and employee commitment.
Dan Robertson, MBA, CSSBB, CMQ is a Senior Performance Improvement Specialist and a
Performance Improvement Education Coordinator.

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