Management Consensus, Its Relation to Quality Performance

Consensus, or the level of agreement among the senior management team of a firm, had been the subject of interest in strategic management literature. Prior studies seemed to suggest that a higher level of agreement among the executive team would be associated with enhanced firm performance. This study extended prior researches on consensus by finding out if senior managers' consensus on quality improvement decision processes (which pertained to management procedures for selecting and implementing an improvement theme or project) will be positively related to firm quality performance. In addition, this study attempted to find out if the firm's emphasis on differentiation strategy vis-à-vis cost leadership strategy will moderate the relationship between consensus on quality improvement and firm quality performance. The study also determined if perceptions on market uncertainty will moderate the relationship between consensus on quality improvement and the quality performance of firms. Primary data were gathered through a survey of 45 Philippine firms taken as sample. Statistical analyses used multiple regression to test the hypothesized relationships among the variables studied.