Effects of Total Quality Management Performance on Dietitians' Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Business and Industry Foodservice Operations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to identify the relationships Total Quality Management (TQM) performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among dietitians in business and industry foodservice. A total of 300 dietitians working in business and industry foodservices in Seoul and Gyeonggi province were surveyed using a self-administrated questionnaire and 203 responses were obtained. The data were analyzed using SPSS Windows (Ver. 12.0) for descriptive analysis and reliability analysis, and AMOS (Ver. 5.0) for structural equation modeling. The respondents were all female, 56.7% single, and 71.4% under regular employment. By foodservice management type, 52.7% of the foodservice operations were self-operated. The majority of the operations provided meals more than twice a day (73.9%), and 70.4% offered a non-selective menu. The dietitians of the contracted foodservices tended to have higher TQM performance scores than those of the self-operated foodservices (P<0.01). There were no significant differences in job satisfaction and organizational commitment scores by the type of the foodservice management. TQM performance was found to have a positive effect on job satisfaction, and job satisfaction affected organizational commitment for both the self-operated and contracted foodservices. A relationship between TQM performance level and organizational commitment of self-operated foodservices was not found. On the other hand, TQM performance level was the principal significant factor for increasing the organizational commitment of contracted foodservices. This research suggests that business and industry foodservices need to improve TQM performance to enhance job satisfaction and organizational commitment of foodservice dietitians and to develop specified TQM strategies that can be applied to each type of foodservice management.