Antecedents and Consequences of Cost of Quality in Human Resource Practices of Small and Medium Enterprises in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The study is focused on the analysis of the impact of the Human Resource practices (HR Planning, Communication, training and development and performance evaluation and feedback) in the Small and Medium Enterprises of Pakistan on the Costs of Quality like lack of commitment, cynicism, intention to quit and absenteeism, considering it as an expense. The study will also evaluate the ultimate impact of these costs on the performance of the organization. The mediating role of the Costs of Quality on the relationship of the HR Practices and the Organizational Performance is also evaluated during the study. The salary based employees of the organizations having 5 – 250 employees have been selected on the basis of stratified sampling technique for the data collection purposes. Out of 600 questionnaires distributed, 290 were returned and 278 were used for the study. The relationship of HR Practices and organization performance has been found to be significantly mediated by the Costs of Quality. The study will be highly significant for the practitioners in the SMEs, shifting their focus towards the increased quality HR practices.