Assessing impact of operational complexity on quality management practices in malaysia's electrical and electronics manufacturing industry

Abstract

Scientific research requires data collection instrument that is valid and reliable. This paper describes the framework and operationalization of the variables before outlining the process of developing the instrument to assess the impact of operational complexity (OC) on quality management (QM) practices – performance relationships in Malaysia’s Electrical and Electronics (E&E) manufacturing industry. It outlined the steps taken in developing the questionnaire and highlighted issues of common method bias, reliability and validity of the instrument, pretest method and sample size. The pretest result is then discussed. The paper concluded that pretesting is the most important stage and personal interviews are especially effective in detecting ambiguity in the instrument. Pilot run is necessary to test the data analysis procedure and to get the feel of the response rate.