The Relationship among Frontline Quality’ Performance,their Personality Traits and their Perception of the Work Environment.

Abstract

Although effective management of frontline employees has been commonly considered a key element in quality management in both practice and academia, the predominant focus has been on work force training, development, empowerment, involvement, and incentive systems, without utilizing the benefit of understanding the frontline worker’s personality and perception of the work environment. This paper utilized the 16 Personality Inventory (16PF) and Work Environment Scale (WES) to explore the relationship of frontline employee’s personality and perception of the work environment to their quality assurance performance ratings in a mediumsized manufacturing company in America. By using 16PF and WES Real Form, Vigilance (factor L) and Work Pressure were discovered to be positively correlated with the frontline workers’ overall quality assurance performance ratings. Caution of generalization of the research result was raised in Discussion section. Recommendations for future research were presented.