The Relationship Between People-Related Elements of Total Quality Management (TQM) Practices and Employees’ Job Satisfaction in Apparel Industry in Gampaha District

Apparel manufacturing sector is the largest industrial sector in terms of density of employees. Over the last few decades, the importance of TQM has emphasized as a mean of competitive advantage. Peo in apparel industry. people-related TQM practices (PRTQM) have identified as the most important practices for organizational success. People- related practices mainly involve with soft performance of the organization. Therefore, the focus of the present study is to examine the relationship between people-related elements of Total Quality Management practices and Employees’ Job satisfaction in Apparel Industry in Gampaha District, Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the data were collected from 110 employees using convenience sampling technique from Production Managers and Supervisors in selected garment factories in Gampaha district with 94% response rate. The study finds a positive relationship between people- related TQM practices and employees’ job satisfaction. Among six independent variables, Top Management Leadership, Employee Empowerment, Employee Involvement, Teamwork and Compensation had the significant relationship with employees’ job satisfaction. The results of this study show that Employee Training has no significant relationship with employees’ satisfaction. Finally, the study concludes that, only five TQM elements (Top Management Leadership, Employee Empowerment, Employee Involvement, Teamwork and Compensation) could impact on employee satisfaction in the apparel industry.