Operations management and organizational performance of an ISO 9001:2015 certified higher education institution

Abstract

This study examined the correlation between two domains of operations management — quality management and human resource practices — and organizational performance outcomes in the first ISO 9001:2015-certified higher education institution in Davao del Norte, Philippines. A quantitative descriptive-correlational design was employed, engaging all 262 employees of the institution: 166 teaching and 96 non-teaching personnel. Operations management was assessed through a validated primary survey instrument, while organizational performance was drawn from secondary institutional evaluation data — customer satisfaction surveys and formal human resource evaluation instruments — for the second semester of School Year 2017–2018. Both operations management domains were rated at a very high level by non-teaching personnel (M = 4.47, SD = 0.43) and teaching personnel (M = 4.42, SD = 0.48), with quality management consistently outscoring human resource practices across both groups. Organizational performance was similarly rated very high for non-teaching personnel (M = 98.33, SD = 6.16) and teaching personnel (M = 4.53, SD = 0.33). Pearson correlation analysis revealed a mixed pattern of results. For non-teaching personnel, quality management demonstrated a significant positive correlation with organizational performance (r = 0.335, p = 0.045), while human resource practices did not (r = 0.273, p = 0.064). For teaching personnel, both quality management (r = 0.315, p = 0.037) and human resource practices (r = 0.441, p = 0.012) were significantly and positively correlated with organizational performance. However, regression analysis indicated that neither domain emerged as a statistically significant independent predictor of organizational performance when both domains were modeled simultaneously. These findings reveal a context-dependent, domain-differentiated relationship between operations management and organizational performance in this ISO-certified educational setting — one where quality management is more consistently associated with performance outcomes than human resource practices, particularly for client-facing non-teaching units. Implications for ISO-aligned institutional quality management and directions for future research are discussed.