AMITY INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN SERVICE SECTOR WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

SUBMITTED TO Col. S.Khattar

SUBMITTED BY Nidhi Singh (A1802012364) MBA-IB (Sec-E)

INTRODUCTION Total quality management (TQM) is an approach to management that focuses on quality as the key to success. Quality is considered to be one of the important factors in the growth of hospitality industry especially Total Quality Management (TQM). With the emergence and popularity of TQM, hospitality industry continues to be heavily involved in the implementation of TQM related practices. Several important managerial practices such as top-management commitment, customer focus, continuous improvement and innovation, training, information, process management etc which have showed positive association with quality services in service industries can be related to TQM in the hospitality industry. Among these practices training and education, information and analysis, customer focus and continuous improvement and innovation are particularly important to the hospitality industry.

LITERATURE REVIEW Current literature on TQM suggests that it has been widely accepted as a means of improving business competitiveness and customer satisfaction. An industry aspiring to become customer-oriented with emphasis on quality of services will have to implement the TQM concepts throughout the industry (Tsang and Antony, 2001). Since the effective implementation of TQM hinges on the identification of key TQM practices, it is interesting to know a set of TQM practices which will make the implementation of TQM successful. The current literature review is focused on the identification of TQM practices that need to be considered and implemented in any service industry like hospitality as well as literature on TQM in hospitality industry which can guide TQM managers and practitioners to improve their company performance.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper is to identify, analyze and rank the key TQM practices in Indian hospitality industry. It is found that top-management commitment, customer focus, product and service design, continuous improvement and innovation, quality culture and training and education are the most successful driven practices for TQM program in Indian hospitality industry. Moreover, supplier management and human resource management are the least important practices. Also, how the complexity and globalization of todays tough competitive business environment and technological challenges have made total quality management (TQM) as one of the most important managerial technique to achieve competitive advantage for the hospitality industry.

METHODOLOGY
The methodology to be developed will have three sections. The first section will collect the demographic information of the respondents like profession, gender, years of experience as well as the general background of the company. The second section will present the information regarding identification and ranking of TQM practices in the company by listing 17 major TQM practices out of which 10 practices will be the basis of the study. Third section analyzes these 10 TQM practices with regard to their implementation in the Indian hospitality companies. This methodology is operational on a 5-point Likert scale, with 1= very low, 2=low, 3= moderate, 4=high, and 5= very high.

PROPOSAL ON HOW I AM GOING TO UNDERTAKE THIS STUDY?

I am planning to continue this study on the basis of 10 most important TQM practices that are used in the hospitality industry out of 17 TQM Practices. These TQM practices are: 1. Top-management commitment (TMC) 2. Customer focus (CF) 3. Training and education (TE) 4. Continuous improvement and innovation (CII) 5. Supplier management (SM) 6. Employee involvement (EI) 7. Information and analysis (IA) 8. Process management (PM) 9. Quality systems (QS) 10. Benchmarking (BM) 11. Quality culture (QC) 12. Human resource management (HRM) 13. Strategic planning (SP) 14. Employee encouragement (EE) 15. Teamwork (TW) 16. Product and service design (PSD) 17. Communication (COM)

TOP MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT (TMC)

Top management leadership and commitment is the degree of which top management sets up Quality Management (QM) objectives and strategies, provides and allocates necessary resources, contributes in quality improvement efforts, and assesses QM implementation and performance. The commitment of top management is generally a preliminary point for implementing and practicing TQM to enhancing performance of an organization (Ahire & Ravichandran, 2001). It is impracticable to adopt QM and improve performance without strong top management support (Flynn et al, 1995).Top management carries the primary responsibility for commitment to quality and support efforts necessary to successful TQM implementation. Hence, the most critical factor contributes to successful TQM program is top management (Ramirez & Looney, 1993; Lewis & Smith, 1994)

CUSTOMER FOCUS
This model focuses on customer needs and expectations. The firm should gain an understanding of customer needs and expectations before designing and implementation of services quality improvements. The firm then should establish sustaining structures for organizational culture, leadership and employee commitment, which are the building blocks of a good total quality service program. Customer satisfaction and expectations are attitudes and they can easily be changed under different circumstances. Thus, the model exhibits a two-way flow between customer needs and expectations and the three constructs. This model highlights the feedback loop that affects the three constructs. A wellestablished leadership system, an organizational culture and a team of committed employees will lead to improved business processes. Improved business processes will result in improvements in service quality. This can be an improvement in service performance outcomes or cost-based values. Finally, improved levels of service quality will lead to high levels of customer satisfaction.

TRAINING AND EDUCATION

Training is widely recognized by organizational development experts as an important component in successful planned change efforts. Training and education are important in preparing an organization for a change, in accomplishing the change itself, and in institutionalizing it as a permanent part of the organization. The importance of training in the successful implementation of TQM programs is also widely acknowledged because it provides an opportunity to reform employees about the goals of TQM. Worker empowerment is also important for keeping employees satisfied and productive, according to Harry Gaines, an author. He further points out that this comfort level may be the most important result of having employees takes charge of their own personal growth and satisfaction. Moreover, this results in "numerous benefits to the organization. Employees feel they have more control over their careers and their lives...like being on a more equal footing...with managers, able to share more responsibility, and reap the benefits of improved motivation and morale among employees." When employees are helped to improve themselves, the organisation benefits. Improvements may encompass job-related skills as well as improvements in skills that are not necessarily job-related but that enhance self-esteem and pride. Employees get the message that management cares about them as people. The training structure must be top-down, starting with the top team and cascading down the organisation. The golden rule to successful implementation is to ensure managers train their own people. This is necessary to show management commitment and to ensure managers actually understand the TQM principles and methods (Spenley, 1992, p. 94). Through training and education, a common language may be

achieved throughout the organisation. For TQM training and education to be effective, the responsibility for such training and education must be vested in one manager, preferably with the TQM manager himself or one of the members of the steering committee. Responsibility for the training and education of employees in quality rests with management at all levels, and, in particular, the person nominated for the co-ordination of the organizations quality effort. If nobody is actually tasked to coordinate the quality training and education efforts, the possibility that TQM training and education will not be effective is rather good. Training must get pertinent attention in the quality policy. Quality training objectives must then be set, taking into account the specific quality training needs. The responsibility for training and education must be allocated to a specific person or department. After implementation of the quality training programme it is necessary to evaluate and review the effectiveness of the programme. Porter and Parker (1993, p. 19) identify four characteristic features to ensure successful training: (1) Training must be viewed as a continuous process. (2) Training must be focused so that people receive appropriate courses at the appropriate level of their needs. (3) Training must be planned for the future to include the development of total quality skills and techniques. (4) Training materials must be made customized to suit the particular organisation.

REFERENCES

1. Total Quality Management Practices in Indian Hospitality Industry: Some Key Findings from Survey (Faisal Talib, Zillur Rahman, M.N. Qureshi) 2.Research paper on TQM by MARK CLAN