2.4.

TQM Process and the Role of Management Total Quality Management is a customer focussed management system that involves employees in the decision making process with a focus on continuous improvement in performance of the organisation. It is a management philosophy which integrat es and changes the culture of an organisation by way of using strategy, data and effective communication mechanisms to inculcate a culture of quality. To the many supporters of TQM, its management philosophy cannot be more convinci ng given that the gains that can be achieved by implementing TQM are anything bu t pervasive. These benefits include but are not limited to quality of service en hancement, better internal communication, improved employee performance and sati sfaction, improved productivity and improved financial performance (Juran, 1988) (Schmidt, et al., 1992) (Spechler, 1991). It is precisely because of these adva ntages that companies and firms want to see replicated in their own companies wi th the implementation of TQM. Although there have been many attempts at explaining and identifying the constit uents of TQM, these have not been able to provide a global definition of TQM, ra ther, these have tended to agree on the critical components that are needed in o rder to successfully implement TQM (Black and Porter, 1996). The common elements critical to TQM implementation are strong management, strong leadership, commi tment, a strong customer focus, continuous improvement in quality and services, enhancing and encouraging a strong relation with suppliers, and importantly, ens uring quality throughout the company s processes (Shin, et.al, 1998). There are generally four processes to TQM which are sometimes referred to as PDC A which stands for, Plan, Do, Check and Act. The highlight of TQM was in the 198 0s with its philosophy being that quality management should involve everyone and all activities in a company, very strict adherence to quality, the notion that quality has to be managed and that quality should be managed. In essence, TQM re presents a participatory way of management that has at its core, a total commitm ent to providing customer satisfaction. In essence, it can be likened to a perpe tual process improvement. And at the core of TQM are the anchor principles of qu ality quantification and management, setting goals based on requirements rather than on negotiation, satisfaction of everyone involved in the company, from supp liers to customers, involving everyone in quality management and the emphasis on continuous improvements. TQM is a process that relies on methodologies and tools to achieve the required outcome. Specifically, a TQM process is reliant on solving problems as a group and quality measurement or appraisal, gathering data which is analysed to identi fy any root cause of problems, and resolving problems with an overall objective of continuous improvement. Essentially, and according to Anwar ( (Anwar, 2000) T QM is a process that is focussed on quality and the prevention of problems occur ring in the first place. It places emphasis on the cooperation between the compa ny and its suppliers with the objective of providing acceptable quality of servi ce to customers at all times. It also places emphasis on meeting the customer ne eds with any wastage in terms of resources and steps involved in the delivery of services/goods to the customers. According to (Anwar, 2000) TQM places employee s at the heart of the quality delivery system in terms of ensuring that employee s are empowered and satisfied to ensure the best possible performance is derived from the employees. Critically too, emphasis should be on problem prevention an d solution and the sticking to all decisions being backed up by evidence which i s obtainable from direct measurement of processes. A number of processes or stages would need to be completed in order for TQM to b e successfully implemented. The core of these are educating the entire employees and suppliers, the identification of the outputs that are required or wanted by customers, the definition of services or activities that add value, the identif ication of avenues or opportunities that can provide continuous improvement in t he quality of service delivered to customers, the development of measures that w ill ensure the delivery of the required quality, the assessment of delivered qua lity and finally, implementation and validation of the TQM processes. When imple mented correctly, TQM can reduce operational costs, increase overall quality of service delivery and thereby increase customer satisfaction, improve the morale

within the company, lead to a continuous improvement and critically, it enhances employee performance. TQM is a very effective tool for management which encompasses a varied managemen t tools to achieve the required output. Firstly, TQM recognises the importance o f customers to any organisation and therefore places customer satisfaction as a key and TQM is therefore completely customer focussed. Secondly, because TQM als o recognises the importance of employees in delivering customer satisfaction, it insures a total employee involvement in the management system, and thirdly, it is process focussed enabling process thinking . Fourthly, TQM like ISO9000 insists on n integrated system of management where many process work in unison to achieve t he required outcome. TQM is evidence based where by the performance is gauged an d the data used to drive a continuous improvement in performance. It also places vital importance on communications and it integrates quality as a core componen t of the management system (Beer, 2003). TQM has been implemented successfully in such companies such as Xerox, Motorolla , Ford and Hewitt-Packard (Grant, et al., 1994). They all fully implement TQM by changing their management philosophy and aligned it to TQM which ultimately enh anced quality and performance of their respective companies. These are exception s and other companies have tried to implement TQM with little or no success. Acc ording to Grant (Grant, et al., 1994) these companies did not implement TQM comp letely and as a result some of the TQM processes were not implemented which impa cted performance. A typical example of this type of scenario is Kodack which emb arked on the implementation of TQM way back in 1983/1984. Although it registered improvement in operational and competitive performance, it did not do that well financially. McDonnell also faced similar problems with their implementation of TQM in 1991 and 1992 which led Grant (Grant, et al., 1994) to postulate that TQ M is totally different to Western management systems and in order for TQM to be successfully implemented would require the transformation of the conventional ma nagement systems and allow TQM to take hold. In the oil industry, TQM has been implemented in the oil industry of Libya with mixed results (Najeh, et al., 2006). In the Nigerian oil industry, TQM has been implemented by Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. With great success (Gbadeyan, et al., 2008 ), and according to Gbadeyan, this implementation has been so successful that a study that they conduct suggests that ... contribution to business organization in a downturn economy such as Nigeria and recommends for its use not only in an oi l marketing company but any business organization either government owned or pri vately owned.

However, according to Joseph Osa Nosakhare (Nosakhare, 2000) although TQM is ver y much discussed in the Nigerian oil industry and with many top oil executives a ware of it and its potential impact, its implementation has been rather low and those companies that implemented TQM successfully in Nigerian oil industry have had to hire the services of external experts. He believes that although TQM when implemented successfully can help companies in the Nigerian oil industry positi on themselves to counter future problems, it seems that most Nigerian firms in t he oil industry seem to be only paying lip service to the implementation of TQM. This is why it is important for a study such as this one to look at the implementatio n of TQM in the Nigerian oil industry and it is hoped that this study will answe r the question of why the implementation of TQM given that many top executives k now, talk about it and know what improvement it can bring to their companies. Th e rest of this literature review will look at precisely what the benefits of TQM are and how it can improve performance.