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“Total Quality Management and Service Quality: An Exploratory Study of

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DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2011.041991

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94 Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2011

Total quality management and service quality:

an exploratory study of quality management practices
and barriers in service industry

Faisal Talib*
Mechanical Engineering Section,
University Polytechnic,
Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh-202002 (UP), India
Fax: +91-1332-285565
Fax: +91-1332-273560
E-mail: ftalib77@yahoo.co.in
E-mail: talibddm@iitr.ernet.in
*Corresponding author

Zillur Rahman
Department of Management Studies,
Indian Institute of Technology,
Roorkee-247667 (UKh), India
E-mail: yusuffdm@iitr.ernet.in
E-mail: zrahman786@gmail.com

M.N. Qureshi
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Technology and Engineering,
M.S. University of Baroda,
Vadodara-390001 (Gujarat), India
E-mail: mnqureshi@rediffmail.com

Jamshed Siddiqui
Department of Computer Sciences,
Faculty of Science,
Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh-202002 (UP), India
E-mail: jamshed_faiza@rediffmail.com
Abstract: During the last two decades, the level of total quality management
(TQM) awareness has considerably increased in the service industries. With the
ever-increasing customer demand, the global competition service industries are
forced to re-think to improve their TQM practices and overcome the barriers
during the implementation of TQM for maximum benefits. Further, the extent
of the literature review reveals that no study has addressed these two issues

Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Total quality management and service quality 95

collectively for service industries. In the light of these facts, the purpose of
this study is to identify the TQM practices that are critical for the support of
service quality in different types of service industries. It also aims to explore
the barriers of TQM implementation so that managers of service industries can
work upon them to achieve service quality and customer satisfaction. From the
literature review, 17 major TQM practices were found critical for the industry
performance. These were frequently used by different researchers in the service
industries. Also, a total of 12 major barriers were identified from the literature
which hinders the implementation of TQM successfully. The managerial
implications, recommendations and scope for future study are presented in the
end.
Keywords: total quality management; TQM; service quality; barriers; TQM
practices; service industries.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Talib, F., Rahman, Z.,
Qureshi, M.N. and Siddiqui, J. (2011) ‘Total quality management and service
quality: an exploratory study of quality management practices and barriers in
service industry’, Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 10, No. 1,
pp.94–118.
Biographical notes: Faisal Talib is an Assistant Professor at the Mechanical
Engineering Section, University Polytechnic, Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh, (UP), India. He holds a Masters in Industrial and Production
Engineering and currently pursuing his PhD in Total Quality Management in
Service Sector from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, (UKh), India.
He has more than 13 years of teaching experience and has more than
30 research publications to his credit in national/international journals and
conferences. His special interest includes quality engineering, TQM, service
quality, quality concepts Taguchi methods and quality management in service
industries.
Zillur Rahman is an Associate Professor at Department of Management
Studies, IIT Roorkee. He is a recipient of the Emerald Literati Club Highly
Commended Award and one of his papers was The Science Direct Top 25
Hottest Article. His work has been published and cited in various journals
including Management Decision, Managing Service Quality, International
Journal of Information Management, Industrial Management and Data
Systems, The TQM Magazine, Business Process Management Journal,
International Journal of Service Industry Management, Information Systems
Journal, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Business and Industrial
Marketing, and International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing,
to name a few.
M.N. Qureshi is an Associate Professor at Mechanical Engineering
Department, Faculty of Tech. and Engg., MS University of Baroda. He earned
his graduation and post graduation degrees in Mechanical Engineering from
M.S. University of Baroda and later on his PhD from IIT Roorkee, Roorkee. He
has more than 50 publications to his credit in national/international journals and
on conference proceedings. His areas of interests include logistics and supply
chain management, industrial management, quality management, etc.
Jamshed Siddiqui is an Associate Professor at Computer Sciences Department,
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. He holds a Masters degree in
Computers Sciences and recently submitted his PhD in Information Systems
from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. His special interests
include information system, MIS, systems analysis and design, knowledge
management systems, e-business and decision support systems.
96 F. Talib et al.

1 Introduction

Services play an important role in the developed as well as developing economies of

the world in terms of its GDP contribution, and employment (World Bank, 1991;
Ghobadian et al., 1994). The effectiveness of service is also broadly accepted in context
with its quality (Samat et al., 2006; Ghobadian et al., 1994). Quality management
initiatives in service industries have been a recent trend and efforts are still going
on. These initiatives have helped in achieving considerable success in many industries.
Many service firms have implemented theories, concepts and frameworks rightly
advocated by Deming, Juran, Crosby and other quality gurus, as well as the practical
frameworks of different quality awards such as the Deming award, Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality awards (MBNQA), and the European Quality awards (Behara and
Gundersen, 2001). The popularity, its multi-directional nature, and the constantly
increasing success of quality management practices have created an essence of interest
academic researchers. Many studies have undertaken the total quality management
(TQM) practices and are typically confined to manufacturing industry. Recent
literature reveals that studies in service industry have focused on specific service
context such as hospitals (Duggirala et al., 2008; Warddhani et al., 2009; Kozak et al.,
2007; Hazilah, 2009; Arasli et al., 2008), education (Mehralizadeh and
Safaeemoghadddam, 2010; Venkatraman, 2007; Sakthivel, 2007; Bayraktar et al., 2008;
Ali et al., 2008; Khan et al., 2008), hotels, restaurant and tourism (Claver-Cortés
et al., 2008; Daghfous and Barkhi, 2009; Eraqi, 2009; Bellou and Andronikidis,
2009; Camison, 1996), banking (Ho and Lin, 2010; Herington and Weaven, 2007;
Koutouvalas et al., 2005; Loonam and O’Loughlin, 2008; Sureshchandar et al., 2002;
Al-Marri et al., 2007), ICT/ITES and software development services (Sohn et al., 2008;
Mahadeo and Durbarry, 2008; Santouridis and Trivellas, 2010; Lee and Chang, 2006;
Rahman and Siddiqui, 2006; Sharp et al., 2002; Siddiqui and Rahman, 2007) and many
more.
Furthermore, a recent study in healthcare sector by Salaheldin and Mukhalalati (2009)
examined the implementation of TQM in the Qatar healthcare sector and found that the
top-management support, role of supplier, employee training, and involvement are most
critical for successful TQM implementation. A study by Sahney et al. (2008) in education
sector assessed an internal customers’ perspective (faculty) about quality systems (QS) in
higher education by developing an integrated framework of indices for quality
management. They identified some important quality components which, if adopted and
implemented could lead to satisfaction of faculty. Another research study based on
hospitality industry conducted by Holjevac (2008) emphasised business ethics as a
dimension of TQM in tourism and found that business ethics increase the reputation and
market competitiveness of an enterprise. He further emphasised that ethical leadership is
more necessary to restore trust in business. Study on banking sector by Selvaraj (2009)
presented the total quality service (TQS) factors in Indian commercial banks and
examined the level of implementation of TQM practices. He found eight TQS factors
which are important for Indian commercial banks using questionnaire survey approach.
Research study on ICT/ITES and software development sector conducted by Pezeshki et
al. (2009) investigated the relationship between performance of service attributes and
customer satisfaction in the mobile telecommunication industry using questionnaire
 Total quality management and service quality 97

survey and Kano customer satisfaction model. They found that there is a dynamic
relationship between them.
In these studies, various TQM practices were taken and defined which contributes to
the service quality and hence, helps the managers to implement them in their organisation
for better performance. Further, TQM has enjoyed great popularity in all types of
industries since its evolution and has been adopted in regular management activities
(Gunasekaran, 1999). However, a word of caution here is that for successful
implementation of TQM, it is necessary that all key TQM practices are followed
(Douglas and Judge, 2001). Absence of even one of them may lead to the failure of the
entire process (Griffin, 1998), and hence, it results in failure of TQM in achieving the
desired performance.
Most of these analyses and theories have been implemented in the developed
countries and is the contribution of western researchers particularly in the USA, Japan,
and the Western European countries. They have demonstrated the applicability,
relevance, and significance of TQM through its principles (Yusuf et al., 2007). Currently,
TQM is widely implemented throughout the world in different industries and sectors, due
to its positive results. TQM focuses on service quality and customer satisfaction
(Gunasekaran and McGaughey, 2003). Some industries find it difficult to implement
TQM in a satisfactory and efficient way. Also, they notice some barriers or obstacles
(Bhat and Rajashekhar, 2009), which hinders the implementation of TQM. Due to these
barriers, industries might find it difficult to achieve the full benefits of TQM practices.
Therefore, it makes a good background to investigate which TQM practices has been
followed by different service industries and what are the major barriers they facing while
implementing TQM.
Therefore, to address these issues, this study focuses on: identifying the TQM
practices that support service quality and to investigate the barriers of TQM
implementation in the service industries. This study involves in survey-based research on
the adoption of TQM practices and investigation of barriers associated while
implementing TQM. An extensive literature review was done and findings were reported.
The rest of the paper is organised into four sections. The second section provides
objectives of the study and framework. Next section reviews the TQM practices in
general and TQM practices in service industries in particular, and also discusses the link
between TQM and the service quality, following section covers the in-depth literature
review on identifying the various barriers to TQM implementation and the summary with
conclusions drawn from the study closes the paper. The implication, recommendations
and future scope of present work will be discussed in the last section of the paper.

2 Objectives

The objectives of the present study are twofold:

• to identify those TQM practices that support service quality and are most critical for
the management of service quality in different service industries
• to explore the barriers of TQM implementation in order to make managers of service
industry know them.
98 F. Talib et al.

This study begins with an extensive literature review on issues related to TQM and
service quality focusing on the range of TQM practices, relationship between TQM and
service quality and barriers to TQM implementation. The literature was sourced from a
wide range of sources including research journals, books, internet, magazines as well as
reports. Based on the literature review, a framework was developed in order to study the
linkage between TQM practices, service quality and TQM barriers. This study presents
major TQM practices adopted by different service industries and also identifies some
critical barriers of TQM implementation which can help managers to strengthen their
TQM implementation strategy in the service industries and achieve higher benefits. This
study also proposes a conceptual model that identifies the major TQM practices in
support of TQM philosophy. These major TQM practices for the service industries have
been conceptualised from the literature. This model assists in understanding the linkages
between TQM practices, product quality, and service quality. The proposed model will
enhance the organisational performance through improved product and service quality
that helps in achieving customer satisfaction, which is the core objective of any service
industry as discussed in previous studies (Chase and Bowen, 1991; Samat et al., 2006;
Hasan and Kerr, 2003). The conceptual model is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 The conceptual model

3 Overview of TQM practices

Several quality researchers have put forth different approaches to improve organisational
performance. These approaches are embodied in a set of quality management practices
known as TQM practices. In this respect, several studies have attempted to identify the
key practices on which the success of TQM process is based and are applicable to all
sectors namely manufacturing, service, SMEs, public, etc. (Saraph et al., 1989; Flynn et
al., 1994; Ahire et al., 1996). There is a large volume of literature available which
investigate TQM practices and discusses the importance of it such as top-management
leadership, supplier quality management, process management (PM), employee training,
and employee involvement (EI) for successful implementation of TQM in different
industries (Najmi and Kehoe, 2000; Kaynak, 2003; Sila and Ebrahimpour, 2002; Black
and Porter, 1995).
 Total quality management and service quality 99

Flynn et al. (1994) define seven quality management dimensions derived from
empirical work and practitioner’s literature in the manufacturing industries. They are: top
management support, quality information systems, PM, product design, work force
management, supplier involvement and customer involvement. Ahire et al. (1996) took a
different approach to develop and validate 12 quality management construct based on the
literature in manufacturing industries. They are: top-management commitment (TMC),
benchmarking, internal quality information use, EI, training, empowerment, supplier
quality management, statistical process control usage, design quality management,
customer focus (CF), supplier performance, and product quality.
Antony et al. (2002) described 11 TQM practices as applicable to manufacturing
industries: management commitment, role of the quality department, training and
education (TE), EI, continuous improvement, supplier partnership, product/service
design, quality policies, quality data and reporting, communication to improve quality,
and customer satisfaction orientation.
Lakhal et al. (2006) in their study of the Tunisian manufacturing sector grouped TQM
practices into ten general practices, they are: TMC and support, organisation for quality,
employee training, employee participation, supplier quality management, CF, continuous
support, QS improvement information and analysis, and the use of statistical quality
technique.
Arumugam et al. (2008) revealed eight TQM practices in their study on
ISO 9001:2000 certified manufacturing industries in Malaysia. They are: leadership, PM,
information analysis, CF, supplier relationship, QS improvement, continual
improvement, and people involvement.
Yousof and Aspinwall (2000) found that the TQM practices for its implementation in
the SMEs are management leadership, continuous improvement system, measurement
and feedback, improvement tools and techniques, supplier quality assurance, human
resource development, system and processes, resources, education and training, work
environment and culture.
Mersha et al. (2009) presented a study on TQM implementation and its impact on a
large human service agency in the USA and found that TQM implementation had a
positive impact on several important dimensions like teamwork, organisational change,
employee attitude, problem solving ability, and better meeting-management skills.
Al-Khalifa and Aspinwall (2008) in their study on critical success factors (CSFs) of TQM
in UK presented an instrument consisting of ten CSFs. The results suggested that the
instrument can be replicated in developing countries as well.
A recent study by Abdullah et al. (2009) examined the relationship between soft
factors, quality improvement, and organisational performance. They found that the
quality improvement variables mediate the relationship between all the six identified
factors and organisational performance. The six factors were top-management leadership,
EI, employee empowerment, teamwork, employee training, and communication.
Another recent study by Mady (2009) on investigation of quality management
practices in Kuwaiti manufacturing industries found four reliable and valid construct such
as CF, TQM human practices, process quality resource, and quality measurements.
Other similar studies on TQM practices by Talib and Rahman (2010), Lagrosen et al.
(2010), Wali and Boujelbene (2010), Chowdhury et al. (2007), Salaheldin (2009), Dayton
(2003), Samson et al. (2001), Rahman (2001) and Beaumont et al. (2002) are of interest
too.
100 F. Talib et al.

Although the review of literature suggests that there are numerous TQM practices that
are found to be crucial for successful implementation of TQM program, as well as
similarities among practices can be discerned. Further, literature suggests that in most of
the cases TQM practices can be equally considered to be applicable to manufacturing and
service industries (Behara and Gundersen, 2001). Arguments have been made for the
direct implementation of manufacturing based TQM practices to services without
modification (Schonberger, 1992). There is a continuing need to address the issues
related to the applicability and appropriateness of various TQM practices for services.
The diverse nature of services is also an additional dimension affecting the
implementation of TQM principles. Hence, there is a need for service specific TQM
research that addresses the service industry.

3.1 TQM practices in service industries

TQM practices are those critical factors that must go well, to ensure success in achieving
special and continual attention, to bring about high performance in the service industries
(Boynton and Zmud, 1984). Alternatively, it can be said that the TQM practices, in
service industries, are the select few overarching requirements that must be addressed by
an organisation to attain its vision (Wali et al., 2003). The successful implementation of
TQM will result in improved EI, increased productivity, improved quality, improved
customer satisfaction, and improved competitive advantage (Antony et al., 2002). Strong
competitive pressure has forced the industries to offer higher quality products and
services as a way to attract and keep their customers. Therefore, many industries have
implemented different TQM practices in order to improve their positions in the market
place.
There is a huge amount of published literature on quality management practices
adopted by different practitioners and academician in different service industries. This
overwhelming volume of literature primarily focuses on the TQM practices and the
approaches taken to ensure successful implementation of TQM program for achieving
customer satisfaction.
The studies selected in this section of literature review consist of those studies
that were carried out only in the service sector and those studies that were conducted
in both the manufacturing and service sector. Further, previous studies indicate that
there is no significant difference in the level of TQM practices followed in these
two sectors (Prajogo, 2005). This supports the positive argument that there is lesser
difference in the applicability of TQM practices in the service firms as compared to
their manufacturing counterparts despite several differences in the nature of their
operations.
Saraph et al. (1989) argue that there are eight CSFs for TQM implementation in
service and manufacturing industries such as: top-management leadership, role of quality
department, training, product design, supplier quality management, PM, quality data
reporting and employee relations. Black and Porter (1996), revealed ten major TQM
practices. They are: strategic quality management, people and customer management,
supplier partnerships, communication of improvement information, customer satisfaction
orientation, external interface management, teamwork structures for process
 Total quality management and service quality 101

improvement, operational quality planning, quality improvement measurement systems,

and corporate quality culture (QC).
Sureshchander et al. (2002) expanded the TQM practices even further and came out
with 12 major TQM practices comprising of: TMC and visionary leadership, human
resource management (HRM), technical system, information and analysis system,
benchmarking, continuous improvement, CF, employee satisfaction, union intervention,
social responsibility, servicescapes, and service culture. Brah et al. (2000) in their study
on TQM and business performance in Singapore service sector has come out with 11
constructs of TQM implementation, which are: top management support, CF, EI,
employee training, employee empowerment, supplier quality management, process
improvement, service design, quality improvement rewards, benchmarking, and
cleanliness and organisation.
Samat et al. (2006) extracted out seven TQM practices from 25 TQM practices as
prescribed by Sila and Ebrahimpour, (2002), they are: management support and
commitment, EI, employee empowerment, information and communication, TE, CF and
continuous improvement.
Ueno (2008) described seven predominant TQM practices in the promotion of service
quality, they are: recruitment and selection, training, teamwork, empowerment,
performance appraisals and rewards (including measurement and recognition),
communication (two-way) and culture (of the organisation).
In a very recent study conducted by Claver-Cortés et al. (2008) they found out four
important TQM factors in the hotel industry service settings. They are: training,
information and communication technologies and information systems, environmental
management and performance.
Saravanan and Rao (2004) in their study on automobile service stations, define 12
quality management dimensions, they are: TMC and leadership, benchmarking, CF and
satisfaction, service marketing, social responsibility, HRM, employee satisfaction,
service culture, servicescape, continuous improvement, technical system, and information
and analysis.
Mahapatra and Khan (2006) analyse 20 critical factors responsible for successful
implementation of TQM in service sector. They are: leadership and TMC, CF and
satisfaction, policy and strategy planning, HRM, PM and control, product/service design
and control, continuous improvement, supplier management (SM), training, employees
satisfaction, employees participation, employee appraisal, reward and recognition, QC,
quality assurance, QS, impact on society, teamwork, flexibility, zero defect, and
benchmarking.
Kanji and Wallace (2000) identified ten TQM practices in their study, they are:
TMC, CF and satisfaction, quality information and performance measurement
(QIPM), HRM, EI, teamwork, PM, quality assurance, zero defects, and
communication.
In a study on measuring CSFs of TQM in Turkish higher education institutes,
Bayraktar et al. (2008) identifies 11 critical areas of TQM. They are: leadership, vision,
measurement and evaluation, process control and improvement, program design, QS
improvement, EI, recognition and award, education and training, student focus, and other
stake holder’s focus.
102 F. Talib et al.

Khamalah and Lingaraj (2007) reports on a study of managerial perceptions of the

implementation of TQM in small and large service organisations and came out with
seven key factors: TMC, benchmarking, quality improvement programs, teambuilding
techniques, supplier involvement, training, reward and recognition.
Tsang and Antony (2001) focused on 11 critical factors of quality management in
UK service organisations. They are: CF, continuous improvement, teamwork
and involvement, TMC and recognition, training and development, QS and policies,
supervisory leadership, communication within the company, supplier partnership,
measurement and feedback, and cultural change.
Al-Marri et al. (2007) came out with 16 TQM practices which were found to be
critical for successful implementation of TQM in the banking service sector, they are:
top-management support, CF, strategy, benchmarking, EI, recognition and reward,
problem analysis, quality technologies, service design, servicescapes, service culture,
social responsibility, HRM, continuous improvement , quality department, QS.
Similarly, the studies done by Eraqi (2009), Bergman and Klefsjö (2007), Badri et al.
(1995), Rahman and Siddiqui (2006), Li (1997), Singh et al. (2006), Behara and
Gundersen (2001), Owlia and Aspinwell (1997), Huq and Stolen (1998) and Zhang et al.
(2000) are of interest and are incorporated in this study. The list of common key TQM
practices extracted from above literature is presented in Table 1.
Table 1 Major TQM practices extracted from above literature as adopted by different authors

S. no. Major TQM practice Symbol Researchers/authors

1 Top-management TMC Saraph et al. (1989), Samat et al. (2006), Brah et al.
commitment (2000), Sureshchander et al. (2002), Owlia and
(includes leadership, Aspinwell (1997), Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002), Badri
management support et al. (1995), Li (1997), Khamalah and Lingaraj
and management (2007), Bergman and Klefsjö (2007), Sun (2001),
commitment) Quazi et al. (1998), Huq and Stolen (1998), Woon
(2000), Singh et al. (2006), Yusuf et al. (2007),
Rahman and Siddiqui (2006), Al-Marri et al. (2007),
Bayraktar et al. (2008), Saravanan and Rao (2004),
Fotopoulos and Psomas (2009), Mahapatra and Khan
(2006), Zhang et al. (2000), Kanji and Wallace (2000),
Tsang and Antony (2001) and
Tari (2005)
2 Customer focus CF Black and Porter (1996), Sureshchander et al. (2002),
(includes customer Brah et al. (2000), Samat et al. (2006), Tsang and
satisfaction and Antony (2001), Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002),
orientation) Bergman and Klefsjö (2007), Owlia and Aspinwell
(1997), Sun (2001), Huq and Stolen (1998), Woon
(2000), Bayraktar et al. (2008), Singh et al. (2006),
Al-Marri et al. (2007), Rahman and Siddiqui (2006),
Yusuf et al. (2007), Saravanan and Rao (2004),
Fotopoulos and Psomas (2009), Mahapatra and Khan
(2006), Zhang et al. (2000), Kanji and Wallace (2000)
and Tari (2005)
 Total quality management and service quality 103

Table 1 Major TQM practices extracted from above literature as adopted by different authors
(continued)

S. no. Major TQM practice Symbol Researchers/authors

3 Training and TE Badri et al. (1995), Owlia and Aspinwell (1997),
education Mohanty and Lakhe (1994), Ueno (2008), Sila and
Ebrahimpour (2002), Saraph et al. (1989), Samat
et al. (2006), Brah et al. (2000), Khamalah and
Lingaraj (2007), Quazi et al. (1998), Huq and Stolen
(1998), Behra and Gundersen (2001), Yusuf et al.
(2007), Fotopoulos and Psomas (2009), Mahapatra and
Khan (2006), Zhang et al. (2000), Bayraktar et al.
(2008), Claver-Cortés et al. (2008), Tsang and Antony
(2001) and Tari (2005)
4 Continuous CII Sureshchander et al. (2002), Samat et al. (2006), Sila
improvement and and Ebrahimpour (2002), Khamalah and Lingaraj
innovation (2007), Bergman and Klefsjö (2007), Huq and Stolen
(1998), Yusuf et al. (2007), Tsang and Antony (2001),
Rahman and Siddiqui (2006), Tari (2005), Al-Marri
et al. (2007), Saravanan and Rao (2004), Mahapatra
and Khan (2006), Zhang et al. (2000) and
Fotopoulos and Psomas (2009)
5 Supplier SM Saraph et al. (1989), Black and Porter (1996),
management Brah et al. (2000), Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002), Badri
(includes supplier et al. (1995), Khamalah and Lingaraj (2007), Owlia
relationship, supplier and Aspinwell (1997), Sun (2001), Quazi
quality and supplier et al. (1998), Singh et al. (2006), Mahapatra and Khan
partnership) (2006), Fotopoulos and Psomas (2009), Tsang and
Antony (2001) and Tari (2005)
6 Employee EI Brah et al. (2000), Samat et al. (2006), Owlia and
involvement Aspinwell (1997), Huq and Stolen (1998),
Singh et al. (2006), Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002),
Yusuf et al. (2007), Al-Marri et al. (2007), Tsang and
Antony (2001), Fotopoulos and Psomas (2009),
Bayraktar et al. (2008), Kanji and Wallace (2000),
Mahapatra and Khan (2006) and
Zhang et al. (2000).
7 Quality information QIPM Saraph et al. (1989), Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002),
and performance Black and Porter (1996), Sureshchander et al. (2002),
measurement Bayraktar et al. (2008), Badri et al. (1995), Quazi et al.
(1998), Huq and Stolen (1998), Behra and Gundersen
(2001), Woon (2000), Zhang et al. (2000), Tsang and
Antony (2001) and Kanji and Wallace (2000)
8 Process management PM Saraph et al. (1989), Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002),
Badri et al. (1995), Bergman and Klefsjö (2007),
Owlia and Aspinwell (1997), Sun (2001), Quazi
et al. (1998), Mahapatra and Khan (2006), Kanji and
Wallace (2000), Woon (2000), Fotopoulos and Psomas
(2009), Behra and Gundersen (2001), Tari (2005)
104 F. Talib et al.

Table 1 Major TQM practices extracted from above literature as adopted by different authors
(continued)

S. no. Major TQM practice Symbol Researchers/authors

9 Quality systems QS Zhang et al. (2000), Mahapatra and Khan (2006),
(includes quality Fotopoulos and Psomas (2009), Al-Marri et al. (2007),
policies and quality Tsang and Antony (2001), Quazi et al. (1998), Badri
tools and et al. (1995), Mohanty and Lakhe (1994),
techniques) Claver-Cortés et al. (2008), Sila and Ebrahimpour
(2002), Tari (2005), Bayraktar et al. (2008)
10 Benchmarking B Sureshchander et al. (2002), Brah et al. (2000), Sila
and Ebrahimpour (2002), Khamalah and Lingaraj
(2007), Yusuf et al. (2007), Rahman and Siddiqui
(2006), Al-Marri et al. (2007), Saravanan and Rao
(2004), Zhang et al. (2000), Mahapatra and Khan
(2006) and Behra and Gundersen (2001)
11 Quality culture QC Black and Porter (1996), Sureshchander et al. (2002),
(includes service Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002), Ueno (2008), Mohanty
culture and and Lakhe (1994), Huq and Stolen (1998), Woon
corporate culture) (2000), Al-Marri et al. (2007), Saravanan and Rao
(2004), Mahapatra and Khan (2006) and Tsang and
Antony (2001)
12 Human resource HRM Black and Porter (1996), Sureshchander et al. (2002),
management Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002), Li (1997), Sun (2001),
(includes people and Woon (2000), Al-Marri et al. (2007), Saravanan and
customer Rao (2004), Kanji and Wallace (2000), Mahapatra and
management, Khan (2006) and Tari (2005)
internal recruitment,
employment security
and work force
development)
13 Strategic planning SP Black and Porter (1996), Owlia and Aspinwell (1997),
(includes developing Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002), Mohanty and Lakhe
vision and strategic (1994), Sun (2001), Huq and Stolen (1998), Woon
quality management) (2000), Al-Marri et al. (2007), Fotopoulos and Psomas
(2009), Mahapatra and Khan (2006) and
Zhang et al. (2000)
14 Employee EE Brah et al. (2000), Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002), Ueno
encouragement (2008), Khamalah and Lingaraj (2007), Bayraktar et al.
(includes employee (2008), Huq and Stolen (1998), Yusuf et al. (2007),
appraisal, rewards Al-Marri et al. (2007), Zhang et al. (2000) and
and recognition) Mahapatra and Khan (2006)
15 Teamwork (includes TW Black and Porter (1996), Ueno (2008), Owlia and
team building and Aspinwell (1997), Khamalah and Lingaraj (2007),
teamwork structure) Huq and Stolen (1998), Yusuf et al. (2007),
Behra and Gundersen (2001), Kanji and
Wallace (2000), Zhang et al. (2000) and
Mahapatra and Khan (2006)
 Total quality management and service quality 105

Table 1 Major TQM practices extracted from above literature as adopted by different authors
(continued)

S. no. Major TQM practice Symbol Researchers/authors

16 Product and service PDS Saraph et al. (1989), Brah et al. (2000), Sila and
design Ebrahimpour (2002), Badri et al. (1995), Quazi
et al. (1998), Al-Marri et al. (2007), Zhang et al.
(2000), Mahapatra and Khan (2006) and
Bayraktar et al. (2008)
17 Communication C Black and Porter (1996), Samat et al. (2006),
Ueno (2008), Huq and Stolen (1998), Yusuf et al.
(2007), Kanji and Wallace (2000),
Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002) and
Tsang and Antony (2001)

3.2 TQM and service quality

In recent years, interest in service quality has increased substantially with increasing
number of books and academic papers describing the application of TQM concepts in
service sector. Many aspects of quality are covered by TQM in the service sector.
However, TQM is different from service quality and are two different concepts, but
adopting TQM will certainly effects service quality and product quality. Therefore, TQM
and service quality are important aspects for achieving business excellence, especially in
service industries, and have strong linkage between them. Significant and positive results
have emerged out of the earlier studies regarding the linkage between TQM and
organisational performance as well as service quality (Franceschini et al., 2009; Ueno,
2008; Mahadeo and Durbarry, 2008; Bagodi and Mahanty, 2008; Lakhal et al., 2006;
Terziovski and Samson, 1999; Beaumont and Sohal, 1999). The main focus of the TQM
is to improve overall quality including process quality and service quality and reducing
rework as well as reduction in costs of poor quality such as late delivering, warranty,
replacement, poor service, post-sales services, etc.(Antony et al., 2002). Furthermore,
implementation of TQM is correlated with quality of conformance this is supported by
Brah et al. (2002).
Cook and Verma (2002) observed that as per the perceptions of bank employees, QS
affect service quality that in turn relate to the organisational performance. Effective TQM
processes can bring in the improvements in both product and service quality which
results in increased customer satisfaction and organisation’s profitability (Litton, 2001). It
was also found that employee’s possessing organisational knowledge and skills are
important in delivering service quality in which high levels of employee morale and
satisfaction were found to be dependent on the empowerment and involvement of
employees (Prajogo and Sohal, 2006).

4 Overview of TQM barriers

It is well established that organisations have improved their product and service quality
through implementation of TQM practices in their firms (Lakhal et al., 2006;
Claver-Cortés et al., 2008). Beside this, it was found that industries face difficulty in
implementing TQM satisfactorily and efficiently due to considerable problems faced
106 F. Talib et al.

during the introduction, development and measurement of quality improvement. They

noticed some barriers which hinders TQM implementation. Because of these barriers
industries have not achieved the full benefits and advantages, which they were expecting
from TQM before its implementation. Furthermore, poor results have given rise to the
opinion that TQM does not work and in many cases the TQM initiatives have been
abandoned declaring that TQM has failed (Griffin, 1998; Fisher, 1992; Witcher, 1994).
These studies further identify the reasons behind the poor results and failure in improving
performance.
In order to accomplish the second objective of the study, this section addresses
potential reasons for TQM failures.

4.1 TQM barriers

A large number of industries have implemented TQM initiatives. A majority of these
industries encounter significant barriers in achieving their TQM goals (Jun et al., 2004).
Various reasons have been given for their failure, majority of the cited reasons were on
management’s inability to implement a total system approach (Shortell et al., 1995;
Zabada et al., 1998). Some TQM practitioners’ also claim that if a company’s culture is
not conducive to total quality, the culture must be changed before total quality program
can be implemented (Bhat and Rajashekhar, 2009). In some service companies, where
TQM was presented as a packaged formula (Huq, 1995), significant problems in
organisational effectiveness emerged simply because the business was in a mode of
change. There appears to be a multitude of reasons why industries fail in their effort to
implement a quality management system.
Tamimi and Sebastianelli (1998), in their study, found 25 factors working against
TQM implementation. The major barriers cited includes: not linking management’s
compensation to achieve quality goals and lack of training in areas such as group
discussions, communication techniques, quality improvement skills, problem
identification and problem solving techniques. The other factor includes inadequate
resources to employ quality management.
Bhat and Rajashekhar (2009) identified 21 obstacles for their study which were
adopted from the findings of Tamimi and Sebastianelli (1998). Further, they found five
most important TQM barriers out of 21 listed by them in Indian industry. They are:
no-benchmarking of other company’s practices, employees are resistant to change,
inadequate resources to employ TQM and quality is not effectively measured, and
employees are not trained in problem identification and problems solving techniques.
Amar and Zain (2002) established 11 factors that seem to be the barriers against the
successful implementation of TQM in Indonesian organisations. They are: HRM, attitude
towards quality, organisational culture, interdepartmental relations, materials, machines,
equipments, information, method, and training.
Helms and Mayo (2008) in their exploratory study on customer service dissatisfaction
examined four categories of service failure. They are: rude employees/poor attitudes,
overall poor service, employees socialising and not paying attention to customers, and
slow service.
Jun et al. (2004) in their study, empirically investigated barriers that firms in the
Mexican industries experienced based on 25 potential obstacles to TQM success adopted
from Tamimi and Sebastianelli (1998) and compared the findings with prior research
done in the US firms. The findings of their study suggest that a prevalent TQM barrier in
 Total quality management and service quality 107

Mexican industries is ‘high employee turnover’. Other factors that were common to both
Mexican and US firms were: lack of employee training, failure to tie management’s
compensation to achieve quality goals, and employee resistance to change.
Whalen and Rahim (1994) and Liu (1998) identified nine barriers. The main barriers
were: lack of top-management support and lack of proper training. They concluded that
these barriers will show up in all sectors-manufacturing, services, government and
education. Therefore, it is important for all organisations to understand and avoid these
barriers both before and during TQM implementation.
In another study conducted by Huq (2005) on service industries found that the
following factors led to the failure of TQM during implementation: unrealistic
expectations of employee commitment, absence of process focus, lack of organisation
around information flow, loopholes in education and training, and failure to create a
continuous improvement culture.
In a different study on work-development-oriented TQM strategy, Ljungstrom and
Klefsjö (2002) identified the following main obstacles: limited resources, lack of
knowledge and management’s perspective concerning work development. Soltani et al.
(2005) also identified some fundamental causes of unsatisfactory results during TQM
implementation program, they are: lack of senior management commitment and their
visible participation, lack of knowledge of TQM philosophy, mobility of management,
and avoiding taking risk and radical changes through TQM initiatives.
In a recent study by Raj and Attri (2010) on quantifying barriers of TQM
implementation attempted to develop a mathematical model of identified barriers using
graph theoretic approach (GTA) and proposed an index of barriers. Another study by
Kounis and Panagopoulos (2007) addressed the difficulties associated with benchmarking
techniques and the implication of TQM tools in companies of the public and private
sector of Athens, Greece. Two major bottlenecks were observed: insufficient
management commitment and ineffective employee motivation. These two barriers lead
to financial loss due to ineffective benchmarking implementation.
Ali et al. (2008) discussed the people resistance in TQM implementation in
Malaysian universities. A qualitative survey on seven universities in Malaysia suggested
that the main reason for people resistance are lack of knowledge and information on
quality program, lack of motivation and complacency attitudes, and the quality program
was being perceived as burden rather than benefits.
Finally, Rad (2005) identified barriers of successful implementation in healthcare
service organisations in Iran and found the following five TQM barriers: human resource
barrier, performance appraisal problems, strategic problems, structural problems, and
process problems.
From above review of literature, it is concluded that in most of the cases the
implementation of TQM does not result in a significant improvement in performance.
Besides this, the other probable reasons for TQM failure are: lack of suitable corporate
climate (Longenecker, 1993), poorly defined performance measurement (Brown, 1993),
lack of management support (Katz, 1993), and lack of long-term planning and
misunderstanding of quality at the management level (Lee and Leung, 1999). The
managers of the industries should understand these barriers and develop some remedies
to overcome these barriers.
Further, study by Bilen (2010), Curkovic et al. (2008), Chou and Chou (2007),
Al-Zamany et al. (2002), Hau (2000), Salegna and Fazel (2000) and Chin and Pun (2002)
108 F. Talib et al.

also discussed the TQM implementation barriers and are of interest too. Table 2 presents
the list of common identified barriers and their causes from the above literature survey.
Table 2 Common TQM barriers identified from literature and their causes

Common barrier identified Causes of barriers

Lack of experience and training, little competitive
Lack of TMC pressure, resistance to change by the management,
and hesitant to initiate improvement programs.
High turnover at Structural problem, leadership instability, and lack
management level of training and reward system to motivate them.
Difficult in change of mindset with regard to
Attitude of employees
quality, quality adds costs, failure to create a sense
towards quality
of TQM/CQI, and urgency among employees.
Insufficient training on quality, management
related training were absent or low, and no
Lack of proper TE
training in problem identification and problem
solving techniques.
Wide difference of opinion between the quality
Lack of coordination
and production/service department, and absence
between department
of quality circle concept.
Insufficient levels of education, lack of skill, lack
of understanding of quality management, low
Human resource barrier
work morale, and absenteeism,
non-conformance with procedures, etc.
No targets, no attitude to attain higher
No benchmarking productivity/efficiency, and best practices of other
companies are not benchmarked.
Limited priority on quality strategy concepts,
considered too theoretical to be practical, no
Poor planning strategy, inadequate resources to effectively
employ TQM, quality action plans are often
vague.
Poor training, no involvement of employees in the
planning and implementation phase of TQM,
Employee’s resistance to
majority felt that TQM is not relevant to their
change
situation and many felt that their jobs are
threatened.
Lack of consensus, lack of employee
Inadequate use of empowerment, lack of feedback, low utilisation
empowerment and levels, management causing confusion, cross
teamwork functional teams are not employed, and lack of
direction and purpose.
Failure to create a sense of CQI, urgency among
Lack of continuous
employees, lack of shared leadership, and
improvement culture
inadequate rewards and incentives.
Poor inter-organisational communication,
employees were informed on an ad hoc basis, no
single point of contact was provided, use of
Lack of communication
media/portal, etc. was minimal, and
feedback/suggestion system was absent or
minimum.
 Total quality management and service quality 109

Based on above discussion, although some of the TQM practices are different for
manufacturing and service industries, barriers largely remain the same across the board
irrespective of whether the TQM is being implemented in manufacturing or service
sector.

5 Summary and conclusions

The findings from extensive literature review conducted on the TQM practices followed
by various types of service industries (Table 1) and on the barriers of TQM
implementation in different industries (Table 2) have been presented in this paper. In this
study, an attempt has been made to explore TQM practices responsible for initiating
quality management in service industries. The purpose of this study is to clarify which
TQM practices support service quality in different service industries. To carry out this
study, a wide range of literature was reviewed followed by the identification of major
TQM practices. The extensive literature review summarises that a total of 49 TQM
practices were developed and used in various studies for successful implementation of
TQM in different industries and results were good. Out of these TQM practices, the
authors identified 17 major TQM practices which are presented in the Table 1.
These TQM practices were found to be frequently used by different researchers in the
service industries and enable TQM implementation successfully. Figure 2 also shows the
coverage of these 17 major TQM practices used by different researchers and authors as
identified in this study. They are: top-management commitment (TMC); customer focus
(CF); training and education (TE); continuous improvement and innovation (CII);
supplier management (SM); employee involvement (EI); quality information and
performance measurement (QIPM); process management (PM); quality systems (QS);
benchmarking (B); quality culture (QC); human resource management (HRM); strategic
planning (SP); employee encouragement (EE); teamwork (TW); product and service
design (PDS); and communication (C). Further, these TQM practices were all found to be
significantly associated in services and in the promotion of service quality as discussed
earlier in the literature review. It is further concluded that there is no uniformity in TQM
practices and they vary from one organisation to other depending upon the characteristics
of the company.

Figure 2 Major TQM practices and their coverage

35
Number of Responses

30 26
25 22
20
20
15 14 14
15 13 13 12 11 11 11 11 10 10 9 8
10
5
0
TW
QI PM
TMC

SM

PM

HRM
QC

C
TE

QS

SP

EE

PDS
CF

CI I

EI

TQM Practices/CSFs
110 F. Talib et al.

The findings of study on barriers to TQM implementation shows some similarities with
the inferences from the studies done by different researchers. These similar and common
barriers were identified and are listed along with there causes in Table 2. Twelve main
barriers (common and similar to other studies) were identified as advocated by different
researchers in their studies and are treated as major barrier. They are: lack of TMC; high
turnover at management level; attitude of employees towards quality; lack of proper TE;
lack of coordination between department; human resource barriers; no benchmarking,
poor planning; employee’s resistance to change; inadequate use of empowerment and
teamwork; lack of continuous improvement culture; and lack of communication. These
barriers can serve as an invaluable lesson to those industries that are planning to
implement TQM. Industries currently involved in TQM implementation or are thinking
about to implement TQM, can improve their chances of success if they are more sensitive
and alert to these barriers. Further, the occurrences of these barriers in different industries
were found to be same as identified in this study. Thus, they are termed as common TQM
barriers.
Therefore, the industries should understand these barriers and find out the remedies to
overcome them before implementing the TQM, in order to gain maximum benefits. By
understanding the potential severity of these barriers, industries may be in a better
position to anticipate and solve these problems which may arise in future.

5.1 Managerial implications

The present study can help managers to:
• better understand these TQM practices before and during implementation of TQM in
their organisation
• obtain a deeper knowledge of these quality management practices and link them with
the performance measures
• achieve benefits from a better understanding of these barriers
• motivate top-management and middle-management to focus on long-term strategies
rather than short-term goals
• integrate the action program associated with these identified barriers of TQM.

5.2 Recommendations
Following are some recommendations concluded from the present study:
• ensure that the company is committed to quality and each step of the TQM is
identified and carefully planned before its implementation
• a system should be incorporated for continuous feedback and channels for
communication and information
• support continuous improvement with appropriate TQM tools, team building
techniques, reward system, and supplier involvement
• adopt a training program for everyone in the organisation
• firm should continuously aim to delight customers.
 Total quality management and service quality 111

5.3 Scope for further research

The literature review on TQM practices and barriers to TQM implementation focused on
service industry as a whole, these could be practically tested to a specific service industry
to attain better organisation performance. Also, further in-depth investigation is needed to
explore the relationship between TQM practices and identified barriers in context with
the Indian service industries.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the anonymous referees and the
Editor-in-Chief Prof. Angappa ‘Guna’ Gunasekaran for their helpful and invaluable
comments which helped in improving the presentation of this paper considerably.

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