Benchmarking quality implementation in a service context: A comparative analysis of financial services and institutions of higher education. Part III

Abstract

This is the third and final part of a three-paper series which has examined total quality management (TQM) implementation in a service context. While Part I examined issues pertaining to service quality and discussed the implementation of TQM in financial services by covering three case studies, Part II used a similar approach by covering the education sector and highlighted key benefits reported by three institutions through the implementation of TQM. Part III, on the other hand, uses the enabler criteria of the European quality award model to benchmark each of the three cases. The discussion herein, using evidence gathered from the cases, highlights whether each of the five elements concerned, i.e. leadership, strategy and policy, resource management, people management and process management, were adequately covered, extremely well covered or that no evidence could be found from reading the cases. The paper concludes with a list of recommendations to support the organizations concerned and addresses some of the weaker areas highlighted.