The influence of total quality service age on quality and operational performance

Abstract

Total Quality Service (TQS) is often considered as having a long-range perspective, implying that organizations embracing TQS can realize the rewards of their quality improvement initiatives only after many years of toil and hard work. But firms practising TQS are keen in knowing a specific time frame before which they could reap the fruits of their quality management programmes. The present study attempts empirically to investigate the influence of the age of a TQS programme on quality and operational performance. The two outcome dimensions of TQS, namely, Customer Focus and Employee Satisfaction have been treated as a measure of quality performance while the other dimensions of TQS have been treated as a measure of operational performance, and the influence of TQS age on the different dimensions of TQS have been found. The results have indicated that "TQS age' does not affect the effectiveness of quality management programmes and it is possible for firms to become successful (in terms of operational and quality performance) within 3 years of TQS implementation. The manner/effectiveness with which the quality improvement initiatives are executed is imperative for success rather than the duration of TQS implementation. Among the successful firms, TQS age seems to be a key factor in espousing the process of continous improvement, i.e. an effective implementation of TQS is bound to result in improved performance (both quality and operational performance) as TQS matures in these firms.