An interpretive structural modelling approach for ...

Int. J. Modelling in Operations Management, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2011

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An interpretive structural modelling approach for modelling the practices of total quality management in service sector Faisal Talib* Mechanical Engineering Section, University Polytechnic, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh–202002, (U.P.) India Fax: +91-1332-285565 Fax: +91-1332-273560 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author

Zillur Rahman Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee–247667 (U.Kh.), India E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

M.N. Qureshi Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Technology and Engineering, M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara-390001 (Gujarat), India E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: Service sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world and is facing immense pressure to improve their quality of products and services to compete and achieve a leading position in the global market. The issues related to quality therefore, need to be addressed for better understanding the relationships among the quality practices which could enhance the organization’s performance. The purpose of this research study is to model the key total quality management (TQM) practices relationship by understanding the dynamics between them that will help service organizations to implement TQM successfully. The present paper utilizes the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology to understand the mutual relationships among the TQM practices and presents a hierarchy-based model of the practices. The research shows that there exists a group of practices of TQM having a high driving power and low dependence requiring attention and of strategic importance while another group consists of those practices which have high dependence and are the resultant actions. There also exists a group having high driving power and high dependence. They acts as linkage and influence some of the practices of TQM. The paper ends with a discussion on implications for research as well as practice.

Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

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F. Talib et al. Keywords: total quality management; TQM; TQM practices; service organisation; interpretive structural modelling; modelling. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Talib, F., Rahman, Z. and Qureshi, M.N. (2011) ‘An interpretive structural modelling approach for modelling the practices of total quality management in service sector’, Int. J. Modelling in Operations Management, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp.223–250. Biographical notes: Faisal Talib is an Assistant Professor at Mechanical Engineering Section, University Polytechnic, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, (U.P.) India. He received his Masters in Industrial and Production Engineering and currently pursuing PhD in Total Quality Management in Service Sector from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, (U.Kh.), 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 Technology and Engineering, MS University of Baroda. He received his graduation and post graduation degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MS University of Baroda and later on his PhD from IIT Roorkee, Roorkee. He has more than 65 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.

1

Introduction

In the present era of globalisation and competitive environment, quality plays a key role to the organisation’s success and survival. Recent trend showed that assuring quality through controlling the tolerance levels is no more applicable. Rather, the organisation’s emphasis on changing the mindset of the people from ‘errors are inevitable to ‘doing the things right the first time and every time’. Therefore, in order to compete globally, the organisations must embrace total quality management (TQM) concept and its practices, and incorporate them into all of their activities effectively (Mahapatra and Sekhar, 2004). TQM is both a philosophy as well as a set of guiding principles and practices that addresses continuous improvement in quality and customer satisfaction through management of quality (Brah et al., 2000). The past two decades have witnessed a

An interpretive structural modelling approach

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widespread acceptance of TQM as a means of gaining and maintaining competitive advantage in the global market. TQM now has become a world-wide topic in the twenty-first century. From the last two decades, it has also been observed that TQM has become a way of life in service sector. Service sector accounts for more than two-third of total gross domestic product (GDP) and work-force in developed countries such as the USA, UK, Germany, Canada and Australia, and is still going with a rapid growth rate (The World Bank Group, 2010). TQM is widely used in different service organisations viz information technology, hospitality, healthcare, education, banking, recreation facilities to improve customer satisfaction and still been an ongoing effort. These initiatives have met with considerable success in them. The strength of TQM implementation in service organisation lies on its best practices. There is a substantial body of literature that provides support for the notion that quality practices improve organisation performance and customer satisfaction (Lemak and Reed, 2000; Gustafsson et al., 2003; Prajogo and McDermott, 2005; Antony et al., 2002) as well as it leads to successful TQM implementation in the organisation. Similarly, the works of Kureshi et al. (2010), Karuppusami and Gandhinathan (2006), Gustafsson et al. (2003) and Duggirala et al. (2008) and many other focused on the relationship between quality practices, quality performance and business performance. In general, these studies provide support for the hypothesis linking quality practices to quality performance. The extent review of literature further identified some common practices that are responsible to successful TQM implementation, namely: top-management commitment and leadership; strategic planning; resource management; customer focus; process management; supplier management; information and analysis; continuous improvement; teamwork; and social and environmental issues (Saraph et al., 1989; Ahire et al., 1996; Prajogo and Sohal, 2006; Ooi et al., 2010, 2007a; Arumugam et al., 2008, 2009; Teh et al., 2009a). In the late 1980s, Saraph et al. (1989) pioneered an empirical approach to examine the TQM practices for its implementation in the USA. Later some authors have developed a similar approach to identify and investigate the TQM practices in different service organisations. Some of these research stream dealing with the assessment and successful implementation of current practices of TQM in different organisations are: healthcare (Kozak et al., 2007; Salaheldin and Mukhalalati, 2009; Duggirala et al., 2008; Raja et al., 2007), education (Helms et al., 2001; Vazzana et al., 2000; Sakthivel and Raju, 2006; Bayraktas et al., 2008), hospitality (Claver-Cortes et al., 2008; Sila and Ebrahimpour, 2003; Holjevac, 2008; Daghfous and Baskhi, 2009), banking (Vermeulen and Crous, 2000; Sureshchandar et al., 2001; Selvaraj, 2009; Al-Marri et al., 2007), information and communication technology/information technology enabled services (ICT/ITES) and software industries (Rahman and Siddiqui, 2006; Gunasekaran et al., 2006; Pezeshki et al., 2009; Sohn et al., 2008) and many more. Moreover, literature review suggests that service sector still lags behind their manufacturing counterpart in term of research studies to understand and measure the practices of TQM (Brah et al., 2000; Sureshchandar et al., 2001; Gustafsson et al., 2003). To bridge this research study gap, the present study aims: •

to identify and rank the TQM practices for implementing TQM in service sector

•

to impose the relationships among the identified TQM practices to derive key managerial insights using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach and suggest the scope for future research.

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The rest of the paper is organised as follows. The next section presents the literature review and discusses the identification of TQM practices. It is followed by an introduction to ISM, ISM methodology and ISM model development. Matrice d’Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliquee A un Classement (MICMAC) analysis has also been carried out on the developed model subsequently. Finally, the discussion and conclusion of this research study are presented, which is followed by scope for future research.

2

Literature review

Although TQM has matured much as a discipline, its practices in service sector are still in its nascent stage. The current literature review is focused to identification of TQM practices that need to be considered and implemented in service organisations, which can enhance business performance and customer satisfaction. In this study, 17 practices of TQM that can impact the organisational performance are identified based on extent review of literature and through discussions with quality management (QM)/TQM experts, practitioners of organisations, and academicians, keeping the service sector in focus. Some of the selected literature references are presented in Table 1.

2.1 Identification of TQM practices in service sector 2.1.1 Top-management commitment Top-management commitment refers to how senior leaders and management core group guide the organisation and assess the organisational performance (Teh et al., 2008). They influence others towards achieving some kind of desired outcome (de Jong and den Hartog, 2007) and is one of the critical elements of TQM (Soltani et al., 2008; Sit et al., 2009). Top-management involvement should be demonstrated by actions that are needed and not just by words or declarations of quality policies. Thus, top-management must exercise leadership abilities to influence the behaviour of others. According to Gonzalez and Guillen (2002), top-management commitment helps to allocate resources and encourage actions like deployment of information-gathering devices, encourage the use of statistical tools and techniques and others. Lee et al. (2001) revealed that top-management commitment as one of the quality practices influence both quality performance and financial performance. Studies further showed that top-management commitment significantly affects the customer satisfaction and job satisfaction (Sit et al., 2009; Pannirselvam and Ferguson, 2001; Ooi et al., 2007a).

2.1.2 Customer focus Customer focus as TQM practice can be described as the degree to which organisations continuously fulfil the customer needs and expectations to enhance their performance (Ooi et al., 2007b; Zhang, 2000) and is considered as one of the basic building blocks of TQM (Bank, 2000). Organisations that understand what customers really want and provide a product or service to meet their requirements can gain competitive advantage and profit (Yusuf et al., 2007). Vouzas and Psychogios (2007) asserted that customer satisfaction influences the organisation to improve its performance. For continuous improvement and to pursuit customer focus, information about customers’ needs and


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wants, complaints, level of satisfaction, feedback on quality levels of currently available products and services etc. are gathered and analysed (Sit et al., 2009; Zhang, 2000; Phusavat et al., 2009). Beside this, Teh et al. (2009b) emphasised on regular customer satisfaction surveys to measure customer focus. Table 1

TQM practices and their selected references as reported in the TQM literature

Author(s)

TQM practices

Saraph et al. (1989)

Top-management leadership, role of quality department, training, product design, supplier quality management, process management, quality data reporting, and employee relations

Brah et al. (2000)

Top management support, customer focus, employee involvement, employee training, employee empowerment, supplier quality management, process improvement, service design, quality improvement rewards, benchmarking, and cleanliness and organisation

Kanji and Wallace (2000)

Top-management commitment, customer focus and satisfaction, quality information and performance measurement, human resource management, employee involvement, teamwork, process management, quality assurance, zero defects, and communication

Sureshchandar et al. (2002)

Top-management commitment and visionary leadership, human resource management, technical system, information and analysis system, benchmarking, continuous improvement, customer focus, employee satisfaction, union intervention, social responsibility, services capes, and service culture

Sila and Ebrahimpour (2002)

Top management commitment, social responsibility, strategic planning, customer focus and satisfaction, quality information and performance measurement, benchmarking, human resource management, teamwork, employee involvement, training, employee empowerment, employee satisfaction, process management, process control, product and service design, employee appraisal, reward and recognition, supplier management, continuous improvement and innovation, quality assurance, quality culture, zero defects, communication, quality systems, just-in-time, and flexibility

Samat et al. (2006)

Management support and commitment, employee involvement, employee empowerment, information and communication, training and education, customer focus, and continuous improvement

Rahman and Siddiqui (2006)

Top-management commitment, customer-centric advancements, benchmarking, relentless improvement, and strengthening the employee base

Khamalah and Lingaraj (2007)

Top-management commitment, benchmarking, quality improvement programmes, teambuilding techniques, supplier involvement, training, reward and recognition

Yusuf et al. (2007)

Leadership and commitment, customer focus, continuous improvement, get things right first time, just-in-time, competitive benchmarking, cost of quality, employee involvement, teamwork, training, communication, and recognition and reward

Claver-Cortes et al. (2008)

Training, information and communication technologies and information systems, environmental management, and performance.

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2.1.3 Training and education Training and education is an essential part of TQM implementation especially in services as it explores the knowledge to employees about the principles and core concept of TQM to achieve desired goals. It also imparts knowledge of continuous improvement and innovation in service process to attain full benefits and business excellence. Training and education plays a critical role in maintaining high quality level which can be achieved through the best use of talent and activities available within the organisation (Talib and Rahman, 2010). There exists well established link between training and firm’s performance in TQM literature (Reed et al., 2000; Vermeulen and Crous, 2000). Training and education helps to improve the employee’s confidence and hence, improves his/her personal development (Tsang and Antony, 2001). Training and education also helps to minimise the risk of service failure and positively influence quality performance (Lee et al., 2001). A formal and successful training encourage the employees to have the sense of knowledge sharing (Ooi et al., 2010) and have positive effects on job involvement within the organisation (Karia and Ahmad, 2000; Ooi et al., 2007a).

2.1.4 Continuous improvement and innovation Continuous improvement and innovation in the services quality is one of the major practices of the TQM implementation programme. It helps in eliminating lead times in delivery, reducing re-work, and unnecessary slack and variability in the processes thereby continuously improving the business performance and reducing all non-value adding activities at a minimum (Hyland et al., 2000). According to TQM philosophy the best way to improve organisational output is to continuously improve performance (Corbett and Rastrick, 2000). Continuous improvement means commitment to constant examination of technical and administrative processes in search of better methods (Dean and Bowen, 1994) and to achieve customer satisfaction (Anderson et al., 1994).

2.1.5 Supplier management Service quality of an organisation can be improved by selecting a quality supplier. Beside this, Zineldin and Fonsson (2000) found that developing long-term relationships with the supplier can increase the organisation’s competitiveness. In past, supplier relationships and management was not considered to be a critical dimension for service industries but due to increase in number of service companies, service globalisation and customer changing needs, supplier partnership and supplier management become an essential element of TQM programme. The benefits of supplier quality and management are flow of information sharing can be speeded up and stable relationships can lead to stable delivery and prices (Talib and Rahman, 2010; Tsang and Antony, 2001).

2.1.6 Employee involvement Employee involvement is an integral part of TQM programme and cannot be overlooked specially in service industries as services cannot be delivered to the target customers without the participation of ‘all’ members of the organisation. The term ‘total’ in the TQM stands for involvement of ‘all’ members of the organisation. They should be involved and participate in quality improvement processes, decision making processes, policy making issues, problem solving sessions and the financial success of the


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organisation (Talib and Rahman, 2010; Ooi et al., 2007a). Also, through participation and involvement, employees will envision their jobs as more enjoyable resulting in increasing levels of job involvement towards the organisation. It give room for improvement in the area of employees’ moral and skill development, to improve his/her personal capabilities and increase the level of respect given to management (Ooi et al., 2007a; Karia and Ahmad, 2000). Organisation should utilise all employee’s skill and abilities, and people in different departments should work as a team for any problem-solving initiatives (Tsang and Antony, 2001).

2.1.7 Information and analysis Information and analysis is defined as the degree to which data and information to be collected and analysed for the aim of quality improvement (Hoang et al., 2006; Ooi, 2009). Quality information and analysis helps an organisation to ensure the availability of high quality, timely data and information for all users such as employees, suppliers, business partners, and customers (Teh et al., 2009a; Lee et al., 2003). Organisation must also embrace strong acceptance and maintenance of total quality measurement and information. Measurement is necessary to conduct against series of key results indicators. Phusavat et al. (2007) reported that the increasing competition has given the greater role of information technology in which the customers are able to convey higher demands such as demanding for lower cost, higher quality or reliability and with better market delivery. Teh et al. (2008) argued that there is a greater need of quality information on customers’ needs and expectations as well as competitor’s product and service quality and procedures for the organisations to grow, develop and perform.

2.1.8 Process management Process management is defined as the behavioural and systematic principles that are important to managing the process rather than the outcomes (Teh et al., 2008). It emphasises on adding value to processes, increasing quality levels, and having programme to reduce wasted time and costs in all internal processes (Hoang et al., 2006; Ooi, 2009). It is a critical practice of service quality which emphasises conformance to customer requirements by means of error-free services in the most efficient way (Duggirala et al., 2008). Wali et al. (2003) suggested that if employee involvement is critical in attaining the customer satisfaction, managing the process is critical in engaging an organisation’s employees to take responsibilities for what they are doing in relation to satisfying the customers. Sit et al. (2009) reveal the significance of process management as a critical factor in driving customer satisfaction and therefore, process management has a positive effect on customer satisfaction.

2.1.9 Quality systems Another important task for implementing TQM in the service organisation is focus towards quality policies, strategies, and use of quality tools and techniques to improve customer requirements and expectations. For achieving this, a well-documented quality assurance system is needed to ensure the consistency of the quality related issues in services (Bayraktas et al., 2008). ISO9000 standards, statistical process control (SPC), and qualitative tools and techniques may help to create a solid basis for quality

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improvement and implementing TQM in an organisation (Curry and Kadasah, 2002; Sila and Ebrahimpour, 2003). Schevermann et al. (1997) reported that use of quality tools and techniques in service organisations are suitable and sufficient for its business operations.

2.1.10 Benchmarking Benchmarking is one of the critical practices of TQM and is widely used by service organisations. Yusuf et al. (2007) reported that benchmarking helps in improving the performance of the organisation by providing a target to them to gain superiority in the market. The aim is to discover the best practices and adopt them in the organisation to achieve competitive advantages. The organisation can be transformed to world class status when benchmarking is directed at the key or critical business processes. Benchmarking involves finding gaps, problem solving, and continuous change. The link between benchmarking and TQM is improving performance based on organisation best practices and should directly contribute to meeting customers’ need (Talib and Rahman, 2010; Yusuf et al., 2007).

2.1.11

Quality culture

The importance of quality culture as a critical TQM practice was emphasised in many studies (Sureshchandar et al., 2001; Sila and Ebrahimpour, 2003; Curry and Kadash, 2002). This practice refers to a set of values and guiding beliefs shared by members within an organisation. Ooi et al. (2007b) and Yusof and Ali (2000) revealed that quality culture not only able to change, guide and display but also influence the thought, feeling, interaction, and performance of the employees in the organisation. Many of the researchers linked quality culture with the organisation culture and corporate culture. Quality culture is gained by the perception and attitudes of the employee towards quality. The common factors included in quality culture are work environment and culture; leadership and quality culture; service culture; and services capes. The physical environment also heavily influence behaviour and create an image about the organisation and its employees, particularly in service organisations like banks, hotels, restaurant, retail stores, and healthcare centres (Sureshchandar et al., 2001).

2.1.12 Human resource management Human resource management refers to a system that utilises the available human resource of the organisation to improve the organisation’s efficiency and increase effectiveness. It is known to be subset of a wide-ranging management process that is oriented towards and incorporated in the firm’s strategy (Teh et al., 2008; Hoang et al., 2006). In addition, this TQM practice also includes employee empowerment; job rotation; selection and recruitment; motivation, compensation, employee security; and workforce development (Stone, 2007) and is therefore, recognised as an important practice for successful implementation of TQM in an organisation. Further, Yang (2006) systematically studied the impact of human resource management practices on the implementation of TQM and results of the study showed that this practice can have significant effects on customer satisfaction also.


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2.1.13 Strategic planning Brah et al. (2002) asserted that to make TQM implementation a success, it is important to continuously focus on the needs of the customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders as well as also emphasise on effective strategic planning and deployment of plans. Strategic planning deals with the development and deployment of action plans and also helps to improve goal convergence through participative planning (Teh et al., 2009a; Ketokivi and Castaner, 2004). Most of the organisations have now realised that unless strategic planning is put into practice, they will not be able to compete under present scenario of high competition in global market. Tari (2005) and Sit et al. (2009) concluded that strategic planning also deals with the development of long and short-term plans focusing on the vision and mission of the organisation. This concept has brought to the adoption of new technology, teamwork and participation, sustained and green environment policies, incorporating long-term goals and objectives within the organisation. Further, strategic planning helps organisation to modify plans based on changing market condition and emphasise the organisational planning process, integration of core requirements into the organisation plan and performance evaluation (Teh et al., 2008).

2.1.14

Employee encouragement

Employee encouragement is a critical practice for TQM success. It covers rewards and appraisals as well as recognition from time to time to maintain enhanced delivery of services to the customer (Talib and Rahman, 2010). Employee should be encouraged for their hard work, effort and contribution, achievements and suggestions through cash as well as non-cash incentives at some special events so that they feel they are valuable members of the organisations (Ooi et al., 2007a; 2007b; Karia and Ahmad, 2000). Yusuf et al. (2007) suggested that employee encouragement could be developed through recognition and rewards that acts as both motivators and stimulators in achieving desired organisation performance and employee satisfaction. It has been argued that performance appraisals and reward gives the right direction to workforce and is more critical in service sector (Schneider and Bowen, 1995).

2.1.15

Teamwork

Teamwork is defined as work done by associates, where each member does a part in line with the efforts from subordinates in hierarchical levels (Ooi et al., 2010; MacNeil, 2003). To overcome sectionalism, the entire organisation should cooperate in improving quality and embark on quality improvement activities (Yang, 2006) by forming teams and full participation. The proper formation of quality improvement teams is vital to an organisation’s TQM success. According to Molina et al. (2007), structuring the organisation into work teams is one of TQM’s basic ideologies. Further, Ooi et al. (2007b) suggested that in service organisations, a team should be composed of personnel from each department and should be capable to improve a process. This will allow employees at different levels to be more involved in the job and work as team throughout the organisation.

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2.1.16 Product and service design The starting point for the study of quality performance is the design practices of product and services. Any changes within the product or services can be incorporated at this stage before the designs are finalised. Organisations should consider all the relevant practices during planning for the product and service design processes like understanding fully the customer product and service requirements, clarity of specification, involving all related departments in the design reviews, and emphasising fitness of use (Motwani, 2001). Bayraktas et al. (2008) found programme design in academics as the main product of higher education institution that attract and satisfy the needs of the stakeholders and technological advances, and should be up-dated if necessary. Such re-design or review can also be considered in high-customer involvement organisations like banks; hotels; restaurants, hospitals, and IT services.

2.1.17 Communication An effective communication across the organisation ensures that the customer requirements are properly addressed and that an environment of trust and knowledge sharing is also created. Good communication motivates, avoids misunderstandings, and reduces the costs of quality by avoiding mistakes (Cohen and Brand, 1993). Communication is critical within organisations for connecting employees and permits organisations to function, as well as essential element to implementation of TQM (Gray and Laidlaw, 2002; Ooi et al., 2007a). It is recommended that management, supporting staff, supervisors, and suppliers in any organisation must recognise the value and effects of good communication as a significant factor in creating and maintaining standards for TQM successful implementation (Yusuf et al., 2007). Thus, total quality managers must use effective communication to enlist the support of other employees towards achieving organisation objectives (Ooi et al., 2007a).

3

Introduction to ISM

It is generally felt that quality experts or practitioners encounter difficulties in dealing with quality issues or systems. One of the reasons is the presence of a large number of variables and interaction among these variables. The presence of directly or indirectly related variables makes the structure of the system more complex which may not be articulated in clear fashion. It then becomes difficult to deal with such a system in which structure is not clearly presented and defined. It is therefore, necessary to develop a methodology which helps in identifying a structure within a system. One of the methodology which deals with such type of problem is ISM. It is an interactive learning qualitative tool in which a set of different and directly related elements are structured into a comprehensive systemic model (Warfield, 1974; Sage, 1977). It transforms unclear, poorly articulated models of system into clearly visible, well-defined models used for various purposes (Sage, 1977). According to Mandal and Deshmukh (1994, p.52), ISM is ‘a well established methodology for identifying and summarising relationships among specific items which define an issue or problem, it provides a means by which a group can impose order on the complexity of the items and its modelling identifies the specific relationships and overall structure, and are portrayed in a digraph model’. Thus, ISM is a


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process that helps to develop a model of the complex relationships between the many factors involved in a complex situation. It is suitable technique for analysing the influence of one factor over the other (Qureshi et al., 2007). Some of many advantages of this methodology are (Thakkar et al., 2008): •

it incorporates subjective judgments of experts as well as their knowledge base in orderly way

•

provides opportunity for improvement and revision of judgments

•

it can be best used as a qualitative tool in real life situation as well as for deriving quick managerial insights; and

•

it is primarily intended as a group learning process, but individuals can also use it.

ISM can be applied in various fields. Some of the applications of ISM as appeared in the literature are summarised in Table 2. Table 2

ISM as reported in the literature

Author(s)

Area of ISM application

Saxena et al. (1990)

Energy conservation in Indian cement industry

Mandal and Deshmukh (1994)

Vendor selection

Kanungo and Bhatnagar (2002)

Models for information system (IS) quality

Jharkharia and Shankar (2005)

Information technology (IT) enablement of supply chain

Faisal et al. (2006)

Supply chain risk mitigation

Qureshi et al. (2007)

Logistics outsourcing relationship variable to enhance shippers’ productivity and competitiveness in logistical supply chain

Thakkar et al. (2008)

IT-enablers for Indian manufacturing SMEs

Sahney et al. (2010)

Quality framework in education for administrative staff in Indian context

4

ISM methodology

ISM methodology is interpretive as the judgment of the group decides whether and how the variables are related. Based on mutual relationships, an overall structure is obtained from the set of complex variables. It is an approach where specific relationships of the variables are modelled and finally overall structure of the system under consideration is presented in a digraph model through a hierarchical configuration. The process of ISM starts with the identification of variables that could be related to each other in a system. After variables are identified, direct and indirect relationships (contextual relationships) are identified between these variables, which are then converted into a structure self-interaction matrix (SSIM) based on pair-wise comparison of variables. The SSIM is transformed into a reachability matrix which includes variable transitivity. Finally, the partitioning of the variables and an extraction of the structural

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model, called ISM is derived. In the present paper, ISM has been applied to understand the interrelationships among the TQM practices of service organisations that help in effective implementation of TQM programme. Although, the various procedural steps of ISM are well documented in ISM literature (Mandal and Deshmukh, 1994; Warfield, 1974; Thakkar et al., 2008; Ravi et al., 2005; Kanungo and Bhatnagar, 2002), a comprehensive understanding of various steps as discussed above are illustrated through the flow diagram in Figure 1. Figure 1

Flow diagram depicting ISM methodology Literature review on TQM practices

Identify TQM practices related to service industries

Establish contextual relationship (Xi,j) between variables (i,j) through

Seek expert opinion

Develop a structural self interaction matrix (SS ) Partition the Reachability matrix into different levels

Develop a Reachability matrix

Develop digraph

Remove transitivity from the digraph

Replace variables nodes with relationship statements

Yes

Is there any conceptual inconsistency No

Represent relationship statement into model for the TQM practices in service industries


5

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ISM model development

The steps described in Figure 1 for the development of the ISM model begins with literature review in order to compile the TQM practices for service organisations which are discussed in the previous section. The identification of practices of TQM and their contextual relationship was undertaken through brainstorming process which is discussed as under. ISM methodology infuses expert opinions using brainstorming, nominal group technique, idea engineering etc. in contextual variable relationship development. Three brainstorming sessions were held to identify the TQM practices of service organisations and later on, the contextual relationship was established. A total of 12 participants including three core members, two quality experts, three from service organisation, and four from academia participated in brainstorming sessions. Most of the participants are from academia and experts in the field, like service quality, quality implementation, and service marketing. Expert group is hailed from service organisations like hospital, bank, and software developing company having experience in service and product quality. After the end of three brainstorming sessions, 17 TQM practices were identified and are listed in Table 3. The identification of practices and their contextual relationships leads to the development of various matrixes which are presented in the paper. The rest of the model development process is further described under the following sub-headings. •

structural self-interaction matrix (SSIM)

•

reachability matrix (initial and final)

•

partitioning the reachability matrix

•

development of digraph and formation of ISM model.

Table 3

TQM practices used in ISM model development

Practice no.

TQM practice

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Top-management commitment Customer focus Training and education Continuous improvement and innovation Supplier management Employee involvement Information and analysis Process management Quality systems Benchmarking Quality culture Human resource management Strategic planning Employee encouragement Teamwork Product and service design Communication

Strategic planning


Teamwork

Product and service design

Communication

13

14

15

16

17

Quality culture

Human resource management

Benchmarking

10

12

Quality systems

9

11

Information and analysis

Employee involvement

6

Process management

Supplier management

5

8

A

Continuous improvement and innovation

4

7

O

Training and education

3

V

A

A

A

A

O

A

A

O

A

A

A

A

A

Top-management commitment

Customer focus

2

17

1

TQM practices

V

O

O

V

O

A

V

V

O

V

V

A

V

A

V

16

A

V

A

V

A

O

A

V

A

V

A

A

A

V

15

V

A

V

A

O

A

V

X

O

A

V

O

V

14

O

O

A

O

O

O

O

O

A

A

A

V

13

V

A

A

A

V

V

V

A

V

O

V

12

O

A

O

O

A

O

A

A

A

V

11

V

O

O

O

V

X

V

A

V

10

X

V

O

V

A

V

A

V

9

V

V

V

A

V

A

V

8

O

O

A

A

A

V

7

V

A

X

A

V

6

O

A

O

V

5

V

A

V

4

A

V

3 V

2

1

Table 4

Practice no.

236 F. Talib et al.

Structural self-interaction matrix (SSIM)


237

5.1 Structural self-interaction matrix (SSIM) In order to analyse the relationships among the identified TQM practices, a contextual relationship of ‘leads to’ type is chosen. For example, the top-management commitment leads to the continuous improvement and innovation of products and services in the service organisation. In similar manner, the contextual relationships between the other practices are developed. Keeping in mind the contextual relationship for each practice, the existence of a relation between any two TQM practices (let i and j) and the associated direction of the relation are questioned. Four symbols are used to denote the direction of relationship between the TQM practices (i and j). •

V: TQM practice i will help achieve TQM practice j

•

A: TQM practice j will be achieved by TQM practice i

•

X: TQM practice i and j will help achieve each other

•

O: TQM practice i and j are unrelated.

Based on the contextual relationship, the SSIM is developed for all the 17 TQM practices identified for service organisations (Table 4). The following would explain the use of the symbols V; A; X; and O in SSIM in Table 4. •

TQM practice 1 (top-management commitment) helps achieve TQM Practice 17 (communication). This means that an effective ‘top-management commitment’ will help improve the ‘strategic planning’ and ‘quality culture’ through ‘communication’. Thus, the relationship between TQM Practices 1 and 17 is denoted by ‘V’ in the SSIM.

•

TQM Practice 4 (continuous improvement and innovation) can be achieved by TQM Practice 16 (product and service design). This means that improving ‘product and service design’ processes and procedures will lead to customer satisfaction and would help attain ‘continuous improvement and innovation’ in the organisation as well as effective implementation of TQM programme. Thus, the relationship between these TQM practices is denoted by ‘A’ in the SSIM.

•

TQM Practices 8 (process management) and 9 (quality systems) help achieve each other. This means that error-free service is critical aspect of ‘process management’ and that could be achieved by use of quality tools and techniques, similarly, ‘quality systems’ can best be implemented if different processes are systematically applied and managed to implement TQM programme. Thus, the relationship between these TQM practices is denoted by ‘X’ in the SSIM.

•

No relationship exists between TQM Practices 7 (information and analysis) and 11 (quality culture) because ‘information and analysis’ have no role to play in improving ‘quality culture’ and vice-versa, and hence, the relationship between these practices is denoted by ‘O’ in the SSIM.

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5.2 Reachability matrix (initial and final) The reachability matrix is obtained from SSIM. The reachability matrix indicates the relationship between variables in the binary form. The various relationships between TQM practices depicted by symbols V; A; X; and O used earlier in SSIM are replaced by binary digits of ‘0’ and ‘1’. The values for the substitution of ‘1s’ and ‘0s’ are as follows. •

if the (i,j) entry in the SSIM is ‘V’, then the (i,j) entry in the reachability matrix becomes 1 and the (j,i) entry becomes 0

•

if the (i,j) entry in the SSIM is ‘A’, then the (i,j) entry in the reachability matrix becomes 0 and the (j,i) entry becomes 1

•

if the (i,j) entry in the SSIM is ‘X’, then the (i,j) entry in the reachability matrix becomes 1 and the (j,i) entry also becomes 1

•

if the (i,j) entry in the SSIM is ‘O’, then the (i,j) entry in the reachability matrix becomes 0 and the (j,i) entry also becomes 0.

Following these rules, initial reachability matrix for TQM practices is constructed. The final reachability matrix is obtained by incorporating the transitivity. Transitivity means that if an element (or variable) ‘i’ is related to ‘j’ and ‘j’ is related to ‘k’, then ‘i’ is necessarily be related to ‘k’. Figure 2

If: Then:

Transitivity showing relationship between elements (or variables)

i

j

i

k

and

j

k

Final reachability matrix is shown in Table 5 where in transitivity is marked as 1†. Table 5 also shows driving power and dependence of each TQM practice which is explained in MICMAC analysis section.

5.3 Partitioning the reachability matrix Next step after getting the final reachability matrix is the level partition used to find the hierarchy of each practice. Warfield (1974) suggested that the reachability and antecedent set for each variable is obtained from the final reachability matrix. The reachability set for a particular variable consists of the variable itself and the other variables, which it may help to achieve. Similarly, the antecedent set consist itself and other variables which helps in achieving it. Subsequently, the intersection between reachability and the antecedent set is attained. If the membership in reachability and the intersection completely agrees than the top priority is assigned and the variable is excluded from the subsequent iteration, likewise procedure leads to final iteration leading to the lowest level. Table 6 shows the first iteration where in ‘customer focus’ (Practice 2) is found at level I, therefore, it would be positioned at the top of the ISM hierarchy. Similarly, iterations are repeated till the level of each variable is obtained. Results for iterations i–x are summarised in Table 7. The identification levels aids in building the digraph and the final model of ISM which is discussed as under.

1 X

Employee involvement

Information and analysis

Process management

Quality systems

Benchmarking

Quality culture

Human resource management

Strategic planning


Teamwork

Product and service design

Communication

Dependence

Rank

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Note: 1 entries are included to incorporate transitivity

0

Supplier management

5

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Training and education

Continuous improvement and innovation

†

1 0

4

Customer focus

2

1

3

Top-management commitment

1

TQM practices

I

17

1

1

1

VI

9

0

0

1

1

†

1

1

†

0

1† 1

1

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1† 1

0

1

0

1

3

1

1

1

1

2

II

15

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

0

1

1

0

1

4

VIII

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

1

5

V

10

1

0

1

VIII

3

1

0

0

0

0

1† 1

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

1

1† 0

0

0

0

0

0

1

7

1

1

0

1

0

1

6

III

13

1

0

1

1

1†

IV

11

II

15

1

1†

1 1

1† 0

1

1

1

1†

1

1

0

1†

VIII

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0 0

1

0

0

0

1

11

1†

1

1

0

1

10

0

1†

1

1

1

0

0

1

1

1

0

1

0

1

0

1

9

1†

1

1

1

1

1

0

1

0

1

8

V

10

0

0

1

1

1†

1

1

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

1

0

1

12

VIII

3

1

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

13

VI

9

1

0

1

1

1

0

1

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

1

0

1

14

VII

7

1

0

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

1

15

III

13

1

1

1

0

1†

1

1†

0

1

1

1†

1

1

0

1

0

1

16

IX

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

17

14

4

11

8

12

7

12

3

6

5

12

9

10

3

10

1

17

Driving power

II

XI

IV

VII

III

VIII

III

XII

IX

X

III

VI

V

XII

V

XIII

I

Rank

Table 5

Practice no.

An interpretive structural modelling approach 239

Final reachability matrix

240 Table 6

F. Talib et al. TQM practice level iteration i Reachability set R(Pi)

Antecedent set A (Pi)

Intersection set R(Pi)∩A(Pi)

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 2 2,3,4,6,8,9,10,12,14,16 2,4,10 2,3,5,6,8,9,10,12,15,16 2,3,4,6,8,10,12,14,16 2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,12,14,15,16 2,4,8,9,16 2,4,8,9,10,16 2,4,10 2,3,4,6,8,9,10,11,12,14,15,16 2,4,8,9,10,12,16 2,3,4,6,8,9,10,12,13,14,15,16 2,3,4,6,8,10,12,14 2,3,4,6,8,9,10,12,14,15,16 2,4,10,16 2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13,14,15,16,17

1 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, 1,3,5,6,7,11,13,14,15 1,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,1 1,5,13,17 1,3,5,6,7,11,13,14,15,1 1,7,17 1,3,5,6,7,8,9,11,12,13,1 1,3,5,7,8,9,11,12,13,15, 1,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,12,1 1,11,17 1,3,5,6,7,11,12,13,14,1 1,13,17 1,3,6,7,11,13,14,15,17 1,5,7,11,13,15,17 1,3,5,6,7,8,9,11,12,13,1 1,17

1 2 3,6,14 4,10 5 3,6,14 7 8,9 8,9 4,10 11 12 13 3,6,14 15 16 17

Practice (Pi) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Table 7 Iteration

Level

I

Levels of TQM practices iteration i–x Practice Reachability (Pi) set R(Pi)

i

2

2

ii

4

4,10

ii

10

4,10

iii

16

16

Antecedent set A (Pi) 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17

Intersection set Level R(Pi)∩A(Pi) 2

I

1,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17

4,10

II

1,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17

4,10

II

16

III

1,3,5,6,7,8,9,11,12,13,15,16,17

iv

8

8,9

1,3,5,6,7,8,9,11,12,13,14,15,17

8,9

IV

iv

9

8,9

1,3,5,7,8,9,11,12,13,15,17

8,9

IV

v

12

12

vi

3

3,6,14

vi

6

vi

14

vii

15

15

1,5,7,11,13,15,17

15

VII

viii

5

5

1,5,13,17

5

VIII

12

V

1,3,5,6,7,11,13,14,15

1,3,5,6,7,11,12,13,14,15

3,6,14

VI

3,6,14

1,3,5,6,7,11,13,14,15,17

3,6,14

VI

3,6,14

1,3,6,7,11,13,14,15,17

3,6,14

VI

viii

7

7

1,7,17

7

VIII

viii

11

11

1,11,17

11

VIII

viii

13

13

1,13,17

13

VIII

ix

17

17

1,17

17

IX

x

1

1

1

1

X


241

Figure 3 Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) of TQM practices for service industries Customer Focus (2)

Continuous improvement and innovation (4)

Benchmarking (10)

Product and service design (16)

Process management (8)

Quality systems (9)

Human Resource Management (12)

Employee encouragement (14)

Employee involvement (6)

Training and education (3)

Teamwork (15)

Strategic planning (13)

Information and analysis (7)

Quality culture (11)

Supplier management (5)

Communication (17)

Top-management commitment (1)

5.4 Development of digraph and formation of ISM Based on the final reachability matrix, the initial digraph including transitive links is obtained later on the indirect links may be removed for the sake of simplicity. As per level partition results (Table 7), ‘customer focus’ which is assigned level I is placed at the top, followed by two Practices 4 (continuous improvement and innovation) and 10

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(benchmarking) which are found at level II, thus, all the TQM practices are placed at pre-defined level as displayed in Table 7. The final digraph is obtained by removing the indirect links and is shown in Figure 3 It is observed from Figure 3 that ‘top-management commitment’ (Practice 1) is a very significant TQM practice for the service organisations as it forms the base of the ISM hierarchy. ‘Customer focus’ (Practice 2) is the resulting TQM practice which can be achieved through successful implementation of TQM programme. This practice has appeared at the top of the hierarchy. The ‘top-management commitment’ (Practice 1) leads to the flow of ‘communication’ (Practice 17). Flow of communication leads to ‘strategic planning’ (Practice 13), ‘quality information and analysis’ (Practice 7), ‘quality culture’ (Practice 11), and ‘supplier management’ (Practice 5). ‘Teamwork’ (Practice 15) leads to ‘employee encouragement’ (Practice 14) and ‘employee involvement’ (Practice 6) as well as ‘training and education’ (Practice 3) and thus, all these practices are vital for an organisation’s TQM success. ‘Employee encouragement’ (Practice 14), ‘employee involvement’ (Practice 6), and ‘training and education’ (Practice 3) leads to improved ‘human resource management’ (Practice 12) in the organisation. Schneider and Bowen (1992) stated that of the employees are treated as valuable resources then they in turn will also treat their customers as valuable. Thus, all these three practices are critical to develop human resource management and for TQM success. Further, ‘process management’ (Practice 8) and ‘quality systems’ (Practice 9) are interrelated and leads to ‘product and service design’ (Practice 16). ‘Continuous improvement and innovation’ (Practice 4) and ‘benchmarking’ (Practice 10) are also having two-way relationship and important practices for successful implementation of TQM programme. These two practices leads to ‘customer focus’ (Practice 2). If organisation understands what customer really wants and provides product or service to meet their requirement, it will result to gain in competitive advantage and profit (Yusuf et al., 2007) and this could be achieved through ‘continuous improvement and innovation’ (Practice 4) and ‘benchmarking’ (Practice 10) practices.

6

MICMAC analysis

According to Qureshi et al. (2007), identifying and classifying the key variables are essential for the development of a system under study. Comparing the hierarchy of variables in the various classifications namely direct, indirect, and potential provides a rich source of information. It helps to confirm the importance of certain variables and also uncovers certain variables which, because of their indirect actions, play an important role, but they are not identifiable through direct classification. MICMAC is an indirect classification technique based on driving power and dependence of each variable (Mandal and Deshmukh, 1994; Ravi et al., 2005) that helps to critically investigate the scope of each variable. In MICMAC analysis, the TQM practices described earlier are classified into four clusters (Figure 4). The first cluster portrays ‘autonomous variables’ having weak driving power and weak dependence, which are relatively disconnected from the system, as they posses few weak links with other variables. The ‘dependent variables’ constitute the second cluster having weak driving power but strong dependence. Third cluster includes the ‘linkage variables’ having strong driving power and strong dependence. These variables are unstable due to


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the fact that any action on these variables will have an affect on other and also a feedback on themselves. Fourth cluster contains ‘independent variables’ having strong driving power but weak dependence. The driving power and dependence of each of these variables are depicted in Table 5. Figure 4

Driver power-dependence matrix (see online version for colours)

The objective of MICMAC analysis in the present study is to identify and analyse the TQM practices of service organisations based on their indirect classification. From Table 5 (final reachability matrix), driving power and dependence are obtained by adding an entry of binary digit ‘1’ in their respective row and column for each TQM practice respectively. These driving powers and dependence of each practice can be plotted as the matrix diagram shown in Figure 4 For example, it is observed from Table 5 that the Practice 1 is having a driving power of ‘17’ and dependence of ‘1’. Therefore, in Figure 4 it is positioned at a place corresponding to driver power of ‘17’ and dependence of ‘1’.

7

Discussion and conclusions

One of the major objectives of the present study is to identify and develop a hierarchy of TQM practices that would significantly help managers and practitioners of service organisations in implementing TQM. In the present market of high competition, one of the primary goals of the service organisation is to increase its business performance such that it is able to satisfy its customers. For that, management has to adopt different strategies which could help them to enhance their business performance as well as market share. Recently, many of them have adopted the strategies of TQM principles and other

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quality related tools and techniques to capture market, by satisfying customers through delivering improved products and services. Further, the TQM principles and practices strategically create continuous improved environment, enhanced customer service and loyalty, and improved sustainable competitive advantage to beat the stiff competition. TQM is thus, becoming a necessity for service organisations. In this paper, an ISM-based model has been developed to analyse the interaction among the TQM practices. It identifies the hierarchy of actions to be taken for implementing TQM programme in order to achieve enhanced business performance and customer satisfaction. It can also help the top-management to decide the action needed for successful implementation of TQM programme. This study has some implications for the practicing managers. The driver power-dependence matrix (Figure 4, gives some valuable insights about the relative importance and interdependencies among the TQM practices. The managerial implications emerging from study are as follows. •

The driver power-dependence matrix (Figure 4) indicates that no practice is taking place in the autonomous variable cluster. The variables under autonomous cluster are weak drivers and weak dependents and therefore they do not have much influence on the system. The absence of any autonomous practices in this study indicates that all the considered practices influence the process of implementation of TQM programme in the service organisation, and management should therefore pay attention to all the TQM practices.

•

It can be observed from Figure 4 that ‘customer focus’, ‘continuous improvement and innovation’, ‘benchmarking’, ‘product and service design’, ‘process management’, ‘quality systems’, and ‘human resource management’ are weak drivers but strongly dependent on the other practices. These seven TQM practices are at the top of the ISM hierarchy. The management should therefore, give high priority in tackling these TQM practices. Besides this, management should also understand the dependence of these TQM practices on lower level practices in the ISM.

•

Three practices namely ‘training and education’, employee involvement’, and ‘employee encouragement’ are the linkage practices and have strong driver power as well as strong dependence. Therefore, these form the middle level of the model. Though the lower level TQM practices induce these practices, these also have some driver power to influence some other TQM practices, which are at the top of the model. Joint meetings at regular intervals of all the entities of the TQM may prove useful in this regard.

•

From driver power and dependence matrix, it is observed that seven TQM practices namely ‘teamwork’, ‘strategic planning’, ‘information and analysis’, ‘quality culture’, ‘supplier management’, ‘communication’, and ‘top-management commitment’ have strong driver power and less dependency, and are at the bottom of ISM hierarchy. Thus, the management needs to address these TQM practices more carefully in the implementation of TQM programme. It can also be deduced that these practices help to achieve the outcome practices, which appears at the top of the ISM hierarchy. Therefore, it can be inferred that management should develop


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strategies that could enhance the deployment of such practices in order to enhance business performance and customer satisfaction. The main contributions of this research paper include the following. •

In this paper, an attempt has been made to identify the important TQM practices found in service organisations on a single platform. Although, voluminous literature is available on TQM involving various issues related to it. The relationship between TQM practices in context with service organisation has not been modelled. The present model will help managers and TQM practitioners to understand the relationship in depth. This research assumes importance in this context.

•

A key finding of this research also draws attention of top-management, about their crucial role in implementing TQM programme. Looking critically, it can be deduced that continuous support of the top-management and there efforts towards never ending improvement in customer services and customer satisfaction will enhance the business performance of the organisation. Thus, top-management commitment is found to be one of the major practices of TQM and should be treated as the base for TQM implementation.

•

In this research, TQM practices of service organisations are modelled in terms of their driving power and dependence. Strong driving power practices should be dealt with strategic moves as they influence customer focus. Thus, focus towards the customer can be achieved by continuous improving the driving practices.

•

The present research aims to identify and rank the practices of TQM and their influence on customer focus involves a number of key practices, hence, a model depicting interaction would be of great help to managers and practitioners of TQM. Contextual relationship can easily be developed between the TQM practices using brainstorming and ISM, while an overall structure can be extracted for the system under consideration.

•

The overall effort put in the present research has resulted in identification of key TQM practices for successful TQM implementation in service organisations and in development of relationships to gain managerial insights into the severity of these practices.

At the end, it would be interesting to examine the scope of future research. In this research, through ISM, a relationship model among the TQM practices has been developed on the basis of discussion with the experts as suggested in the ISM methodology, yet, this model has not been statistically validated. Structural equation modelling (SEM) approach is one of the modelling approaches which has the capability of testing and validating such hypothetical model. Therefore, it may be applied in future research to test the validity of this model. Further, this paper is limited to only implication of ISM methodology in modelling the practices of TQM in service organisations but in future it can be extended to exhaustive research in various aspects of TQM such as environmental, sustainability, operational, tactical, security and many more. Each aspect has a number of factors which can be incorporated to explore the flexibility in TQM.

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