Literature Review
Discuss about the Markets Orientation and Hotel Performance.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is an organizational framework, which entails the organizations to build an infrastructure where they would be able to continuously improve their abilities in delivering high-quality goods and services to the consumers (Dale 2015). This concept was very important during the period between late 1980s and early 1990s and after that, it was overshadowed by other techniques such as Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and ISO 9000 (Ross 2017). As seen earlier, the businesses in Kuwait follow the TQM though the consultancy firms. The TQM process is integrated in the business projects to generate the desired revenue as well as to meet the timeline of the scheduled delivery, which helps in gaining competitive edge in the market. While some organizations are focusing on achieving efficient financial performance (project cost), some other are focusing on improving their non-financial performance (project schedule) and both type of organizations are implementing the TQM process.
From the literature review, the overview of the macro environment in Kuwait was obtained. Along with that, the researcher also highlighted crucial elements in Kuwait’s economy and culture, which would have significant impact on the working practices. For example, the tendency to avoid uncertainty would push the people in Kuwait to focus more on cost benefit analysis before implementing TQM (Gimenez-Espin, Jiménez-Jiménez and Martínez-Costa 2013). The factors of TQM focus on continuous improvement of the quality of the products and services to increase the value proposition to the customer. This requires high level of investment. Hence, the economic condition and culture of the nation are important as that would determine the application of TQM in the industries. Through the literature review, the researcher presented an in depth discussion regarding different aspects of TQM, project management and continuous improvement. It is seen that there are 9 critical success factors which influence the organizational performance in various ways. All these factors were discussed individually to evaluate the relationship between TQM and continuous improvement process and the business performance. It was found from multiple literature study that TQM has a significant influence on the production and delivery process, and continuous improvement is an essential factor, which must be implemented with the TQM. Thus, the researcher created a theoretical background for the study, which made the reader acquainted with the research topic.
In this research study, the researcher focused on to explore the impact of Total Quality Management on the performance of the Kuwait based project firms. For the study, the researcher formulated three research hypotheses, which segregated the relationship between TQM and project schedule, project cost and whether continuous improvement significantly moderates project management in construction, banking and healthcare sectors. The researcher conducted a survey through SurveyMonkey for primary data collection and quantitative data analysis method was applied to get the findings. The response data was converted into numerical value and statistical tools, namely, descriptive statistics, reliability test, correlation and regression, were applied on the data. From the data analysis, it is found that, there is no significant relationship between TQM and project schedule, while TQM is found to be have a strong positive impact on the project cost. It is also found that continuous improvement acts as a moderator for project cost enhancement. This is a significant finding for the Kuwait based project firms.
Research Design and Methodology
From the research study, it can be concluded that TQM is important for reducing the project cost, that is, for the financial performance of the firms; however, it does not have much influence on the project schedule, that is, non-financial performance. In a project based firm, both the financial and non-financial performances are equally important to achieve efficiency and competitive advantage in the industry. Hence, integration of TQM is becoming a common practice in Kuwait. Based on this, the researcher formulated the research objectives. In this chapter, the researcher will discuss whether the research objectives have been fulfilled. Along with that, the researcher also provided some recommendations, implications of the findings and future scope of the study at the end of this chapter.
The first objective of the study is to explore the impact of the TQM factors on the project management of the project based firms in Kuwait. Two integral components of project management are project cost and project schedule. To address this issue, the researcher designed two hypotheses to address the two components separately. Quantitative data analysis revealed that, TQM process had a significant impact on the project cost and not on the project schedule. Some of the major elements of TQM are ethics, integrity, trust, teamwork, training, leadership, recognition and communication and supply management (Oakland 2014). All these components together have a positive relationship with project cost. If TQM gets enhanced, the project cost would be enhanced too. This process ensures improvement in the quality of products and services delivered, which in turn increases customer satisfaction and market share. This helps the businesses to expand and enjoy economies of scale. On the other hand, from the insignificant relationship between the TQM and project schedule infers that improvement in the products and services does not imply that project schedule would be efficient. This is not an independent element in the project management and hence, TQM cannot separately influence the non-financial performance, that is, project schedule in a firm. Thus, it can be said that, the first objective of the study was fulfilled from the analysis.
The second objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of continuous improvement as a mediator on the efficiency of project management in Kuwait. From the descriptive data analysis, it is seen that majority of the respondents agreed on the question of whether efficiency of the project management in the project based firms of Kuwait. This is also reflected from the reliability score of 0.719. All other statistical tests reveal that continuous improvement of the functions and process of the TQM has a positive impact on the project management. The moderation test was run in SPSS version 23, and outcome showed that the interval of LLCI and ULCI does not have any zero, which indicates that continuous improvement plays a major role as a moderator for enhancement of project cost and project schedule. Thus, the second objective of the study was also fulfilled.
Results and Findings
There are some scopes in the operations of the project based firms, where TQM can improve the performance if implemented efficiently. TQM has many benefits, but the firms must implement the process thoughtfully after careful planning to reap the benefits profitably.
- The firms must identify the factors of TQM which is relevant for their operations. The project management activities include many factors and those vary from one firm to other. Thus, before integrating a general TQM framework, the firms must identify the specific needs and apply the framework accordingly (Dale 2015).
- The firms must have the infrastructure for providing the scope for continuous improvement in the TQM process to achieve an efficient outcome.
- The firms must conduct a cost benefit analysis before implementing the TQM in their project management. If the implementation cost becomes higher than the project cost, then the profitability of the firm would reduce (Wang, Chen and Chen 2012). Although, these two factors are positively related, yet the firms must adopt ways which would reduce their production cost.
- While implementing the TQM, the firms must determine the quality requirements. Customer survey is beneficial for this as that would help the firms to get information about the customers’ needs, demands and expectations. This information will help the firms to determine the standard for quality and requirement for the TQM based project (Saeed and Hasan 2012).
- The firms should also focus on developing a strategy for continuous improvement. The strategy should have the scope for multiple iterations and amendments as well as must keep buffers or safety margins (Khan 2003). During the project many unforeseen situation can arise and for that the firm must make a contingency plan beforehand by creating scopes within the TQM strategy plan. The contingency plan should be made to overcome any sudden threats or challenges, which have the capability to affect the quality levels of the project. Risk response strategy is also important to manage risks and reduce their negative impact.
- Firms must assess their resources in detailed manner while starting a TQM based project. To make the TQM implementation runs smoothly, they must ensure that there is no lack of resources in each of the stages. Continuous monitoring and tracking of the project is required to ensure the there is no lack of resources, as well as, wastage of valuable resources (Ross 2017).
With the implementation of the above-mentioned recommendations, the project based firms in Kuwait can have efficient TQM based projects, which would improve their project management abilities.
The study has academic as well as business implications. There have been many scholars who have explored the subject of TQM and its benefits and costs. Various industries have been studied to evaluate the impact of the TQM on project management. However, the industry of Kuwait was not explored earlier. Through this study, the researcher has thrown light to the project based firms in Kuwait. The research topic was further segregated into three subsections, which addressed three major factors, namely, project cost, project schedule and continuous improvement process. This is beneficial in the academic field as it explored the sections of project management in a detailed manner and described different aspects of the TQM. It also explored the project management scenario in Kuwait’s banking, construction and healthcare sectors, which added significant information in the world of literature and research. This paper will be beneficial for the future researchers, who would pursue study on related subject and further exploration would be done on TQM and its application in project management.
In the business world perspective, this paper is important, as the paper conducted an empirical investigation on the impact of TQM on two aspects of project management and the effect of continuous improvement as a mediator of efficient project management in Kuwait, and found that TQM is important for achieving efficiency and competitive edge in the market, that is, in the banking, construction and healthcare sector of Kuwait. The paper also presented recommendations on how to plan strategies and implement an efficient TQM to enhance the efficiency of the system. The firms can consult this paper to get an idea about the factors in TQM and how the TQM factors are increasing efficiency in project management in Kuwait and can make decisions and strategies accordingly. Thus, the research study has important implications in both the academic and business world.
There are some limitations of this study, which can provide scope to the future researchers for exploration. The researchers can dig deep into the number of factors of TQM, which according to some are 4, while for some, can reach up to 20. Since, this study focused only on two factors, there is scope of further research to find out other important factors. Similarly, the researchers can also focus on various external factors to examine their impact on the TQM implementation and its outcome. Moreover, the researcher picked out the industries based on the contribution to GDP of the nation. Hence, only banking, construction and healthcare sector has been chosen. However, TQM is used in other industries also, such as, in the automotive and manufacturing industry, and the future researchers can focus on those industries to find out the impact of TQM. Lastly, the sample size should be increased to check the consistency of the data. In this paper, primary data is collected from 154 individuals, working in the banking, health and construction sectors in Kuwait. In the future, the researchers should include other industries and consider having a larger sample to check if different industries have different implications regarding the application of TQM.
References
Dale, B., 2015. Total quality management. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Gimenez-Espin, J.A., Jiménez-Jiménez, D. and Martínez-Costa, M., 2013. Organizational culture for total quality management. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 24(5-6), pp.678-692.
Khan, J., 2003. Impact of total quality management on productivity. The TQM Magazine, [online] 15(6), pp.374-380. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241772333_Impact_of_total_quality_management_on_productivity [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
Oakland, J.S., 2014. Total quality management and operational excellence: text with cases. Routledge.
Ross, J.E., 2017. Total quality management: Text, cases, and readings. Routledge.
Saeed, N.M.N. and Hasan, A.S., 2012. The effect of total quality management on construction project performance. Journal of Science and Technology, 17.
Wang, C.H., Chen, K.Y. and Chen, S.C., 2012. Total quality management, market orientation and hotel performance: The moderating effects of external environmental factors. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(1), pp.119-129.
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