GE-International Journal of Management Research

ISSN (O): (2321-1709), ISSN (P): (2394-4226)

Impact Factor- 5.779, Volume 5, Issue 8, August 2017
Website- www.aarf.asia, Email : [email protected] , [email protected]

THE ACCESSIBLE ROAD BLOCKS IN IMPLEMENTING TOTAL

QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) IN INDIAN TELECOM INDUSTRY
LIMITED.

Dr. V.A. Anand,

Assistant Professor, Department of Logistics Management, Alagappa University.
&
Mrs. J. Preetha,
Research Scholar, Alagappa institute of management Alagappa University.

ABSTRACT

Within the umbrella of the contemporary viable market economy, Indian telecom industry limited
is relentlessly besieged to accomplish a sustained competitive advantage that will enable them to
improve performance, which will result in progressive competitiveness and revenue .In the
middle of the few competitive advantages in order to sustain in the competition, Quality Theaters
a fundamental role. Recent research shows that about 95.2% of buyers in the national and
international market mull over quality as having the least importance with the decisive revenue
in making the decision to purchase a product. In the outlook of experts and professional of
economic theory and practice, total quality refers to the holistic loom of quality, which
essentially means; covering the entire spectrum of economic, social and technical development
of quality. Consequently the holistic approach of quality at Indian telecom industry limited
involves procedural approach of quality management system. The focal point of this study is on
the procedure and the type of quality management system by considering the strategic features of
the continuous improvement of quality through quality management ISO 9001:2015. Total
Quality Management (TQM) is to road way to transform the economies of the countries to be
more competitive amongst others. Conversely, Total Quality Management does not produce
yields at once; also it is not a panacea for all the problems that the Indian telecom industry

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limited facing. Total Quality Management requires a change in the Indian telecom industry
limited‘s culture, which is obliged its focus on meeting customer outlook and escalating the
involvement and commitment of all employees to meet the Indian telecom industry limited
objective, as an complete idiom of the ethics of continuous improvement. In a broad-spectrum,
research on quality focuses on identifying why the Indian telecom industry limited should adopt
the principles of total quality management, and what are the accessible road blockades in doing
the same (i.e.) to implement the principles of total quality management which is invisible. Indian
telecom industry limited to introduce quality management systems are fetching more evidence,
consequently, This study is to identify and present the ultimate rationale that thwart the Indian
telecom industry limited in accomplishing quality and implementation of total quality
management system, in supplementary vocabulary, identification of potential accessible road
blocks for implementation and development of a quality management system ISO 9001:2015.

Keywords: Quality; total quality; Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation, Road
Blocks.

Introduction

This literature distinguishes between quality management and Total Quality management. The
modern practices for Quality assurance of goods and services encompass the continuous
development aligned with the socio-cultural and technological transformations that have
manifested the brisk progression of society. Ever since 1980s, integrated quality assurance
concepts are implemented whose initial starting point was "new philosophy" of Mr. Feigenbaum,
i.e., Total Quality Control which awakened scrupulous concern mutually in literature and in
economic practices, the perception of Total Quality Management (TQM) was used in analogous
or in harmonizing affiliation with the theory of Total Quality (TQ) (Olaru, 1999).
Mr.Feigenbaum demonstrated that acquiring quality performance was depended on the growing
effect of competitiveness instantaneous or in reduced time (Whalen, 1994).

Consequently, an imperative pace in the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) is

the Indian telecom industry limited should categorize the echelon of quality endowed with its
products and services. In this connection, Sandholm (1996) has recognized very reminiscent,
phases of quality in any organization.

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  The initial phase is called "dormant /sleepy phase" in which the unit/industry is not
influenced or jeopardized in the market, antagonism is scrawny or fictional and the
unit/industry will obtain a satisfactory yield. In this current state of affairs, the quality
does not receive attention / notice from the unit/industry.
 The second phase is referred as "awaken phase ", during this phase the unit/industry
circumstances entirely transforms from the preceding phase. It starts to be beaten in their
market pose, which in turn decreases the profit. At this juncture the unit/industry is
conscious that it is amidst predicament.
 “Uncertainty Phase ", the unit/industry apprehends that something must transform. This
is otherwise called as testing phase; the entire idea of transformation at certain areas of
the unit /industry is through the quality tools of quality management.
 "Tangible phase" in which the unit/industry with the help of tools yielded results or
were endeavoring to make momentous transformation. This is the tangible phase wherein
there is actual transformation in the organizational culture which continually improves
products / services.
 “Maturity phase" wherein overall customer satisfaction is accomplished through the
faultlessness of each echelon of the organization. Quality does not only apply to products
/ services, but to all processes/sub processes and activities of the organization. By
adopting total quality approach, the unit/industry will automatically imbibe the quality.

Key facet of Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation in Indian telecom industry
limited. The modern challenge that prevails in defining the concept of Total Quality
Management (TQM) was said by Mosadeghrad (2014) who affirmed that Total Quality
Management (TQM) aspires to augment customer satisfaction and organizational performance
through delivering high quality products and services with the aid of participation and
collaboration of all stakeholders, teamwork, a customer orientation, continuous improvement and
process performance with the help of appropriate quality management techniques and tools.

The review of literature declared that implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) is a
complex phenomenon which is difficult, lengthy, cross linking the huge functional efforts from
organizations like Indian telecom industry limited. While it has been suggested, in principle that
in order to improve the overall performance of practical application of Total Quality

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Management (TQM) which incorporates numerous obscurity. The same author (Mosadeghrad,
2014) also states that several studies have proven increase in productivity to at most 23-30% due
to the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) programs (Eskildson, 1994).

To accomplish the desired implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM), it is obligatory

to be conscious about the subsequent concerns (Ilies, 2011)

 The essential strategy in terms of quality is the Involvement of management for

continuous process improvement.
 Transformation in organizational culture: This philosophy of implementation of Total
Quality Management (TQM) confirms the stated focus, which in turn promotes the
involvement of the entire staff in continuous product improvement in conjunction with
both internal and external customers.
 Commencing this transformation via training, verbal and non verbal communication,
performance recognition, managers' behavior, teamwork, programs to congregate
customer expectation
 The Attitude of the managers who have to utilize quality tools to persuade
communication. Feedback from the stake holders in order to produce enhanced quality
through facilitating environment.
 Emergence of quality strategy by defining the mission, quality policy formulation to
achieve the strategic objectives of quality.
 Stimulation, education and development of staffs.
 Determining the cost of quality as a measure of poor quality that does not meet the
requirement, customer’s needs and their expectation.

Differing fragments of Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation.

There are several steps to surface the implementation of quality management system ISO
9001:2015. In this paper discusses few such looms. An approach is steps that are taken by the
organization in order to implement any system; the following steps are being proposed which
falls under the scope of this study. (Stegerean, 2009:281):

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Training: During training management of the organization decides whether or not to pursue a
Total Quality Management (TQM) program.

Planning: Developing a vision by defining the objectives of an organization, developing

organizational policies along with its resource preparation and communication of it throughout
the organization with detailed implementation plan (including budget and scheduled
programming time), infrastructure and so on.

Evaluation: This phase/fragment provides a thorough self-assessment/evaluation based on the

information received from the customer of the organization, characteristics of employees and the
organization in total.

Implementation: During this phase/fragment, both staff and managers of the organization are
trained. Their training involves informing each employee/staff of the organization about the
meaning and implication of Total Quality Management (TQM) which is to be explained based
the society as its role in the organization and what is expected out of him.

Diversification: At this phase /fragment, managers will use their seasons to integrate the groups
outside the organization like suppliers, distributors, and other companies who has momentous
impact on their business in the quality.

An additional model is also in proposition with a different approach to the fragments/phases of

implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM), in the sagacity the author (Dale, 1994)
advocates that the implementation stage is one of the phases of evolution in the quality concept
from quality inspection stage to Total Quality Management (TQM) (Abdullah, 2010):

 Inspection - In this phase, the organization is concerned with its own process activities
such as examination, measurement, test and evaluation. This ensures that the product or
service conforms to specified requirements.
 Quality Control (QC) - Methods and Systems are deployed as ingredient of the self-
inspection.
 Quality Assurance (QA) – This focuses on continuous improvement through a
systematic planning and preventing errors occurring from the source.

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  Total Quality Management (TQM) – This involves the application of quality
management principles to all facets of the organization, including customers and
suppliers and their integration with key business processes.

The accessible obstacles in implementing total quality management in Indian telecom

industry limited.

Appreciating the dynamics that are likely to impede the implementation of the Total Quality
Management (TQM) in Indian telecom industry limited permits the managers to develop more
efficient strategies for improving the likelihood of booming deployment of Total Quality
Management (TQM) in Indian telecom industry limited; Thereby accomplishing superiority in
their business (Jacobsen, 2008).

In the review of literature there are a massive amount of studies that concentrates on various
diverse customs for classification of the dynamics that encumber the thriving implementation of
Total Quality Management (TQM) in Indian telecom industry limited. This paper will accentuate
some of the approaches which are portrayed as obstacles and the established causes which
prevent Indian telecom industry limited from application of the quality management system.

Whalen (1994) acknowledged the following nine obstacles that encumber the development and
implementation of the programme of Total Quality Management (TQM):

1. Poor planning
2. Deficiency of commitment by top management
3. The potency of the labor force
4. Deficiency of appropriate training
5. Complacency of the team members
6. Application of an invalid program (invalid shelf life/moral)
7. The inability to bring about change in organizational philosophy(culture)
8. Insufficient resources
9. The lack of improvement in the measurement of quality.

Additional instigators’ like Sebastianelli and Tamimi (2003), have recognized five obstacles in
the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM):

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 1. Poor planning
2. Insufficient and inadequate human resources management practices and its development
3. Deficiency of quality planning
4. The deficiency of leadership in the development of quality culture.
5. Inadequate resources for Total Quality Management (TQM)
6. Lack of customer orientation.

Johnson (2013) disagrees with the main obstacle which he found that is mainly due to deficiency
of benchmarking and confrontation of employees’ to transform. Organizations must comprehend
that benchmarking is one of the tool that is used for classification of strengths and weaknesses in
association with the preeminent companies in their market. Employees’ resistance can be
trounced by appropriate training which involves planning scheduling and implementation phases
of Total Quality Management (TQM). It was also found that scarce resources are also an obstacle
to the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM).

An additional author, Mosadeghrad (2014) addresses the obstacles to deployment Total Quality
Management (TQM) in a more intricate way, in the sense that research was carried out in 23
countries, out of which 28 studies were conducted in developed countries, and 26 studies were
conducted in developing countries. The outcomes of these studies are as follows:

It clearly states that the research was conducted ever since 1990’s (Mosadeghrad, 2014) have
revealed incredibly elevated rates of failure in the implementation of the Total Quality
Management (TQM), authors like Schonberger, (1992); Eskildson, (1994); Elmuti et al., (1996);
Tata and Prasad, (1998) has testified increase of about 20-30% by organizations on performance
improvement after implementation of the Total Quality Management (TQM), while Burrows in
1992 reported a failure [Total Quality Management (TQM)] rate of 95% (Sebastianelli, 2003).

Although the Total Quality Management (TQM) was positioned first among all the techniques
for quality improvement in 1993 and the same was reduced to 15% in 2007, according to Rigby
and Bilodeau (Mosadeghrad, 1986).

These statistics have made Mosadeghrad (2014) to conjecture whether the Total Quality
Management (TQM) has just begotten a "fad" of management. It is imperative primarily out of
all to comprehend the rationale for the failure of the Total Quality Management (TQM). In this

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regard the author recapitulates the rationale liable for the failure of the Total Quality
Management (TQM) addressed in the literature, and that have been classified into three groups
(Mosadeghrad, 2014: 162):

 Ineffective or inappropriate models of Total Quality Management (TQM): Total

Quality Management (TQM) does not provide an explicit theory. There should be
agreement on what is it and what are the essential characteristics of Total quality
Management (TQM). Fundamentally, Total Quality Management (TQM) model consists
of two key components (i.e.) values and principles for example the top management
implication, customer focus, employee involvement, teamwork, etc. formulates the values
and techniques and instruments like statistical control, tools, process. As a result,
application of different models Total Quality Management (TQM) leads to diversified
outcomes.
 Ineffective or inappropriate deployment methods for the implementation of the
Total Quality Management (TQM): Many of the failures are attributed to Total Quality
Management (TQM) deployment methods according to Claver et al., 2003; Hansson and
Klefsjo, 2003; Seetharaman et al., 2006. Although many quality management gurus’ have
contributed to the development of the Total Quality Management (TQM), only few
practical frameworks and methods for implementation of the principles Total Quality
Management (TQM) are made available. Cooney and Sackey (2003) believed that Total
Quality Management (TQM) offers a vision and a mission of organizational
transformation. However, it does not endow with the tools to mitigate the implementation
of such a transformation. Likewise, Zairi and Matthew (1995) concluded that Total
Quality Management (TQM), 'heads' have been defined properly whereas its ways and
“means" have not been defined. As a result, there is no standard methodology for
implementation of the key components (i.e.) the values and principles of the Total
Quality Management (TQM) in an organization.

 The erroneous milieu for the implementation of the Total Quality Management
(TQM): The implementation of the values and the principles of total quality management
necessitate a supportive environment like supporting leadership, culture and
infrastructure in order to implement the Total Quality Management (TQM).

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 In this framework, the author has grouped the obstacles that are thwarting the implementation
of Total Quality Management (TQM) into five categories:

 Strategic level obstacle: Strategic concerns are momentous obstacle for the
implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) and have the maximum pessimistic
impact on its success. These obstacles are principally correlated to the management and
leadership of the organization.
 Structural level obstacle: These are related to the structure, systems and physical
resources necessary to implement the Total Quality Management (TQM).
 Human resources level obstacle: These are those obstacles which are related to human
factors such as deficiency of employee involvement and commitment and their
confrontation to transform in Total Quality Management (TQM).
 Contextual level obstacle: These are those obstacles that crop up when the context has
developed and achieve the highest potential of appropriate culture by deploying of the
Total Quality Management (TQM).
 Procedural level obstacle: This is primarily spawned due to intense complexity of the
processes involved, the lack of focus on the client, the lack of partnership with suppliers,
the bureaucracy and the lack of a system evaluation and self-assessment.

Strategic-level Obstacle

1. Inappropriate Total Quality Management (TQM) program

2. Resistance to adopt Total Quality Management (TQM)
3. Unrealistic expectations
4. Deficient leadership
5. Poor management
6. The lack of top management support
7. Poor involvement of managers
8. Reduction on strength of middle management
9. Inadequate planning
10. Lack of consistency in objectives.
11. Lack of long term vision
12. Lack of vision and clear directions

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 13. Conflicting objectives and priorities
14. Lack of priority for improving the quality
15. Previous failures in terms of change initiatives
16. Lack of government support
17. Political uncertainty
18. Inappropriate Organizational structure
19. Lack of flexibility organizational
20. Lack of physical resources
21. Lack of information systems
22. Lack of implementation cost /financial support
23. Lack of time.
24. Lack of interest among employees’
25. Lack of employees’ commitment and involvement.
26. Employees’ resistance to change
27. Deficient human resources management
28. Poor delegation at various hierarchical level
29. Few employees workforce and increasingly growing.
30. Lack of training and education of employees’
31. Lack of motivation and satisfaction of employees’
32. Lack of recognition and gratification for sucess.

Contextual level Obstacle

1. Inadequate organizational culture

2. Difficulties in changing organizational culture.
3. Lack of guidance teams.
4. Poor and ineffective communication
5. Poor coordination
6. Lack of confidence of employees in the management.
7. Cultural issues in resolution.
8. Lack of innovation
9. Political behavior
10. Diversity of the workforce

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 11. Barriers mentality
12. Lack of focus
13. Lack of an adequate process management
14. Lack of concentration on the client
15. Lack of involvement of suppliers
16. Bureaucracy
17. Lack of evaluation and self evaluation
18. Incompetence exhibited by the change agent or counsel for implementing quality
19. Ineffective corrective action
20. Efforts to improve quality are time consuming.

Among the five diversified obstacles that are mentioned above it has been seen that in Indian
telecom industry limited the strategic obstacles are the most common type of obstacle that
encumber the thriving implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) system. Also, the
human resources obstacles have a huge impact on the accomplishment of Total Quality
Management (TQM) implementation.

It is herby confirmed that among the strategic-level obstacles and human resources obstacles,
which are faced by Indian telecom industry limited leadership is a key factor in managing the
transformation that are necessary to implement the Total Quality Management (TQM) which is
trailed by employees’ involvement and commitment.

Conclusion

Total Quality Management (TQM) is perceived as an approach that can transform the economy
of Indian telecom industry limited to be more competitive among their competitors. However
Total Quality Management (TQM) will not only fetch and generate outcome overnight, it is not a
panacea for all the problems that the Indian telecom industry limited is facing. Total Quality
Management (TQM) necessitates a transformation in Indian telecom industry limited in
organizational culture, which aims at meeting customer expectations and increasing the
involvement of all employees’ to meet the Indian telecom industry limited objective, as an
expression of the ethics of continuous improvement.

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Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation is a complex, intricate, extensive, involving
huge efforts from Indian telecom industry limited. In principle the Total Quality Management
(TQM) has been suggested, to improve the performance of the practical application in Indian
telecom industry limited which involves numerous complexities.

A total Quality Management (TQM) implementation stage involves planning, scheduling,

training, evaluation, implementation, and diversification.

Main rationale for the failure of Total Quality Management (TQM) in Indian telecom industry
limited are ineffective or inappropriate model of Total Quality Management (TQM), ineffective
or inappropriate methods of implementation for the Total Quality Management (TQM),
Erroneous milieu for Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation.

Implementation obstacles can be divided into the following categories: strategic level obstacles,
human resources level obstacles, structural level obstacles, contextual level obstacles, and
procedural level obstacles.

Implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) is a process of transformational change

within the Indian telecom industry limited and to cope with this transformation it is necessary
that the top management of the Indian telecom industry limited (leadership) is able to motivate,
maintain enthusiasm through their organization and identify effective ways to overcome the
obstacles which they face in order to effectively complete the process of implementation of
Total Quality Management (TQM) system.

References.

1. Abdullah, A., (2010) Measuring Total Quality Management (TQM) Implementation: A Case
Study, Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 4-17.
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Quality Progress, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 60-64.
3. Ilieş, L., Crişan, E., (2011), Managementul Calităţii Totale, Editura Risoprint, Cluj-Napoca.
4. Jacobsen, J. (2008), Avoiding mistakes of the past: lessons learned on what makes or breaks
quality initiatives, The Journal for Quality and Participation, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 3-10.
5. Johnson, S., Kleiner, B., (2013) Total Quality Management (TQM) can encompass success
Industrial Management, Volume: 55, Issue: 2, Pages: 25-35.

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6. Mosadeghrad, A., (2014) Why Total Quality Management (TQM) programmes fail? A
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