Organisations striving for a competitive advantage adopt Total Quality Managemen
t (TQM) as a management philosophy to focus continuously on the enhancement of t
heir processes (Kurtz et al., 2000). Applying TQM to company operations with a m
arketing focus - understanding and addressing customer needs - creates better va
lue for customers.
Organisations which implement the marketing concept are said to be market orient
ed (Cray, et al., 2004). Such market oriented firms achieve long term success a
s they have been shown to be able to maintain strongly competitive positions
(Jammer & Watt, 2003). Therefore, TQM and market orientation constitute a firms s
trategic ability to adapt and develop advantages in the competitive business env
ironment.
Total Quality Management focuses on maintaining as well as improving existing qu
ality standards in various business processes, and therefore is often associated
with development, deployment, and maintenance of systems in the organisation. D
irections for future research are indicated by the need to gain knowledge about
which aspects of the organization reflect the benefits of TQM implementation th
e most; which ones are beyond the scope of a managers realm of controllability; h
ow managers can derive maximum benefits from TQM implementation (based on indust
ry size and capital-intensive goods), and lastly if comparably efficacious strate
gies are available. A greater focus on TQM and related methodologies will help
further in answering these questions.
Six Sigma, for instance, is more than just a process improving program. It is ba
sed on the concept of improving quality continuously towards near perfection by
restricting the amount of possible defects to less than 3-4 defects per million
and is complementary to Statistical Process Control (SPC), which uses statistica
l methods for monitoring and controlling multi-dimensional business processes. A
lthough both SPC and TQM help with improving qualities, often a stage is reached
after which no further quality improvements can be done. Six Sigma, on the othe
r hand, focuses on improving quality to the next level, and so is the golden tic
ket of process improvement programmes.
Earlier studies have viewed SPC and TQM as complementary business philosophies
(Kendall et al. 2002). However, for a Company to design, produce and sell bette
r quality products or services, the proponents of TQM in the concerned Company
department should also think about doing usual within-firm checks in order to av
oid a lack of coordination, due typically to rivalry and distrust between depart
ments.
Besides, a large number of enterprises carry out total quality management in an
incomplete way as some of their top managers lack appreciation of the marketing
aspects and do not consider them fully. This affects about a third of the Compan
ies that adopt TQM (Mills, 1999). Such organisations lack the right linkages bet
ween external information and internal quality situations, they could benefit f
rom combining TQM and Six Sigma together. Yet for such a combination too, the em
pirical findings are mixed and no favourable long term indications have been obt
ained. And, additionally, scholars also point to TQM as not being adaptable to d
ynamic situations, especially in vertical integrated firms (LeFleur and Nix, 200
5).
The relationship between TQM and market orientation shows a substantial variatio
n in organization performance and the extent of improvement in competitiveness.
The results are mixed and disputable.
In the hotels and hospitality industry locally, there have been few studies beca
use they lack information regarding TQM or have barriers to developing a multidi
mensional market orientation. Firms in the hospitality industry would benefit b
y conducting regular research and avoiding large scale mismatch between departme
nts. They can enhance their hotel's competitiveness faster than their competitor
s as a result, and create superior customer value strategically. Another critica
lly important issue for the hotel would be to fix conflicts between departments
.
