The impact of total quality service age on quality and operational performance: an empirical study

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show that a popular conception among the practitioners is that Total Quality Service (TQS) has a long‐range perspective and the organizations that have adopted TQS could be able to see the results of their quality improvement initiatives only after a long duration. Hence firms that have been practicing TQS are interested to know the time duration before which they can get back the returns on investments in quality improvement programmes.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study attempts to empirically investigate the impact of TQS age on quality and operational performance. In order to examine the impact of TQS age on the different dimensions of TQS, out of the 12 critical dimensions of TQS, the two outcome constructs, namely Customer Focus and Satisfaction and Employee Satisfaction, have been considered for measuring quality performance while the other ten dimensions have been considered for measuring operational performance.

Findings

The results imply that the firms can get back their returns on investments in their quality management initiatives within three years of TQS implementation. The ways, commitment and the competence with which the TQS implementation is carried out are more important rather than the duration of TQS implementation. Further, among the successful firms, it has been observed that as TQS age increases, quality and operational performance also increases, since firms get more and more experienced in effective implementation of TQS in a continuously improving environment.

Originality/value

The impact of TQS age on quality and operational performance has been investigated in a developing economy with respect to the automobile service industry. Primarily this is a research paper and the results and findings will be of immense use to the business executives of service firms.

Citation

Saravanan, R. and Rao, K.S.P. (2007), "The impact of total quality service age on quality and operational performance: an empirical study", The TQM Magazine, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 197-205. https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780710745621