Total quality management practices and service delivery of small and medium enterprises: Case of Horizons Offices Limited in Kenya.
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Date
2020
Authors
Murenga, Yvonne Achieng
Njuguna, Reuben
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Academic Journal of Human Resource and Business Administration
Abstract
The service industry has consistently been
characterized by persistent operational
inefficiency and poor customer services and
in order to address the problems of
inefficiency in service delivery these
organizations are fast adopting TQM in order
to make them effective in meeting public
demands. Despite the fact that quality
management practices have been recognized
by many organizations as capable of
transforming the quality culture and
producing substantial financial results for
large size companies, some concerns have
been raised about validity of quality
management practices to generate real
economic gains and or improve financial
performance of firms. TQM is not only
limited to product quality improvement. It
also covers a wider aspect of quality.
Previous empirical studies regarding the
linkage between TQM and organizational
performance as well as quality have shown
significant and positive results. The main
focus of TQM is to improve overall quality
including process quality and service quality.
Successful TQM implementation will give
benefits in improving quality and reducing
rework as well as reduction in costs of poor
quality such as scrap, rework, late deliveries,
warranty and replacement. TQM
implementation correlates with quality
conformance. The general objective of the
study was to establish the effect of total
quality management practices on service
delivery at the Horizon Offices Limited,
Kenya. The specific objectives were to
determine the effect of the employee
involvement, technology adoption,
continuous improvement and cultural change
on service delivery at Horizon Offices
Limited, Kenya. The research was guided by
leadership based theory, institutional theory
and Deming’s theory of quality management.
The study used a descriptive research design.
The population of study was management
staff at the four sections of the firm which
include service offices, customized offices,
co-working offices and virtual offices
section. This consisted of 129 respondents
who are the management staff of the three
sections. A sample of 65 respondents was
taken which formed 50% of the target
population which was evenly spread across
the four sections. The primary data was
collected by use of self-administered semistructured questionnaire. Data analysis was
done by use of descriptive statistics such as
frequencies, percentages, mean scores and
standard deviation with the aid of SPSS and
presented through tables, charts, graphs,
frequencies and percentages. The study
concluded that total quality management
practices significantly influenced the quality
of service delivery at the Horizon Offices
Limited, Kenya. The study concluded that the
the firm significantly involved employees
through motivation, consultation,
incorporating their input and ideas,
remunerating and compensating them
competitively and engaging them regularly
and giving them priority. The study
concluded that to a significant extent Horizon
Offices embraced technology to enhance
quality service delivery through capacity
building, proficiency, digitizing
communication, knowledge management,
innovations and allocating more resources to
new technology. It was concluded that to a
significant extent the firm embraces Kaizen concept or continuous improvement through
training, regular innovations, improved
models of communications, system upgrade
and updates of accounts to enhance quality
and performance. The study concluded that
the firm embraces a cultural change that
favors quality service delivery. The firm
observed structure management, learning
culture, prioritizing employee welfare and
embracing new ideas and ways of improving
service delivery. The study recommends that
the Horizon Offices Limited should ensure
all employees are significantly involved in
decision making, management and system
improvement to ensure they are motivated
and perform.
Description
A research article published in International Academic Journal of Human Resource and Business Administration
Keywords
total quality management practices, service delivery, small and medium enterprises, Horizons Offices Limited, Kenya
Citation
: Murenga, Y. A. & Njuguna, R. (2020). Total quality management practices and service delivery of small and medium enterprises: Case of Horizons Offices Limited in Kenya. International Academic Journal of Human Resource and Business Administration, 3(8), 207-226