Identification and adoption of total quality management practices in Indian information

and communication technology and banking industries: an empirical study

Faisal Talib
Mechanical Engineering Section, University Polytechnic,
Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P., India
(ftalib77@yahoo.co.in)
Dr. Zillur Rahman
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, U.Kh., India
(yusuffdm@iitr.ernet.in)
Abstract
The Indian service sector forms a backbone of social and economic growth of the country and emerged as the largest
and fastest developing sector. Apart from the several service industries in this sector, two major functional pillars of
this sector are information and communication technology (ICT) and banking industries. These two service
industries have been making continuous efforts to stand India a front-runner in the age of quality revolution and in
the overall growth of Indian service sector. Further, these industries are also adopting many strategic approaches to
maintain number one position in the world market, one of them is total quality management (TQM) approach which
utilizes some sound TQM practices resulting in enhanced business performance. In this study, the key TQM
practices in the two Indian service industries (i.e. ICT and banking) are identified and ranked through extensive
survey of literature as well as investigated the adoption of the identified practices across these industries. The
research methodology used was review of literature based on TQM studies in service sector followed by a survey of
selected Indian ICT and banking companies through self-administered questionnaire. Using empirical data gathered
from a sample of 121 ICT and banking industries obtained from stratified sampling method, findings were reported.
The primary data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and independent-samples t-test
analyses. The literature identified 17 TQM practices and further analysis of these TQM practices in the two
industries categorizes them into three categories i.e. most important, moderately important and least important. The
study also revealed that out of 17 TQM practices, 14 practices were significantly adopted across Indian ICT and
banking industries while three practices namely supplier management, quality system and quality culture have
showed significant difference in their adoption. Finally, some managerial implications and scope for future research
are presented at the end.
Keywords: TQM; TQM practices; ICT industry; Banking industry; Identification; Adoption; India.
1.

Introduction

Total quality management (TQM) practices are the key enablers for the successful implementation of TQM program
in any organization whether manufacturing or service. TQM is a management approach which is widely accepted
and adapted by managers and practitioners in almost all areas. But, from the past two decades, available literature on
TQM has showed that implementation of TQM has been more inclined towards service sector (Talibet al., 2011a).
Service managers and practitioners are continuouslymaking their full efforts to adopt TQM in their organizations
and achieve maximum benefits and competitive advantage to sustain in global market (Salaheldin, 2009;
Arumugamet al., 2009; Talibet al., 2011b). Several studies on TQM in manufacturing sector have been conducted
since 1989 but the survey of existing literature on TQM have indicated that frequency of research publications in
service sector have evolved tremendously from year 2000 onwards covering wide range of service industries such as
information and communication technology (ICT), banking, real estate, aviation, healthcare, education, insurance,
and many others (Wardhaniet al., 2009; Ho and Lin, 2010; Santouridis and Trivellas, 2010). Researchers further
observed that implementation of TQM leads to enhanced performance like improved business, industrial growth,
quality products and services, financial performance, innovative performance, and above all customer satisfaction

(CS) (Cheng and Choy, 2013;Sohal and Terziovski, 2000; Yee et al, 2008). Plethora of studies have been conducted
to understand the above relationships but it is concluded that effective implementation of TQM cannot be done
without the identification of key successful TQM practices to get the desired results (Lee, 2002, Lemaket al., 2002;
Talibet al., 2011c). An extent literature survey on TQM and its practices comes out with different sets of factors as
well as their implementation in various organizations especially in the service sector have shown encouraging results
which motivated managers and practitioners to implement TQM in their organization as well as researchers to
conduct research studies in service sector like ICT and banking industries, the two fastest growing Indian service
industries (Economic Survey, 2013).
In a study on commercial banking industry by Sit et al. (2011), they examined the association of TQM practices
and service quality (SQ) in Malaysias banking sector. Result revealed that TQM practices are significantly and
positively related with SQ. Darmawanet al. (2011) presented a research framework of TQM practices towards the
supply chain collaboration level. The study tried to make a significant contribution by developing a model of TQM
and supply chain collaboration in service industry. Bob and Mustafa (2013) in their study based on literature review
on the relationship between TQMand innovation in service organizations develop a conceptual framework. They
covered some of the most recent studies on this relationship as well as discussed TQM practices, and conceptual
frameworks and models for service organizations. In a recent study by Talibet al. (2013a) on the state of usage of
quality tools and techniques in Indian service industries, revealed that usage of tools and techniques for quality
improvement in Indian service companies is low and majority of them implement easiest and simple to use quality
tools and techniques. The study adopted a self-administered questionnaire survey while Ali et al. (2010) provided
evidence on the degree of criticality and reliability tests for human resource (HR) related critical success factors
(CSFs) in TQM implementation which involved identification of HR-related CSFs through extent literature review
on quality initiatives in higher education sector. In another study by Talibet al. (2013b) determines the relationship
between TQM practices and quality performance in Indian service companies. They selected four service industries
viz healthcare, banking, ICT, and hospitality and surveyed the relationship through questionnaire. It was observed
that there exist a strong and significant relationship between identified TQM practices and quality performance. Lee
et al. (2010) examined the relationship between TQM practices and product innovation performance as perceived by
managers in electrical and electronics (E&E) organizations in Malaysia. They revealed that leadership, human
resource management (HRM), strategic planning (SP), customer focus (CF), information and analysis (IA), and
process management (PM) are positively associated with product innovation performance. IA was perceived to be
one of the dominant TQM practice in improving firms performance. Finally, Wayhanet al. (2013) analysed the
relationship between TQM and financial performance. The study review six potential pitfalls and then demonstrated
how these pitfalls can potentially compromise research results. Data was collected and analysed using two
approaches: cross-sectional analysis and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The study proposes practical
implications for top-management executives.
In context to the above literatures on various service organizations, study of TQM and its practices have become
the core issues and is need of hour as they have vital role in service business success and gaining competitive
advantage. The literature review further suggest that there is a greater need to understand and identify TQM
practices as well as to investigate the adoption of these practices in service industry for enhanced business
performance and growth (Karani and Bichanga, 2012; Junejaet al., 2011; Bon and Mustafa, 2013). This has forced
and motivated many researchers to conduct studies focused on the above aspects. The existing literature has also
provided distinct views and approaches from different prospective into TQM practices and their implementation.
Further, from above literature review, it was observed that several research studies have been carried on
identification of TQM practices but studies on adoption of these practices in Indian service industries especially in
ICT and banking (combined) are at nascent stage. Thus, it is concluded that there is enough scope to conduct a study
which could answer some questions emerged from existing literature like: What are some of the key TQM practices
applicable for Indian ICT and banking industries? Which practices are of highest priority level and others leveled
onmoderate or lowest ranks in the two Indian service industries? Is there any difference in the adoption of the

identified TQM practices across Indian ICT and banking industries? To answer these questions, following objectives
were designed to carry out the present work.
To identify and rank the TQM practices in Indian ICT industry;
To identify and rank the TQM practices in Indian banking industry; and
To investigate the adoption of identified TQM practices across Indian ICT and banking industries.
The organization of this paper is as under. Next section presents the extent literaturereview on TQM practices and
TQM in ICT as well as in banking industries followed by research questions and hypotheses formulations.
Thereafter, research methodology and its components like research design, research instrument, sampling method
and data collection procedure, and instrument administration process are discussed. Subsequently, results and
discussions obtained from empirical analysis are presented and discussed in detail. Finally, the paper ends with the
conclusions, some managerial implications, and scope for future research.
2.

Literature Review

This section presents an exhaustive survey of literature on TQM practices, TQM in ICT and banking industries as
well as highlights the current status of Indian ICT and banking industries. Several studies have been undertaken to
compare the adoption of TQM practices in service and manufacturing sectors (Woon, 2000; Talib and Rahman,
2012; Saraphet al., 1989; Kumar et al., 2011, Prajogo, 2005) however, no study has been conducted to compare and
investigate the adoption of a set of TQM practices in the two service industries i.e. ICT and banking in Indian
context. Considering the benefits of TQM implementation (Talib, 2013; Lewis et al., 2005; Singh et al., 2007), there
is an urgent need to conduct the present study so as to identify a set of key TQM practices and understand whether
the same set is applicable to both the Indian service industries.
2.1. TQM Practices
The idea behind the identification of TQM practices is to successfully implement TQM approach in the organization
so as to achieve fruitful results with high level of CS by delivering enhanced quality of products and services
(Talibet al., 2011c; Antony et al., 2002; Abdullah et al., 2009; Hoang et al., 2010). Alternatively, it can be said that
the TQM practices are the building blocks of organizations performance and must be addressed critically so as to
implement TQM effectively. Quality gurus and researchers contributed to the formulization of the TQM practices.
Their frameworks and models are the underlying basis of the major studies of TQM practices in the literature
(Kaynak, 2003; Saraphet al., 1989; Flynn et al., 1994; Kureshiet al., 2010; Talib and Rahman, 2010a,b).
The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model (EFQM, 2000) is explained by
nine categories. They include leadership, people, strategy, partnership and resources, processes, products and
services, people results, customer results, key results, and society results. Saravanan and Rao (2007) identified topmanagement commitment (TMC) and leadership, benchmarking (BM), CF and satisfaction, service marketing,
social responsibility, HRM, employee satisfaction (ES), service culture (SC), continuous improvement (CI), and IA
as major TQM dimensions. Valmohammadi (2011) examined organizational performance using seven TQM criteria,
namely: leadership, process management (PM), supplier, CF, employee management (EM), communication (COM),
and quality information system. Yang (2005) gives a set of TQM practices comprises of CI, meeting customers
requirements, reducing rework, long-work thinking, increased employee involvement and teamwork, process
redesign, competitive benchmarking, team-based problem solving, constant measurement of result and closer
relationship with suppliers. Kumar et al. (2011) identified eight practices of TQM while Khanamet al. (2013) comes
out with nine enablers of TQM for ICT industry. Further, review of previous literature on TQM practices have
examined the key practices for success of TQM by Kureshiet al. (2010); Jha and Kumar (2010); Hafeezet al. (2006);
Fuentes et al. (2006).
From the above literature on TQM practices, it was observed that there exist some differences in the set of TQM
practices from one organization to another. Different researchers have used different set of TQM practices and no

study was found to have a common set of practices for implementing TQM in the organization. Further, it was also
observed that many research studies adopted different set of TQM practices developed by different authors and
experts of quality for successful implementation of TQM. Present study utilizes 17 TQM practices identified by
Talibet al. (2013b; 2011a,c) for service industries as depicted in Table 1. Moreover, it can be clearly observed form
Talibet al. (2011c) and Talibet al. (2013b) studies that these 17 TQM practices (Table 1) are widely implemented
and have significant effect in improving the performance of the service industry. Further, many of these TQM
practices are previously adoptedby several researchers like Flynn et al., 1994; Kaynak, 2003; Prajogo, 2005;
Saravanan and Rao, 2007 and many others.
Table 1: Key TQM Practices
TQM Practice No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.

TQM Practice
Top-management commitment (TMC)
Customer focus (CF)
Training and education (TE)
Continuous improvement and innovation (CII)
Supplier management (SM)
Employee involvement (EI)
Information and analysis (IA)
Process management (PM)
Quality systems (QS)
Benchmarking (BM)
Quality culture (QC)
Human resource management (HRM)
Strategic planning (SP)
Employee encouragement (EE)
Teamwork (TW)
Product and service design (PSD)
Communication (COM)

(Source: Talibet al., 2011a&c)

2.2. TQM in ICT Industry
Growth of Indian service sector from past few decades changes manifold just as a growing tree constantly changes
the shape, size and configuration of its branches. One of the fastest growing branches is the Indian ICT industry
which covers four major sub-component namely information technology (IT), IT enabled services (ITeS), software
products and services, and telecommunication services. This Industry has put India on the global map with an
exponential growth continuously from past many years. India has achieved a brand identity in this industry by
providing both direct and indirect growth, skilled employmentboth within the country and abroad, generating direct
employment for nearly 2.8 million persons and indirect employment of around 8.9 million in 2011-2012 (Economic
Survey, 2013). Further, ICT in support with Business Process Management (BPM) sector have showed a growth of
revenue generation from 1.2 percent in 1997-1998 to nearly 8 percent in 2012-2013 (NASSCOM, 2013) while due
to the global slowdown, increasing competition from new developed countries, and rising protectionist measures in
the wake of job losses in developed countries have caused slight dimmed prospects for experts of IT and ITeS
services but still a great opportunity is waiting in Indias domestic market with increasing technology adoption all
around the industry (Economic Survey, 2013). In lieu of the above statistics and data presented, there is a greater
need to respond to the customers requirements and to assure them quality products and services in Indian ICT
industrythrough the application of TQM. Some of the literature on TQM in ICT industry is presented as under.
A study by Jain (2010) examined employees perceptions of TQM practices and its impact on job satisfaction in
Indian software industry using questionnaire survey. He found that, where teamwork was perceived as a dominant

TQM practice, improvements in job satisfaction levels were significant other significant practices were EE,
organizational culture and COM. Anget al. (2001) in their study on the use of IT to support TQM processes in the
Malaysian public sector revealed that the level of IT usage varies among the identified nine dimensions of TQM.
They found innovations and IA practices as the important and high level practices used in IT industry whereas
quality results and supplier quality assurance are associated with significantly lower level. Talibet al. (2013c)
conducted a study on the development of an instrument for TQM implementation in Indian ICT industry by
identifying 17 TQM practices through survey of literature. The measures of instrument were tested for reliability and
validity. Further analysis revealed ten TQM practices to be the most important which could guide ICT managers for
successful implementation of TQM program.Loukiset al. (2009) investigated and compared the moderating effects
of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and TQM on ICT business value in Greek firms. It was found that both
BPR and TQM have considerable positive moderating effects of a similar magnitude on the relationship between
ICT investment and firm value added. It was also concluded that different BPR and TQM activities have different
moderating effects on ICT business value. Other similar studies on TQM in ICT industry which are of interest by
Sohnet al., 2008, Stefanovicet al., 2009; Khanamet al., 2013a,b; Tiwari and Chaudhari (2012).
2.3 TQM in Banking Industry
Another major branch of Indian service sector is the banking industry with a gross domestic product (GDP) at factor
cost of 13.2 percent share in service sector which was increased from 5.7 percent in 2011-2012 (Economic Survey,
2013). Indian banking industry has become the backbone for the growth of its economy and is very dynamic now-adays. Presently it is valued at US $1.31 trillion and has a potential to become the fifth largest banking industry in the
world by 2020 and the third largest by 2025 as per Indian Banks Association report (IBA, 2013). It is predicted that
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may increase the number of banks in the country alongwith the style of operation by
integration of modern technique into the industry. Further, some of the recent developments in the Indian banking
industry are total number of on-site and off-site automatic trailer machines (ATMs) have reached to 1, 00,042 up to
mid of 2012. They are estimated to further double by 2016 with 50 percent expected to be set-up in small towns.
Introduction of mobile and internet banking are explored with a greater ease of cash transfer and many more (IBEF,
2014).
In line of above observations, there is a need to continuously improve the performance of Indian banking
system by implementing quality improvement approaches like TQM. Though few studies have been undertaken on
implementation of TQM in banking industry but more studies are still required to sustain the banking performance.
Pattanayak and Maddulety (2013) highlighted TQM practices in Indian banking organization with a focus on CS.
They developed a scale to measure TQM implementation. In this process, the study identified eight key constructs
for successful TQM implementation.Awolusi (2013) investigated the effectiveness of the CSFs of TQM on customer
service management (CSM) in the Nigerian banking industry. In doing so, they make use of Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award (MBNQA) framework. The result revealed nine factors responsible for successful
implementation of TQM in Nigerian banking industry. Mellahi and Eyuboglu (2001) examined key factors for
successful implementation of TQM in the Turkish banking sector. The result showed that successful TQM
implementation requires management unwavering commitment to TQM and enthusiasm, formal national bodies to
introduce organizations to TQM and provide assistance during and after TQM implementation, and a highly
educated and competent management team. Similar studies of interest are by Shih et al. (2011); Lenkaet al. (2010);
Talibet al. (2012).
From the above statistics and brief literature review on TQM in the two industries, it is concluded that there is a
greater need to undertake the present study and workout on the listed objectives for better understanding of TQM
and its practices as well as to improve the performance level of ICT and banking industries.
3.

Research Questions and Hypotheses Formulation

Based on the literature review presented in the earlier sections and the designed objectives of this study, following
questions are articulated to accomplish the purpose of the study.

Research Question 1 (RQ1): What are the key TQM practices for its successful implementation in the Indian ICT
and Banking industries?
Research Question 2 (RQ2): Is there any significant difference in the adoption of key TQM practices across Indian
ICT and banking industries?
To answer the above questions, following hypotheses are set:
H1: TQM program for Indian ICT and banking industries is a set of 17 TQM practices consisting of TMC;CF; TE;
CII; SM; EI; IA; PM; QS; BM; QC; HRM; SP; EE; TW;PSD; and COM.
H2: There is no significant difference in the adoption of TQM practices across Indian ICT and banking industries.
4.

Research Methodology

This study deployed an empirical method of research strategy because it focuses on answering the underlined
research questions through evidence collected in the form of primary data. Empirical research generally starts with
some a priori theory, which the researcher develops and tries to explain or predict what happens in the real world
(Goodwin, 2005). In order to accomplish the present objectives of this study, a questionnaire survey methodology
was adopted and carried out in the Indian ICT and banking industries to collect the primary data which is then used
to answer research questions (Valmohammadi, 2011; Boateng-Okrah and Fening, 2012; Kumar et al., 2011).
4.1. Research Design
Present work uses a descriptive cross-sectional study design. It is in line with the studies on TQM performed by
Talibet al., 2011d,e; Kumar et al., 2011; Salaheldin, 2009. Additionally, it also employed survey method, which
utilizes a research questionnaire. The study uses electronic (e-mail) survey method as a means of data gathering
which is commonly adopted in such types of work (Kureshiet al., 2010; Talibet al., 2011d,e).
4.2. Research Questionnaire
The questionnaire was designed based on previous studies (Antony et al., 2002; Kumar et al., 2011; Abdullah,
2010). The questionnaire was initially validated through a pilot study before it was finally used for primary data
collection. The questionnaire developed consists of two sections. First section contains the demographic information
of the respondents. Second section collects information on the identification and ranking of TQM practices as well
as their adoption across the two industries by listing 17 key TQM practices. The questionnaire utilizes a 5-point
likert scale, with 1=very low, 3=moderate, and 5=very high, depending on the type of question. This is in line with
those suggested by Talibet al., 2013a,b; Salaheldin, 2009, Kumar et al., 2011.
4.3. Sample Size and Sampling Method
The sampling frame of this survey is composed of select Indian ICT and banking companies published by the i 3 (icube, Information Infrastructure for Institutions), Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Private Limited, India
(CMIE, 2010). The list contains a total of 1111 ICT and 200 banking companies at the time of study period. The
reasons for choosing these two industries are their high GDP share in Indian economy (CMIE, 2010; Economic
survey, 2013), highly labor intensive industries and provides substantial employment (MoL&E, 2010) and there ever
increasing net annual income to the Indian service sector (Economic Survey, 2013).A stratified sampling method (a
probability sampling technique) was deployed in this study. This method of sampling was suitable in the present
case to ensure that the samples are balanced in terms of service categories and reflects the varied population of ICT
and banking companies across India. The method divides the total population into two strata. The minimum sample
size was calculated as per the GDP contribution of each service industry from the total contribution of GDP in the
service sector. The minimum sample size based on GDP contribution was found to be 471 consisting of 399 ICT and
72 banking companies as shown in Table 2. The samples were drawn using a simple random sample approach.
Table 2: Population and Sample Size for ICT and Banking Industries

Industry

ICT
Banking
Total

Population size (N)

Sample size
based on GDP
contribution (n)
424
47
471

1111
200
1311

Stratum Sample Size Based on

Proportionate Stratified Sampling
Technique
399
72
471

4.4. Questionnaire Administration and Responses

The target respondents for this study were top and middle level managers and administrators of the two industries
who have sufficient knowledge and experience on TQM approach and are aware of implementation of TQM tools
and techniques. Addressed to top and middle level managers and administrators, the questionnaires were e-mailed to
471 Indian ICT and banking companies (Table 3). After several follow-up, a total of 135 companies responded
which are approximately 28.6 percent of the sample size, are selected for the study, however, only 121 usable
questionnaires were included for the data analysis as 14 questionnaires were unusable, yielding a response rate of
25.7 percent (Table 3) which is well within the range of 85-300 cases as recommended by Kureshiet al., 2010;
Talibet al., 2013b; Hair et al., 1998. The key characteristics of respondents are summarized in Table 4.
Table 3: Responses Received
Service
Industry
Category
ICT
Banking
Total

5.

Population
size (N)

Instrument
Delivered

Responses
Received

1111
200
1311

399
72
471

95
40
135

Response
Rate
(percent)
20.1
8.5
28.6

Valid
Responses
84
37
n=121

Percentage of
Total Valid
Responses
17.8
7.9
25.7

Results and Discussion

After critically assessing all the valid questionnaires, the responses were coded and entered into the Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0. Methods of data analyses included in the study are:1. Descriptive
statistics (means, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis); 2. Pearson correlation analysis; and 3.Independentsamples t-test of hypothesis testing for the mean difference. The hypotheses H1 and H2 were examined at two
significance levels i.e. p=0.01 and 0.05.
5.1. Profile of Respondents
Table 4 depicts the profile of the respondents. The company variables consist of position of respondents, year of
experience, gender, department/section, and type of company. As can be seen from Table 4, majority of the
respondents are holding a position of Quality Managers/HRM/Quality Engineers/Executive Managers (30.5
percent), second largest respondents belongs to a position of Project Architect/Consultants/Customer Relation
Officers/Service Managers/Assistant Managers (24 percent) and the remaining respondents are from the following
positions: Project Managers/Senior Engineer Manager/Senior Managers (21.5 percent); Manager/Technical
Manager/Operations Manager (16.5 percent); and Directors/Managing Directors/Executive Directors/Chief
Executive Officer/General Managers (7.5 percent). 57.9 percent of the respondents have an experience of more than
five years and remaining (42.1 percent) with less than five years of work experience. With regard to participants
gender, there are 87.6 percent maleand 12.4 percent female respondents. This implies that the majority of the Indian
ICT and banking companies are male dominated companies in their quality department. Lastly, the responses
received from different department/section are as follows: Eleven from Quality (9 percent), 27 from Product and

Services (22.4 percent), 17 from Customer Relation (14 percent), 23 from Marketing (19 percent), twelve from
Information Management Services (10 percent) and rest 31 from other different sections (25.6 percent). This
suggests that the study covers all sections/departments of the two industries evenly.
Table 4: Profile of Respondents
Position/Role of the Respondent
Director/Managing Director/Executive Director/CEO/General
Manager
Project Manager/Senior Engineer Manager/Senior Manager
Manager/Technical Manager/Operations Manager
Quality Manager/Human Resource Manager/Quality
Engineer/Market Manager/Executive Manager
Others (Like Project Architect, Consultant; Customer Relation
Officer; Service Manager; Assistant Manager)
Total
Years of experience
Less than 5 years
More than 5 years
Total
Gender
Male
Female
Total
Department/Section
Quality
Product and Services
Customer Relation
Marketing
Information Management Services
Others
Total
Type of Company
ICT
Banking
Total

Frequency
9

Percentage
7.5

26
20
37

21.5
16.5
30.5

29

24.0

n=121
Frequency
51
70
n=121
Frequency
106
15
n=121
Frequency
11
27
17
23
12
31
n=121
Frequency
84
37
n=121

100
Percentage
42.1
57.9
100
Percentage
87.6
12.4
100
Percentage
9.0
22.4
14.0
19.0
10.0
25.6
100
Percentage
69.4
30.6
100

5.2. Reliability of Instrument

Using the SPSS reliability program, an internal consistency analysis was performed separately for the 17 TQM
practices that included 84 ICT and 37 banking companies returned questionnaires. The analysis revealed that the
measures (TQM practices) in the two industries have a Cronbachs -value above 0.70, which testifies to the
reliability of the questionnaire (Nunnally, 1967; Hair et al., 1998). Table 5 shows the reliability test results of the
TQM practices in ICT and banking companies.
Table 5: Internal Consistency (Scale Reliabilities) for TQM Practices
Industry

Measures

Number of Items

Cronbach Alpha

ICT

TQM Practices

17

0.887

Banking

TQM Practices

17

0.902

5.3. Identification and Ranking of TQM Practices

Descriptive statistics are mainly used to explore the data collected through questionnaires, and to summarize and
describe it. According to Coakeset al. (2006) it is necessary to screen data and use transformation technique in
order to make sure that data have been correctly entered and that the distributions of variables that are to be used
in analysis are normal. Therefore, the assumption of normality is a prerequisite before performing any major
statistical test and making conclusions. In the present case, skewness and kurtosis tests are performed for assessing
normality of the data andthe result shows that their values are generally very near to zero, indicating that the
assumption of normality appears not to be violated (Joanes and Gill, 1998)as can be predicted from Table 6.
Furthermore, various mean scores and standard deviation scores are computed and analysed to test the hypothesis
H1. The results are presented in Table 6 and Figure 1.
An overall mean score of 3.55 (ICT industry) and 3.50 (banking industry) indicates that the two Indian service
industries generally perceive positively over the set of identified TQM practices. These scores are at the uppermiddle end of 5-point likert scale. By examining the summary of the mean scores, it is seen that these range from
2.90 to 4.05 for ICT industry, which is, to some extent higher than the mean scores of banking industry which
ranges between 3.03 and 3.85. To further elaborate, the mean scores of TQM practices for the two industries are
categorized into three levels of importance i.e. most important having higher mean score (3.50); moderately
important where mean scores lies between 3.0 and 3.50; and least important with low mean scores (<3.0). As per
this criterion, ten and nine practices were found to be the most importantTQM practices for ICT and banking
industries respectively. They are: TMC, CII, QC, CF, TE, TW, QS, PSD, PM, and COM for ICT industry and TW,
TMC, CII, TE, CF, PSD, PM, SP, and QC, for banking industry. Whereas the set of five TQM practices like SP, IA,
BM, EI, and EE are found to be moderately important (second category) in ICT industry and for banking industry,
there are eight practices in this category namely QS, COM, BM, IA, EE, EI, SM, and HRM. Third set consists of
least important TQM practices category. In this category, only two practices i.e. HRM and SM were observed in
ICT industry whereas no practices were found having less than mean score of 3.0 in case of banking industry. This
suggest that in general, most of the TQM practices have been given equal importance in the two industries except
for the two practices namely COM and SP. COM was found to be placed in moderately important category for
banking industry while the same was identified as important practice in ICT industry. This was expected since
information and communication industry requires a focus on communication and its various components as
compared to banks where it is ranked at eleventh place. This was also supported by Kumar et al., 2011; Talibet al.,
2011d.
Similarly, SP as a TQM practice was observed moderately important for ICT industry and is ranked at eleventh
place while the same is ranked at eight place in banking industry, indicating that it is an important practices for the
banks performance and efforts should be made in planning and developing the future actions strategically and is
need of hour for the growth of banking industry. On the other hand, the two lowest mean scores practices are HRM
(2.98) and SM (2.90) categorized in least important category for ICT industry and 3.03 and 3.14 mean scores for the
same in banking industry placed in moderately important practices. These two practices receives lowest mean scores
in both the industries, implying that they are little in use and less emphasized TQM practices in both the Indian
service industries. This was also claimed by Talib and Rahman (2012); Arumugamet al. (2009). This further
suggested that more efforts need to be focused on improving supplier quality, supplier relations, and selection and
recruitment system especially in ICT industry.

Table 6: Descriptive Statistics of TQM Practices in Indian ICT and Banking Industries
TQM Practice

ICT Industry
Mean

Top-management commitment
(TMC)
Continuous improvement and
innovation (CII)
Quality culture (QC)

4.05

Std.
Deviation
1.017

3.89

Customer focus (CF)

-0.731

-0.340

3.84

Std.
Deviation
1.014

0.807

-0.365

-0.282

3.78

0.886

0.199

-1.241

3.86

0.996

-0.456

-0.515

3.51

1.044

-0.115

-0.464

3.83

0.848

-0.036

-0.936

3.68

0.784

0.291

-0.671

Training and education (TE)

Skewness

Banking Industry
Kurtosis

Ranking

Mean

Skewness

Kurtosis

Ranking

-0.502

-0.023

0.929

-0.120

-1.082

3.77

0.854

-0.404

-0.240

Teamwork (TW)

3.83
3.82

0.880

-0.182

-0.795

3.85

0.898

-0.638

1.135

Quality systems(QS)

3.73

0.827

-0.234

0.255

3.49

0.768

0.436

-0.190

10

Product and service design (PSD)

3.70

0.941

-0.076

-0.553

3.65

0.949

-0.454

0.366

Process management (PM)

3.63

0.941

0.099

-0.982

3.62

0.861

-0.261

-0.422

1.032

-0.027

-1.144

10

3.46

0.989

-0.155

-0.171

11

Communication (COM)
Strategic planning (SP)

3.58
3.43

0.749

-0.014

-0.286

11

3.57

0.899

-0.214

0.603

Information and analysis (IA)

3.40

0.958

0.447

-0.391

12

3.43

0.899

-0.029

-0.686

13

Benchmarking (BM)

3.39

0.970

0.189

-0.902

13

3.43

1.015

-0.143

-0.362

12

Employee involvement (EI)

3.19

1.012

0.320

-1.023

14

3.15

1.004

-0.111

-0.202

15

Employee encouragement (EE)

3.12

0.999

0.127

-0.769

15

3.16

1.068

-0.196

-0.721

14

Human resource management

(HRM)
Supplier management (SM)

2.98

1.317

0.142

-1.088

16

3.03

1.213

-0.252

-0.987

17

1.013

-0.161

-0.850

17

3.14

1.134

-0.400

-0.559

16

Overall

2.90
3.55

3.50

ICT Industry
4.5
4

3.19 3.12

2.90

3.14

3.03

2.5

2.98

3.16

3.14

3.43

3.43

3.57

Mean

3.43 3.40 3.39

3.46

3.62

3.65

3.49

3.85

3.68

3.51

3.78

3.77

3.89 3.86 3.83 3.83 3.82

3.73 3.70 3.63
3.58

3.84

3.5

4.05

Banking Industry

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
TMC CII

QC

CF

TE

TW

QS PSD PM COM SP

IA

BM

EI

EE HRM SM

TQM Practices

Figure 1: Comparison of Means of TQM Practices between ICT and Banking Industries
5.4. Correlation between the TQM Practices
According to Rowntree (1987), correlation is a measure of the strength of relation between two or more variables. The correlation
coefficient ranges from -1.00 to +1.00. The value of -1.00 represents a perfect negative correlation while a value +1.00 represents
a perfect positive correlation. A positive correlation between two variables means that if one increases, so does the other. On the
other hand, a negative correlation means if one increases, the other decreases. A value of 0.00 represents a lack of correlation.
The results of the correlation between the TQM practices for the two industries are presented separately in Tables 7 and 8
respectively. Based on the correlation matrixes, the highest correlations were found in between the practices EI and SM (r=0.735,
p<0.01)in case of ICT industry and EE and EI (r=0.730, p<0.01) for banking industry while the weakest correlation was detected
for the practices between PSD and BM (r=0.09) for ICT industry and for banking it was between QC and SM (r=0.01). Out of
142 correlations, majority of them are above 0.20 while remaining few is below 0.20 mark in the two industries. Thus, the
findings showed that the respondents perceived the set of identified TQM practices in more positive and favorable way in both
the industries. These correlations and results are similar to the findings by Brahet al. (2002).
In summary, after the analysis of the two bivariate correlation matrixes (Tables 7 and 8) consisting of 17 TQM practices, it is
evident that there is no multicollinearity problem since all the correlation coefficients are below the cut-off limit of 0.90. Further,
in this study, the most of the correlation coefficients are statistically significant at 0.01 and 0.05 levels and in the range of 0.200.75, only few relationships were found to be insignificant in the two industries. Thus, it can be concluded from the above
findings that for Indian ICT industry, 15 practices are significant only two practices are insignificant as well as few correlations
are also showing no relationship, implying that the hypothesis H1 for research question RQ1 is partially supported. While for
banking industry, all the 17 TQM practices are important having mean score of above 3.0 and a clear relationship between all the
TQM practices is indicated and suggests that banking companies are advanced in the implementation of TQM practices. Thus,
hypothesis H1 is true and supports the findings.

Table 7: Pearsons Correlation Matrix of the TQM Practices in ICT Industry

TQM Practice
Top-management commitment
(TMC)
Customer focus (CF)

Continuous improvement and

innovation (CII)
Supplier management (SM)

0.028

Employee involvement (EI)

0.026

Information and analysis (IA)

0.153

Process management (PM)

0.295
**
0.446
**

1.000
0.362
**
0.414
**
0.402
**
0.459
**
0.440
**
0.360
**
0.415
**

0.189

0.037

0.411
**

0.400
**

Human resource management

(HRM)

0.037

0.191

Strategic planning (SP)

0.305
**

0.341
**
0.223
*

Quality systems(QS)
Benchmarking (BM)
Quality culture (QC)

Employee encouragement (EE)

10

11

12

13

14

1.00
0
0.40
6**
0.53
7**
0.30
4**
0.50
3**
0.17
1

1.00
0
0.24
6*
0.14
9
0.28
0**
0.13
8

1.00
0
0.00
3
0.14
8
0.08
0

1.00
0
0.34
0**
0.57
9**

1.00
0
0.47
8**

1.00
0

1.000
0.401
**
0.417
**
0.623
**

Training and education (TE)

0.184

1.000
0.378
**
0.316
**
0.342
**
0.455
**
0.466
**
0.332
**

1.000
0.046
0.011
0.135
0.122

1.000
0.735
**
0.536
**
0.493
**

1.000
0.628
**
0.530
**
0.265
*

0.407
**

0.184

0.194

0.162

0.112

0.070

0.143

0.296
**

0.034

0.063

0.603
**
0.292
**
0.476
**

0.618
**
0.336
**
0.514
**

0.371
**
0.363
**
0.359
**

0.093
0.177
0.046

1.000
0.582
**
0.431
**
0.268
*
0.276
**
0.495
**
0.410
**
0.465
**

1.000
0.457
**
0.306
**
0.239
**
0.595
**
0.415
**
0.483
**

15

16

17

Teamwork (TW)
Product and service design
(PSD)
Communication (COM)

0.144

0.169

0.361
**

0.210

0.345
**

0.350
**

0.458
**

0.327
**

0.21
3

0.29
5**

0.17
7

0.28
7**

0.44
6**

0.35
3**

1.00
0

0.267
*

0.405
**

0.397
**

0.275
*

0.273
*

0.275
*

0.429
**

0.459
**

0.29
7**

0.09
0

0.23
7*

0.37
3**

0.30
3**

0.37
1**

0.29
9**

1.00
0

0.122

0.333
**

0.442
**

0.076

0.503
**

0.527
**

0.526
*8

0.497
**

0.21
8

0.22
6*

0.01
2

0.54
2**

0.42
1**

0.62
1**

0.48
7**

0.47
8**

1.00
0

13

14

15

16

17

Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed)

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

Table 8: Pearsons Correlation Matrix of the TQM Practices in Banking Industry

TQM Practice
Top-management commitment
(TMC)
Customer focus (CF)

1.000

Training and education (TE)

0.279

0.349
*

1.000

Continuous improvement and

innovation (CII)

0.485
**
0.174

0.296

0.414
*

1.000

0.176

0.260

-.081

1.000
0.468
**
0.371

1.000

1.000

Employee involvement (EI)

0.158

0.128

0.262

0.127

Information and analysis (IA)

Process management (PM)

0.262
0.405
*
0.354

0.323
0.348
*
0.454

0.234

0.121

0.617
**
0.132

0.263

0.254

0.111

0.503

0.404

0.177

Quality systems(QS)

1.000
0.212

Supplier management (SM)

1.000
0.241
0.510
**
0.308

0.496

1.00

10

11

12

Benchmarking (BM)
Quality culture (QC)

*
0.394
*
0.501
**

**
0.181
0.277

**

0.271

0.138

0.334
*

0.541
**

0.564
**
0.381
*
0.345
*
0.021
0.569
**

0.574
**

0.010

0.144

0.704
**
0.359
*
0.578
**

0.269

0.213

0.704
**
0.528
**
0.730
**
0.456
**

*
0.429
**
0.349
*

**
0.574
**
0.469
**

0.493
**

0
0.43
5**
0.61
5**
0.28
4
0.47
4**
0.27
4
0.44
0**

1.00
0
0.54
5**
0.48
7**
0.66
7**
0.44
6**
0.38
4*

1.00
0
0.09
8
0.48
0**
0.07
3
0.23
9

0.244

0.223

1.00
0
0.54
6**
0.55
4**
0.33
6*

0.582
**

0.393
*

1.00
0
0.50
9**
0.49
6**

0.214

0.310

1.00
0
0.17
3

0.468
**

1.00
0

Human resource management

(HRM)

0.049

0.126

Strategic planning (SP)

0.409
*

0.150

0.282

0.065

0.245

0.397
*

0.112

0.440
**

0.315

0.105

0.510
**

0.255

0.444
**

0.411
*

0.47
0**

0.62
3**

0.43
9**

0.32
2

0.56
6**

0.25
0

0.35
5*

1.00
0

0.381
*

0.377
*

0.483
**

0.402
*

0.265

0.411
*

0.552
*

0.438
**

0.75
8**

0.51
6**

0.54
5**

0.40
6*

0.76
1**

0.34
9*

0.52
4**

0.59
1**

Employee encouragement (EE)

Teamwork (TW)
Product and service design
(PSD)
Communication (COM)

0.006
0.402
*
0.126

Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed)

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

1.00
0

5.5. Adoption of TQM Practices across Indian ICT and Banking Industries
With regard to the difference in the adoption of each TQM practice across the Indian ICT and banking industries and
to accomplish the third objective of the present study, an independent-samples t-test is used to examine the second
research question RQ2 and the related hypothesis H2. An independent-samples t-test is appropriate when the
researchers goal is to compare the difference between the means of two groups on the same variable (Coakeset al.,
2006; Abusa and Gibson, 2013). Nevertheless, before conducting this test, it is necessary that the two assumptions,
population normality and homogeneity of variance must be met. Data normality has already been verified
throughskewness and kurtosis tests in the previous sections. In order to test the homogeneity of variance assumption,
Levenes test for Equality of variances was performed. Table 9 presents theLevenes test results. It shows the
Levene statistics and the significance p-value results of each TQM practice. The results showed that all the
significance levels of 17 TQM practices obtained from the Levenes test for Equality of variancesare larger than
0.05 (p>0.05). Meaning that the assumption of equal variance has not been violated. Accordingly, it is assumed that
the independent-samples t-test can be performed for further analysis.
Subsequently, a significant test was performed to examine whether there exist any significant difference in the
adoption of 17 TQM practices in the two groups i.e. ICT and banking industries. The results of the t-test are shown
in Table 10 which presents the two means (ICT and banking) of all the TQM practices along with their t-values and
level of significance. Through the initial investigation of all the 17 TQM practices with respect to t-value and
significance level, it can be seen that there is no significant difference between 14 TQM practices among the two
industries. Those practices are: TMC; CF; TE; CII; EI; IA; PM; BM; HRM; SP; EE; TW; PSD; and COM. While
the remaining three practices (SM; QS; and QC) shows significant difference at 0.05 level. These three practices
also shows the large difference in their mean scores across the two industries (SM: 2.90 and 3.14; QS: 3.73 and
3.49; and QC: 3.86 and 3.51) as well as ranked at 17 and 16 place for SM, 7 and 10 place for QS, and 3 and 9 place
for QC as shown in Tables 10 and 6 which further strengthen the present outcomes. From these results, it is
concluded that the above 14 practices are not significantly different across Indian ICT and banking industries.
However, these two industries have better quality culture and quality systems in their possession, as indicated by
their mean scores (3.49). But there is still a need of improvement in the adoption of SM practice and managers and
practitioners have to think in this direction through adoption of strategic management technique and logistic
practices. Thus, hypothesis H2 is rejected for these three TQM practices and accepted for 14 TQM practices as
mentioned above.
In future quality improvement programs, banking industry need to have a sound policy that focuses on
improvement of quality culture and quality systems. For successful TQM implementation, banking industry need to
recognize that customer satisfaction is highly important and should be placed on priority which is directly as well as
indirectly linked with QC and QS. Thus, emphasis must be given on these two practices. Further, 14 practices which
show no significant difference in their adoption across the two industries also indicate small mean differences
among them implying that almost all practices are effectively adopted in both the industries. Additionally, the
practices where greater attention have to be given beside the above discussed practices are EI (mean score=3.19 and
3.14), HRM (mean scores=2.98 and 3.03), EE (mean scores=3.12 and 3.16), BM(mean scores=3.39 and 3.43) and
IQ (mean scores=3.40 and 3.43). These practices show lower mean scores level (3.50) though their differences are
very small indicating the status of adoption of these TQM practices.
Table 9: Tests of Homogeneity of Variance (Levenes Test)
TQM Practice
Top-management commitment (TMC)
Customer focus (CF)
Training and education (TE)
Continuous improvement and innovation (CII)

Levene Statistic
0.001
0.131
1.631
2.971

Significance
(p-value)
0.982
0.718
0.204
0.087

Supplier management (SM)

Employee involvement (EI)
Information and analysis (IA)
Process management (PM)
Quality systems (QS)
Benchmarking (BM)
Quality culture (QC)
Human resource management (HRM)
Strategic planning (SP)
Employee encouragement (EE)
Teamwork (TW)
Product and service design (PSD)
Communication (COM)

0.413
0.581
0.035
1.283
0.070
0.025
0.270
0.256
1.415
0.386
0.080
0.129
0.676

0.522
0.447
0.852
0.260
0.792
0.874
0.605
0.614
0.237
0.536
0.778
0.720
0.413

Note: n=121;*p<0.05.
Table 10: Independent Groups t-test Results of TQM Practices Adoption across Indian ICT and Banking
Industries
TQM Practice

Mean Score in

Independent Groups t-test

Results

Result

ICT

Banks

t Value

Top-management
commitment
Customer focus

4.05

3.84

1.046

Significance
(p-value)
0.297 (NS)

3.83

3.68

0.964

0.337 (NS)

Accepted

Training and education

Continuous improvement and
innovation
Supplier management

3.83
3.89

3.77
3.78

0.277
0.665

0.782 (NS)
0.508 (NS)

Accepted
Accepted

2.90

3.14

-1.110

0.026*

Rejected

Employee involvement

3.19

3.14

0.278

0.782 (NS)

Accepted

Information and analysis

3.40

3.43

-0.149

0.882 (NS)

Accepted

Process management
Quality systems

3.63
3.73

3.62
3.49

0.052
1.501

0.959 (NS)
0.036*

Accepted
Rejected

Benchmarking

3.39

3.43

-.0204

0.839 (NS)

Accepted

Quality culture

3.86

3.51

1.723

0.047*

Rejected

Human resource management

2.98

3.03

-0.200

0.842 (NS)

Accepted

Strategic planning
Employee encouragement
Teamwork
Product and service design
Communication

3.43
3.12
3.82
3.70
3.58

3.57
3.16
3.85
3.65
3.46

-0.884
-0.214
-0.094
0.289
0.616

0.379 (NS)
0.831 (NS)
0.925 (NS)
0.773 (NS)
0.539 (NS)

Accepted
Accepted
Accepted
Accepted
Accepted

Accepted

Notes: Significant at *p<0.05; **p<0.01; NS=No Significant Difference.

6.

Conclusions

The study reported in this paper was performed with the help of self-administered questionnaire sent to ICT and
banking companies in order to identify and rank the key TQM practices and investigate the significant difference
between the adoptions of identified TQM practices across the two Indian service industries. In total, 471
questionnaires were delivered to ICT (399) and banking (72) companies out of which 121 valid responses were
received consisting of 84 responders from ICT and 37 from banking. A total of 17 TQM practices were listed in the
questionnaire. From the findings presented and discussed, it was concluded that Indian ICT and banking industries
categorizes the identified key TQM practices into three categories i.e. most important, moderately important, and
least important based on their mean scores. It was observed that TMC, CII, QC, CF, TE, TW, QS, PSD, PM, and
COM were perceived as ten most important TQM practices in the two industries except for the practices COM
where it was placed at 11 position in banking and SP where it was placed at 11 position in ICT industry. Similarly,
another five practices namely SP, IA, BM, EI, and EE were perceived to be second most important (moderate) TQM
practices for ICT industry and seven practices (SP, IA, BM, EI, EE, SM, and HRM) were moderately important
TQM practices for banking industry. While remaining two practices i.e. SM and HRM were categorized under least
important practices category or having no significance in ICT industry. On the other hand, these two practices were
placed in moderately important category in case of banking industry implying that all the 17 TQM practices were
considered to have importance in Indian banking industry as compared to ICT industry where 15 practices were
considered important to moderately important and rest two least important. It is further concluded that both the
industries have almost similar priorities for TQM practices except for SM and HRM. It was also observed that both
the industries understand the importance of TMC, CII, CF, and TE practices for successful implementation of TQM
and therefore ranked almost at the same level.
Additionally, the study has also investigated the adoption of 17 TQM practices across the ICT and banking
industries where it was found that no significant difference was observed in the adoption of 14 TQM practices
except for the three practices like SM, QS and QC. It concludes that efforts should be made to emphasize on these
practices and implement them effectively in order to gain maximum benefit and enhanced business performance. In
summary, the present results have showedalmost a positive indication over the identification and adoption of TQM
practices in the Indian ICT and banking industries. Consequently, it determined the contribution of TQM across the
two Indian industries and identified the most important practices for TQM implementation through successful
empirical analysis.
6.1. Managerial Implications
Some of the implications of the present study are:
This study will serve as a guide to the managers of the two Indian service industries in implementing TQM
program successfully as well as other service industries which are not the part of this study can use TQM
implementation as a strategic competitive weapon.
There are number of ICT companies and banks in India, both public and private, and managers and
practitioners would be able to take a note of importance of the customer to improve the performance of
their companies by introducing QC, TE, adopting QS, developing effective HRM and SM. This will effect
successful TQM implementation.
Through this study, managers and practitioners would be able to identify gaps for further improvement and
contributes to the enhancement of quality of their products and services.
The result of this study provides a practical understanding of TQM practices and their adoption across the
two Indian industries for improved performance. They would be very useful for the practitioners and
quality experts in evaluating the effectiveness of their current TQM program.

6.2. Scope for Further Study

The agenda for future study is to replicate this study with a greater number of Indian service companies such as real
estate, finance, mobile/internet service provider, auto service providers, and many others where the customers play
an important role in the growth of industry and add significantly to the wealth generated by Indian service sector. In
addition to this, the number of responses can be increased by increasing the sample size, this could affect the present
findings in more positive way. Furthermore, the data used in the study were collected at a single point in time, it is,
therefore, recommended that a longitudinal study is essential to understand the effectiveness and implementation of
TQM program as it was believed that TQM reaches at a mature-level after three to five years of its implementation.
Moreover, the present study was conducted in one country only. Future study may include a diversity of other
nations to make the study more versatile and generalizable. Finally, application of qualitative techniques and
integrating approaches like quality function deployment (QFD), Fuzzy-QFD, Fuzzy-Analytic Hierarchy (AHP),
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) etc. useful in products and services development should be deployed to
understand the relationship between present TQM model and customer satisfaction.
References
Abdullah, A. (2010), Measuring TQM implementation: a case study of Malaysian SMEs, Measuring Business
Excellence, Vol.14, No.3, pp. 3-15.
Abdullah, M., Uli, J. and Tari, J. (2009), The relationship of performance with soft factors and quality
improvement, Total Quality Management, Vol.20, No.7, 735-748.
Abusa, F.M. and Gibson, P. (2013), TQM implementation in developing countries: a case study of the Libyan
industrial sector, Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol.20, No.5, pp. 693-711.
Ali, N.A., Mahat, F. and Zairi, M. (2010), Testing the criticality of HR-TQM factors in the Malaysian higher
education context, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Vol.21, No.11, pages 1177-1188.
Ang, C.-L., Mark Davies, M and Finlay, P.N. (2001), An empirical study of the use of information technology to
support total quality management, Total Quality Management, Vol.12, No.2, pp. 145-157.
Antony, J., Leung, K., Knowles, G. and Gosh, S. (2002), Critical success factors of TQM implementation in Hong
Kong industries, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Vol.19, No.5, pp. 551-566.
Arumugam, V., Chang, H.W., Ooi, K.-B.andTeh, P.-L. (2009), Self-assessment of TQM practices: a case analysis,
The TQM Journal, Vol.21, No.1, pp. 46-58.
Awolusi, O.D. (2013), The effects of total quality management on customer service management in the Nigerian
banking industry: an empirical analysis, International Journal of Management and Network Economics, Vol.3,
No.1, pp. 57-77.
Boateng-Okrah, E. and Fening, F.A. (2012), TQM implementation: a case of a mining company in Ghana,
Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol.19, No.6, pp. 743-759.
Bon, A.B. and Mustafab, E.M.A. (2013), Impact of Total Quality Management on Innovation in Service
Organizations: Literature review and New Conceptual Framework, Procedia Engineering, Vol.53, pp. 516 529.
Brah, S. A., Serene, T. S. L. and Rao, B. M. (2002), Relationship between TQM and performance of Singapore
companies, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Vol.19, No.4, pp. 356-379.
Cheng, T.C.E. and Choy, P.W.C. (2013), A study of the relationships between quality management practices and
organizational performance in the shipping industry, Maritime Economics and Logistics, Vol.15, pp. 1-31.
Coakes, S.J., Steed, L. and Dzidic, P., 2006. SPSS: Analysis without Anguish: Version 16 for Windows, John-Wiley,
India.

Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Private Limited, India (CMIE, 2010), Website:
http://www.cmie.com/database/?service=database-products/customised-solutions/information-infrastructure-forinstitutions.htm.[Assessed 20 May 2010].
Darmawan, N., Sim, J.J., Arumugam, V. and Chow, K.-W. (2011), The influence of TQM practices on supply
chain collaboration: a proposed model for the service industry, International Journal of Services, Economics and
Management, Vol.3, No.1, pp. 21 - 35.
Economic Survey (2013), Ministry of Finance, Government of India, http://indiabudget.nic.in [Assessed on 15
December, 2013].
European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) (2000) Assessor Training Model, EFQM, Brussels.
Flynn, B. B., Schroeder, R. G. and Sakakibara, S. (1994), A framework of quality management research and an
associated measurement instrument, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 11, pp. 339-366.
Fuentes, M. M. F., Montes, F. J. L. and Fernaacutendez, L. M. (2006), Total Quality Management, strategic
orientation and organizational performance: the case of Spanish companies, Total Quality Management and
Business Excellence, Vol.17, No.3, pp. 303-323.
Goodwin, C.J. (2005), Research in Psychology: methods and design, USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Hafeez, K., Malak, N. and Abdelmeguid, H. (2006), A Framework for TQM to Achieve Business Excellence,
Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Vol.17, No.9, pp. 1213-1229.
Hair, J.F. Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. and Black, W.C. (1998), Multivariate Data Analysis, 5th Edition, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Ho, C.-T., B. and Lin, W.-C. (2010), Measuring the service quality of internet banking: scale development and
validation, European Business Review, Vol.22, No.1, pp. 5-24.
Hoang, D. T., Igel, B. and Laosirihongthong, T. (2010), Total quality management (TQM) strategy and
organisational characteristics: Evidence from a recent WTO member, Total Quality Management and Business
Excellence,Vol.21, No.9, pp. 931-951.
India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) (2014), www.ibef.org [Assessed on 15 December, 2013].
Indian Banks Association (IBA) (2013), www.iba.org,in [Assessed on 15 December, 2013].
Jain, A. (2010), Impact of TQM on Employees' Job Satisfaction in Indian Software Industry,Proceedings of the
2010 International Conference on e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning, IEEE Computer
SocietyWashington, DC, USA, pp. 378-382.
Jha, U. C. and Kumar, S. (2010), Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of TQM : A literature review & Analysis,
Oxford Business and Economics Conference program-ISBN:978-0-9742114-1-9-jun 28-29-2010-st, Hughs
College, Oxford University, Oxford, UK.
Joanes, D. N. and Gill, C. A. (1998), Comparing measures of sample skewness and kurtosis, Journal of the Royal
Statistical Society (Series D): The Statistician Vol.47, No.1, pp.183189.
Juneja, D., Ahmad, S. and Kumar, S. (2011), Adaptability of Total Quality Management to Service Sector,
International Journal of Computer Science and Management Studies, Vol.11, No.2, pp. 93-98.
Karani, S.R. and Bichanga, W.O. (2012), Effects of Total Quality Management implementation on business
performance in service institutions: A case of Kenya Wildlife Services, International Journal of Research Studies
in Management, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 59-76.

Kaynak, H. (2003), The relationship between total quality management practices and their effects on firm
performance, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 34, No.2, pp. 1-31.
Khanam, S, Siddiqui, J. and Talib, F. (2013a), Role of Information Technology in Total Quality Management: A
Literature Review, International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering and Technology, Vol.2,
No.8, pp. 2433-2445.
Khanam, S, Siddiqui, J. and Talib, F. (2013b), Identification of Total Quality Management Enablers and
Information Technology Resources in the Information and Communication Technology Industry, Proceedings of
International Conference on Smart Technologies for Mechanical Engineering (STME-2013),Department of
Mechanical, Production & Industrial and Automotive Engineering, Delhi Technological University, Delhi, India
during October 25-26, 2013, pp. 558-567.
Kumar, R., Garg, D. and Garg, T.K. (2011), TQM success factors in North Indian manufacturing and service
industries, The TQM Journal, Vol.23, No.1, pp. 36-46.
Kureshi, N., Qureshi, F. and Sajid, A., 2010.Current health of quality management practices in service sector SMEa case study of Pakistan, The TQM Journal, 22 (3), 317-329.
Lee, P.M. (2002), Sustaining business excellence through a framework of best practices in TQM, The TQM
Magazine, Vol.14, No.3, pp. 142149.
Lee, V.-H., Ooi, K.-B., Tan, B.-I.andChong, A., Y.-L. (2010), A structural analysis of the relationship between
TQM practices and product innovation, Asian Journal of Technology Innovation, Vol.18, No.1, pp. 73-96.
Lemak, D.J., Mero, N.P. and Reed, R. (2002), When quality works: A premature post-mortem on TQM, Journal
of Business and Management, Vol.8, No.4, pp. 391410.
Lenka, U., Suar,D. and Mohapatra, P.K.J. (2010), Customer satisfaction in Indian commercial banks through total
quality management approach, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence,Vol.21, No.12, pp. 1315-1341.
Lewis, W.G., Pun, K.F. and Lalla, T.R.M. (2005), An AHP-based study of TQM benefits in
SMEs in Trinidad and Tobago, The TQM Magazine, Vol.17, No.6, pp. 558-572.

ISO9001 certified

Loukis, E., Pazalos, K. and Georgiou.St. (2009), An empirical investigation of the moderating effects of BPR and
TQM on ICT business value, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol.22, No.5, pp. 564-586.
Mellahi, K. and Eyuboglu, F. (2001), Critical factors for successful total quality management implementation in
Turkey: Evidence from the banking sector, Total Quality Management, Vol.12, No.6, pp. 745-756.
MoL&E, GOI (2010), Ministry of Labor and Employment, Government of India. Website: http://labour.nic.in/.
[Assessed 01 August 2010].
NASSCOM (2013), National Association of Software and Services Companies. Website: http://www.nasscom.in/.
[Assessed on 15 December 2013].
Nunnally, J.C. (1967), Psychometric Theory. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
Pattanayak, D. and Maddulety, K. (2013), Total quality management for banking sector: conceptualisation and
scale development, International Journal of Quality and Innovation, Vol. 2, No.2, pp. 158-174.
Prajogo, D.I. (2005), The comparative analysis of TQM practices and quality performance
between
manufacturing and service firms, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol.16, pp. 217228.
Rowntree, D. (1987), Statistics Without Tears, New York: Penguin Book.
Salaheldin, S.I., (2009), Critical success factors for total quality management implementation and their impact on
performance of SMEs, International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, Vol.58, No.3, pp. 215-237.

Santouridis, I. and Trivellas, P. (2010), Investigating the impact of service quality and customer satisfaction on
customer loyalty in mobile telephony in Greece, The TQM Journal, Vol.22, No.3, pp. 330-343.
Saraph, J. V., Benson, P. G. and Schroeder, R. G. (1989), An instrument for measuring the
quality management, Decision Sciences, Vol.20, No.4, pp. 810-829.

critical factors of

Saravanan, R. and Rao, K.S.P. (2007), The impact of total quality service age on quality and operational: an
empirical study, The TQM Magazine, Vol.19, No.3, pp. 197-205.
Shih, K.-H., Lin, C.-W.andLin, B. (2011), Assessing the quality gap of intellectual capital in banks, Total Quality
Management and Business Excellence,Vol.22, No.3, pp. 289-303.
Singh, P.J, Chua, M.W., and Sum, C.C. (2007), Deming management method: Applying theory to public sector
organizations
and
testing
refinements.
[Available
online]http://www.ecom.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/nus_symposium/Singh_paper.pdf.
Sit, W.-Y.,Ooi, K.-B., Loke, S.-P. and Han, G.T.W. (2011), TQM and service quality: a survey of commercial
banking industry in Malaysia, International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, Vol.3, No.1, pp. 78
- 91.
Sohal, A.S. and Terziovski, M. (2000), TQM in Australian manufacturing: Factors critical to success,
International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Vol.17, No.2, pp. 158168.
Sohn, S.Y., Chang, I.S. and Moon, T.H. (2008), A systematic approach for improving the
quality of official
statistics: case of Korean information and telecommunication industry, Information and Management, Vol.45, pp.
403-409.
Stefanovic, M., Matijevic, M. and Devedzic, G. (2009), ICT industry in Serbia: condition and improvement by
QMS,World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, Vol.6, Nos.2/3/4, pp. 259-277.
Talib, F. (2013), An overview of total quality management: understanding the fundamentals in service
organization, International Journal of Advanced Quality Management, Cloud Publication, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 1-20.
Talib, F. and Rahman, Z. (2010a), Studying the Impact of Total Quality Management in Service Industries,
International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, Vol.6, No.2, pp.249-268.
Talib, F. and Rahman, Z. (2010b), Critical success factors of TQM in service organizations: a proposed model,
Services Marketing Quarterly, Vol.31, No.3, pp.363-380.
Talib, F. and Rahman, Z. (2012), Total quality management practices in manufacturing and service industries: A
comparative study, International Journal of Advanced Operations Management, Vol.4, No.3, pp. 155-176.
Talib, F., Rahman, Z. and Akhtar, A. (2013c), An instrument for measuring the key practices of total quality
management in ICT industry: an empirical study in India, Services Business, Vol.7, No.2, pp. 275-306.
Talib, F., Rahman, Z. and Qureshi, M.N. (2011a), An interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach for
modeling the practices of total quality management in service sector, InternationalJournal of Modeling in
Operations Management, Vol.1, No.3, pp. 223-250.
Talib, F., Rahman, Z. and Qureshi, M.N. (2011b), Assessing the awareness of total quality management in Indian
service industries: an empirical investigation, Asian Journal on Quality, Vol.12, No.3, pp. 228-243.
Talib, F., Rahman, Z. and Qureshi, M.N. (2011d), Identifying the Key Practices of TQM in Indian Service
Industries: An Empirical Analysis, Proceedings of International Conference on Advances in Supply Chain and
Manufacturing Management (ASCMM 2011), Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Indian
Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITKhg), West Bengal, India, December 16-18, 2011.

Talib, F.,Rahman, Z. and Qureshi, M.N. (2011e), An Empirical Study of Barriers to TQM Implementation in
Indian Service Industries,Proceedings of First International Conference on Industrial Engineering (ICIE 2011),
Department of Mechanical Engineering, S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, India, November17-19, 2011,
pp. 1072-1084.
Talib, F., Rahman, Z. and Qureshi, M.N. (2012), Impact of total quality management and service quality in the
banking sector, International Journal of Telecommunications System and Management, Vol.1, No.1, DOI:
10.4172/2167-0919.1000102.
Talib, F., Rahman, Z. and Qureshi, M.N. (2013a), Survey on the usage of total quality management tools and
techniques in Indian service industries: an empirical analysis, International Journal of Quality and Innovation,
Vol.2, No.2, pp.105119.
Talib, F., Rahman, Z. and Qureshi, M.N. (2013b), An empirical investigation of relationship between total quality
management practices and quality performance in Indian service companies, International Journal of Quality and
Reliability Management, Vol. 30, No.3, pp. 280-318.
Talib, F., Rahman, Z., Quershi, M.N. and Siddique, J. (2011c), Total quality management and service quality: an
exploratory study of management practices and barriers in service industries, International Journal of Services and
Operations Management, Vol.10, No.1, pp. 94-118.
Tiwari, G. and Chaudhari, P.T. (2012), A study of the effect of IT on TQM, World Journal of Science and
Technology, Vol.2, No.5, pp. 21-23.
Valmohammadi, C. (2011), The impact of TQM implementation on the organizational performance of Iranian
manufacturing SMEs, The TQM Journal, Vol.23, No.5, pp. 496-509.
Wardhani, V., Utarini, A., van Dijk, J.P. and Post, D. (2009), Determinants of Quality Management Systems
Implementation in Hospitals, Health Policy, Vol. 89, No.3, pp. 239-251.
Wayhan, V.B., McCallum, M.F. and Golyer, N.M. (2013), TQM and financial performance: are findings of direct
effects methodological artefacts? Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Vol.24, Nos.1&2, pp.171187.
Woon, K.C. (2000), TQM implementation: comparing Singapore's service and manufacturing leaders, Managing
Service Quality, Vol.10, No.5, pp. 318-331.
Yang, C.C. (2005), An integrated model of TQM and GE-Six Sigma, International Journal of Six Sigma and
Competitive Advantage, Vol.1 No.1, pp. 97-105.
Yee, R.W.Y., Yeung, A.C.L. and Cheng, T.C.E. (2008), The impact of employee satisfaction on quality and
profitability in high-contact service industries, Journal of Operations Management, Vol.26, No.5, pp. 651668.