THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS (A CASE STUDY OF GLOBACOM AND ETISALAT LIMITED ENUGU

ABSTRACT

The study examines the Implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the Telecommunications Industry: Problems and Prospects with a focus on Etisalat and Globacom Limited,  Enugu.  Some  firms  aspire  to  be  market  leaders without considering their customers as being vital to their success. This has led to the collapse of erstwhile good businesses. Due to this, the necessity of Total Quality Management in organizations was probed. In order to successfully achieve the purpose of this study, the following objectives were set: to determine the strategic management process involved in Total Quality Management implementation; to examine the methods of planning and training attached to Total  Quality  Management  implementation;  to  ascertain,  if there is any form of transformational leadership, teamwork, employee’s  involvement  and  empowerment,  customer  focus and satisfaction in the course of adopting Total Quality Management technique as a strategic weapon; to determine whether training, retraining and development is a pre-condition for achieving success in implementing Total Quality Management; to find out if employee participation in strategic planning and their commitment to work is necessary for the successful  implementation of  Total  Quality  Management; to ascertain if there exists any relationship between Total Quality Management, increase in work performance and customer satisfaction; to identify various problems associated with the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM); to ascertain the likely prospects accruable from an effective/efficient implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM). A sample size of 190 employees of the organizations was  served  with  questionnaire to  generate data.  The  data elicited were analyzed using tables and simple percentages. The formulated hypothesis was  tested  with  the Chi-Square distribution method. It was found from the hypothesis tested that,  Total  Quality  Management is  a  strategic  tool  to  gain competitive advantage and teamwork and good communication processes enhance employees performance

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In the face of changing competitive conditions, many firms are pursuing Total Quality Management (TQM) to regain their competitive edge. These firms are discovering that effective implementation is not guaranteed. Many attempts fail to achieve desired gains in quality and efficiency. Scholars have suggested

that poor leadership, inappropriate training, lack of resources, confusion of program goals, and cultural resistance may be causing these failures. However, these obstacles appear to offer only a partial explanation for the low rate of successful implementation. We propose that a more fundamental cause may underlie the difficulty of implementation. Having as its basis the integration of doing and thinking, TQM significantly alters the way jobs are designed, requiring new behaviors, roles, and responsibilities for all organizational members. “Coming up with good ideas for the organization and presenting them for management, is not the typical job of the worker”.

By contrast, effective implementation of TQM requires line employees to generate new ideas that lead to gains in quality, efficiency, and speed. To generate these ideas, employees’ minds must be engaged in a thoughtful manner, whenever or wherever appropriate, on the line or in team activities, as an individual or group effort. This form of work we call it the “TQM role” or job- requires line employees not only to execute distinct roles, thinking about improvements and doing the repetitive routines, but also to integrate these two roles by “switching” between them while on the job throughout the work day. If TQM implementation fails, it is

often, we will argue, because this integration of roles is difficult. Employees sometimes avoid the “thinking,” or continuous improvement  task,  within  the  TQM  role  (Bart,  Andrew  and Theresa, 2000).

These strategies comes in various forms and have evolved over the years, based on the economic situation on one hand, and the nature of competition existing at every point in time at the other hand.  Some of these strategies have been used with some degrees of success, while others were absolute failure. The reason organizations could not find absolute solace in these strategies has been the subject of many discussions by experts in the field of Management (Fernandez and Stahl, 1995).  This study focuses on the Implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the Telecommunications Industry: Problems and Prospects (A Case Study of Globacom and Etisalat Limited).

Total Quality Management is an operational philosophy committed to consumer (customer) satisfaction and continuous improvement.   Total   Quality   Management   is   committed   to consumer (customer) satisfaction continuous improvement.  Total Quality Management is committed to excellence and being the best in all functions of service delivery, because TQM aims to

maximize resources and improve quality (Wheelen and Hunger,

2004).

Total Quality Management is a business philosophy that embodies the belief that management process must focus on integrating the  idea  of  consumer  drive  quality  throughout  an organization (Zikmund, 1994). It emphasizes continuous improvement of service delivery and product quality. Managers improve durability and enhance services with additional features as the services mature in age. They also strive to speed up delivery and improve other services, in order to keep their products competitive.

The philosophy underlying Total Quality Management Strategy  is  to  see  consumers and  clients  as  the  vital  key  to organizational success. Organizations with Total Quality Management Strategy see their business through the eyes of their consumers and clients and then measure their organization’s performance against consumer or client expectations, not through the organization’s expectations. Therefore, a Nigerian Organization that employs Total Quality Management (TQM) strategy must evaluate its operations through the eyes of its consumers and clients (Aluko et al, 2004).

However, most Nigerian organizations define Quality by engineering standards. Total  Quality  Management or  Products need not conform to consumer’s requirements, but must also be acceptable.  Effective  and  efficient  Total  Quality  Management (TQM) strategy, entails that, the quality of service or products must go beyond acceptability for a given price range. For instance, rather than leaving consumers satisfied that nothing went wrong with the service or products, a service or product should give the consumer some delightful surprises, or provide   unexpected benefits. This means therefore, that product or service quality assurance requires more than just meeting consumer’s or clients’ minimum standards. The level of Service Quality, is the degree to which a product or service is equal to or greater than consumers’ or clients’ expectations (Aluko et al, 2004).

1.2   STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

All scientific and social scientific research is necessitated by a perceived problem (Nzelibe and Ilogu, 1996). As such the quest and desire of the researcher to study on this topics: “The Implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the Telecommunications Industry: Problems and Prospects (A Case Study of Globacom and Etisalat Limited).

Over the years, the size and number of business have proliferated hugely within and across industries in Nigeria. Companies producing homogenous products and services have to device workable strategies on how to woo the limited number of consumers (customers) to their sales.

Managers in Western countries and parts of Asia have been known to have delved into the use of Total Quality Management in order  to  enable  them  compete  in  the  global  or  international market, and they seem to be doing quite well (at least evidence from Japanese and USA auto and electronics companies is a clear example).

The necessity of Total Quality Management in Nigerian Business   Organizations   stems   from   the   fact   that   foreign companies have continued to dominate the local market in virtually all sections of the economy, except for those sectors that are under complete government control. The problems associated with the Nigerian companies in relation to Total Quality Management are quite enormous and these can be put as follows:

First, the Nigerian companies are evidently lagging behind in the global or international market competition; thus, they are fast losing ground, with some of them going out business completely.

Second, the Nigerian Managers have seemingly failed to explore Total Quality Management for their organizations. They have rather gotten struck in the endless pursuit of what does not work for them any longer, the “blind” pursuit of profit stability and growth.

Third,  they  have  failed  to  appreciate  that  change  is necessary and that a change from the above stated pursuit to the pursuit of a consumer (customer) focus strategy is a long over due strategy decision that has been tipped to guarantee the ultimate realization of the organizational goals.

Fourth, due to lack of knowledge of the prospects of Total Quality Management, or lack of adequate finance or engagement of inexperienced personnel in Total Quality Management process or   lackadaisical   attitude   on   the   part   of   the   organization concerning Total Quality Management, the Total Quality Management impact in the Nigerian industries which the Telecommunications industry  is  part  of,  becomes  problematic hence, the weak or poor service delivery of the industry in the actualization of its desired goals and objectives.

It is therefore, in the light of the foregoing that the study is set to investigate the reality in the above problems and further

identify   and   determine   other   Total   Quality   Management challenges; equally, the prospects that are likely to emerge in the proper  implementation  of  Total  Quality  Management  shall  be made known.

1.3   OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The following are the objectives of the study. Basically, the major  objective  of  this  study  is  the  Implementation  of  Total Quality Management (TQM) in the Telecommunications Industry: Problems and Prospects (A Case Study of Globacom and Etisalat Limited).

In the light of the foregoing, the study will examine the following critical issues:

a)     To determine the strategic management process involved in

Total Quality Management implementation;

b)     To examine the methods of planning and training attached to Total Quality Management implementation;

c)       To  ascertain,  if  there  is  any  form  of  transformational leadership, teamwork, employee’s involvement and empowerment, customer focus and satisfaction in the course of     adopting  Total  Quality  Management  technique  as  a strategic weapon;

d)     To determine whether training, retraining and development is  a  pre-condition for  achieving success in  implementing Total Quality Management;

e)       To find out if employee participation in strategic planning and  their  commitment  to  work  is  necessary  for  the successful implementation of Total Quality Management;

f)      To ascertain if there exists any relationship between Total Quality Management, increase in work performance and customer satisfaction;

g)       To    identify    various    problems    associated    with    the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM);

h.   To ascertain the likely prospects accruable from an effective/efficient implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM).

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

From  the  nature  of  the  research  study,  overview  and problem statement, it is necessary to ask the following questions:

a. What  are  the  strategic  management  processes  in  Total Quality Management implementation in Globacom and Etisalat Limited Enugu?

b. Do training, re-training and development serve as a pre- condition for  an  impact  in  achieving success  in implementing Total Quality Management ?

c. What are the methods of planning, training, retraining and development attached to Total Quality Management implementation in Globacom and Etisalat Limited?

d. Is there any form of transformational leasdership, teamwork, employee’s involvement and empowerment, customer focus and  satisfaction in  the  course  of  adopting Total  Quality Management technique as a strategic weapon?

e. Do employee participation in strategic planning and their commitment to work necessitate the successful implementation of Total Quality Management?

f.  Is there any relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM), increase in work performance and customer satisfaction?

g. Is  there  any  impact  of  Total  Quality  Management  on consumer?

h. What are the accruable prospects from the effective/efficient implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM)?

1.5   FORMULATION OF HYPOTHESIS

The Hypothesis formulated for this study are stated as follows:

(1)    Ho: Teamwork and Communication process does enhance the success of Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation.

Hi:     Teamwork and Communication process does not enhance the success of Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation.

(2)    Ho:   Total Quality Management is a strategic tool to gain competitive advantage.

Hi:   Total Quality Management is not a strategic tool to gain competitive advantage.

1.6   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Strategic management is currently gaining ground in management thinking. At the same time, establishing a successful corporate strategy is central to effective strategic management in the light of the growing competitive and even turbulent business environment.

In no sectors are synonymous problems of fierce competition and turbulence more pronounced today. These sectors are likely to be stepped in distress and devastated by mismanagement, if

quality and improved management style is not maintained. Any attempt therefore, at finding solutions to the management problems likely to beset the industry must be a worthwhile effort.

Therefore, this study attempts to identify the underpinnings of successful management in Nigeria’s Telecommunication Sector in relation to Total Quality Management Strategy. It investigates the extent to which the strategy has helped Globacom and Etisalat Limited, to achieve substantial success.

It is believed however, that a successful inquiry into this area will offer empirical insights on survival strategies for Telecommunication and other allied organizations. This will be an eye opener and a verifiable reference material for combating any likely organizational distress. Successful application of Total Quality Management strategy on both surfing and distressed organizations will lead to the restriction of confidence to the organization and consumer of services available in the organization.

It  is  envisaged that  apart  from  leading  to  a  more  wide Telecommunications system well positioned to contribute to the growth of the rational economy; managers in other sectors can benefit immensely from the research findings.

Furthermore, the  study  is  crucial  as  to  pinpointing  the strength  and  weaknesses  evident  in  implementing  the  Total Quality Management strategy among Nigerian firms.   This will enable firms to possibly fine-tune their Total Quality Management programs towards better results. It is also hoped that the study will  encourage further  research  on  Total  Quality  Management practices in Nigerian Telecommunications industry in particular and on ways to manage successfully in general.

1.7   SCOPE OF THE STUDY

In pursuance of the objective of the study which is on the Total Quality Management strategies used by some Telecommunication Companies to gain competitive edge and enhance their service delivery for survival, particular attention is paid to only Globacom and Etisalat Limited Enugu.

Attempt will be made to examine the extent to which Total Quality Management has impacted the customer services at Globacom and Etisalat Limited Enugu.

1.8   LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

There has not been any serious meaningful academic endeavour, mostly in the field of research, without some militating factors or constraints.

To that extent, lack of financial resources, inadequate research materials (material dearth) and time constraint constituted the most serious limitations of this work.

In  addition,  secrecy  and  confidentiality  of  information, mostly   as   it   relates   to   the   Telecommunications   industry operations, had effect in the course of this research; as most of the officials approached were reluctant and wary of disclosing information on performance (profit margin, turnover), consumer satisfaction e.t.c.

1.9   DEFINITION OF TERMS

1.     Global competition: This is competitive effort that is not restricted within a locality or  nation, rather a worldwide competitive gesture.

2.   Global Village: This means the interconnectivity and interrelationship between people of same or diverse race via an electronic or technological device or means.

3.    Quality: Quality is the attribute and the degree of excellence associated with a particular purpose.

4.    Competitive Edge: Competitive edge is defined as levity, an advantage over rivals in the quest for and use of scarce resources.

5.    Total Quality Management Strategy: These are forms or methods or techniques by which consumer (customer) satisfaction and improvement can be attached through service deliveries, which in turn help the implementer, achieve their set goals and objectives.

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