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Managing Service Quality: The Managers' Orientations and their Consequences - Case Study Evidence of Current Practice

Soltani, Ebrahim, Singh, Abhilasha, Wang, Wei-Yuan, Liao, Ying-Ying (2010) Managing Service Quality: The Managers' Orientations and their Consequences - Case Study Evidence of Current Practice. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, 21 (6). pp. 673-685. ISSN 1478-3363. (doi:10.1080/14783363.2010.483097) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:25522)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2010.483097

Abstract

Much of the existing research into the effectiveness of managing quality in both manufacturing and service organisations has tended to attribute the failure of quality-related programmes to factors such as limited resources, work overload, inadequate training or a lack of customer orientation. However, this study argues that explaining failure of service quality1 operations in terms of the aforementioned factors is far too simple. This study therefore aims to explore the linkage between management's approach and orientation and the effectiveness of service quality operations. In doing so, it takes a qualitative methodology in the form of 52 semi-structured interviews with different managerial levels in a sample of three service organisations. The findings reveal that the impact of quality initiatives on enhancing service quality is a direct function of, first, senior management's approach to the quality of service operations, and second, the existence of a certain degree of consistency between senior management's approach with that of middle and first line managers. The research findings present useful implications for both researchers and practitioners for better management of service quality operations which bring about increased productivity and performance at both individual and organisational levels.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/14783363.2010.483097
Uncontrolled keywords: managing service quality; total quality management (TQM); case study research
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Kent Business School (do not use)
Depositing User: J. Ziya
Date Deposited: 21 Sep 2010 11:00 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:03 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/25522 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Soltani, Ebrahim.

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