This chapter focuses on comparative analysis of service branding of two telecommunication organisations—one in the public and one in the private sector—through the implementation of quality initiatives. This case was designed after extensive interviews with senior managers to understand the practical issues and challenges involved in improvement of service branding of an organisation through the implementation of quality initiatives, such as benchmarking, leadership, service orientation, continuous improvement, and knowledge management, and their subsequent impact on organisation culture and organisation effectiveness. Even though the public sector organisation has taken several measures to improve service branding through quality in its services, it is engulfed in its own internal issues as compared to the private sector organisation. The real life scenarios of both the organisations presented in the case could facilitate young managers to address the challenges involved in improving the service branding of the organisation through the implementation of quality practices in the future.
TopIntroduction
Quality practices are increasingly being used by organisations around the world as a brand management tool. This comes as a result of growing competition among the business organisations to position them globally. According to Kumar et al (2009) quality management leads to less work defect, shorter work process and use of fewer resources which facilitates in achieving lower cost of operations. Quality practices facilitate the organisations to improve their products and services which earn them loyalty of the customers and subsequent increase in the market presence.
The growth of quality consciousness spread in the 1880’s and 1890’s with F.W. Taylor’s principles of scientific management which emphasised on standardisation, improving efficiency, effectiveness, reducing waste and rework by employing empirical methods to the processes through rationality and work ethics (Taylor, 1910). The wave of quality consciousness which started from the manufacturing industry has now spread to the service industry with significant success being achieved in the implementation of quality practices, around the world and in India in particular (Hasan & Kerr, 2003). The main feature of the service industry is its intangibility and it comprises of different segments such as advertising, promotion, public relations, communication and information, editing and printing, banks, finance and insurance, data processing and software, health care, consulting, auditing and counselling, education and formation, legal and management, research and engineering, real estate, fashion, design and art, leisure and entertainment, hotels, travel and restaurant, distribution, retail sales, wholesale, transportation, repairs, maintenance and recovery, public service (power, gas, etc.) and other government services (Delazaro Filho,1998). The organisations are increasingly experiencing an improvement in the value of their organisation as service brand as a result of implementation of quality practices.
There is a greater realisation of the fact that customer is the essence and customer satisfaction the ultimate goal (Krishnan, 2013). Hence, all organisational measures are now directed towards strengthening the relationship with the end customer by providing service par excellence with quality practices. Several of these service organisations have been recognised with some distinguished awards such as Japanese Deming Prize, USA’s Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), European Quality Award (EQA) and the UK Quality Award. In India in particular, quality awards such as Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award, The Golden Peacock National Quality Award, CII-EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence and IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award have been constituted by different authorities to encourage quality consciousness among the Indian business organisations (Mohammad & Mann, 2010).
Quality has been defined as meeting or exceeding the expectations of the customers (Feigenbaum, 1961), conformance to requirements (Crosby, 1979). ISO 8402 defines Total Quality Management (TQM) as an organisation’s management approach, which is quality centred, involving the participation of all its members, aiming at customer satisfaction and providing benefit to all the members of the organisation and society at large (Ljungstrom & Klefsjo, 2002). Olabode (2003) defines TQM as a technique to improve efficiency, effectiveness, flexibility and competitiveness as a whole which involves every individual at every level across the various departments. Siddiqui and Rahman (2007) describe TQM as an initiative, which is delivered through statistical control, procedural design and deployment of policies using the techniques of human resource management centred on the customer. Though, distinctions can be made between the quality management and total quality management, most researchers use the two terms interchangeably. The same practice will be followed throughout the paper for simplicity.