Total Quality Management in Service Sector : A Literature Review

Over the last two decades, service organisations have embraced total quality management (TQM) as an effective management tool to improve their service quality. They have begun to show a keen interest in TQM by working on quality and related areas. TQM has become a major area of attention to practitioners, managers and researchers due to its strong impact on business performance, customer satisfaction and profitability. In the light of this, an attempt has been made to study and understand the theory and concept of TQM, its benefits as well as various facets of service components and its classification. This study also explores the literature on the implementation of TQM in selected service industries. The finding of this study provides a rich contribution towards TQM theory, its role in service sector, as well as presents the different components of services. This paper can help business managers and quality practitioners in better understanding TQM, service systems concept as well as TQM implementation in service sector. The scope for future study is presented at the end