Total quality management and service quality: an exploratory study of quality management practices and barriers in service industry

During the last two decades, the level of total quality management (TQM) awareness has considerably increased in the service industries. With the ever‐increasing customer demand, the global competition service industries are forced to re‐think to improve their TQM practices and overcome the barriers during the implementation of TQM for maximum benefits. Further, the extent of the literature review reveals that no study has addressed these two issues collectively for service industries. In the light of these facts, the purpose of this study is to identify the TQM practices that are critical for the support of service quality in different types of service industries. It also aims to explore the barriers of TQM implementation so that managers of service industries can work upon them to achieve service quality and customer satisfaction. From the literature review, 17 major TQM practices were found critical for the industry performance. These were frequently used by different researchers in the service industries. Also, a total of 12 major barriers were identified from the literature which hinders the implementation of TQM successfully. The managerial implications, recommendations and scope for future study are presented in the end.