One In The Same Management Essay

One In The Same Management Essay

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The term Strategic Management can be defined many different ways. The process is diverse and has so many avenues of approach that there is no wrong answer to what it can be. Strategic Management finds itself in many different industries and projects throughout the domestic and international business environments. One domestic and international industry that is influenced and is supported by strategic management and its processes is the hospitality industry. There are many influencers in the hospitality industry process of management. One such influencer is Sureshcandar et al's industry specific dimension of quality service.

This essay will concentrate more specifically on the hospitality industry and the background, objective, and workings of strategic management, Total Quality Management, and Sureshchandar's Total Quality Service. Each of the three management philosophy will be abridged for the reader. The differences between the two management competencies, TQS and TQM, will then be discussed. Finally, the comprehensive systems of strategic management and its connection to Sureshchandar's 12 Total Quality Service methods will then be described in relations to the how they affect the service industry .

What is known about Strategic Management, TQM, and TQS is widely published in journals and scholarly papers by student and quality management experts. Though widely cited, many individual confuse the integral aspects of each topic. For example, strategic management may be confused with strategic planning or that Total Quality Management is not the same as Six Sigma; the argument being the former is generalized and broad while the latter is specific and holistic to the management ideal to the current business environment.

Strategic Management

As stated, the definition can vary between experts on the subject. To illustrate, Steiss defines strategic management as the "processes in whereby goals and objectives are identified, policies are formulated, and strategies are selected in order to achieve the overall purpose or mission of an organization" (2000, p. 1). Most recent and widely known in many industries is Gregory Dess' et al's definition of Strategic Management. Dess states "strategic management consists of the analysis, decisions, and actions an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain competitive advantages" (2005). Strategic Management occurs when firms proceed from a planning stage to development stages in a strategy. In other words, strategic management is the process of operationally guiding the strategic planning of a process or program.

Though different in wording, the sentiment of the two statements above is clear. Analyzing, decision making, and reaction are factors needed to be successful at strategic management. Where these aspect become complementary with Total Quality Service and Total Quality Management are a matter of guesswork for many trade professionals. What must be understood is that by implementing strategic management in a TQM focused firm enhances the dimensions of the program; and in many cases, vice versa.

Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management, more widely known in the domestic and international business environment by its acronym, TQM, is a management measurement process in which an organization approaches customer expectations through quality standards and productivity which in turn emphasizes process and policy and guides the profitability of a firm through a number of quality elements or dimensions. Born out of the statistical quality control model created by Walter A. Shewhart and perfected through the methods by W. Edward Deming during his time in Japan in the 1950's, Total Quality Management has been reimaged and reinvented in practice but Total Quality Management has managed to keep the same elements for quality manufacturing over the last 82 years. As a forerunner method in the management of quality, Total Quality Management has influenced top level managers and has created a multitude of other theories and practices on the subject of quality.

Much like strategic management, there is not one specific description or definition for Total Quality Management and it dimensions. The American Society for Quality Control explains that the eight quality control dimensions are customer-focused, total employee involvement, process-centered, integrated systems, strategic and systematic approach, continual improvement, fact-based decision making, and communication influence TQM (2011). More widely known is W. Edward Deming's approach to TQM known as the 14 Points of Total Quality Management. These elements; like training, employee involvement, supplier relationship, are a guideline for firms to implement total quality management into processes. Each of these elements allows the successful management of a long term process in a firm.

Sureshchander's 12 Dimensions of Total Quality Service

Sureshchandar et al's journal article entitled "The Holistic Model for Total Quality Service" discusses the divide of Total Quality Management (TQM) and the service industries. As Sureshchander et al explains Total Quality Management is over abundantly focused on manufacturing; however, the author does agree that aspects of the Total Quality Management viewpoint can be applied to the service industry. Sureshchandar et al's journal paper attempts to explain the dearth of literature and understanding of Total Quality Service and introduce twelve specific dimensions of service quality similar to those instituted from Total Quality Management and how they influence the service industry (2001).

Sureshchandar et al objectives in the paper are fivefold and attempt to critique TQM and TQS literature, identify dimensions specifically relevant to the idea of Total Quality Service, develop measurement instruments for Total Quality Service; specifically targeting the banking industry as a valid service industry, utilize a conformity factor approach to test the measurements, and lastly to recommend a holistic model for Total Quality Service with 12 dimensions of service. These 12 dimensions of service quality Sureshchandar et al points out to the reader are top management commitment and visionary leadership, human resource management, technical system, information and analysis system, benchmarking, continuous improvement, customer focus, employee satisfaction, union intervention, social responsibility, servicescapes, and service culture and are specifically geared to the quality measurement for service-based industries (2001).

Differences between TQS and TQM

The real question and definition that must be deduced is how Total Quality Service differs from Total Quality Management and what are these elemental differences? Once their definitions are explained then the question how strategic management can influence TQS can be explained. The dimensions of service quality, in many quality theorists' opinions, outweigh the number of dimensions of manufacturing. In the most laymen definition, Total Quality Service is specific to service-oriented industries while Total Quality Management is specific to applicable to those companies that are involved in manufacturing a product. Though there are an innumerable amount of differences there are three major difference between the two dimensional practices.

Tangibility: The main difference between total quality service and total quality management in the tangibility of the product being produced (2003). Where TQM manages the quality measure of product that can be touched and measure by it physical properties TQS cannot because of its inherent personal nature of social situation. In this, the dilemma of the customer's perception of quality can be skewed.

Perception: Perception is the second of the major factor in which differentiates Total Quality Service and Total Quality Management. Weitz and Wensley expound on the service quality theories of Lewis and Booms and theories of durable goods of Brucks, Zeithaml, and Naylors and explains that the constant emerging theme of these two dimensional theories is that customers "use more than just the service outcome or 'core' in assessing service quality. Customers assessments are also influenced by the service process and peripherals associated with the service" (2002, p. 340). The perception of quality in a service-based business is more likely to be assessed much more severely because of the environment and its tangibility.

Environment: Lastly, environment is quite possibly the major difference between the two. As Craig Cochran, writer for Quality Digest, explains, TQS is it harder to measure in respects of satisfaction and service quality as supposed to TQM because "the customer isn't standing in front of you or peering over your shoulder. With a service, on the other hand, the customer is front and center. He or she is right there, throwing curve balls and changing requirements midstream" (2008). Tangible products, however, can be made better after the customer expresses their dissatisfaction with it without the immediate predicament of settling the matter in front of the customer.

Strategic Management and Total Quality Service

The purpose of either management process is to come to an endpoint in a process. How it is achieved is the reasoning behind strategic management and Total Quality Service. Criticality of the dimensions within TQS and strategic management are based on leadership, commitment to the company and service culture, and most importantly the ability to control the business environment. Hospitality is no different as it is an ever evolving industry that requires control to be successful. The dimensions outlined in Sureshchandar et al Total Quality Service philosophy and the acclaimed writing on the philosophy of strategic management produces a specific endpoint for service based industries - the enhancement of service performance at a micro and macro level within the organization.

Benchmarking. Michael Porter, a leading authority on the strategic approach to competitive strategy, author, and professor at Harvard Business School, explains in an article in the Harvard Business Review that the strategy of many business is to sustain profitability but the act of benchmarking, in which other companies compare processes and often replicate the success of one business, causing a rift in the success of the service (1996). Strategic Managers in the hospitality industry are best to stay clear of benchmarking as it does not provide the essential footing for market share. The benchmarking tool can be a great tool to see trends within the industry but the goal of strategic management is to sustain a competitive advantage. John Beckford, author of Quality: A Critical Introduction, states that if the act of benchmarking "reduce competitive advantage rather than increase it, and to increase similarities between organisations there is potential for all to pursue the same quality goal - which may not represent the true potential of the product or service" (1998, p.14). One can use the example of frequent flyer mile. In 1979 the program was created by American Airlines to reward customers for flying a certain amount of times. It did not take long for a competitor to follow suit, in fact, six days after the American Airlines program was unveiled United Airlines promoted their own frequent flyer program (2001).

Social Responsibility: The only benchmarking tool utilized by strategic managers to make a significant positive turn in investment and competitive advantage are those that are geared to social responsibility. Social responsibility has been a great strategy tool. It is demographically geared to those individuals whose expressed concerns on the subject of environmental and social degradation. This market share has proven to be integral to today's hospitality field. The success is twofold when it comes to social responsibility. The first is by way of revenue stream from customers who require "green" or "environmental" conscious hospitality firm/vendor. The second is by way of investment in facility maintenance systems that reduce usage of resources that effect the environment like energy conservation, wastewater management, partnerships with other social responsible companies, and transport. Though the investment is pronounced the potential saving in the long term are great.

Technical Systems and Information and Analysis Systems: The purpose of technical and Information and Analysis Systems is efficiency. Security, waste management, HVAC, electrical and water systems can all be classified as integral technical systems that are needed to run a facility efficiently. Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM), inventory, purchasing, and financial systems all provide information for employees to be prepared and effective in their duties.

As discussed in the Social Responsibility section, strategic managers find cost saving processes to increase revenue. One way of doing this is implementing technical systems that allow management, employees, and the facility itself to be as efficient as possible. This, to be successful, should be on the agenda from the beginning of any project. For example, to build a "green facility", managers and owners do not build a building then add integral "green" improvements to it. Initial focus falls on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in which helps to plan the operational and logistical strategy of the facility. Managers then focus on land use planning, construction, and technical systems that will assist the facility to run efficiently and be cost effective. Implementing the technical systems to endure the life of the facility and remain efficient is as important as any other part of the manager's planning strategy.

As Sureshchandar et al states "(a) n organization's QM (Quality Management) movement will be rendered futile if there is inadequate/ineffective dissemination of general information (2001, p.6). Customer Relationship Management systems; many of which have cross functional systems that encompass different departments within the firm, plays an essential role in the hospitality and service field. This type of information system not only collects, analyzes, and summarizes information like financial or inventory for management. It provides much needed information concern the more important aspect of the service industry - the customer. As Barrows et al states "an information system is any means of collecting information and translating that raw information into an intelligible, usable summary form. The final element is that the report must go to the right management person to be useful" (2012).

Servicescape: Another responsibility of the strategic manager is to guide the customer's perception of the service. On occasion and in many cases in the hotel sub industry of hospitality, servicescape, the tangible aspect of the service industry environment, is a definitive factor in the customer's perception. The look, the feel, the smell of the facility is a real and important aspect of the customer experience. As managers, the strategy of making a one of a kind experience is the difference between a customer and a returning customer, between a product and a successful product.

One example is the Heavenly Bed introduced by the Westin brand. Marketed in 1999, this bed has made the hotel brand synonymous with comfortable beds, so much so that the hotel has create a line of bed products for at home usage. The servicescape created by the beds have netted over $8 million dollars in bed purchase profit in 2004 and countless of millions of dollars in hotel revenue. In an agreement with Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide, owners of Westin and Delta Airlines respectively, the he Heavenly Bed concept has also been introduced into Delta Air Line' international and transcontinental flights (Levere, 2013). This strategic merger of quality assuredly now makes the Westin bed brand a benchmark in travel and leisure.

Continuous Improvement: This aspect of TQS is quiet vague and general in its definition making it hard for strategic management to focus on one single service aspect. In focusing on the cyclical nature of hospitality improvement, management must first analysis what needs to be improved. This can be done through guest surveys during or after the guest's interaction with service personnel. The next logical step is to eliminate the root causes. As Chron.com writer Tara Duggan explains that by not "eliminating the root cause of a problem generally causes it to surface elsewhere" making the process more labor intensive for management to control (n.d.). By classifying the problem it is easier to not make the same mistake and to find contributing factors from other processes that effect the organization. Emphasizing the need for improvement is necessary in the service industry. The hard part is focusing on area of opportunity.

Top Management Commitment and Visionary Leadership: Bennis and Nanus explain that managing and leadership are two different functions and define each. To lead is "to influence others and create a vision for change" while managing "means to accomplish activities and master routines" (Northouse, 2010, p.11). The cohesion of the two functions are as important as they are alone. Top management's commitment employs trust in the employees and leadership alike. Once that trust is created it is easier for employees to accept change and leadership to hand down their vision for completion. Visionary leadership employs the best from its management, helping management focus on the strategic analysis, decisions making, and actions necessary for the plan to work.

Service Culture: Otherwise known as Company Culture in other industry, are the values and shared visions of a service oriented firm. The key to success for this aspect of Total Quality Service is engrained in the management of the firm. Employees follow the lead of management so it is integral for managers to embody the values of the firm and explain the importance of why they do so and why others should too. Setting the tone is the strategy in which managers must take to make service culture a success. Since size and scope of the firm is a concept that is important in strategic management and TQM alike the service culture will evolve and transform the company and its employees.

Employee Satisfaction: This aspect of Total Quality Service is influenced by continuous improvement of the firm, top management commitment and visionary leadership, and service culture. There are two customers a manager must the external customer and internal. The external is the obvious customer who is a guest and pays for the service. The internal customer is the employee and their happiness is fundamental to the service industry as well. The happier an employee the more efficient they become. Management achieves this by committing themselves to their employees. As Barrows et al states, manager should "treat the employees as they'd like to have the employees treat the guests. The intention is that employees follow management's example" and quotes J. Willard Marriott on his views on employee satisfaction "you can't make happy guests with unhappy employees" (2012, p. 684-685). How employee happiness is secured is a task for human resource management.

Human Resource Management: This aspect is most in many cases the key aspect of achieve the service firm's goals. Without reliable and knowledgeable employees the key functions of the firm could not run, systems would fail, and customer needs would not be meet. In fact there would be no customers to focus on. The hardest part of a Human Resource Managers position is the high turnover of employees within the industry of hospitality. Skilled employees rotate with experience or leave the industry all together, often time leaving due to the hourly nature of pay. Retention then is the ultimate goal of the Human Resources department and for the strategic management of the firm. Barrows et al explains that retention involves a number of essential concepts to include job description-personnel matching, favorable employee first impressions, stress of job importance, and training (2012, p.591). Through encouragement, a strong corporate and service culture, and concepts that garner employee satisfaction, Human Resource Management can located and retain the skilled human capital it requires in this industry.

Union Intervention: The idea of union intervention is strikingly similar when comparing the two comprehensive systems. Union intervention is a problematic matter in a firm's philosophies of strategic management. Employee satisfaction through human resource management intervention is an essential part of this concept. The better the employee is treated the less they are likely to unionize with an organization other than the firm. Barrows et al states that many companies avoid unionization by utilizing compensation much higher and lucrative than a union could offer. This undoubtedly requires manager to utilize strategic management skills to raise support in favor of the firm and passively have employees participate in a program that helps the firm gain control.

Integration of union organizations in the fabric of the company's culture and it social partnerships clearly arouses strategic management in the process of how to provide for the company's human capital while still gaining revenue on that capital. Strategic management concentrated firms are focused on ensuring that the partnership between firm and union organization at the micro and macro levels of management stay on favor of the firm.

Sureschcandar does ascertain that it is possible for management and unions to coincide within a business environment (2001, p. 8). Service union organizations like Unite Here

Customer Focus: The service industry's position is to strategically understand and employ action to the needs of the customer. Strategic management of the other eleven specific dimensions culminates to the overall direction of the facility and the services that facility renders so that the customer is focused on. Since the needs of the customers are always changing and ever continuous and that strategic management is a constant process for management, ensuring the two are in sync is nearly impossible. By focusing on the customer, the two management systems marry becoming less vague and their approaches to a successful customer experience are strengthened by the managerial involvement.

Through exploration of academic readings and processes utilized by the hospitality industry it can be concluded that both strategic management and Total Quality Service are very similar and in many cases can draw on each other's strengths to enhance either philosophy. The ultimate goal of Sureshchandar et al's dimension of quality service and the basic definition of strategic management in hospitality is to define a problem, formulate a solution, and implement those solutions all with the intent to produce a successful outcome. That outcome, at it true final endpoint, is the competitive advantage of a market share. The difference is that strategic management is an overall general system while Total Quality Service is industry specific.