Week 4 - Assignment Research Project-Week Four

Running Head: SERVICE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT 1

Service Quality Improvement

Ryan Magana

BUS 642 Business Research Methods & Tools

Ashish Godbole

January 15, 2018

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SERVICE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT 2

Service Quality Improvement

Introduction

Service quality management plays critical roles in the general management and the overall

success of the business organizations. Provision of customer-centered services is at the heart of

satisfaction of the business customers which has positive impact on the profitability of the

business enterprise. Due to the current dynamics in the market demands, customers’ tastes and

preferences form the basis under which the provision of services should be anchored on. In other

words, service quality management aims at aligning the organization goals and the satisfaction of

the customers in the long-run profitability and sustainability. Therefore, this research paper will

discuss how business enterprises can put in place measures that help in the enhancement of

quality management systems (Goetsch & Davis , 2014).

Background Information

Quality management is one of the most common organizational philosophy that functions

to promote the long-term success and sustainability of an organization as a result of customer

satisfaction. This is only possible through the establishment of effective quality management

systems as well as processes which are able to continuously improve the quality and economic

values of goods and services provided by the business enterprise (Goetsch & Davis , 2014).

Additionally, the quality management also significantly improve customer experience as far as

the provision of goods and services are concerned. This is particularly important in maintaining

brand loyalty. Similarly, the improvement of customer experience also helps in countering the

impact of stiff competition from the rival firms. Normally, the formation of processes for

successful quality improvement in an enterprise is focused on: continuous improvement,

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managerial involvement, customer satisfaction, measurability and recording of quality, and

organizational support (Goetsch & Davis , 2014).

The Management Dilemma

The most common form of ethical dilemma facing the management of most business

enterprises; is the decision to choose between provision of high quality goods and services and

the incurring increased spending on quality improvements. There has been constant challenge

resulting from spending more on quality improvement such as liquidity crisis faced by the

business organization. In this research paper, a lot of emphasis will be placed on how best

practice can be incorporated by managers in quality management to improve the operations of an

organization (Goetsch & Davis , 2014).

Furthermore, other than focusing on improved quality of products and services, improvement

of products and service must be connected to the input of employees. The research paper will

evaluate how employees contribute to the process. An example of quality management tools is

the Shewhart model of quality assurance; PDCA which means Plan, Do, Check, and Act.

Ultimately, the research will address the different stages and phases in a company’s quality

management system and propose on the best practice to enhance each of these stages

(Vasconcellos, 2004).

Research Question

1. What management measures should business organizations put in place to improve the

quality of goods and services they provide to their customers?

Hypothesis

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H0: The creation of management processes and procedures will significantly improve the

quality of goods and services provided by the business enterprises to their customers.

H1: The creation of management processes and procedures will not significantly improve the

quality of goods and services provided by the business enterprises to their customers

Research Design and Sampling Data

The research used qualitative method approach. This approach is participant friendly thus

yields much in terms of research expectations. The research uses of interviews and diary entries.

This was helpful in capturing raw data from the customers for purposes of conducting the

scientific study research. Additionally, the qualitative approach is most appropriate in gaining of

valuable insight into a theory, phenomenon or any other aspects of the research. Using the

qualitative study approach will help in gaining useful insights into the quality management

systems for improved product or service delivery. Since the qualitative interview is for different

groups- employees, organizational managers and customers, sales and administrative employees,

a stratified sampling strategy helps in achieving objective results. Testing of the hypotheses will

be done thorough statistical approach based on the established relationships between different

study parameters. The lie Kart’s scale will be used to quantify the response from the study

subjects (Kim, Kumar, & Kumar, 2012).

Ethical Issues

There are ethical challenges or issues associated with conducting research especially in the

case of collecting primary data from participants. Firstly, gaining IRB approval is key because

respondents will be involved in gathering data. Secondly there is the issue of protecting the

privacy and confidentiality of respondents who give primary data for the study. The personal

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information or details of the research participants, say name, age, work designation and other

details cannot be disclosed in the survey. The respondents must be assured a great deal of

confidentiality and privacy in the manner in which their data will be handled.

Thirdly, cultural competency is an important element in selecting research participants. Both

gender should be equally represented in the study to ensure the gender bias is completely dealt

with. Lastly, the selection of the respondents will solely be based on the ability and willingness

to respond to the survey questions and not on ethnic backgrounds or culture and therefore this

addresses the professional and ethical issues associated with collecting primary data (Goetsch &

Davis , 2014).

Summary

ISO 9000:2000 is a quality management system which benefits a company in improving the

quality of products as well boost employee performance. This is a basic tool for any company

which wishes to develop its quality management system. I believe that by using this tool, a

company can adequately examine the different processes and incorporate some of the ISO 9000

approaches to correct the different management and quality challenges.

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References

Goetsch, L. D., & Davis , B. S. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence.

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Kim, Y. D., Kumar, V., & Kumar, U. (2012). Relationship between quality management

practices and innovation. Journal of operations management, 30(4), 295-315.

Vasconcellos, J. (2004). Quality assurance for the food industry: a practical approach. Boca

Raton, FL: CRC Press.

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