Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies ISSN: 2313-7401 Vol. 3, No. 3, 163-172, 2016 http://www.asianonlinejournals.com/index.php/AJSSMS 163 Qualitative Information Analysis on Managing Quality Service: Issues and Challenges Leena Nitin Fukey1 1 Professor, Department of Hotel Management, Christ University, Bangalore, India Abstract Quality and service management is a process intended to create and maintain importance to any service organizations strategy and competitive positioning where the similarities and differences of services offered are valued. The literature on quality service management has mostly emphasized on perceived service quality, customers expectation, judgment of attitude relating to the superiority of the service, measures of quality attributes associated with service delivery, to enable the survival and the success of the business. The current study examines the potential barriers to quality service delivery and suggests strategies to enhance quality and inclusiveness. It is based on a survey in ten hotels in Bangalore and the managers and executives were interviewed from these selected hotels. The study concludes that simple and successfully managing services to enhance quality can lead to more committed, better satisfied, better performing employees and potentially better financial performance and repeat business for an organization. Keywords: Quality service management, Service enhancement, service delivery, Perception, Expectation, Hotel organization. Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................... 164 2. Concept of Service Quality ................................................................................................................................................ 164 3. Quality Service: Issues and Challenges ............................................................................................................................. 164 4. Need and Rationale of the Study ....................................................................................................................................... 165 5. Methodology....................................................................................................................................................................... 166 6. Information Analysis ......................................................................................................................................................... 166 7. Results and Discussion ....................................................................................................................................................... 171 8. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................................... 171 References .............................................................................................................................................................................. 171 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................................................... 172 Citation | Leena Nitin Fukey (2016). Qualitative Information Analysis on Managing Quality Service: Issues and Challenges. Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 3(3): 163-172. DOI: 10.20448/journal.500/2016.3.3/500.3.163.172 ISSN(E) : 2313-7401 ISSN(P) : 2518-0096 Licensed: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License Funding: This study received no specific financial support. Competing Interests: The author declares that there are no conflicts of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Transparency: The author confirms that the manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study was reported; that no vital features of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned have been explained. Ethical: This study follows all ethical practices during writing. History: Received: 19 January 2016/ Revised: 16 February 2016/ Accepted: 19 February 2016/ Published: 22 February 2016 Publisher: Asian Online Journal Publishing Group http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.20448/journal.500/2016.3.3/500.3.163.172 http://search.crossref.org/?q=10.20448/journal.500/2016.3.3/500.3.163.172 http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.20448/journal.500/2016.3.3/500.3.163.172 http://search.crossref.org/?q=10.20448/journal.500/2016.3.3/500.3.163.172 Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2016, 3(3):163-172 164 1. Introduction The service industry today occupies a prominent position in the economy of the developed as well as developing nations. There is a perceived need for documented and organized literature on how to achieve quality in the delivery of service in organizations. Quality service is a measure of how well the level of service delivered matches with customer’s expectations. Hospitality sector is a major service oriented sector in the economy of a nation (Gill and Gill, 2012). Quality service is of fundamental importance to any service organization’s strategy and competitive positioning. It is also a differentiating tool in an industry like hospitality which is essentially homogeneous in nature. The study of quality service has been dominated by studies of consumer expectations and perceptions of service in many sectors of the service industry based on the SERVQUAL model. Little work has been done on the expectations and perceptions of the service providers, notably the employees, who interface with the consumers of the service (Musaba et al., 2014). Davidoff (1994) stated that service has not traditionally been viewed as being as important as manufacturing. But service is no longer merely a by-product of an industrial society. According to Davidoff (1994) many companies start to be engaged in efforts to improve the quality of service to their customers. However, improving quality service has not received the same attention and favor as has improving manufacturing quality. This is probably true because it is much harder to quantify and judge service. Davidoff mentioned, ―Service grows on its own strength, as more people require its products independent of manufacturing. The number of well-paying service jobs continues to grow. The numerous and high productivity service jobs require highly skilled and trained workers with a variety of opportunity for advancement‖. Food, drink and accommodation are the main components of hospitality and constitute the largest part of the expenditures of those seeking hospitality from hotels (Ross, 1997). The seasonal nature of the hotel industry also has implications on labor management and as a result the hotel industry tends to have high staff turnover and this has consequences on quality service delivery. Despite this situation, one critical factor for the success of the hotel industry is availability of high-quality employees. To achieve its objectives, it is essential for the hotel industry to deliver high quality service through effective management of employees (Musaba et al., 2014). 2. Concept of Service Quality Parasuraman et al. (1988) defined perceived service quality as ―global judgment or attitude relating to the superiority of the service‖. The superiority of the service is confirmed by what the service delivers, which is the outcome and is evaluated after the performance, and how the service is delivered, which is the process and is evaluated during delivery. According to Asubonteng et al. (1996) what a service delivers is difficult to evaluate for any service, so consumers or customers rely on other measures of quality attributes associated with service delivery, as evidenced in the five generic dimensions of service quality. A survey of service theory seems to indicate that, clients will judge that quality is low if performance does not meet their expectation and that quality is high if performance exceeds their expectations. So as Asubonteng et al. (1996) conclude, customers’ expectations serve as the foundation on which service quality will be evaluated. Service quality is defined as, ―an attitude formed by a long-term, overall evaluation of a firm’s performance‖ by Hoffman and Bateson (2006). This distinguishes the concept from customer satisfaction which is a short-term, transaction-specific measure (Hoffman and Bateson, 2006). The service quality process can be examined in terms of the gaps between management, employees’ and customers’ expectations and perceptions (Hoffman and Bateson, 2006). According to Hoffman and Bateson (2006) service quality focuses on the customers’ cumulative attitude towards the firm which is the result of a number of successful or unsuccessful service experiences. The single largest trend in business in the US over the past 40 years has been the increased emphasis on service and service-related industries (Yun, 2001). Davidoff (1994) stated in the study that Service has not traditionally been viewed as being as important as manufacturing. But service is no longer merely a by-product of an industrial society. According to Davidoff (1994) many companies start to be engaged in efforts to improve the quality of service to their customers. However, improving service quality has not received the same attention and favor as has improving manufacturing quality. This is probably true because it is much harder to quantify and judge service. Davidoff mentioned, ―Service grows on its own strength, as more people require its products independent of manufacturing. The number of well-paying service jobs continues to grow. The numerous and high productivity service jobs require highly skilled and trained workers with a variety of opportunity for advancement‖. This suggests that, especially for specific services in different areas in hotels which is performed by diverse work groups, it is important that they understand what is expected as an outcome of the service given by them to the end user without complicating to achieve the expected service outcome and how one can further develop to enhance the same. 3. Quality Service: Issues and Challenges Despite the great progress and good prospect in hotel industry development, there are many challenges from both home and abroad. The examples include: the destruction of tourist sites and natural landscape, the pollution of environment, the shortage of financial resources for infrastructure development, the persistent attitudinal problems among service personnel, and the pressure from the competitors in the Asia-Pacific area with more diversified tourism product and higher service quality (Chen, 2001). Due to the increasing importance of the Indian Hotel Industry in the world and many serious problems affecting its further growth, the corresponding research in this field needs to be improved in both quantity and quality to meet the international standard. In view of this, an examination of past research efforts will be helpful to provide an understanding of the academic direction of this field, and anticipate future research need in this field. Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2016, 3(3):163-172 165 4. Need and Rationale of the Study Organizations in India are global today; especially when it comes to the clientele it is observed that they are updated on the new trends relating to food and accommodation. This has led to an increase in the heterogeneousness among employees and has increased the challenge of organizations to manage diverse customers coming to hotels. Selecting and serving diverse people and their perspectives has become a major concern for every hotel organization. The impact for not managing services would lead to lack of competencies, and interests in employees, which will ultimately increase employee turnover and reduce individuals’ and organizations’ performance to a great extent. Organizations that manage quality services are recipients of more commitment, and better working towards how to enhance the present services better as well as better performance by employees. Services management aims to create and maintain a positive work environment as satisfied employees fulfills the organizations goal by delivering services successfully to the end user, so that all can reach their potential and maximize their contributions to an organization’s goals and objectives. Services management ensures that all employees have the opportunity to maximize their potential and enhance the services by self-development and their innovative contribution by enhancing the present services further. It identifies that empowering people from different backgrounds can bring new ideas and perceptions, which can make the way work is done more efficient to service better. Managing these challenges by empowering employees will help organizations to nurture creativity and innovation and thereby to tap hidden capacity for growth and improved competitiveness. 4.1. Objectives of the Study To plot the outlook towards quality services in the Hotel organization by finding the important process to enhance quality service and to identify barriers and ways towards service enhancement. 4.2. Sample and Sampling Technique The units selected for the study consisted of employees in Hotel organizations. Convenience sampling technique was adopted to select the sample respondents. The sample was drawn from the top 10 hotel companies in Bangalore, India. The respondents with diverse backgrounds were included. The questionnaires were administered to employees with minimum 5 years of experience in that organization to ensure that they are well aware about processes and practices in their organizations. A standard interview schedule containing the same set of questions was used to outline research themes. The schedule kept the interviews focused, but allowed individual perspectives and experiences to emerge. Interview questions were drawn from quality service and quality enhancement theories and personal experiences in the field. On average each interview lasted approximately one and half hours. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim to provide accurate accounts. Documentary evidence was collected at interview stage in order to corroborate and augment evidence from other sources (Perry, 2001; Yin, 2008). Thus, providing a window through which the researcher could discover the industries strategic vision language on quality service and enhancement, which in turn provides useful indications of the importance the industry attaches to these concepts. The documents collected include company profile documents, brand operating manuals, performance records, reward schemes, computer intranet files, quality and enhancement measurement instruments and staff training manuals. Participant observation was used to get closer to the research situation and observing what was happening, listening to what was said and questioning people (Blumer, 1969; Carson et al., 2001). Thus in the process aiding the triangulation of interview and documentary evidence (Carson et al., 2001). The main desirable strength of observation in the study is that what actually happened was recorded. Compared with the limitations of interviews where questioning approaches that recognize that the nature of question wording and interviewing can be restrictive must be used, observation generates actual data as per researcher’s observation (Carson et al., 2001). To overcome criticism of researcher perspective or stimulus bias, observations were compared with responses to interviews, documentary evidence and verbatim records of the customer satisfaction surveys over the period. In addition, to facilitate the development of ideas and reflections, the researcher kept a chain of evidence. Information analysis was primarily inductive with some deductive input. While the analysis process upheld the integrity of individual perspectives (Blaikie, 2000) an attempt was made at theoretical (analytic) generalization in order to confirm/disconfirm theory (Kvale, 1996). The data was integrated with progressive within-case content analysis to allow for personal critique, subject-content critique and development of a general summary of themes and theoretical implications (Blaikie, 2000). Content analysis technique was then applied whereby the data collected was coded into preconceived and emerging themes (Glaser, 1999; Grbich, 1999). The data were then repeatedly revised until there were no new themes emerging. The themes were then grouped into conclusions. In order to validate the findings and observations, the results were presented and discussed with respondents. The analysis revealed a number of themes that provide answers to the research question. These are presented and discussed in the upcoming section that follows. 4.2.1. Information Analysis Significances The research study can provide information on the impact of service delivery particularly. Further, this study would also be a review of hotel’s quality service based in Bangalore. This study would be beneficial to the five star hotels in the city to enhance the knowledge and improve their current status. Furthermore, this study would be beneficial to the hoteliers and the users as this study would provide and reproduce the strategies to enhance business by necessary information on the different pressure in hotel industry. This would expectedly heighten the awareness of the providers and the users to equip a counterattack to possible threats. To the future researchers, this study can provide baseline information on the recent status of service delivery processes Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2016, 3(3):163-172 166 4.2.2. Phase of the Information Analysis Study In the preparation phase the researcher collect the most suitable data for the information analysis study. The researcher also chooses the target research question for the best available to answer the semi – structured question used for the purpose of the study. The sampling strategy chosen based on the best informants for the study. The unit of analysis selected for the study is narrow method. In the second phase that is organization phase the concepts and categories were created and crosschecked whether the concepts considered are too many of them and whether there was any overlap between categories. The researchers ensure that the data accurately represent the information of the participants provided. And at last the researcher crosschecked the trustworthiness of the analysis process and the representativeness of the data as a whole In the final phase (Reporting Phase), the researcher checked whether the result is reported logically or systematically and used methodical language to convey the results. The result explains the full description of the analysis process and trustworthiness of the information analysis discussed based on the preferred criteria for the study purpose. 5. Methodology Three steps were used to identify published articles related to Hotel Industry in several major hospitality and hotel journals from 1982 to 2014. First, the author did a computer search of the Accommodation, Food & Beverage Index, a computerized bibliographic database of hospitality and hotel publications maintained several esteemed Universities. Using the search terms of ―Quality service‖ and ―Hotel‖, resulted in identification of the articles published from 1982 to 2014. And then, the table of contents of various journals was manually and electronically reviewed to identify other related articles, with special attention to find the articles from 1998-1999 and 1983-1989, which were not included in the above database. The third step in the process was to review the references cited in each of the articles to identify additional resources relating to the topic. Copies of articles identified in this process were obtained for review and analysis. Semi-structured questionnaire was prepared based on the reviews and industry experts from five star Hotels were interviewed with fair experience in hotel industry who are supervisory and above level .the heads of the hotel department, training managers were a part of this. This identification and selection of methodology depends heavily on the availability of the experts who reflect on the content related to the area of Indian Hotels but very specific to the property which they work for. The content mostly differs as each hotel has their own ways of working on the specific policies and processes which at times misleads in the identification of quality service process. 6. Information Analysis The service industry today occupies a prominent position in the economy of the developed as well as developing nations. There is a perceived need for documented and organized literature on how to achieve quality in the delivery of service in organizations. Quality service is a measure of how well the level of service delivered matches with customer’s expectations. Hospitality sector is a major service oriented sector in the economy of a nation (Gill and Gill, 2012). Quality service is of fundamental importance to any service organization’s strategy and competitive positioning. It is also a differentiating tool in an industry like hospitality which is essentially homogeneous in nature. The study of quality service has been dominated by studies of consumer expectations and perceptions of service in many sectors of the service industry based on the SERVQUAL model. Little work has been done on the expectations and perceptions of the service providers, notably the employees, who interface with the consumers of the service (Musaba et al., 2014). The single largest trend in business in the US over the past 40 years has been the increased emphasis on service and service-related industries (Yun, 2001). Davidoff (1994) service has not traditionally been viewed as being as important as manufacturing. But service is no longer merely a by-product of an industrial society. According to Davidoff (1994) many companies start to be engaged in efforts to improve the quality of service to their customers. However, improving quality service has not received the same attention and favor as has improving manufacturing quality. This is probably true because it is much harder to quantify and judge service. Davidoff mentioned, ―Service grows on its own strength, as more people require its products independent of manufacturing. The number of well- paying service jobs continues to grow. The numerous and high productivity service jobs require highly skilled and trained workers with a variety of opportunity for advancement‖. Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2016, 3(3):163-172 167 Food, drink and accommodation are the main components of hospitality and constitute the largest part of the expenditures of those seeking hospitality from hotels (Ross, 1997). The seasonal nature of the hotel industry also has implications on labor management and as a result the hotel industry tends to have high staff turnover and this has consequences on quality service delivery. Despite this situation, one critical factor for the success of the hotel industry is availability of high-quality employees. To achieve its objectives, it is essential for the hotel industry to deliver high quality service through effective management of employees (Musaba et al., 2014). The information analysis was performed where in the experts from hotel industry was chosen and interviewed with structured interview questionnaire. Each expert was interviewed and the views on the questions were noted down through audio recording and transcription of the data. For interviews the five star hotels selected were from Bangalore. Each hotel researcher interviewed experts who are executive and above level. Researcher also interviewed experts from the hospitality consulting firm. Apart from the chosen hotels researcher also discussed and interviewed few experts from other hotel brands to get overview of quality service processes and their application. The structured questions which were discussed with the hotel expert were on what is their idea of quality service in managing hotel services, what do they feel about enhancement of service processes? Do they have quality management process in place? How do they differentiate quality management and six sigma while developing the quality service process? How important is the internal market relationship management to them? What kind of orientation processes hotel has towards internal market (IMO)? Is training important to enhance services? What kind of problems do they face while implementing the quality service processes as a policy? What kind of challenges the hotel has undergone to retain the processes to enhance quality service? Note: ―A‖ represents referred article for the purpose of the study; ―P‖ represents Interviewed participant from hotels. Hotel organizations and experts interviewed are not revealed and kept confidential as instructed by the Hotel organization. 6.1. Concept of Quality Service A1: Parasuraman et al. (1988) defined perceived quality service as ―global judgment or attitude relating to the superiority of the service‖. The superiority of the service is confirmed by what the service delivers, which is the outcome and is evaluated after the performance, and how the service is delivered, which is the process and is evaluated during delivery. A2: According to Asubonteng et al. (1996) what a service delivers is difficult to evaluate for any service, so consumers or customers rely on other measures of quality attributes associated with service delivery, as evidenced in the five generic dimensions of quality service. A survey of service theory seems to indicate that, clients will judge that quality is low if performance does not meet their expectation and that quality is high if performance exceeds their expectations. So as Asubonteng et al. (1996) conclude, customer’s’ expectations serve as the foundation on which quality service will be evaluated. A3: Quality service is a complex, elusive, subjective and abstract concept. It means different things to different people. The most common definition of quality service is the comparison customers make between their expectations and perceptions of the received service (Grönroos, 1982; Parasuraman et al., 1988). Quality is a multi-dimensional concept. Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) defined three dimensions of quality service, namely, physical quality, interactive quality and corporate quality. Similarly, Grönroos (1984) argued that quality service comprises of technical quality, functional quality and corporate image. P1: Reflects and comments that Quality service is, ―an attitude formed by a long-term, overall evaluation of a firm’s performance‖. This distinguishes the concept from customer satisfaction which is a short-term, and may help assess specific services which are performed by employees. The quality service process can be examined in terms of the gaps between management, employees’ and customers’ expectations and what they perceive it to be. According to this expert, quality service focuses on the customers’ growing attitude towards the firm which is the result of a number of successful or unsuccessful service experiences. P2: States two decades ago, people defined service as anything useful, such as maintenance, supplies installation, repairs, etc., provided by a dealer or manufacturer for people who have bought things from him. But today we believe that this meaning is not sufficient to cover what service means. Today it is more appropriate to say that service is useful labor that does not produce a tangible commodity from the customer’s point of view. P3: According to an expert, renowned customers’ service is anything we do for the customers that enhances the customers’ experience. Customers have varying ideas of what they expect from customers interaction. No matter how accurately we see our standard operating procedures of customer’s service, we still have to live up to what our customers think that customers’ service is. The customers’ satisfaction is the goal to attain in service industry. To sum up, the relationship between quality and satisfaction is multifaceted. Some authors have described it as Siamese twins. Although there still remain a lot of unresolved questions, it can be concluded that quality service and customer’s satisfaction can be perceived as separate concepts that have causal ordering. 6.2. Enhancement in Service Processes Several authors through their work have tried to conceptualize perceived quality service with varying illustrations especially in reference to the dimensions applied in their studies. A1: Grönroos (1984) in his seminal paper on quality service defined the perceived quality of a given service as the result of an evaluation process, in which the consumer compares his expectations with his perception of the service received; in other words, he places the perceived service and the expected service opposite one another. In the same study, two factors that consumers consider when evaluating quality service were identified as functional quality and technical quality. The latter being the process of service delivery and the former is what consumers actually receive from the service. A2: Parasuraman et al. (1988) identified five dimensions in their SERVQUAL model. These were tangible elements which are the physical surrounding of the place where the service is delivered for instance how the table is set or room furnishings, reliability which is seller’s capability to supply the promised outputs at the stated level and Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2016, 3(3):163-172 168 responsiveness determined as capability to respond to and satisfy the customer’s wishes. Others are assurance- employees’ knowledge, politeness and trustworthiness and empathy- willingness and capability to respond to individual customers desires for example making the bed with the sheets of a particular color as requested by a customers. The SERVQUAL model aroused a fair share of attention to the subject some with differing findings. Carman (1990); Babakus and Boller (1992) concluded that the SERVQUAL scale is not universal because the dimensionality of quality service apparently depends on the type of service examined. The criticisms notwithstanding, there has been variable support for the validity of the SERVQUAL model in the hotel service industry (Wilkins et al., 2007). Akan (1995) investigated the applicability of the SERVQUAL model in the Turkish hospitality industry and identified seven dimensions thus courtesy and competence of the personnel, communication and transactions, tangibles knowing and understanding the customers, accuracy and speed of service, solutions to problems, and accuracy of hotel reservations. A3: Mei et al. (1999) examined the dimensions of quality service in the Australian hotel industry and developed a new scale of quality service in the hotel industry which they called ―HOLSERV‖. With these they identified three dimensions which are employees, tangibles and reliability. Saleh and Ryan (1991) conducted a study in the hospitality industry and reported five dimensions of quality service that differed from those in the SERVQUAL model seen as conviviality; tangibles; reassurance; avoid sarcasm; and empathy. A study by Knutson et al. (1990) identified five dimensions for evaluating quality service given as reliability; assurance; responsiveness; tangibles; and empathy. In relations to quality service in UK conference hotels Oberoi and Hales (1990) that service-quality perception was two dimensional- tangibles; and intangibles. P1: Analyzes the force of the quality service measures in the hotel sector and reported that only two of the measures –actual service at that particular time and trustworthiness had the capability of being comprehensive when it comes to service and quality. In the hotel setting, a two measure structure of quality service tangibles and intangibles are inherent. In the study of Juwaheer (2004) nine factors emerged as tools of quality service in the Mauritian hospitality industry; four of these factors were similar to the tools of the SERVQUAL model, but some new tools also emerged namely room attraction and decor factors, hotel surroundings and environmental factors. P2: Expert looked at quality service expectations in the ecotourism industry and reported six tools of quality service in the form of tangibles, Eco tangibles, reliability; assurance; responsiveness; and empathy. P3: inspects the tools of quality service in the hotel industry, quality measure ―reliability‖ cannot be interpreted as a quality dimension because this attribute can concern several quality measures, for example in a bank, the employees or the teller machine can both be reliable a proposition we totally agree with. 6.3. Total Quality Management Process The Total Quality Management Process is the comprehensive process of satisfying the customers, starting with a request for a product or service through the delivery and use of the item that satisfies that request. The Total Quality Management Process is the attention and control that must be given to all features of a product or service to ensure total customers satisfaction. In addition to the obvious characteristics – such as form, fit, function, and reliability – the Total Quality Management Process involves maintainability, storability, appearance, ease of application, end use of a product or service, efforts to accomplish error–free documentation and systems, and countless other aspects contributing to the overall value to the internal operations or the external customers. A1: According to Zaire and Simintiras (1991) have propounded this viewpoint by stating: Total Quality Management is the combination of the socio-technical process towards doing the right things (externally), everything right (internally) first time and all the time, with economic viability considered at each stage of each process. A2: Garvin (1988) explains, TQM may also be viewed functionally as an integration of two basic functions, i.e. total quality control and quality management. Quality has been defined in a variety of ways, such as ―fitness for use‖; ―conformance to requirements‖; ―the amounts of un-priced attributes contained in each unit of priced attributes‖, among many others. Total quality control is a long-term success strategy for organizations. Customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, product quality assurance in all its stages, and continuous improvement and innovation, are the main ingredients of total quality control; whereas quality management is a way of planning, organizing and directing that will facilitate and integrate the capabilities of all employees for continuous improvement of anything and everything in an organization to attain excellence. Thus, TQM in an organization brings all the people together to ensure and improve product-process quality, the work environment and working culture. A3: Oakland (2008) depicts TQM as a pyramid representing five distinct components – management commitment, customers-supplier chain, quality systems, Statistical Process Control (SPC) tools and teamwork. The customers-supplier chain forms the top of the Oakland pyramid. It reflects process ownership, process management and process improvement, propelled throughout the customers-supplier chain. P1: Interpret that TQM as it is receiving global acceptance and every organization tries to follow and implement TQM. However, this charge is to show the world that the TQM philosophy is being practiced by organizations which is made without proper understanding of TQM. Not all companies are willing to embrace the fundamentals of TQM. It is also strongly argued that there are a considerable number of companies who are using all the popular quality management measures and techniques; however, these techniques, procedures and systems are used in a superficial manner. The main reasons for such a situation are lack of management commitment to the basic principles of TQM and quality improvements and ineffective leadership to direct the improvement process. P2: comments that however implementation of TQM is not an easy task as it requires a total change in organizational culture, shifting of responsibility to management, and continuous participation of all in the quality improvement process. P3: clarifies that the relationship between quality and productivity is strong and positive. Efforts to improve quality, if effective and efficient, can have a significant impact on a firm’s productivity. Productivity starts from a clarity that confers an amount of physical output to its related inputs, where the inputs constitute labor, capital, Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2016, 3(3):163-172 169 materials, energy and services. Productivity improvement requires balanced attention to the technical, behavioral and management systems. Output would be counted only if it is ―good‖ output. Thus, there is a convergence between organizational productivity improvement and organizational process quality improvement. 6.4. Six Sigma Vs Total Quality Management A1: Six-Sigma is a quality improvement framework that evolved over decades. Six-Sigma was initially developed by Motorola in the 1980s as a philosophy that employs a well-structured continuous improvement methodology to improve work processes, expand employees’ skills and produce high-level strategic results. At the time, Motorola Inc. targeted an aggressive goal of 3.4 defects per million opportunities in any process or product. This powerful breakthrough business improvement methodology has been exploited in almost every industry and many high profile organizations such as General Electric (GE), Motorola, Honeywell, Bombardier, ABB, Sony, to name a few from the long list (Rafiq, 2012). A2: Six-Sigma implies three themes: statistical measurement, management strategy and quality culture. Six Sigma is a measure of how far a process is from perfection using statistical measurement of quality level. It is a new management strategy that inspires quality innovation and total customer satisfaction. It is also a quality culture. It provides the correct way to do things right at the first time and to work efficiently by using data information. It also provides an atmosphere to solve many critical-to-quality problems through team efforts. Statistical representation of Six-Sigma describes quantitatively how a process is performing (McQueen and Knussen, 2004). A3: Six-Sigma today has evolved from just being a measurement of quality to a comprehensive business improvement strategy for a large number of companies all over the world Six-Sigma has been successfully introduced into many service organizations, including hotels and lodging (Gržinić, 2007). P1: comments that Starwood Hotels and Resorts, one of the leading hotel chains, was one of the first hotels in the world that endeavored to promote Six Sigma philosophy. In 2001, adoption of Six Sigma got in a process to develop innovative solutions that focus on the customers and to transfer these solutions throughout the global organization. Recently, few hotels has successfully executed hundreds of Six-Sigma projects in areas involving productivity, customers interactions and evaluations, menu redesign, green room program, workplace safety, e-mail marketing and sales. When Six-Sigma was initiated, the company incurred huge amount in training costs. At the same time, the company reaped tangible of more than what was incurred. Since then, programs developed under Six Sigma have delivered more than $100 million in profits to Hotels bottom line. P2: stated that another Six-Sigma project at the Westin Turn berry Resort resulted in an 11.95% increase in incremental spending by customers and an increase in room revenue of more than 19%. A Six-Sigma project improved reservation systems and helped maximize the use of massage therapists and treatment rooms, increasing spa-related revenues. P3: acknowledged that Six-Sigma is a systematic quality approach, use of which leads to increase in profitability through improvement in all operations. Currently, Six-Sigma replaced TQM to become the focal point of quality management and business excellence for nearly a quarter of a century. This presents the results of a Six Sigma carried out in the Indian hotel industry to explore the impacts of implementing Six-Sigma approach on upscale hotels in India , seeking for what values and benefits it brings to improve the overall performance. 6.5. Importance to Internal Relationship Management A1: Nguyen and Le Nguyen (2007) explains, despite the fact that CRM brings lasting benefits to organizations, as a whole, some of them gain profits from implementing it more than others; CRM brings benefits to the organizations that generate a lot of information about customerss (Kotler, 2002) In addition to this, Gronroos (2006) that service organizations for their intrinsic characteristics of the production and consumption are inseparable elements necessary to build relationships with customerss. Accordingly, CRM will be ideally suited to the hotel industry, especially when implementing it successfully and effectively, taking into our account that hotels receive a lot of data about customers. Such data can be transformed into useful knowledge about them (Dev and Olsen, 2000; Kotler, 2002; Lin and Su, 2003; Mguyen et al., 2007; Nasution and Mavondo, 2008). A2: Verdugo et al. (2009) suffice it to say that hotel industry, like any business sector has to be highly competitive to be able to do well in the business environment, therefore, it is of vital importance for it to encourage behavioral patterns of continuous re-purchase and to retain customers longer. Thus, it is evident that such ambitious aims can only be achieved through implementing CRM (Customer relationship Management), which will result in establishing fruitful relationship between organizations and their customers. A3: Mylonakis (2009) mentions, moreover, it goes without saying that growing customers- acquisition costs, rising customers’ expectations, price-sensitive travelers, more sophisticated clients, uncertain market and less brand loyalty are all key factors, which strongly urge hotels to focus on CRM as a useful strategy. Needless to say, CRM is widely considered as one of the most effective ways to facilitate developing and expanding the customers' base that, in turn, will assist in enhancing profitability and customer’s loyalty. P1: Reports that in the commercial world the importance of retaining existing customers and expanding business is paramount. The costs associated with finding new customers mean that every existing customers could be important. A recent practice observed that hotel business management is the best it has ever been, in that costs are under control in a better more effective way than ever before. Well good for them! But how will that control affect their ability to be competitive? And how will that affect Brands that rely on quality of service to differentiate them from the others? How will hotels regain the sales and marketing ground lost whilst busy reducing overheads? And thereby maximize the returns owners expect from their assets? A dilemma, if they are to remain profitable. P2: Unbolt the solutions for that could be considered to be revolutionary, which may be a problem for a 'traditional' business. So what is needed is a change in mindset throughout 'the organization'. If a CRM strategy is to succeed, then everyone in the organization must know the whole picture and understand why Customers are important and if service delivery is to be consistently good, also believe it. What is often overlooked is that Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2016, 3(3):163-172 170 Customers are fickle and therefore unpredictable, when choosing where and what they buy. Additionally, reliability and consistency of repeat purchases are hindered by the changing environment we find ourselves in. P3: Comments that with the opportunities for wider choices increasing, we should acknowledge our Customers’ behavior in this context, and mix that together with their 'history' to help determine future sales and marketing to them and thereby ensure a greater chance of attracting repeat purchases in the future. The more opportunities that a customers has to conduct business with your company the better, and one way of achieving this is by opening up channels such as direct sales, online sales, franchises, use of agents, etc. However, the more channels you have, the greater the need to manage your interaction with your customers base. 6.6. Orientation towards Internal Market Orientation A1: According to Tim and Davis (2001) internal marketing is critical and fundamental activity to create a customer-focused organizational culture with an aim to establish internal and external awareness of customers by removing barriers which are obstacles of organizational effectiveness (Christopher et al., 1991). Berry and Parasuraman (1991) define internal marketing as: ―attracting, developing, motivating and retaining qualified employees through job-products that satisfy their needs…the philosophy of treating employees as customers... and the strategy of shaping jobs to fit human needs”. It is argued that internal marketing programs and managerial influence strategies must be aligned, if internal marketing is to become an effective part of the practice of management. A2: Similarly researchers such as, Ahmed et al. (2003) define internal marketing as it is also viewed as a critical issue faced by marketing professionals, HR managers, and executives in general. IM practice encompasses several activities that have been grouped in four major themes that appear to constitute IM: training and education, the image of the internal customers, quality standards and rewards systems. A3: Furthermore, the basic purpose for applying internal marketing concept is to get motivated employees and to make them conscious at each and every level to serve customers in a better way. Researchers also view Internal marketing as a management approach in which frontline employees work as support staff area included; this approach enables and motivate employees of the firm to do their own evaluation and for adoption of customers oriented services (Cowell, 1984). P1: Argues that IM through its emphasis on ―internal customers‖ creates a people oriented culture that sets the foundation for building a strong corporate service brand. Researchers have also identified some issues related to IM include: the link between employee satisfaction and organizational performance; the need for research on how inter- functional co-ordination can be achieved for the effective implementation of marketing strategies; the need for relationship marketing perspective in internal marketing; the need for research in internal communication strategies; and the role of internal marketing for developing organizational competences, that well-structured and rationalized internal marketing approach can significantly improve employee relations with management and overall organizational competitiveness and performance. P2: Defines and clarifies that market orientation as ―the organization culture that most effectively creates the necessary behaviors for the creation of superior value for buyers and thus continuous superior performance for the business”. Their model identified three main categories which are constituted in market orientation, these are defined as: customer’s orientation, competitor point of reference, and inter-functional synchronization. Many previous researchers have identified Market Orientation as an instrument to increase organizational performance, increased productivity, and profitability, profit maximization New Product success. P3:Simplifies and comments that, market orientation conceptualization is an area of study that is in the situation of continuous evolution suggested some terms that are used as interchangeably with market orientation i.e. ―Market driven‖, ―Market oriented‖, ―marketing oriented‖ and ―customers oriented‖. According to this expert the first market orientation as business philosophy signifies marketing thought and second, marketing orientation is as a set of behaviors showing marketing concept implementation. 6.7. Is Training Important to Enhance Service A1: Current changes in the working environment made the Human Resource Development’s -role doubly essential in helping businesses being competitive and prepared for any future obstacles that may emerge (Goldstein and Gilliam, 1990). A2: According to Bellizzi and Pintkowski (1990) and Li (1991) due to the technological development the workforce in every company needs training, and being more precise, it needs more improved skills in order to overcome any problems and barriers occurring. The demands of global competition also modifies the way organizations function and provide quality management and customers service training in an attempt to carry on with increasing customers prospects. A3: Additionally, in order to keep ahead in an extremely competitive atmosphere, it has been recommended that the training role has to promote a continuous learning culture. Additionally, companies offer training in order to guide employees on how to achieve their purpose. In addition they want to advance their employees’ performance, by becoming more productive, and prepare them for upcoming changes in techniques or technology in their job (Fisher, 1997). P1: Speaks that in order to identify what methods are used and which one is more appropriate to be used, in order to improve the existing training system, an analysis of the training types had to take place. To increase the commitment level of employees and growth in quality movement (concepts of HRM), senior management team is now increasing the role of training. Such concepts of HRM require careful planning as well as greater emphasis on employee development and long term education. P2: Explains, training is now the important tool of Human Resource Management to control the attrition rate because it helps in motivating employees, achieving their professional and personal goals, increasing the level of job satisfaction, etc. As a result training is given on a variety of skill development and covers a multitude of courses. Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2016, 3(3):163-172 171 Training of work tasks is one of the main aspects of staff training, including principles at work, professional knowledge and skills, by offering employees these essentials, staff training helps personal abilities match with business requirements. P3: Comments that training could be enormously demanding and should be in-depth; lack of training or poor training brings out high employee turnover and the delivery of substandard products and services. Staff training is a significant part as well as the key function of Human Resource Management and Development; it is the crucial path of motivating employees and increasing productivity in the business. Staff training is the key task to help everyone in the company to be more united. An enterprise could hire experienced employees or train employees to be skilled. When the company trains their own staff, by providing and forming a harmonious atmosphere, accurate work specification and the passion of work, team spirit will be built between employees and management team within the process. 6.8. Problems and Challenges A1: Quality service derives from the field of marketing which values the human interaction between a business and its customers. It incorporates the concept of meeting and exceeding customer’s expectations and it is generally accepted that better quality service impacts positively on an organisation’s performance and competitive positioning. However, the definition of quality service is fraught with disagreements (Robinson et al., 2005). A2: According to Juran (1988) strongly service-based hospitality industry, human resource management plays important role to hire and train its employees because company’s success will depend on its employees’ service- based attitude. Dealing with people is what hospitality business is all about. When providing services to customers, primary resource is employees. Successful hospitality managers need the ability to work with those people who will contribute success. P1: Says that when we think about turnover rate, which is from 60 percent to 300 percent in hospitality industry, they cannot overlook why it happen anymore. There are so many reasons employees left their job such as management skill, money or better benefits or ignorance of employee training. Now managers or human resource management function have to turn to how to reduce its turnover rate and provide better service to their customers; training is one tool. P2: comments that despite the great progress and good prospect in hotel industry development, there are many challenges from both home and abroad. The examples include: the destruction of tourist sites and natural landscape, the pollution of environment, the shortage of financial resources for infrastructure development, the persistent attitudinal problems among service personnel, and the pressure from the competitors in the Asia-Pacific area with more diversified tourism product and higher quality service. P3: due to the increasing importance of the Indian Hotel Industry in the world and many serious problems affecting its further growth, the corresponding research in this field needs to be improved in both quantity and quality to meet the international standard. In view of this, an examination of past research efforts will be helpful to provide an understanding of the academic direction of this field, and anticipate future research need in this field. 7. Results and Discussion Based on the above analysis researcher would like to propose the suggestions for developing quality enhancement process to strengthen internal quality which interns reflect on external quality. The above analysis suggests hotels to strengthen their policies and proceedings by adapting results which has been presented in the form of suggestions by experts. These suggestions will help industry to analyze and structure their services by implementing their training to enhance further. The training managers and the heads of the hotel department probably can look into the discussion and suggestions given to develop the standards and check for feasibility of the same based on the hotel operations and management. As discussed by strengthening areas and processes such as total quality management, six sigma, relationship management and marketing and internal market orientation, it would not only enhance the quality but also create a systematic pathway to work towards one objective whichever organization accepts from their internal customers. If hotels create a structured framework and implement as a training module, enhancement in terms of quality and service will definitely have positive impact in the functioning of the hotel operations both internally and externally. 8. Conclusion Organizations with diverse employees are better suited to serve diverse external customers in an increasingly global market. The results of the study provide considerable insight on present service management practices in the Hotel industry. 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