1.

1 Background of the study

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy which focuses on the work process and
people, with the major concern for satisfying customers and improving the organizational performance. It
involves the proper coordination of work processes which allows for continuous improvement in all
business units with the aim of meeting or surpassing customers expectations. It emphasizes on totality of
quality in all facets of an organization with the aim of reducing waste and rework to reduce cost and
increase efficiency in production.
TQM is applicable to any organization irrespective of size, and motives, even the public sector
organization are fast adopting the ideology in order to make them effective in meeting public demands.
However, the adoption of the ideology by most organization has been hampered due to their noncompliance with the procedures and principles of TQM implementation. While some organization, run
TQM like a program which they expect to function and perform the magic all by itself, others have used a
half-hearted approach to it, by using some bits and pieces of the principles. This has accounted for the
failure of most organization in meeting up to their expected target from implementing this ideology. There
is a need to continue to buttress the benefits that accrue to organisations from the implementation of TQM,
especially in developing economies, such as Coimbatore where the adoption of these principles seems farfetched to organisations. The Indian ITES industry gives us a true picture of the shortcomings of
organisations in their quest to make profit at the expense of quality. With the spate of changes going on in
the country due to government reforms, the nature of competition seem to be changing from what it used to
be. The influx of foreign and local investors into different sectors of the economy has given rise to intense
competition, thus the need for organisations to look internally into their operational procedures and change
strategically to meet up with the challenges.
Even with new investors entering into the sector and adopting the TQM ideology, which have no doubt
given the industry a face lift, there still persists an array of complaints by passengers making use of these
services. This research aims to find out the quality level of local ITES industry in Coimbatore and the
problems with the implementation of TQM and also will assess the effect of TQM implementation on the
ITES industry. In trying to gain competitive advantage, ITES industries try to outshine their competitors by
providing quality services that meets or exceeds the expectation of customers. Thus, customer satisfaction
in the ITES industry is never ending as they face numerous challenges and competition daily. This makes
Quality management critical to the ITES Industry as they strive to continuously improve their services to
meet customers expectation.
Service quality is essential in the ITES industry as it is a major determinant of competitiveness. ITES
industry is paying strict attention to service quality will be differentiated from others and will in the course
of doing this gain competitive advantage. Although its been argued that price is a major determinant of
ITES Industries choice by customers and most ITES companies would rather compete on it than on service
quality. However, not managing quality will mean no added and assuring value to the process. TQM
enables innovativeness as it empowers employees to take decisions that affect their job. For the ITES
service sector to be innovative in offerings services, it requires a flexible structure which permits
cooperation between different functions.
The implementation of TQM involves the buying in of different units involved in the process of service
delivery into the ideology and practices of quality management. That is, the support and primary activities
of service delivery must inculcate quality in their activities.