Impact of Total Quality Management in Improving Business Operations

This research proposal aims to analyze the significance of Total Quality Management within enhancing business performance of an organization. A case study of Unilever. The research objectives include understanding the basic conceptual framework of Total Quality Management, exploring the ways in which Total Quality Management can be used for enhancing business efficacy, analyzing the way for overcoming barriers associated with implicating Total Quality Management practices, and determining the barriers which are faced by Unilever during implicating practices of Total Quality Management.

Research Proposal Form
Student Name: ______________________ Student ID: ____________
Centre Name: _____________________
Tutor: ________________ Date: ___________________
Unit: ____________________
Proposed Title: Workplace Discrimination
Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities
Title or working title of the research project (in the form of a question, objective or hypothesis)
Title: Impact of total quality management in improving business operations.
Research objectives (e.g. what is the question you want to answer? What do you want to learn
how to do? What do you want to find out?):
Research Aim
“To analyse the significance of Total quality management within enhancing business
performance of an organisation. A case study of Unilever..
Research Objectives
 To understand basic conceptual framework of Total quality management.
 To explore the ways in which Total quality management can be used for enhancing
business efficacy.
 To analyse the way for overcoming barriers associated with implicating Total quality
management practices.
 To determine the barriers which are faced by Unilever during implicating practices of
Total quality management?
Research questions
 What is the basic conceptual framework of Total quality management?
 What are the ways in which Total quality management can be used for enhancing

business efficacy?
 Analyse the way for overcoming barriers associated with implicating Total quality
management practices?
 Determine the barriers which are faced by Unilever during implicating practices of Total
quality management?

Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project
Reasons for choosing the project (e.g links to other subjects you are studying, personal interest, future
plans, knowledge/skills you want to improve, why the topic is important):
The current investigation is relying on the impact of Total Quality Management in improving the business
operation in an appropriate manner. The major reason behind selecting the investigation project is to analyse
the problems and basic conceptual framework of Total Quality Management as well as the ways in which
total quality management can be adopted by the organisation in order to enhancing business efficacy. Along
with this investigation is going to concentrating on developing effective skills of investigator so that they can
conduct the investigation in an authentic and appropriate manner. There are several kinds of skills which are
going to considered in this investigation and that will be time management skills decision making skills data
collection and skills communication skills and many more. This kind of system will support me to improve
my skills and achieve my goals and objectives in an appropriate manner. In context of Unilever organisation
this investigation will going to support them to analyse and understand the rules of Total Quality Management
and the different strategies which is associated to the same. For the more this investigation will going to
support me to enhance and shaping my skills which is associated to the literature review critical thinking and
many more.
Section Three: Literature sources searched
Use of key literature sources to support your research question, objective or hypothesis:
What is the basic conceptual framework of Total quality management?
. According to the viewpoint of (Gianni, Gotzamani and Vouzas, 2017), Total quality management is the
Framework which is relying on the concept that help the organisation to achieve their goals by having all of
their members from entry-level employees to top executive and concentrating on increasing the quality and
effectiveness of the company in order to deliver customer satisfaction. The basic concept of total quality
management is to satisfy the customer and they are much customer orientation like internally as well as
externally (Madzík and Chocholáková, 2016). It also helps the organisation to improve their costing by
delivering an appropriate framework to evaluate several approaches in order to improve the Optimisation
decisions which are made by the managers and employees.
What are the ways in which Total quality management can be used for enhancing business efficacy?
According to the viewpoint of author (Cound, 2020), TQM's emphasis on reducing errors and improving
process efficiency announces a direct approach to issues like absenteeism, like as counselling and other
corrective measures. TQM increases productivity, which translates to higher earnings for the company and, as
a result, higher salaries. It's utilised to improve customer service, optimise supply chain management, and
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guarantee that staff is properly trained. The goal is to enhance the quality of an organization's outputs, such as
goods and services, by improving internal procedures on a continuous basis. In order to implement the ways
in which the total quality management is used by the organisation so that they can improve the business
activities as quality inspection it is very important for the organisation to identify their quality that it is
appropriate or not and control the quality and assurance the quality and then conduct the total quality
management so that they can evaluate and monitor the entire procedure.
Determine the barriers which are faced by Unilever during implicating practices of Total quality
management?
According to the viewpoint of (Datta and Vardhan, 2017), There are several variables which are analysed in
the Unilever organisation while implementing the total quality management and that is inadequate and not
much effective human resources development and management activities. Deficiency of planning for quality
is the another major bigger which are facing by the organisation. The another area which are facing by the
organisation is deficiency of leadership for quality as it is very important for the company to maintain the
leadership so that they can build teamwork and monitor the quality of their performance as well as their
activities so that they can get more positive outcomes for the organisation and improve the efficiency of the
company (Burawat, 2019). The another barrier which are facing by the Unilever organisation is inadequate
and improper resources for the total quality management and this will create huge impact on the organisation
because it create impact on the total quality management and it create efficiency in customer focus as well.
Analyse the way for overcoming barriers associated with implicating Total quality management practices?
In viewpoint of, (Aithal and Kumar, 2016) By using quality management system and their tools like a
mapping benchmarking cost benefit analysis the organisation become capable to achieve their improvement
and enhancement in their work flow process and also become capable to improve their productivity so that
they can get more positive outcomes. Along with this the organisation is also focusing on the improve the
workers engagement in the organisation and collect to the appropriate and relevant resources so that they can
monitor the quality of their resources as well as the performance of their workers in order to overcome the
barriers which are facing by the only other organisations and improve their efficiency so that they can become
more successful in the Marketplace and get more opportunities Lock, 2017).
REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Gianni, M., Gotzamani, K. and Vouzas, F., 2017. Food integrated management systems: dairy industry
insights. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management.
Cound, D.M., 2020. A leader’s journey to quality. CRC Press.
Datta, K.S. and Vardhan, J., 2017. A SERVQUAL-based framework for assessing quality of international
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branch campuses in UAE: A management students’ perspective. SAGE Open, 7(1),
p.2158244016676294.
Aithal, P.S. and Kumar, P.M., 2016. Maintaining teacher quality in higher education institutions. International
Journal of Current Research and Modern Education (IJCRME) ISSN (Online), pp.2455-5428.
Dehe, B. and Bamford, D., 2017. Quality Function Deployment and operational design decisions–a healthcare
infrastructure development case study. Production Planning & Control, 28(14), pp.1177-1192.
Ghosh, M., 2018. Measuring electronic service quality in India using ES-QUAL. International Journal of
Quality & Reliability Management.
Burawat, P., 2019. The relationships among transformational leadership, sustainable leadership, lean
manufacturing and sustainability performance in Thai SMEs manufacturing industry. International
Journal of Quality & Reliability Management.
Madzík, P. and Chocholáková, A., 2016. Structured Transfer of Customer's Requirements into Product
Quality Attributes-A University Case Study. Quality-Access to Success, 17(154).
Lock, D., 2017. The essentials of project management. Routledge.
Section Four: Activities and timescales
Activities to be carried out during the research project (e.g research,
development and analysis of ideas, writing, data collection, numerical
analysis, tutor meetings, production of final outcome, evaluation, writing the
report):
Activities Time Duration
Developing aims and objectives 12 Days
Literature review 15 Days
Research methodology 20 Days
Data Collection 25 Days
Data analysis 30 Days
Conclusion and recommendation 8 Days
Submission of the project 3 Days
How long this will take:
Milestone one: _________________
Target date (set by tutor): ____________________
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Milestone two: _______________________
Target date (set by tutor): ______________________
Gantt Chart
Section Five: Research approach and methodologies
What type of research approach and methodologies are you likely to use and why? What your areas of
research will cover:
This is the concept which is associated to the gathering the data so that they can conduct the investigation and
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this is the process is which is known as research methodology. There is various kinds of factors which helped
the investigated to conduct an investigation and collect the data for the investigation the chart included in this
methodology. According to (Ghosh, 2018) their there are various kind of steps which consider by the
investigator in order to separate several factors of Investigation and the conduct the activities in an
appropriate manner and which are mentioned below:
Research Philosophy – This is the concept which can be described as the concept of gathering the
information by analysing the appropriate data which is connected to the particular process in order to achieve
their goals and objectives. There are two kind of research philosophy which are into productive and
positivism
Justification: This report going to consider positivism investigation and philosophy that support them in
meeting several standards and effective outcomes.
Research Approaches – Are the kind of activities which are associated to considering the several effective
Tools and techniques. This activity is an approach a support the investigator to fulfil the requirement of the
investigation in an appropriate manner. These approaches are separated into two kinds that are can be
Inductive and deductive approach. Inductive research is associated with the qualitative investigation while the
deductive approach is the kind of method which is linked to quantitative investigation.
Justification: This report going to work on deductive approach because it begin with hypothesis and evaluate
the information in context of quantitative with less time and cost.
Research Choices – This supports the investigator to understand about the utilisation of the data and there are
basically three times of component of this process that is mixed method multi-method and mono method.
Basically there are two different choices which are used to investigate and that are quantitative research
services and qualitative research choice.
Justification: This investigation going to considered Mono method of Investigation choices so that they can
conduct the research in an authentic manner because it caters statistical data that support in validation of
Investigation.
Research Strategy - This is the concept of planning so that the investigator can conduct the research and
formulate an appropriate structure. It includes various features that are interview experimental investigation
action research literature review and many more.
Justification: This is the cost effective method in order to perform investigation and it is connected with
several Tools and techniques that help in doing project activities.
Data Collection – This is the concept which is adopted by the investigator in order to perform the task and
investigation in an authentic manner and it’s including various kind of methods so that they can collect the
data for the research. There are two kind of sources through which the data has been collected by the
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researcher and that is primary as well as secondary sources. Primary sources are those kind of sources which
are collected by using fresh data why secondary data is a kind of data which are taken from the someone else
was that can be articles books journals in many more.
Justification: This report going to focus on the primary collection data in order to achieve their goals and
objectives in an appropriate manner.
Sampling – The concept which take a little parts from a large population on the random basis. This support
the investigated to Centre the reliability of the outcomes and in order to choose a sample directed to methods
which are used in the research and that is non probabilistic method and probabilistic method.
Justification: This report is going to consider probabilistic sampling method and the sample size of the
investigation which is selected by the researcher is 40.
Time Horizon – it Include cross sectional and longitudinal areas of the investigation that are associated to the
entire time which is allotted to the investigated in order to conduct the appropriate research.
Justification: This Report going to consider cross sectional time origin because it support them to meeting
high standard in particular timeframe.
Comments and agreement from tutor
Comments (optional):
I confirm that the project is not work which has been or will be submitted for another qualification and
is appropriate.
Agreed: ________________ (name)_______________ Date ______________
Comments and agreement form project proposal checker( IV sampling)
Comments (Optional):
I confirm that the project is appropriate.
Agreed /Disagree: (Name of the IV) Date
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Research Ethics approval form
All students conducting research activity that involves human participants or the use of data collected form
human participants are required to gain ethical approval before commencing their research. Please answer all
relevant questions and note that your form may be returned if incomplete.
For further support and guidance please see your respective Unit Tutor:
Before completing this form, we advise that you discuss your proposed research fully with your unit tutor.
Please complete this form in good time before your research project is due to commence.
Section 1: Basic details:
Project title: Impact of total quality management in improving business operations
Student name:
Student ID number:
Programme:
College Name:
Intended research start date:
Intended research end date:
Section 2 Project summary
Please select all research methods that you plan to use as a part of your project:
 Interviews Yes No
 Questionnaires Yes No
 Observations Yes No
 Use of personal records Yes No
 Data Analysis Yes No
 Action Research Yes No
 Focus Groups Yes No
 Others (Please specify) :
Section 3: Participants
Please answer the following questions, giving full details where necessary.
Will your research involve human participants?
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Yes
Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:
Ages 12-16: Young people aged: 17-18 Adults: More than 18
How will participants be recruited (identified an approached)?
The participants will be recruiting by using random sampling method.
Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you are doing:
Through using the email, researcher will inform the participants.
How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will it be made
clear to participants that they may withdraw consent to participate at any time?
The consent will be obtaining from participants through using email.
Studies involving questionnaires: will participants be given the option of omitting questions
that do not wish to answer?
Yes No
If no, please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical issues arising from
this
Studies involving observation: Confirm whether participants will be asked for their
informed consent to be observed.
Yes No
Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e give them a brief
explanation of the study)?
Yes No
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Will participants be given information about the findings of your study? (This could be a
brief summary of your findings in general)
Yes No
Section 4: Data Storage and Security
Confirm that all personal data will be stored and processed in compliance with the Data
Protection Act (1998)
Yes No
Who will have access to the data and personal information?
The organisation and research will access data and personal information.
During the research:
Where will the data be stored?
The data will be stored in hard disk and personal computer.
Will mobile devices such as USB storage and laptops be used
Yes No
If Yes, please provide further details:
After the research:
Where will the data be stored?
The data will be stored in hard disk and personal computer.
How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format?
The data and records will be kept for long time and it will be in word format.
Will data be kept for use by other researchers? Yes No
Section 5 : Ethical Issues
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Are there any particular features of your proposed work, which may raise ethical concerns?
If so, please outline how you will deal with these:
It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may arise because
of your research. Please consider/address all issues that may apply. Ethical concerns may
include, but are not limited to the following :
 Informed consent.
 Potentially vulnerable participants.
 Sensitive topics
 Risk to participants and /or researchers
 Confidentiality/anonymity
 Disclosures/ limits to confidentiality
 Data storage and security, both during and after the research (including
transfer, sharing, encryption, protection).
 Reporting
 Dissemination and use of your findings.
Section 6: Declaration
I have read, understood and will abide by the institution’s Research and Ethics Policy:
Yes No
I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my Unit Tutor:
Yes No
I confirm that to the best of my knowledge:
The above information is correct, and this is a full description of the ethical issues that
may arise in the course of my research
Name: Date:
Please submit your completed form to your supervisor and also attach to the Research
Proposal when submitting to Turnitin.
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