Total Quality Management for Sustainability: A Research Proposal

This research proposal investigates the utilization of Total Quality Management (TQM) as a key factor for the sustainability of Safety and Fire Consultation (SFC) Companies. The study aims to determine whether the implementation of TQM principles, including continued process improvement, cultural enhancement, employee commitment, customer focus, management commitment, and education and training, can positively impact the long-term viability of SFC businesses. The research employs a mixed-method approach, combining a review of existing literature with primary data collection through questionnaires distributed to professionals within the SFC industry. The proposal outlines the research model, questions, objectives, and hypotheses, which explore the relationships between TQM factors and corporate sustainability. The findings are expected to provide valuable insights for SFC companies, guiding them in adopting and refining quality management practices to meet future challenges and build more resilient business strategies. The research also intends to contribute to academic knowledge in the field, offering a roadmap for future studies.

Research Proposal
To analyze TQM as Sustainability for Fire and Safety Consultation Company

Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to understand the utilization of Total Quality Management for the
sustainability of Safety and Fire Consultation Companies. The study will help the companies in
Safety and Fire Consultation (SFC) business in understanding whether the consideration of
factors of Total Quality Management will be fruitful for the business in making it sustainable.
Moreover, the research will act as guide for the academicians who are interested in conducting
further research in this area.
Design/Methodology/Approach
Various research papers developed by other researchers have been consulted to understand the
research that has been done in this field so far. Moreover, a questionnaire was prepared in
relation to the research question and will be distributed to the target respondents who are in the
SFC industry.
Findings
The study has just reached preliminary stage of understanding the topic by referring to the
various research papers. The research papers have helped in developing the research model
where the various factors of TQM have been identified. These factors led to the development of
certain hypotheses which will be proved or disproved using the primary data collection and
analysis.
Practical Implications
It is expected that the results obtained through this research will have fruitful implication for the
companies working in the SFC industry. It will help them understand the organizational factors
related to quality which need to be discarded and those that need to be embraced for the
continued sustainability of the organization.
Originality/Value
The current research will help the companies build a sustainable business that can tackle the
future challenges more effectively and efficiently. Moreover, it will help the companies to build
better strategies after analyzing the current situation and the goal it wants to achieve in the
future.

Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Problem Statement...........................................................................................................................3
Research Model...............................................................................................................................3
Research Questions..........................................................................................................................4
Research Objectives.........................................................................................................................4
Hypotheses.......................................................................................................................................5
Significance of Research.................................................................................................................5
Literature Review............................................................................................................................5
Research Methodology....................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7
Self-Assessment...............................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Total Quality Management refers to the way companies can manage the overall quality of their
business, improve the product quality, and satisfy the customers’ demand (George and
Weimerskirch, 1998). There is belief that the sustainability of the companies can be ensured
when the companies rely on managing the qualities within the business. However, there are most
of the areas that need to be considered which have been rarely covered through the various
researches in the past. The paper has tried to understand the importance of total quality
management with the Safety and Fire Consultation Company and its sustainability.
This paper has identified some of the problem areas that have been discussed in the next section.
Moreover, the rest of the section is concerned with developing the research model, questions,
and objectives which will guide the paper ahead. Moreover, suitable hypotheses have been
developed based on the literature studies and the methodology has have been devised which will
be used to conduct the whole research.
Problem Statement
The Safety and Fire Consultation Companies are established keeping in purview the need of the
customers in understanding the issues they can face in implementing the processes to ensure
proper fire safety and security. Though there is concern about the use of Total Quality
Management as a management tool within the company to ensure that the company sustain for
the longer period.
Such companies care about the other companies’ and organization’s fire and safety issues.
Therefore, it becomes imperative that its own processes are up to the mark so that it can deliver
the result with complete reliability.
Considering the above in purview, the problem of managing the internal process in a better way
and desire to implement Total Quality Management for Sustainability will be the major area for
the discussion throughout this research.
Research Model
The model below shows the various factors that contribute to the total quality management and
the way the overall factors combined develops to the sustainability. The model depicts continued
process improvement, cultural improvement, employee commitment, customer focus,
management commitment, and education and training as the vital factors of TQM which
eventually converts into sustainability of the business. These factors have been identified through
the consultation of various literatures which have been discussed in the Literature Review
section.

Research Questions
Mentioned below are the research questions that have been developed for this paper:
- Why TQM is important within an organization?
- What are the factors that contribute to TQM?
- What are the factors that contribute to Corporate Sustainability?
- What can be expected after following through TQM within an organization?
- Whether achievement of sustainability is possible through TQM?
Research Objectives
Mentioned below are the research objectives that will be achieved through this research study:
- To identify the factors that are important for Total Quality Management
- To understand the correlation between TQM and the Corporate Sustainability
- To understand the importance of total quality management for the organization as a tool
of sustainability

Hypotheses
Mentioned below are the hypotheses that have been developed after the thorough study of the
literatures which have been reflected in the next section:
- H1: Continued process improvement within the organization leads to sustainability
- H2: Cultural improvement within the organization leads to sustainability
- H3: Employee commitment within the organization leads to sustainability
- H4: Customer Focus within the organization leads to sustainability
- H5: Recognition and Rewards within the organization leads to sustainability
- H6: Management Commitment within the organization leads to sustainability
- H7: Education and Training within the organization leads to sustainability
- H8: Total Quality Management within the organization leads to sustainability
Significance of Research
The research which is being conducted is for the Safety and Fire Consultation Companies that
are operating in the country. The research will help these companies understand the importance
of total quality management and whether the implementation of factors concerned with the total
quality management will be beneficial for them. Moreover, the research will act as the roadmap
for the future researches that might be conducted in this field. The research will investigate the
various factors, as stated earlier, and will try to understand whether they are suitable for the
companies to adopt and improve their sustainability. In nutshell, it can be stated that the current
research paper will act as the guiding light for the Safety and Fire Consultation companies and
other organizations in general. Moreover, the individuals from academic field will also find this
research beneficial and fruitful if they intend to research in the same field.
Literature Review
Alex Douglas (2000), in his research has stated that almost 85 percent of the businesses
terminate their operations each day around the world every day. The researcher has vaguely
indicated that the inclusion of proper quality management within the organization could have
helped these organizations sustain in the competitive environment. Some of the researchers
(Kanji et al, 1999; Porter and Parker, 1993; McAdam, 1999; Yusof and Aspinwall, 1999) have
defined the Total Quality Management consisting of various factors. Continued process
improvement is being considered as the one that has major implication on the business
effectiveness. It is considered that the businesses that continuously strive for the improving its
process, generally do good in the longer time as it effectively strengthens its quality. Moreover, it
has been realized by some of the researchers (Powell, 1995; Tata and Prasad, 1998;
Sureshchandar et al, 2001) that striving towards improving the operational or other processes
leads to the increase in the pace of conducting daily businesses and stay ahead of the
competitors. Cultural improvement has also been identified by some of the researchers (Lawler

et al, 1992; Flood, 1991; Boaden, 1997) as the way to improve the way people behave, act, and
work within the organization and achieve certain goals and objectives. Moreover, it has been
identified that the organizations those have appreciable culture, attracts good employees which
eventually converts into longer run up of the companies by beating the competition in the race
with the help of better human resources.
Employee commitment and the management commitment have also been identified as the most
important aspect (Sulsky, 1999; Mowday et al, 1979). The commitment from the employees
generally depends on the way employees are treated within the organization and thus greatly
relates to the cultural improvement. The commitment from the management is what makes the
organization effective as the employees understand that management is supportive and willing to
support their actions. Moreover, the employees feel motivated and commit more to the
organization when their efforts are recognized and they are rewarded adequately. It has been
observed by most of the researchers (Wong, 1999; Sun, 1999; Koch and Fisher, 1998) that
providing proper training and education to the employees eventually converts to benefitting the
organization in return. These elements help the organization fight competition in a better way
with the help of improved and committed human resources.
Some of the researchers (Hackman & Wageman, 1995; Samson & Terziovski, 1999; Agus et al,
2000) have observed that driving the whole organization towards the customers can also improve
the organization to greater extent. The satisfied customers tend to revisit the company or refer
someone which eventually grows the company further. Therefore, investment on the customer
satisfaction and continuous training of the employees to focus on the customers is likely to raise
the organization to a whole new level.
In summary, it can be stated from this literature review that factors such as continued process
improvement, cultural improvement, employee commitment, customers focus, recognition and
reward, management commitment, and education and training tend to improve the quality of the
overall organization and help the company fight the competition. However, there is no direct
correlational study regarding the TQM and the sustainability. This research is focused on filling
the same gap.
Research Methodology
The research methodologies are concerned with the developing the way that can be followed
through while involving in a study. The study is concerned with considering primary and
secondary approach for the study. The literature review above has helped in preparing right
hypotheses which needs to be proved or disproved to reach certain conclusion. Primary research
has been considered for the purpose of data collection from the various respondents and then
analyzing those data using specific statistical tools to reach the results. The secondary research
was concerned with the collection of previous research papers developed by various researchers
and conducting a comprehensive study in quest to find out the answers to the defined research

questions. However, the research papers failed to satisfy the need and ground zero analysis
seems evident. The sections ahead discuss the population size that has been decided to collect the
data, design of the sample, collection of data, and the methods to analyze the data.
Research Design
The research design for this paper achieved a suitable procedure as required by the topic in the
discussion. The research initiated with clear identification of research problem and then it was
justified why the research is being conducted and its significance for the suitable audience.
Moreover, various research papers vaguely or completely related to the research topic has been
analyzed and certain hypotheses have been reached. The sub-sections ahead takes care of the rest
of the research design which is about describing the methods that can be employed to analyze the
data from the chosen sample size. These methods are supposed to prove whether the hypotheses
defined in the beginning are true or false.
Population
As stated earlier that the primary data is required for the further study, therefore a population
needs to be identified whom the questions will be asked to understand the subject. Moreover, as
the research is primarily concerned with the Safety and Fire Consultation Company in the
country. Therefore, the population that will be considered for the research will have following
characteristics:
- Population is employed in the Safety and Fire Consultation industry
- They are into the industry for not less than 5 years and has held any type of key positions
within their respective organization. The key position referred here is at least above the
middle level managers.
Sample Design
The sample size that will be considered for the study will be hundred in number. The
questionnaire distributed will be more than hundred; it can be even 150 questionnaire
distribution. The reason behind this is the consideration that the most of the respondent might not
turn up the response or the questionnaire might not reach them in the first place. Whatever, be
the situation, it has been decided that hundred will be final response list after removing the entire
partially filled questionnaire or subtracting the responses not received. The number 100 has been
decided for the brevity of the research and calculation.
Moreover, the convenience sampling method will be employed to collect the data. The
convenience sampling has been used so that it will allow the researcher to collect data from the
population easily available for the data collection. The action is intended to save time and
money.
Data Collection

The data collection will be done by using the questionnaire prepared by the researcher. The
questionnaire will be focused on collecting the various data sets related to the respondents such
as the number of years they have spent working in the industry and the number of times they
have held key positions.
The collection of data will be done by distributing the questionnaires to the respondents through
the emails and they will be given ample amount of time to respond to the questionnaire. It will be
on the respondents’ discretion that whether they want to respond to any specific questions in the
provided sheet. The data collection will be done for in 3-4 months. This time phase has been
taken as most of the time the researcher might have to do continuous follow up to get the
questionnaire filled.
Data Analysis
The data analysis will be conducted using the SPSS software. The SPSS version 16.0 will be
used for the study as the current version is not available with the researcher. The SPSS software
is being distributed by IBM for the purpose of data analysis. The collected data will be passed
through descriptive and correlation analyses. The former will help in taking a bird’s eye at the
data set and the later will help in understanding the correlation between the various variables
chosen for the study and the strength of relationship between them.
References
George, S. and Weimerskirch, A. (1998). Total quality management. New York: John Wiley.
Douglas, A., & Glen, D. (2000). Integrated management systems in small and medium
enterprises. Total Quality Management, 11(4-6), 686-690.
Kanji, G. K., Malek, A., & Tambi, B. A. (1999). Total quality management in UK higher
education institutions. Total Quality Management, 10(1), 129-153.
Porter, L. J., & Parker, A. J. (1993). Total quality management—the critical success factors.
Total quality management, 4(1), 13-22.
McAdam, R. (1999). Life after ISO 9000: An analysis of the impact of ISO 9000 and total
quality management on small businesses in Northern Ireland. Total Quality Management, 10(2),
229-241.
Yusof, S. R. M., & Aspinwall, E. (1999). Critical success factors for total quality management
implementation in small and medium enterprises. Total Quality Management, 10(4-5), 803-809.
Powell, T. C. (1995). Total quality management as competitive advantage: a review and
empirical study. Strategic management journal, 16(1), 15-37.

Tata, J., & Prasad, S. (1998). Cultural and structural constraints on total quality management
implementation. Total Quality Management, 9(8), 703-710.
Sureshchandar, G. S., Rajendran, C., & Anantharaman, R. N. (2001). A conceptual model for
total quality management in service organizations. Total quality management, 12(3), 343-363.
Lawler, E. E., Mohrman, S. A., & Ledford, G. E. (1992). Employee involvement and total quality
management: Practices and results in Fortune 1000 companies. Jossey-Bass Inc Pub.
Flood, R. L. (1991). Implementing total quality management through total systems intervention:
A creative approach to problem solving in Diagnostic Biotechnology (PTE) Ltd. In Systems
Thinking in Europe (pp. 43-59). Springer US.
Boaden, R. J. (1997). What is total quality management… and does it matter?. Total Quality
Management, 8(4), 153-171.
Sulsky, L. M. (1999). Review of Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and
application (Vol. 40, No. 4, p. 383). Canadian Psychological Association.
Mowday, R. T., Steers, R. M., & Porter, L. W. (1979). The measurement of organizational
commitment. Journal of vocational behavior, 14(2), 224-247.
Wong, A. (1999). Total quality management in the construction industry in Hong Kong: A
supply chain management perspective. Total Quality Management, 10(2), 199-208.
Sun, H. (1999). Diffusion and contribution of total quality management: an empirical study in
Norway. Total Quality Management, 10(6), 901-914.
Koch, J. V., & Fisher, J. L. (1998). Higher education and total quality management. Total
Quality Management, 9(8), 659-668.
Hackman, J. R., & Wageman, R. (1995). Total quality management: Empirical, conceptual, and
practical issues. Administrative science quarterly, 309-342.
Samson, D., & Terziovski, M. (1999). The relationship between total quality management
practices and operational performance. Journal of operations management, 17(4), 393-409.
Agus, A., Krishnan, S. K., & Kadir, S. L. S. A. (2000). The structural impact of total quality
management on financial performance relative to competitors through customer satisfaction: a
study of Malaysian manufacturing companies. Total Quality Management, 11(4-6), 808-819.

Self-Assessment
After the development of the research proposal, I came to the understanding that collating the
various research papers together and then reaching a comprehensive conclusion was the
challenging part. I found myself comfortable with working with the methodology section and
defining the population to whom questions will be sent for the response.