ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH TO TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF DIAMOND BANK PLC)

CHAPTER ONE

1.0        INTRODUCTION

1.1        PREAMBLE

The information super highway has turned the world into a global village. Organisations are facing the kind of competition that was not envisaged a few years ago. They have to compete with goods and services from all over the world and satisfy a more educated and sophisticated customer. What is satisfactory to the customers today may not be regarded as such tomorrow as their expectations are continuously changing. In addition, there has been consistent breakthrough in science and technology over the last couple of decades. This has also affected information dissemination and management, as things earlier thought impossible now look ordinary.

Moreover, the fall-outs of a deregulated global competition have offered customers choices among various alternatives. Today, customers demand high quality and low price. Since no one organisation can boast of holding franchise to the development and delivery of quality products/services, many organisations have embraced the Total Quality Management concept as a way of survival.

One tenet of this management philosophy, which many organisations have adopted as a fundamental business strategy, is the concept of continuous improvement. No organisation can afford to be competitive if it does not continuously improve on its products/services, processes and people.

There is therefore, an urgent need for an organisation-wide approach and commitment to quality improvement. In addition, there is the need for quality improvement to be a continuous exercise or phenomenon. Over the years, this realisation has led to the development of the "Total Quality Management Concept".

The questions bothering a great number of Nigerian Management Scholars and

Practitioners are:

1.  If TQM is all about continuously improving value to customers, why has DBPlc as an organisation shown lukewarm attitude to this management philosophy?

2.  Where it has been implemented, why has DB PLC refused to set aglow the initial zeal of commitment to continuous quality improvement beyond the prime years of its implementation?

3.  Why have so little impact been felt from TQM on the success of Nigerian businesses relative to those of foreign counterparts?

4.  Are companies in Nigeria aware of the difficulties that lie ahead if they do not meet international quality standards? If they do, are they doing anything about it? It is these questions and many more that this study will seek to address.

1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

New competitive strategies have ruptured established management doctrines and rendered conventional methods of products/services development and delivery obsolete. Competition has become so high in all fronts that the time is now when DBPlc will only survive by making a difference. This is the reason John Young, President of Hewlett-Packard once said: "In order to compete in a global economy, our products, systems and services must be of a higher quality than our competition. Increasing Total Quality is our number one priority here at Hewlett-Packard". To customers by creating unimagined but specially tailored products and services, to employees by opening every avenue for personal aspiration and contribution, and to managers by creating a new competitive space to build not merely a career but a legacy.

Increased expectation and demands on the part of customers in every area of organisational life have taken the centre stage. The days are gone when banks could rest on their laurels and claim to hold franchise to best quality products and services. The continual wave of technological and environmental change have turned several organisations into bystanders on the road to the future, and have made their structures, processes and skills become progressively less attuned to the ever-changing realities of the demands and expectations of present day customers.

While the rule of the game today in all industry segments is continuous improvement of processes, systems and skills, many banks do not possess a keen sense of urgency required to reinvent the needs of the current business model. Quality improvement and service delivery is still seen by many organisations today, not as a way of survival but as optional extras. Even on occasions where a good number of organisations attempt improvement efforts, they merely focus on catching up to competitors instead of focusing on those activities that will create new advantages to their goal. They make quality improvement efforts only as a benchmark to bridge the competitive edge enjoyed by others.

The above mentioned trends are very common with Nigerian organisations. With the current set-up of democratic cultures and ideals, our economy will definitely open up to international investment. Already, Nigeria is a signatory to the Trade Agreement under the Wodd Trade Organisation. This agreement has some clauses touching on quality. For instance, organisations without ISO 9000 series certification will very soon not be able to export their products to some countries, especially to Europe and Asia.

There is going to be increased foreign participation in the economy. For instance, some fully foreign-owned the Central Bank of Nigeria has just licensed banks. With this trend, participants in the economy should be prepared to produce goods and services that will compete at the international stage. The economy is in depression, the average purchasing power is declining, and the cost of doing business is still rising, and as expected companies is declaring very poor results. While warehouses are filled up with unsold inventory, there is growing incidence of dumping of cheaper products especially from the Asian countries. The successful implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) will assist DBPlc to position themselves for the challenges ahead.

The problem however, is that most organisations in Nigeria today seem to be paying only lip service to TQM implementation. To what extent are executives in Nigerian companies aware of the impending pressures on them to conform to quality standards? Even those who may be aware, what practical steps are they taking to ensure conformity? The research project shall be designed to provide insight into these and other related problems.

Nigeria is currently facing a myriad of environmental problems. We have the oil spillage and environmental degradation especially in the oil producing Niger Delta area. The cry over the fumes being "pumped" out of various factories across the land is unending. Many organisations dump their refuse and other waste products indiscriminately without care for the environment. There is health hazard and other ecological problems and we begin to wonder, haven't organisations in Nigeria, especially the manufacturing and oil producing companies, heard about the ISO 14000 series?

1.3       OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

An organization that adopts a total quality management approach will not only survive but also increase its market share while the one that does not, will hardly survive. There is still the mentality of "if it is produced in Nigeria, the quality is inferior". There is a continuous increase in the level of importation of goods and services into the country because of this belief that they are of higher quality. As we face the new millennium with its challenges, this study will help to determine the level ofTQM adoption in Nigeria and what most organisations may need to do in order to be ready. The study will indicate if there are things that are being done wrongly and how to take the corrective steps. The study will among other things achieve the following objectives:

1.  Establish the level of awareness and appreciation of TQM in Nigeria.

2.  Establish how well the concept is understood by those who have attempted to implement it.

3.  Identify the various approaches that were adopted by organisations that have implemented TQM.

4.  Determine the level of success recorded in the implementation of TQM.

5.  Identify the reasons for the success or failure of some organisations in the implementation ofTQM.

6.  Establish the level of awareness of the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 requirements.

1.4       BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Recent studies on the subject of Total Quality Management and some other contributions on related subjects have indicated that there exist considerable potential benefits in implementing TQM. It seems however that the awareness of the concept and its principles is still very low and therefore not much has been done to actualise the benefits. For organisations that have attempted to implement TQM, the results do not seem to support the effort. We have witnessed in Nigeria for instance banks that publicly professed TQM and today have gone under. This situation seems to suggest that success is dependent to a great deal on approach to implementation.

There are many persons and organisations that are not well informed and may have the view that TQM focus only on meeting and exceeding customer needs. It is worthy of note, however, that there is a growing body of evidence that TQM is the way in a globally competitive market place to produce superior long-term financial value for the stakeholders. Again organisations that adopted quality management practices have in nearly all cases, achieved better employee relations, higher productivity, greater customer satisfaction, increased market share, and improved profitability. Also, quality organisations that have implemented Total Quality Management practices have on focusing on competition improved processes and systems through competitive benchmarking.

Apart from the above-enumerated benefits, the study will in its course reveal other potential benefits attributable to the successful implementation of TQM practices.

            1.5       SCOPE OF THE STUDY

In other to get true picture of what TQM is, it would have been of great importance to get varieties of organizations but due to constraint and time factor this study is limited to top management of DBPlc from the full managers up to the Executive directors, also the staff of the bank on their perspective since the bank is focused on providing quality service to its customers in the emerging post 25 Billion naira. This will enable us to find out how the bank is using or intend to, use the TQM.

1.6       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significant of this study is to get the level of awareness of TQM in organization like DBPlc. Look at its implementation and importance in the organisation. What top management are doing and what they have done in the past. The knowledge of the employees and the top management on what TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT is all about. It is basically to buttress the importance of TQM to DBPlc management and staff.

1.7       RESEARCH QUESTION

To achieve the objectives of the study, the following hypotheses have been formulated:

1.    Many organisations in Nigeria are not aware of the Total Quality Management concept

2.  Many organisations have implemented Total Quality Management successfully.

3.     In Nigeria, there is no deep knowledge of the principles of Total Quality Management.

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