C Rajendran

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the adoption of quality management practices in engineering educational institutions (EEIs) in India from management's perspective. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was developed based on a literature review of research in quality management and based on the responses of the pilot survey among the senior faculty/management. The psychometric properties of this instrument were examined using tests of reliability and validity. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the impact of the total quality management (TQM) dimensions on institutional performance (effectiveness). Findings: Findings highlight 27 critical factors/dimensions of quality management, which analyzed the relationship between TQM dimensions and institutional performance, which has been formulated using five dimensions. Positive and significant relationships among the TQM dimensions and institutional performance have been observed. Research limitations/implications: Results of the study are dependent on the profile and number of the respondents, i.e. on the perceptions of the management. Practical implications: The paper proposes a model for achieving institutional excellence from the macro perspective of the management. Two critical factors, i.e. healthy innovative practices and feeder institution partnership have been identified as key enablers in the paper. Institutional performance (effectiveness), as a holistic construct, has been measured by five measures of performance, institution reputation and image, infrastructure quality, faculty excellence, research and industry exposure and stakeholders' satisfaction. The instrument developed can be used as a self-assessment tool in continuously measuring the overall performance of the institution's processes and systems. Originality/value: The paper focuses on EEIs. It evolved a holistic framework for institutional effectiveness and formulated a comprehensive instrument with respect to management's perceptions on quality management issues. The paper also identified five critical factors to measure institutional performance and 27 dimensions of TQM in the context of EEIs. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Purpose - This research paper aims to identify dimensions of patient-perceived total quality service (TQS) in the healthcare sector. Further, the impact of the dimensions of patient-perceived TQS on patient satisfaction is examined. Design/methodology/approach - A questionnaire has been developed based on an extensive literature review of research in service quality and based on responses of the pilot survey among patients recently discharged from hospital. The instrument thus developed has been examined for its psychometric properties using tests of reliability and validity. Multiple regression analysis has been used to examine the impact of the dimensions of patient-perceived quality on patient satisfaction. Findings - Findings highlight seven distinct dimensions of patient-perceived TQS and the relationships among them. Positive and significant relationships among the dimensions and patient satisfaction have been found. Research limitations/implications - Contribution to research on healthcare services by the development of a comprehensive instrument of patient-perceived healthcare quality. Practical implications - This instrument would enable patients to provide feedback to hospitals regarding the quality of healthcare received by them. Hospitals could use this feedback to analyze their performance, gauge patient satisfaction and benchmark their performance against competitive hospitals. Originality/value - This paper illustrates a comprehensive instrument of patient-perceived healthcare quality. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

There is considerable lack of literature with respect to service industry management, especially in the banking industry of developing economies. Attempts to bridge this gap. Critically examines the banking industry in a developing nation – India. Investigates the discrepancies among the various groups of banks in India with respect to the total quality service (TQS) dimensions (from the perspective of the management). The results indicate that the three groups of banks in India seem to vary significantly. Identifies the dimensions that contribute most to discriminating between the groups. Also computes and analyses the total quality service indices with respect to the 12 dimensions for the three groups of banks and for the banking industry as a whole and in order to ascertain the level of TQS implementation in the Indian banking scene. Offers key insights on the criticality of the different TQS dimensions with respect to the banking sector in developing economies. © 2002, MCB UP Limited

While underscoring the importance of customer (patient) satisfaction in fostering efficient delivery of healthcare services, researchers from the developed world explored the whole gamut of influencing factors, ranging from empathy of physicians and hospital infrastructure to courtesy of paramedical staff and hospital image. The hospitals in the developing world present distinct business models and service quality variations that warrant context-specific examination. In the Indian healthcare system, patients are always accompanied by their attendants who perform a plethora of functions, including facilitating the execution of physicians' recommendations. In many Indian hospitals the presence of an attendant is perceived more as an institutional norm than a personal convenience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderators and mediators in the context of healthcare service quality from the perspectives of patients and their attendants in India. The study employs a questionnaire-survey approach to obtain the perceptions of patients and attendants. The study reveals that attendants play an indispensable role in Indian context. Attendants provide physical and mental support to patients, which result in patients' satisfaction with the hospital's services. Further, attendants, by supplementing hospital activities, serve as a bridge between service providers and patients. The attendants have been found to subordinate their own personal comfort levels to the care provided by the hospital to the patients. The current research is the earliest study that explicitly addresses the role of attendants in the context of healthcare service delivery in India.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the dimensions of service quality in Indian hospitals, from the perspectives of patients and their family members/friends (referred to as “attendants”). Design/methodology/approach – Based on the existing models and the literature on healthcare services, a framework is proposed to conceptualize and measure hospital service quality. Findings – Two instruments for measuring the dimensions of hospital service quality, one each from the perspective of patients and attendants, are proposed. Practical implications – This framework enables hospital managers to understand how patients and their attendants evaluate the quality of healthcare provided in respect of every dimension. A comparison of perceptions between patients and attendants would aid them to allocate resources to various aspects of healthcare, with respect to these two customer groups. Hospital administrators can use the instruments proposed to obtain feedback on their performance on service quality parameters so that they can benchmark themselves with their competitors. Originality/value – This paper contributes to research on healthcare services by the development of a comprehensive framework for customer (both patient and attendant)-perceived healthcare quality. © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a key strategic approach for increasing organisational effectiveness and the realisation of organisational goals. Effectively selecting and evaluating suppliers and managing their involvement in the supply chain are some of the capabilities that enable Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to achieve customer satisfaction. At the same time, the suppliers have a significant and direct impact on the performance of buyers. A sustained supplier-manufacturer relationship cannot be possible without tangible benefits accrued to both the partners. The present study, by viewing the supply chain from the perspective of the OEMs and the suppliers, identifies the critical dimensions of SCM and the measures of performance. Reliable and validated instruments are developed. Conceptual models are proposed. The effect of the moderator, such as 'selection', 'long-term relationships', etc. (OEM's perspective) and 'supply chain orientation' (supplier's perspective) on the relationship between the critical dimensions of SCM and the performance measures, are investigated. The investigations reveal that from the perspectives of the OEM and supplier, the moderator has a significant and positive effect on the relationship between the critical dimensions of SCM and the performance measures. The simultaneous effect of all the moderators on the above relationship is also significant in the case of the OEM. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate scales to measure and benchmark service quality (SQ) in tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach - The second-order confirmatory factor analysis is employed to validate the instrument. SQ dimensions have been modeled which have significant impact on customer satisfaction (CS) separately from those which do not have a significant impact. Findings - Hospitality, food, logistics, security, and value for money have significant impact on satisfaction, while amenities, core-tourism experience, hygiene, fairness of price, information centers, culture, distractions, personal information, and pubs do not have a significant impact. Research limitations/implications - The above pattern may be different in a different destination, and in a different context. However, a major implication of the current findings is that a destination need not have natural cutting edges to be developed as a tourist destination. A destination with good logistics and assurance for security, value for money, impressive hospitality and food, can satisfy a customer. Practical implications - The scale which has been developed by us will be useful for destination managers to measure the SQ perceptions of tourists and benchmark destinations. The distinction of SQ dimensions with and without the impact on CS could enable a manager to manage these two sets of factors separately. Originality/value - Unlike previous works, SQ has been modeled in tourism as a second-order factor, which appears to be a more appropriate approach. The authors have also modeled factors with and without significant impact on satisfaction separately, and the approach does not seem to have precedence in literature. The inclusion of the factor, "Fairness of Price" is also a new contribution to literature. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to highlight key dimensions of provider-perceived total quality management (TQM) in the healthcare sector in India. Further, the impact of the dimensions of provider perceived TQM on hospital performance is examined. Design/methodology/approach - A questionnaire has been developed based on an extensive literature review of research in service quality and based on responses of the pilot survey among medical professionals. The instrument thus developed has been examined for its psychometric properties using tests of reliability and validity. Multiple regression analysis has been used to examine the impact of the dimensions of provider-perceived TQM on hospital performance. Findings - Findings highlight 14 distinct dimensions of provider-perceived TQM and the relationships among them. Positive and significant relationships among the dimensions and hospital performance have been found. Research limitations/implications - Contribution to research on healthcare quality by the development of a comprehensive instrument of provider-perceived healthcare quality. Practical implications - This instrument would enable hospitals to examine the quality of care being delivered by them to the patients. Hospital administrators and medical professionals could use this feedback to assess hospital performance, and benchmark their performance against that of other competitive hospitals. Originality/value - Comprehensive instrument of provider-perceived healthcare quality © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors (CFs) of ISO 14000; to determine if ISO 14000 certification results in improved organizational performance; and to analyze the levels of and changes in these CFs and levels of and changes in the indicators of organizational performance (IOPs) in relation to firm attributes considered in the present study. Design/methodology/approach - The study employs questionnaire-survey approach to obtain the practitioners' perceptions of ISO 14000 certification, levels of presence of CFs and changes in CFs due to certification, levels of presence of IOPs and changes in IOPs due to certification. The data collected have been analyzed by using statistical techniques. Findings - The firms regard the preparation for emergencies as an integral part of environmental management system (EMS), and they seem to initially struggle to identify environmental issues that are to be given higher importance. Further, the certified firms find it difficult to continuously improve their environmental management processes. There are significant changes in all the CFs and IOPs due to ISO 14000 certification. Furthermore, more-experienced firms have higher mean values of levels of all CFs, in comparison with less-experienced firms. In the course of time, these firms appear to understand the EMS and effectively implement it in order to realize long-term benefits. Research limitations/implications - Results of the study are dependent on the nature and number of respondents, i.e. on the perceptions of the top management responsible for quality certification, and the sample size (number of respondents in the current study is 36 due to limited response rate and other operational constraints). Practical implications - The present study would enable the practitioners to benchmark their organizations (in respect of levels of presence of CFs and levels of presence of IOPs) with those of their competitors, with the best-in-class, and also with the industry's mean level. The study also enables one to compare different categories of firms (e.g. firms with low, medium and high levels of turnover; national and international firms; etc.). Since, there is a significant improvement in the organizational performance due to certification, the study provides a strong empirical justification for non-certified firms to go in for ISO 14000 certification. Originality/value - The study conceptualizes ISO 14000 as a seven dimensional framework. Further, it has also identified several IOP related to ISO 14000 certified firms. A questionnaire has been developed to obtain the perceptions of top management about the ISO 14000 certification and related factors and indicators; the proposed instrument can be used for several purposes such as functional benchmarking. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Focusses on investigating the critical factors of customer perceived service quality in banks of a developing economy – India. Compares and contrasts the three groups of banks in India with respect to the service quality factors from the perspective of the customers. There seems to be a great amount of variation with respect to the level of service quality offered by the three groups of banks. Identifies the factors that discriminate the three groups of banks. Customers in developing economies seem to keep the “technological factors” of services such as core service and systematization of the service delivery as the yardstick in differentiating good and bad service while the “human factors” seem to play a lesser role in discriminating the three groups of banks. The service quality indices with respect to the three groups and the Indian banking industry as whole, offer interesting information on the level of service quality delivered by banks in India. © 2003, MCB UP Limited