Total Quality Management

Abstract

Eight hotel managers in Valencia, Spain, identified what criteria they considered important for a hotel's TQM program. Those findings were then compared to the results of standard EFQM studies (European Foundation for Quality Management), and the differences noted and analyzed. Given the categories of leadership, policy and strategy, personnel management, resources, and processes, hoteliers rated "resources" as far and away the most important factor relative to the others, and, surprisingly, rated "personnel management" and "leadership" as relatively unimportant. By comparison, EFQM studies ranked those same factors in this order, from most to least important: processes, leadership, policy and strategy and personnel management (tied), and resources. The hoteliers' emphasis on "resources" may be because that factor comprises such elements as the hotel's actual premises, services, and location. The hotel sector in particular tends to depend on the quality of services delivered (resources) rather than on motivating its managers to lead the search for quality and continuous improvement (leadership and human-resources management).