Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate service improvement initiatives within a major UK bank, and assess issues which may have contributed to the current financial crisis.Design/methodology/approach – Primary research includes a survey of bank staff and longitudinal on site interviews and observations over a period of five years.Findings – It is found that service improvement initiatives have focused on the use of popular business models, SERVQUAL, balanced scorecard, and European Business Excellence Model (latterly with elements of Lean). Results show that participant perceptions towards these models are generally negative, with a high incidence of failure to achieve expected results and negative organisational consequences. The paper examines the reasons for this and assesses alternative approaches now being piloted.Research limitations/implications – The results are case specific and may therefore not be generalised. The findings however present some rich insights into issues arising in...

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role that deep emotional feelings play in relation to process/service re-design and process/service improvement. It suggests that attention to these dimensions may be vital for successful and sustainable outcomes. It investigates whether these dimensions are accommodated within popular change methods such as the European business excellence model (EBEM) and the balanced scorecard (BS).

The Knowledge Management (KM) literature is reviewed with a focus on theory, finding a core issue in the lack of a widely accepted and understood definition of knowledge. Theories are categorised on the bisecting continua of personal vs. organizational knowledge, and reified knowledge vs. knowledge as social action. It is argued that a fresh approach based on the Discourse Psychology framework, and its research tool of discourse analysis, would shed new light on the primary issues. Social interaction – and therefore, language – is considered by many KM theorists to be essential to knowledge sharing and creation, yet language has not been the locus of investigation. DP views language as the site of social action, and reality construction. Consequently, a study of talk in interaction is likely to reveal more about the nature of knowledge and in particular its psychological formulation, with implications for its management.

The research follows progress with various quality initiatives over a period of the last 10 years within the financial services industry. The purpose of this paper is to identify what may be critical factors in success and failure for improvement programmes. A survey was conducted among managers and staff engaged in improvement initiatives following European Business Excellence Model. Results from the survey showed that all of the business units had discontinued following formal EBEM procedures, though some of the projects identified were ongoing. From the analysis of subsequent qualitative data, we identified 85 projects; these were grouped together into word repositories where similar characteristics were apparent: maintenance, waste, value, indulgence. The results suggest an imbalance and a lack of strategic focus in project selection with a high emphasis on maintenance and waste projects and little on value adding. The high incidence of projects failing to meet expectations is perhaps surprising. A study of cases reveals some rich insights into why this may be so, and we have derived some common factors from this. In brief, we find that integration and interdependence of disciplines and actors are key issues in determining successful outcomes in service solutions. In practice this often does not happen and is a frequent cause of failure. We find there are critical issues in strategic selection and alignment of projects, understanding and applying the principles of value definition, development and delivery to achieve a better customer focus, and the integration of change processes with organisational activity.

This chapter investigates the outcomes of service improvement initiatives undertaken within a major UK bank. It reports on the processes and outcomes from the perspective of bank employees engaged with the change initiatives. The chapter draws on the data to make recommendations for a shift in focus and a new approach Primary research consists of a survey of bank employees (sample 224) followed by depth interviews and observations. The research finds that bank change initiatives have focused on particular change models in recent years, and that there is a general feeling that these, in the majority of cases, have not achieved the expected results. The chapter investigates the reasons for this and draws on the evidence to suggest alternative approaches which are more grounded in empirical studies.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of the critical role of “managerial leadership” in total quality management (TQM) implementation in UK higher education institutions (HEIs), and to encourage further research on how to sustain management and leadership best practices for total quality improvement in higher education.Design/methodology/approachA critical review of the literature on managerial leadership provides the theoretical scope which led to the setting of research objectives. The objectives were achieved through a survey of academics and non‐academics responsible for teaching and research quality improvement in a sample of 42 UK HEIs between the period 2000 and 2005. A mix of questionnaires, interviews, inductive analysis and hypothesis testing, was used to explore, describe and to explain the nature of the relationship between the degrees of efficiency and effectiveness of quality management practices in the participating UK HEIs.FindingsThe analysis of the survey results revealed “weak” associations between the degrees of efficiency and effectiveness in the quality management practices adopted by participating UK HEIs. It provides examples of weak quality management practices as empirical evidence of “weak” association between “management efficiency” and “leadership effectiveness” in UK HEIs.Research limitations/implicationsInternational generalization of findings requires the sample size to be increased to include more HEIs from the UK and other countries with similar educational systems. Further quantitative research is needed to provide in depth explanation of the nature of the functional relationship between the degrees of effectiveness and efficiency of quality management practices in higher educational settings.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the nature of the association between the degrees of effectiveness and efficiency of quality management practices would provide a conceptual framework which would enable academics and practitioners to reflect critically on the “efficiency” and “effectiveness” of teaching and research quality improvement decisions and actions to ensure successful implementation of TQM best practices.Originality/valueUses the degrees of efficiency and effectiveness as criteria for evaluating managerial leadership in UK higher education, and recommends strengthening of the association between the criteria through continuous improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of teaching and research quality improvement practices.

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate about the current status and future directions for Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Excellence. The review of literature examines the foundations of TQM and Business Excellence, the critical issues involved in implementation, and the evidence of impact on performance. The primary research seeks to investigate these issues further by studying TQM implementations in companies over a number of years. Primary research includes a longitudinal case study analysis of 20 organisations ( 1996 2004), a discourse analysis based on interviews with staff engaged on TQM implementation, and a questionnaire survey. The results identify that there are significant issues with the way TQM is being implemented, and that these may be contributing to negative feelings and a reduced level of interest. Our conclusions suggest that in many cases TQM has lost its way. We discuss the reasons for this and propose that a root and branch review is necessary to re-vitalise interest. This we believe will require a significant re-positioning of TQM, a different approach to implementation, and a return of focus to its core values.

PurposeTo deepen the understanding and to encourage further research on leadership best practices for sustaining quality improvement in UK higher education institutions (HEIs).Design/methodology/approachThe literature on leadership provides the theoretical context for the survey of quality managers from 42 UK HEIs. A mix of questionnaires, interviews, and hypothesis testing, was used to explore the critical factors for effective leadership and to obtain descriptive accounts of leadership best practices, which led to the development of a conceptual framework for effective leadership for academic quality.FindingsIdentifies and categorizes leadership practices into “weak”, “good”, “best”, and “excellent” on the basis of efficiency and effectiveness of each practice in sustaining academic quality improvement. It provides a conceptual framework for improving “weak” leadership practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe exact nature of the association between “effective leadership” and sustainable “levels of academic quality improvement” has not been explained. This requires further research. International generalization of the findings would require the sample size of 42 UK HEIs to be extended to include institutions from other countries with similar education systems – such as the USA and Australia.Practical implicationsAcademic quality planners will become more aware of the need to improve the tasks and activities constituting leadership processes. The emphasis on a structured approach to self‐assessment of leadership performance has the potential to reverse the ranking of leadership second to processes in UK HEIs.Originality/valueIt provides explicit definitions of “weak”, “good”, “best” and “excellent” leadership practices, which UK HEIs adopting the excellence model developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) may find useful in the assessment and improvement of leadership performance towards academic excellence.

Knowledge management (KM) has emerged in recent times as a phenomenon with wide‐ranging implications for organizational innovation and competitiveness. Supporters argue that as organizations understand the value of KM, they have the opportunity to establish long‐term internal strengths, which will lead to external competitive advantage. Further, we find the current literature advocates that KM can be implemented in every organizational discipline. KM is approached from several different perspectives, and a number of these are used to structure our paper and identify emerging factors in: strategy, human resources management (HRM), information technology (IT), total quality management (TQM), and marketing. This paper presents a summary of key responses to a recent survey of FTSE 100 companies conducted by the authors, which shows that KM is an extremely popular management topic, yet relatively few organizations have serious implementation programs in place. Also presented are findings from longitudinal studies of six case organizations, which have been approaching and deploying KM over the last three years. The academic arguments for organizations to be proactive in KM are strong and compelling. Our research identifies the critical factors that respondents feel are vital for successful KM implementation, and these provide a basis for a further stage of the study which considers how best to develop appropriate performance measurements.

Presents the results of a study undertaken to investigate the status of benchmarking within the UK. Results from primary research show that some very successful projects have been undertaken, and that levels of interest among practitioners is high. Presents evidence of the impact of benchmarking projects on performance improvement, and identifies the critical factors for transfer of best practices between organizations. Results also reveal, however, that benchmarking may not be so well established as has been suggested within the literature. Presents evidence to show current trends, which reveal that many projects are narrowly focused, may be wrongly selected, and may miss vital opportunities for improvement. Identifies four areas for future discussion and research. These consider the important areas of the link between benchmarking and the strategic planning process, the development of customer benchmarking methods, the critical factors for transferring best practices across organizations, and the adaptation to post‐modern attitudes to benchmarking.

This paper presents the results of research carried out at the University of Bradford's European Centre for Total Quality Management TQM , investigating the status of TQM within the financial services industry in the UK. The research finds that at the present time the financial services industry is in a state of considerable structural change, and competition is intense. This paper explains that the case for adoption of TQM as a generic strategy is now established and overwhelming. However, it is apparent that financial services are lagging behind other sectors in this regard. The research finds that TQM is not yet well established as an overall management philosophy. The leading group have 2-3 years' experience of implementation, and are assessed as low to medium adopters when measured using the European Quality Award model. There is strong evidence to show that the leading group have achieved marked improvement in performance. The research also shows, however, that some implementations have failed to deliver expected benefits, and in some instances costs have been extremely high and the consequences of failure significant. The reasons for these differences are explored. Summary case studies are presented of five organizations from the leading group, and their approaches to implementation compared and best practices identified.