An analysis of the impact of total quality management on

employee performance in fast food industry 2(2)

1. Page1 AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF TOTAL QUALITY

MANAGEMENT ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN FAST

FOOD INDUSTRY, UK A Case Study on Mc Donald’s

WORDCOUNT:2418 StudentName: StudentID:

2. Page2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction

.........................................................................................................

..........................3 1.1 Rationale of this

Study................................................................................................

...............4 1.2 Research

Aims.................................................................................................

..........................4 1.3 Research

objectives.........................................................................................

..........................4 1.4 Research Question

.........................................................................................................

...........4 2. Literature

Review.............................................................................................
...............................6 2.1 Total Quality Management

........................................................................................................

6 2.2 Top Management Commitment

.................................................................................................7 2.3

Customer

Focus...............................................................................................

..........................7 2.4

Benchmarking..................................................................................

.........................................8 2.5

Training............................................................................................

........................................8 2.6 Employee Focus

.........................................................................................................

...............9 2.7 Employee Performance Improvement

........................................................................................9 2.11

Conceptual

Framework.......................................................................................

...................10 3. Research Design and

Methodology....................................................................................
............10 3.1 Type of

Investigation.....................................................................................

..........................11 3.2 Data Collection

Method.............................................................................................

..............12 3.3 Sampling

Method.............................................................................................

.......................13 3.4 Accessibility Issues

.........................................................................................................

.........13 3.5 Ethical

Issues..............................................................................................

.............................14 3.6 Data Analysis Plan

.........................................................................................................

..........14 3.6 Research Limitations

.........................................................................................................

......15 4.

Timetable.........................................................................................

............................................16 5. References
.........................................................................................................

..........................17 Please visit our site for fitness products

3. Page3 1. Introduction Total Quality Management is the

organizational strategy that aims at ensuring the overall quality

and quality awareness in every part of organizational processes

and activities. This research will examine the influence of TQM as

a management strategy, on employee performance. The existing

trend of TQM practised in organizations has created the attention

for this study. As said earlier, the aim is to find the relation

between TQM and employee performance based on the case of

McDonald’s, UK. Currently one of the popular managerial

strategies, the TQM was first introduced in the 1950 and has been

popularizing ever since. The total quality is related to the

elements of a firm that attempts to provide proper value to its

customers (2012 Awards for Excellence, 2013). Its important for

both service and manufacturing companies. And as for fast food

industry, like Mc Donald’s, which is more involved in providing

unique customer service value than just selling fast foods, TQM is
a major thing to consider. This research will show how TQM plays

the role on employee performance. Before proceeding to further

discussion, a short summary on McDonald’s might be helpful.

McDonald’s is the multinational fast food company originated in

the USA in the1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald and Ray

Kroc. McDonald’s had started its journey in the UK around 40

years ago. Even though UK is not the birth place of McDonald’s,

but it definitely is a home for the fast food giant. The Company

has somewhat around 70 franchise restaurants, 150 franchise

partners in the UK. It employs more than 100000 people here.

The management of the company, UK, US or wherever, is

dedicated in preserving the quality it provides. They are

determined in establishing the right strategies, implement the

effective policies and ensure that the employees comply with

them. And it is said that it’s the strong system that is behind the

tremendous success of the company. “It's not hamburgers. It's not

the commercials. It's not massive corporate contracts with Disney

and Coke. It's systems.”

4. Page4 1.1 Rationale ofthis Study TQM plays a significant role

in creating customer loyalty towards the company. It is because

the matter of quality has always been a vital part in any industry

(Anon, 2015). Reality is that the quality, especially the service

quality, creates the strong bridge between the customer and the

company. It motivates the customers and creates new loyal

customers. The study will help to understand the influence of

TQM on employees’ performance in a real world scenario from

the perspective of the McDonald’s. This research ultimately will

help the small industries particularly the fast food ones to develop

similar approaches in their own areas to become a market

catcher. In the study of business, it is important to know about

TQM in the real life case. That is why the study demands an

attention and a research on this matter is very important for

educational and practical purposes. Please visit our site for fitness

products 1.2 ResearchAims The aim of this research is to analyse

the impact of TQM on the employee performance in the

McDonald’s, UK. This study will scrutinize how employees are

delivering output to the system and what impact it has on the

ultimate revenue of the company and its productivity level 1.3

Researchobjectives The objectives of this research are; 1. To

assess the dimensions and components of total quality

management,

5. Page5 2. To analyse different dimensions and aspects that

needs to be considered for employee performance, 3. To analyse

the different roles played by Total Quality Management for

employee performance improvement based on the case of

McDonalds as the representative of UK’s fast food industry, 4. To

recommend improvements or suggestions needed for the TQM

approach for improving employee performance. 1.4

ResearchQuestion This research on TQM will study following

questions- 1. What are the dimensions and components of TQM?

2. What are the dimensions and aspects for improving

performances of the employees? 3. What are the roles played by

TQM for improving performances of the employees? 4. What are

the recommendations for the company regarding it’s TQM to

improve employee performance level? Please visit our site for

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6. Page6 2. Literature Review 2.1 Total Quality Management

TQM is the management strategy that aims at gaining long term

success through increased customer satisfaction. The system

stands on the basis of principle of staff commitment to maintain

the high organizational and operational performance (Bader,

2006). The definition clearly states that the approach benefits the

firm, its staffs, its management and all others through customer

satisfaction. It is not just a mere process; it applies to the whole

organization. The approach consists of 8 principles;  Customer

focus  Leadership  Involvement of personnel  Process

approach  System approach to management  Continual

Improvement  Factual decision making approach  Supplier

relation based on mutual benefits Why the approach is necessary

for corporations like the McDonald’s; there are various reasons.

First better TQM would help McDonalds gain competitiveness in

the fast food industry through customer satisfaction and

operational efficiency. Secondly, TQM creates a growth oriented

culture where employees would provide their best effort to make

the organization successful and expanded

7. Page7 locally and globally. Thus, TQM creates a work

environment successful and productive. Besides, proper

management of operations eliminates extra stress for both the

management and staffs. 2.2 TopManagement Commitment Top

level management directly participating in important operations of

the organization is termed as the top management commitment.

In a quality management approach this includes;  Serving on and

setting up a quality board.  Designing and establishing policies

that ensure quality,  Supplying resources and training

opportunities  Controlling the whole process (Gil et al., 2013)

The research will investigate the weight of top management

commitment in the Mc Donald’s. 2.3 Customer Focus Customer

focus follows the top management commitment. Because a

committed management will definitely aim at creating a customer

focus organizational pattern. The organizational design to serve

its customers is termed as customer focus. A customer focused

organization is half way to success. And customers of a firm can

only be satisfied if the staffs are motivated towards firm’s goals.

The firm must deploy a proper customer relationship which will be

a long term commitment. Through quality management, the firm

can effectively implement a customer focused environment (Mc

Caffery, Burton and Richardson, 2009). This research will study

the customer focus aspect of McDonald’s and the effectiveness of

the program.

8. Page8 2.4 Benchmarking When an organization wants to

establish customer focused business strategy, it must establish

some benchmarks for the firm to strictly abide by. Benchmark is

the firm’s operational, strategic and overall quality compared with

the previously agreed upon standards. For example, the

McDonald’s will establish certain benchmarks in regard that; 

What and where progress are required,  To check on the

performance of the competitors like KFC, Burger King etc.  To

use any new information available. Without a proper benchmark,

a disciplined development can never be made (O'Donnell, 2004).

A benchmark will also identify what the McDonald’s is expecting

from its staffs and to what extent. Please visit our site for fitness

products 2.5 Training Not just a benchmark will act upon itself; it

requires proper actions from the management as well. After

setting up a standard, the management must make sure whether

the staffs are in line with them. If there are any deficiencies, they

must be corrected (Roy, 2005). If the employees or the staffs

cannot reach the benchmark by default, then they must be

provided with proper training. Training will help them reach the

target and provide better output to the firm. A firm may not

automatically get a group of required skilful staff, so it must create

them.

9. Page9 2.6 Employee Focus Training will fit the employees for

the job, but may necessarily not motivate them providing the firm

with better output (Shishebori and Zeinal Hamadani, 2009).

Nowadays companies like McDonald’s are more employee

friendly than ever. Because it is a known fact that a set of satisfied

and loyal employees will help create a set of loyal and satisfied

customers, which will ultimately lead to the greater good of the

firm itself. Therefore the firms activities, policies, strategies and

such other matters should be employee focused (TQM Reviewers

2013 volume, 2013). The interests of the staffs should not be

deserted y the management. The research will also highlight this

discussion on employee focus strategies of Mc Donald’s as a

matter influencing the employee performance. 2.7 Employee

Performance Improvement And finally after all the above points

are implemented, the firm then gets the assurance that the

employees performance will lead to effectiveness and efficiency in

the business and operational processes (Gitlow and Gitlow,

2005). When the firm, for example the McDonald’s has

implemented the total quality management effectively, the

employees will themselves be driven toward the organizational

goal and earn more profit to the firm by the process of,  Zero
defects in the customer service,  Business process improvement,

 Customer satisfaction. And thus the whole research will step by

step analyse the employee performance improvement through an

effective TQM approach on the context of the McDonald’s.

10. Page10 Please visit our site for fitness products 2.11

Conceptual Framework The above points develop the following

conceptual framework for the study; Total Quality Management

Top Management commitment Customer Focus Benchmarking

Training Employee Focus Employee performance Improvement

Process Improvement

11. Page11 3. Research Design and Methodology 3.1 Type of

Investigation An effective research must not be chosen randomly.

Appropriateness and application are essentially considered. The

diverse data collection source and wide range of data gives the

study an exploratory nature. The organizational performance

based on employee involvement as influenced by the total quality

management of the company is investigated in this research. This

is a two dimensional managerial activity, one layer is responsible

on implementation of TQM and the other is inspecting and

controlling employee performance. To get the whole point in a

snapshot, the research investigation would follow the given study

methods; Study Method Description Correlation Will measure

strength of relation between TQM and employee performance

Experiment Analyzing the change in TQM process of Mc to see

the effect on employee performance Interview To gain necessary

info from managers and employees Questionnaire survey How

customer group and employee group perceives the effect of TQM

in the Mc. Therefore, the type of investigation has to be of an

exploratory type. Because an exploratory interview incorporates

the mentioned study methods. Justification of investigation type

12. Page12 The variables that we are to analyze in this study are

of such nature that more field or survey work is required. The

variables are not financial in nature nor are they entirely

descriptive. Even though, the investigation has to be based on

several hypothesizes but they need to be accurate and related to

real life scenario. Thus, the investigation being exploratory is

justified. 3.2 Data CollectionMethod Data collection is very crucial

and methods for data collection need to be appropriate.

Quantitative data in respect of company’s productivity level will be

found in financial statements. For the study both qualitative and

quantitative data will be chosen from primary and secondary

sources. Primary sources will be direct interviews and

questionnaires. An internet questionnaire will be provided to the

sample of employees. And as for secondary data the sources

must be reliable, and only done by the McDonald’s itself. The

qualitative data will be scrutinized and thoroughly checked for

errors and biasness. Such data can be collected using an

interpretive approach. After collecting the data, they will be

brought under statistical analysis. There are different correlation

tools in statistics to find relation between two sets of related data.

Such analysis needs a strong skill, which must be maintained for

at least to a certain level. Questionnaires should be prepared

using a proper mix of open ended and close ended questions.

Close ended questions will be non-restrictive to sufficient data

collection. And on the other hand, close ended questions will not

be of an amount that will bore the surveyees. A sit down talk with

management will be done in order to get necessary information

about how productive and job involved the employees are and

how the management is implementing the TQM. Justification of

data collection procedure The investigation being exploratory in

type, the data collection will mostly include field works like

surveys, interviews; and there will be some financial data

collection involved to get the accurate picture of TQM and

employee performance. But in case of collecting financial data,

there’s little scope to study annual reports as they do not include

much related info. So, field works are the only justifiable process

for the data collection.

13. Page13 3.3 Sampling Method Random sampling method will

be used to ensure a variety in the sample size and neutrality of

data. Moreover, random sampling method would be a cost saving

approach to data collection. Because quality and employee

performance of the McDonald’s is almost similar in all of its

restaurants, any complex sampling tool will be quite unnecessary.

The samples will include 150 employees and 150 customers as

well. 10 restaurants will be chosen from separate locations.

Timing and neutrality will be considered choosing the samples.

Justification of sampling method Random sampling is a sampling

and most appropriate sampling method in cases where the

population does not contain extremes. When we are analysing

employees for employee performance and customers for total

quality, there are very little issues of any side extreme. So random

sampling is the right process for the study. Justification of sample

size When we are studying an entire industry and an entire

customer population, 150*150 is a justified sample size for not

being too big or too small related to the subject matter of study.

3.4 Accessibility Issues There are some accessibility issues

regarding the investigation that bars from getting the whole

picture. The company, for very logical reasons, would not allow

access to company’s internal files or reports. To study the

customers, the researcher might need government census which

in fact the

14. Page14 researcher might hardly get due to various time and

legal constraints. Other than these, the researcher would have

advantage in the accessibility issue because of the following

reasons;  McDonald’s will give required data on the total quality

management of the company.  McDonald’s will provide a report

on employee performances.  McDonald’s will allow interviewing

the employees.  McDonald’s will allow the access to necessary

files.  The company will arrange a ‘sit down’ with the

management.  Financial statements of last 10 years will be

provided.  McDonald’s will provide its assistance on the research

work.  Customer feedback reports will be provided. A sample

group of customers will be interviewed or given with a

questionnaire. 3.5 Ethical Issues When it comes to research using

a company’s information, researchers need access to

confidential, non-confidential and different data to be collected

and used. This creates an ethical binding on the researcher, not

to disclose or use the firm provided data otherwise. Or else, the

firm will have full authority to stop the study process. While

collecting data, there might be some misunderstanding or any

negative scenario to be faced, to avoid them, the researcher must

be careful and take precautionary strategies s/he needs. Couple

of other issues created in this aspect are that the researcher

would not work against the interest of Mc Donald’s. The findings

or results or any theory written will be shared with the company

and never kept concealed from them. The management should

not be forced into answering any question that they want to keep

it themselves. 3.6 Data Analysis Plan

15. Page15 After the data collection process the raw data will first

be synchronized, tabulated, formatted, and then the neat data will

be processed through a sharp investigation. The findings will be

analysed with the help of chi-square and other statistical methods.

For a clear understanding, different graphical presentations will be

made. 3.6 ResearchLimitations  This research is mostly made on

qualitative data and on few selected stores of Mc Donald's,

therefore may include wrong assumptions to some few extents. 

Biasness of the employees might hamper the actual finding. 

McDonald’s will not disclose some confidential information.  Data

collectors and the researcher might have some short comings. 

Time limitation may obstruct a complete investigation process.

16. Page16 4. Timetable A schedule of the dissertation

preparation has been made by using Gantt chart; Stage of the

dissertation writing process Wee k 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 week

5 week 6 week 7 week 8 Reading and research into chosen topic

Research Methodology Research Analysis Designing the data

collection method Data analysis Data collection Data Presentation

Literature Review Check for errors Prepare for submission Submit

your dissertation Justification of timetable The study work is for

academic purpose. Therefore, the learner must finish it within a

justified time frame. Here in this case, the learner finds that the

study would require a total 8 weeks’ time frame for completion.

There are some analysis, surveys and interviews to be done for

the research purpose and 150*150 is a pretty big sample size to

cover up.

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