A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment,
University of the Witwatersrand, partly for the fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Masters of Science in Engineering.
Johannesburg 2016 / This dissertation aims to identify whether or not there is clear and tangible evidence to suggest a
relationship between the presence of total quality management (TQM) practices and service
quality in the restaurant industry. It attempts to investigate if restaurants that show higher levels
of service quality do so because they implement quality management practices in some form or
another.
The study considers four restaurants in Johannesburg. A research method was devised purely
for this dissertation to measure the presence of quality management practices within the
restaurant and the level of service quality experienced by the customer. Three research
instruments were designed for the study by using various frameworks, specifically TQM (a type
of quality management practice), the SERVQUAL instrument (a tool used to measure service
quality) and qualitative research interviewing. Quality management practices at the restaurants
were assessed using the first research instrument: The TQM Questionnaire, which was
conducted as an interview between researcher and restaurant employees. The level of service
quality was assessed using the second research instrument: The Customer Survey, which was
dispensed to the restaurant customers. The third instrument, an observations table was used to
corroborate the results obtained by the first two instruments and was designed by the researcher.
The results of the TQM Questionnaire were analysed using content analysis, and each restaurant
was assigned a total TQM score, which signified the degree to which they implement TQM
practices. These scores were compared to the results obtained from the customer surveys, which
assigned each restaurant with a SERVQUAL score that measured the degree of customer
satisfaction. The TQM results were compared to the SERVQUAL results for each restaurant in
order to identify a relationship between the two aspects.
The research identified that 3 of the 4 restaurants showed a clear relationship between the
presence of TQM practices in their operations and the level of service quality experienced by
the customer. It was identified that restaurants that achieved high TQM scores also achieved the
highest SERVQUAL scores. This finding recognises that there is a relationship between TQM
and service quality, however the study does not go forward to investigate the nature of this
relationship. / MT2016
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/21152 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Raciti, Anndroniki |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (229 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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