ABSTRACT
Success in our modern business world depends greatly on the right approach to
manage a business. For businesses to succeed and deal with tough competition
and new technological challenges, quality of product and service becomes more
important. Today’s global competition coupled with the rapid development in
technology, especially information technology that has made the world a global
village, has compelled business organizations to develop strategies that will not
only guarantee their stability but also growth in the face of this harsh, cut
throat, survival of the fittest competition. The problems with the Nigerian
companies are quite enormous and some of them can be put as follows: First,
the Nigerian companies are evidently lagging behind in the global market
competition, thus, they are fast losing ground, with some of them going out of
business completely. Secondly, the Nigerian mangers have seemingly failed to
explore TQM for their organizations. They have rather gotten stuck in the
endless pursuit of what does not work for them any longer, the “blind” pursuit
of profit, stability and growth. Thirdly, they have failed to appreciate that
change is necessary and that a change from the above state pursuit to the
pursuit of a customer focus strategy is a long overdue strategy decision that has
been tipped to guarantee the ultimate realization of the former goals. Fourthly,
due to lack of knowledge of the prospects of TQM, or lack of adequate finance,
or engagement of inexperienced personnel in the TQM process, or lackadaisical
attitude on the part of the organization concerning TQM, the TQM Practices in
the Nigerian Industries which the Information and Communication Technology
(ICTs) industry is part of, becomes problematic hence, the weak or poor
performance of these industries in the actualization of their desired goals and
objectives.
This study sought to determine the uses and impact of Total Quality
Management (TQM), in increasing customer satisfaction, with a focus on two
ICTs Companies in Nigeria (Etisalat and Zain Group) Having made use of both
primary and secondary data in sourcing information with a sample size of 190,
the findings from the study reveals that: Total Quality Management is a modern
approach to management in Nigeria; its application at the workplace has
proved to be very useful and result oriented in Nigerian organizations; Etisalat
and Zain Group have used TQM to modify their work process, as well as to
achieve and sustain competitive edge, thereby increasing their customers
satisfaction. It is obvious that the level of participation of employees in the
planning process determines the workability of Total Quality Management. This
is because in the implementation of Total Quality Management, all the
employees at workplace need to get involved. Further still, the Degree of Staff
commitment is closely related to the success of Total Quality Management at
the workplace. However, for the employees to be committed their work
schedule must be clearly defined. Furthermore, it is also evident that success of
TQM requires training, retaining and development of the workforce
