258 Int. J. Productivity and Quality Management, Vol. 19, No.

2, 2016

Total quality management practices and

organisational performance in Jordanian courier
services

Rateb J. Sweis*, Rawan A. Saleh,

Rawan H. Al-Etayyem and Bara T. Qasrawi
Department of Business Administration,
The University of Jordan,
11942, Amman, Jordan
Email: r.sweis@ju.edu.jo
Email: raw.ali_saleh@yahoo.com
Email: Rawan_h12@yahoo.com
Email: bara.qasrawi@yahoo.com
*Corresponding author

Ayat M. Al Mahmoud
Department of Marketing Management,
The University of Jordan,
Jordan
Email: Ayat_hawary@yahoo.com

Abstract: The research papers which are related to services are limited in
Jordan. Since the Jordanian economy is heavily dependent on the services
sector, such research may enhance the quality of this sector. This study aims to
examine the relationship between TQM practices and the organisational
performance in the Jordanian courier service firms, and to determine which of
the studied practices control the performance wheel. The methodology used is
based on a cross sectional study carried out using a questionnaire survey. The
survey is distributed to a sample of departments in a leading courier service
firm in Jordan. Analysis has showed that TQM practices correlate positively
with organisational performance, with a significant positive value for
continuous improvement practice. Hence, managers should consider TQM
practices as a way to enhance performance, allocate resources and develop an
environment that supports continuous improvement ideas.

Keywords: total quality management; TQM; organisational performance;

courier services; quality management; Jordan.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Sweis, R.J., Saleh, R.A.,
Al-Etayyem, R.H., Qasrawi, B.T. and Al Mahmoud, A.M. (2016) Total quality
management practices and organisational performance in Jordanian courier
services, Int. J. Productivity and Quality Management, Vol. 19, No. 2,
pp.258276.

Biographical notes: Rateb J. Sweis is an Associate Professor of Project

Management in the Department of Business Administration at the University of
Jordan. He served as the Vice Dean of the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy, an
Advisor to the Minister of Finance and is currently a faculty member in the

Copyright 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 TQM practices and organisational performance in Jordanian courier services 259

Department of Business Management at the Jordan University. He has many

published articles in the areas of quality management, project management and
productivity. He also has five published books in operations management,
project management and communications management.
Rawan A. Saleh worked as a Quality Engineer in a leading Jordanian
pharmaceutical organisation. She is preparing to obtain a Master degree in
Quality Management from Jordan University. She holds a Bachelor degree in
Chemical Engineering and has three years experience in the pharmaceutical
industry.
Rawan H. Al-Etayyem is a Marketing and Communication Manager in a
leading Jordanian educational institution. She holds a Master degree in Quality
Management and Bachelor degree in Economics from the University of Jordan.
Bara T. Qasrawi worked as a Research Assistant in Pharmaceutical Labs at the
Jordan University. She was an analyst in the Royal Scientific Society Labs. She
is studying to get her Master degree in Quality Management at the Jordan
University. She holds a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering.
Ayat M. Al Mahmoud: worked as a Research Assistant in a leading industrial
company in Jordan. She acquired her Master degree in Marketing from the
University of Jordan. She is currently teaching as a part time Lecturer at the
University of Jordan.

1 Introduction

Many organisations around the globe have successfully adopted total quality management
(TQM) principles and practices to gain advantages. They have invested substantial
resources to implement TQM practices in their operations (Sweis et al, 2014; Munizu,
2013), and to meet the challenge of global competition. This has made TQM a globally
implemented management technique (Trappey, 1995).
TQM as a concept emerged from the manufacturing industry, but the ability to use its
tools and techniques outside the production area has enabled it to be implemented in the
service industry (Wali and Boujelbene, 2010). A number of studies showed that TQM
functions as a critical determinant in improving service quality in service organisations
(Al-Hawary and Abu-Laimon, 2013). Moreover, much evidence in the literature review
showed that TQM had benefited organisations in improving the quality of their products
and services, providing superior quality products to their customers, and enhancing their
performance (Abdullah et al., 2009; Hoang et al., 2010). On the other hand some
researchers showed that a number of organisations failed in applying the proper
implementation of TQM due to inappropriate TQM framework, lack of management
commitment, and resource problem (Abdolshah and Abdolshah, 2011). For that reason
organisations should not simply fly blind, they should thoroughly understand their
weaknesses and strengths before initiating TQM practices in their context.
In reviewing the literature regarding TQM practices, we found many definitions for
TQM. Each researcher defined TQM according to a specific approach. TQM is defined as
a management approach for improving organizational performance that encompasses a
variety of both technical and behavioural topics (Rahman and Bullock, 2005). Kaynak
(2003) stated that: TQM is a holistic management philosophy that strives for continuous
260 R.J. Sweis et al.

improvement in all functions of an organization, and it can be achieved. TQM is also

defined as a continual method, as well as techniques of sustaining the continuous
improvement and satisfying customers demand (Ahire et al., 1996; Kanji, 1990).
On the other extreme, measuring organisational performance plays a vital role in
quality initiative and improvement and it considered as important step in formulating the
direction of strategic activities (Sweis et al, 2011; Al-Refaie and Hanayneh, 2014).
As The Kingdom of Jordan lacks enough natural resources and a strong industrial
sector to compete with its oil producing neighbours and other industrial countries,
Jordans economy relies on the services sector. Services account for more than 70% of
the gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 75% of jobs. So Jordan will have to
adopt future strategies to provide a favourable environment for the economic activity to
keep competitiveness on the global market (Jordan overview, 2014).
Many companies in Jordan have a vested interest in implementing TQM practices.
However, research efforts related to this field are scarce. No research papers examining
the relationship between TQM practices and performance in Jordanian courier service
firms have been found. This research, therefore, seeks to investigate the relationship
between TQM practices and the courier service firms performance in Jordan. Hence, the
research question is: How can the Jordanian couriers service firms utilise TQM
practices to improve their performance? Answering this question will provide a deeper
understanding of the dynamic role of TQM practices, and thus, this would help managers
pay attention to the intrinsic practices that have a direct impact on the firms performance
to devote efforts and allocate resources in order to get the best long-term outcomes. Also,
this would help the organisations to figure out their strength and weaknesses to develop
and implement a new strategy to enhance their competitive position. The following
sections start with reviewing the literature of TQM practices and courier service firms
performance, followed by presenting the proposed theoretical framework, and testing the
hypotheses, and finally analysing data, results, discussion, and conclusions.

2 Literature review and research hypotheses

2.1 TQM practices

Although there are many studies about TQM practices, there is no agreement on the best
elements of TQM (Samson and Terziovski, 1999). Some studies, such as Rahman (2001)
and Rahman and Bullock (2005) divided TQM practices into two types: soft and hard.
The soft TQM practices are related to the people management practices, while the hard
TQM practices are related to the practical and numerical quality control tools in
manufacturing organisations. Other researchers use TQM practices without clear
distinctions between soft and hard TQM practices. For example, Talib et al. (2011)
proposed a model that links TQM practices and organisational performance in terms of
improving product and services quality which, in turn, improves customer satisfaction.
TQM practices were measured in terms of top management commitment, training and
education, continuous improvement, customer focus, innovation, supplier management,
employee involvement, quality information, performance measurement, process
management quality systems benchmarking, quality culture, human resource
management, strategic planning, employee encouragement, teamwork, communication
and product and service design. While, Zehir et al. (2012) in their study found that there
 TQM practices and organisational performance in Jordanian courier services 261

are eight dimensions of TQM: leadership management, employee management, customer

focus, factual approach to decision making, supplier management, continual
improvement, system approach to management and process management. Those have
significant relationship with firm performance which was measured by innovation and
quality performance. Also, Sweis et al. (2013) in their study found that TQM practices
that include top management commitment, training, teamwork, customer satisfaction and
continuous improvement have significant impact on employee empowerment in the
health sector. On the other hand, Bon and Mustafa (2013) stated that organisations
adopting certain TQM practices which have the perfect fit with their nature, identified the
following seven practices of TQM: top management leadership, employee involvement,
employee empowerment, customer focus, training, information analysis, and continuous
improvement.
Al-Hawary and Abu-Laimon (2013) in their study investigated the relationship
between TQM practices on service quality in cellular communication companies in
Jordan using data collected from 192 managers of cellular communication companies.
They used the following TQM practices: leadership, information and analysis, customer
focus, continuous improvement and supplier quality management. Moreover, Sadikoglu
and Olcay (2014) found that leadership, knowledge, process management, training,
supplier quality management, customer focus and strategic quality planning are the best
practices which are positively related to the organisational performance in terms of
operational performance, inventory management performance, performance of the
employees, innovation performance, customer satisfaction, social responsibility, and
financial performance.
In this research, the following TQM practices were selected for courier services:
top-management commitment, customer focus, training and education, continuous
improvement, and teamwork, for the purpose to investigate the relationship between
TQM practices and organisational performance in the context of Jordanian courier
service organisations. These practices have been identified as the key practices of TQM
in service industries, and in the promotion of service quality (Sweis et al., 2013).

2.2 Performance of courier service

Today, when customers buy a service they actually buy a solution that service provides.
This makes meeting customers expectations the main challenge faced by service
companies especially in Jordan. In evaluating the results of service operations, service
managers must determine the outcomes from the perspective of customers and more
broad perspectives (Parasuraman, 2010). In fact, in serving customer needs, one should
measure wait time, time per transaction, yield, cost per transaction, and other internal
processes. But, it should be noticed here that, internal measures do not indicate what the
customers think about the firms service quality (Sharabi and Davidow, 2010).
Satisfaction must be measured relative to competition, because customers have choices,
and will choose what is best for them.
Researchers such as Gadenne and Sharma (2009) used: improved overall
performance; return on assets; customer satisfaction and market share to measure
organisational performance in Australian small and medium size enterprise (SMEs).
While Garcia (2011) selected five measures of organisational performance, which are:
customer satisfaction; revenue growth; employee productivity; customer growth; and
profit growth. Other researchers, such as Al-Refaie and Ghnaimat (2011) adopted the
262 R.J. Sweis et al.

following measures: quality outcomes; customer satisfaction; financial performance; and

innovation to measure organisational performance in Jordanian firms. One recent study of
Sadikoglu and Olcay (2014) used a wide range of measures to indicate organisational
performance, namely: operational performance; inventory management performance;
employee performance; social responsibility; customer results; market and financial
performance. As noticed from these studies, there are no standard measures for
organisational performance and researches used the measures which are compatible with
their business environment. According to that we will follow the measures used by
Al-Refaie and Ghnaimat (2011) to measure organisational performance in courier service
in Jordan which are: quality outcomes; customer satisfaction; financial performance; and
innovation.

2.3 TQM practices and courier service firms performance

Previous researches showed mixed results about the relation between TQM practices and
organisational performance, but most of them showed that TQM-adopting firms obtain a
competitive advantage over firms that do not (Joiner, 2006). Prajogo and Brown (2004)
pointed to the strong and positive relationship between TQM practices and performance.
Also, Gadenne and Sharma (2009) concluded that customer involvement, employee
training contributed to customer satisfaction. Lenka et al. (2010) stated that service firms
focus more on customer satisfaction. Other positive relations between firms performance
and customer focus, continuous improvement and top management support were found
by Garcia (2011).
Talib et al. (2011) found that all of the proposed TQM practices have a positive
significant relationship with service quality while Al-Hawary and Abu-Laimon (2013)
found that customer focus, leadership, information and analysis, continuous
improvement, and supplier quality management have positive effects on service quality.
While, the results of Ali and Alolayyan (2013) who investigated the impact of TQM on
performance in hospital sector in Jordan revealed that TQM practices have a positive
significant relationship with hospital performance in terms of patient results and stuff or
system results. It is essential to implement TQM practices successfully in order to gain
performance improvement therefore many studies investigated the critical success factors
for TQM implementation.
According to Tuomi et al. (2013), top management commitment, employee
involvement and empowerment, customer focus, continuous improvement and training
are essential for successful TQM implementation in public service organisations.
Pattanayak and Maddulety (2013) found that leadership, benchmarking, information and
analysis system, service culture, services cape, technology-based banking service, and
customer focus and human resource focus are important factors for TQM implementation
in banking sector in India .It should be noticed that, firms should effectively measure
financial and non-financial performance according to their needs in order to succeed in
implementing TQM. This includes the best performance measurements that are consistent
with the firms culture and goals to sustain business performance (Salleh et al., 2012).
And finally, every organisation should realise that TQM is a long journey whose results
will evolve over time. Based on the above, the following hypothesis was developed:
H1 There is a statistically significant relationship between the TQM practices and the
organisational performance of Jordanian courier service firms.
 TQM practices and organisational performance in Jordanian courier services 263

2.3.1 Customer focus

Customer focus is considered an essential element in production. Dadfar et al. (2013)
concluded that service organisations must build strong customer relationship in order to
improve its performance. Customer care can be used to measure organisational
performance (Wilkinson et al., 1993). Ferguson (2011) mentioned that customer
satisfaction leads to strengthening the relationship between the organisation and its
customer, and increases the retention and loyalty of the customer. Moreover, it helps the
organisation build competencies and management practices like TQM (Bose, 2012).
Sadikoglu and Olcay (2014) concluded that the first step in offering a product or
services is to know the customer expectations and complaints because this will take part
in improving the quality, time and productivity leading in customer satisfaction which
will improve firm performance in terms of sales and market share. Accordingly, it is
expected that customer focus will enhance organisational performance and the
relationship between customer focus and organisational performance are hypothesised as
follow:
H1a There is a statistically significant relationship between the customer focus and the
organisational performance of Jordanian courier service firms.

2.3.2 Training and education

Training is defined as the effort made by the organisation to let the employees gain
essential competencies such as knowledge, skills and behaviours that are critical for
successful job performance (Mondy and Mondy, 2013). Shaheen et al. (2013) defined
training as the process of enhancing the current skills, knowledge and abilities. Training
and education are considered as important elements for TQM implementation (Snape
et al., 1995). Goetsch and Davis (2013) stated that formal training and development
programmes can be done by hiring trainers and facilitators to provide in-house
development programmes, outstation training for employees, and e-learning courses that
are provided by service providers.
Training and education programmes improve the employees skills, knowledge and
job satisfaction (Gagnon and Smith, 2013). Sadikoglu and Olcay (2014) concluded that
learning organisations have faster response to the environmental changes which will give
them extra credit against their competitors and that training will lead to improve the
employees expertise, loyalty, motivation performance, and customer satisfaction and
will reduce customer complains. Aguinis and Kraiger (2009) argued that training and
education have a positive impact on organisational performance, employees attitude and
empowerment. Thus, it is anticipated that training and education will result in improved
organisational performance and the following hypothesis was developed:
H1b There is a statistically significant relationship between the continuous
improvement and the organisational performance of Jordanian courier service
firms.

2.3.3 Top management commitment

The definition of commitment is a force that binds an individual to a course of action of
relevance to one or more targets (Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001). So, the top
management commitment is demonstrated by focusing on continuous improvement in all
264 R.J. Sweis et al.

the activities of the organisation, and by monitoring the improvements to address the
deficiencies in the processes (Worrall and Cooper, 2012). It is also demonstrated by
generating the elements of quality management frame (Baidown, 2003).
Top management should support organisation mission and vision; focus on
developing peoples skills through arranging several training programmes and involve all
the employees in implementation and design stages to meet the needs and expectations of
stakeholders, customers, raising levels of quality and satisfaction (Jones and Grimshaw,
2012; Pencarelli et al., 2013).
Top management commitment leads to acceptance of quality responsibility, makes
vigorous strategies and maintains persistence for quality assurance, quality improvement,
focusing on market demands, consumer needs and organisational performance,
profitability and productivity (Sila and Ebrahimpour, 2005).
The managers must have profound knowledge of TQM, active participation and more
enthusiasm than their employees. They need clear definition terms for good
understanding of the work. Otherwise, employees may develop their definitions and it
will get unfavourable outcome for the organisation and stakeholders (Sanzo and lvarez,
2012). Therefore, top management must be on track for the organisations success in all
its ramifications (Abolarin et al., 2013). So, the following hypothesis was developed.

H1c There is a statistically significant relationship between the training and education
and the organisational performance of Jordanian courier service firms.

2.3.4 Teamwork
The team is a group of employees who are authorised to execute certain tasks (Delarue
et al., 2006). Doorewaard et al. (2002) defined teamwork as a process that satisfies
employees needs to have control over their environmental work. Thompson (2011)
claimed that the teamwork includes tasks that require interdependent work. According to
Ramesh and Ravi (2013), organisations that obtained team working culture have a very
strong training systems, motivational methods and good working atmosphere. Some
researchers find that teamwork has a positive impact on organisations and employees,
whether industrial or service organisations using teamwork. Salas et al. (2010) revealed
that in order gain competitive advantage team work must be adopted. Griffin et al. (2001)
found that team work is an important factor for success because it leads to goals and
mission communication, creativity encouragement, and employee empowerment. A study
conducted by Ajeigbe et al. (2014) about the relationship between team work and job
satisfaction showed that people who work in teams have higher job satisfaction and that
team work is a critical factor. According to the above results, the following hypothesis
was formulated.

H1d There is a statistically significant relationship between the teamwork and the
organisational performance of Jordanian courier service firms.

2.3.5 Continuous Improvement

The continuous improvement cycle consists of establishing customer requirements,
measuring success, and continuing to check customers requirements (Alvarez et al.,
 TQM practices and organisational performance in Jordanian courier services 265

2012). TQM concept is primarily concerned with continuous improvement in all aspect
of business, from the level of strategic planning and decision-making, to detailed
execution of work elements. Gertsen (2001) defined continuous improvement as an
improvement process that is applied in small increments, and depends on employee
involvement. Continuous improvement contains tools and techniques to enhance
organisations performance, such as Lean, Six Sigma, problem solving methodology,
statistical process control (SPC), control charts and cause and effect diagrams (Ehie and
Sheu, 2005).
Moreover, applying continuous improvement in the service sector will increase profit
(Alvarez et al., 2012). In conclusion, the researchers viewpoint to continuous
improvement is a dynamic process that focuses on improvement programmes, services,
materials and their relationship with the organisations customers, suppliers, competitors,
and capital markets (Singh and Singh, 2013). Singh and Singh (2013) concluded that
continuous improvement is a dynamic process that concentrates on the relationships
between improvement programmes, services, materials and organisations customers,
suppliers, competitors, and capital markets. Heavey et al. (2014) in their study proposed a
continual improvement frame work that contained customer value co-leadership,
customer value focused strategic objectives, improvement knowledge specialisation and
methodology improvement. The result showed that their frame work increased
organisation return on investment. Hence, the relationship between continuous
improvement and organisational performance is hypothesised as follow:
H1e There is a statistically significant relationship between the top management
commitment and the organisational performance of Jordanian courier service
firms.

3 Research framework

Based on the literature review, a framework is developed to discuss the relationships

between TQM practices and organisational performance in the Jordanian service firms. In
this framework, the (independent variables) are TQM practices and a (dependent
variable) is organisational performance, as shown in figure 1.

Figure 1 Theoretical model

266 R.J. Sweis et al.

4 Research methodology

4.1 Measures
In this study, five constructs were used to measure TQM practices, which are: customer
focus, training and education, teamwork, continuous improvement, and top management
commitment. Whereas, four constructs were used to measure organisational performance,
which are: quality outcomes, customer satisfaction, financial performance, and
innovation. The study instrument consisted of a questionnaire, which was distributed by
hand to the employees. A total of 35 questions were included in the questionnaire. All
responses were collected in the same day of the distribution. The questions were adapted
from reviewed literature and previous study of Al-Refai and Ghnaimat (2011). The
questionnaire consisted of closed-ended questions, where the respondent is presented
with a five-point Likert scale. A scale dimensions were clarified as follows: (1 = Strongly
disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neither agree nor disagree, 4 = Agree and 5 = Strongly
agree). Questionnaire statements shown in Appendix.

4.2 Population, sample and data collection

The sample is a cluster random sample drawn from one of the service companies located
in Amman. It employs 580 people registered in the human resources department of that
company. The population of our study included 270 employees working in human
resources, marketing, customer services, accounting, quality, call centre, and operations,
so 270 questionnaires were randomly distributed among these departments. Only 165
questionnaires were received.

4.3 Statistical tools

The data obtained from the questionaire were analysed using the statistical package for
social sciences (SPSS) version 17.0. The data were subjected to correlation analysis to
investigate the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Then multiple
and simple linear regression analysis methods were used to test hypothses of the model.

4.4 Data preparation

4.4.1 The first stage: Treatment of incomplete responses
Out of the 165 questionnaires received, 12 questionnaires were not fully answered, so the
mean of the responses was used to replace the unanswered questions. No significant bias
responses were detected. On the other hand, no respondents were dropped from the
sample; which left the total of 165 utilisable responses.

4.4.2 The second stage: screening the data for outliers and checking the
normality
Using simple box plot in SPSS, 51 data points were identified as outliers and have been
deleted, all the remaining points will be used for further analysis, thus; the final sample
consisted of 114 respondents, which yielded a survey response rate of 42%. The
 TQM practices and organisational performance in Jordanian courier services 267

skewedness and Kurtosis of the data were checked and the data that deviated from
(Z = 1.96) were delated. Eight variables have been dropped from the analysis.

4.5 Validity and reliability of the questionnaire

4.5.1 Validity
Since selection of initial measurement items was based on the extensive review of
literature, our measures were generally considered to have content validity. They
generally do measure TQM element in service sector. All TQM statements were
subjected to factor analysis to ensure that they have construct validity. Construct validity
can be measured using principal component analysis (PCA). But, prior to performing
PCA, the data must be assessed for factor analysis suitability. The result of
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) which is the measure of sampling adequacy met the criteria
(> 0.5) and supported the use of factor analysis for this data as KMO = 0.516. Also in this
data, the Bartletts test is highly significant (sig = 0.000 < 0.05), and therefore factor
analysis is appropriate (Kaiser, 1974). According to the result of PCA, 1 weak indicator
was removed, leaving a total of 27 indicators constructing the 6 model variables. Factor
analysis is illustrated in Appendix.

4.5.2 Reliability
Composite reliability for the remaining constructs was estimated using reliability
coefficient Cronbachs alpha. It was found that Cronbachs alpha coefficient for all
remaining variables equal 0.878, while Cronbachs alpha coefficient for TQM practices
and organisational performance shown in Appendix. The analysis revealed the criteria,
Cronbachs alpha 0.6, therefore, the data are consistent and reliable (Sekaran and
Bougie, 2010).

5 Results and analysis

5.1 Descriptive statistics analysis

After checking the outliers of the data, the correlation was measured in order to
determine the strength and the direction of the effect of TQM practices on performance of
the firm. The Spearmans correlation was chosen. Spearmans correlation best suites our
data as the variables were measured on an ordinal scale, five-point Liker scale (Keller,
2012). A monotonic relationship exists since some variables increase in value together.
Wrong entry has been avoided by double checking the entered data by different persons.
Spearmans correlation is not very sensitive to outliers; consequently, we can still obtain
valid results from using this test when having outliers in the data. Screaming for outliers
is done just one time by excluding 51 responses.
The average responses for each variable were measured and the resultant values were
rounded to nearest integer then the descriptive data for the sample were obtained. Table 1
shows the maximum, minimum, standard deviation and variance for the studied variables.
We can notice from Table 1 that all variables have a mean around of 4, which indicated
that we get agree among all variables. This may be considered as another indicator of
the direction of the relationship between variables.
268 R.J. Sweis et al.

Also, Table 1 indicates that courier services companies perceived top management
commitment (with the highest mean scores, i.e., M = 4.45) to be the most dominant TQM
practice within their companies followed by customer focus (M = 4.24) then training and
education (M = 4.15) followed by Teamwork (M = 4.14) and continuous improvement
(with the lowest mean scores, i.e., M = 4.07).
Table 1 Descriptive analysis of the study constructs

Standard
TQM practices Minimum Maximum Mean Variance
deviation
Customer focus 3 5 4.24 0.553 0.306
Continuous improvement 3 5 4.07 0.475 0.225
Training and education 2 5 4.15 0.778 0.606
Teamwork 2 5 4.14 0.786 0.617
Top management commitment 3 5 4.45 0.596 0.356
Performance 4 5 4.21 0.409 0.168

5.2 Test of hypotheses

The assigned six variables have been subjected to correlation analysis to test the direction
and strength of the relation. The values of the correlation between the dependent and the
independent variables are shown in Table 2. The results of Spearmans correlation for the
studied variables on the performance provide some insight and challenges from both a
practical and research respective. Continuous improvement was proved to be strongly
significant and positively related to performance with the maximum correlation value of
0.607. The correlation value for team work, training and education, continuous
improvement and top management commitment were around 0.4. However, customer
focus has the lowest significant value related to the performance with correlation value of
0.364. Accordingly, customer focus, training and education, teamwork and top
management commitment have moderate positive and significant relationship with firm
performance. All the independent variables have positive correlation with performance
and with each other. Thus, relationships are in conformance with the hypotheses.
Table 2 Spearmans correlation analysis of the study constructs

TQM practices CF CI TE TM TMC PER

Customer focus (CF) 1.000
Continuous improvement (CI) 0.307** 1.000
Training and education (TE) 0.349** 0.694** 1.000
Teamwork (TM) 0.350** 0.234* 0.154 1.000
Top management commitment (TMC) 0.239* 0.420** 0.446** 0.205* 1.000
Performance (PER) 0.364** 0.607** 0.400** 0.402** 0.481** 1.000
Notes: *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).
Variance inflation factor (VIF) test of the data showed that there is no multicollinearity
problem among data as all VIF coefficient is less than 10. Thus, multiple and simple
regression analysis were conducted to test the proposed hypothesis. The results of
 TQM practices and organisational performance in Jordanian courier services 269

multiple regression test revealed that TQM practices have (f = 21.307) and (p = 0) which
indicated that these practices have a significant effect on organisational performance with
(p < 0.05). Therefore, Hypothesis 1 was supported. According to these results, the value
of R2 (0.497) means that 49.7% of the variance accounted for organisational performance
can be explained by TQM practices. The multiple regression results of this hypothesis are
shown in Table 3.
Table 3 The multiple regression results of TQM practices and organisational performance

Independent variables B f* P* R R2 Result

TQM practices 1.189** 21.307 0.000 0.705 0.497 H1
supported
Customer focus 0.08
Continuous improvement 0.386
Training and education 0.023
Teamwork 0.113
Top management commitment 0.167
Note: *Significant at P < 0.05, **B constant.
A simple linear regression test was carried out to test the five sub-hypotheses H1a to H1e.
In this test each TQM practice was tested separately with organisational performance.
The results of simple regression revealed that, customer focus had significant positive
effect on organisational performance (p < 0.05, = 0.269), thus H1a was supported,
continuous improvement had significant positive effect on organisational performance
(p < 0.05, = 0.523), therefore H1b was supported, training and education also had
significant positive effect on organisational performance (p < 0.05, = 0.211),
consequently H1c was supported. Teamwork had significant positive effect on
organisational performance (p < 0.05, = 0.210), hence H1d was supported, and finally,
top management commitment had a significant positive effect on organisational
performance (p < 0.05, = 0.330), so H1e was supported. The multiple regression results
of this hypothesis are shown in Table 4.
Table 4 The simple regression results of customer focus, training and education, teamwork,
continuous improvement, and top management commitment and organisational
performance

B
Independent variables B f* P* R R2 Result
(constant)
Customer focus 3.070 0.269 17.085 0.000 0.364 0.132 H1a
supported
Continuous improvement 2.080 0.523 65.178 0.000 0.607 0.368 H1b
supported
Training and education 3.337 0.211 21.384 0.000 0.400 0.160 H1c
supported
Teamwork 3.342 0.210 21.648 0.000 0.402 0.162 H1d
supported
Top management 2.743 0.330 33.652 0.000 0.481 0.231 H1e
commitment supported
Note: *Significant at P < 0.05.
270 R.J. Sweis et al.

6 Conclusions, managerial implications and future research

In sum, the purpose of this paper was to study the relationship between TQM practices
and organisational performance in Jordanian courier service firms. Our research casts a
strong light on TQM practices to determine which practices influence a firms
performance the most. The results showed that continuous improvement has a
significantly positive effect on the firms performance.
It is interesting that strong predictor of performance is the continuous improvement
which is considered the main pillar of the TQM philosophy. This result is consistent with
Joiner (2006), who claims that: One of the central tenets of effective TQM
implementation is employees commitment to continuous improvement of processes.
All studied variables, customer focus, continuous improvement, teamwork, education
and learning, and top management commitment, are positively and significantly
correlated with firms performance. This is in agreement with the results of Terziovski
and Samson (1999).
Many studies report a positive relationship between TQM and performance (e.g.,
Abdullah et al., 2012; Joiner, 2006; Kaynak, 2003; Samson and Terziovski, 1999; Sweis
et al., 2013). Another verification of positive relation was noticed from the mean value of
responses, which was around 4, this represents the mean agree in Likert scale, and
therefore the results support all hypotheses.
In general, these results are important for courier service firms in Jordan. It calls for
the managers of courier service firms to continually seek ways to improve their
performance. This requires support of top management to do the best by training the
employees, allocate financial resources for improvement purposes identify customer
needs and encourage teamwork. They also should reinforce customer focus culture
contact with customer to satisfy and exceed customers expectations. All mentioned
above practices should be included in these firms new strategy to achieve the future
vision about quality of the service. Also, from these results, it can be concluded that for a
single courier firm to improve its performance, it must focus on continuous
improvements. Our study was a cross sectional and descriptive sample at a given point in
time. The framework of data was chosen carefully to reflect the major TQM practices
which may be found in any service firm.
Our data distribution provided small evidence about the lags between the existence of
practices and performance. We should point out here that this study has some limitations
that should be understood to determine the future research direction. Firstly, results
obtained from a local area; that may differ for firms located in different areas operating in
different cultural, environmental and political conditions. This means that future studies
should include the influence of culture on the relationship between TQM practices and
service firms performance. Secondly, relying on one courier service firm with relatively
small sample size puts constraints on the generalisability of this study. This implies the
need for using a larger sample. Therefore, we suggest further stream of field research of
longitudinal studies that would measure TQM element across a longer time period,
examining the relation and the development through time. This might lead to an
improvement of those measures and better answering the question what shall we
change?
 TQM practices and organisational performance in Jordanian courier services 271

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Appendix

Survey questions, factor analysis and reliability test

A.1 TQM practices
Initial Revised
A.1.1 Customer focus factor factor
loading loading
1 Increased personal contacts between the organisation and 0.512 -
customers
2 Managers and supervisors support activities improving 0.802 0.799
customers satisfaction
3 Extent to which the needs and expectations of customers are 0.828 0.863
assessed periodically for an effective total quality
management
4 Extent to which external customers complaints are 0.816 0.816
effectively resolved
5 Degree to which effective ways of communicating with 0.758 0.754
customers
6 Processes and activities of the organisation are designed to 0.915 0.913
increase customers satisfaction levels
 TQM practices and organisational performance in Jordanian courier services 275

Survey questions, factor analysis and reliability test (continued)

A.1 TQM practices
Initial Revised
A.1.2 Continuous improvement factor factor
loading loading
7 This organisation reinforces continuous study and 0.859 0.873
improvement of all its services and processes
8 Identification of areas for improvement. - -
9 Use of methods and measurements for continuous 0.799 0.797
improvement of processes
10 Extent to which organisation realises that continuous - -
improvement results in competitive advantage
11 Extent to which corrective actions with respect to 0.799 0.805
non-conformity are taken immediately and effectively
12 Degree to which processes and procedures are fool proof 0.784 0.814
Initial Revised
A.1.3 Training and education factor factor
loading loading
13 The organisation executes training programmes that focus on .827 0.828
quality in the performance of work
14 The organisation provides the staff external training courses in 0.797 0.790
total quality management
15 The educational and training programmes led to improve the - -
performance of customer services
Initial Revised
A.1.4 Teamwork factor factor
loading loading
16 The company stop management supports the idea of building 0.701 0.716
work teams extensively
17 Working in groups lead to improve efficiency and boost the - -
morale of the staff
18 My work in the team increases my abilities, my energy, and - -
leads to better services for customers
Initial Revised
A.1.5 Top management commitment factor factor
loading loading
19 Top management is committed to applying the principles of 0.786 0.785
total quality management
20 Top management allocates financial and human potential - -
required for the application of the concept to total quality
management
21 The top management identifies and analyses customers need 0.699 0.698
and meets their expectations, desires and complaint
Reliability of revised TQM constructs 0.814
276 R.J. Sweis et al.

Survey questions, factor analysis and reliability test (continued)

A.2 Organisational performance
Initial Revised
A.2.1 Consistent quality outputs factor factor
loading loading
22 Costs relating to quality of services 0.759 0.747
23 Defective service rate 0.683 0.702
24 Service performance and reliability 0.704 0.697
Initial Revised
A.2.2 Satisfied customers factor factor
loading loading
25 Perceived service quality by customers 0.591 0.592
26 Consistency in documentation - -
27 Customer service 0.786 0.780
Initial Revised
A.2.3 Business performance factor factor
loading loading
28 Profit - -
29 Demand for products made at the registered site 0.859 0.859
30 Market share 0.687 0.694
Initial Revised
A.2.4 Innovation performance factor factor
loading loading
31 Level of newness 0.872 0.871
32 Use of latest technology 0.840 0.841
33 Speed of services development 0.709 0.728
34 Number of new services 0.707 0.721
35 Early market entrants 0.846 0.843
Reliability of revised organisational performance constructs 0.836