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Mosad Zineldin: School of Management and Economics, Vaxjo University, Sweden
Introduction
Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view (Drucker, 1973; Zineldin, 1998). In a large manufacturing organization, manufacturing, engineering, purchasing, accounting, finance, and personal functions are all part of the internal organization environment. In a large service organization, no single management function can be effective if it operates in isolation; operations, and human resources are actively involved in creating and delivering services. These functions and activities and the people who perform them have a major influence in marketing (Lovelock, 1992).
Marketing, as an element of management, must change in concept, philosophy and strategy. The time scale is vital in getting management to accept a greater share of responsibility for social welfare, and the protection of the environment as well as for safeguarding the interests of consumers. The time scale is vital in achieving a better symbiosis of technology and marketing than competitors. Finally, the time scale is vital in working out a new pattern of long-term strategic relationships and networks with customers, suppliers, intermediaries, and other collaborators via alliances, networks and informal partnerships. Co-operating and working with others enable organizations to go beyond their weaknesses and limitations.
The main challenge of managers is to ensure that each function is compatible with the others and that all are mutually reinforcing. Other functional areas of the organization and all employees should have common and equal responsibility towards quality and customer satisfaction. Many organizations have committed to the concept of total quality management, with quality improvement techniques being applied to almost every area of product development, manufacturing, operation, administration, and customer service. Marketing is almost never mentioned, except as a source for determining customer requirements (Stowell, 1989).
TQM in marketing can have a major impact upon an organization by improving customer relationships and satisfaction, reducing marketing expenses, increasing sales as well as providing a competitive edge.
This paper, is a theoretical and conceptual one, provides marketing and management implications on how to integrate TQM and TRM in order to achieve better quality of the relationships, product/service and the process. The...