A model for total quality management in higher education

Total quality management (TQM) is widely recognised as a management philosophy for improving customer satisfaction and organisational performance. However, there is no consensus over the critical success factors of TQM, in particular, in higher education (HE) and developing countries. Literature shows mixed results on the success and applicability of TQM principles in education, thus, underlining the need to revisit the application of TQM principles in HE. This paper identifies the critical success factors of TQM in Pakistani universities. Data was collected from faculty members of universities through questionnaires. The findings reveal that ‘leadership’, ‘vision’, ‘measurement and analysis’, ‘process control and evaluation’, ‘programs design and resources allocation’ and ‘stakeholder focus’ emerge as the critical success factors of TQM in HE. The findings have implications at macro, meso, and micro levels of HE.     

Cashing In On Quality? Pay Incentives and the Quality Culture

In this article, the authors explore the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and financial incentives in British manufacturing industry. In particular, they examine the view of some of the most influential quality management ‘gurus’ that there is an incompatibility between incentive pay and TQM. Drawing on survey and case study evidence, they show that TQM is being implemented in the presence of financial incentives. Furthermore, those organisations which had such incentives did not appear to have less success in implementing TQM. On the basis of the evidence presented, the authors conclude that it is not possible to rule out a role for financial incentives in implementing TQM, although incentives are only likely to form one element in a broader implementation strategy.     

‘How would you measure something like that?’: Quality in a Retail Bank

In this paper we explore a case study of total quality management (TQM) within the financial services sector. We demonstrate that a ‘conformance to requirements’ approach towards TQM is concerned with increasing management’s physical and financial control over procedures, documentation, systems and people. Such an approach only partially addresses quality because (a) there can never be a precise ‘conformance’ and (b) this approach neglects customers and employees. We illustrate that often management do not understand the flaws/problematics and underlying philosophy behind TQM. Thus they continue to adopt ‘inconsistent’ approaches, such as attempting to control costs and employees while espousing the importance of the customer and the need for a trust-based culture. Yet, whether or not they understand the rationale behind TQM and attempt to widen their focus by considering people and customers more directly, we argue that management cannot easily adopt a ‘consistent’ approach because a preoccupation with controlling costs is bound up with career-based identities and hierarchical power relations. Ultimately we argue that management cannot control ‘quality’ in any simple top down way, essentially because of the ‘indeterminacy’ of labour, the ‘intangibility’ of customer satisfaction, and the complexity of organizational power and identity relations.     

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

Adrian Wilkinson and his colleagues discuss the growing importance of quality management in the UK, outline the basic principles of TQM, and examine its implications for employee involvement. They suggest that there are contradictions between the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sides of TQM. This can be exemplified in the relationship between TQM and employee involvement which has not been fully explored. Drawing on a major programme of research on employee involvement, three cases are analysed. They argue that the links between TQM and employee involvement are more complex than the TQM literature would have us believe and there are tensions between employee involvement and TQM. Finally, there is a wider discussion of the subject which analyses a number of constraints on the implementation of TQM in the UK. Adrian Wilkinson, Mick Marchington and John Goodman are respectively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor in the School of Management at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Peter Ackers is a Lecturer at Loughborough University Business School.     

Operational,organizational, and human resource factors predictive of customer perceptions of service quality

The overall objective of this study was to examine the relationship between total quality management (TQM) factors and business unit performance as measured by customer perceptions of service quality. Data were collected from 26 business units of larger service organizations. Analyses confirmed our hypotheses that customer perceptions would be a function of a combination of operational, organizational, and human resource factors that have been associated with TQM.     

Understanding the value of project management: First steps on an international investigation in search of value

Organizations investing in project management need to be assured of a concrete return. Without the ability to clearly define its value, project management joins the long line of initiatives (i.e., TQM, information systems, training, human resources) struggling to prove their worth to organizations. However, demonstrating a concrete value in organizations has been illusive and even paradoxical. This paper describes the conceptual model underlying a major international research project designed to yield a broad perspective on the value of project management. This model and research design will be of interest to researchers, project managers, professional organizations, and senior executives.     

TQM practice in real-estate industry using AHP

Total quality management (TQM) has been recognized as a successful management philosophy that can be successfully practiced in the Real-estate industry. The purpose of this research is to determine the important factors that influence the TQM practice in real estate industry. The research methods employed included a literature review, in-depth interviews and focus group techniques which were used as a first to identify ten constructs of TQM in organizations. That is Top Management Commitment, Customer Focus, Benchmarking, Continuous Improvement, Supplier Quality Management, Product Innovation, Product Quality, Employee’s Involvement, Rewards and Recognition, Educational and Training. The AHP questionnaires were sent as 142 organizations of members of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India, in the metro city of Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. The sampling procedure resulted in an overall response rate of 51% and the result was categorized based on organization size—small, medium and large. Then, the empirical study adopted the techniques of the Analytic Hierarchy Process to solicit opinions from 72 expert opinion collected through mail questionnaire. The results show that Employee involvement, top management commitment, employee customer focus, plays very important role for TQM practice in organizations. The results show that the Employee’s Involvement is most important to TQM practice in India. This is not difficult to understand, since the less than desirable record of real-estate industry. Therefore, the key to a successful strategy is to rebuild the confidence of TQM practice in real-estate industry.     

Theorizing TQM: An Austrian and Evolutionary Economics Interpretation

Born out of management practice, the principles of TQM (total quality management) have had a profound and unparalleled impact on modern business history. However, as a body of practical knowledge, TQM has been largely atheoretical. As a consequence, this important management philosophy has remained amorphous and shrouded in considerable conceptual haziness and ambiguity. Recent theorizing, primarily emphasizing the application of organizational behaviour theories to TQM, has begun to provide greater clarity, but much work remains to be done. This paper attempts to contribute to this nascent theory‐building literature by employing theory from market process economics (MPE), namely, Austrian and evolutionary economics, which explains how processes of dynamic change, adaptation, and learning are driven by entrepreneurial creativity. We contend that the patterns in this body of theory match, to a remarkable degree, the patterns of practical knowledge contained in the TQM literature. We demonstrate this ‘pattern‐matching’ by showing that MPE effectively provides the theoretical underpinnings of TQM’s three main principles — customer focus, continuous improvement and teamwork — as well as the respective TQM topics of customer perceptions, adaptation in dynamic environments, and knowledge creation. Having established MPE as a credible theoretical lens for interpreting TQM, it can be used to clarify fuzzy areas that have remained in the TQM literature with the potential to take us beyond what we know now. We illustrate this with three examples that show how we can resolve debates in TQM over incentive systems, recognize that TQM embraces methodological pluralism in the collection and analysis of data, and highlight hidden dangers that attend benchmarking. While MPE has no monopoly on theoretical interpretations of TQM, it is unique in its ability to comprehensively cover the incredible breadth of this practical body of knowledge, and in its interpretation of TQM as a dynamic economic endeavour.     

Top management leadership,employee empowerment,job satisfaction,and customer satisfaction in TQM organizations: an empirical study

Top management leadership and employee empowerment are considered two of the most important principles of total quality management (TQM) because of their assumed relationship with customer satisfaction. As a result, many top management leadership and employee empowerment strategies and practices have been suggested in the management literature. However, few studies have been done to test this assumed relationship and determine which of these strategies and practices may be most effective in bringing about the intended results. This study surveyed organizations that have adopted TQM to determine the relationship between top management leadership, employees' empowerment, job satisfaction, and customers' satisfaction. The results reveal positive correlation between top management leadership, employee empowerment, job satisfaction, and customer satisfaction. Employee empowerment and improved levels of job satisfaction are facilitated by top management leadership and commitment to the TQM goal of customer satisfaction by creating an organizational climate that emphasizes total quality and customer satisfaction. Effective strategies for achieving employee empowerment and job satisfaction, together with top management leadership roles in a TQM environment, are identified and discussed.     

Are we all on the same page? A qualitative study of the facilitation challenges associated with the implementation of deliberative priority-setting

Collaborative governance has given rise to decision-making methodologies promoting democracy, inclusivity and transparency. This is exemplified by deliberative priority-setting (DPS) that blends cost-effectiveness analysis with stakeholder deliberation. Little is known however, about the facilitation challenges when ‘technical’ and ‘social’ elements are combined in a methodology. This paper investigates the facilitation challenges of implementing a DPS project within the English National Health Service (NHS). Our study examines the relationship between facilitation and the effectiveness of DPS processes, highlighting the importance of knowledge management as facilitators seek to translate technical information, to enhance the deliberative experience and promote legitimate decisions.     

TQM and BPR: Beyond the Beyond Myth

It is generally assumed in the popular management literature that the TQM (total quality management) and BPR (business process re-engineering) movements are the two latest expressions of an increasing sophistication in management techniques and principles. Following this logic it only is a matter of time before they will be superseded by yet another management innovation. This paper aims to explode this ‘beyond’ myth by exposing the underlying logic of TQM and BPR implementation patterns in two case companies. Empirical findings will be related back to critical approaches to the study of TQM and BPR. Concrete suggestions as to how to move beyond the quick fix managerial mode will be proposed. Our approach is intended to provide a counterweight to the unreflective discourse surrounding TQM and BPR by breaking open the naturalness of this discourse. It supplies a few landmarks for managers and researchers to take a step back, hesitate, and reflect on the phenomenon of planned organizational change.     

The effects of total quality management and perceived justice on organizational commitment of hospital nursing staff

This study of 507 nurses in 12 hospitals finds that perceived procedural justice mediates the relationship between perceived Total Quality Management traits and two dimensions of commitment to the organization. Affective commitment fully mediates the effects of TQM and justice on intention to remain an employee. Such intention has a negative reciprocal effect on affective commitment. The paper suggests that hospital administrators attempting to implement TQM programs would do well to project a clear vision for the TQM program and impart a sense of fairness and correct procedure if they wish to win full employee commitment to the program. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research.     

Purchasing and supply management (PSM) competencies: Current and future requirements

Purchasing & Supply Management (PSM) competencies are the individual-level foundations of organisational PSM performance. In light of recent developments in the workplace and the external environment, the question of what PSM competencies are needed now, as well as in the future, becomes one of increasing importance. Analysing qualitative data from 46 interviews from 16 companies, this paper identifies what current and future competencies are required by PSM professionals, categorizes PSM competencies according to the framework established by Tassabehji and Moorhouse (2008) and establishes how these competency requirements have changed over the last ten years. The most important current competencies required by PSM professionals are negotiation, communication and relationship management (e.g. ‘Interpersonal communication’), strategy and analytics (e.g. ‘Strategic thinking’), as well as professional knowledge requirements (e.g. ‘Basic knowledge on PSM role & processes’). When looking at future requirements, competencies in the areas of sustainability and digitisation were identified as becoming increasingly important. Overall, 17 competencies in addition to those shown in Tassabehji and Moorhouse (2008) were identified. The most prominent new competency areas are related to digitisation (e.g. ‘eProcurement Technology’, ‘Automation’), innovation (e.g. ‘Innovative sourcing’) and sustainability. The interviewees also identified 11 new competencies within the interpersonal skills cluster, most of them at the intersection between competencies and traits (e.g. ‘Deal with Ambiguity’, ‘Curiosity’, ‘Passion’).     

Human resource management and organizational strategies in German- and US-owned companies

The development of the international economy over the past twenty years has bred considerable diversity in the form and substance of employment relations (labour-management relations, human resource management practices) throughout the world. Cases of ‘social partnership’ are today found in the ‘free market’ United States economy; some companies operating in Germany's ‘social’ market economy are rejecting traditional forms of social partnership in the name of more unilateral strategies.

This paper examines (a) the extent to which ‘strategic diversity’ – variation in human resource strategies and policies – is possible within the heavily institutionalized, co-operative and codeterminative German economy, and (b) how managers perceive the effects of different kinds of HR approaches on organizational change and industrial adjustment. It is based on empirical evidence drawn from seven large chemicals companies operating in Germany – three of them US-owned firms and four German-owned.

The main conclusions are that considerable strategic diversity is possible within the German context, and that managers perceive distinct costs and benefits to specific aspects of the typically American ‘unilateral’ style and the more German ‘negotiated’ approach to structuring the relationship with human resources. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these trade-offs for the transferability of HR strategies across international borders, giving special attention to policies to avoid some of these potential costs.     

The state of total quality management: a review

As quality is seen as becoming a competitive mandate, many organizations are said to be embracing the practice of total quality management (TQM) as an improvement strategy. In this paper, we will be examining the extent to which quality management (QM) - TQM in particular-has been adopted by organizations. Just as there are companies that claim that QM is benefiting them, the concept is also increasingly being criticized for not bringing about the promised results, and in the following review, studies that have highlighted this disparity in opinions will be reviewed. Increasingly, doubts have been raised as to whether partial quality management - and not TQM - is being practised in organizations. This paper will also examine the difficulties companies may be faced with in their attempts to embrace TQM.     

Professional media and management fashion: The case of knowledge management

This paper aims to analyse the role and responses of professional groups and their media outlets in relation to fashionable management discourses. Although much emphasis has been given to the role played by ‘knowledge entrepreneurs’ in sponsoring and exploiting management fashion, this risks neglecting the degree of adaptation and re-invention involved in translating these ideas into practice. Professional groups, in particular, can be seen as mediators of the spread and assimilation of fashionable discourses. In an empirical study we sought to analyse the importance and implications of this mediating role by focussing on the academic and professional media associated with Human Resource (HR) and Information Systems (IS) practitioners and their responses to one of the most influential management fashions of the recent period—Knowledge Management (KM).The initial stage of the study involved a qualitative and quantitative review of the IS and HR literature to identify the critical elements of their response to the KM discourse. This highlighted the role of legitimation, differentiation and inter-professional competition as features of professional media's ‘theorization’ of new management fashions. A further element of the study focussed on a particular HR magazine sponsored by the HR profession. Analysis of these articles suggests that this magazine has evolved a distinctive perspective on KM, one which highlights the employee and behavioural issues associated with its application compared to the more IT-driven rhetorics found in the mainstream literature. The rhetorical claims of the new discourse were thereby interwoven with the overarching knowledge claims of the HR profession.     

Exploring TQM awareness in the Greek national business context: between conservatism and reformism cultural determinants of TQM

This paper develops the theoretical understanding of the application of Total Quality Management (TQM) in business environments that differ from those from where it emerged. Business systems that are less developed tend to adopt more ‘sophisticated’ and formal strategic initiatives. The adoption of TQM by Greek organizations is a prime example. However, less has been said about the understanding of TQM or its cultural determinants in such environments. This paper, based on the results of 73 semi-structured interviews conducted with managers working in Greek public and private organizations, argues that there are two antithetical business-cultural ‘forces’ – conservatism and reformism – that seem to substantially affect the awareness and application of total quality concepts. Both features create pressures in the system, either restraining or promoting TQM implementation. In this context, the tension between traditional business culture and a modernization logic is the key to understanding the development of TQM.     

An unsuitable job for a woman: a ‘native category’ approach to gender,diversity and cross-cultural management

This paper takes an ethnographic study of the recruitment of women at BMW MINI between 2003 and 2006 as the basis to explore the impact of the concepts of ‘native categories’ and ‘recontextualisation’ on diversity management and cross-cultural management. I consider how managers' and workers' subconsciously held cultural categories relating to gender and work affected efforts to increase the number of female line workers in the plant, and how these were further complicated by the recontextualisation of German native categories in a British context. In doing so, this paper will develop a better understanding of the way native categories affect management and international business, provide an addition to the literature on recontextualisation, by introducing the concept of ‘native categories’ to research exploring the effects of recontextualisation on cross-cultural knowledge transfer, international human resource management strategy and marketing, and, finally, develop some understanding of how diversity management initiatives can fail in practice.     

Project management practice,generic or contextual: A reality check

The purpose of this research is to contribute to a better understanding of project management practice by investigating the use of project management tools and techniques and the levels of support provided by organizations for their use. The study examines both general levels of use and variations among project types and contexts. Many aspects of project management practice are common to most projects in most contexts, while others vary significantly among different types of projects and among projects in different contexts. The purpose of this paper is to present empirical results that show both the common elements and the significant variations. The paper is based on a survey of 750 project management practitioners. The use of tools and techniques is seen here as an indicator of the realities of practice. The study found some aspects of practice to be common across all types of projects and all contexts, but on this background of similar patterns of practice, several statistically significant differences have also been identified. The primary focus of this paper is on these variations in practice.     

Innovativeness and organizational innovation in total quality oriented firms: The moderating role of market turbulence

This paper analyses the contribution of TQM implementation to the firms’ innovative culture and their overall innovation effort in the technical and administrative organizational domains. The research seeks to contribute to a further understanding, under different market turbulence conditions, of the TQM–innovation relationship and the interactions between the organization's innovativeness and the intensity and newness of the innovations adopted. The findings indicate that TQM strongly influences firm's innovative culture and higher administrative innovation levels with a greater degree of incorporated novelty, whereas the mediating role of innovativeness is required for TQM to achieve this impact on technical innovation. These relationships significantly vary under different levels of market turbulence, but results reinforce the consideration of TQM as an appropriate resource to foster innovativeness and organizational innovation. The study provides an unexpected result as innovativeness does not influence administrative innovations, which seem to be ultimately determined by TQM. Finally, the findings provide empirical support regarding the coordinated development in practice of technical and administrative innovations.