A Measure of Staff Perceptions of Quality-Oriented Organizational Performance: Initial Development and Internal Consistency

The present study originated from a university's effort to develop a Total Quality Management (TQM) system for improving the quality of staff services. This extends TQM into a major service sector, higher education, which has only recently begun to explore TQM applications. Integral to this effort was the development of an instrument for assessing service quality based on staff perceptions. The instrument was based on a core set of dimensions identified as common to the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, and the psychology and management literatures. Initial support for this instrument came from high reliability coefficients for each of the component scales. Recommendations for further validation efforts and potential practical applications are also discussed.