Keywords

1 Introduction

The concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) was developed by an American, after World War II for improving the production quality of goods and services. The concept was not taken seriously by Americans until the Japanese, who adopted it in 1950 to resurrect their postwar business and industry, used it to dominate world markets by 1980. The TQM is quite popular in management circles today. TQM refers to a set of philosophies that reorient management systems to focus on the efficient achievement of organizational objectives in order to exceed customer expectations and maximize stakeholder value. In the last two decades, TQM have enabled Japanese companies increase their competitive advantage in costs and quality, and to consequently gain significant global market share in a number of variety of industries. TQM, in many ways, is practically a formalized common sense.

While TQM was pioneered in the manufacturing sector, its benefits have been brought to service and public sector organizations. Many educational institutions in the US and Canada are applying TQM techniques to improve their organizational effectiveness and the quality of their programs.

A total quality approach in running our schools is necessary for equipping learners to function to their fullest potential in an environment of depleting resources. The schools have to be dynamic and flexible to meet the demand. The expectations of students, parents, and the public in general vis à vis educational priorities, costs, accessibility, programs, and relevancy, make it imperative for schools to undergo continual assessment and improvement. Funding resources for education are diminishing at a rapid rate. Schools have to find innovative ways of cutting costs without cutting quality.

2 Introducing TQM

2.1 TQM Defined

TQM is a management philosophy that seeks to integrate all organizational functions to focus on meeting customer needs and organizational objectives. It views an organization as a collection of processes and maintains that organizations must strive to continuously improve these processes by incorporating the knowledge and experiences of workers. Although originally applied to manufacturing operations, and for a number of years only used in that area, TQM is now becoming recognized as a generic management tool, just as applicable in service and public sector organizations.

2.2 TQM Concept

Quality of education is a multi-dimensional concept, with varying conceptualizations. It includes the quality of inputs in the form of students, faculty, support staff and the infrastructure: the quality of processes in the form of learning and teaching activity: and the quality of outputs in the form of the enlightened students who move out of the system. Quality control is an effective system of ensuring quality, ensuring continuing excellence. TQM is a modern term wider in scope than the total quality control (TQC). TQC considers the role of employees in improving the productivity. But it remains silent about the quality of work life, employee satisfaction, and organizational development. TQM takes into its fold not only ensuring productivity and efficiency but also ensuring individual satisfaction and institutional building and human well being.

2.3 TQM Philosophy

TQM approach keeps the organizational goals at the supreme but there is a fundamental shift in philosophy from work centered to employee centered. TQM believes in the following:

  1. (a)

    There are no workers and no managers, all employees of an educational institution have important roles to play. The role of each one is important. Therefore, we must realise that all are facilitators and team members, the head of them being the leader of the team. The team can never succeed unless everyone puts into his/her best.

  2. (b)

    Involvement is the key word. It means participation plus commitment and pride.

  3. (c)

    Everyone is made to identify oneself with the institution. Employees voluntarily come forward as the relationships should be family oriented where everyone gives his/her best even without asking.

  4. (d)

    TQM requires a new set of values. There should be openness, transparency, trust, patience, respect, and discipline.

3 TQM Concept for Education

Components of TQM in education

Awareness and Commitment for Everyone, A Clear Mission, A Systems Planning Approach, Teaming Replacing Hierarchy, Enabling and Empowerment Replacing Fear.

Focus on Mastery Learning

The sequences are: (1) Plan, (2) Teach, (3) Test

The TQM alternative is: (1) Plan, (2) Teach (DO), (3) Check, (4) Revised Teaching (ACT), (5) Test

PDCA Cycle Activities

PDCA Cycle will be repeated again and again for “Continuous Improvement”

Focus of practicing TQM in educational institutions must embrace at least the following

(1) Knowledge: 100% understanding of subjects (2) Wisdom: ability to apply knowledge and experiences to make the right decisions, the correct choices and the right judgment (3) Eloquent Speech: Clear, fluent, and flawless presentation of ideas and living a participated life (4) Spiritual Perception: Ability to differentiate between right and wrong.

TQM concept must be applied to all activities of the institution such as

Morning assembly, Lesson plan, Games, Teachers training, Admission, Recruitment, Examination/Assessment, Discipline, SQCC, 5-S, TWIT, etc.

5S’s stand for five Japanese words

  1. 1.

    SEIRI (Sorting): Deciding what is/is not necessary, and disposing the latter.

  2. 2.

    SEITON (Setting in Order): Storing the necessary things in order, so that the right items can be picked up efficiently (without any delay/waste) at the right time.

  3. 3.

    SEISOU (Shining): Creating a clean workplace without dust, dirt, and garbage.

  4. 4.

    SEIKETSU (Standardization): Keeping the good state of SEIRI, SEITON, SEIKETSU.

  5. 5.

    SHITSUKE (Self-Discipline): Training officers/employees for making the four steps as a regular rule at the workplace.

The TQM is applicable to academics. Many educators believe that the Deming’s (1900) concept of TQM provides guiding principles for needed educational reform. In his article, “The Quality Revolution in Education,” John Jay Bonstingl (1985) outlines the TQM principles he believes are most salient to education reform. He calls them the “Four Pillars/Principles of Total Quality Management.” These are described below.

  1. (a)

    Synergistic Relationships

The very application of the first pillar of TQM to education emphasizes the synergistic relationship between the “suppliers” and “customers”. The concept of synergy suggests that performance and production is enhanced by pooling the talent and experience of individuals. In a classroom, teacher–student teams are the equivalent of industry’s front-line workers. The product of their successful work together is the development of the student’s capabilities, interests, and character.

  1. (b)

    Continuous Improvement and Self-Evaluation

The second pillar of TQM applied to education is the total dedication to continuous improvement, personally, and collectively. TQM emphasizes self-evaluation as part of a continuous improvement process.

  • Management by Measurement in TQM

The two basic purposes of TQM in education

(a) Improved learning (b) Improved cost effectiveness

Form a TQM steering committee that.

(a) Develops a plan for supporting the staff in TQM implementation (b) Builds a positive connection between that committee and the traditional supervisors (c) Use advice from consultants and/or from schools that have succeeded at TQM transformation

  • Implementing TQM

  1. 1.

    Aligning the Institution

    (a) People (b) Process

  2. 2.

    Ensuring Mind-set/Attitude to Understand the following

    (a) Quality: A new Philosophy, (b) KIAZEN, (c) Internal Customer, (d) Working with Facts, (e) Respect for Humanity

  3. 3.

    Through Participation and Involvement Utilize Following Tools

    (a) Policy Management, (b) Students Quality Control Circle, (c) Teachers Work Improvement Teams, (d) 5-S Techniques, (e) Quality Assurance (and Process Orientation)

  1. (c)

    A System of Ongoing Process

The third pillar is the recognition of the organization as a system and the work done within the organization must be seen as an ongoing process.

  1. (d)

    Leadership

The fourth TQM principle is that the success of TQM is the responsibility of top management. The school teachers must establish the context in which students can best achieve their potential through the continuous improvement that results from teachers and students working together.

4 Principles of TQM

The key principles of TQM are given below (Martin 1993):

Management commitment

Fact based decision making

Plan (drive, direct)

Statistical process control

Do (deploy, support, participate)

DOE, FMEA

Check (review)

The seven statistical tools

Act (recognize, communicate, revise)

Ford 8D—team-oriented problem solving

Employee empowerment

Continuous improvement

Training

Systematic measurement and focus on CONQ

Suggestion scheme

Excellence teams

Measurement and recognition

Cross-functional process management

Excellence teams

Attain, maintain, improve standards

Customer focus

 

Supplier partnership

Service relationship with internal customers

Never compromise quality

Customer driven standards

5 TQM Process

In an educational institution, the TQM process brings with it the commitment to quality, along with commitment to the employees, and the organization. All those who contribute to the system should be involved, with a clear understanding of the purpose. It is an approach to improve the effectiveness and flexibility of the organization as a whole. The improved performance is directed towards satisfying cross-functional goals as quality, cost, manpower development, quality of work life, etc. These activities ultimately lead to increased students and employee satisfaction. The process to introduce TQM in colleges should generally have the following steps:

  1. (a)

    Mission and Passion: The determination and announcement of mission statement is the first and foremost task on which the whole TQM will depend. There should be no or minimal conflict. Everyone should share a passion to move continuously close to the ideal vision.

  2. (b)

    Administrator as a Role Model: It must also be clear from the side of administrator/Principal of the institution that he/she is committed to total quality. The commitment should be communicated in meetings with employees and students and must be practiced, i.e. it must be by word of mouth and by action visibly demonstrated. The process of pursuing this agenda should be continuous and never lost sight of.

  3. (c)

    Environment Factors: The next step is identification of the factors of internal and external environment, which have a bearing on the institution building. These include factors affecting the work environment in the institution (proper cleanliness, lighting, teaching aids, projectors, computer labs, lab materials, canteen, sports, gardening, water, etc.) and factors helpful in image-building of the institution (industry–institution interaction, debates, conferences, seminars, public relation including media management, etc.). Outsiders should be involved for mutual benefit.

    Liberalization and globalization have set new trends in domestic and global competitive environment. This has led to a great disparity between what is taught and what is needed at the work place. Due to the socioeconomic, cultural, and technological transformation which has taken place during past decade, newer demands are being placed upon educational institutions. Educational system can effectively react to these internal and external challenges only when it emphasizes on total quality.

  4. (d)

    Accountability: We have to develop the system in which every group (student, teachers, researcher, manager) is accountable to all other groups and members of each group are accountable to one another. Students should be accountable to teachers. We should develop a system in which teachers are accountable to students through instruction surveys and are accountable to management through self assessment and assessment of teacher by outside organizations and in which researchers are prepared to be assessed by outside agencies and funding agencies for their work. We have to develop a system in which managements are accountable for their work through assessment by accreditation process. Moreover all accountability at all levels has to be in terms of criteria laid down sufficiently in advance.

  5. (e)

    Human Relations: There is a need to enhance quality in the whole setup, including the relationship. All individuals, small or big must be viewed as important human beings with physiological, psychological, social, and ego needs.

  6. (f)

    Feedback: TQM is a continuous process. There is a need for continuous performance appraisal of all the subsystems as well as the system as a whole.

6 Implementation Principles and Processes

There are several barriers for implementing total quality in education:

(a) There is often a conflict between administration and academic functions. The two groups often form parallel worlds without a shared vision or mission for the school. A total quality approach requires that the two groups should work together to meet customer expectations; (b) Within the academic group, there is often too much division. Identity with the entire school must take precedence over subgroup identity; (c) Most schools have entrenched cultural practices and beliefs that may create resistance to change. (d) The concept of a customer may be difficult to adopt in an academic environment; and (e) The need for control, measurement, and feedback systems for the purposes of standardization is somewhat foreign to academic environments. There may be the fear of stifling creativity.

To successfully implement a total quality approach to education we must do the following:

(a) Obtain COMMITMENT to total quality from the relevant authority. (b) Recognize a school as a system with interacting subsystems, namely, a social/cultural subsystem dealing with human interactions and motivation. (c) Identify all the customers and stakeholders; (d) Develop and communicate throughout the school a shared vision and mission that reenforce the needs of its customers; (e) Analyze the behavior of the school; (f) Develop goals and objectives consistent with the vision and mission; (g) Study the impact of each major process on the ability to meet the school’s goals and objectives; (h) Develop measurement and feedback systems for each major process (such as curriculum development, student intake, teaching, etc.); (i) Form cross-functional teams to improve major processes. Ensure that all the customers of each process are directly involved in the improvement effort; (j) Train all teams in techniques consistent with the nature of their activity; (k) Implement systems to hold the gains that are made; (l) Document all improvement exercises; (l) Repeat Steps narrated before.

A preliminary step in TQM implementation is to assess the organization’s current reality. Relevant preconditions have to do with the organization’s history, its current needs, precipitating events leading to TQM, and the existing employee quality of working life. If the current reality does not include important preconditions, TQM implementation should be delayed until the organization is in a state in which TQM is likely to succeed.

7 Conclusion

Quality education is all about systems that lead to good academic culture, excellent academic result, progressive and adaptive management, clear and transparent administration, prominent profile of outgoing students, and, above all, review and modification of inputs. All stakeholders have a prominent role to play. TQM in educational institutions is the need of the hour. It must be tried in colleges/Universities for maximum performance of the students and the employees. It must also be implemented for institutional image-building. It has become all the more necessary with the entry of the private sector in education in a big way. TQM will help achieve excellence, which only can guarantee the survival of institutions in a highly competitive world, with ever decreasing subsidy in the education sector.