Total Quality Management Model

One of the famous among the philosophers is Deming’s philosophy. Deming is widely known as the father of TQM. His philosophy is widely known as the foundation of TQM. He believed that people have the capability of acquiring knowledge. He also perceives that people if properly trained or prompted with set of instructions can get the job done excellently and that everyone deserves an ample respect. He quoted, “When there is a problem, eighty five percent of the time it is with the system and fifteen per cent of the time it will be with the workers. ” According to Deming, this is said to be applicable in small and large organizations to the service industry as well as to manufacturing. The first of Demming’s 14 points describe an adequate need from an overall business perspective. The second point addresses leadership for change. Third point states a need to stop the common practice or ritual of rigid inspection to gain a quality product. And lastly, the fourth to fourteen describe additional activities that an organization should incorporate as part of doing business. According to Winter, the 14 principles fall into three main part. First is the Philosophy and mission.

The first part involves a principle that focuses on customer needs in a never-ending search for quality. Second is organizational environment which establishes values and norms that dictates the treatment of each individual in the organization. Third is the process which emphasizes on the need to create intervention to certain possible problems that may or might occur on the process rather than spotting of failures at the end of the process. DeCosmo et al. reported their experience of implementing TQM in Delaware County Community College (DCCC) for four-and-a-half years. The implementation of the study involves three phases. The first was the implementation of total quality in the top management of the college, and was followed by the development of TQM curriculum. The last phase was the implementation of TQM throughout the teaching and learning process. The implementation reveals significant benefits of implementing TQM to staff. The result turns out that the staff will be equip to become more encouraged to involve themselves in the process of documenting and standardizing the college operating procedures. And they are more willing to collaborate with the other departments. This made them conclude that TQM is worth the time they conducted.

According to Harris, TQM is an approach that focuses an organization’s efforts towards continuous improvement to deliver high quality products and services to the customers. There were three considerations that has been concluded by Harris. The first is customer-centered. This concept of service gives emphasis through staff and training. The second is concerned with the improvement of all members and staff to ensure effectivity of the school. Lastly, the third approach takes a service agreement that seeks to ensure conformity to specification at certain key measurable points of the educational process. Williams concludes that there are two dimensions of TQM. Mainly its a management tool to speed up productivity, by keeping the customers satisfied and avoiding occurrence of problem. Also, having an excellent performance by developing professional good manners, and providing with moral education”. `Coate has been implementing TQM at the Oregon State University (OSU). It comprised nine phases which were exploring total quality management; establishing a pilot study team; Defining customer needs; adopting the breakthrough planning process; performing breakthrough planning in the divisions; forming daily management teams; initiating cross-functional pilot projects; implementing cross-functional total quality management; and setting up reporting, recognition, and awards systems. Coate suggests that with the full support of the management and teamwork. There would be a successful TQM implementation.

These essential factors are evident in Coate’s point of view, with the case of OSU proved that: “it has saved the university time, reduced costs, empowered people at all levels, and improved morale. TQM is vital not only for the realization of its vision but also for its survival in the marketplace”. Leadership development is a vital factor in TQM. According to Leffel et al. during their experience with Virginia Tech, recommended that TQM must begin with the development of the leadership, team working toward a shared vision, shared values, and training of leaders. Therefore, leadership development must be taken into high consderation as this process proves to be effective if it is properly stabilized in an organization or institution. Gartner reported his application of Deming’s methods to two business courses. He found out that students wanted to do well and could perform specific outputs when they were given specific instructions about on what was required. Gartner concluded that general principles and methods of quality control as outlined by Deming seem to work. Students can be liken to workers, and systems can be put in place to enable them to generate high levels of outputs with high level of quality. The workplace will seem to be more enjoyable for both learners and educators if set of rules were applied as medium of instruction. The learning environment would be more conducive and learners will be more equipped. Gartner advocated to implement TQM, top management support was the vital factor. Chizmar recorded his strategy of involving students actively in their own learning through the creation of learning communities and increased usage of collaboration. This means allowing student to express their individualities and creating an avenue fo group involvement as this will make an impact on the learners' acquisition of knowledge. He concluded that the conditions of a TQM teaching/learning model were teamwork, empowerment, feedback, and continuous improvement. “The real power of TQM drives form its totalness, it provides a framework, or model, for combining disparate ideas into a unified whole for the purpose of predicting a priority what will work”According to Tribus, the objective of every school should be to provide for each student opportunities to develop in four categories; knowledge, know-how, wisdom, and character. Knowledge enables people to understand, while know-how enables people to do. Wisdom on the other hand enables people to set priorities and lastly, character which enables people to cooperate, to persevere, and to become respected and trusted members of society”.

The work of Siu and Heart presents one of the writers making no attempt to differentiate education from business settings. They said education is different from industry. But managing people and resources is largely the same for any organization – whether in business or education. Hertzier presents a comprehensive account of the literature on implementing TQM in higher education. She reported and discussed historical development in TQM, implementation of TQM in educational settings and barriers to implementation. She explained that the only barriers to TQM were inadequate leadership development in college and the hesitations of educators to treat students as “customers”. However, she did not attempt to explain the differences between education and industry. Hazzard shares in his article the strengths and weaknesses of TQM in higher education. The disadvantages of TQM are effort and time consuming. Also, includes the requirement of top management support and the progress of training programs. He did not, however, discuss the significance of applying TQM in educational institutions. Brigham mentioned that “service industries, generally have met with less success than manufacturing thus far Higher education has good reason to be wary”. Although he acknowledged such a difference, he concluded no relevance of administering TQM in education. Leslie tried to establish the importance of student work experience (SWE) and to propose that a TQM approach to SWE should be adopted. He stated that: “education is not about fitting people for work, it is about developing members of society to be able to prosper in the community". Sherr and Lozier concluded that TQM manifest three core values, which were the importance of people, need to use knowledge and continuous improvement. They failed to point out the superiority of TQM as compared to other management theories. Maslow recognized that self-esteem and self-actualization needs are the top priorities in motivating employees. These two needs are connected or related with the motivating factors suggested by Herzberg’s two factor theory. The systems approach to organization theory can provide a holistic and integrative view for the operations of an organization.

According to Corneskyet al. , TQM can help the management in education by offering the customer-oriented concept and customers can be both internal and external. Nevertheless, TQM is not the only philosophy which emphasizes the importance of customer satisfaction. All marketing writers acknowledge the importance of customers. Moreover, recognizing and satisfying the needs of internal customers are topics in “relationship marketing”. Trumbull associates business and school in implementing TQM. He gave list of visible results. Teachers are encouraged to look at their students like customers and their inputs as business. In which, they ensure their teachers to adapt change and hurdle possible leaps of resistance to change. Rhodes wrote: Apparently Deming’s words and ideas resonate with something that many people already personally believe is “right”. The ideas seem to validate long-held feelings of working individuals who know they want to be effective in their jobs and who by and large have given up on their organization ever acting as if they believed it. He added: TQM would be a great help in schools to view their actions from a perspective of “customer/student” at the center of the process. The view will allow school to look into student’s perspective – to understand what the school and the world around it looks like to children growing up today.

The words of Olson quoted by Weaver may best describe the present situation. TQM spread lots of talk in schools but produced less action. Educational institutions which reported the use of TQM, usually implement it in areas that closely resembles TQM in business, such as contracting out custodial services and processing purchase orders. Another school scenario is to use TQM methods to solve student absenteeism, instead of attempting to apply TQM principles to the school as a whole, it should be specifically in a particular problem. Edwell suggests the adoption of TQM in assessing or evaluating students. However, he failed to discuss further the unique advantages or contributions of TQM that is not feasible by other management techniques. He only wrote the three trends which he believed were consistent under the umbrella of TQM. Williams’ words can best illustrate the situation of implementing TQM in Higher Education. He demonstrated that Chadwick at South Bank University, Ellis at University of Ulster, Clayton atAston University, Cowles and Gilbreath at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Doherty at University of Wolverhamptononly “describe work in progress, and none submits claim to total achievement”The words of Schmoker quoted by Weaver may best sum up the current state of TQM: Some has been written little of it has been absorbed, believed, and implemented in American schools or businesses. This might be explained by the fact that systematic change requires time, but it might also be an indication the quality movement is not achieving its vision”. House suggested that Deming shows the direction for a transformation of American management.

Transformation of management practices and beliefs results, changes in organizational structure, changes in relationships among those connected with it. According to Bonser, there are still hesitations in applying all Deming’s philosophy in education. He wrote that not all of the principles can be applicable given their differences. He also stated that Demming’s approach can be a significant component in the construction of a new philosophy by which higher education leadership can guide our institutions into the next century. Hill acknowledges that TQM Model is perceive to be good but has a higher possibility of having critiques if taken well carefully. Also, TQM is not a new concept but offers an integrative framework for improvement. There should be more room for improvement to see great results.