TQM in Academic Environment Essay Example for Free

TQM in Academic Environment Essay Abstract Total Quality Management was originally a concept coined in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This concept sought continuous improvement in performance, laying a lot of emphasis on the customers. A lot of organizations and military institutes started implementing the principles and integrating them within their entirety. Very soon, people started debating on the effective use and implementation of TQM within academic circles. Irrespective of resistance by some circles, certain academic sectors integrated TQM and were surprisingly successful. Students, specializing in their respective fields were the focus of attention. It was decided that transformation will not take place through movements emphasizing greater specialization, grades, and standards of performance accountability or through training students to fit into existing academic environments. Rather, a change that would produce improvement not only the fundamental changes with which we manage and design our educational systems but also how we design them, keeping in view the needs of our clients/constituents. The paper focuses and throws light on the nature of total quality management. How it found way into the academic circles and its coherence as far as inculcating leaders in the society is concerned. It delves into the nature of change asked for and essential rethinking that follows post realization that TQM caters to the needs of the society and organizations at large. This involves budging out of the rules established, encouraging complex mental models, thinking out of the box, working on processes that improve grades rather than the grades themselves, eliminating prejudices with respective to normal and special cases, improving interaction between the departments, working towards a shared vision, increased commitment on the part of faculty and teachers, overcoming resistance to change and being adaptive. TQM in Academic Environment TQM or Total Quality Management marks certain philosophies and universally acknowledged notions to achieve organizational effectiveness. This is in essence an attempt to go beyond customer satisfaction and to ensure good will throughout the industry. Japanese firms have held their integrity and superiority over other firms for the past two decades, thanks to their successful implementation of total quality management. Today, TQM is considered as a key tool in ensuring that efficiency of the organization is sustained. It has been implemented, across the board in various corporate organizations and has produced desired results. They are customer driven, keep in perspective all the stake holders involved, inter-departmental communication is an important consideration, cross functional teams are operative, jobs are empowered and performance appraisal and feedback is regularly conducted. Thus, it was essentially through business organizations and militia that TQM entered the academic arena. In this context, we mould our definition of TQM as a means of achieving continuous unimpeded success, making use of certain tools and principles and producing effective leaders in the process. TQM has time and again proven to be an effective strategy for sustaining and improvising growth and development. Unfortunately, it is yet to bear its fruits in education, in particular primary and secondary education. The state of education in most nations around the globe has by far marked an average only. There is a lack of purpose, a focus, and most educational institutions in the world are not customer driven; a myriad of departments exist with no focus on cross-departmental interaction; conventional and old forms of imparting education continue being practiced and people outside the academic circles are given little or no regard; the notions are rigid and facts don’t count; excellence is rarely sought and no benchmarks are made. Keeping expectations from such institutes is hogwash. Most surprisingly the belief that these quality programs are expensive is false. The primary, secondary and higher sectors of our academic education will continue struggling unless a proper plan is chalked out to combat all the short comings, these sectors face. The aim of an educational system and its mission must be coherent with each other. The procedures, policies and tools applied in a department or a division should conform to the mission the academic institute caters to. Standards are set and a common understanding of the system at hand should prevail. Managers follow the aims targeted to devise the system proceedings and ensure that maximum quality is achieved. TQM in essence follows Deming’s 12 principles that were carved keeping the customers in perspective. On an academic scale, they are treated analogously. We begin by focusing on the major areas that TQM aims to improvise, what factors contribute its successful implementation and what goals are intended to achieve through it. The rules that govern our teachers, administration, students and support systems have been long standing and limit the ability to think and reason. Boundaries that are fenced around these rules are a comfortable resort not because they are easy to be taken care of but also because they stem for universally acknowledged practices. TQM, on the contrary advocates for the contrary. It aspires for change and thinking beyond the box. It does not believe in the conventional system of adjudging capabilities by marks but directs its focus towards the process that was put into practice to achieve the results. It is not possible to assess how the results changed, how the performance improved, unless the light is shed in the process that was used to produce the change. Continuous improvement should be sought for and educational systems should be continuously designed and redesigned unless goals stipulated are achieved. TQM, to this effect deliberates a framework that fosters continuous improvement. There is a marked difference between the traditional modes of achieving improvement and those set against TQM. Under TQM, education is dealt as a cafeteria which seeks to satisfy hunger pangs of its customers. Improvement efforts and traditional processes are laid down on a menu card and offered to its customers (educators, institutes, colleges, universities, students, schools, administration) who seek to satiate their hunger pangs. As a result, those customers, who are able to satisfy their hunger walk out content and satisfied while the others stay in, unless their hunger demands are not dealt with. The rules established, thus have to be pondered over again in all major genres. To this effect, quality principles have to be especially dealt with. Quality in this context means, that a shared vision guides the purpose of education; its is acceptable by everyone; it focuses on collaboration and interaction instead of competition; it realizes that every individual is unique and different in its own right and seeks to optimize the expectations met for each one of them; grades and other performance indicators are considered as the capability of the system or the process and not the difference between a good and an unsuccessful student; it is devoid of prejudice and bias against students on the basis of their grades; it seeks to nurture the needs of all them and support them in times of distress; practices that berate people for instance ranking of staff, faculty, students are avoided and their morale are boosted and it emphasizes on self evaluation through collaborative evaluation. The rule rethinking under TQM also seeks to rethink roles allocated in an educational system. The most important of all being the managerial roles, who now have to deal individuals on an individual basis, keeping in perspective the context of the situation. This means having complete control of the environment and forces that work against the nurturing and development of intrinsic motivation (Bryan, n.d.). This fosters an education system in which students actively take part in planning and evaluating their learning process. They are made to realize that they are responsible for their learning and this responsibility only increase as they grow and mature. This is implemented by effective management of the system. This involves complete understanding of the coherence and co-relation between the various departments of the system. The administration manages their system and the faculty manages their system. Students on the other hand as discussed take control of their lives. This nurtures and builds up an enjoyable environment of learning and development where individuals exercise authority over their roles and seek to improve it continuously. However, care must be taken that this reallocation of roles adheres to the quality standards. This involves using teams to improve effectiveness of the higher education environment and student learning; quality in education emphasizes managing the processes used to produce the results then the results themselves; it designs a curriculum such that students are able to adapt them in their lives and integrate the parts they are exposed to accordingly; a win-win situation is produced and there is no concept of win-lose; quality in education is managed as a system by educational leaders who seek to understand their role and commit themselves to its strict adherence; it provides freedom, and inculcates novelty across the board. However implementation of TQM in academic institutes has met with resistance by various circles. The most oft repeated argument against its favor is the belief that it’s a panacea of the 1900s and holds no value in today’s time and era. Many argue that is a fad and like Management by Objectives, its going to be wiped away very soon. For this reason any many others that there are few organizations in the US who have completely embraced the concept of TQM. When it was first introduced many chose to turn a blind eye to it. For those who did successful implement TQM had to bypass a lot of obstacles. Most notably being the resistance to adapt, mould and change, adamant claims by naysayers who believed that TQM won’t work, lack of trust and unwillingness to train and empower employees. To challenge the deeply embedded academia culture will and is a mountainous task. Limited marketing alternatives and rare cost cutting opportunities have added more fuel to the fire. Most of these institutes are run by political sectors whose demands vary frequently. (Total Quality, n.d.) While TQM aims at ridding the society where grades judge capabilities, the society at large remains grade conscious. Other problems include the lack of coherence between the academic institute’s managerial strata and its academic functions. The two run parallel to each other working towards their own goals. TQM approach, on the contrary requires that the groups work parallel to each other. Excess division over subjects pursued is another obstacle. Cultural beliefs and practices embedded within most of these schools gives way for resistance to change. Irrespective of these obstacles, TQM has found audience in the literature and the health sector. They have successfully implemented the principles associated with TQM. Not only has this improved the quality standard but reinforced customer trust in these sectors. Students are able to develop a complex model of problems and delve into analytical evaluation of their performance. Their comprehension skills have improved and they have built on their ability to adapt their learning to their life. This can be achieved by provided instructions that are clear and focused; students should be taught different strategies to remember what they have learnt and apply them accordingly; actions such as head nodding, maintaining consistent eye contact, smiling and being responsive can help develop a student’s interest; continuous desire and urge on the part of principal to seek improvement and meet quality standards; instructional effectiveness is sought for such that no one has issues when it comes to changing the mode of instruction directed and a staff that is involved in learning activities. (Kathleen, n.d.) Leaders in such schools would thus not only look out for ways to change but to manage and embed the change process throughout the institute. References Kathleen, C. (n.d.). Applying Total Quality Management Principles To Secondary Education. Retrieved March Friday, 2008, from file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/M.Sajjad/My%20Documents/originals/research%20work/s035.html Bryan, R. Cole. (n.d.). TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT AS A TOOL TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Retrieved March Friday, 2008, from file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/M.Sajjad/My%20Documents/originals/research%20work/keynote1.htm Total Quality Management in Higher Education: Is It Working? Why Or Why. (n.d.). : Green wood Publishing group.