مدیریت بهره وری (Mar 2013)
Investigating the Readiness of University Personnel to Implement and Establish a Comprehensive Quality and Productivity Management
Abstract
In the third millennium, higher education is moving from a single-function and single-institution entity toward the multi-function and multi-dimensional one. Therefore, it is confronting new challenges. The best possible safeguard against these challenges is quality. Thus, total quality management (TQM), with its considerable results in industry and business, is now entering the higher education system. Educational and research quality is one of the concerns of higher education systems, and universities have always struggled to attain it. The constant promotion of higher education quality requires educational assessment. During the past two decades noticeable attempts have been made in many countries to enhance higher education quality and to attain the objectives of higher education systems. The main objective of the present research is to determine the rate of university chancellors’ readiness to establish comprehensive quality and productivity management. In this study, the six principles of commitment, customer orientation, realism, collaboration, training, and continuous improvement have been considered as the TQM principles. The statistical population consisted of all the personnel of Islamic Azad University, Zanjan Branch, from among whom 111people were selected as the research sample through the use of random sampling method. For data analysis, Spss software was used, and the data were analyzed both descriptively and inferentially. The results indicated that the readiness of the personnel of the university under study to establish total quality management is not at a desirable level.