The study investigated the faculty perception of quality in online courses. The areas considered were media richness, interaction, synchronism, self-efficacy, online teaching experience, and education level. Participants included members of three online Yahoo groups that were designed for online faculty members. There were 510 total members surveyed with 203 respondents for a response rate of 39.8%. The study was conducted during the spring semester of 2009. Of the six research questions four were supported. Media richness, interaction, and self-efficacy were related to perceived quality. Media richness explained a total of 7.9% of the variability in faculty ratings of perceived online course quality. The results for interaction indicate that a relationship was not found between interactions with students in general and perceived quality of the online course by faculty, however, a significant relationship was found between several of the individual interaction items and the quality items. The self-efficacy variable explained 30.6% of the variability in faculty ratings of perceived quality. Online teaching experience was related to perceived quality when controlling for course variables. Synchronism and faculty education level were not related to perceived quality. Conclusions based on the findings indicated that to increase faculty perception, course developers should focus on building classes with rich learning environments, creating feelings of perceived quality, and fostering commitment to the classroom. Courses that have media rich content convey the message to the student better than courses without the inclusion of such content. Interaction is the cornerstone of online learning so multiple modes of interaction are necessary in online courses. Having self-efficacy allow the faculty to accomplish their goal, handle unexpected events, find solutions to problems, and handle whatever might occur in the respective courses. Allowing faculty members to upload media rich information for future courses could add value to the course. Selecting a Learning Management System that allows for a highly interactive classroom is important to faculty members. Future research studies should evaluate the capabilities of additional constructs as determinants of perceived quality from the faculty perspective.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA (DVS) / The Reconstruction Development Programme (RDP) housing program was instituted to provide South Africans with quality housing that meet their basic needs. For people, fortunate enough to receive RDP houses, numerous complaints were raised. With government's focus on quantitative housing delivery, there have been qualitative shortcomings and the perceptions are that the constructed houses are of very low quality and do not meet the needs of the occupants. Consequently, the quality of housing constitutes the physical condition of housing as well the perceptions of occupants. However, since perceptions of housing quality are context specific and differs from one person to the other and across cities/countries, what therefore constitutes as housing quality is highly subjective. Also, despite the increased discussion on the quality of housing and people's perception of it, most empirical research on housing has been undertaken in the larger metro areas while there is not much focus on housing in small towns. The purpose of this the study was to explore the perceptions of RDP beneficiaries on the housing quality in the small community of Nollothville, Northern Cape. Since housing is important as it satisfies many different human needs, a case study approach was adopted and Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs was used as a theoretical framework to guide this study. Research conducted in Nollothville reveals that the RDP houses especially the first phase of the RDP houses are of sub-standard quality. Both primary and secondary resources were used to obtain data. The study used a semi-structured interview guide as a data collection tool while the questionnaire was used to solicit the magnitude of RDP beneficiaries' perceptions of the RDP houses and, lastly, observations were conducted to validate these findings. Findings revealed that although the RDP houses were well received by the recipients, many complained about the substandard quality of these houses and that the houses do meet the criteria for quality housing. The following perceptions raised by most of the study participants regarding the quality of the houses included unstable foundation, poor quality roofing; poor quality doors or no doors inside the house; cracking floors; no bath or shower, weak and poor-quality toilets. Also, since many of the houses were in such bad conditions there was a struggle to cope with the financial upkeep of the houses. Based on previous research conducted in other provinces, the study concludes the RDP houses are the of the same sub-standard quality as the houses found in the other provinces.

As percepções de qualidade, imagem e valor, bem como o comportamento de compra, são atos imersos na subjetividade e individualidade do consumidor; em vinhos não seria diferente. Inicialmente, para este estudo, foi realizada uma revisão da recente literatura sobre como é percebida a qualidade em vinhos. Os aspectos identificados serviram para a elaboração do instrumento de coleta de dados (questionário), o qual foi testado com consumidores (Grupo 1) e com profissionais do setor vitivinícola (Grupo 2). Os objetivos foram verificar a importância dos aspectos identificados para ambos os grupos, verificar o grau de sintonia existente entre os grupos com relação aos aspectos de qualidade e identificar opiniões sobre aspectos importantes relacionados a compra de vinhos. Os resultados dos questionários serviram para confirmar a importância dos aspectos e dimensões da qualidade presentes na literatura internacional e classificá-los por ordem de importância sob a ótica dos consumidores locais; serviram também para identificar a existência de um baixo grau de sintonia entre consumidores e profissionais do vinho no que tange aos aspectos da qualidade em vinhos. Foram também identificadas opiniões importantes (de ambos os grupos) sobre questões como: preço justo/pago por um vinho para consumo no dia a dia, preço justo/pago por um vinho para consumo em ocasiões especiais, opiniões sobre a relação custo/benefício dos vinhos nacionais e principal país de preferência/concorrente como fornecedor de vinhos ao mercado brasileiro. Entre os profissionais, identificou-se que parcela importante destes considera que o preço dos produtos nacionais seja fator chave para aumento de vendas. Com a segmentação interna dos grupos, baseada em questões do perfil, foi identificada a formação de poucos grupos heterogêneos. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-06-16T14:16:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Ben-Hur Rigoni.pdf: 1528998 bytes, checksum: eb92fe8a9f2560d08dd026e613f9c9ad (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-16T14:16:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Ben-Hur Rigoni.pdf: 1528998 bytes, checksum: eb92fe8a9f2560d08dd026e613f9c9ad (MD5) / Universidade de Caxias do Sul / Perceptions of quality, image and value and the purchase behavior are acts immersed in customers' subjectivity and individuality. This is also valid in wines. Initially, it was done a review in the recent literature of how the wines' quality is perceived. The aspects identified were used for a data collection form (survey), that was tested with two groups: regular consumers (Group 1) and wine professionals (Group 2). The objectives were to verify the importance of the identified aspects for both groups, check the harmony of quality aspects between groups and identify opinions about important aspects related to wine buying process. The survey results were used to confirm the importance of the aspects and dimensions the quality present in the international literature and, classify them by importance from the perspective of local consumers; it also was used to identify the existence of a low similarity between consumers and wine professionals in relation to wines' quality aspects. Important opinions were also identified (from both groups) on aspects such as, fair price/paid for a wine for daily basis consumption, fair price/paid for a wine for special situations and opinions on the cost-benefit of national wines and the main preference/concurrent country as a wine supplier of the Brazilian marked. Between the wine professionals, were identified that large proportion of them consider that the national product's price is a key factor for sales growth. With the groups internal segmentation, based on the profile questions, we identified the formation of a few heterogeneous groups.

As percepções de qualidade, imagem e valor, bem como o comportamento de compra, são atos imersos na subjetividade e individualidade do consumidor; em vinhos não seria diferente. Inicialmente, para este estudo, foi realizada uma revisão da recente literatura sobre como é percebida a qualidade em vinhos. Os aspectos identificados serviram para a elaboração do instrumento de coleta de dados (questionário), o qual foi testado com consumidores (Grupo 1) e com profissionais do setor vitivinícola (Grupo 2). Os objetivos foram verificar a importância dos aspectos identificados para ambos os grupos, verificar o grau de sintonia existente entre os grupos com relação aos aspectos de qualidade e identificar opiniões sobre aspectos importantes relacionados a compra de vinhos. Os resultados dos questionários serviram para confirmar a importância dos aspectos e dimensões da qualidade presentes na literatura internacional e classificá-los por ordem de importância sob a ótica dos consumidores locais; serviram também para identificar a existência de um baixo grau de sintonia entre consumidores e profissionais do vinho no que tange aos aspectos da qualidade em vinhos. Foram também identificadas opiniões importantes (de ambos os grupos) sobre questões como: preço justo/pago por um vinho para consumo no dia a dia, preço justo/pago por um vinho para consumo em ocasiões especiais, opiniões sobre a relação custo/benefício dos vinhos nacionais e principal país de preferência/concorrente como fornecedor de vinhos ao mercado brasileiro. Entre os profissionais, identificou-se que parcela importante destes considera que o preço dos produtos nacionais seja fator chave para aumento de vendas. Com a segmentação interna dos grupos, baseada em questões do perfil, foi identificada a formação de poucos grupos heterogêneos. / Universidade de Caxias do Sul / Perceptions of quality, image and value and the purchase behavior are acts immersed in customers' subjectivity and individuality. This is also valid in wines. Initially, it was done a review in the recent literature of how the wines' quality is perceived. The aspects identified were used for a data collection form (survey), that was tested with two groups: regular consumers (Group 1) and wine professionals (Group 2). The objectives were to verify the importance of the identified aspects for both groups, check the harmony of quality aspects between groups and identify opinions about important aspects related to wine buying process. The survey results were used to confirm the importance of the aspects and dimensions the quality present in the international literature and, classify them by importance from the perspective of local consumers; it also was used to identify the existence of a low similarity between consumers and wine professionals in relation to wines' quality aspects. Important opinions were also identified (from both groups) on aspects such as, fair price/paid for a wine for daily basis consumption, fair price/paid for a wine for special situations and opinions on the cost-benefit of national wines and the main preference/concurrent country as a wine supplier of the Brazilian marked. Between the wine professionals, were identified that large proportion of them consider that the national product's price is a key factor for sales growth. With the groups internal segmentation, based on the profile questions, we identified the formation of a few heterogeneous groups.

Efficient functioning of service providing organizations highly depends on quality of their services as it contributes to companies’ competitiveness and customers’ satisfaction (Gill, 2009, p. 533). Thus, quality management should be an integral part of service organizations’ performance. Healthcare industry is a specific representative of the service industry that regards quality as a fundamental value of medical care. To manage quality within the healthcare settings is a challenging task due to its complexity. Hence, the purpose of the current qualitative study was to propose an efficient approach toward quality management within the healthcare industry. In order to be efficient quality management should consider issues that relate to the healthcare organizations’ complexity such as different interests of a wide range of parties involved in healthcare service processes. As mentioned parties are presented by patients, physicians, nurses, receptionists and others, their perceptions of quality could be rather distinctive. So, the first step towards achieving the purpose of the study was to discover an aligned or combined perception of healthcare service quality from patients’ and healthcare service providers’ perspectives. Common perception of quality would give opportunity to focus on improvement of aspects that are essential for the core stakeholders of healthcare organizations. Hence, the second intention that would contribute to efficient quality management was to develop a combined quality management model based on an aligned or combined quality perception. In order to investigate a common perception of quality, we conducted semi-structured individual interviews with patients and healthcare service providers. Having analyzed obtained data we revealed the most vital (sub-) dimensions of service quality for both parties. These aspects relates to the providing information for the patients, emotional support, involving patients into the treatment and having good medical equipment. Also, some important (sub-) dimensions were not stressed by both patients and providers, so we supplemented common (sub-) dimensions with these distinctive aspects. For example, providers mentioned professional skills dimension as the most essential aspect of healthcare service quality. In conclusion, we constructed one common perception of healthcare service quality consisting of common and distinct aspects of healthcare service quality. For the purpose of developing a combined quality management model we selected the most appropriate values, methodologies and tools from such quality management initiatives as TQM, Lean and Six Sigma. The selection was guided by dimensions from the common perception of healthcare service quality. The conducted study contributes to theoretical as well as practical areas. We believe that our research supplemented Quality Management theory by proposing beneficial combinations of TQM, Lean and Six Sigma and Service Quality literature by revealing additional aspects of service quality perception. Practical field will gain from the proposed flexible approach toward assembling quality management model.