Since the 1990s quality management has been translocated from industry into higher education. However, there is little evidence that improvement in the core functions of universities has resulted. This study adopts a critical systems approach that is grounded in a critique of prevailing models of quality management to explore quality in a university. It examines the potential of Critical Systems Thinking enacted through Total Systems Intervention (TSI) to promote improvement. A case is made for local intervention towards improvement. The thesis is structured around the three modes of TSI, namely Critical Review, Problem Solving and Critical Reflection. A Critical Review of Quality Management suggests that the opposition of academics to quality initiatives in general, and to Quality Management in particular, is rooted in its language and underlying image of organization. This proposition is explored through an analysis of key Quality Management definitions and concepts in relation to the university. The importance of language, metaphors and images of organization are explored. The fitness for purpose of industrial models of quality for universities is challenged. TSI is employed in its Problem Solving mode to describe the quality problem for an academic unit within a university in New Zealand initially from the perspective of its staff and students. For them, the quality problem mainly related to better promoting learning. Analysis and reflection on the problem and context drawing on systems methodologies shaped interventions for improvement. Critical Reflection on a cycle of participative creativity, choice and implementation identified cultural, structural and environmental factors that present threats not only to quality improvement but also to the viability of the unit. The main findings and conclusions question the appropriateness of current models of QM in the university. The thesis demonstrates key systemic problems in higher education; provides a rationale for systemic interventions; identifies pressures that make resistance to systems thinking almost inevitable; and illustrates that TSI is more appropriately used by external researchers than insider researchers. Nevertheless, critical systems approaches, in particular boundary critique, help to structure the problem of improving quality in locally meaningful ways. The challenges of using systems ideas and systems methodologies in the university context, however, are substantial.

Traditionellt inom området för kvalitetsteknik har fokus legat på de så kallat "hårdare delarna" såsom statistisk uppföljning av processer, mätningar och problemlösningsmetoder. Tidigare forskning har identifierat att en av de huvudsakliga orsakerna till att kvalitetsinitiativ inte når framgång är att organisationen misslyckas med att skapa en kultur som stödjer förbättringsarbetet. Trots att kultur identifierats som en nyckel till framgång finns det en kunskapslucka kring hur och om kultur, och då kanske främst kvalitetskultur, kan skapas. Kultur består till stor del av dess värderingar och att dessa är accepterade av medarbetarna. Den här studien syftar till att bidra med kunskapsutveckling kring hur metoden Appreciative Inquiry (AI) kan användas i praktiken i organisationers arbete med värderingar och kultur, och identifiera möjliga effekter av detta. En deskriptiv fallstudie genomfördes inom en organisation i södra Sverige, genom två dialogbaserade workshops, en enkätstudie och dokumentstudie. Resultatet visar att AI är en metod som möjliggör strukturerad dialog gällande värderingar och beteenden kopplade till dessa. Vidare bidrar metoden till att levandegöra en organisations värderingar genom att medarbetare både upplever och uppvisar en förändring gällande enighet och förståelse för värderingarna inom den studerade organisationen. / Through tradition there has been a focus on "hard values" within total quality management, for an example statistical process measurements and problem-solving techniques. Research identifies the failure to create a supportive culture for improvements as one of the main reasons why organizations fail in their quality management initiatives. Despite the knowledge that culture is a mayor key to success, there is a gap of knowledge to how, and even if, it is possible to create a supportive quality culture. What defines culture is to a large extent the values it is based up on, and that the coworkers within an organization take ownership of these values. The purpose of this research is to contribute with knowledge towards how Appreciative Inquiry (AI) can be used within organizational work with values, culture, and to identify possible effects, if any, of the method. An explanatory case study at an organization in the south of Sweden was conducted through two dialogue-based workshops, an online survey, and a document study. The result shows that AI creates a structured dialogue about values and value-related behaviors and succeeds in bringing organizational values to life. This is shown though both the perceived and demonstrated changes within coworkers, towards being in agreement and understanding the values within an organization. / <p>20180627</p>

Allt snabbare förändringar i samhället ställer krav på att organisationerna hänger med i dessa förändringar; att de anpassar sig och utvecklar sig för att bibehålla sitt existensberättigande. Ett sätt att möta dessa utmaningar kan vara att arbeta med offensiv kvalitetsutveckling som karaktäriseras av kulturen och de värderingar den bygger på samt systemsynen. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur denna typ av värderingar kan integreras i verksamheten. Vid studien tillämpades kvalitativ forskningsmetod med abduktiv slutledning. Studien utformades som en enfallstudie och datainsamling skedde genom semistrukturerade intervjuer, dokumentstudier samt studier av audiovisuella data. Resultatet visade att värderingar för kvalitetskultur kan integreras i organisationens egen värdegrund samt policys samt att värderingar kan kopplas ihop med visionen. Värderingarna kan vidare levandegöras i organisationen genom en uppsättning av arbetssätt och verktyg. Studien visade även att värderingar för kvalitetskultur kan integreras i verksamheten i olika faser. / Increasingly rapid changes in society mean that organizations need to constantly adapt and develop, this is central to their continued existence. One way to meet these challenges can be to implement and apply Total Quality Management that is characterized by the culture and the values on which it is based, as well as the system view. The purpose of the study was to investigate how this type of values can be integrated into the organizations.  The study applied a qualitative research method with abductive approach. The study was designed as a single case study and data collection took place through semi-structured interviews, document studies and studies of audiovisual data.  The results showed that values for quality culture can be integrated into the organization's own core values and policies, and that values can be linked to the vision. The values can also be brought to life in the organization through a set of working methods and tools. The study also showed that values for quality culture can be integrated into the organizations in different phases / <p>2021-06-06</p>

Study of the critical factors for TQM implementation throughout the years, and longitudinal analysis of secondary quality winners of prestigious awards such as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), is important. The longitudinal analysis in this research will enable verification that there are generic critical factors (CFs) for TQM implementation and generic critical areas of measurement (CAM) that if implemented fully and successfully will deliver excellence. Also, it will enable verification that these generic CFs help to ensure sustainable performance and this could help in answering how excellent organisations sustain their performance constantly. By studying what excellent organisations measure and what they place emphasis on throughout the year, the study will document measurements that have been used to sustain excellence and will consider empirically how these have led to tangible results over a period of twenty years; the study will examine MBNQA winners from 1988 until 2008. Finally, an excellence maturity assessment tool 'assessment software' was developed as result of examining winning case studies over a long period of time, lists of critical factors of implementation (CFI) and critical areas of measurement (CAM) were extracted and used accompanied by the EFQM Excellence Model, and Zairi's two model 'Index of Excellence' and 'Ladder of Excellence'. This formed the basis of the assessment tool developed; companies through this will be able to understand their level of excellence implementation and their position compared to world class organisations.

Som utveckling inom kvalitetsområdet är ett förslag att titta närmare på kund- och leverantörsförhållanden och hur de arbetar kvalitetsmässigt. Frågor som väckts är exempelvis hur man involverar kunden som en naturlig resurs i kvalitetsutveckling och hur nära man vågar släppa in kunden. Studien väljer att titta på de komplexa förhållanden som uppstår när myndigheter har en kund-/leverantörsrelation till varandra. Syftet med studien är att åskådliggöra kvalitetsarbete i relationen och partnerskapet mellan myndigheterna och föreslå framgångsfaktorer och ev. förbättringsförslag. En fallstudie genomfördes med två myndigheter som studieobjekt. Studien inhämtade ett triangulerat underlag via enkäter, intervjuer och styrande dokument för att analysera parternas relation, partnerskap och kvalitetsarbete mellan varandra. Det inhämtade underlaget stärktes av en kombination av kvantitativ och kvalitativ data. Resultatet visar att relationskvaliteten är till mestadels hög mellan parterna och partnerskapet som finns mellan dem är uttalat och strategiskt formulerat. Studien visar på en styrkepositionering mellan parterna som i kombination med de bindningar som finns mellan dem ger ett utfall på att en av parterna har en dominerande roll inom partnerskapet. Studien åskådliggör befintliga strukturer för kvalitetsarbete mellan parterna och lyckas utvinna framgångsfaktorer som föreslås kunna gälla även för andra myndigheters kvalitetsarbete i liknande kund-/leverantörsrelationer mellan varandra. / It´s suggested, as development in the quality area, to look closer at customer and supplier relationships in terms of how they´re working with quality in the relation. Questions raised, is as example, how to involve the customer as a natural resource in quality development, and how close suppliers dare to let the customers in. The study chooses to focus on the complex relationship arising when governmental agencies have customer/supplier relationships and partnerships with each other. The purpose of the study is to reveal how the governmental agencies work to improve quality in their relationship and partnership, and to suggest success factors as well as areas for improvement in the relationship/partnership. A case study was conducted involving two governmental agencies. The study retrieved a triangulated information base through surveys, interviews and governing documents to analyze the two parties’ relationship, partnership and quality work between each other. The retrieved information base was supported by combining quantitative and qualitative data. The result of the study shows that the relationship quality is mostly high between the two parties, and the partnership between them is strategically phrased. The study reveals of a strength positioning between the parties that, when combined with present bonds, gives an outcome that one of the parties hold a dominating role within the partnership. The study illustrates existing structures for quality development between the parties, and is able to extract success factors that propose that other governmental agencies might be able to use in similar customer/supplier relationships between each other.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:29:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FERNANDA RODRIGUES BANDEIRA.pdf: 1587982 bytes, checksum: 894321815af951f54d99dfd6ebdce646 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-10 / Aims to present a way to measure and evaluate the organizational maturity for the implantation of a Total Quality Management System - TQMS, having as a case to study ITPAC Pharmacy School, that qualifies as a traditional business, which does not have a Quality Management System - QMS. This study is done as a quantity research with the directors and helpers of the organization, through questions, getting to know the opinion of all the inside workers of the Pharmacy School, achieving this way, through the answered obtained, the intensity of the active factors that stand in the way of a Total Quality Management in the developed activities. The parameters of the items in the questions made is calibrated by the research The Impact of Just-In-Time Implementation and ISO 9000 Certification on Total Quality Management by L. Paul Dreyfus, Sanjay L. Ahire, and Maling Ebrahimpour (2004). The method used applies concepts from the Item Answer Theory (IAT) to evaluate the maturity level of successful critic factors in the development of the activities in the Pharmacy School ITPAC: one related to the actions of implantation of a Total Quality Management System (TQMS) and another related to the Results obtained by the Pharmacy School Administrative Management ITPAC in relation to the quality of the products and services offered. The research also supplies lines of direction to help with eliminating the factors that interrupt Total Quality Management System in the Pharmacy School ITPAC according to the results achieved. These lines of direction allow the Pharmacy School to improve there processes and consequently, achieve higher levels of maturity to the implantation of a Total Quality Management System. It is important to emphasize that a Quality strategy planning, valuing the relationship with the clients, giving more strength to the capability of the processes and human functional links and the supplier, is a successful critic factor to any business. / Objetivou-se apresentar uma forma de medir e avaliar a maturidade organizacional para a implantação de um sistema de Gestão da Qualidade Total SGQT, tendo como estudo de caso o ITPAC Farmácia Escola, que se enquadra como uma empresa tradicional, ou seja, que não possui nenhum Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade SGQ. Este estudo se fez por meio de pesquisa quantitativa junto aos gestores e colaboradores da organização, através da aplicação de um questionário, visualizando o ponto de vista de todos os setores internos da Farmácia Escola, obtendo assim, através dos resultados encontrados, a intensidade dos fatores ativos que inibem a Gestão da Qualidade Total em suas atividades desenvolvidas. Os parâmetros dos itens do questionário aplicado é calibrado pela pesquisa The Impact of Just-In-Time Implementation and ISO 9000 Certification on Total Quality Management de L. Paul Dreyfus, Sanjay L. Ahire, and Maling Ebrahimpour (2004). O método utilizado aplica conceitos da Teoria da Resposta ao Item (TRI) para avaliar o grau de maturidade de fatores críticos de sucesso no desenvolvimento das atividades da Farmácia Escola - ITPAC: um relacionado às ações de implementação do Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade Total (SGQT) e outro relacionado aos Resultados obtidos pela Gestão Administrativa da Farmácia Escola - ITPAC com relação à qualidade dos produtos e serviços que oferece. A Pesquisa também fornece diretrizes para auxiliar na resolução dos fatores que inibem o emprego da Gestão da Qualidade Total na Farmácia Escola ITPAC pautadas nos resultados encontrados. Essas diretrizes possibilitam a Farmácia Escola, melhorar seus processos e conseqüentemente, alcançar níveis mais elevados de maturidade para a implantação da Gestão da Qualidade Total. É importante destacar que um planejamento estratégico da Qualidade, valorizando a relação com os clientes, potencializando a capacidade dos processos e dos vínculos humanos funcionais e dos fornecedores, é um fator crítico de sucesso para qualquer empresa.

<p>Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka möjligheterna för utökad kundnytta och kvalitetssäkra implementeringsprocessen av elektroniskt informationsutbyte (EDI). Detta uppnås med kvalitetsutveckling som grund, vilket omfattar processorientering.</p><p>Rapporten inleds med en beskrivning av arbetets syfte och vilka problem som står till grund. Vidare introduceras företaget som uppdragsgivare och relevant teori tas upp, detta för att bilda en referensram inför de metoder som använts för att förbättra processen. Slutligen så presenteras resultaten och en diskussion hålls kring detta, med vidare rekommendationer för fortsatt utveckling.</p><p>EDI processen har visualiserats dels med hjälp av akademiska litteraturer och dels från empiriskt material. Visualiseringen av processen har bildat en översikt av dess brister och problemområden (bland annat tidsfördelningen utmed processen och grunden till låg kvalitetsstandard), vilket har gett möjligheter till effektiva lösningsförslag för vidareutveckling. De främsta verktygen som har använts för visualiseringen är processkartläggning och värdeflödesanalys (VSM). I Rapporten presenteras dessutom ett avsnitt om ledningsstruktur för att underlätta processorientering och en allmän beskrivelse om själva EDI tekniken med avsikt att sprida kunskap.</p><p>Examensarbetet bidrar med processkartor för EDI processen, lösningsförslag för identifierade problemområden och rekommendationer för fortsatt utveckling.</p> / <p>The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine the possibilities of increased customer value and to ensure quality for the implementation process of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). This will be achieved with quality development as a foundation, which consists of process orientation.</p><p>The report will initially describe the purpose of the master’s thesis and what problems that are the reason behind it. Following is a short description of the company who has requested the job and necessary theories are presented, in order to build a foundation for the upcoming methods that have been used. Finally there will be a presentation of the results and a discussion will be held around the subject, with further recommendations for continued development.</p><p>The EDI process has been visualized partly with the help of academic literature and partly trough empirical data. The visualization has established an overview of the process with its flaws and weaknesses (inter alia the distribution of time throughout the process and reasons for low quality), which enables suggestions for effective solutions. The foremost tools that has been used for this purpose is the process mapping and the Value Stream Mapping (VSM). The report also presents a segment about management structure in order to facilitate the process orientation and a general description about the EDI technology in order to distribute knowledge.</p><p>The master’s thesis contributes with maps for the EDI process, suggested solutions for identified problems and recommendations for continued development.</p>

<p>Nonetheless IT sector is considered as highly competitive Belarus is listed in the top five, while also be-ing in the transitional stage. Thus, this thesis examined the tendencies of the quality management in Bel-arus IT industry. TQM, commonly used control system – ISO, and Business Excellence Models – Mal-colm Baldrige National Quality Award (MNBQA) and European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) were used as the basis for our research. The main premise for the research is that it is not nec-essary to excel in all concepts of TQM, where ISO was used as the primary step towards total quality.</p><p>Hence it was deduced that quality in the collected sample differs among the concepts. Even though the main concept of customer satisfaction is acknowledged, the human factor is still undervalued. This might also be the flaw hinged by ISO. However, further research could be done, covering bigger sample and observing the shift of these tendencies.</p><p>Key words: Total Quality Management (TQM), Interantional Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Business Excellence Model (BEM), IT, Belarus, transitional economy, tendencies, Leadership, Strategy, Human Resources, Culture, Infrastructure</p><p>iii</p>

Nonetheless IT sector is considered as highly competitive Belarus is listed in the top five, while also be-ing in the transitional stage. Thus, this thesis examined the tendencies of the quality management in Bel-arus IT industry. TQM, commonly used control system – ISO, and Business Excellence Models – Mal-colm Baldrige National Quality Award (MNBQA) and European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) were used as the basis for our research. The main premise for the research is that it is not nec-essary to excel in all concepts of TQM, where ISO was used as the primary step towards total quality. Hence it was deduced that quality in the collected sample differs among the concepts. Even though the main concept of customer satisfaction is acknowledged, the human factor is still undervalued. This might also be the flaw hinged by ISO. However, further research could be done, covering bigger sample and observing the shift of these tendencies. Key words: Total Quality Management (TQM), Interantional Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), Business Excellence Model (BEM), IT, Belarus, transitional economy, tendencies, Leadership, Strategy, Human Resources, Culture, Infrastructure iii

The purpose of this study is to revise the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's (DWAF's) current Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) procedure and to develop an Environmental Management Framework (EMF), so as to ensure that the environment is considered in a structured, formal manner at each decision-making stage of the projects development business process. The proposed EMF provides process diagrams that align the IBM principles, the environmental assessment and management tools, and the engineering business process with the project life cycle approach for DWAF's water sector functional areas. Key decision-making points are introduced to the business process to ensure that all the specific requirements have been met before continuing to the next engineering stage of the business life cycle. Auditing nodes were identified within the life cycle approach and complement the decision-making points and strengthen the evaluation of environmental compliance and performance. These process diagrams is designed to prompt development planners and implementers to consider the environment at all stages of the business life cycle and practice sound environmental management. The EMF is based on international best practice and follows the Deming model philosophy as well as principles and elements of an environmental management system. The EMF must be an integral part in the way the department conduct its business and not seen as an ad hoc function and the duties of the environmental officer. To conclude, the EMF is the building block and interim management plan for an appropriate environmental management system in the future and the first step towards business excellence for the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography and Environmental Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.