Teachers’ Perception towards Total Quality Management Practices in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions

doi:10.4236/ce.2013.49B008

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Creative Education

2013. Vol.4, No.9, 35-40

Published Online Septe mber 201 3 in SciRes (http ://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.49B008

Teachers’ Perception towards Total Quality Management

Practices in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions

Ahasanul Haque1, Abdullah Sarwar1*, Farzana Yasmin2

1Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences,

International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2Faculty of Business and Professional Studies, Management Science University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Email: *[email protected]

Received July 2013

The service industry is a rapidly changing industry and this dynamic culture offers a challenge for the

service companies to lead or to actually survive in this competitive environment. As the education indus-

try is a part of the overall service industry, this raises the need for a solid base to be developed to reach for

high quality service in the education industry. Though, adoption of TQM in the higher educational institu-

tions is of common practice in the Western world, however, the history of TQM adoption in the Malay-

sian higher educational institutions is not very long. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to

identify the factors influencing the level of TQM practices in the Malaysian higher learning institutions

based on the teacher’s perceptions. In doing so, this study was conducted in both types of Malaysian

higher educational institutions (public and private). Total 300 questionnaires were distributed randomly,

out of which 20 6 were returned. After collecting the data, statistical tests were performed using SPSS and

Amos. This study has got satisfactory results. Results also show identical results with the previous studies.

However, this study has pointed out that there is still room for improvement that affecting the level of

TQM practices in the Malaysian educational institutions. Finally, future directions are provided at the end

of the paper.

Keywords: TQM; Higher Learning Institution; Malaysia; Quality of Life

Introduction

The service industry is a rapidly changing industry and this

dynamic culture offers a challenge for the service companies to

lead or to actually survive in this competitive environment. As

the education industry is a part of the overall service industry

where students are the customers; this particular factor raises

the need for a solid base to be developed to reach for high qual -

ity service in the education industry. Hence, adaptation of Total

Quality Management (TQM) tool can provide the needed qual-

ity which wi ll enhance the success of the business.

Adoption of TQM in the higher educational institutions is of

common pra c ti ce in the Western world (e.g. UK, USA, Aus-

tralia, Europe) those adopted TQM in their higher learning in-

stitutions with an aim to improve the overall quali ty of the uni-

versity to attract more students both from home and abroad

(Idrus, 1995). This strategy paid well for the m in reaping a

generous amount of revenue from the foreign students (Rampa,

2004). Thus, it is not unusual to observe the great potential of

the education industry that has significantly contributed to the

developed and the developing countries in terms of sizable eco-

nomic advantages and benefits.

Though, there are many countries presently offering high

quality edu cation around the globe; however, Malaysia’s ac-

ceptabi li ty as an international destination for education is yet to

come. Thus, there is a need for investigating the teachers’ per-

ception on the current level of TQM practices in Malaysian

higher learning institutions to identify the present barriers

which ha ve been overlooked by the academicians till date. Con-

sequently, this study attempts to address the issue to introduce

some important indicators of TQM practices currently existed

in the Malaysia n higher learning institutions. In addition, policy

makers need to find the requirements for sustainable quality

education in Malaysia.

Literature Revi ew

The history of TQM is dated back in 1950’s when Japanese

manufacturing industry introduced the concept (Hashmi, 2007).

When the Ja pane se realized that there is a need to introduce some

special technique through whic h the overall operational process

might improve, they gave birth to the concept of TQM (Deming,

1986). According to Brocka and Brocka (1992), TQM is a con-

tinuous management process where a whole lot of deliberation

is needed in improving the performance of every level of oper -

ation by proper management of the both resources; human as

well as capital. Töremen, Karakus and Yasan (2009) stated that,

organizations are the places which have a defined set of aims

and objectives to be achieved. As such, they cannot be thought

of as separate from the outside world. To remain competitive,

there is always a ne e d to monitor every change that took place

inside the organization. This helps is achieving better output for

the overall organization. Hence, TQM has become the most

vital tool that ensures the organization ’s goals a re achieved and

performances are improved (Günbayı & Cevik, 2004).

Furthermore, many studies in the literature developed a nd

validated TQM critical factors or practices in both manufactur-

*Corresponding a uthor.

A. HAQUE ET AL.

ing and service sectors. According to Waldman (1993), these

are calle d “elements”, whereas Dean and Hel ms (1996) describ-

ed them as “practices”, Hellsten and Kelfsjo (2000) named them

as “techniques”, Reed, Lemak and Montgomery (1996) identi-

fied them as “processes” and Sitkin, Sutcliffe and Schroeder

(1994) mentioned them as “principles”.

Total Quality Management in Education Industry

As a modern manageme nt approach, TQM can be used suc-

cessfully in education sec t or that are mainly focused on increas-

ing the customer satisfaction (Munoz, 1999). Recent researches

on TQM have brought a wi dely updated plan for educational

reforms and modernization of educational organizations (Mutlu,

2001). The TQM principles have broad applications in educa-

tional organizations and have produced desirable outcomes

(Munoz, 1999). With these applications, educational institu-

tion’s improvement has become a continual process (Sallis,

2002). There is a considerable proximity between the principles

of T QM and the principles of effective schools (Balcı, 2002).

The practi ce of TQM at schools has provided with a perspective

to look at the handicaps facing effective schools and with a tool

to remove the obstacles in the way of effective schools ( Ha me -

doglu, 2002; Sallis, 2002). In this aspect, the principles of TQM

are appropriate for educational settings.

“Rapid economic growth, global competition, downsizing,

privatization, corporate mergers and the liberalization of global

education have caused a surge in demand for TQM implemen-

tation in Malaysian higher learning institutions” (Tay, 2001: p.

258). It has become the most prestigious quali ty indicator for

measuring the overall quality of an educational institution (Thi-

agarajan, 1996). As quality is a fundamental issue in education,

the Ma laysian government has al so emphasized in improving

the overall education quality for both public and private univer-

sities with an aim to attract more foreign students (MOE, 2012).

Moreover, the Malaysian government also encourages both pri-

vate and public universities to acquire quality certification (ISO

9000, 9002) and TQM adoption with the purpose of meeting

international standards (Tenth Malaysia Plan, 2010). However,

the current practices of TQM among the various higher learning

institutions in Malaysia are not much satisfactory (Ariffin

Ahmed & Zain, 2000). Hence, there is a need to upgrade the

TQM practices in Malaysia.

Attitude towards Implementation

The absence of standards and attitudes in the implementation

process creates differences in the way employees work, result-

ing in educational institution’s maintainability problems (Newby,

1999). Poor documentation of t he development process, in turn,

makes educational institutions difficult to maintain and to im-

prove (Bostan, 2005). In the education industry, the end product

is the students as well as the empl oyees’ satisfaction (Mutlu,

2001). Past studies (Bonnie, 2011; Hashmi, 2007; Oakland &

Oakland, 2001; Zhang, 2000) have found that difficulty in im-

plementing TQM are the attitude, leadership commit me nt , lac k

of understanding and lack of resources. Basi ng on the above

literature review, the following hypothes is is drawn:

H1: There is a significant relationship between Attitude to-

wards Implementation and Teachers’ Perception towards T QM

practices.

Leadership Commitment

Strong leadership and their commitment towards the best

practices are of vital importance for any organizations. Thus,

there is a need to practi ce the TQM process in e ve ry le vel of the

organizational functionality (Sisman & Turan, 2002). As a hu-

man focused approach, TQM can make important contributions

to the increase of quality of education and the improvement of

educational organizations (Hyd e, 1992). As, both the inputs a nd

outputs of the educational organizations are human beings, and

human beings are the main act ors at all levels and in all pro-

cesses of t hese organizations, without t he satisfaction of human

beings (both as customers and providers), it is very hard to en-

sure the effectiveness of educational organizations (Hashmi,

2007). Therefore, quality issue at this basic level should matte r,

if management wants to attain a high quality education system

(Lezotte, 1992). Therefore, top management should be c om mit -

ted towards their employees with an aim to improve the overall

performance (Sisman & Turan, 2002). Basing on the above li-

terature review, the following hypothesis is drawn:

H2: There is a significant relationship between leadership

commitment and teachers’ perception towards TQM practices

through attitude towards implementation.

Employee Participation

According to Stevens (1993), empl oyees are the vital par t of

the organization. They are the people who actually execute the

tasks. Thus, they should be involved in the decision making

process as they some ti me s know better thing then the top man -

agement (Chapman & Al-Khawaldeh, 2002). As such, this will

help the top management in avoiding the misunderstandings

among the employ ees. Beside s, th e mi sunder standi ng and c hange

in design problems, there is an additional serious one which is

the customers’ increased expectations (Lam, 1996). This makes

it really hard to meet the deadline and have a product with a

quality high enough to impress the client (Boselie & Wiele,

2002). Hence, there is a need to understand the employees’

requirements with an aim to increase productivity (Guimaraes,

1997). Accordi ng to Dahlgaard and Dahlgaard (2006: p. 271),

“in an organization’s management , primarily senior manage-

ment decided how the business should operate, including what

the pol i c ies and objectives to be; how it should be organized;

what jobs to be established; and how they should be done. In

early days, it was an unquestioned axiom that if everyone did

what the upper management required, the business would be

successful”. Basing on the above literature review, the follow-

ing hypothes is is drawn:

H3: There is a significant relationship be tw een empl oy ee

participation and teachers’ perception towards TQM practices

through attitude towards implementation.

Change Management

Both teachers (Yigit & Bayrakdar, 2003) and managers (Yıl-

dız, 2006) are aware of their lack of knowledge and skills and

the need for a change to implement TQM effectively. There are

some psychological, educational, managerial, economica l , cul-

tural and systematic problems in the way of succe ssful TQM

applications (Hamedoglu, 2002). But the educational institu-

tions have the necessary potenti al and determination to solve

these problems (Aydın & Sentür k, 2007). Determining the

problems and the obstacles in the way of successful TQM im-

A. HAQUE ET AL.

plementations, and to take necessary measures to remove these

obstacles are important factors for the effectiveness of educa-

tional institutions and in general for the whole education system.

For this, it is necessary to continually check the quality process

and control the success of practice s. Basing on the above litera-

ture review, the following hypothesis is drawn:

H4: There is a significant relationship between change man-

agement and teach ers’ perception towards TQM practices throu gh

attitude towards implementation.

Methodology

This study was conducted on a random sampling of 300 fa-

culty members working at various private as well as public

higher learning institutions in Malay sia. The survey wa s con-

ducted from December 2012 till March 2013. Data has been

gathered from total four (04) public universities and nine (09)

private universities. Total 300 questionnaires we re distributed

out of which 206 wer e returned which were valid and usable for

further analysi s. T he rate of return was quite impressive

(83.67%). This is understandable that their profession had pl ay -

ed a significant role as they understand the requirement for the

research project.

The relia bi li ty of measures in this study was analyze d ba s ing

on the guidelines provided by Pallant (2005) and Sekaran and

Bougie (2010) where only factors with Cronbach’s alph a of 0.6

were considered as reliable. In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha

is 0.839 whi c h is considered very reliable. Moreover, this study

only addressed the content and construct validity as both were

deemed to be sufficient in analyzing the validity of its mea-

surements (Pallant, 2005). The content validity in this study

was assessed by thoroughly reviewing the available literature

on TQM. On the other hand, for construct validi ty was achieved

through factor analysis. For this study, the KMO value is .723

(Table 1) which is acceptable with the significance at .000

(Hair et al., 2010).

Results and Discu ssion

EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) was conducted to identify

the adequate dimensions or factors that appropriately explain

each of the variables identified for this study. Varimax rotation

was used in conducting the factor analyses of the variables. In

this study, .50 was considered acce pt a bl e threshold (cut off) for

exploratory study (Hair et al., 2010; Sarwar, Haque, & Yasmin,

2013; Sarwar, Haque, & Ismail, 2012). Total five factors were

extracted which were then renamed as attitude towards imple-

mentation, leadership commit me nt , employee participation, em-

ployee empowermen t an d tea ch ers’ perception towards TQM prac-

tices. Results from the factor analysis also show that 79.46 per -

cent of variance was explained by these five extracted vari-

ables.

Finally, for testing the hypothesis, SEM was employed.

However, before running the final model for this study, CFA

(Confirmatory Factor Analysis) was employed to assess the

unidimensionality among variables. This also confirmed the va-

lidity and reliability of the measurement items (Haque, Sarwar,

Yasmin, Anwar, & Nuruzzaman, 2012). Goodness of Fit (GOF)

was assessed whic h were suggested by Hair et al. (2010).

However, in the first model run, the GOF indices were not

achieved. Hence, MI indices were used to find out the multi-

collinearity problems. The model was then re-specified a s shown

in Figure 1.

The modified model (Figure 1) with the GOF indices was

Table 1.

KMO and bartlett’s test.

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .723

Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity

Approx. Chi-Square 519.553

df 136

Sig. .000

.15

Leadership

Commitment

.58

LC5

.76

.41

LC4

.64

.50

LC3

.70

.51

LC2

.72

.53

LC1

.73

Employee

Participation

.53

EP5

.55

EP4

.44

EP3

.51

EP2

.50

EP1

e10

.73

.74

.66

.72

.71

Employee

Empowerment

.65

EE5

e11

.66

EE4

e12

.66

EE3

e13

.51

EE2

e14

.64

EE1

e15

.81

.71

.80

.41

Attitude towards

Implementation

.58

e16

.64

e17

.65

e18

.67

e19

.55

e20

.76

.80

.81

.82

.74

.22

TQM Practices in

Malaysian HLI

.31

TQM5

e21

.26

TQM4

e22

.33

TQM3

e23

.47

TQM2

e24

.41

TQM1

e25

.51

.57

.69

.56

.64

.32

.23

.29

.25

e26

e27

df = 270

P = .336

Normed ChiSq = 1.034

GFI = .996

AGFI = .906

CFI = .996

RMSEA = .012

Figure 1.

Structural model.

A. HAQUE ET AL.

Table 4.

Regression weights: (default model).

Hypothesis Standardized Regression Weights Estimate S.E. C.R. P

H1 Teachers ’ Perception towards TQM Practices <--- Attitude towa rds Implementation .096 .051 1.882 .001

H2 Attitude towards Implementation <--- Leadership Commitment .019 .077 .247 .000

H3 Attitude towards Implementation <--- Employee Participation .036 .080 .453 .000

H4 Attitude towards Implementation <--- Employee Empowerment .086 .068 1.265 .019

deemed to be the fina l model for this study. This model con-

firmed that leadership commitment (with path coefficient of

0.32), employee participation (with path coefficient of 0.23)

and e mpl oy ee empowerment (with path coefficient of 0.29)

have significant direct relationship with teachers’ perception

towards TQM practices through attitude towards implementa-

tion. Furthermore, it also indicates that there is also a signifi-

cant relationship between the attitude towards implementation

and TQM practices in Malaysian higher learning institutions

(with path coefficient of 0.25).

For hypothesis 1, the regression weight for Attitude towards

Implementation in the prediction of Teachers’ Perception to-

wards T QM Practices is significantly different from zero at the

0.05 leve l (two-taile d) . Hence, the H1 is accepted. Therefore, in

order to increase the work efficiency, management should cla-

rify the university principles in such a way that all the em-

ployees do not feel much pressure whic h in turn will increase

the work e ffi c iency and will ease the TQM practices among the

employees.

For hypothes is 2, t he regression weight for Leadership

Commitment in the prediction of Attitude towards Implementa-

tion is significantly different from zero at the 0.05 level (two-

tailed). Hence, the H2 is also accepted. This indicates that set-

ting definite standards and having strong management among

the work processes will ease the level of TQM practices among

the employees.

For hypothesis 3, the regression weight for Employee Par-

ticipation in the prediction of Attitude towards Implementation

is significantly different from zero at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

Thus, H3 is accepted. Thus, it proves t ha t e mpl oyee’s participa-

tion in the decision making process is very important for that

influence on the level of TQM practices in Malaysian educa-

tional institutions.

Finally, for hypothesis 4, the regression weight for Employee

Empowerment in the prediction of Attitude towards Impl e me n -

tation is significantly different from zero at the 0.05 level (two-

tailed). Thus, H4 is also accepted. This indicates that increasing

the practice of empowerment among the facul ty members will

increase the level of TQM practices. Therefore, faculty mem-

bers should be empowered to participate in quality improve-

ment process which will ensure effective and constant commu-

nication to motivate faculty members.

Conclusion and Recommendation

There are many factors that influence level of TQM practices

in Malaysian educational institutions. However, thi s study only

discussed based on the teacher’s perception the level of TQM

practices in Malaysian educational institutions. In doing so, this

study was conducted in both types of Malay sian educational

institutions (public and private). The main purpose of this study

was to identify the factors influencing the level of TQM prac-

tices in the Malaysian higher learning institutions based on the

teacher’s perceptions. Results show identical results with the

previous studies.

However, this study has pointed out that there is still room

for improvement that affects the level of TQM practices in the

Malaysian educational institutions. Therefore, ther e is a need to

clarify the TQM policies tha t can significantly improve the

TQM practices among the empl oyees. Furthermore, determi n-

ing the problems and the obstacles in the way of successful

TQM implementations and to take necessary measures to re-

move these obstacles are important factors for t he effectiveness

of educational institutions and in general for the whole educa-

tion system. For this, it is necessary to continually check the

quality process and control the success of practices which in-

volves change management.

This study significantly contributed to the theoretical en-

hancement of the current level of knowledge that studied the

unique factors in the education industry that increase the appli-

cabili ty of TQM. Moreover, pr act ica l ly , the study findings will

help both the acade mi c ia ns and the managements involved in

the education industry to get more knowledge in increasing the

overall university performances. Hence, in this arena of the

globalization of education, Malaysia is still in dire need to de-

velop a competitive edge in international education before it

can emerge as a key player in the education business.

This st ud y opens an area for further investigation on the

TQM implementation into the Malaysian higher learning insti-

tutions. Hence, future studies should al so conduct from the stu -

dents’ point of view as students are the customers in this ser-

vice industry.

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