Investigation on TQM implementation in medical sciences universities of Iran

Higher education institutes are undergoing fundamental changes and rapid development. Customers (faculty, staff, student)2 demand high quality services at reasonable and affordable costs. Customer dissatisfaction and a growing awareness of gaps between actual and ideal service have led to intensifying pressure to improve quality.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is considered one of the most important methods adopted by managers in recent decades to make their organizations more sustainable, competitive and profitable. It has been admitted that TQM is not embraced by universities as much as industries and governments, particularly in developing countries.

The present research is an important first exploratory empirical study of TQM implementation in Iran which assesses the extent to which the TQM approach is applied in Medical Sciences Universities (MSUs) and to propose a convenient model for effective implementation of TQM to promote the performance of the universities, increasing of customer satisfaction and to remain competitive in the region.

The data were obtained from the field work at two major Iranian medical sciences universities as the representatives of MSUs through self administered questionnaires (adapted from an established Baldrige model) and also face to face semi structured interviews regarding the research objectives and research questions with a rage of stakeholders. The questionnaire aimed to investigate the implementation of TQM in MSUs, while, semi-structured interviews aimed to gain an understanding of themes which had emerged from the questionnaire as well as to validate the findings resulting from the questionnaire.

Different statistical techniques (e.g. descriptive analysis, multiple regression, spearman‟s correlation, Kruskal-Wallis) were used to describe the respondents‟ characteristics and identify and explain findings of the data .The analysis of the data revealed that although the current state of the TQM practice in MSUs, in terms of seven Baldrige educational categories, is not satisfied, but it seems the universities have started improving in some areas. The results also indicated four new TQM implementation impediments: a) managers are multi jobs b) financial problems of the staff and lack of interest in participating in TQM training and programs, c) non accountability of the mangers to the ministry, and d) lack of time for TQM implementation. In addition the results showed that, there is a correlation amongst the seven categories. Also, it was found that the government (the ministry) policy acts as an encouraging factor to implement TQM successfully through the assessment of the senior leaders of the university. Moreover, the results showed that there is no difference in their levels of views on Baldrige TQM model by male and female respondents.

The study has proposed a model which would be more helpful to the top managements of hifgher education institutions for providing the quality educational service to their customers as well as improvement in the delivery mechanisms.

The research has identified some useful implications for Universities leadership and academic researchers. The study concludes by identifying recommendations of further research, considers the limitations of the research and discusses the researcher‟s personal learning.