What Total Quality Management Is

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy that became influential in the 1980s and 1990s. It originated in manufacturing and has since been adapted to many service organisations, including schools. At its core, TQM focuses on continuous improvement across every function of an organisation and treats quality as the work of everyone, not a separate department.

Quality, customers, and satisfaction

Three foundational definitions sit at the base of TQM.

Quality

Quality is meeting and exceeding the implied and stated needs of the customer.

Quality is defined by the customer, not by the producer. A school may think its teaching is excellent; the test is whether parents and students experience it as excellent.

This is a key distinction: quality is defined externally by the customer, not internally by the producer. Internal definitions of quality (we are good because we say so) are weaker than customer-based definitions (we are good because those we serve experience us as good).

Customer

A customer is the recipient of a good, service, product, or idea from a supplier.

Two kinds matter:

1. External customer. The end user.
2. Internal customer. Other divisions of the organisation that receive the processed product.

For a school:

1. External customers. Parents (who pay), students (who receive education), the community (which benefits from educated members).
2. Internal customers. One department serving another. The grade-5 teacher is the “customer” of the grade-4 teacher (who passes students up). The senior section is the “customer” of the primary section.

The internal customer concept is useful. Each part of the school serves other parts. Quality at each handoff matters.

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a measure of how the products and services supplied by an organisation meet or surpass customer expectations.

The metric. Are the customers getting what they need, or better?

A school measures customer satisfaction through parent surveys, student feedback, alumni outcomes, retention rates. The picture from multiple sources is more reliable than any single source.

What TQM is

TQM is the integration of all functions and processes within an organisation in order to achieve continuous improvement of the quality of its goods and services. It is a preventive culture aimed at getting things done right the first time.

Three components.

1. Integration of all functions and processes. TQM is not the work of one quality department. It is the work of every function: teaching, admin, operations, parent relations.
2. Continuous improvement. TQM does not aim for a fixed quality level. It aims for ongoing improvement.
3. Preventive culture. TQM focuses on preventing problems, not just fixing them after they happen.

The three words explained

Total means made up of the whole. Quality involves everyone in the school, not just the academic side. The receptionist’s politeness is part of school quality. The cleanliness of the toilets is part of school quality. The way fees are collected is part of school quality.

Quality is the degree of excellence a product or service provides, measured by customer satisfaction across everything the school offers.

Management is the act, art, or manner of planning, controlling, and directing. The management work of producing quality is not random or accidental. It is deliberate.

A clean summary: TQM is the art of managing the whole organisation to achieve excellence.

Crosby’s four absolutes

Philip Crosby, an American quality guru, published Quality is Free in 1979. The book offered four absolutes that have become foundational in TQM thinking.

1. Quality is conformance to requirements, not “goodness”

Quality is defined as conformance to requirements, not vague “goodness”. Quality is meeting the agreed specifications. Not vague “goodness”. Specific requirements that can be checked.

For a school: “good teaching” is too vague. “Teaching that produces grade-3 reading at level for 90 percent of students” is a specification. The first is unmeasurable; the second is.

2. Prevention, not appraisal

The system for achieving quality is prevention, not appraisal. Crosby’s most famous principle. Build quality in; do not inspect it in.

For a school: do not produce students with poor learning and then test them. Build the teaching practices that produce learning, and the testing becomes confirmation, not detection.

This is the same point as the modern view of control (feed-forward, not just feedback) covered in the control chapter.

3. Zero defects, not “that’s close enough”

The performance standard is zero defects, not “that’s close enough”. The standard is zero failures. Not “mostly works”. Zero is the aspiration, even when not always achievable.

For a school: every child reading at grade level by year end. Not “most of them”. Every one. The school may not always achieve it, but it does not stop trying.

This is uncomfortable in a tolerant culture. It requires holding standards even when partial success would be easier to accept.

4. Price of non-conformance, not indexes

The measurement of quality is the price of non-conformance, not abstract indexes. Quality is measured by the cost of failure.

For a school: what does it cost when grade-3 children do not read at level? They struggle in grade 4. They struggle in grade 5. Their families lose confidence. They may leave the school. The cost is concrete.

A school that measures only positive indicators (test scores up, enrolment up) misses the cost of failures. A school that also tracks the cost of non-conformance gets a fuller picture.

The framework of TQM

The TQM framework rests on a few connected ideas.

First, everyone in the organisation must be committed to quality. Not a separate quality department, everyone. The receptionist, the librarian, the canteen staff are all part of quality.

Relationships change within the organisation. Departments become customers of and suppliers to other departments, becoming internal customers. The admin office serves the academic side. The cleaning staff serves everyone. Each interaction is a quality moment.

These supplier-customer relationships should ensure a chain of quality throughout the organisation, so weak links can be identified and strengthened. The school is a chain. A weak link anywhere in the chain damages the whole. Identifying and strengthening weak links is the work.

Finally, the framework requires both better working practices and worker commitment to quality. Better practices alone do not produce quality if workers are not committed. Worker commitment alone does not produce quality if practices are poor. Both together.

TQM in education

TQM was developed for manufacturing. Applying it to education requires care.

What translates well

1. Continuous improvement. Schools can always improve.
2. Customer focus. Parents and students matter; their experience defines school quality.
3. Everyone’s responsibility. Quality is not just academic; it is across all roles.
4. Internal customer concept. Coordination across school functions matters.
5. Prevention over correction. Build quality teaching, do not just measure failure.

What needs adaptation

1. Students are not products. They are partners in the learning process; treating them as products misunderstands education.
2. Quality is not always specifiable. Some of what schools produce (character, judgement, citizenship) is hard to specify in advance.
3. Zero defects has limits. Some children will struggle regardless of teaching; expecting zero defects can produce harsh treatment of those who do not fit.
4. Customer is complex. Parents pay but students learn; their interests may diverge.

A school head who imports TQM directly from business may produce a school that is technically efficient but pedagogically poor. A school head who adapts TQM thoughtfully gets the benefits without the costs.

Flashcard

What is Total Quality Management (TQM)?

Tap to reveal

Answer

A management philosophy for continuous improvement by integrating all functions of an organisation.

Key ideas:

1. Quality is defined by the customer.
2. Everyone is responsible for quality, not one department.
3. Focus on preventing problems, not just fixing them.

Flashcard

What is Philip Crosby's most famous principle for quality?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Prevention, not appraisal.

Quality should be built into the process from the start, rather than relying on inspections to find errors at the end.