Abstract
Higher educational institutions (HEIs) are going through a process of structural transformation in which policies based on sound management are of growing importance. A process of change observed when the student had become a client, HEIs desire being at the top of international rankings, impulse relations with organizations outside the HEI to search new opportunities focused on socioeconomic change, and the HEI strives to achieve continuous improvement. Quality management has a fundamental role to play in this transformation process. The objective of this chapter is to reason about the application of the eight quality management principles into HEIs.
TopIntroduction
The Eight Principles of Quality Management (QM) (Customer focus, leadership, employee involvement, process approach, systematic approach management, continual improvement, evidence-based decision making, and relationship management) ground the ISO 9001 certification. As well as being guiding principles for the development of the most modern quality standard designed to benefit organizations independently of their size, they are also useful resources for management professionals looking to implement or improve QM programs.
Higher educational institutions (HEIs) are organizations focused on educating future generations having in mind the importance of business survival that is guaranteed by achieving constant revenues and controlled operating costs. Divided into public and private HEIs, they follow the same QM principles as applied to other industries and sectors, both nationally and abroad. As a result, and from a managerial perspective, students are considered clients, while professors and researchers are like managers and employees (collaborators), and as financing instruments, financial payments made by parents are, in large part, the primary source of financial sources for private HEIs, while the public administration mainly finances public HEIs at different levels (national, regional, and/or local).
The literature related to QM practices (Hong et al., 2019; Isaksson, 2019; Tenji and Foley, 2019) assumes that employee involvement is crucial to implement the process approach in the organization, the system tactic to management through kaizen, and the factual strategy to decision-making (core QM practices) (Bakotić & Rogošić, 2017) As a result, while managers implement QM practices, they need a global vision of the organization, as well as a motivated human team to perform transformational leadership. These processes of change take place in any sector of activity, with the ultimate goal of maximizing EBITDA within the organization and, in the case of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), maximizing social impact.
The objective of this chapter is to analyze how the eight QM principles impact on private and public HEIs to maximize their social impact. To cope with this goal, the authors will describe these eight principles briefly to propose a new strategy based on the combination of these principles and emotional intelligence.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Quality Management: Also referred to as total quality management (TQM), it consists of the act to oversee all tasks and activities to achieve excellence.
Transformational Leadership: This is a type of leadership centered into the value-related transformation of the organization.
Evidence-Based Decision Making: It is formed by the decisions made from data and suitable information focused on achieving desired results.
5S: Formed by five Japanese concepts: Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Set in order), Seiso (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardize), and Shitsuke (Sustain), 5S is a systematic technique to maximize efficiency and productivity by increasingly avoiding the waste of resources.
Stakeholder: It is formed by the entire group affected by the activity of an organization.
Relationships Management: Managerial strategy focused on maintaining a continuous level of engagement between stakeholders.
Employee Voice: It is the way people communicate their views to their employer.