Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the maintenance of the process‐based quality assurance system in a higher education institution.

The paper introduces the process management as the essential element of quality assurance in higher education and discusses the external quality audit of the quality assurance agency, extends the study to the quality management between the external audits and presents the procedure of internal quality audits. Finally, the results of the study are discussed and summarised. Action research methodology was adopted in this study. The paper shows that the process‐based quality assurance system makes the organisation responsive, agile and enables the achievement of strategic objectives.

The audit group must first evaluate the necessary improvements in the process. If no improvements are found, the quality deviations must be reported. The audit helps the institution take corrective actions to amend the process descriptions or maintain the processes.

The paper shows that the necessary processes of a higher education institution can be systematically described and audited.

Discusses the requirements for building and implementing a quality measurement system. Contends it is essential that management understands the benefits of both measurement in general and quality measures in detail. Asserts that quality measures focus efforts providing positive and negative feedback. Contends that quality measures immediately point to the area of the process where the problem originates. Asserts that organizational quality measures provide information about how a particular organization is operating. Discusses a number of measurement models. Concludes that reviewing quality measures in a methodological manner will provide increasing opportunities for improvement.

Business processes have an open and dynamic character and are influenced by internal an external disturbances. Without an adequate use of feedback mechanisms, those processes become unstable and do not achieve the expected performance. The purpose of this paper is to face the challenge and to ensure a competitive quality level, a framework for entrepreneurial quality management is given.

Using the method of analogy formation the transfer of cybernetic approaches to business processes is shown. Especially quality control loops are analysed in order to find appropriate solutions for their design and implementation in enterprises.

As a core element of the paper an approach for the systematic implementation of control loops is given. This approach offers a framework and a description for an operative implementation of quality control loops for stable business processes.

The idea to use closed quality control loops for the design of several processes is already known. Anyway, both a robust framework and a appropriate, sufficient and detailed description for an operative implementation is the new aspect and an important further development within the topic.

The purpose of this study is to identify and address significant quality gaps present in business school dissertations in India. Dissertations, an integral and a special component of the overall business school learning process, acquaint students with the practical business world.

The authors benchmarked the dissertation processes of business schools in India against those of reputed business schools in Germany, France, Sweden and Australia. Using a survey questionnaire, the authors checked whether business schools in India followed international processes and, if not, what could be done to adopt such processes. A sample of 367 business schools was studied to obtain reasonable evidence.

There were major quality issues in the dissertation process across business schools in India. Serious groundwork preparation issues were identified, such as an absence of research proposals. Most business schools also reported that there were no rubrics for dissertation evaluation, resulting in high subjectivity in the evaluation process. Supervisor interactions and control over the progress of the dissertation were also found to be very weak. As a result, the authors conclude that dissertations from business schools in India have major gaps in quality.

This is a novel study that examines the quality assurance of business school dissertations. It highlights major quality concerns surrounding the business school dissertation process and suggests measures to address quality issues. The study’s implications apply to business schools in all developing countries and not just India.

There are various methods to assess the failure of a road construction project that does not meet quality and performance standards. This study aims to evaluate the factors affecting the quality management of road construction projects in Indonesia by identifying the critical challenges in implementing quality management processes and examining the countermeasures to address these problems.

In this research, the quality management processes in Indonesian road construction projects are evaluated using a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach. Quantitative data obtained from two rounds of Delphi questionnaire surveys as the primary data source, and focus group interviews as the qualitative data are used to achieve the aims of this study.

It is found that from as early as in the preconstruction stage of a project, the availability of quality standards and documentation is problematic when implementing quality management processes. The critical factor of the quality control activities of a project and the quality management roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders during road construction is the project team. This constraint deals with the interaction of the competency, commitment, and mutual cooperation among the main stakeholders to ensure that quality management processes are implemented. This implementation is a part of controlling the road pavement materials, supervising the project activities according to a specified standard, and reporting the project performance. The findings of this study add parameters relating to quality management and quality processes in a road construction project area.

This study is the first to evaluate the quality management processes in the construction of Indonesian road projects. The investigation identifies and evaluates the causes of the persistence of poor road quality. All revealed constraints are substantial factors that hinder the implementation of quality management processes when delivering quality road products. This study addresses the key influencing factors and scenarios related to quality management during road construction projects in Indonesia and other developing countries as practical examples and provides case-based insights for construction practitioners and civil engineering academics in developed countries.

In 2010, the Ontario Universities Quality Assurance Council was established and became responsible for monitoring the quality of university programs, and each university was tasked with establishing institutional quality assurance purposes. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the quality assurance process at facilitating change at one Canadian institution.

To better understand the impacts of quality assurance, the authors analyzed 39 self-study documents, which were completed for all academic programs at Queen’s University. Focus groups were also conducted with key stakeholders to gain more insights into the institutional change that resulted from completing these self-studies.

After the analysis of the self-studies and focus groups, three themes emerged as impacts of completing self-studies: teaching and learning, identity and collaboration and resource allocation and strategic planning. This study demonstrates that self-studies completed by departments have value beyond simply meeting the provincial mandate, as they are effective in catalyzing positive institutional change.

The self-study documents were created for the purpose of institutional quality assurance process, not this research study, therefore limiting the data that could be collected.

Four considerations are provided at the end of this study to spark conversations at other institutions when reviewing and assessing the impact of their quality assurance processes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time self-studies have been analyzed to evaluate the quality assurance process.

Statistical process control (SPC) is widely applied for control and improve processes in manufacturing, but very few studies have reported on the successful application of SPC in the food industry, in particular. The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the status of SPC in the UK food manufacturing industry and to suggest future research avenues.

A research project was carried out in the UK food manufacturing sector through questionnaires. The results of the study were analysed using descriptive statistics and statistical tests to be applied in the hypothesis testing.

Findings revealed that 45 per cent of the respondents are SPC users and x ¯ -R and x ¯ -S charts are the most commonly applied SPC charts in this industry. It was determined that top management commitment is the most critical factor, while lack of SPC training is the most alarming challenge, and lack of awareness of SPC and its benefits are the main reasons for the food companies not implementing SPC.

The study considered only the food manufacturing companies. Future research could be addressed toward the food service and food supply chain.

The paper provides information to food companies in the UK on most common practiced and important quality tools, SPC charts and critical success factors in the food industry. Moreover, the most challenging factors of SPC implementation in the food industry are presented.

This study depicted the current state of SPC practices in the food industry and the process performance in SPC and non-SPC companies is compared.

The purpose of this paper is to determine, first, the level to which ISO 9001 certified manufacturing companies adopt process management and improve quality, second, the latent factors of process management and quality improvement, and finally, the relationships between the latent factors extracted.

A research project was carried out in 196 ISO 9001 certified manufacturing companies operating in Greece. A structured questionnaire was designed and pilot tested and then addressed to management representatives of the companies. Descriptive statistics were used in order to determine the level of process management adoption and the level of quality improvement. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were also applied to extract the latent factors of process management and quality improvement and to assess their reliability and validity. The relationships between the latent factors were determined through structural equation modelling.

Two latent factors were extracted with respect to process management (the core process management practices and the supporting quality tools) and one latent factor with respect to quality improvement. The findings revealed that the ISO 9001 certified manufacturing companies implement to a high degree of the core process management practices, in contrast to the supporting quality tools. Notwithstanding, significant quality improvement is achieved. According to the structural model, the core process management practices have a strong, positive and direct effect on quality improvement. The supporting quality tools have an indirect effect on quality improvement through their significant correlation with the core process management practices.

This paper describes a reliable and valid model that analyzes process management in two latent factors (the core process management practices and the supporting quality tools). The model also depicts the effects of these latent factors on quality improvement of ISO 9001 certified manufacturing companies.

This paper aims to report and analyse the lessons learned from a case study on the implementation of a quality management system within an IT Division in a higher education (HE) organisation.

The paper is based on a review of the relevant literatures and the use of primary sources such as document analysis, participant observation and interviews to develop a case study that describes and evaluates the implementation process.

The case study identifies four factors central to the effective implementation of the quality management system within a Division of a HE institution: senior leadership and sponsorship; stakeholder engagement; the management of culture change; and implementing quality processes.

The case study reveals that the implementation of quality management systems requires sustained effort, continuous leadership, and the long term commitment of resources and systematic auditing of performance and is best done on an incremental basis.

The paper is based on a single organisation case study, and utilises a variety of data collection methods to generate findings. The study findings illustrate that HE institutions may achieve greater success in implementing quality management systems if they focus on a particular division rather than an organisation‐wide approach.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the four cultural dimensions of the competing values framework (CVF) (group, developmental, hierarchical, and rational cultures) and four types of performance: product quality, process quality, product innovation, and process innovation. Theoretically, this represents the contrasts among the four quadrants of CVF in terms of their respective outcomes, with quality and innovation reflecting the contrast between control and flexibility orientations, and product and process reflecting the contrast between external and internal orientations.

Data were collected from 194 middle and senior managers of Australian firms who had knowledge of past and present organizational practices relating to quality and innovation‐related aspects in the organization.

Developmental culture was found to be the strongest predictor among the four cultural dimensions, as it shows relationships with three of the performance measures: product quality, product innovation, and process innovation. Rational culture shows a relationship with product quality, and along with group and hierarchical cultures, it also plays a role in predicting process quality.

The results provide key insights for managers to appropriately understand the fit between the culture and the strategic direction of the firm. The findings also encourage firms to appreciate the balanced view on what seems to be multiple cultural characteristics within the same organization.

By simultaneously examining the relationships between different cultural dimensions and different types of performance, this paper extends the previous empirical studies which linked CVF with a specific measure of performance.