Total Quality Management in a College of Business: Operations and Administration

Although Total Quality Management (TQM) hasrecently become the often cited “panacea” for the ails of production and service industries, until recently, little thought seems to have been given to the application of TQM to the field of education. There are many signs of incipient interest in applying TQM to campus operations. Examples include a limited number of journal articles and professional papers, promotional flyers, and a few job vacancy notices for individuals to head up TQM operations on college campuses. The application of TQM in the education sector has two dimensions: (1) design and curriculum issues and (2) operations and administration issues. The purpose of this article is to address some of the issues relating to installing and administering a TQM approach in a business school and to give specific guidelines and suggestions to operationalize a TQM program.