Los inicios del paradigma de reducción de daños y riesgos

It is a universal fact that quality is an attribute that cannot be measured in absolute terms, as it is not quantifiable, and there are numerous meanings to different schools of thought (Ediger, 2010). The issue is still the same; when we focus o n TQM, a common concept in management style emerges, which was put forward in 1961 as TQC or Total Quality Control by Feigenbaum (Black & Porter, 1996). Many considered TQM to be one of the most controversial topics within the management field; thus, this concept and its importance has been interpreted b y many schools of thought differently over a period of time (Lee et al., 2010).

Regardless of all the differences, TQM is regarded by all schools of thought as a concept that is significant in constantly improving upon production and processes to improve and exceed customer satisfaction and expectations (Zakuan et al., 2010).

Some authors consider that total quality management ensures that every employee of the organisation is involved in the process of developing a complete picture o f the effectiveness of the business (Fotopoulos & Psomas, 2010). This ensures the end customer’s needs and satisfaction, which may be internal or external to the business, are met by the organisation. (Tanninen et al., 2010).

Thus, in the short and long term, TQM acts as a direction for businesses, providing advantages to all stakeholders (Perera & Kuruppuarachchi, 2010). By directing the energies and abilities of those on board, TQM tends to continuously meet customer needs and requirements at a feasible price (Black & Porter, 1996). It has been certified many times that those organisations that adhere to TQM in their management processes tend to benefit from augmented performance and benefits (Lee et al., 2010). It is believed to enhance and improve the management of the organisation to its optimal best, ensuring more productivity (Fotopoulos & Psomas, 2010).

The ultimate goal when focusing on continuous improvement of the overall business with the application of TQM is to acquire a competitive advantage for the organisation (Tanninen et al., 2010). It is also significant to understand the

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importance of this advantage when TQM tends to incorporate all aspects of the organisation and take every factor in account while directing energy in one direction to augment the effectiveness, competitiveness, and efficiency of the business for the sake of stakeholders (Zakuan et al., 2010).

Although many organisations consider TQM to be a fundamental key to management practice that necessitates adoption and implementation within their organisation, TQM still is in the early days when it comes to empirically proving the impact of its implementation with the application of certain variables (Fotopoulos & Psomas, 2010). Many variables have been considered to discover an acceptable relationship that would prove the effectiveness of implementing the TQM processes within an organisation, since it is currently in the theoretical stage (Lee et al., 2010). This is followed by validation and subsequent improvement to the validated theory once the variables and their relationship to gauging TQM have been identified (Perera & Kuruppuarachchi, 2010).

Total quality management has been defined as the constant application of a management technique to ensure improvement in the final production and product of an organisation with the overall goal of satisfying customer needs and meeting expectations. It can be acknowledged as the first real step taken by management to ensure that they achieve excellence (Black & Porter, 1996). It not only benefits the customers and the organisation itself but also proves to be of key significance to all stakeholders involved at different levels as it tends to make decisions that not only cater to financial growth, stability, and long-term strategies but also the human values and other resources that may cater to soft issues simultaneously (Lee et al., 2010).

Understanding TQM plays a major role in the constant, augmented improvement within the ranks, effectiveness and customer satisfaction of all stakeholders in a n organisation, who must simultaneously be productive and result-oriented (Perera & Kuruppuarachchi, 2010). It is also integral to all organisational members that they realise the necessity and importance of TQM as a management practice to be implemented (Fotopoulos & Psomas, 2010).

Therefore, the overall impact that TQM carries over the organisational structure is very essential. This is because the process envelops the entire organisation, wit h each stakeholder at different levels (Zakuan et al., 2010). The influence of TQM is not limited; instead, it tends to determine the dynamics and direction of the overall

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culture of the company, which may leave a mark on its end product and services to the delight of their customers (Tanninen et al., 2010). Thus, it also impacts the organisation in the long-term, as it can improve upon the processes, practices, and overall business aspects of the entire organisation.

Customer satisfaction has always remained the key objective for the implementation of TQM (Lam et al., 2012). It is because even from the goal- achievement aspect, customer satisfaction drives sales and generates profits for any organisation, be it in the product or service sector (Tanninen et al., 2011). While considering the end customer’s satisfaction in perspective, we can explain TQM as the constant improvement in overall efficiency and effectiveness of a company to ensure that customer needs are met over and above both the competitors’ ability and the customer’s expectations, which results in a long-ter m relationship (Lee et al., 2010). It also enables the organisation to take all the stakeholders aboard on their journey of augmenting performance improvement and be a key participant to the process (Fotopoulos & Psomas, 2010).

When it comes to meeting customer needs and expectations, all schools of thought are unanimous in endorsing the practice of implementing TQM as the key to ensuring organisational performance that is reflected in end products and services (Zakuan et al., 2010).

Total Quality Management can be broken down into three terms that represent a world of meanings (Black & Porter, 1996). The first word total indicates that every member, department, and level of the organisation must be involved and has significance over the overall process of TQM (Perera & Kuruppuarachchi, 2010). The second word quality points to the fact that expectations of the end customers are not only met but also exceeded. Finally, the third word management indicates that management must be dedicated to implementing and ensuring that the TQM processes are followed (Lam et al., 2012).

In this respect, one common aspect that generalises TQM is related to continuous improvement, which is necessary for achieving the effective management o f TQM. In this element, TQM processes are required for an effective method o f maintaining organisational performance and competitiveness. Therefore, in the current study, the researcher has proposed the following operational definition o f TQM in the HEI context, which captures the above-mentioned definitions.

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Most authors agree that TQM is an integrated management philosophy aimed at continually improving an organisation’s performance of products, processes and services to achieve and exceed customer expectations.

Generally, TQM can be considered a systematic approach for managing HEI in order to achieve high performance, which is mainly in academic achievement. These two elements of management require leadership commitment to achieve effective core quality elements, including effective planning and continuous improvement. Training and progress focus are other aspects that are required to develop a cohesive environment for academic institutions to enhance their continuous improvement for all education-related processes and activities.