Stakeholders are the main reference for any decision of any organization especially when the competitive advantage is high, and since stakeholders generate values and participate in all school processes, the school must respond to all their needs in order to reach the high level of their satisfaction.
1.4.1 Quality Management System requirements
The main input of any Quality Management System is the customers’ requirements in order to reach their satisfaction as the foremost output. The management responsibility and commitment in this regard is a must by ensuring that the resources required to maintain and improve the quality are provided. Customer satisfaction focus requires regular feedback surveys and assessment. Staff performing work shall be competent, the infrastructure and the work environment must be maintained to accomplish work effectively. The internal audit to prevent risks and to correct gaps must be implemented regularly to improve the effectiveness of the system. The customer satisfaction output resulted from implementing the Quality Management System serves as the important factor of the organization reputation.
The below figure (Figure III) describes the input and the output of the quality management and the cycle in between.
Figure III: Quality Management System Requirements
Source: (Total Quality Management Journal 2006)
1.4.2 Organization Quality Management System Principles
Quality is an expression of correlation of what is expected and what is provided. This is what explains stakeholders’ needs, expectations and requirements.
Several concepts define the quality management when removing barriers between departments, management should take on leadership and hold responsibilities supervising people to get a better job, implementing a self-improvement system.
Stakeholders recognize that quality is an important output in services. Due to the competitive advantage and to eliminate a quality gap in order to meet international standards quality management system is essential for its functioning.
Quality management is becoming increasingly more important to the reputation, leadership and management of all organizations. It is necessary to recognize Quality Management as a distinctive discipline of management.
A quality management principle is a comprehensive and fundamental statute, for managing and operating an organization, aimed at continually improving performance over the long term by focusing on customers while addressing the needs of all other stakeholders.
A principle is a fundamental truth or law and therefore quality management principles are the fundamental truth or laws that form the basis of quality management.
Any consideration of present quality management systems should be carried out using the 8 QM principles. (Malmi and Brown, 2008)
- Principle 1 : Customer Focus
Organizations count on their customers. The benefits is that when the customer remains loyal to the business so the corporate is a winner cause his loyalty will lead to the business recurrence. Customers’ satisfaction is measured on the results. Organizations must consequently recognize and meet existing and potential customers’ requirements and desires, and do all what they can to exceed customers’ expectations. Schools depend on their students and parents as their long term customers and who make their reputation taking into consideration that education is not a business. - Principle 2 : Leadership
Leaders should create and sustain the internal environment in which people can become wholly involved in attaining the organization’s objectives. The purpose is to create an environment of involvement of all people concerned all activities are implemented in a unified way and the advantage is that miscommunication between departments will be reduced. - Principle 3 : Involvement of people
People in all levels of the organization should be involved for the profit of the organization. Because communication involves people to share thoughts, this is what we call teamwork and group effort to achieve common objectives for the benefit of the organization. People pursue opportunities to develop their experience and knowledge and sharing and discussing it. - Principle 4 : Process Approach
A desired result is completed when is organized and managed under processes and policies, the internal auto control will be more effective when it’s based on processes and procedures. - Principle 5 : System Approach to management
Organizing and managing a system of interrelated process as a structure gives to the organization effectiveness in achieving goals. - Principle 6 : Continual Improvement
The Deming cycle PDCA should be a permanent objective of the corporate using wide approaches to measure the performance. To compete, organization should take into consideration the competitive advantage and should work faster than its competitor. Continually changing market will affect all business surrounding it. Corporates compete through their services and products but to compete they should know the know-how of doing things correctly. The better corporate are adapting the more competitive their business will become.
Organization should communicate with their departments and inform employees about the improvement and the action taken.
When employees are empowered to improve individually or in group, all staff is concerned and encouraged to maximize the volume of change and improvement.
Culture can be measured by number of improvement and auctioned by the corporate. This is depends on the corporate commitment to a continual improvement activity.
When managing correctly the employee responsibility this will increase the organization responsiveness of return and income. The continual improvement will not cost the corporate as much. Good management and leadership is the key to success. - Principle 7 : Factual approach to decision making
Current decisions are based on the analysis and results done before and after the collection of information. - Principle 8 : Mutually beneficial
Organization Stakeholders’ relationship must be produced significantly to increase work organizations based on the win-win procedure, because organizations and stakeholders have a mutual beneficial relationship.
1.4.3 Organization Mission, Vision
- Organization mission explains why corporate exists and who does it serve, its activities in the present what does it include and what not.
- Organization vision discusses the future of the organization and who and what it will serve. Comparing it to the present activities done and to the mission, it adds motivation for a better continuity for the community served
1.4.4 NPO’s corporate and their activities
Schools, universities, and hospitals are considered as NPO corporations, their role is to serve public more than earning money profit and the increasing of shares, because the profit earned is in order to reinvest it of the affluence of their stakeholders. They have the same responsibilities as any other business corporation.
Their policy and decisions are made by majority (voting system) they have a financial capital to achieve their objectives in order to settle the benefit of their stakeholders.
Corporate governance principles are a must and it’s implemented in NPO’S as in the other business firms. These principles are:
- Fairness
- Transparency
- Responsiveness
- Accountability
- Resilience
- Communication
Corporate governance depends on the culture and the mission of the organization and how it is designed to protect its stakeholders and reputation.