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International Journal Reviews

Teachers' Perception towards Total Quality Management Practices

in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions
(Teacher Perceptions of Integrated Quality Management Practices
in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions)

Ahasanul Haque1 , Abdullah Sarwar1*, Farzana Yasmin2

1Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences,

International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2Faculty of Business and Professional Studies, Management Science University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
E-mail: *belaliium@gmail.com

A. INTRODUCTION
The service industry is a rapidly changing industry and this dynamic culture
will offer a challenge for service companies to lead or to actually survive in a
competitive environment.
This. The education industry is part of the service industry which is
all students become customers; this particular factor raises
needs and is used as a solid basis on which to build towards achieving high quality
services in the education industry. Therefore, the adaptation of Total Quality
Management (TQM) is used as
tools in order to be able to provide the required quality to be
increase business success.
There are many countries that offer high quality education around the world;
However, Malaysia is not yet acceptable as an international destination for education.
Therefore, research is needed
to investigate teachers' perceptions of TQM practices in institutions
Malaysian higher education to identify barriers that have
ignored by academics. This study is used to introduce some important indicators of
current TQM practices in Malaysian higher education institutions. In addition, policy
makers need
discover the requirements for continuing quality education
in Malaysia.

B. LITERATURE STUDY
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As a modern management approach, TQM can be used

with success in the education sector, mainly focused on
increase in customer satisfaction (Munoz, 1999). TQM practice in schools
has been provided, as a perspective for viewing the defects facing effective schools,
and as a tool for removing obstacles in the way of effective schools (Hamedoglu,
2002; Sallis, 2002). In aspect
of these, TQM principles are appropriate for educational settings.
Quality is a fundamental issue in education, government
Malaysia has also emphasized in improving the overall quality of education for both
public and private tertiary institutions with the aim of attracting more foreign students
(MOE, 2012).
However, the practice of TQM among various institutions of higher education in
Many Malaysians are unsatisfactory (Arifin Ahmed & Zain, 2000).
Hence, it is necessary to improve TQM practices in Malaysia.
The absence of standards and attitudes in the implementation process
creates differences in the way employees do work,
so that problems arise in the maintenance of this educational institution
(Newby, 1999). Previous studies (Bonnie, 2011; Hashmi, 2007; Oakland &
Oaklands, 2001; Zhang, 2000) has found that the difficulties in implementing TQM
are attitude, leadership commitment, lack of understanding and lack of resources.
Based on the above reviews
above, the hypothesis is taken as follows:
H1: There is a significant relationship between Attitudes towards Implementation
and Teachers' Perceptions of TQM practices.
TQM can make important contributions to improving the quality of education
and improving educational organizations (Hyde, 1992). By
Therefore, top management must be committed to employees
them with the aim of improving overall performance
(Sisman & Turan, 2002). Based on the above literature review, the following
hypotheses were taken: H2:
There is a significant relationship between leadership commitment and
teachers' perceptions of TQM practices through attitudes toward implementation.
According to Stevens (1993), employees are an important part of
organization. They are people who really do their job. As such, they must be involved
in the decision-making process because they sometimes know better
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than top management (Chapman & Al-Khawaldeh, 2002).

Based on the above literature review, the following hypotheses were taken:

H3: There is a significant relationship between employee participation and

teachers' perceptions of TQM practices through attitudes toward implementation.

Determine problems and obstacles in success

TQM implementation, and to take the necessary actions to

Removing these barriers is an important factor for effectiveness

educational institutions and in general for the entire educational system.

For this, it is necessary to continuously check the quality of the process and control the success of

the practice. Based on the above literature review, the following hypotheses were taken:

H4: There is a significant relationship between management and change

teachers' perceptions of TQM practices through attitudes toward implementation.

C. METHODOLOGY
This research was conducted by taking 300 random samples from

faculty members working in various private as well as public higher education institutions in Malaysia.

Of the 300 questionnaires distributed, 206 questionnaires were returned and are valid so they can be

used for

further analysis.

The steps in this study were analyzed based on

the guidelines provided by Pallant (2005) and Sekaran and Bougie (2010) where only a factor with a

Cronbach's alpha of 0.6 is considered reliable. In this study, Cronbach's alpha was 0.839

considered very reliable. This research is only aimed at content and

construct validity because both are considered to be deep enough

analyze the validity of its measurement (Pallant, 2005). Content validity in this study was assessed by

carefully reviewing the available literature on TQM. On the other hand, construct validity is achieved

through

factor analysis. For this study, the KMO value was 0.723

accepted with a significance at 0.000 (Hair et al., 2010).

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D. RESULTS
EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) was conducted to identify
the exact factors on each of the variables identified for this study. Varimax rotation
was used in performing factor analysis of the variables. In this study, 0.50 was
considered the threshold
acceptable (cut) for exploratory studies (Hair et al, 2010;.
Sarwar, Haque, & Yasmin, 2013; Sarwar, Haque, & Ismail, 2012).
The five extracted factors which were later renamed as attitudes towards
implementation, leadership commitment, employee participation, employee
empowerment and teachers' perceptions of practice
TQM. The results of the factor analysis also show that 79.46 percent of
the variance explained by these five variables is extracted. Finally, to test
hypothesis, SEM was employed.
Prior to running the final model for this study, CFA (Confirmatory Factor
Analysis) was used to assess unidimensionality
between variables. It also confirms the validity and reliability of the item
measurement (Haque, Sarwar, Yasmin, Anwar, & Nuruzzaman, 2012).
Goodness of Fit (GOF) score suggested by Hair et al. (2010).
However, in the first model run, the GOF index is not reached. Therefore,
the MI index is used to find out the problem
multicollinearity. The model is then re-defined as that
shown in Figure 1.
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The modified model with GOF index is considered

the final model for this study. This model asserts that leadership commitment (with
a path coefficient of 0.32), employee participation (with a path coefficient of 0.23)
and employee empowerment (with a
path coefficient 0.29) has a significant direct relationship with
teachers' perceptions of TQM practices through attitudes toward implementation.
In addition, it is also shown that there is also a significant relationship between
attitudes towards implementation and TQM practices in Malaysian higher education
institutions (with a path coefficient of 0.25).
For hypothesis 1, the regression weight for Attitudes toward Implementation
and Teachers' Perceptions of TQM practices significantly
differs from zero at the 0.05 level (two-tailed). Therefore, H1 is accepted.
For hypothesis 2, the regression weight for leadership commitment and teachers'
perceptions of TQM practices through attitudes toward implementation
significantly different from zero at the 0.05 (two-tailed) level. By
therefore, H2 is also accepted. For hypothesis 3, the regression weight for
employee participation and teachers' perceptions of TQM practices through attitudes
toward implementation are significantly different from zero at the 0.05 level (two-
tailed). Thus, H3 is accepted.
For hypothesis 4, weight management and change regression
teachers' perceptions of TQM practices through attitudes toward implementation
significantly different from zero at the 0.05 (two-tailed) level.
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E. CONCLUSION
This research has shown that there is still room to improve the level of TQM
practice in higher education institutions in Malaysia. Therefore, clarifying TQM
policies to employees,
will significantly improve TQM practices among employees.
Next, determine the problems and obstacles in success
implementation of TQM, so taking the necessary actions to remove these barriers is
an important factor for the effectiveness of educational institutions and in general for
the entire education system.
For this, it is necessary to continuously check the process quality and control
success of practice in order to create change.