The integration of quality management practices: a case study

The aim of the present paper is to understand whether the quality management (QM) practices of universities integrate their different organisational levels, processes and the QM principles; and to what extent QM is integrated in the broader management context of the universities.
We followed a single case study strategy in Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), which was one of the first Portuguese universities to have a certified internal QM system, by the Portuguese Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (A3ES). We made interviews with academics and non-academics with different involvement levels in the internal QM systems and with different hierarchical positions in the organisational structure, and also with students.
Globally, our results show that QM practices are integrating their different processes, organisational levels, QM principles, and are being approached holistically, as part of the global management and governance context of the university, despite being mainly focused on teaching and learning. It is also interesting to observe the significant lack of knowledge about the QM systemfrom the academics without management functions and with low involvement in QM activities.

Maria J. Manatos is a doctoral researcher in Management at the Lisboa School of Economics and Management, Universidade de Lisboa, with a particular research focus on Quality Management in Higher Education. She holds a doctoral research grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

Cláudia S. Sarrico is Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Lisboa School of Economics and Management, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, and visiting fellow at Warwick Business School, UK. Her main research interests are in service operations management, especially issues of performance and quality management. She has published her work in management and public management journals. She is Europe Regional Editor of the International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management.

Maria J. Rosa is assistant professor at the Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering at the University of Aveiro. Her main research topics are quality management and quality assessment in higher education institutions. Publications include articles in journals such as Total Quality Management, Higher Education Quarterly, European Journal of Education and Quality in Higher Education. She is co-editor of Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Trends in Regulation, Translation and Transformation (2007).

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Quality management, Higher Education, Integration