Quality is crucial aspect for all types of organisations. This is due to a number o f factors that influence customers to choose a product or a service. In this respect, the level of customer satisfaction plays a key role in selecting a product or service. Thus, customer satisfaction is one of the major factors that contribute to build up the reputation of an organisation. In education, quality education involves building knowledge, attitudes, values, and skills that depend upon the quality of the
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curricula and human and physical resources, mainly the teaching staff whic h contribute to inspire knowledge and skills. This section focuses on five points , including the concept of quality and quality in education, quality inspection, quality control and quality assurance.
3.2. 1 The Concept of Quality
Regarding the concept, it means the suitability for usage as defined by Jura n (1995), as quality is defined by some as matching features and characteristics. Others refer to it as a decrease in customer complaints. Others propose that it is the decrease in defects, damage, or losses during operation. Others say that it is the improvement of performance efficiency and achievement or cost reductio n (Hamoud, 2010, p. 16). The American Oxford Dictionary defines quality as “leve l or degree of excellence” (Russell & Taylor, 1995, p. 88). From the point of view of management, science quality is “adequacy of the product or service for its designated purpose” or “doing the right things using a correct way in order to achieve the wanted goal, decreasing customer complaints, decreasing percentage of defects, continuously improving performance” (Alshaar, 2001, p. 38). The American association for quality control (ASQC) defined quality as “group o f characteristics and features of a product or service depending on its ability to fulfil specific needs” (Evans, 1997, p. 45). The International standards organisatio n (ISO) described it as a “group of characteristics and features in a product or service resulting in the ability to fulfil declared or implied desires” (Heizer & Render, 2001, p. 171).
We can conclude from the above that the mentioned definitions focused on qualit y as the product or service matching its pre-specified requirements, although the concept of quality continued to develop later on, and the focus became the customer as the main factor in quality. In this conte xt, Goetsch and Davis (1997, pp. 2-3) referred to a number of definitions stated by some individuals and organisations interested in the subject. For example the definition of quality b y Smith (1973) was “achievement of the standard expected by the customer”, and the definition of quality by the Boeing corporation was “providing our customers with products and services which always fulfil their needs and expectations”. I n addition, the American department of quality protection defines it as “doing the right thing in the right way from the first time, always striving to improve and
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satisfy the customer”. In a wider perspective (Gerosa, 1998, p. 40) defines it as “everything valuable to the customer”. The definition of Goetsch and Davis (1997, p. 3), who sees quality as “a motion state related to products, services, individuals, operation and environment which fulfills or exceeds expectations ”, is considered one of the most accepted and comprehensive definitions from the researcher’s point of view.
Based on that, the researcher proposes a definition of quality as being a continuous process concerned by the individuals mastering the products, services, operations , and environment that satisfies and exceeds customer expectations. According to this definition, we can emphasise the most important features of quality as follows. Quality is a continuous process. This means it is an evolving and uninterrupted process, and that which qualifies as quality today might not be considered qualit y tomorrow.
Mastering is a feature that means it is considered top notch and the highest level of quality.
Quality applies to individuals, products, services, operations, and even the internal and external environment of the organisation. It is not limited to products and services only. This requires extraction of the tacit knowledge from the individuals’ minds and even customers in order to classify the knowledge and merge it with explicit knowledge in the organisation and manage it well to enhance the mastering of it.
Quality does not only seek to fulfil customer expectations, but also to exceed those expectations.
3.2. 2 Quality in Education
Haworth and Conrad (1997) wrote that in the context of the ever-changing dynamics of the norms that we adhere to, it is only consistent that the definition o f the quality of education also changes with time. Thus, it can be character ised as what society deems necessary to standard ise as the minimum level of educatio n within a certain factor, the ethics, and monetary pledge to achieve it (Davok, 2007). Therefore, it can be put forward as the accomplishment of the implied and explicit objectives of society that it expects from the educational system, while assuring strategic requirements (Tikly & Barrett, 2011). All of the process,
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including its elements, inputs, and outputs, while justifying the expectations of the society, determines the direction of education, and the character of each of the mentioned elements determines the quality of education (Gidley et al., 2010). The ultimate objective for a student within an educational institution is to successfully attain a certain noteworthy educational accolade that would enable the student to be a valuable contributor to society (Haworth & Conrad, 1997). Therefore, quality in education is the extent to which any educational institution is able to maintain the same educational quality. This was also put forward as being the definition of the quality of education by yet another school of thought (Jones, 2011). While considering the fact that (like the health sector) education is also a service sector, we can define the quality of education as the extent to which the educational needs and expectations of the individual in general, and society as whole, are met (Davok, 2007).
We can easily reach an ambiguous conclusion when trying to comprehend the definitions of the quality of education as put forward by different schools o f thought in which there is no single factor or aspect that we can tag as the quality o f education (Ediger, 2010). There are many different areas, and every school o f thought addresses and focuses on the specific area that they have found to be important in order to gauge the quality of education (Tikly & Barrett, 2011). However, all schools of thought were consistent in implying that (regardless of the standards to determine the quality in education) customer satisfaction remains the core value (Gidley et al., 2010). It is also significant to understand that due to its characteristics and nature, it is almost impossible to accurately explain the qua lit y of education in specific terms (Jones, 2011).
In general, it can be said that no universal definition of the term quality has yet to appear and that different authors place different emphasis on certain aspects of this concept according to their experience. However, while quality experts define the concept differently, they do all agree that customer satisfaction is the core element. But in acknowledging this, it must also be recognised that due to the nature and characteristics of the service sector, and especially the Higher Education sector, the term is more difficult to define in a very precise way and is expected to change over time.
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3.2. 3 Inspection
Quality inspection was modified in order to separate non-conforming parts; therefore, the term “quality” can be a synonym for inspection. In the period o f mass production, an examination for the purposes of quality assurance for all finished products was conducted. Inspection of quality was developed during the First World War. During the Second World War, the manufacturing systems were more complex and huge numbers of labourers were reporting to each foreman, who could easily have lost control of the quality of the work. Consequently, it was essential to employ full-time quality inspectors (Feigenbaum, 1991).
3.2. 4 Quality control
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, production was made a main concern, which was due to the shortage of civilian goods in the United States. In many organisations, quality remained the area of experts. During that time, both Jura n and Deming introduced statistical quality control techniques to the Japanese to help them in their rebuilding efforts. They concentrated on upper management, rather than quality experts alone. With the support of top managers, the Japanese applied quality throughout their organisations and developed a culture o f continuous improvement. In 1951, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers launched the Deming Prize to reward individuals and organisations who met the strict criteria for quality management practice. Under a system of quality control, paperwork, and procedure control systems raw material and intermediate stage product testing, logging of elementary process performance data, and feedback o f process information to suitable personnel are expected to be in place. In qualit y control there will be some development of basic inspection activities, in terms o f the sophistication of methods and systems and the tools and techniques that are employed, while the main mechanism for preventing off- specification products and services from being delivered to a customer is screening inspection. Qualit y control measures lead to greater process control and lower incidences of non- conformances (Dale, 1994).
3.2. 5 Quality Assurance
Finding and solving a problem after a non-conformance has been discovered is not an effective method for eradicating the root cause of a problem. Under qualit y assurance, continuous development can only be achieved by directing
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organisational efforts towards planning for and preventing problems fro m occurring at the source. This concept leads to the third stage of qualit y management development, which is quality assurance (Dale, 1994).
Overall, the concept of quality is widely defined in the literature. In order to achieve a high level quality, it is essential to consider the product or service that satisfies customer requirements. These requirements should be clear to the customers, whether they are specified in the purchase contract, identified under the declared specifications by law or otherwise.