The present study aims to assess the potential feasibility of applying TQM principles and practices in the leadership and management of the MOE Central Headquarters from the point of view of the top management in the MOE Central Headquarters, the internal stakeholders (staff in the MOE Central Headquarters) and the external stakeholders
(managers, staff and head teachers in the regional general directorates). The questionnaire is one of the tools used to achieve the aims of this study.
Henerson et.al (1987, p.27-29) argue that the questionnaire is one of the most appropriate and useful data gathering instruments with which to survey attitudes. They state that the questionnaire is advantageous in many ways. It is anonymous and therefore can encourage greater honesty of response. Moreover, questionnaires can be more economical in terms of time and money and can be given to many people simultaneously. This is in addition to the greater uniformity a questionnaire can provide in gathering information. Every person responds to exactly the same question. In general, the data the questionnaire provides can be easily analyzed and interpreted.
Although the questionnaire has several advantages, it also has some limitations. Henerson et al. (1987, p.29) state that the questionnaire is not flexible; it cannot explore further any ideas or comments that a respondent makes. Henerson .et al (1987, p.29) also argue that written responses may be limiting for some people who might express themselves more easily orally.
In this research, in order to benefit from the advantages of the questionnaire and to avoid its limitations, the researcher designed the questionnaire in a way to achieve its aim which was to gather the views from a large number of respondents in three identifiable groupings. To enhance the usefulness of the questionnaire, it was combined with an interview.
The main purpose of the questionnaire of this study is to gain a broad feel for the acceptability of the TQM ideas and to establish a broad baseline. The questionnaire was designed in three sections (see appendix VII for the English version of the questionnaire and appendix VIII for the Arabic version of the questionnaire). The first section is about personal information; occupation and place of work. The second section includes 39 items related to the seven proposed principles of the proposed TQM tree model in chapter six. Groups of positive statements were prepared relating to each of the proposed model principles:
1. Commitment toward TQM (5 statements) 2. Focus on stakeholders ( 4 statements) 3. Continuous Improvement (7 statements) 4. Involvement and Empowerment (8 statements)
5. Training and Education ( 6 statements) 6. Tools and Techniques ( 5 statements)
7. Rewards. ( 4 statements)
Wiersma and Jurs(2005, p.169) argue that closed statements in a questionnaire enhance consistency of response across respondents; data tabulation is generally straightforward and less time consuming than open-ended questions. The questionnaire used closed statements to limit respondents to selecting one item among five (strongly agree, agree, uncertain, strongly disagree and disagree) based on the Likert scale. The Likert scale was developed by the American educator and organizational psychologist Rensis Likert in 1932 to improve the level of measurement in social research (Infosurve, 2007). In research conducted by Infosurve, the online survey professionals in 2006, they found that most modern researchers agree that the 5-point scale is more common than the 6- point scale and the neutral rating in a 5-point scale is needed when conducting survey research. A Likert Scale allows a participant to provide feedback that is a little more expansive than a simple close-ended question, but at the same time it is much easier to measure than a completely open-ended response (Idea, 2007).
The questionnaire was first written in English, and then translated into Arabic ensuring the same sense as far as possible from English to Arabic. The Arabic version was trialled using other Arabic postgraduate students at Glasgow University to ensure the sense of the items had not been lost in translation. Some items were not clear in Arabic and needed modifications as seen below:
1. The word order of item 2. Instead of being “it is critical for management to understand the process of change” it became “Management understanding of the process of change is critical”
2. The word order in item 3. Instead of “ open communication between managers and staff must be encouraged” it became “ there must be encouragement of open communication between managers and staff”
3. Sentence form of item 7 instead of “MOE development could be measured through stakeholders’ satisfactions it became “MOE development could be measured through knowing Stakeholders’ satisfaction.
4. Word order of item 36 instead of “using other similar organizations’ experiences for planning MOE’s development is useful” it became “it is useful to use similar organizations to plan MOE’s development.
Though the closed items demanded a specific response based on the Likert scale, there is always the possibility that the individual respondents become patterned or that they have specific views not fully reflected in the responses. Therefore, the inclusion of open ended
questions was essential. Although open-ended questions might require more time than closed statements, they allow the individual more freedom of response because certain feelings or information may be revealed that would not be forthcoming with the closed statements (Wiersma and Jurs, 2005, p.169) The third part of the questionnaire is four open-ended questions related to the implementation of the TQM model in the MOE. These questions are intended to gather data on the respondents’ views on the obstacles and the solutions for these obstacles. This section then was intended to balance the earlier closed questions by providing opportunities for respondents to articulate the particular views.
7.5.1 The Population and Samples for the Questionnaire
The population consists of three main groups:
1. Top or Senior Managers: the Directors General, the Assistant Directors General and consultants.
2. Internal stakeholders: Directors, Assistant Directors, other staff in MOE Central Headquarters.
3. External stakeholders: the Directors General, the Assistant Directors General, Directors, Assistant Directors and head teachers in Regional Directorates.
Table 7.1 The Population and Sample of the Questionnaire
Categories Total number Sample Number Percentage Sample Returned Percentage of the return Discarded Sample used Top management 26 20 77% 16 80% 0 16 Internal stakeholders 789 150 19% 137 91.3% 3 134 External stakeholders 799 150 18.8% 138 92% 2 136
In selecting the sample for the questionnaire the researcher firstly applied for an ethical approval letter which then sent to the MOE in Oman. Later the MOE sent letters to the concerned directors to get volunteers. After that, the questionnaires were randomly distributed among the volunteers making sure these were sent to all the regional directorates in addition to the MOE Central Headquarters. This is to try to make the sample
as representative as possible. The main reason behind asking for volunteers is to get more reliable data as the sample of participants are not forced to respond. So, they should provide more accurate answers. Moreover, this is more ethically accepted.
The percentage of the top management was high for two main reasons. Firstly, the top management numerically is a much smaller group. Consequently, high percentage is inevitable if a reasonable sized sample of this subgroup is to be used. Secondly, as senior managers they would be key in any decisions regarding the change and implementation process. The internal and external stakeholders groups were selected because of their importance and their essential position in the development and TQM implementation as explained in chapter six.
Wiersma and Jurs (2005, p.175) state that one of the persistent problems with questionnaire studies is the possibility of a high rate of non-response. To try to avoid this common problem, the researcher distributed the questionnaires randomly herself except for the far regions where they were sent by the Ministry’s mail to ensure quick returns. As shown in the table above the return of the sample was high, which was good. Three of the internal stakeholders’ questionnaires and 2 of the external stakeholders’ questionnaires were discarded because they had either no responses to open-ended questions or there were double ticks or no ticks at all in some items of the second section.
The first and second sections were analysed using SPSS. The third section was translated back into English but rather than the word by word translation, ‘the sense’ of these responses was translated. This is because direct translation would not make sense for some of the sentences. Semiotic analysis was used: the ideas were gathered, sorted into themes and then related to the proposed TQM Tree Model in chapter six. The preliminary analysis of the questionnaire served to point further avenues for the interview. For example, during the conduct of the interviews the researcher tried to raise some of the problems that were highlighted in the open-ended questions of the questionnaires for discussion.