Leadership Practices And Total Quality Management Principles In Omani Private Higher Education Institutions.
Total Quality Management has received widespread global attention during the last several decades and studies have shown that leadership is vital to the successful application of a quality management system in higher education or any other sector for that matter. This study sought to identify the ov...
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| Summary: | Total Quality Management has received widespread global attention during the last several decades and studies have shown that leadership is vital to the successful application of a quality management system in higher education or any other sector for that matter. This study sought to identify the overall state of leadership practices relating to administrative affairs in the application of quality management system in Omani private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), to explore areas of strength and weakness found in current leadership practices and to analyse the challenges that face leadership as they carry out their quality management roles. As for research design and methodology this study employed both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.The questionnaire sought to investigate the perceptions of respondents (administrators and faculty members) regarding leadership practices at 19 institutions in Muscat.The semi-structured interviews, however,aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by top levels of leadership during their quality management practices.The findings indicated that quality management system is fundamental for the success of the Omani private higher education sector and that senior leadership support plays a privotal role in this success.Also the results have shown that strategic planning, followed by continuous improvement appear to elicit the highest levels of positivity towars leadership practices at Omani private HEIs. Leadership practices related to teamwork were ranked the third best executed quality element by participants of the study.Moreover, leadership practices linked to leadership, empowerment & involvenment ,training programs and reward & motivation were ranked in descending order.In addition the results indicated that there are five main challenges to successful quality management implementation in Omani private HEIs.Those challenges were: a lack of qualified human resources a lack of quality training, increasing administrative and academic workloads, excessive paperwork and ineffective academic partnership with foreign HEIs.This study has added new data that reveals the impact that leadership practices have on quality management system in the private higher education environment in Oman. For instance this study provides up-to-date evidence of areas of strength and weakness in current leadership practices and the main challenges behind the implementation of a quality system. Finally for improving the current leadership practices the study concludes with several policy recommendations for the Ministry of Higher Education private HEIs and senior private HEIs and senior private HEIs decision-makers. |
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