Impak Prinsip-Prinsip TQM Ke Atas Kepuasan Hati Pelajar dan Pencapaian Akademik Pelajar : Satu Kajian Empirikal Dalam Sektor Pendidikan Tinggi Awam di Malaysia

This study investigates the relationship between principles of total quality management (TQM) and educational organization outcomes in respect to students’ satisfaction and students’ academic achievement. TQM principles include organizational commitment to quality, planning for quality, focus on customer, total staff involvement, training and development, rewards and recognition, management by fact, continuous improvement, and focus on processes and prevention. Students’ satisfaction variables include quality of teaching, quality of assessment, quality of supervision and quality of courses, and students’ academic achievement variables include percentage of students enrolled in all courses who passed them, degree score, success rate of leavers, perceived students’ academic achievement, and cumulative grade point average score. A research framework was developed, and four main hypotheses and twelve specific hypotheses were posited and tested. The study was based on a survey design and the time horizon was cross sectional with minimal researcher’s interference. The survey was carried out in 100 educational departments selected randomly from 10 public universities in Malaysia. The final number of participants for this study was 85 educational departments. The sample size comprised about 70 percent of the total population. The study hypotheses were tested using correlational and multivariate statistical analyses. The results supported all the hypotheses posited for the study, suggesting that educational organizations can benefit from TQM principles. Pearson-r correlations indicated that all of the TQM principles have significant correlation -with students’ satisfaction and students’ academic achievement variables. Results of canonical correlation found that TQM, students’ satisfaction and students’ academic achievement constructs have significant correlation with each other. To reduce the possible effects of multi-collinearity, principle component analysis and simple linear regression were carried out to determine the relationship of the variables and the results indicated significantly positive relationships. Further, results of statistical analysis also indicated that the principles should be implemented holistically rather than piecemeal. Structural equation modeling highlighted the role of students’ satisfaction in mediating the relationship between TQM and students’ academic achievement. TQM construct accounted for about 22 percent of the variance in the students’ satisfaction construct, while both TQM and students’ satisfaction constructs accounted for about 41 percent of the variance in the students’ academic achievement construct. In conclusion, this study provided insight and further understanding of the interrelationship between TQM principles, customer satisfaction and organizational performance, and hence allows practitioners to gain in depth knowledge about the impact of TQM principles.