User:Onesharek/sandbox

Strategic Quality Management in Third Sector

‘’Third sector’’ organizations play an important role in modern states today (Egerton & Mullan, 2008, p. 146) and their importance is growing throughout the world (Cairns, Harris, & Young, 2007, p. 869). Many of these organizations have been committed to maximize their social impact (Bradach, Tierney, & Stone, 2008, p. 90) rather than focusing on financial returns only (Öz & Toker, 2008, p. 167). While it is difficult to define this sector precisely (Egerton & Mullan, 2008, p. 147), Hasenfeld & Gidron (2005, p. 98) classify third sector organizations into three distinct theoretical perspectives that are ‘civil society’, ‘social movement’, and ‘non-profit sector’ organizations. While civil society organizations focus on autonomous volunteer-run associations, social movement organizations concentrate on the use of protest and institutional means to achieve their objectives. On the other hand, non-profit organizations are considered to be formally structured, legally recognized, tax-exempt, and prohibited from distributing profits. However, many of these organizations evolve to incorporate a mix of the three types and form what is called multipurpose hybrid organizations. Workers, or volunteers, in third sector usually belong to different ages, diverse backgrounds, and a range of mixed experiences and skills. They are expected to contribute their time without coercion or remuneration, although some of them could receive stipend. (Bussell & Forbes, 2002)

While these organizations are usually strongly led, they tend to be undermanaged (Bradach, Tierney, & Stone, 2008). They are driven by missions that inspire people to donate, board members and volunteers to spend their time and expertise without remuneration, and employees who accept modest pays. However, missions typically provide inspiration rather than direction, thus it is not unusual for key stakeholders to have divergent common views about priorities. To resolve their challenges, these organizations need to craft rigorous strategies that systematically evaluate their position and set future directions (Öz & Toker, 2008, p. 167). A quality strategy based on and linked to total quality management (TQM) philosophy can be used for this purpose (Leonard & Mcadam, 2002). As defined by Juran (1989, cited by Aravindan, Devadasan, & Selladurai, 1996, p. 85) SQM is ‘’a systematic approach for setting and meeting quality goals throughout the company’’. Aravindan, Devadasan, & Selladurai (1996, p. 85) provide a more detailed definition of SQM and define it as “the process by which quality management activities focus towards the long range direction and progress of quality enhancement strategies by ensuring the careful formulation through strategic quality planning, proper implementation through vital quality strategies, and continuous evaluation through quality improvement and control”. In addition, Leonard & McAdam (2002b, p. 13) emphasize the importance of SQM in maintaining continuity of operational improvements in an organization. Implementation of SQM requires a holistic understanding of TQM and its implementation as the last is grounded on system theory that touches all aspects of the organization (Leonard & Mcadam, 2002). When it comes to the level of success in implementing TQM as a strategy, Caˆndido & Santos (2011, p. 1159) conducted a literature analysis to compare the rate of failure in TQM implementation with other organisation-wide transformational initiatives. They concluded that TQM is similar to any other business strategies in the implementation obstacles and reported rate of failure.