Development of Total Quality Management in Kaunas University of Technology

Abstract

We reflect on the activities of Department of QualityManagement, Faculty of Economics and Management,Kaunas University of Technology in this article. The reasonswhich lead to the establishment of the Department ofQuality Management are briefly presented. Since 1997 themembers of the department research various problems ofquality management, co-ordinate programme for Master’sdegree (Quality Management specialization) and communicateits research to business and public organizations.These three activities of the Department research, teachingand communication of the results of research are reviewedin this article. First, the topics of the research conductedfrom the establishment of the Department could be generalizedunder these themes: Total quality management(TQM) as conceptual core, quality culture, quality andperformance measurement, stakeholders’ interests harmonization,processual approach, quality of life, wageadministration under TQM. Research under these topics isreviewed. A theoretical contribution and results are discussed.Second, the courses underlying Quality Managementspecialization are also analyzed. It is argued thatduring the decade more than a hundred of students becamequality managers. The content of the courses is discussed.Third, the ways of communication of quality managementmethods to business and public organizations is highlighted.The main means of communication of TQM are:the Lithuanian Association for Quality Management andthe Center for Total Quality Management. The article presentsthe discussion on possible and relevant research topics.Five possible directions was identified: to proceed onresearch, that has been already conducted, look for newapproaches to explain how quality is achieved, incorporateknowledge from other disciplines, reinterpret the mainconcepts of quality in the context of present changes, analyzethe effects of quality management practices.