Enhancing Public Sector Quality Performance Using Total Quality Management in Developing Economies

Abstract

The use of total quality management (TQM) in product delivery has gained prominence among manufacturing companies across the world. The concept, though very popular in advanced economies, has not witnessed wider application among public sector organisations in developing countries. However, customers expect a certain standard that organisations must meet irrespective of whether they are private or public. To enhance the quality performance of public organisations, new public management (NPM) has been introduced to ensure public organisations adopt practices that make them competitive, productive, profitable, and ultimately deliver quality goods and services to the public. One way to achieve this is through the use of TQM practices, which are regarded as standards for enhancing the level of quality of organisations’ products. This chapter, therefore, performs a literature review to understand TQM practices and how they can be applied in the public sector. The review found that public sector organisations can adopt TQM practices such as management leadership, employee training, employee relation, quality data and reporting, supplier quality management, process management, product/service design, and customer relations to enhance quality performance. Through desk research, the study also provides some case studies from South Africa and Egypt to describe the implementation of TQM in the public sector in Africa. This chapter contributes to the literature on the use of TQM to enhance public sector performance in developing economies.KeywordsTotal quality managementPublic sectorTotal quality management practicesCustomer relationsQuality performance