Improving quality by reshaping work organisation: an assessment in an Australian University

Abstract

Abstract A major challenge for the Australian higher education system is how to provide for a diversity of customer expectations. This paper describes how an Australian university is enhancing institutional management for a client body, the staff. The effects of instilling a job design of Total Quality Management in the personnel section of that university was assessed over 18 months. Questionnaires were administered to this experimental group, to the client schools, as well as to a control group, which continued to employ traditional bureaucratic work practices. The important payroll activity of the personnel section was also assessed. The data indicate the new work arrangements in the personnel section had a favourable impact on a number of work‐related variables. The implications for contemporary human resource managers in the service industry, and particularly in Australian universities, are discussed.