The relationship between total quality management, service quality and unlimited improvement – an application on higher education institutions in Libya

In quality management there many concepts and theories that were structured in order to assess quality practices within an organization. However, there are a few concepts that succeeded in providing a comprehensive evaluation for all business stakeholders. Total Quality Management (TQM) was established in the 1950s in order to provide quality management tools and processes that can assist organizations to include all business aspects in the quality evaluation. Moreover, Service Quality (ServQual) is a specialized quality evaluation tool that is used in assessing quality of the service provided to customers and measure the difference in perception between the service providers and receivers (customers). Unlimited Improvement (UI) is a concept that is developed from TQM in order to ensure that quality management is extended to all stakeholders affecting the organization. This research aims to study quality management using the three concepts in the Libyan higher education institutions. Furthermore, the relationships between the three concepts are established based on statistical analysis. The factor analysis and the regression analysis show that there is a positive and strong relationship between the three concepts. In the evaluation of quality management with regard to the case study, the results show that there are several aspects that need to be developed and enhanced in order to reach an acceptable quality management level. The researcher provides her conclusions and recommendations accordingly.