8.

0 Quality Culture and the

Future of Quality Management
in the Public Sector

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 8.0 Quality Culture in the
Public Sector
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

1.To define and understand the concept of quality culture.

2. To explain the establishment quality culture in the public

sector.

3. To elaborate on how to maintain quality culture in the

public

4. To understand challenges of quality management

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

Introduction
 It is not easy to change our routine. It requires a strong desire and
needs support from the environment.

 One of the challenges in implementing an effective quality

management is the cultural barrier.

 The qualify efforts only provide minimal impacts to the

organizations. The participation, commitment, and drives towards
quality culture become stagnant along the quality efforts and thus
at the end of the day the objectives of quality are unable to
achieve effectively.

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 8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

8.1 Definition of Quality Culture (in the public sector)

 QC is an organization’s value system that practices excellent
work cultures which leads to the establishment and continual
improvement of quality. It continuously promotes quality by
integrating quality values, traditions, procedures and
expectations of its public.

 QC is therefore the environment that supports the quality

products or services that are offered to the organizational
public which exceeds their needs and expectations.

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 8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

8.1.1 Common Characteristics of Quality Culture

a. Behavior matches slogan.

b. Customer input is actively sought and used to
continually improve quality.
c. Employees are both involved and empowered.
d. Work is done in team.
e. Sufficient resouces are made available.
f. Education and training are provided to
employees.
g. Reward and promotion systems are based on
contributions to the continual improvement .

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 8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

8.2 Establishing a Quality Culture

Recommended strategies towards establishing quality culture in
the public sector :

a.Identify the attitudes, behaviors, processes and procedures that are

changed.

b.Put the planned changes in writing.

c.Develop a comprehensive plan for making the changes.

d.Make sure all change advocates (agents) are familiar with

emotional transition that people go through when confronted with
change.

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8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

e. Identify the key people in the organization who can either make
the conversion work or make sure it doesn’t work. Get the
indentified key people on the team (turn them into
advocates(agents)).

f. Take a hearts-and-minds approach when introducing the new

culture.

g. Apply courtship strategies to bring people along slowly but

steadily.

h. SUPPORT! SUPPORT!SUPPORT!

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8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

 The Malaysian government has introduced several

policies, programs, reforms to instill a quality culture
among the civil servants. For example :

a. Efforts to improve public service delivery, the quality and

productivity of the public sector.
b. Total Quality Management (TQM).
c. Quality Control Circle (QCC).
d. Quality Assurance Unit.
e. Clients’ Charter as to help and ensure the public
officials discharge their duties and responsibilities in an
efficient, effective and responsive manner.

 These efforts have gradually established quality

culture in the Malaysian Civil Service.
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 8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

8.3 Maintaining Quality Culture in the Public Sector

Behaviors that help to instill quality culture :

No. Behavior Explanation

1 Maintain an The managers should always exhibit
awareness of quality the best practices to their
as a key cultural subordinates. Besides that, one has
issue. to ‘communicate’ the quality culture
that is practiced in the organization
and had been embedded it in its
philosophies.

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8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

No. Behavior Explanation

2 Make sure that there is Managers are not limited to exhibits
plenty of evidence of their quality practices but have to be
management’s engaged actively in the quality
leadership. efforts that are implemented in the
organization. They need to be
perceived by the employees as
“walking the talk” as well as talking
the talk.”

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8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

No. Behavior Explanation

3 Empower employees Employees should be empowered in
and encourage self- making sure that they are able to
development and self- discharge their duties and
initiative. responsibilities effectively.

Jobs that are assigned to them shall

invite self-development and self-
initiative. This could be done through
inputs, feedbacks and teamwork in
the organization.

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8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

No. Behavior Explanation

4 Keep employees The structure of the organization
involved. should be adjusted in order to allow
them to get directly involved in the
organization.

They could be appointed as quality

council member who has direct
responsibility on quality matters in
the organization.

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8.0 Quality Culture in the Public Sector

No. Behavior Explanation

5 Recognize and reward the Members of the organizations
behaviors that tend to could be much happier when their
nurture and maintain the behaviors and efforts are being
quality culture. recognized by the management.

Recognition could be in a form of

public acknowledgment whereas
rewards could be given in the
form of monetary values or in
term of benefits in kind.

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 8.0 Future of Quality Management in
the Public Sector

8.4 The Challenges of QM in the Public Sector

a.The increasing global competition

b.The increasing customers’ expectations
c.Economic pressures
d.Resistance to change

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8.0 Future of Quality Management in
the Public Sector

a. The Increasing Global Competition

In the era of globalization, many forms of competitions

emerge domestically and internationally. One could not effort
to sustain its businesses’ operations without striving for the
best practices and meet the quality standards. As the public
sector is the catalyst of the economic development, it has to
uplift the quality and quantity of its public service delivery.
Failure to meet the needs and expectations of the customers
will give disadvantage to a country’s competitiveness in
businesses, industries and the like.

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8.0 Future of Quality Management in
the Public Sector

b. The Increasing Customers’ Expectation

With the emergence of latest trends, globalization,

advanced IT , customers’ demands vary. With this
increase, the providers have to ensure that their
services are better quality and able to not only meet
but also and exceed customers’ expectations and
satisfaction.

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8.0 Future of Quality Management in
the Public Sector

c. Economic pressures

Under the notion of trade liberalization, it has opened

up the business opportunities to all business players
around the globe. Every organization has to improve
its quality as well as to reduce cost to remain
competitive. In order to facilitate the private sector as
key players in the industries, the public sector has to
discharge its roles and functions efficiently and
effectively. The public agencies have to make sure that
their services are able to meet the needs and demands
of its customers.

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8.0 Future of Quality Management in
the Public Sector

d. Resistance to change

Change in many aspects ; attitudes, culture, skills,

knowledge especially in implementing quality management.
For example, Total Quality Management (TQM) is a
management approach based on a set of fundamental quality
principles which comes with techniques and procedures that
provide guidance and structure in the administration of an
organization. However, it was argued that the environment in
the government agencies with its political culture and the
unmet needs of a virtually unlimited demands of customers,
creates barriers in its implementation.

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 End of Topic 8.0

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.