Building A Participative Quality Culture

A major requirement to any national qualification framework (NQF) is not to confine internal quality assurance to “formalized processes” and “routine” calendar events like submission of course reports and mammoth calculations of cohorts in annual reports. More important is to motivate individuals to create a “quality culture” and a “continuous improvement” of quality practices. They must be made aware of the significance of conformance of quality regulations and “quality matters” and also of the consequences or the costs of non-conformance, which may even jeopardize the program accreditation prospects.

A very useful and easy way to develop a participative culture is to orient individuals through written manuals, booklets, videos and posters. Adopting the Delphi technique, an informal forum for quality discussions can be created, where teams and sub committees can participate in focus groups and deliver short presentations. Another top prerequisite to create a participative culture is also to ensure a close compliance of rules, regulations and procedures laid down by the institutions QA system. Institutions may also consider such practices like decentralization of QA activities, employee empowerment, a positive bottom-up approach and giving autonomy to the internal Quality Assurance unit to take decisions and ensure compliance.

Such practices cannot see the light of the days without top management support. The top management can integrate quality assurance and quality improvement measures within overall the administrative and strategic framework and agree for a bottom-up approach of implementation rather than top-down bureaucratic style. In quality frameworks, central monitoring or top-down approach is important but only to a certain level, limited to guiding and mentoring on quality management strategies. A decentralized system also delegates the decision-making power to individuals who are the ones responsible to ensure compliance of the quality standards and criteria in effect.

Hence, through participation and orientation, individuals will change their policy perspective or “formalized” and “routine” processes to that of a personal accountability. This will also professionalize individuals to mold them into the essential character of Quality Assurance. At times, a participative culture can also minimize bureaucratization, reduce personal rifts and differences that often cause resistance to compliance of quality matters.