Gavriel Meirovich

The difficulty in implementing TQM in higher education instruction: The duality of instructor/student roles

Purpose – The applicability of total quality management (TQM) to higher education instruction is controversial. The purpose of this paper is to help clarify the application of TQM to higher education instruction by identifying and analyzing the dual roles played by both students and instructors. The authors also offer an improvement to the instructor evaluation process designed to eliminate some of the negative effects of the duality of roles.Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper discussing some of the shortcomings in previous discussions of the applicability of TQM to higher education instruction. In addition, it introduces the concept of the dual roles of students (customers/grade‐seekers) and faculty (suppliers/retention‐seekers), and analyzes their relationship to, and effect on, the evaluation of the educational process through the interaction of these dual roles.Practical implications – This paper helps understand more fully the student/instructor roles and will contribute to a be...

Quality of design and quality of conformance: Contingency and synergistic approaches

Abstract The distinction between design quality and conformance quality has not been systematically analysed in the literature. On the one hand, there is no sufficient distinction between these two elements in reference to many TQM themes, which are addressed too ‘totally’ in the sense that quality is taken as a whole, undivided phenomenon. On the other hand, quality of design and quality of conformance are referred to as separate, independently coexisting phenomena. This paper studies these two quality dimensions as opposite and conflicting sides of a paradox that complicates quality management. Conflict between design and conformance quality can be handled in two main ways. One is a contingency approach, whose purpose is to determine correct prioritization between the two dimensions and allocate resources accordingly. This paper focuses on contextual variables such as: stages of industry, product, and organizational life cycle; organizational technology; generic competitive strategy; international strategy; and level of uncertainty. The second possibility is to employ an integrative, or synergistic, approach, which is based on a win-win perspective that the improvement of one element can contribute to the improvement of another.

Illegal but ethical: an inquiry into the roots of illegal corporate behaviour in Russia

This paper examines the perceptions of Russian executives toward the relationship between legal and ethical conduct. The focus is on questions of tax evasion attitudes and corporate illegal behavior. Forty Russian managers and entrepreneurs from a variety of organizations were interviewed. Their actions are aimed at gaining corporate income and profit from operations through hiding corporate activity from state and local authorities in a context where these authorities levy excessive taxes and other types of payment from businesses. Tax evasion methods are presented and analyzed along with other varieties of illegal corporate behavior. The research results show that executives believe business could not perform in a completely legal way under Russias existing conditions. Illegal performance is thus viewed as legitimate and ethical.