The Challenges of Applying the concepts of Participatory Management, Teamwork, and continuous Improvement at the University

Abstract

This study aims to demonstrate the obstacles in adopting and applying the concepts of total quality management related to participatory management, teamwork, and continuous improvement in colleges and universities that can be attributed to the special organizational characteristics of these institutions. The study has showed that the obstacles in applying these concepts are not due to failures in implementation as theorists claim or suppose, but rather due to a gap between the total quality theory and its methods on the one hand and some of the characteristics and features of higher education institutions on the other hand. In the light of these characteristics, the study has identified a set of challenges that impede the application of the aforementioned concepts in higher education, which are as follows: the increasing dependence of universities and colleges on teaching staff on a temporary or contract basis, the system of incentives in universities, the dispersion and spread of decision-making power and the nature of Participation in decision-making, the nature of issues in higher education institutions, and the position of the boards of trustees and legislators on the participation process. As well as the role of specialized committees, the weakness of reliability between departments and units in which universities are located, knowledge splits, actual practices of universities that promote a culture of individual work and loyalty to specialization in exchange for loyalty to the institution, and the relative stability of traditions, goals, values, beliefs and academic rituals and the difficulty of constantly changing them.