A proposed model of continuous improvement in total quality management from an islamic perspective

Abstract

Managing and assuring quality is vital for corporate survival in an increasingly competitive, open and globalised business environment. Since its inception immediately after World War II, Quality Management (QM) has now been regarded as a philosophy, not merely a concept. Many individuals, as well as organisations, invest intellectual power and efforts to develop tools, techniques and models for continuous quality improvement. All of those are being done from conventional viewpoint or from materialistic worldview. Muslims are also using those literatures and models without making any attempt to reshuffle or adapt those to their own culture. Continuous improvement (CI) models developed by Western scholars are rooted in the concept of worldly gain which is contradictory to Muslim state of mind. A number of scholars suggested to develop some models based on Divine knowledge and principles focusing the benefits of both the worlds (Here and Hereafter). The available literatures show that some improvements have been made in the field of Economics, Finance and Banking, Management, HRM and Leadership; but very few in Total Quality Management (TQM). No model has yet been developed on continuous improvement from Islamic worldview. Efforts of this exploratory qualitative research was to minimise this null and void gap by developing a new model of continuous improvement (CI) in Total Quality Management (TQM) from an Islamic perspective. This was the prime objective of this particular research. The present study took the affirmative postmodernism philosophical stance. The distinctive subjectivist-epistemological and ontological position of affirmative postmodernism induced particular appraisal norms for such management research. The epistemological paradigm of this particular study is based on the idea of Unity (al-Taw?id). The fundamental epistemological foundations are the Qur’an and the Sunnah and the contributions of scholars in Islam. The philosophical stance, epistemological and ontological paradigm induced to follow the qualitative methodology to conduct the research. To satisfy the research objectives and to answer the research questions, the researcher collected data by applying the interview (focus group discussion- FGD and semi-structured in-depth interview) method only. Having the conceptual model (primarily developed after extensive literatures review), the FGD was conducted involving 11 academics and practitioners. Based upon the FGD findings, the researcher finalised the components which helped her to finalise the new model named NAMS Cycle. Some issues and challenges were found out which are associated with the implementation of the model. Thirty informant were selected from practitioners for in-depth interview by using purposive sampling technique. The collected data were analysed manually by following the six-step qualitative data analysis method. The newly proposed NAMS Cycle is applicable for both the individuals and organisations. It is equally significant for organisations, individuals, academics, practitioners, students and research groups having interest to conduct research on the same area. This particular research has provided recommendation for future researchers to test the practicability of this newly proposed model by implementing it in the organisations.