Search results

The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers of near miss (NM) reporting among healthcare workers in a governmental hospital in Saudi Arabia.

This is a mixed methods study, composed of a survey, followed by a set of semi-structured interviews which were conducted to get a more in depth understanding of some of the aspects covered in the questionnaire.

The research shows that the main barrier to reporting NMs in the hospital is a fear of professional and departmental consequences. Differences between employee groups are evident in their perceptions, special attention should be given to that when developing a programme to improve reporting.

First, the sample size may not be representative of the hospital’s population, because the response rate from nurses was significantly higher than from professional groups. Second, the questionnaire only captures the perceptions of employees about these barriers and not the actual barriers. Those who did not respond to the questionnaires might hold different views to those who responded, providing bias in the results.

These findings show that a focus on NMs in particular is lacking in Saudi Arabia, despite the valuable learning opportunities they may hold. Better understanding of these factors is likely to aid hospital leaders in talking the barriers identified, so that the potential of NM reports can be maximised to improve hospital systems.

This research draws attention to the attitudes of healthcare workers to NM reporting, most previous studies were focussed on the barriers of adverse events or error reporting in general, rather than NMs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual auditing framework (CAF), which can help the organizations that experience difficulties with current ISO 9001 auditing to achieve their desired benefits with regard to the auditing of conformance, performance, risk management and improvement collectively.

A literature review was undertaken to identify the audit limitations and the program strategies that were reported in literature to overcome these limitations. The relevant audit standard (ISO 9001:2015) and guidelines (ISO 19011:2011 and ISO 19011:2018) have also been reviewed to determine the gap in relation to this purpose.

Most of the previous suggestions to overcome the difficulties of the current ISO 9001 auditing were to focus on processes in addition to ISO 9001 clauses and to apply the two principles of “Process Approach” and “Improvement” of ISO 9001, by having the manner of integration of their risk-based thinking concept and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) approaches, respectively, within audit. However, this integration also has limitations such as the desire for implementing risk management program and the necessity for applying LSS approach. Therefore, a CAF was developed to enhance the ISO 9001 quality audit. It suggests the integration of 12 management tools that are connected to the seven principles of ISO 9001:2015 severally and collectively. The selected tools ought to be linked to the audit limitations that have been previously reported in the literature, and connected with the complaints of the organizations that experience difficulties with current ISO 9001 auditing. Auditing of conformance/performance, risk management and improvement in combination can be assured by upgrading, testing and validating this CAF.

Utilizing the ISO 9001 quality audit in a way that helps organizations to audit performance, risk management and improvement in combination by changing the auditing approach from ISO 9001 elements to ISO 9001 principles and by learning from the experience of business excellence models implementers in development of the Performance measurement frameworks and in converting the concepts and principles into practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the areas in common between strategic quality management (SQM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) from the literature. Studying these areas is important to develop any further connection between SQM and CSR because of both the potential for benefit to organisations and society, and in order to minimise resources needed for effective action by capitalising on synergies.

Literature review covering a broad range of publications that addresses the synergies of quality management and CSR to identify areas of commonality and thus simplify CSR implementation.

Identification of opportunities for knowledge transfer between SQM and CSR.

Synergies between SQM and CSR may offer attractive opportunities to capitalise on prior actions and learning, to enhance the value added to an organisation and the society in which it operates.

This evaluation is a part of a more in-depth research study investigating the relationship between and integration of SQM and CSR, and its application in specific contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an auditing framework which would assist the organizations that experience difficulties with the current ISO 9001 quality audits to achieve their planned objectives with regard to their auditing of conformance, performance, risk management (RM) and improvement collectively.

A literature review was conducted to develop a conceptual audit framework (CAF). Subsequently, a preliminary audit framework (PAF) was developed. It includes the questions that are based on the CAF and connected with the complaints of the concerned organization. This PAF was thoroughly tested and validated by performing 11 internal audits, 2 management reviews (MR) and 3 workshops.

Applying this PAF indicated that in order to help organizations to audit their performance, RM and improvement collectively, they need to: change their audit approach from ISO elements to ISO principles, integrate the tools that are related to ISO 9001 Principles within the audit’s phases, perform pre-audits in the form of self-auditing, induce auditors to learn all tools to determine the ideal tools for particular situation, audit each department in combination with its internal customer, involve their auditors in problem solving, perform MR prior to closing the audit and analyze the results of audits with their causes by using one of the appropriate qualitative methods, such as analysis by themes. Finally, an auditing framework was developed to meet these needs. It includes the PAF’s questions that led to the discovery of chronic and systematic audit findings. It enhances any ISO 9001 Quality Auditing Questionnaires Checklist.

This study enhances the role of auditors to include risk identification, problem solving and data analysis by development of an auditing framework that is based on ISO 9001 Principles rather than clauses.

Total quality management (TQM) is still a new issue for the organisations in Yemen. These organisations need to establish a new strategy towards quality management. Focuses on the difficulties and barriers to the introduction and implementation of TQM in such a culture. The researcher draws on two case study organisations and on the activities proposed by the European excellence model to exemplify TQM. Time was spent explaining these activities to the people involved and was followed by a discussion of the difficulties. By the end of this process the researcher came out with several points to be considered under each activity for the aim of improving the organisations in Yemen and when embarking on implementation of TQM. Other issues include the need for proactive government support, for better technical understanding of TQM, and for a change in organisational culture.

This paper aims to make a contribution to existing knowledge regarding how service-based organisations establish and sustain incremental performance improvement. Alongside a review of existing continuous improvement (CI) evolution theory, the longitudinal study draws a comparison between two units of analysis within a leading UK financial service provider.

Adopting an interpretive philosophy and inductive nature, the study uses a multi-qualitative methodological design. The multi-embedded case study, conducted over a three-year period, allows for an intensive review and in-depth exploration. The longitudinal time horizon makes use of a narrative enquiry, reflecting upon behaviour and allowing the researcher to gain access to deeper organisational realities. A thematic analysis of empirical data offers insight into the evolution of CI over almost a decade of activity.

The findings establish that there are numerous obstacles faced and a wide variety of methods, tools and techniques that may be blended together under the auspices of a formalised CI programme. The challenge is in sustaining, embedding and associating value from CI within the everyday life of the infinitely complex structures and prevailing cultures of organisations; ideally involving all staff, emphasising on CI in all things, at all levels, all the time, forever.

Evidenced through a thematic narrative, the paper answers the call for existing frameworks of CI evolution to be tested within the private and service sectors. The research offers an application and reflection upon the Bessant et al.’s (2001) maturity model against the CI evolution in a real world scenario.

The development of a quality database is central to effective automation of the operational activities of quality control. The importance of automation to quality data management is stated and a quality database structure outlined. The analysis and specification phase for a prototype system is discussed, with the functional requirements identified, and the choices of software, hardware and communications strategy described. Integration requirements with other computer systems are considered.

The use of a commercially available general database management system (INFO) for library purposes is reported The particular application described is the management of a continuously changing file of periodical holdings records and the implementation of a computerised online updating and enquiry system at Bristol Polytechnic library. Of particular interest are the ease and low cost of development for this system, and also the underlying potential for extension to other allied applications which is provided by this method of implementation.

Top management commitment is considered a significant factor in improvement programmes, and many papers have been written about the role of top management commitment in implementing a quality management system. However, not considering other management levels’ commitment, such as middle management, may lead to issues in achieving organisational development. Public organisations that work through vertical structures may face a lack of middle management commitment, which might have a negative impact on lower and non-management staff commitment to improvement programmes. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of middle management’s commitment towards improvement initiatives in public organisations.

Empirical research with a mixed-method design used semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire to explore the current practices of continuous improvement (CI) and examine employees’ views from different management levels of the implications of current improvements in a Saudi public service organisation.

The analysis indicated that the lower managers and non-management staff agree that, after the implementation of the quality management system, the organisation’s middle management showed a lack of commitment to that system. Moreover, this lack of commitment is recognised in the analysis of participants’ views of CI practices recorded in the questionnaire and interviews. This lack of commitment has caused poor employee commitment and thus a lack of problem solving in organisational departments. It is also responsible for a lack of employee involvement, the centralisation of decisions, deficiencies in terms of determining and applying training, inequality between employees and a lack of trust between employees and their managers. These issues could be managed and resolved through middle management and their commitment.

Increasing middle managers’ awareness of the importance of their commitment to improvement initiatives can have an impact on employees’ commitment towards improvement initiatives, especially in those public organisations that have vertical/hierarchical structures. The level of commitment towards the implementation of improvement programmes needs further in-depth analyses to identify which factors influence public organisation leaders’ commitment to improvement programmes.

The results of this study could motivate middle managers in public organisations to review their policies and to facilitate CI initiatives.

In May 2010, a new collaborative initiative was launched between the Portsmouth Business School and Hewlett Packard, wherein trained Black Belts (BB) were enabled to pursue an MSc in strategic quality management. Five years on from its commencement, the purpose of this paper is to explore the development and impact of this initiative.

Inductive, exploratory, multi-viewpoint participant-observer case study that triangulates the academic, student and employer reactions to the programme.

The paper evaluates how the academic dimension provided by the MSc has impacted on candidates’ work as BB.

Employee engagement and enthusiasm has been increased, as has the depth and breadth of the knowledge base among the participating BB, who are then applying these new skills in their improvement projects to make them more sustainable as well as financially valuable. They have been able to transfer knowledge to team members.

This approach provides a model for accelerated development of groups of quality professionals within larger organisations. There is evidence that the community spirit that grows within and across cohorts has a multiplying effect that enhances the impact for the sponsoring organisation beyond the simple sum of the performance and skills improvement on a student by student basis.