Perceptions of undergraduate business professors regarding the importance of teaching certain quality management skills and concepts in community colleges and universities

Purpose of the study. The major purpose of this study was to determine whether there are significant differences in the perceptions of community college and university business professors, regarding the importance of teaching certain total quality management skills and concepts. Specifically, the study sought to determine whether there are significant differences between the perceptions of community college and university professors regarding the extent to which Total Quality Management skills and concepts are being taught and the extent to which they should be taught.;Procedure. A survey instrument containing 53 TQM skills and concepts deemed important by industry was developed by the researcher. The questionnaire asked each respondent two questions for each skill and concept: "1" = To what degree was the skill or concept actually taught, and "2" = To what degree should the skill or concept be taught. After the instrument was validated, the questionnaire was mailed to all business professors at state community colleges and universities in Oklahoma during the spring and summer 1999. Data were treated through the application of the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks and Mann-Whitney U tests.;Findings. The findings of this investigation were as follows: (1) significant differences existed in the perceptions of both community college and university professors regarding the extent to which TQM skills and concepts were actually being taught and the extent to which the TQM skills and concepts should be taught. (2) There were no significant differences between the perceptions of college business professors and university business professors regarding the extent to which TQM skills and concepts were actually taught in the classroom. (3) There were no significant differences between the perceptions of community college and university professors regarding the extent to which TQM skills and concepts should be taught in the business curriculum.;Conclusions. Based upon the findings of this study, the following conclusions emerged. These conclusions may be applicable to situations similar to those encountered in the research. (1) Community college and university professors agree that more emphasis should be placed on TQM skills and concepts in the classroom. (2) Community college and university business professors agree regarding the extent to which certain TQM skills and concepts were actually being taught in the undergraduate curriculum. (3) Community college and university business professors agree regarding the extent to which certain TQM skills and concepts should be taught in the undergraduate curriculum.