Total Quality Management Practices and Organizational Performance: Case of Private Healthcare Sector in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of TQM practices on organizational performance of SriLankan private healthcare sector and the main objectives of this study are to assess the extent of which TQM components have been implemented in SriLankan private hospitals and to identify which of these TQM components are associated in improving the performance of hospitals. This study covered a total of eight healthcare service providers which comprised some of the leading healthcare providers in Colombo. This study further highlighted the need of a Conceptual model to evaluate the TQM components and organizational performance of the healthcare firms. Several quality awards and frameworks were established, for example the MBNQA (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award) which was established in 1987. This award among others was viewed as an advantageous way for categorizing the elements of TQM, hence for this reason combined with the universality of such awards this study adopted MBNQA as a guiding framework. The findings revealed that TQM implementations are linked with improved performance in healthcare sector in the country. Further, healthcare firms in Sri Lanka who expect to implement TQM to improve their performance should mainly focus on TQM practices which encompasses focusing on operations, workforce and measurement, analysis and knowledge management.

Keywords: Healthcare, Quality Management, MBNQA, Organizational performance