Total Quality Management in Academic Libraries: The
Perception and Expectations of Graduate Students
of The University of Ghana, Legon
Daniel Opoku
Senior Librarian, and Head of Periodicals & Exchange
Balme Library of the University of Ghana, Legon
ABSTRACT
This study focused on the perception and expectations of graduate students on
Total Quality Management (TQM) in academic libraries with special reference
to the University of Ghana Central Library (The Balme Library).  The main theme
of the study is the analysis of data in relation to service excellence, service
effectiveness, service efficiency and continuous improvement in the Balme Library.
This study used the quantitative survey method to generate data from 200
respondents out of the 450 total graduate population and the responses were
analyzed using Krukal Wallis One-Way ANOVA (non-parametric) model to test
the differences in perception and expectations of postgraduate users of the library.
The study found out that in practical terms TQM is not being applied as a
management technique in the Balme Library. It therefore concludes that the
importance of TQM is not centered around postgraduate students' perception
and expectations only, but also in anticipating and exceeding the demands of a
fast changing environment of service delivery especially the academic libraries.
Keywords: Total Quality Management, academic libraries, perception and
expectations
INTRODUCTION
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a philosophy or management principle, which attempts
to make optimum use of all available resources by dedication to constant improvement
and the provision of the highest possible standard in all external and internal processes,
which leads to customer satisfaction (University of Leicester Learning Resource materials,
Module 620, 1999). According to Peters (1989), quality improvement is a never-ending
journey.  There is no such thing as quality product or service.  All quality is relative.  Each
day, each product or service is getting relatively better and relatively worse, but it never
stand still. Quality needs to be managed and the management of quality is dependent upon
how well the user or the client obtains maximum satisfaction from the product or service
provided him/her (Herman and Altman,  1998). A major preoccupation of modern institutions
and managers of organizations is the new emphasis on Quality Customer Care.  Providing
quality service to clients, customers or users means remaining loyal to existing customers
and attracting new ones. Customers or Users' needs have undergone radical changes and
the existing costs in response to this, coupled with the need to maintain standard have
become major issues. Quality services in both the provision of information as well as
infrastructure and training is an uncompromising demand by users of today. The provision
of high quality services has been the responsibility of library mangers.  With rapidly changing
environment, greater competition for resources, the ever-increasing cost of information
Journal of Research in Education and Society; Volume 3, Number 3, December 2012 1
carriers, the rising expectations of finances, and the increasing complexity of information
provision from big variety of providers, it is evident that management skills must match
these intense demands on Library and Information Services (Vilgoen and Underwood,
1997). Quality of goods or services is the set of features possessed by the goods or
services.  It is the absence of deficiencies in the goods or services.  A common definition of
quality is "fitness for use" that is, the goods or services have the needed features and these
features are without defect.  Quality has also been seen as meeting or exceeding customer
expectations, that is, providing the features the customer expects and doing so without
defect (Early, 1994). Total Quality Management (TQM) is a positive attempt by an
organisation to improve structural, infrastructural, attitudinal, behaviour and methodological
ways of delivering to the end customer (Zairi, 2001).  TQM is the structured management
process ensuring that all types of customers are delighted by all the goods and services
produced by a company (Early, 1994).  As complement to other strategies, quality strategy
provides the context for other strategic decisions, keeping all other strategies consistent
with delighting customers.  Productivity and quality have an important relationship.
Reducing deficiencies means that fewer resources are employed, supervising or
doing work over gain.  If quality is improved by reducing deficiencies, fewer resources are
consumed for each unit of output, that is, productivity rises! (Early, 1994).  In an academic
library, if the staff provide higher quality service by promptly and accurately meeting the
user needs, then they have increased output as well. Quality in the library can be managed
through three fundamental processes: Quality Planning; Quality Control; and Quality
Improvement. Quality planning in the library will involve first identifying the users or
stakeholders of the library.  Stakeholders of the academic library include users and non-
users in the academic community (students and faculty), the Library Board and the staff of
the library.  Quality planning in the library also involves determining users' needs.  Library
manger should look not only for the stated needs but also for the unstated needs. Needs in
the library are revealed by actual usage, including misuse of the library resources. These
needs must be properly analyzed and translated into the library's terms so that they can be
measured and satisfied (Early, 1994).
Quality control in the library requires developing a feedback to know what users
expect, how are staff delivering services, and the ability to monitor and regulate the behaviour
and attitude of staff while delivering service to users. Quality improvement in the library
involves identifying the causes of poor performance and delivery of service, designing
appropriate training and other remedies to address these causes, and establishing the
necessary controls to hold the gain (Early, 1994). The main reason for an academic library
is to support the teaching, research and other academic programmes of its parent
organisation.  It is important to note that an academic library is a service organisation,
which delivers products personally to the customer. In a study on Quality Management
initiatives in Balme Library, Dadzie (2003) assessed the extent to which "initiatives",
"response allocation", communication" and "recognition/or reward" were handled.  In her
conclusion, she pointed out that academic librarians were found to be committed to their
work, but the major obstacle was the non-availability of financial resources.  Dadzie (3003)
Journal of Research in Education and Society; Volume 3, Number 3, December 2012 2
presents TQM with emphasis on the internal customer, without making reference to the
overall effect on the users of library services. Begun and Nissa (2003) make a comparison
of the customer in the manufacturing sector and the library by pointing out that in the
manufacturing sector, the customer is "remote" whereas in service organization like an
academic library, producers and customers meet face-to-face.  They admit that the
complexity of managing service organization is usually compounded by the existence of
multiple interfaces.  They point out that  customer satisfaction means fulfilling expectations.
It is up to library managers to devote their energies for finding out what their clients/users
want, and designing a means of meeting these needs in order to provide them with ultimate
satisfaction. Arys (2000) believes that it is better to develop one or two factors that are
important to customers and concentrate on them.  According to him, service delivery is
like a theoretical performance and if customers are to gain maximum benefit from service
then they must know how to use it.  User education as a must for academic libraries and
emphasizes that support systems should reflect customer's priorities, without necessarily
losing the personal touch when it comes to the use of automation (Arys, 2000).
Pilling (1997) in her article “Putting the customer first: total quality customer service
at the British Library Documents Supply Centre”,  mentions a recent step which has been
the creation of a new post of ARTTel (Automated Request Transmission by
Telecommunication) customer liaison officer to become the focal point for information and
training about all the available methods which customers can use to send their requests to
BLDSC.  All registered customers are sent two free quarterly publications. Pilling (1997)
explains that there is a link-up programme which provides existing and potential customers
with the opportunity to learn about BLDSC's range of products and services, to talk to
experts and have hand-on experience. Mullins (2001) emphasizes on the fact that because
of new threats to the hegemony traditionally enjoyed by libraries as the chief source of
information and literature, library managers now have to place a higher premium on
management attitudes towards staff and in turn on attitude or manner of all staff towards
customers.  Mullins (2001) believes that, for libraries to become more customer-focused
than processed focused, they  will need to have more flexible organizational structure to
allow library sector to be more self-directed  and more adaptable in responding to internal
and external pressures.  This will require more effective communication mechanisms, new
collaborations among staff at all levels to stimulate creativity and risk taking which result in
an increase in innovation and initiative. Brophy and Coullings (1996) are of the opinion
that the media through which a potential customer may hear about a service influences the
image that is held.  When the service is approached, its immediate impact enables the
customer/client or user to redefine the image still more.  At least a regular user of a service
has more realistic set of expectations than newcomers.  Brophy and Coullings (1996)
admit that in libraries and information services, customer expectations may be difficult to
asses, partly because there is little direct interaction between library staff and customer,
thus training staff to improve their level of understanding is very important. In every service
organization such as an academic library, users are of central importance and should their
demands not met, there is bound to be failures in meeting the objectives of that library.
Journal of Research in Education and Society; Volume 3, Number 3, December 2012 3
METHOD
The main source of data used was a survey conducted during the beginning of the second
semester of the 2010/2011 academic year. A structured questionnaire was used as an
instrument of data collection in the survey.  Out of a total population of 450 postgraduate
students, a stratified random sampling technique was adopted in selecting and administering
questionnaire to 200 postgraduate student who are regular users of the University of Ghana,
Central Library (Balme Library). The respondents were asked to what degree the quality
of services offered by the Central Library corresponded to their expectations. The
questionnaire was pre-tested on students.Finally, 150 copies of  questionnaire were returned
for analysis. Among them, 55 students were in Arts and Humanities programme; 46 were
in Business progrmmes; 30 were in Science and Engineering programmes; and 20 were in
Agriculture and Consumer Sciences. The data obtained were subjected to statistical analyzis
using Krukal Wallis One-Way ANOVA (non-parametric) model to test the differences in
perception and expectations of postgraduate users of the library. The results were presented
in simple percentage.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
On the issue of services excellence, 75% of Science and Engineering students indicated
that some of the information they found in the library were inadequate and unreliable.  The
situation was a bit different among the Arts and Humanities students, where only 35%
indicated that they hardly find adequate and reliable information in response to their queries
in the reference collection.  A greater proportion of the Business students, however, indicated
that the information they found in the library were adequate and reliable. The overall results
show that the respondents (Arts and Humanities, Business, Science and Engineering,
Agriculture and Consumer Sciences students) have a positive perception about the availability
of adequate and reliable information.
To a question of whether there have been occasions when they have given up
search in the library either because of poor or lack of materials, 82% of Science and
Engineering students quite often gave up on searching for information, while 64% of
Agriculture and Consumer Sciences students also often gave up on searching for information.
The situation was, however, different in the case of Arts and Humanities where only 30%
often gave up in searches. Among the Arts and Humanities students, most of them (65.5%)
rated  the reliability and efficiency of the reader advisory services as good.  The situation
was the same among the Science and Engineering students where most of them (53.8%)
also rated the reliability and efficiency of the reader advisory services as good.  On quality
of notices on shelves and the library as a whole for easy guidance for users of the library,
most of the Arts and Humanities students (85%) rated it as satisfactory with the remaining
(15%) rating it as excellent.   Most of the Science and Engineering students (70%) expressed
satisfaction on the quality of presentation of notices and shelves. The Business students on
the other hand, had a positive perception about the quality presentation of notice, shelves,
etc. With regard to access to equipment, 72.5% of the Arts and Humanities students
Journal of Research in Education and Society; Volume 3, Number 3, December 2012 4
described access to equipment in the library as satisfactory.  The same observation was
made in the case of Business students, where 70% of them also described access to
equipment at the library as satisfactory. Most (45.5%) of the Agriculture and Consumer
Science students also described access to equipment in the library as satisfactory.  This
means that the perception of all the categories of respondents about access to equipment
in the library was good. The University of Ghana Central Library (Balme Library) is the
library with the longest hours of operation in the University of Ghana campus.  The library
operates for 106 hours during the week.
The result of the study was not unexpected since respondents had a positive
perception about the hours of operation of the library. There were significant differences in
the perception of the various categories of students with regard to the consistency in the
supply of periodicals in the library.  Whiles most of the Business students (41.7%) described
the supply of the periodicals in the Library as inconsistent, most of the Arts and Humanities
students (62%), on the other hand were satisfied with the provision of the periodicals in
the library.   This suggests that patronages in the use of current periodicals could be a more
prevalent habit of the Arts and Humanities students as compared with the Business and
Science related students.
On the question of steady improvement in library facilities, most of the respondents
(40.5%) stated that improvement and innovation in facilities in the library had been
considerably favourable.  The results show significant differences in the perceptions of
Business, Arts and Humanities, and Science and Engineering students.  Most of the Science
and Engineering students (50%) indicated that they were not really aware of improvement
and innovation in the library facilities while Business students (46.2%) indicated that they
were not sure of improvement and innovations in the library facilities.  Most of the Arts and
Humanities students (45.8%), however, indicated that they had seen considerable
improvement and innovations in facilities in the library.  This means that the Business student
had a negative perception; the Science and Engineering had a somehow positive perception
and the Arts and Humanities student had a much more positive perception about
improvement and innovation in the library facilities.
When respondents were asked whether users were provided with opportunities
to add their views to the steady improvement of the library, most of the Business students
(58.3%), and the Arts and Humanities students (34.4%) indicated that they were rarely
offered opportunities to add their views to the improvement in the library.  The fact that
most of the Science and Engineering students had not had the opportunity to add their
views to the improvement may be that they did not use the library more regularly. A mean
rank of perception of service excellence was done to find out the extent to which the
various categories of students perceive Service Excellence.  The result shows that, significant
differences exist in the perception of the various factors of service excellence among the
students.  The respondents differed significantly (P<0.05) on their perception of adequate
and reliable information, experience in giving up searches, reliability and efficiency of reader
advisory services, quality of presentation of notices, presence of library staff, hours of
library operations, availability of up-to-date information, availability of online services for
Journal of Research in Education and Society; Volume 3, Number 3, December 2012 5
users. Modern method of quality management of organisations or institutions involve the
use of productivity/improvement indicators to determine strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats (SWOT) and finding the appropriate measures if necessary.  The
study revealed that the management of library did not assess user or customer needs and
expectations, and also staff had only slightly favourable perception about their collective
responsibility of monitoring user or customer needs.
CONCLUSION
In practical terms Total Quality Management (TQM) is not being applied or practised by
the University of Ghana Central Library.  An overhauling of the library's operational system
in terms of management techniques, equipment, modernization of infrastructure and other
facilities comparable to international standard, is  something that should be given due
attention by the library managers and authorities.  Total Quality Management demands
time and persistence and the support of the very top as well as commitment at all levels
(Pilling, 1997). Results from the respondents appear to create an impression of relatively
ideal or an almost ideal situation existing in the University of Ghana Central Library.  This
may be an illusion, which must be carefully examined.  An "expectation", the right of
customers to expect some level of service based on express or implied promise is quite
different from "wishful thinking" which expresses what customers would want in a perfect
world. The importance of TQM is not only centered  around user's demands and needs
but also in anticipating and exceeding the demands of a fast changing environment of
service delivery in libraries. Training is of paramount importance to every academic library.
Training must involve both the user and the library staff.  Properly planned user
education is necessary for an academic library.  If customers are to gain maximum benefit
from the services, they should be able to use available facilities properly.  Education must
be properly planned and the long-term results monitored to ascertain its total impact on
the operations of the library.  Education would also arouse the consciousness of quality
and how it can be managed also brings about the understanding of quality control
management.  There is also the urgent need for education on statistical concepts, which
will equip the staff with the requisite tool to be able to scientifically monitor clients’ perception
and expectations from time-to-time.  A well-trained staff according to Begun and Nissa
(2003) are a "competitive weapon" for better quality service in the academic libraries.
The staff of the library should be trained well enough to be able to undertake orientation of
users in information retrieval techniques, deal with queries, manage crises, and manage the
reader interface.
Journal of Research in Education and Society; Volume 3, Number 3, December 2012 6
REFERENCES
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Brophy, P. and Coullings, K. (1996).  Quality Management for Information and Library Managers.
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Dadzie, P. S. (2003). Quality Management Institution in Balme Library: Possibilities, Challenges,
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Early, J. F. (1994).  Quality Process in Management.   In AMA Management Handbook (3rd ed.) New
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Herman, P. and Altman, E. (1998).  Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library
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