Assessment of The Implementation of Total Quality Management: The Case of Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing S.C

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Date

2017-07

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess Total Quality Management (TQM) practices in Ethiopian pharmaceuticals S.C. TQM is a factor of its principles and practices namely customer focus, Leadership, Engagement of People, Process Approach, Evidence based decision making and Supplier relationship. Hence, the research tried to assess whether these principles are practiced in the organization.The research tried to obtain both primary and secondary data. The primary data was obtained from employees of Epharm using semistructured questionnaire and Interview questions The secondary sources of data were the literatures available and the documents related to TQM that are kept by the organization.The data collected was analyzed and presented with tables and percentages using SPSS. Furthermore to estimate error or how well the sample represented the population, confidence interval method was employedThe general population of the research is all 220 employees of Epharm. These 220 employees are of different departments, experience and exposure to quality related issues.33 out of these 220 employees are managers and supervisors thus 187 employees are non-managers.Since quality is a factor of all the parties in an organization, all 220 employees from all departments have chance to be included in the sample. However,different sampling techniques employed for each department. The results of this paper shows that majority of the employees agree that Epharm is practicing all the seven TQM principles. Results of Interview questions about the benefits and challenges of practicingTQM, shows that all the respondents agree that it makes dramatic change on the way things done throughout the organization. Besides the change process starting form Top management down to all employees of the organization was too hard to adopt at that time. There were some uncertainties, higher costs and higher turnover of employees, who gets it hard to adapt the new paradigm shift towards new philosophy, was the main challenges the organization face during the early stage of practicing TQM system. Review of company documents also show that the company is showing progress through time to time after started practicing TQM system.

Description

A Thesis submitted to Addis Ababa University college of Business and Economics department of Management in partial fulfillment of Master of degree in Management

Keywords

Management, Total Quality Management

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