Stakeholders’ perspective on IEQMS practice in management educational institutions: A structural equation modeling approach

Awareness of stakeholders towards quality in education, especially in management education mounts day by day and has become a compelling factor. An imperative need of improving the status of higher education was felt by stakeholders of the educational institutions including academicians, industries and government. In this regard, Pal Pandi et al (2014) have developed an integrated model called Integrated Educational Quality Management System (IEQMS) to measure and implement quality in higher education and its institutions. IEQMS includes all the important characteristics from Quality Management Practices (QMP) namely, ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System (QMS), ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System (EMS), Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSAS 18001:2007), Six-Sigma (DMAIC), Total Quality Management (TQM), Knowledge Management and Lean Thinking and are embedded in one. This IEQMS model includes 64 predictors spread over and under, 10 important intervening Critical Success Factors (CSFs) drawn from the above QMPs. The authors found no restrictions in using the above model, since it has already been tested and validated for use in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). In this study, the performance of the Management Education Institutions (MEIs) was measured through stakeholders’ perceptions by using IEQMS model. The collected data were analyzed by using statistical tools like factor analysis, ANOVA and ‘t’ test. The results of the data analysis revealed that the ten criterions of IEQMS significantly support to achieve quality in MEIs. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was also employed to test the relationships between critical factors of IEQMS and the performance in relation to quality of MEIs. The findings of the SEM established the model fit. Further the fit indices revealed the data fit for the analysis.