A study of total quality management and leadership at the Ministry of Education in Oman

Al Mushaifri, Salim Mohamed Salim (2019) A study of total quality management and leadership at the Ministry of Education in Oman. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the quality of leadership practices of Omani educational leaders at the Ministry of Education Central Headquarters and eleven educational governorates — namely: director generals, assistant director generals, directors, assistant directors, and head teachers. The specific aims of the project are to investigate the leadership styles of educational leaders in the Ministry of Education, to investigate the application of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles by these educational leaders and its impact on the Omani educational system, to review current leadership practices, to highlight the obstacles that educational leaders may encounter and to present some alternative suggestions aimed at improving current leadership practices. The study employed a mixed-methods approach. The quantitative method, consisting of a questionnaire filled out by educational leaders, focused on Omani educational leadership practices and their impact on the quality of the Omani education system. The quantitative portion of the study considered five leadership styles: transformational, transactional, participative, autocratic and laissez-faire. The number of respondents to this questionnaire was 359. The qualitative method comprised 29 interviews designed to gather data relevant to the study objectives. The results show that Omani educational leaders ranked participative leadership as the style they prefer to apply in their schools. SPSS was used to analyse the quantitative data and a thematic analysis approach was employed for the qualitative data. There was a weak positive correlation between educational leaders’ leadership practices and TQM principles. The results also show that leadership practices do have an impact on the Omani Education system. In addition, educational leaders face several barriers that prevent the improvement of the quality of leadership practices. The study contributes to the literature by focusing on the importance of leadership to TQM, as there is a lack of research into this relationship, both in general and particularly in Oman. Furthermore, this study will help Omani officials and policy makers realize the importance of improving the quality of the leadership practices of educational leaders, and some strategies will be recommended to aid educational leaders in enhancing the quality of their leadership practices.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Total quality management in Oman.
• Subjects: L Education > L Education (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Supervisor's Name: Chapman, Prof. Christopher
• Date of Award: 2019
• Depositing User: Mr Salim Al Mushaifri
• Unique ID: glathesis:2019-41174
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 25 Apr 2019 15:11
• Last Modified: 20 Mar 2023 16:02
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.41174
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/41174