Identifying the Dimensions and Components of Total Quality Management in Islamic Azad University: A Qualitative Study

Purpose: Total quality management is the art of managing the whole set to achieve the best result. Therefore, the present research was conducted with the aim of identifying the dimensions and components of total quality management in Islamic Azad University. Methodology: The present study was an applied research from type of qualitative. The research population was the experts of total quality evaluation and management of Tehran city who according to the principle of theoretical saturation the sample size was estimated 12 people who were selected by purposive and snowball sampling methods. The research tool was a semi-in-depth interview whose validity was confirmed by the triangulation method and its reliability was estimated by the agreement coefficient method between the two coders higher than 0.71. Data were analyzed by coding method in MAXQDA-2018 software. Findings: The coding results showed that total quality management in Islamic Azad University had three internal, external and university quality development and service evaluation dimensions; so that internal dimension were included the components of leadership, curriculum planning, staff' empowerment level, capable faculty, evaluation quality, physical space quality, educational justice, information technology quality, feedback from performance, students' empowerment level and educational content, external dimension were included the components of cultural, social, economic and geographical-environmental and university quality development and service evaluation dimension were included the components of commercialization, skill, economic development, accountability, value creation, university quality development and service evaluation. Conclusion: According to the identified dimensions and components for total quality management in the Islamic Azad University, can be prepared the ground for the realization of total quality management and achieving useful and superior results.