Key Elements of Total Quality Management Implementation in Vocational High School

The main projection of vocational high school graduates is to work. To be able to make graduates ready to work, schools must know what graduates need to enter the world of work so that they can produce graduates who meet customer expectations, which in this case are industry and business players. The application of total quality management as a philosophy to satisfy customers has finally become the choice of most vocational high schools. The aim of this study is to describe and model the key elements for the successful implementation of total quality management (TQM) in vocational high schools. The research approach used is descriptive qualitative with the literature study method. The results of the study show that several elements that are key in the implementation of total quality management (TQM) in vocational high schools include leadership, top management commitment, customer focus, customer motivation and commitment, continuous improvement, quality culture, communication, training and education, quality assurance, involvement and empowerment of academic staff, and teamwork. These key elements in the model are grouped into two major groups namely leadership and customer focus where top management commitment is included in the leadership group and motivation and commitment of employees are included in the customer focus group, while the rest are included in the combined leadership and customer focus group. The application of these key elements is ultimately expected to achieve customer satisfaction. [For the full proceedings, see ED654100.]