ABSTRACT
Total Quality Management in donor agency- assisted project: challenges and
prospects was the study. The objectives of the study were : to ascertain the
major challenge of Total Quality Management to improve the performance of
donor agency - assisted projects in South East and Federal Capital Territory of
Nigeria; to determine the impact of TQM on the performance of the donor –
agency assisted projects in the area of study; to ascertain the major solution to the
weak application of TQM to the donor agency- assisted projects in the area under
study; to ascertain the dominant approach of the application of TQM on the
performance of the donor agency- assisted projects; to ascertain the prospects
from full implementation of TQM to improve the performance of donor agencyassisted
projects in Nigeria. The research design adopted was the descriptive
survey research. Appropriate statistical tools like tables, percentages, pie chart,
bar charts were used to analyze the data generated. Hypotheses 1, 3, and 5 were
tested using Z-test, while Hypothesis 2 was tested using linear regression with the
aid of SPSS Computer programme. Hypothesis 4 was tested using Z- test of
population prorpotion.In all data collected from both primary and secondary
sources were utilized. Stratified and purposive sampling techniques were
employed to obtain the sample size of the study. The sample size of 375 was
obtained from an accessible population of 6000, by applying the Taro Yamane
formular. The findings indicate that bureaucratic inertia constituted the greatest
challenge to the application of TQM in the donor agency-assisted projects in the
area under study.
This was closely followed by the lack of team work among the
various ranks. TQM had a significant positive impact in improving the
performance of the donor agency-assisted projects in the area studied. It also
shows that of the various approaches to TQM implementation in the projects, the
company wide approach is the modal approach. The Guru approach and the
Japanese based approach also rank high. The findings also indicate that the
various challenges if duly coped with, the prospects of Total Quality Management
in the donor agency-assisted projects in Nigeria are very good. The study
recommends that certified management consultants should be engaged to assist
donor agency - assisted projects in Nigeria to implement TQM just as the
Japanese extensively used consultants like Juran, Taguchi, Imai and others.
Competitive Analysis Model (CAM) project be lunched in Nigeria in order to
have a database of the performance of the different donor agency-assisted projects
across the country. Monitoring and evaluation of these long term investments that
are often funded with borrowed funds appear to be too poor in Nigeria. In
conclusion, since the objective of TQM is to build organizations that provide
products and services that are considered first – in class by customers, the results
of the study reveal that donor agency- assisted projects in Nigeria stand to attain
their highest prospects by applying it.
