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Quality management is a key factor in gaining competitive advantage. Much has been written about how quality should be managed in an organization. Juran discussed three basic processes of quality management [1][2][3][4]. Deming recommended 14 principles for effectively managing quality in an organization [5][6][7]. Crosby prescribed a 14-step zero-defect quality improvement programme for the organization [8]. Mondon[9] and Feigenbaum[10] described the concept of organization-wide total quality control.These authors and others [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] repeatedly discuss the importance of such critical factors as top management leadership for quality, employee involvement in quality, employee training, and supplier quality management.Several studies have been conducted to examine quality management practices in different countries [20][21][22][23]. These international quality studies used a survey questionnaire categorized in different sections. Two common features were noticed in these studies. First, no rationale was provided for the selections of factors included; and second, reliability and validity tests were very minimal.One other major study that provided a highly reliable and valid instrument of quality measurement has been by Parasuraman et al. [24,25]. They developed a methodology for measuring service quality that they called SERVQUAL. The instrument has been applied extensively in many service areas [26][27][28][29]. The instrument could be applied to service institutions only. In addition, the instrument measures the perceptions of "customers" as to the current level of service provided and the extent to which future potential existed for service improvement.Other studies attempted to provide manufacturing managers with a structured framework linking customer perceptions to important firm-specific quality measures [30][31][32][33]. However, they neither provide a clear instrument, nor explain how to do it.To date, the only systematic attempt in the literature to organize and synthesize the various sets of critical factors identified by different authors has been proposed by Saraph et al.[34]. They propose measures of overall organizational quality management for both manufacturing and service firms. They provided a synthesis of the quality literature by identifying eight critical factors (areas) of quality management in a business unit.

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The model has been found to capture attributes that characterize healthcare quality in a developing country and could represent other modern healthcare systems. Also, it can be used to evaluate other healthcare practices from patients' viewpoints. The study highlights the importance of healthcare quality as patient satisfaction predictors by capturing other effects such as patient status.

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This paper examines how institutions of higher education might operationalize faculty performance evaluation in terms of research, teaching, and university and community service. An analytic hierarchy process model is developed and presented, allowing decision makers to couple performance evaluation and academic reward/awards and recognitions offered by institutions of higher education, and provides an objective way to compare faculty members. Weights are provided for each of the criteria in the evaluation process for a more objective outcome. Reward/ award systems might include promotion decisions, merit pay, tenure, long-term contracts, and annual reward/awards of excellence in research, teaching or service. The model might be used to make judgment on the qualification of candidates for such systems, and could be used on the department level, college level, or university-wide level. In addition, the model could rank faculty members within each discipline or major. An illustrative example is provided of the model at the United Arab Emirates University.