The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

Papers
As illustrated (Figure 1) the process based quality management system shows the significant
role that clients have in defining requirements as inputs. The continual improvement of a quality
management system is derived from monitoring the satisfaction of clients, by evaluating information
relating to their perception, as it is this that determines whether an organisation has met the
requirements of their client (AS/NZS ISO, 2000).
UniSA – A Formal management system
The issue of quality has been recognised as being critically linked to an organisation’s success
(Buzzell & Gale, 1987; Gronroos, 1990; Howat, Milne & Crilley, 1996). Embracing the principles of
quality, UniSA has developed a framework, which includes a suite of tools and systems for managing
its research and consultancy projects. The aim of developing this quality framework has been
built on enabling a level of process consistency and gaining a better knowledge of our clients.
To be able to objectively measure client satisfaction one must have a consistent approach. To
achieve this the Research and Innovation Services Office has developed policy and procedures for
the project management of research and consultancy along with mechanisms for the continual review
and improvement of its processes. This approach is consistent with Johnson’s (1993) concept
of ISO quality, suggesting that ISO9000 is about meeting client (or customer) requirements with a
system that is appropriate, planned, controlled, documented and fully understood.
At a functional level a reliable approach to the management, tracking and recording of research
and consultancy projects has been achieved through the development of a web-based project management
system called the Project Quality System (PQS). The PQS enables projects to be managed
from proposal stage through to project completion, as its process tracks and records client details;
intellectual property opportunities; risk assessment; capacity approval; budget entry and client
feedback. It is this latter component, client feedback, which is in many ways most important as it
enables us to assess whether we are delivering services our clients value.
Service Quality Perceptions – The Clients’ Perception
The initial question to be addressed therefore is “what do our clients value or want in their interactions
with UniSA’s research services?” In 2001 UniSA undertook a project to answer this question.
A portfolio of service attributes were identified by conducting two external client focus groups.
Service quality issues were then incorporated into a self administered questionnaire and subsequently
piloted with a sample of clients from the PQS database. The self administered questionnaires
use a tailored service specific version of SERVQUAL, a conceptual service quality model
able to facilitate the monitoring of customers’ service quality expectations and performance
(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985 and 1988).
90 2005 Symposium Proceedings Book