An investigation into total quality management (TQM) strategies that can be enforced by the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) to improve the quality of service offered by its membership (2005 - 2012)

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to investigate TQM strategies that can be enforced by the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) with a view of improving quality of service amongst its membership drawn from registered Legal Practitioners practicing in Zimbabwe. The need to carry out the research arose from observations by the researcher of the gradual and significant decline in quality levels of the service offered by Legal Practitioners in Zimbabwe.

A self administered questionnaire was distributed amongst 75 Respondent drawn from stakeholders in the justice delivery system, namely, the LSZ, lawyers, the Ministry of Justice, Members of the Police, Members of the Judiciary, Court personnel and clients, in Harare. The population was first divided into strata made up of people in the various groups listed above. Respondents were then randomly selected from the strata. The response rate was 96%. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and excel were used in analyzing data. Data was presented graphically to give a visual impression of the responses.

Generally as respondents were drawn from various backgrounds, they all showed appreciation of TQM and its principles though at varied levels. Respondents also indicated knowledge of the important but different roles played by both employers and employees in the implementation of TQM. Respondents also showed an awareness of the importance of adopting macro tools of quality such as Bench marking and ISO 9OOO law in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

The recommendations of the study were drawn from the gaps from the objectives and include the need by the LSZ to lobby and advocate for laws on continuous legal training of lawyers, education and training of Senior and Managing Partners and all lawyers on TQM, its principles and associated benefits and putting in place a policy framework on the quality of acceptable leadership and Senior Partners in Law firms.