Total Quality Management as Competitive Advantage for the Internal Strategy and Policy of Greek Special Education School Units

Total quality management (TQM) is regarded as the fundamental basis for properly organizing educational activities and initiatives that improve the educational organization throughout its entirety. The purpose of this paper is to uncover to which extent the application of the principles of TQM can be used as a competitive advantage for the educational policy of special education school units. This is accomplished by assessing the main TQM criteria, which are, as stated in the European Excellence Model EFQM, leadership, human resources, collaborations and resources, processes, and strategies and policies. The study’s findings highlight the importance of the quality standards of the EFQM Excellence Model for the organizational strategy of Greek special education school units. Specifically, the findings reveal that self-evaluation of the leader and human resources, the collaborations with stakeholders, and the implementation of benchmarking techniques are key TQM performance indicators in Greek special education school units.