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The main purpose of this study was to analyse the impact that implementing a quality management system, such as the European Foundation for Quality Management model, had on two key components in any educational organisation, specifically communications and external relations. Impact in this study is understood to be changes that have been consolidated in an organisation and that have created different ways of doing things, communicating, establishing relationships, etc. The study was conducted at schools in two regions in Spain. To measure the impact that quality management systems have had on communication systems and external relations, we developed a customised ad hoc instrument, a Likert-type scale comprised of 32 items. The level of reliability attained was excellent for the scale overall (Cronbach's α = 0.955) and specifically for the communications and external relations dimensions (α = 0.93 and α = 0.94, respectively). As for the method, we conducted a descriptive study of the answers in the instrument together with differential analyses for each item (using ANOVA and Student's t) based on category variables such as type of school, the number of years a quality management system has been in place, position at the school (teacher and member of the management team) and number of students in the school. The results show that implementing quality management systems has had an impact on communication systems and external relations at schools.
