The need for private higher education in South Africa is reflected by the explosive growth of newly registered private higher education institutions. This is coupled with a need for corporate quality management of service quality for students and academics. This article elaborates on service quality from a corporate sociotechnical perspective. The research was part of the development of a framework for the holistic management of service quality by means of a corporate total quality service approach. The total quality service framework was developed following a comprehensive sequential research process. This article focuses on the final part of the process: a qualitative open-ended question to identify additional service-quality needs, utilising 499 responses from 647 students and academics. It is concluded that a holistic approach to service quality and the total quality service framework includes quality of work life as a performance objective based on sociotechnical needs beyond the traditional dimensions.