‘Skipping the quality abracadabra’: academic resistance to quality management in Finnish higher education institutions and quality managers’ strategies to handle it

Overberg, Jasmin

doi:10.1080/13538322.2019.1685656

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Therefore, it seems useful to define our understanding of quality management in advance. This understanding includes any quality-related activity as quality management, regardless of how it is implemented in a specific higher education institution or whether the purpose is explicitly framed as quality assurance or as quality enhancement (Csizmadia, Enders, & Westerheijden, 2008;Overberg, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strength of weakness – quality managers as agents of multiple principals

Seyfried

Reith

2020

Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management

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The paper investigates quality management in teaching and learning in higher education institutions from a principal-agent perspective. Based on data gained from semi-structured interviews and from a nation-wide survey with quality managers of German higher education institutions, the study shows how quality managers position themselves in relation to their perception of the interests of other actors in higher education institutions. The paper describes the various interests and discusses the main implications of this constellation of actors. It argues that quality managers, although they may be considered as rather weak actors within the higher education institution, may be characterised as having a strength of weakness due to diverging interests of their principals.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strength of weakness – quality managers as agents of multiple principals

Seyfried

Reith

2020

Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management

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“…Quality assurance is perceived to be strongly related to control, conformity, bureaucratic, and therefore, burdensome (Cardoso et al, 2013;Overberg, 2019;Vettori & Loukkola, 2014) since its framework is always externally imposed by regulatory authorities such as HEC (Cheng, 2010;Gallagher, 2014). Faculty are not given enough time and space for adaptation; instead, immediate compliance is expected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Faculty is still a little apprehensive of the methods used for quality assurance attributing it to neoliberal managerial agenda (Seyfried, 2018) despite all advocacy efforts to prove QA a motivational strategy for developing a quality culture and endorsing the willingness of faculty to use empirical evidence (produced by quality control authority during evaluations) for creating an innovative teaching and learning environment. The purpose and cause of QA activities is a much-debated phenomenon among the stakeholders of higher education, government agencies, the faculty, and the governing body of the universities (Overberg, 2019). The Significance of the Study…”

Section: Leadership Effectiveness and Implementation Of Qamentioning

confidence: 99%

Leadership Effectiveness in Implementing Quality Assurance Programs at Private Universities of Lahore

Arif¹,

Iqbal²,

Nadeem³

2021

IRMBR

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Quality assurance has become acceptable, and all private universities are trying hard to achieve better standards executed by Higher Education Commission Pakistan (HEC) every year. The implementation of quality assurance (QA) programs rests upon the performance of university faculty. An exploratory study was conducted with the faculty of seven private universities in Pakistan to determine the leadership effectiveness regarding the implementation of QA programs. The strengths and weaknesses of the university leadership were measured in a three-fold exercise by identifying leadership characteristics, values, and actions taken to implement QA. For this purpose, a questionnaire was constructed, comprising both close-ended and open-ended responses. Data was collected from 430 faculty members from five private universities in Lahore, Pakistan. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to meet the research objectives. The results indicate that leadership attempts are yet superficial and inadequate to reach the transformational quality. The effectiveness of higher education leadership needs much improvement to meet the needs of the 21st century. Unless the leaders align their efforts with the faculty's expectations and involve them in shared decision making, reaching transformative quality would remain barred; therefore, the sustainability of higher education will remain in danger. Keywords: Higher Education, Leadership Characteristics, Leadership Effectiveness, Private Universities, Quality Assurance.

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“…Currently, there is a growing body of literature on various topics concerning QM, mostly focusing on its effects (Cameron & Whetten, 1996;Seyfried & Pohlenz, 2018) or impact (Bejan et al, 2015;Leiber, 2018;Makhoul, 2019). However, particularly organizational researchers have shown that the implicit assumptions about the impact of QM require careful scrutiny (Stensaker & Leiber, 2015) due to several unintended consequences, such as formalization, standardization, and resistance (Overberg, 2019;Worthington & Hodgson, 2005). Unsurprisingly, research on QM needs a broad evidence base starting at the initial implementation phase.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both sectors have admittedly been changed substantially by reforms in the tradition of New Public Management over the past 20 years. Specifically, QM as a systemic management tool has been introduced and widely studied in the two fields (Leiber, 2018;Lucas, 2014;Overberg, 2019;Short, 1995;Shortell, 1995;Wardhani et al, 2009). However, no study to the best of our knowledge has provided comparative data to examine similarities and differences in the diffusion process of this management tool.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Sequence of Isomorphism—: The Temporal Diffusion Patterns of Quality Management in Higher Education Institutions and Hospitals

Seyfried¹,

Döring

Ansmann

2021

Administration & Society

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Isomorphism has been widely used to describe why trends penetrate entire organizational fields. However, research so far has neglected the temporal aspects of such diffusion processes and the organizational reasons underlying the introduction of new management tools. We argue that during reform waves, the reasons for adopting the new tools differ over time. Using comparative data from two surveys on quality management in the field of higher education and the health sector, we show that early adopters are more likely to be motivated by instrumental reasons, while late adopters will more likely be motivated by institutional reasons.

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‘Skipping the quality abracadabra’: academic resistance to quality management in Finnish higher education institutions and quality managers’ strategies to handle it

Cited by 15 publications

References 37 publications

Strength of weakness – quality managers as agents of multiple principals

Strength of weakness – quality managers as agents of multiple principals

Leadership Effectiveness in Implementing Quality Assurance Programs at Private Universities of Lahore

The Sequence of Isomorphism—: The Temporal Diffusion Patterns of Quality Management in Higher Education Institutions and Hospitals

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