The challenge faced by senior facility leaders is not how to execute a single project, but rather, how to successfully execute a large program consisting of hundreds of projects. Senior facilities officers at universities, school districts, hospitals, airports, and other organizations with extensive facility inventories, typically manage project…

This paper attempts to deal with the elusive nature of quality in quality management, using a case study to examine quality control measures implemented in an academic context and to show an emergent framework for quality enhancement. This paper introduces the concept of the ecology of quality assurance and examines efforts to maintain and advance…

Inclusion has traditionally been conceptualised as integrating children into the formal schooling system. Recent research conducted in South Asia, however, adds to evidence that the huge number of children out of school and the diversity of their needs can only be met by a diversity of provision, formal and non-formal; that because many state…

While the past two decades have seen significant expansion and harmonisation of quality assurance mechanisms in higher education, there is limited evidence of positive effects on the quality of core processes of teaching and learning. The paradox of the separation of assurance from improvement is explored. A shift in focus from surveillance to…

Many students lack problem-solving skills. As teenagers, they tend to blame external forces or other people when something goes wrong, instead of trying to understand the root cause to prevent it from happening again. This article discusses the Lean Six Sigma methodology for problem solving, which the Board of Cooperative Educational Services in…

In her role with the School Administrators of Iowa leading Iowa's leadership grant from The Wallace Foundation, the author works with a coalition of individuals and groups striving to implement a cohesive leadership system for school leaders. Efforts to create a cohesive leadership system in Iowa for the past nine years have resulted in many…

Discusses the need to include studies of reliability and maintainability during the design of any system. Topic areas addressed include availability calculations, complex systems and standby redundancy, availability and malfunction levels, design techniques, fault trees, functional maintenance, and others. (DH)

The Crawford County (Pennsylvania) Excellence Council helped a school superintendent revamp the district's dysfunctional work order system by providing TQM (total quality management) training to five teams of workers. The result was total quality transformation of a work process that transcended mere problem solving. (MLH)

This first part of a report originally published in 1992 compares micrographics and digital imaging as methods for preserving printed materials. Topics addressed include costs, standards, ease of access, optical disks, archival quality, resolution, and the benefits of a hybrid-system approach that combines technologies. (Contains nine references.)…

The paper describes Quality Service Management (QSM) as applied to the provision of services to disabled and other special needs persons. QSM is defined as a systems approach to consumer relations based on the belief that quality care may be achieved only within the context of overall services management. Differences among "quality…

Discussion of abstracting systems focuses on the paradigm concept and identifies and explains four paradigms: communicational, or information theory; physical, including information retrieval; cognitive, including information processing and artificial intelligence; and systemic, including quality management. Emphasizes multidimensionality and…

Examines the integration of a systematic in-house certification framework and outlines an evaluation model to validate and justify certification as a performance management tool of value to organizations and individuals. Discusses the six elements of effective competency certification programs: competency analysis; training for certification;…

Observations on general Japanese culture, business culture, specific business missions and strategies, characteristics of individual workers, and business operations emphasize production processes and policies, organization structure, performance support systems, general management practices, and attention to quality. A table comparing the human…

Chronicles development and implementation of a performance-management system for nonfaculty employees at Wittenberg University (Ohio). The initiative featured principles of continuous quality improvement. Seven key lessons learned are presented for other institutions, including selection of the design team, changing the status quo, defining and…

This paper provides an introduction to a particular systems-theoretical approach to problem-solving in the management of education usually referred to as soft-systems methodology (SSM), developed by Peter Checkland in the 1970s. SSM should provide a powerful tool for managers in education at any level who have a strategic role because it can be…