The systems view of quality postulates that product or service quality comes as the result of interactions between various components that comprise a production process. In view of this, most problems in the organization, like an institution of higher education, can be attributed to the system. To be effective, any quality improvement initiative…

Health system managers and policy makers need timely access to high quality, policy-relevant systematic reviews. Our objectives were to obtain managers' and policy makers' feedback about user-friendly summaries of systematic reviews and about tools related to supporting or assessing their use. Our interviews identified that participants prefer key…

From the systems viewpoint, educational planning is the mechanism through which the educational system makes its goals specific and adapt its priorities, resources, and operational patterns to the changing environmental forces of its particular society. The systems-oriented administrator is a change agent and innovative strategist who delegates…

This paper develops a conceptual framework for identifying organizational change and applies the framework to understanding organizational change. The main focus of the framework is the concept of "leading parts." Leading parts may be dominant or catalytic in their impact on systems; and understanding their operation requires analysis of the…

The Florida Assessment and Diffusion System (FADS) represents a systematic approach to organizational change, emphasizing the interpersonal communication dimension of the change process. FADS encourages a systems approach to change, but is flexible enough to allow for procedural changes in response to specific user needs. The model assumes a…

The basic question under examination is the underlying force that brings forth changes in cultural and social organizations. By employing general system theory and communication systemic analysis, the author concludes that communication, especially human communication, is the main vehicle of change. Human interchange, it is suggested, is constant…

The full texts of the five major papers presented at the Singapore seminar comprise the body of this conference report. The seminar was jointly sponsored by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization's (SEAMEO) Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (INNOTECH): its…

A program based on instructional systems technology was developed at Canadore College as a means of devising the optimal learning experience for each individual student. The systems approach is used to solve educational problems through a process of analysis, synthesis, modeling, and simulation, based on the LOGOS (Language for Optimizing…

The paradigm and model presented in this paper, influenced by the Havelock's "linkage" model and Chin's "changing" model, aim to assist educators in determing directions of change using a selection of managerial and behavioral techniques, and to regulate the rate of change using management information and control systems. The generic paradigm…