Apps looks at the kinds of changes and leaders needed by extension in the future; Ladewig expresses concerns about too much change without sufficient consideration of the bases of extension. (JOW)

Discusses Total Quality Management (TQM), benefits to libraries, and possible barriers to its adoption. An overview is provided of 13 articles included in this issue on (1) library approaches to TQM; (2) implementing a TQM program; (3) supporting TQM efforts; and (4) learning from the experience of others. (EAM)

Focuses on the emergence of the quality movement (Total Quality Management and Continuous Quality Improvement) and the implications for educational organizations. Examines challenges represented by efforts to transform the educational system and apply quality concepts to vocational special needs populations. (JOW)

Principles of quality management applicable to education for secondary special populations include process orientation, cascading, top commitment, vertical/horizontal communication, continuous improvement, shared vision, primacy of customers, investment in people, constancy of purpose, and shared goal setting. (JOW)

A study of 27 Fortune 500 companies established benchmarking as a continuous quality improvement tool used in implementing exemplary work force diversity practices. Applicable in educational settings as well, it is a lifelong educational process for the individual and the organization. (JOW)

Analyzes the criteria for the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in business as a way to teach total quality management. Core concepts and values are outlined: customer-driven quality, leadership, continuous improvement, employee participation/development, fast response, design quality/prevention, long-range outlook, management by fact,…

Examines conceptual problems of applying continuous improvement to higher education by exploring its use in industry. Raises questions related to flexibility, initiation of innovation, diverse performance indicators, and external assessment. (SK)

Reports on two reengineering projects at Mount Holyoke College (Massachusetts) that led participants to conclude that business process reengineering (BPR) in higher education involves a magnitude of cultural change that differentiates it significantly from BPR in the corporate world. The two projects involved redesigning a library department and…

Illustrates five criteria that can be used to identify the "best" managers in any organization: business results, employee attitudes, peer confirmation, upper-level manager appraisal, and customer satisfaction. Examines what top-performing managers say and do, and concludes that their thinking processes and their specific sets of skills…

Describes briefly how the junior section of one Hong Kong school handled major problems by adopting a total-quality-management approach to change and restructuring. Describes the school's problems, discusses TQM generally in educational settings, describes the new "homestead" implementation, and comments on teachers' and students'…

Various total quality management (TQM) approaches are explored and some core elements specified. Generic problems of TQM and those relating to higher education are analyzed. It is argued that while there are some aspects of TQM that are applicable in the collegiate setting, the specific approach is inapplicable in higher education. A new…

Addresses relatively unsubstantiated claims of an important relationship between organizational culture and the ability to implement total quality management in schools. Results of this literature review suggest that some of the nine quality-management culture dimensions are highly consistent with school improvement research; others are more…

Purpose: We identify environmental and organizational predictors that best discriminate between formal continuous quality improvement (CQI) adopters and nonadopters in nursing homes (NHs) and create a diagnostic profile for facility administrators and policy makers to promote CQI. Design and Methods: We performed a cross-sectional survey of…

Robert Birnbaum argues that higher education tends to adopt management fads -- newly conceived techniques enjoying brief popularity but which fail to live up to their promoters claims at the point when the corporate sector and government are discarding them. Although fads may have failed in these sectors because of various reasons, their failure…

A conflict exists between the way statistics is practiced in contemporary business environments and the way statistics is taught in schools of management. While businesses are embracing programs, such as six sigma and TQM, that bring statistical methods to the forefront of management decision making, students do not graduate with the skills to…