Everlasting Friends and Enemies? Finnish University Personnel’s Perceptions of Internal Quality Assurance in 2010 and 2017

Overberg, Jasmin; Ala-Vähälä, Timo

doi:10.1080/00313831.2019.1596977

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Quality managers' maximisation efforts can be in sharp contrast to the interests of other actors, for example, academics. Academics may try to avoid all initiatives that might disturb their individual academic careers and their development within a discipline (Deem, 2010, p. 39;Overberg & Ala-Vähälä, 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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“…Thirdly, as institutional leaders are answerable to external stakeholders, so the leaders with compliance role are mostly document oriented and lack concerns for the actual quality improvement. Finally, this compliance role leads to resistance of academic staff towards QA mechanisms for two major reasons: when they are unable to observe improvement; and, when the target of QA is only accountability (promote inspection) rather than enhancement (Cardoso et al , 2016; Overberg and Ala-Vähälä, 2020). The findings of the study also unveiled that compliance leaders have led the QA as a bureaucratic process for meeting external requirements only rather than transforming institutional culture to a quality culture.…”

Section: Discussion: Defining Role Of Leadership In Quality Assurance...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it is difficult to develop a common framework for QA because different jurisdictions take different approaches to QA (Ryan, 2015). But, understanding of QA (Overberg and Ala-Vähälä, 2020) and attitude towards QA plays an important role in shaping leadership practices (Gordon, 2002;Seyfried and Pohlenz, 2018). There is an increasing emphasis on leadership capabilities both in terms of being able to use the resources effectively (institutional vision, organisation performance, understanding the needs of staff) and adaptive to the demands of the context (local capability, local user needs) (Black, 2015;Mgaiwa, 2021).…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of leadership in effective implementation of quality assurance mechanisms in higher education: an exploratory case study from Pakistan

Ahmad

Ahmed²

2022

QAE

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Purpose This study aims to explore whether and how leaders’ attributes, understanding of and attitude towards quality assurance (QA) shape their practices towards effective implementation of QA in universities. Design/methodology/approach Using qualitative case study, the data were collected from nine institutional leaders purposively selected from two universities. The data, collected through semi-structured interviews, were analysed using thematic analysis technique. Findings The findings revealed that personal attributes of leaders such as understanding of QA, attitude towards QA and practices shape leadership style either as transformational or compliance leader. The transformational leader implements QA procedures with the intention of bringing improvement in teaching learning and research quality. In contrast, the compliance leaders are primarily concerned with implementation of QA procedures merely to fulfil the requirements of an external regulatory body. Research limitations/implications This study acknowledges that certain other factors (e.g. demographics, institutional policies or practices) might have an influence on leadership practices. Using the framework of this study, further quantitative and/or mixed methods research can expand by bringing more factors that can shape leadership practices. Originality/value The role of leadership is significant to the success of any university. A plethora of studies have reported various aspects of successful leadership in higher education (HE). However, in the changing nature of HE due to the emergence of formal QA, there is paucity of research that focusses on the role of leader’s attributes in the effective implementation of QA procedures.

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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

Overberg

2019

Quality in Higher Education

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Everlasting Friends and Enemies? Finnish University Personnel’s Perceptions of Internal Quality Assurance in 2010 and 2017

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Strength of weakness – quality managers as agents of multiple principals

Strength of weakness – quality managers as agents of multiple principals

The role of leadership in effective implementation of quality assurance mechanisms in higher education: an exploratory case study from Pakistan

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

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