Organisational self‐assessment: measuring educational quality in two paradigms
| Date | 01 June 2000 |
| Published date | 01 June 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880010325538 |
| Pages | 76-84 |
| Author | Chris Gore,Chris Bond,Valerie Steven |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Organisational
self-assessment:
measuring educational
quality in two paradigms
Chris Gore
Chris Bond and
Valerie Steven
Introduction
This paper is concerned with reviewing
concepts of quality and professionalism as
exercised in the monitoring of academic
provision within a UK university. A
comparison is made between those
approaches that are grounded in a technical-
rational paradigm and more generous notions
of quality and professionalism, seen as a form
of professional-artistry.
Initially the paper reviews the
epistemological foundations on which these
two approaches are based. In this sense the
paper develops the work of Schon (1987),
Fish et al. (1991), Fish (1992), Weil (1998a,
c) and Bond (1996, 1998). It then seeks to
apply this work to contrasting perspectives on
measuring quality in a UK business school,
using two case studies of quality enhancement
initiatives being conducted in a UK university
preparing for a major Government quality
review in the year 2000. This highlights some
of the tensions and dilemmas present in the
development and operation of the two
identified quality frameworks, since the two
cases are based on the key assumptions and
foundations that underpin the two contrasting
paradigms.
Recent reviews of UK higher education
(HE) (DfEE, 1997; 1998a, b) appear to have
ignored the central role and dynamic for
change that innovation and models of quality
working out of alternative paradigms have had
upon the sector. Whilst it is acknowledged
that many innovative models of curriculum
delivery are not without problems, it appears
that current reviews of HE, in the UK, fail to
build on the substantial impetus for change
already effected by those working with
extended notions of quality, curriculum and
institutional innovation (Weil, 1998a, b;
Bond, 1996, 1998).
The paper concludes by proposing an
approach to quality improvement for higher
education that operates from a multi-
paradigmatic perspective.
Contrasting paradigms of quality
This section of the paper first reviews the
concept of technical-rationality and the
fundamental principles and philosophies that
underpin this stance. Consideration is given
to how this paradigm views quality and
The authors
Chris Gore is Associate Dean (Academic Affairs),
Chris Bond is Principal Lecturer in Business Organisation
and HRM and Valerie Steven is Senior Lecturer in
Business Organisation and HRM, all at Coventry Business
School, Coventry University, Coventry, UK.
Keywords
Quality, Self-assessment, Paradigms, Higher education
Abstract
Draws on contrasting epistemological stances with regard
to quality enhancement in the context of higher education
and develops the work of Schon (1987), Fish (1992) and
Bond (1996, 1998) concerning the technical-rational view
of professionalism and the more generous notion of
professional-artistry. Identifies how these ideas can be
useful in the analysis and design of processes for
organisational self-assessment and is based on
participatory action research being conducted in a UK
university preparing for a major Government quality
review in the year 2000. Two cases are presented, each
based on the key assumptions and foundations which
underpin one of the two contrasting paradigms.
Concludes by exploring the key issues of conjunction and
disjunction between the two paradigms of organisational
self-assessment, and proposes a framework within which
the two approaches can co-exist.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com
76
Quality Assurance in Education
Volume 8 .Number 2 .2000 .pp. 76±84
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0968-4883
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