Organizational Culture, Rewards and Quality in Higher Education
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684889310044673 |
| Pages | 22-29 |
| Date | 01 February 1993 |
| Published date | 01 February 1993 |
| Author | Chris Hart,Michael Shoolbred |
| Subject Matter | Education |
QUALITY ASSURANCE
IN EDUCATION
Organizational Culture,
Rewards and Quality in Higher
Education
Chris Hart and Michael Shoolbred
INTRODUCTION
A number of higher education (HE) institutions
are making a positive commitment towards some
form of quality system. Some, such as
Wolverhampton University, are looking to
achieve BS 5750, which is currently being sought
by a number of further education colleges. Other
universities are moving along the TQM path and
examples here are Aston, Southbank, Robert
Gordon's and, uniquely, Wolverhampton again.
Most universities, one might suspect, are
uncertain which approach, if either, to follow.
We want to concentrate, in this article, on one
of
the
less obvious but most crucial aspects of the
development of a quality organization
—
not the
type of approach to quality, but the nature of the
organizational culture which supports a quality
system. A quality management system, such as
BS 5750 or TQM, is after all concerned with how
people behave, and this behaviour is made
manifest in an organization's climate and culture.
So in this article we will examine the concept of
organizational culture and climate, using models
taken from manufacturing and service industries.
We will illustrate some aspects of a quality
culture through reference to myths, rites and
rituals of
HE.
We will then use a micrograph to
help the reader focus on the nature of the culture
in your own workspace. We follow this with some
thoughts on the role of rewards and recognition in
HE quality cultures. To conclude, we have some
observations about what can happen when a
quality culture, and an appropriate quality system,
is not present and when staff are not fully
committed to the values their organization
proclaims.
So let us not spend any time considering the
main quality management approaches that are
being suggested for higher education. These
quality management systems (QMS) and total
quality management (TQM) have been widely
discussed in academic papers and reports (among
the many useful references on quality systems, the
following are recommended: FEU (1991); QET
Project (1992), Sallis and Hingley (1991). A
paper by the Further Education Unit gives six
criteria for any quality model:
(1) that it seeks to improve the quality of
teaching and learning strategies;
(2) that it is flexible;
(3) that it harnesses the commitment of all
staff;
(4) that the learner should be involved;
(5) that there must be enhanced working
relationships in all functions of the
organizations;
(6) that requirements can be measured and the
progress can be demonstrated.
We want to examine some of the ways in which
some of these criteria are translated into the
everyday working life for quality organization.
Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 1 No. 2, 1993, pp 22-29
© MCB University Press, 0968-4883
This article is a revised, re-edited and extended version
of a paper given at
the
AETT conference in York, May
1992 and published
as:
"What's in It for Me?
Organizational Culture, Rewards and Quality", in
Shaw, M. and Roper, E. (Eds),
Quality
in
Education
and
Training.
Proceedings
of
the
Association for
Educational
and
Training Technology International
Conference,
Kogan Page,
1993,
pp.16-21,
ISBN 0
7494 0897 9.
22
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