Nuno Filipe Melão, Marlene Amorim, Frederic Marimon and Inés Alegre
The purpose of this paper is to analyze from an adopters’ perspective the European Quality in Social Services (EQUASS) Assurance standard, a certification program to implement a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze from an adopters’ perspective the European Quality in Social Services (EQUASS) Assurance standard, a certification program to implement a quality management (QM) system specifically tailored to European social service organizations (SSO). Specifically, it analyzes the motives, internalization, impacts, satisfaction, and renew intentions of this standard.
Design/methodology/approach
The research uses a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey methodology with both closed and open-ended questions. Of the 381 organizations contacted, 196 responses from eight different European countries were considered valid (51.4 percent). Descriptive statistical techniques and content analysis were employed to analyze closed- and open-ended questions, respectively.
Findings
The results show that SSO typically implement the certification for internal reasons, internalize EQUASS Assurance principles and practices in daily usage, obtain mainly operational and customer benefits, and consider main pitfalls such as increased workload and bureaucracy. Around 85 percent of the respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with the standard, which suggests that it meets their needs. The intention to renew the certification is also encouraging, but the final decision may be contingent on several aspects. Overall, the results reveal a rather optimistic picture, though there are some reasons for concern.
Originality/value
Recent years have seen many social services implementing QM systems, but there have been few studies investigating this phenomenon. Social service managers, consultants, auditors, and the EQUASS certification body can find in this work valuable information to make their practice more effective. This is the first study to report the results of an EQUASS survey in a scholarly journal.
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António Jorge Gamboa and Nuno Filipe Melão
The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits, disadvantages and success factors associated with the adoption of ISO 9001:2000 in educational organizations, more…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits, disadvantages and success factors associated with the adoption of ISO 9001:2000 in educational organizations, more specifically in Portuguese vocational schools.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a rigorous literature review, an a priori model was developed which was then refined and validated by case studies in five Portuguese vocational schools.
Findings
The findings reveal rich and meaningful insights into a much under‐researched area, including four internal benefits, two external benefits, three disadvantages and four success factors. This research uncovered that vocational schools are using the standard as a means to provide strategic focus and as a foundation for planning. Interestingly, contrarily to previous studies, bureaucracy is depicted in a more positive light and, management commitment and support is not seen as the most important success factor.
Practical implications
The findings suggest the need, on the one hand, for schools to be more proactive in showing the benefits of quality concepts and the certification to stakeholders, and, on the other hand, for international and national quality bodies to make more efforts to produce, divulge and maintain ISO 9000 interpretation guides tailored to the specific needs of educational institutions. Overall, the findings may assist practitioners in identifying courses of action to make the implementation of this standard more effective.
Originality/value
This paper validates and extends the dispersed findings of existing literature by providing a useful unifying conceptual model of the impacts and success factors of ISO 9001 in vocational education, which can be tested in other levels of education, countries and application domains. This is also perhaps the first reported study of its kind conducted at a European country.
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Maria Manuela Pereira and Nuno Filipe Melão
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the benefits, obstacles and challenges in implementing the balanced scorecard (BSC) in non‐higher education public schools, more…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the benefits, obstacles and challenges in implementing the balanced scorecard (BSC) in non‐higher education public schools, more specifically, in a Portuguese school district.
Design/methodology/approach
An action research approach was used to develop a BSC, help to implement changes and reflect about the outcomes.
Findings
The paper presents the BSC for the school district and discusses five benefits, two obstacles and three challenges that emerged from the study. While some findings are in line with those found in other levels of education, others seem to be context‐specific.
Research limitations/implications
The results refer to a single intervention in Portugal and the methodology used precludes any generalization attempts.
Practical implications
The findings are particularly relevant to the Portuguese context, providing evidence that the BSC can overcome some weaknesses of schools in the area of strategic management, as identified by the literature. They also raise implications for the wider field of the BSC's use in non‐higher education public schools, suggesting reasons why things may go wrong. The results may be of value to practitioners wishing to make the implementation of the BSC more effective.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the scarce body of literature on the application of the BSC to non‐profit organizations by providing an understanding of its possible benefits, obstacles and challenges in non‐higher education public schools. It shows how the BSC methodology can be adapted to fit the specific requirements of a school district. This is one of the first papers to discuss an application of the BSC to non‐higher education public schools.