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Article
Publication date: 21 December 2021

Alana Hoare and Pamela Goad

Academics and administrators frequently lament the bureaucracy in higher education, which diverts attention from teaching and research. Heightened monitoring of institutions as a…

577

Abstract

Purpose

Academics and administrators frequently lament the bureaucracy in higher education, which diverts attention from teaching and research. Heightened monitoring of institutions as a result of dominant neoliberal ideologies shapes perceptions of accreditation as a bureaucratic burden rather than a value-added tool for continuous quality improvement. This paper aims to identify factors that positively and negatively impact a culture of quality in North American accredited postsecondary institutions to address issues of equity and inform policy changes that are relevant to community needs.

Design/methodology/approach

Academics’ and administrators’ perceptions of accreditation processes are explored through an interpretivist mixed-methods study that combined focus group and survey results from over 200 participants representative of four-year private and four- and two-year public institutions and tribal colleges in North America.

Findings

Findings suggest that a utilitarian and exclusionary mindset perpetuated by neoliberal logics restricts participatory decision-making processes in postsecondary institutions. Furthermore, the research identified a noticeable gap between those who are invited to participate in accreditation processes and those who contribute to decision-making. This lack of inclusive governance inhibits the ability of institutions to respond appropriately to the needs of its community.

Originality/value

The scope of the study and prioritization of qualitative data offers a comprehensive picture of academics’ and administrators’ perceptions and positions them as the experts in their own learning and development. Through participant narratives, strategies for increasing the value of quality assurance processes are illuminated. As a result, the study participants become the change agents who provide the solutions for ameliorating academics’ and administrators’ resistance to quality assurance.

Details

Quality Assurance in Education, vol. 30 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0968-4883

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1997

In the era of dramatic developments in technology worldwide, the relative competitiveness of a corporation/country over time has to be continuously calibrated and pro‐actively…

130

Abstract

In the era of dramatic developments in technology worldwide, the relative competitiveness of a corporation/country over time has to be continuously calibrated and pro‐actively protected. Here, for the first time, we develop two sufficient conditions, and 12 necessary conditions of continuous competitiveness (CC): the ratio of value‐added per unit of currency of OUR product (service) to THEIR product (service). In Chapter 1, we apply CC to three corporations (IBM, CEC, API) and to three countries (Japan, Taiwan, Korea). At a time when IBM enjoyed 80 percent of the market, it decided to commit 83 percent of the next four years' TOTAL SALES to build a new generation of computers on the unproven technology of integrated circuits to assure IBM's continuous competitiveness. To the same end, Japan pro‐actively selected the growth industry of each decade beginning in the '50s (computers), and nurtured it, taxing other industries. The first year in which the US trade with the Pacific exceeded that of the Atlantic, 1982, is the benchmark of a study of competitiveness of two countries of comparable population and exports, Korea and Taiwan. If Taiwan exports rose in volume but lost in profitability, Taiwan needs to make better products cheaper and faster. If the required technology advances are not fully available domestically, they need to be imported: Which is the rationale of technology transfer (techtransfer). Techtransfer can meet one of the necessary conditions of CC, viz., the desired technological progression‐from linear extensions of performance characteristics along the same curve, to quantum jumps from one technology curve to another. The techtransfer over two decades from IBM‐Taiwan to Taiwan Manufacturers as a whole progressed from components to complete product: Which could be considered at best as linear extensions of performance characteristics. For a country like Taiwan, whose trade (i.e. exports + imports) is as much as 94.8% of GNP, and which does not have a highly developed R&D base, techtransfer is a prime means of upgrading the technology. We will examine two Taiwan corporations which expanded exports through techtransfer: one, a Taiwan components manufacturer; and two, a Taiwan power supply manufacturer. As vendors to IBM, they aggressively pursued techtransfer from IBM. These empirical applications set the stage to examine Malaysian experience of E&E in Chapter 2.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. 9 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-5855

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Book part
Publication date: 5 December 2007

Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller

Handler's genealogy of postmodernism recounted in his address recognizes its origin in aesthetic disciplines and its somewhat viral transcription into social jurisprudence: “the…

Abstract

Handler's genealogy of postmodernism recounted in his address recognizes its origin in aesthetic disciplines and its somewhat viral transcription into social jurisprudence: “the postmodern concept of subversion developed first in language and literary theory, art, and architecture and then spread into politics and law” (1992a, p. 698). Although Handler's rejection of deconstruction stems from what he sees to be its political quiescence, its association with aesthetic critiques of modernism haunts his claims as one source of its essential conservatism. Aesthetic values, he implies, remain distant or distinct from pressing issues of political and social inequality.

Details

Special Issue Law and Society Reconsidered
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-7623-1460-7

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Book part
Publication date: 3 December 2005

Paul Paolucci, Micah Holland and Shannon Williams

Machiavelli's dictums in The Prince (1977) instigated the modern discourse on power. Arguing that “there's such a difference between the way we really live and the way we ought to…

Abstract

Machiavelli's dictums in The Prince (1977) instigated the modern discourse on power. Arguing that “there's such a difference between the way we really live and the way we ought to live that the man who neglects the real to study the ideal will learn to accomplish his ruin, not his salvation” (Machiavelli, 1977, p. 44), his approach is a realist one. In this text, Machiavelli (1977, p. 3) endeavors to “discuss the rule of princes” and to “lay down principles for them.” Taking his lead, Foucault (1978, p. 97) argued that “if it is true that Machiavelli was among the few…who conceived the power of the Prince in terms of force relationships, perhaps we need to go one step further, do without the persona of the Prince, and decipher mechanisms on the basis of a strategy that is immanent in force relationships.” He believed that we should “investigate…how mechanisms of power have been able to function…how these mechanisms…have begun to become economically advantageous and politically useful…in a given context for specific reasons,” and, therefore, “we should…base our analysis of power on the study of the techniques and tactics of domination” (Foucault, 1980, pp. 100–102). Conceptualizing such techniques and tactics as the “art of governance”, Foucault (1991), examined power as strategies geared toward managing civic populations through shaping people's dispositions and behaviors.

Details

Social Theory as Politics in Knowledge
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-363-1

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Article
Publication date: 14 October 2020

Jacques G. Richardson

The purpose of this paper is to understand a spontaneous movement of social mobilization and protest known as the yellow vests and their unrelenting demand for increased buying…

258

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand a spontaneous movement of social mobilization and protest known as the yellow vests and their unrelenting demand for increased buying power.

Design/methodology/approach

A capsule history of France and the universal struggle for a living wage lead to a post-Marxian process of intensified civic action to support the universal aims of well-being and fair play.

Findings

The yellow vests appear to be assuming the proportions of an unorthodox labor fraternity, a novel pressure network transcending the usual time-and-money quests of integrated trade unions.

Research limitations/implications

Little attention is paid to the changing nature of employment, work itself and labor competitiveness. These require further research.

Originality/value

Internal and external factors are identified, combining to explain the lack of discipline and orderly evolution by both animators and demonstrators.

Details

foresight, vol. 23 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

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