Quality and Performance Excellence in Higher Education: Baldrige on Campus
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Book Review Quality and Performance Excellence in Higher Education: Baldrige on Campus Edited by Charles W. Sorensen, Julie A. Furst-Bowe, and Diane M. Moen, Anker Publishing Company, Inc., Bolton, MA, 2005; ISBN: 1-88298-280-0; 233 pages; $39.95
Summary
Objective and methods
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was named after a former Secretary of Commerce because of his contribution to improvements in governmental effectiveness. The Baldrige criteria were adapted for educational institutions in 1999. The categories of core values and concepts for performance excellence that are the criteria for the award are: visionary leadership; learning-centered education; organizational and personal learning; valuing faculty, staff, and partners; agility; focus on the future; managing for innovation; management by fact; focus on results; and creating value and a systems perspective. The application for the award and a selfassessment instrument are on the website of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (http://www.quality.nist.gov). This book includes six case studies of institutions that successfully adopted the Baldrige model. Each institution applied a systematic framework for quality improvement and integrated it into existing processes.
The purpose of this book was to show how the Baldrige model could be applied to transform higher education institutions. The editors believe that market forces require significant changes in higher education so institutional leaders need successful models for change, such as the Baldrige model. The editors selected six schools that were among the first to use the Baldrige criteria. They perceived these schools as models for meeting higher education challenges: University of Wisconsin—Stout, the first higher education institution to receive the award; Monfort College of Business (University of Northern Colorado); New Mexico State University—Carlsbad; National University; Northwest Missouri State University; and Western Wisconsin Technical College. The editors of the book wrote the case study for University of Wisconsin—Stout and compiled the other case studies from authors at the other schools. Each case study was written by different authors. The editors did not specify when the case studies were written or what method was used to compile them.
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT. VOL.6 NO.1 80–82 ª PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 2005. ISSN 1744-6503/05 $30.00
Book Review
Results and conclusions The editors described the methods used to evaluate institutional progress but did not identify changes that resulted. No summary quantitative data were presented. The editors’ hypothesis was that the Baldrige model can address current market forces and therefore transform institutions. The cases presented seem to confirm their hypothesis. The Baldrige approach creates stability and a focus within an uncertain and seemingly chaotic external environment. The implications of the authors’ findings are that: . All institutions of higher education can engage in a process
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