TY  - JOUR
A1  - Seyfried, Markus
A1  - Reith, Florian
T1  - Strength of weakness
BT  - Quality managers as agents of multiple principals
JF  - Journal of higher education policy and management
N2  - The paper investigates quality management in teaching and learning in higher education institutions from a principal-agent perspective. Based on data gained from semi-structured interviews and from a nation-wide survey with quality managers of German higher education institutions, the study shows how quality managers position themselves in relation to their perception of the interests of other actors in higher education institutions. The paper describes the various interests and discusses the main implications of this constellation of actors. It argues that quality managers, although they may be considered as rather weak actors within the higher education institution, may be characterised as having a strength of weakness due to diverging interests of their principals.
KW  - quality management
KW  - quality assurance
KW  - higher education
KW  - principal
KW  - agent
KW  - teaching
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2020.1812802
SN  - 1360-080X
SN  - 1469-9508
VL  - 43
IS  - 3
SP  - 298
EP  - 314
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Seyfried, Markus
A1  - Pohlenz, Philipp
T1  - Assessing quality assurance in higher education
BT  - quality managers’ perceptions of effectiveness
T2  - European Journal of Higher Education
N2  - The present article offers a mixed-method perspective on the
investigation of determinants of effectiveness in quality assurance
at higher education institutions. We collected survey data from
German higher education institutions to analyse the degree to
which quality managers perceive their approaches to quality
assurance as effective. Based on this data, we develop an ordinary
least squares regression model which explains perceived
effectiveness through structural variables and certain quality
assurance-related activities of quality managers. The results show
that support by higher education institutions’ higher management
and cooperation with other education institutions are relevant
preconditions for larger perceived degrees of quality assurance
effectiveness. Moreover, quality managers’ role as promoters of
quality assurance exhibits significant correlations with perceived
effectiveness. In contrast, sanctions and the perception of quality
assurance as another administrative burden reveal negative
correlations.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe - 94 
KW  - higher education
KW  - perceived effectiveness of quality management
KW  - quality assurance
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-413052
ER  -