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  -