8 Essential Values for Academic Leaders: A Quality Management Checklist

Boards, Presidents, Administrators, and Faculty want to be associated with a "quality" higher education program. "Quality" is part of the vernacular in higher education. They see accreditation as a means to that level of quality. However, the concept of quality is larger than just accreditation. Quality Management (QM) helps the organization assure that there is a broader understanding of quality for the institution at every level and in every area. Instead of "what do the accreditors say?" about this construct or that, QM helps the user to be able to think more broadly about the processes, procedures, and promises to the customers. Oh, and having a quality perspective on things will help you satisfy the accreditors more easily as well.

This book will help you relate QM values to your educational practice. It will help you understand those values from a Biblical perspective, help you rate their use in your current practice, and give you some practical application steps. There is also the opportunity through this book to reflect well on what you have learned, what you have assessed of your own methods, implement some new practices, and plan next steps regarding your quality management within your institution and personal practice. This book will cover the QM values of:

• Vocational Certainty
• Process Quality
• Administrative Consistency
• Executive Credibility
• Personal Authenticity
• Ethical Dependability
• Keeping the Promise Culture
• Zero Defects Attitude

Joshua T. Fischer, Ph.D., is president of Progressus Education Services, LLC as well as InterLearn, LLC, its partner company. Progressus is an education-based service organization framed on the 2QR(R) quality management principles. Progressus' focus areas span education, ministry, and for-profit sectors with QM-certified team members from a variety of backgrounds. InterLearn is a higher education consulting firm with a focus on adult and online education. With a primary focus on helping colleges with curriculum development for online programming, InterLearn can provide solutions to grow the institution with quality principles in place.