Outcomes of Quality Assurance: A Discussion of Knowledge, Methodology and Validity

Abstract

A common characteristic in many quality assurance schemes around the world is their implicit and often narrowly formulated understanding of how organisational change is to take place as a result of the process. By identifying some of the underlying assumptions related to organisational change in current quality assurance schemes, the aim of this paper is to discuss the relevance of these assumptions in the light of more recent insights from organisational theory. It is argued that the whole field of quality assurance will benefit from the creation of a more realistic picture of how organisational change takes place in that this may provide (1) a more nuanced view on expected outcomes of quality assurance and (2) more refined quality assurance schemes.

Keywords:

• external quality assurance
• outcomes
• methodology
• organisational change

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Lee Harvey and Tine Sophie Pr⊘itz for valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Notes

[1] This section builds upon and expands documentation taken from the article ‘Impact of quality processes’ in Bollaert et al. (2007).