Once Upon a Campus: Lessons for Improving Quality and Productivity in Higher Education

by Daniel Seymour

Overview

The unique and controversial companion volume to Daniel Seymour's On Q places Seymour's ideas and theories within the context of a call to action. In a series of realistic case-study lessons, he reveals how colleges and universities can dramatically improve their performance by drawing upon the concepts found in systems theory, quality management, and studies of organizational behavior. Seymour's goal is to overcome the current reactive mind-set and replace it with a proactive education environment where student success is the main objective. Once Upon a Campus can be put to use as an audit tool, as a guide for readers to identify problem areas in their institutions, and as a planning resource in evaluating and implementing overall performance improvement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461639749
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/16/1995
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	206
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

DANIEL SEYMOUR is president, Q Systems, Palm Springs, California. He has worked in industry, as a professor, and as a university administrator. Dr. Seymour is the author of 12 books, including On Q: Causing Quality in Higher Education.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Direction Setting
Chapter 2 Begin With The End In Mind
Chapter 3 Left to Our Own Devices, We Pay Too Much Attention to Things of Little Importance to the Customer
Chapter 4 Process Design and Management
Chapter 5 Waste is the Unintended Consequences of Unattended Work Processes
Chapter 6 The Capacity of a System is Limited by its Bottlenecks
Chapter 7 An Organization is a Relay Team; the Better the Handoffs, the Better the Results
Chapter 8 In the Absence of a Search for the Unnecessary, Complexity Out Simplicity
Chapter 9 Feedback
Chapter 10 Measurement Without Feedback is Just Data; Feedback without Measurement is Just Opinion
Chapter 11 Enablers
Chapter 12 Followers, Not Leaders, Are the Best Judges of Hypocrisy
Chapter 13 To Create the Future, Challenge the Past
Chapter 14 Exceptional Solutions to Universal Problems Create Universal Problems

Editorial Reviews

A prescription to improve performance in higher education incorporating solutions from fields such as systems theory, quality management, and human resource management. The author, a consultant, says his exercises are meant to be used both as audit tools to help college administrators redirect institutional resources and as planning tools to help them think about improving quality. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Seymour's volume....makes useful points about the teaching and working lives of professors and instructors.

Reference and Research Book News