PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Bensimon, Estela Mara
TI  - Total Quality Management in the Academy: A Rebellious Reading
AID  - 10.17763/haer.65.4.56100824q6055844
DP  - 1995 Dec 01
TA  - Harvard Educational Review
PG  - 593--612
VI  - 65
IP  - 4
4099  - http://harvardeducationalreview.org/content/65/4/593.short
4100  - http://harvardeducationalreview.org/content/65/4/593.full
SO  - herp1995 Dec 01; 65
AB  - In this article, Estela Bensimon assesses the appropriateness of adapting Total Quality Management (TQM) to higher education. She uses feminist adaptations of post-structuralist analysis to develop a critical interpretation of the basic postulates of quality with TQM: Quality is defined by customer satisfaction; Quality is the reduction of variation; Quality must be measurable. In particular, she focuses on the language of TQM that expresses how quality is defined, improved, and controlled; how the customer is determined; and how variation is eliminated. She concludes with a discussion of the negative implications of TQM as a philosophy and theory for the academy.