RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Total Quality Management in the Academy: A Rebellious Reading
JF Harvard Educational Review
JO herp
FD Harvard Educational Press
SP 593
OP 612
DO 10.17763/haer.65.4.56100824q6055844
VO 65
IS 4
A1 Bensimon, Estela Mara
YR 1995
UL http://harvardeducationalreview.org/content/65/4/593.abstract
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.