A Framework for Quality Management. Mendip Papers, MP 070.

This paper outlines a framework for analyzing existing quality initiatives and for planning and implementing new ones particularly designed for colleges in Great Britain in their new status as independent, incorporated entities. It is designed to assist colleges in managing quality and in using quality management as a means of institutional development. The framework's starting premise is that each institution must find its own route to quality and that externally prescribed approaches are usually the least effective. Following a discussion of the purpose of a quality framework and of the difference between procedural and transformational notions of quality, the following framework components are listed: (1) leadership and strategy, (2) teamwork, (3) customer requirements, and (4) systems and procedures. Each of these is then discussed in detail with the use of a diagram that shows the relations between different elements and specific types of tasks. A section on evaluation looks at immediate, short-term and long-term evaluation. An exploration of the management of quality compares a quality college with a college managed along traditional lines and describes the quality college as having a flatter structure with strong, integrating horizontal links. A conclusion reviews linking the framework in this paper with the European Quality Award. (Contains 24 references.) (JB)