XTHE QUALITY MOVEMENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

Writing at a time when applications of Total Quality Management (TQM) in higher education in the United States are in great vogue, the author reminds the reader that TQM is only one of many management strategies that over the years have had their periods of popularity. Strategies come and go. Usually a hot strategy is in vogue for no more than seven years; then other ideas come into vogue as other ways of getting the quick fix are tried. Other strategies in competition with TQM in the United States include outcomes assessment, Deming's fourteen points, the Malcolm Baldridge Award, the ISO 9000 series, restructuring, re‐engineering, and performance indicators. American higher education institutions will probably have recourse to more traditional models than TQM for creating change in the future.