Winds of change? Academics’ views on the introduction of quality management in Kazakhstan
Quality Assurance in Education
ISSN: 0968-4883
Article publication date: 27 April 2022
Issue publication date: 28 September 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Academics’ perceptions of the motives of the introduction of quality management are still rarely investigated, particularly in Central Asian countries. Thus, this paper aims to understand the internal dynamics of organisational change within higher education institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents evidence from an online survey of academics from three Kazakh national universities. Their perceptions are presented with a quantitative descriptive approach using means and standard deviations.
Findings
The results show that academics perceive institutional (e.g. regulations, professional standards, existing norms, etc.) and instrumental explanations (e.g. institutional learning, improvement, intra- and inter-organisational competition, etc.) of the introduction of quality management as equally important. This contradicts existing evidence from surveys of other groups within higher education institutions.
Originality/value
In addition to evaluating the literature, the paper combines institutional and instrumental reasons for the introduction of quality management in Kazakh universities. Taking a perspective centred on academics, the results indicate that scholars’ assessments reveal a comparatively low variance regarding the importance of quality management. Based on these results, the paper suggests that empirical studies need to be broadened with comparative perspectives from different organisational contexts, groups and administrative traditions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to the reviewers for their helpful comments.
Citation
Manarbek, G. and Seyfried, M. (2022), "Winds of change? Academics’ views on the introduction of quality management in Kazakhstan", Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 416-430. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-09-2021-0158
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited