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Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Kunskapsskolan’s approach to school management
MA MANAGEMENT
Carina BalboStudent ID No.10029671
May 2012
To my family who have supported me during the journey of these studies, and
To my father who has inspired me to undertake them.
iTotal Quality Management in Secondary Education
Contents
Figures................................................................................................................................... ii
Tables.................................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements............................................................................................................... ii
Abstract................................................................................................................................. ii
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the study........................................................................................1
1.2 Purpose and organisation of the study..................................................................3
2. Literature Review..........................................................................................................5
2.1 What is Total Quality Management?....................................................................5
2.2 Quality, product and service in education.............................................................6
2.2.1 Quality in education......................................................................................6
2.2.2 Product and service in education..................................................................7
2.3 Strategic planning for quality................................................................................8
2.3.1 Mission, vision, values and goals...................................................................9
2.3.2 Stakeholder analysis and CSR......................................................................11
2.3.3 SWOT, CSFs and Benchmarking...................................................................18
2.3.4 Corporate and Strategic Plan.......................................................................22
2.3.5 Quality policy, Quality plan and Quality costs.............................................26
2.3.6 Feedback and evaluation.............................................................................29
2.4 Organisational considerations.............................................................................30
2.4.1 Organisational structure and design............................................................31
2.4.2 Centralisation vs. decentralisation..............................................................34
2.4.3 An effective TQM structure.........................................................................36
2.5 Educational leadership and TQM.........................................................................39
2.5.1 Communicating the vision...........................................................................40
2.5.2 Developing a quality culture........................................................................40
2.5.3 Empowering teachers..................................................................................41
2.6 Teamwork for quality..........................................................................................42
3. The Research Study.....................................................................................................46
3.1 The research philosophy......................................................................................46
3.2 The method of research and data collection.......................................................47
iiTotal Quality Management in Secondary Education
3.3 Sample selection..................................................................................................50
3.4 Ethical issues.......................................................................................................51
4. Findings and Analysis..................................................................................................54
4.1 Kunskapsskolan’s strategic planning...................................................................54
4.1.1 Mission, vision, values and goals.................................................................55
4.1.2 Stakeholder analysis and CSR......................................................................57
4.1.3 Kunskapsskolan’s CSF’s and Benchmarking.................................................62
4.1.4 Kunskapsskolan’s Business and Corporate plan..........................................64
4.1.5 Quality policy, Quality plan and Quality costs.............................................69
4.1.6 Feedback and evaluation.............................................................................73
4.2 Kunskapsskolan’s organisational structure.........................................................74
4.3 Educational leadership at Kunskapsskolan..........................................................82
4.4 Teamwork for quality at Kunskapsskolan............................................................83
5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................86
References..........................................................................................................................90
Appendix 1: Quantitative research......................................................................................95
Questionnaire 1: Customers: students and parents........................................................95
Questionnaire 2: Organisation and Staff.........................................................................96
Appendix 2: Qualitative research......................................................................................100
Set 1: Customers: students and parents.......................................................................100
Set 2: Senior management, teaching and non-teaching staff........................................100
Appendix 3: The KED Programme.....................................................................................101
3.1. Personalised Goals and Strategies..........................................................................102
3.2. Coaching.................................................................................................................103
3.3. The Learning PortalTM.............................................................................................105
3.4. Room for learning...................................................................................................106
3.5. Curriculum..............................................................................................................107
3.6. The Teacher............................................................................................................108
3.7. Time.......................................................................................................................108
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
iiiTotal Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figures
Figure 1 The strategic planning process ...............................................................................9
Figure 2 A possible strategy planning sequence .................................................................10
Figure 3 Customers in Education.........................................................................................13
Figure 4 Stakeholder mapping in education........................................................................14
Figure 5 CSR stances ...........................................................................................................16
Figure 6 SWOT Analysis of an educational institution ........................................................19
Figure 7 Example of external and internal CSFs..................................................................20
Figure 8 Ansoff Matrix ........................................................................................................23
Figure 9 External Standards in Education............................................................................28
Figure 10 Examples of prevention and failure costs in education ......................................29
Figure 11 Phases of institutional development ..................................................................31
Figure 12 Example of a tall structure: staff relationship......................................................33
Figure 13 Flat organisational structure in a small school district........................................34
Figure 14 Matrix structure of a school................................................................................34
Figure 15 The differences between a quality institution and an ordinary institution..........37
Figure 16 Institutional alignment .......................................................................................38
Figure 17 The attributes of an educational leader..............................................................40
Figure 18 The five stages of team formation.......................................................................44
Figure 19 Tips for an effective team....................................................................................45
Figure 20 Kunskapsskolan’s corporate mission ..................................................................56
Figure 21 Kunskapsskolan’s internal and external customers.............................................57
Figure 22 Stakeholder mapping of Kunskapsskolan/ LST....................................................61
Figure 23 Overview of Kunskapsskolan’s performance management system in Sweden . .63
Figure 24 KED's Building blocks...........................................................................................65
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
ivTotal Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 25 Supportive systems and concepts of the KED programme..................................66
Figure 26 Ansoff Matrix summarising Kunskapsskolan’s strategic plan ..............................67
Figure 27 Result of a survey carried out in 23 Kunskapsskolan schools in Sweden.............74
Figure 28 Board of Directors of KED....................................................................................75
Figure 29 Board of Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB.................................................................76
Figure 30 Partial organisational structure of Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB.........................77
Figure 31 The LST Trust Board.............................................................................................78
Figure 32 International expansion of Kunskapsskolan........................................................79
Figure 33 Specialisms of the Academies in the UK..............................................................80
Figure 34 Partial overview of management line at Ipswich Academy.................................81
Tables
Table 1 Advantages of centralised and decentralised structures........................................35
Table 2 Disadvantages of centralised and decentralised structures...................................36
Table 3 Features of a quality institution..............................................................................38
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
vTotal Quality Management in Secondary Education
Acknowledgements
First of all, I must thank all my family for their support during the course of these studies.
I also want to express my gratitude to Kunskapsskolan and the Learning Schools Trust for
having initially accepted to support me on this project, although full access to the
organisation was later denied.
Last, but not least, I must also thank my supervisor, who supported and advised me the
best way possible during this project.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
viTotal Quality Management in Secondary Education
Abstract
This objective-approach research study aimed to look into the organisation and
performance of schools run by Kunskapsskolan under this new educational policy, in the
light of Total Quality Management (TQM), taking into account strategic planning,
organisational considerations, leadership styles and approach to teamwork. The study
would have involved a quantitative method, using a standard audit checklist (Sallis,
2002:156), which has been divided into two questionnaires, one for students and parents,
and other for staff including senior staff, high and middle-management, teaching and
support staff. A qualitative method would have also been followed by interviewing some
of my respondents to the questionnaires, from students and parents to school staff.
Similarly, for this two sets of questions were created. However, due to the fact that full
access to the organisation was not granted at the moment of data collection using those
methods, data was collected from other sources such as websites, and books and analysed
in the light of the TQM theory discussed in the literature review. The study concludes that
Kunskapsskolan meets all the characteristics of a TQM organisation and that it would be
interesting to conduct a comparative study with the organisational approach adopted in
mainstream and independent schools.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
1Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
1.Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
In today’s economy, quality has become a high priority and is at the top of most agendas.
Improving quality is probably one of the most important tasks any organisation may be
facing, whether private or public. Educational institutions are not foreign to this reality; on
the contrary, they have also recognised the need to pursue this quest for quality and to
deliver it to pupils and students alike. When talking about sources of quality of education
we can list outstanding teachers, strong leadership, appropriate resources and the latest
technology applied, an appropriate curriculum, excellent exam results and the support of
parents, just to mention a few (Sallis, 2002).
For the last 20 years, different economic circumstances have pushed education systems in
many countries towards a system of privatisation, transforming education into a new
market and adapting education to the current demands of labour markets (Hirtt, 2008).
Compulsory education in industrialised countries, especially in the EU, seems to have
moved towards decentralisation and deregulation, progressively reducing the central
power of the state (Eurydice, 1997). In this context, the former state-run education
systems become flexible and competitive school networks, managed by Local Educational
Authorities (LEAs) or non-governmental groups, with more local power for developing
their own programmes and teaching methods. This is accompanied by a dramatic cut in
education expenditure (Eurydice, 2005).
This movement seems to have been crystallised in the UK under the new Con-Dem
government, which promotes a two-fold way of marketisation and privatisation of the
school system. First, all schools will be able to become Academies, gaining more freedom
2Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
over the curriculum and admissions and more control over staff because, being under
private school legislation, they would not have to comply with national or local union
agreements on pay and conditions. Secondly, alternative providers – private organisations
and groups of parents and teachers – will be allowed to open up so-called ‘free schools’,
again outside local authorities and funded by government. This new policy has arisen
much controversy and debate, which, leaving politics aside, poses a question on the
quality of education these groups of parents and teachers as well as private organisations
will provide at the expense of tax payers.
Examples of this recently introduced policy are Hampton Academy, Twickenham Academy
and Ipswich Academy which are operated by Kunskapsskolan through an independent
Charity called the Learning Schools Trust (LST). Kunskapsskolan is one of the largest chains
of ‘free schools’ in Sweden, currently running 33 schools with a network of schools with
more than 12,000 students and 1,000 employees. Kunskapsskolan is the owner and
developer of the KED (Kunskapsskolan Education) programme — a coherent and proven
concept for personalised education. In Swedish, “Kunskapsskolan” means knowledge or
learning school. This name is an expression of their passion for providing excellence in
learning and knowledge for the next global generation (www.kunskapsskolan.com).
Kunskapsskolan Education Sweden AB is a private company owned by Peje Emilsson, his
family and companies (67%), Investor AB (29%) and Kunskapsskolan management (4%).
Kunskapsskolan Education Sweden AB (KED) is the result of new Swedish educational
reforms introduced in 1992, which opened the doors for school choice, competition, and
innovation within primary and secondary education. KED was founded in 1999 and
opened its first schools in 2000. The idea was to collect the very best practices from
pedagogy, technology, school design and process management and integrate them
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
3Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
together into a coherent model of personalised education for the new century
(www.kunskapsskolan.com).
In the United Kingdom, it is against the Law for a private company, like Kunskapsskolan, to
make profit out of tax-payers’ money, unless they link up with some other non-profit
organisations, such as charities. That is why Kunskapsskolan operates these three
Academies in England through the Learning Schools Trust (LST), a charity which plans to
sponsor other five Academies in the UK from 2012.
1.2 Purpose and organisation of the study
This research study aims, at a general level, to look into the organisation and performance
of schools set up under this new educational policy, in the light of Total Quality
Management (TQM). In particular, it aims to answer the following questions:
1. What do the schools take into account in order to guarantee good quality
educational provision to their customers?
2. Within what quality standards does the organisation operate?
3. What management and leadership styles do these schools follow in order to
ensure organisational effectiveness and performance?
4. What measures are taken into consideration so that the staff members build an
effective TQM culture throughout the institution?
5. What strategies, tools and techniques are considered when planning for quality?
In order to accomplish this aim, the study will focus on schools run by Kunskapsskolan and
the LST, and it will be conducted through questionnaires sent to the Managing Director at
LST –my primary contact, high, middle and low managers of the schools and some
teaching staff. It is worth point out that I have no connection whatsoever with the
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
4Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
organisation. My interest in this topic is not only professional, having worked in the
educational sector for 15 years, but I am also interested in this area as a parent, having a
son with Special Educational Needs who, I believe, has not entirely benefited from the UK
mainstream educational.
To begin with, after defining what TQM is, a discussion on the notion of quality, product
and service in education will follow. The study will also examine what steps a school can
follow to strategically plan for quality, the best type of organisation, leadership style and
work approach a school can follow in order to guarantee quality in education. Before
looking into the findings and analysing them against the literature review, a brief
explanation of the research methods will be provided. Finally, some conclusions will be
drawn and suggestions for further research will be made.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
5Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
2.Literature Review
In the realm of Education, quality has become synonymous with the latest government
structure on standards, exam success, school performance and league tables. In response
to the need for quality improvement in education, ruthless regimes of school inspections
have been introduced. However, from a Total Quality Management (TQM) perspective,
inspections serve as a means of quality control, rather than quality improvement, which is
the responsibility of the institution and cannot be handed over to an external inspector
(Sallis, 2002).
The purpose of this chapter is to establish the theoretical framework for this study.
Here, we will look first at the implications of the term Total Quality Management (TQM).
Then, after trying to define the term Quality, we will examine the many aspects integrated
in TQM, such as organisation, leadership, teamwork, just to name a few.
2.1 What is Total Quality Management?
Sallis (2002), describes Total Quality Management (TQM) as a management model that
emphasises leadership, teamwork, strategy, rigorous analysis and self-assessment. It
should be understood as a long-term philosophy, rather than a short-term fix, and in our
continuously changing world, it seems more necessary than ever. In order to stay ahead of
the competition, organisations should try to find out what their customers want and the
focus themselves on meeting and exceeding these requirements.
The rapid advances in technology result from a knowledge revolution which has changed
the way people work, think and even the way they learn, and in order to deal with this
information age, high standards in education are required. All children, and adults, have
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
6Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
the right to accomplish high educational attainments levels, which is why a high quality
education is a must. The message of TQM in education is that every child has worth and
demands the best possible change in life.
TQM is both a philosophy and a methodology which can help institutions manage changes
and organise themselves to deal with the plethora of new external pressures. However,
TQM does not bring results overnight; neither is it a universal remedy for all the problems
that beset education. It is rather an important set of tools that can be employed in the
management of educational institutions.
2.2 Quality, product and service in education
In order to fully understand the whole philosophy of TQM, it is necessary to examine what
it is meant by quality, what the product and the service is and who the customers are in
the educational context.
2.2.1 Quality in education
The term quality, from the Latin quails, meaning “of what kind, of such a kind”, can be
used as an absolute and as a relative concept (Sallis, 2002). Used as an absolute, quality
things are probably of the highest standards and seem unattainable. This concept used in
the educational context is elitist in essence, and according to this definition, just a few
institutions are able to offer such top quality education to their students. In contrast, in its
relative sense, quality is a means by which the end product is judged as being up to
standard- or not, rather than being the end in itself, and what makes a product or service
of quality is the fact that it meets the standards set for it. The notion of quality as an
absolute is more elitist, whereas its relative sense is more egalitarian.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
7Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
In turn, there are two aspects to this relative notion of quality. On the one hand, there is a
procedural concept, emphasising that a product or service complies with certain
predetermined standards and criteria. In the educational context, hard quality indicators
comprise public examinations and league tables for schools and colleges. On the other
hand, transformational quality focuses on softer and more concrete aspects of quality,
including care, customer service and social responsibility. Rather than through adhering to
systems and procedures, transformational quality is achieved through the exercise of
leadership, which establishes the vision that later translates into customer service and
builds the structures and organisational culture that make it possible for all staff to deliver
a quality service. In a nutshell, the ultimate aim of transformation quality is excellence.
2.2.2 Product and service in education
In education, learners are often referred to as the output, mainly when discussing
institutions’ performance, and in so doing, education sounds as if it were a production
line. Instead, it is probably more helpful to talk about education as a service, for a number
of reasons (Sallis, 2002). First, services entail direct contact between the provider and the
end-user, and it cannot be separated from who delivers it (the institution) or from who
receives it (the students). Second, the time aspect is important as services are derived on
time, and consumed at the moment of delivery, which means that the control of its quality
buy inspection is often late. Third, a service cannot be serviced of mended, and therefore
it is imperative that its standard is right first time. Next, services are largely about process,
rather than product, making them intangible. Another characteristic of services is that
they are sometimes rendered by junior employees, as opposed to senior staff, who tend
to be remote from customers, and this is why it is so important to train staff and keep
them motivated. Finally, the intangible nature of services makes it difficult to measure
successful output and productivity, being customer satisfaction the only meaningful
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
8Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
performance indicator. Such soft indicators as care, courtesy, concern, friendliness and
helpfulness are often the ones that remain in customers’ minds.
In conclusion, education can be defined as a provider of services, including tuition,
assessment, and guidance, not only to students but also to parents, sponsors, and other
members of the community.
Now it is important to discuss what steps institutions could follow in order to plan for and
ensure quality in education.
2.3 Strategic planning for quality
Quality must be the ultimate goal any institution must accomplish, and for this institution
is to be a long-term culture-change programme, it must be planned for following a
strategically rigorous systematic approach.
To achieve long-term direction, the institution must first create constancy purpose
(Deming, 1986), which can only be achieved within the context of a corporate strategy. A
strong customer focus must underlie the strategy, but at the heart must be a strong
strategic vision, which is one of the most important critical success factors for any
institution.
A strategic planning process for an educational institution is not different from that of
another industry, and without a strategy an institution cannot be certain it is best placed
to exploit new opportunities as they develop. Figure 1 below shows the key questions and
issues the institution should address in the strategic planning process.
When undertaking strategic planning, it seems more sensible to go from the philosophical
to the practical, even though there is no special sequence of activities. Strategy must be
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
9Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
based around various customer groups and their expectation, from which policies and
plans develop, which, in turn, deliver the mission and develop the vision. This is why it is
important to take a systematic approach to planning the organisation’s corporate future.
Figure 2 suggests a possible strategy planning sequence any educational institution could
adopt.
Figure 1 The strategic planning process (adapted from Sallis, 1994: 108)
2.3.1 Mission, vision, values and goals
Usually organisations make a distinction between their mission, vision, values and goals
(also called aims or objectives) in order to define what sort of business they are in, what
sort of institution they wish to be and the direction they want to move towards.
The mission is the organisational and it expresses la raison d’être (i.e. the reason for its
existence) of the organisation. It makes it clear why an institution is different from the
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Mission, vision, values and goalsWhat is our purpose?
What are our mission, vision and values?
Customer/Learner requirementsWho are our customers?
What do our customers expect of us?What do we need to be good at to meet customer expectations?
What do our learners require from the institution?What methods do we use to identify learner/customer needs?
Investing in PeopleHow should we make the most of our staff?
Are we investing sufficiently in staff and staff development?
Routes to successWhat are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
What factors are critical to our success?
Quality performanceWhat standards are we going to set?How are we going to deliver quality?
What will quality cost us?
Evaluating the processDo we have processes in place to deal with things that go wrong?
How will we know if we have been successful?
10Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
others, it describes what it does and for whom and answers the question, Why do we do
what we do? (de Wit and Mayer, 2010). The organisational beliefs are expressed in its
vision, which communicates what it stands for, and what it does in order to accomplish its
tasks. It differs from the mission in that while the latter focuses on the present, the latter
looks at the future; however, they are closely linked since it is the desire for a better
future (vision) that motivates the organisation and individuals to perform their mission
today.
Figure 2 A possible strategy planning sequence (adapted from Sallis, 2002: 125)
The values are the set of fundamental principles which guide the organisation’s strategic
decision-making through which the organisation operates and seeks to achieve its mission
and vision (Sallis, 2002; Johnson et.al, 2008). The values must be aligned to the
environment in which the institution operates.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Mission, Vision, Values & Goals
Stakeholder Analysis & CSR
SWOT , CSFs & Benchmarking
Corporate & Strategic Plan
Quality Policy & Quality Plan
Quality Costs
Evaluation & Feedback
11Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
After the mission, vision and values have been set up, they need to be translated into
objectives, or goals. These are statements of specific outcomes that are to be achieved.
Although they are often expressed in financial terms – e.g. profit levels, rates of growth,
dividend levels or share valuations, organisations may also have market-based objectives,
many of which are quantified as targets – such as market share, customer service, among
others (Johnson et.al, 2008). It is important that goals are realistic and achievable and that
they are expressed in a measurable way so that the final outcomes can be measured
against them. Institutional goals must take place at three levels: immediate, short-term
and long-term, which must be reflected when monitoring and assessing quality (discussed
in 2.3.6 below).
2.3.2 Stakeholder analysis and CSR
In order to implement TQM effectively, it is essential to conduct good market research by
listening to the organisation’s customers, both actual and potential. Therefore it is vital to
identify who the customers in education are, analyse them and what the CSR stance of the
institution is in relation to its stakeholders’ expectations.
2.3.2.1 Customers in education
The customers are the stakeholders of the service, and a distinction can be made between
internal and external customers (Figure 3); i.e., employees and those who have a direct
responsibility for the institution’s success, on the one hand, and those who influence and
are influenced by the institution but are not a member of it, on the other (Johnson, et. al.,
2008). The latter can, in turn, be divided into three subgroups according to the nature of
their relationship with the institution (Sallis, 2002):
primary customers: those who directly receive the service, i.e. the learners;
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
12Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
secondary customers: those who have a direct interest in the education of a
particular individual, or in a particular institution; e.g., parents, governors,
sponsoring employees of vocational students, or sponsoring universities of
student teachers;
tertiary customers: those who have less direct contact with the institution, but are
nevertheless highly interested in education; e.g., government, unions, future
employers, the community in general.
Not always do the needs and views of these various customer groups coincide, and, in
fact, there will always be conflicts of customer interest. Of paramount importance is to
ensure the primary customers’ views, which is not always easy, especially when the
learners’ needs collide with funding mechanisms emphasising efficiency at the cost of
quality, making it difficult for an institution to put the learners first. Perhaps one way of
resolving these conflicts of interests is to acknowledge their existence and try to find the
core issues that unite all the parties involved.
Another way of understanding where to problem lies and the best way to solve it is to
map the stakeholders on a power/ interest matrix, which helps identify stakeholders’
expectations and power, and helps understand political priorities, very important when
dealing with changes in educational policies and government funding issues. This matrix
does not differentiate between external and internal stakeholders and arrange them on a
two-by-two grid where the dimensions are the stakeholder's interest in the institution and
the stakeholder's power to affect the institution’s future.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
13Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 3 Customers in Education
The stakeholders’ position in Figure 4 shows the actions the institution should take with
them. Quadrant D identifies the key players, the ones with a lot of power and, therefore,
of paramount importance such as the government – the direct source of funding, learners
and pupils – the primary customers, and senior staff and teaching staff, without whom the
institution could not be run. This is why it seems vital that the institution invests in staff
development at an early stage, almost at the same time as analysing the learners’
requirements. If there are some SEN pupils, for example, it seems only logical that the
school makes provision to develop its staff to be able to cater for these pupils’ needs.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Headteacher Senior Staff
SCHOOL
Teachers Support Staff
Other employees
Learners
Parents
Governors
Sponsoring employees of
vocational students/ Sponsoring
universities of student teachers
Government
Unions
Future employers
General Community
14Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 4 Stakeholder mapping in education
Although those in quadrant C may seem relatively passive, their needs and interests
should be met to prevent their moving to quadrant D. These are context setters (Bryson,
2004) who have power but very direct interest. With new educational policies, such as the
one introducing free schools and academies in the UK, the media should be kept satisfied
so that they help create a positive attitude among the general public – and potential
customers – towards the implementation of this new type of institutions. Similarly, Unions
may eventually have a say in this new policy as teacher pay scheme reforms or
deregulations may be introduced as a result.
Institutions must not forget to address the expectations of stakeholders in quadrant B by
keeping them informed, as these can be crucially important allies for the institution and
may influence the attitudes of other powerful stakeholders. For example, often parents
organise a Parent’s Association to provide a structure through which the parents or
guardians of children attending the school can work together for the best possible
education for their children. The PA works with the headteacher, staff and board of
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
AMinimal effort- Community in general
BKeep informed- Parents- Governors- Sponsors- Universities
CKeep satisfied- Unions- Pension funds- Media
DKey players- Headteacher and senior staff- Teaching staff- Learners- Government
15Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
management to build effective partnership of home and school and to create a forum for
educational discussion and communication. Lastly, quadrant A consists of the crowd, i.e.
stakeholders with little interest or power (Bryson, 2004).
2.3.2.2 Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Traditionally, CSR has been reserved to analyse corporate for-profit business organisations,
which schools and the educational sector never seemed to be part of, since education
provision – at least primary and secondary – has always been regarded as being the
government’s responsibility, from which no profit was made. However, nowadays, the new
educational policies allowing private organisations to set up schools seem to be leading
education towards a marketised sector, which therefore calls for an analysis of their
corporate social responsibility stance with respect to their stakeholders.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is defined as ‘the way in which an organisation
exceeds its minimum obligations to stakeholders through regulation' (Johnson et.al, 2008:
146). An institution’s CSR reflects its role in the society; nevertheless, it is not possible for
an organisation to put equal interest to all its stakeholders, due to the nature of the laws
and regulations under which a company works. CSR policies are particularly important to
both contractual and community stakeholders; whereas the former are legally related to
the company, the latter are not (Johnson et.al, 2008). The contractual stakeholders of an
educational institution are headteachers and senior managers, administrators, teaching
and non-teaching staff, students, partners, and distributors, just to mention some.
Organisations also take very different standpoint on social responsibility, and, accordingly,
they are classified into four types, summarised in Figure 4 below. The further away they
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
16Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
move, the more inclusive they are of stakeholders’ interests and the wider their vision for
strategy implementation.
Figure 5 CSR stances (adapted from Johnson, et.al. (2008: 146))
At one end of the spectrum, a laissez-faire organisation considers the sole responsibility of
business is the short-term interests of shareholders and to make a profit, pay taxes and
provide jobs (Murdoch, 1997). The government prescribes, through legislation and
regulation, the constraints society imposes on businesses in their pursuit of economic
efficiency; but the organisation will meet only these minimum obligations, no more.
Enlightened self-interest recognises ‘the long-term financial benefit to the shareholder of
well-managed relationships with other stakeholders’ (Johnson et.al, 2008: 155). The
organisation’s reputation is important to its long-term financial success, and in order to
ensure compliance with best practice, systems and policies are usually set up. Similarly,
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Laissez-faire Enlightened self-interest
Forum for stakeholder interaction
Shaper of society
RationaleLegal compliance: make profit, pay
taxes and provide jobs
Sound business sense Sustainable Social and market
change
Leadership Peripheral Supportive Champion Visionary
ManagementMiddle
management responsibility
Systems to ensure good
practice
Board-level issue; organisation-
wide monitoring
Individual responsibility through the organisation
ModeDefensive to
ouitside pressures
Reactive to outside pressures Proactive Defining
Stakerholder relationship
Unilateral / one-way Interactive Partnership
Multi-organisation
alliances
17Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
top management they support the firm by taking a more proactive social role. Sponsors of
major sports or art events are an example of such companies.
A forum for stakeholder interaction ‘explicitly incorporates multiple stakeholder interests
and expectations rather than just shareholders as influences on organisational purposes
and strategies’ (Johnson et.al, 2008: 155). In this view, the organisation’s performance is
more pluralistic and they might retain uneconomic units in order to preserve jobs, avoid
manufacturing or selling ‘anti-social’ products, and be prepared to bear reductions in
profitability for the social good. Here the difficulty lies in balancing the different
stakeholders’ interests. For example, many public sector organisations fall into this
category as their performance measurement depends on a wide diversity of expectations.
Through the way that they operate, many family-owned small firms may also be included
in this group.
Last but not least, at the other end of the spectrum, shapers of society consider financial
issues to be of secondary importance, or even a constriction. The social role is the raison
d’être of the organisation, who seek to change society and social norms, thus being
considered activists. Some would argue that public services have succeeded in
transforming the quality of life for millions of people mainly because they are ‘mission
driven’ in this way and operate in a politically supported framework. These type of
organisations take a socially responsible position, as they believe that being socially
responsible reduces the risk of negative stakeholder reactions and can help retain loyal,
motivated employees. In the light of this description, educational institutions seem to be
an example of this type of organisations: by educating the younger generation, they have
the power to shape society, they always operate in a changing political framework, and
they are not financially-driven. However, with the emergence of Charities and Trusts
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
18Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
running academies funded directly by the government (hence taxpayers’ money), the
legitimacy of their mission-driven stance is beginning to be challenged, but at the same
time, they are expected to demonstrate good results.
2.3.3 SWOT, CSFs and Benchmarking
All organisations should have a clear idea of what they need to be good at in order to
devise their routes to success. They can do this by analysing their strengths, weakness,
opportunities and threats (SWOT), their critical success factors (CSFs) and benchmarking
the institution in relation to both the school and other similar organisations, and the
school itself.
2.3.3.1 SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is probably one of the most common but most effective instruments of
strategic planning used in education to locate the institution’s potential. It is divided into
two elements: an internal audit concentrating on analysing the strengths and weaknesses
of the performance of the institution itself, and an external audit focusing on the threats
and opportunities of the environmental context in which the institution operates (Figure
6). This activity aims at maximising strengths and minimising weaknesses, while reducing
threats and building on opportunities.
The SWOT exercise can be reinforced by ensuring the analysis concentrates on the two
key variables in developing a long-term corporate strategy: the customer requirements
and the competitive context the institution operates in. The institution’s strategy should
be developed in such a way as to enable the institution to defend itself against the
competition and maximise its attractiveness to its customers. Combined with an
examination of the mission and values, this analysis can help seek a distinctive niche
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
19Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 6 SWOT Analysis of an educational institution (adapted from Sallis, 2002: 126)
which may differentiate the institution from its rivals. Once this distinctive characteristic is
developed, the quality characteristics for an institution can be identified more easily
(Sallis, 2002).
2.3.3.2 Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
In order to develop the strategic capability in an organisation, from the potential
providers’ viewpoint, it is crucial to understand not just the needs of customers, but which
product/service features are particularly important to a group of customers and,
therefore, where the organisation must excel to outperform competition (Jonson et.al.,
2008) This is known as the critical success factors (CSFs), which must be achieved if an
institution is to satisfy its customers and its mission statement. They are similar to
performance indicators (PIs), the difference being that the latter are often generated by
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
20Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
others and do not always relate to the mission statement of the institution or its
customers’ requirements (Sallis, 2002).
On its list of CSFs, an institution could include not only external measures but also internal
indicators, some of which are illustrated in Figure 7.
Figure 7 Example of external and internal CSFs
2.3.3.3 Benchmarking
All organisations providing public services face additional demands of increased scrutiny
and accountability. Benchmarking helps educational institutions develop tools that can be
integrated into their own organisation so that they can learn from the best practices of
others as well as their own success and failures, and it can be approached in various ways.
Functional benchmarking gives insights about performance standards by comparing the
performance of one’s own institution with other educational organisations against a set of
performance indicators; such is the case of league tables of school examination results
published in the UK. This approach can be competitive in nature, where institutions want
to find out how the rival does it; however, the key information is often difficult or
impossible to obtain, and this may turn into a spying exercise. This is why many
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Internal CSFs
an accessible admissions systemlearning modes which meet learner needsproperly functioning teamsimproved examination pass rateslearner development of social, personal, cultural and ethical valuesimprovements in teaching/learning strategiesimprovement of the majority of staff in improvement teamsimproved progression rates, e.g. into employment and further and higher education
External CSFs
improved access to the institutiongreater customer satisfaction evidenced through surveysincreased market shareincreased take up of provision by minority and disadvantaged groupsgreater responsiveness to community needsstronger relationship with industry and commerce
21Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
institutions prefer a more collaborative type of functional benchmarking, where the
institution being benchmarked works in partnership in the exercise, resulting in a mutual
benefit as any institution has lessons to gain from another.
Another approach to benchmarking compares an institution’s performance against best-
in-class performance, no matter where that is found, which may help senior staff at
schools understand that incremental changes in resources or competences may ultimately
lead to satisfactory improvements in performance. These two approaches go hand in hand
and they seldom take place in isolation. After all, the ultimate goal of benchmarking is to
learn the lessons of others and to use them to improve areas in one particular institution.
A very simple example of benchmarking would be that a headteacher together with other
senior members of staff visited an outstanding school (according to Ofsted) in the area in
order to discover best practice and ensure that theirs matches it, and then aspire to do
even better.
An institution can also examine its internal processes to determine its own best-practices
by comparing and learning from the performance of other departments or subjects within
the institution itself (Weller, 1996; Sallis, 2002), which can be done through systematic
lesson observations, information-sharing forums and knowledge-sharing communities.
This is known as internal benchmarking. This practice of benchmarking one’s own
institution before searching outside for exemplars is probably more valuable than doing it
otherwise since it does not pose a threat to any confidentiality issues or problems with
accessing sensitive data and saves time on external ventures.
Internal benchmarking is closely related with knowledge management (KM) and the
notion of becoming a learning organisation. The former involves a range of strategies and
practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
22Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
adoption of both insights and experiences comprising knowledge, either embodied in
individuals or embedded in organisations as processes or practices. KM focuses primarily
on organisational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage
(Porter, 1985), innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, integration and continuous
improvement of the organisation. When an organisation develops and encourages an
open knowledge-sharing culture, and facilitates the learning of all its members,
consciously transforming itself and its context is said to be a learning organisation (Pedler
et.al., 1997).
This is typically exemplified when the story or history of a particular institution is written
up and filmed in such a way that the most noticeable features of success come to the fore.
This learning story can be used as part of a staff development or quality improvement
session.
Benchmarking is important as a means of establishing competitive advantage, learning
from and doing better than the market leader. It is a systematic approach to
organisational improvement which may considerably speed the development of a new
curriculum and assure that quality standards are built in at the planning stage.
2.3.4 Corporate and Strategic Plan
In order to give the institution direction into how it is going to achieve success in this
competitive educational market, the production of a strategic plan, or corporate plan,
becomes vital.
Probably the best way of illustrating this is to use the Ansoff matrix (Ansoff, 1988), a
product/market growth matrix which provides a simple way of generating four basic
alternative directions for strategic development (see Figure 8):
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
23Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 8 Ansoff Matrix (Ansoff, 1988)
An organisation normally starts in box A, with two choices:
market penetration: the organisation takes increased share of its existing markets
with its existing product range; it builds on existing strategic capabilities and
without having to venture into unknown territory. However, organisations seeking
greater market penetration may face two constraints:
o retaliation from competitors: increasing market penetration is likely to
aggravate industry rivalry as other competitors in the market defend their
share; therefore, when in danger of retaliation, organisations seeking
market penetration need strategic capabilities that give a clear
competitive advantage;
o legal constraints: greater market penetration can encounter legal
obstacles pertaining to a specific country as most countries have
regulators with the powers to restrain powerful companies or prevent
mergers and acquisitions that would create such excessive power.
consolidation: focuses defensively on the organisation’s current markets with
current products, but is not orientated to growth. It can take two forms:
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
A Market
penetration/Consolidation
BProduct
development
CMarket
development
DDiversification
24Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
o defending market share: when facing aggressive competitors,
organisations have to work hard and often creatively to protect what they
already have;
o downsizing or divestment: when the size of the market as a whole is
declining, reducing the size of the business seems unavoidable; another
option is divesting (selling) some activities to other businesses.
Buying up rivals in a fragmented industry can also be described as consolidation. By
acquiring weaker competitors, the consolidating company can gain market power and
increase overall efficiency. Although this form of consolidation could be seen as a kind of
market penetration because it increases market share, the motivation here is essentially
defensive.
Moving rightwards (box B), organisations can develop new products for its existing
markets. Market penetration normally implies some product development, but here it
requires a greater degree of innovation. This can, however, result an expensive and high-
risk activity because of two main reasons:
o new strategic capabilities: product development entails mastering of new
technologies that may be unfamiliar to the organisation, therefore
involving heavy investments and high risk of project failures;
o project management risk: some projects usually attract some delays or
cost increase due to their complex nature.
Since product development may be expensive and risky, the organisation may resort to an
alternative strategy: market development (box C), i.e. bring its existing products into new
markets. This can take three forms:
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
25Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
o new segments: e.g. in public services, an educational institution may start
offering educational services to mature students through the opening of
evening courses;
o new users: e.g. a software that was originally developed for virtual
communications in international companies is now used by schools so that
students can communicates with their peers in other countries;
o new geographies: the best example is internationalisation, e.g. when an
organisation expands his services to other countries.
Probably the most radical step is diversification (box D), which takes the organisation to all
new markets and new products, involving building on new relationships with existing
markets or products. Diversification can also result from market penetration and product
development, and should be seen as question of degree, rather than a strategy on its own.
There are three main value-creating reasons why this strategy is followed:
o efficiency gains: also described as economies of scope, i.e. when an
organisation applies its existing resources or capabilities to new markets
and products or services
o stretching corporate parenting capabilities: new markets and products or
services can be another source of gain; this extends the point above about
applying existing competences in new areas.
o increasing market power: resulting from having a diverse range of
businesses, which may enable an organisation to cross-subsidise one
business from the surpluses earned by another, thus giving an
organisation a competitive advantage; and in the long run driving out
other competitors.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
26Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Some other reasons may serve managerial interests rather than stakeholders’ interests:
o responding to market decline: the best example is Microsoft when
venturing with the Xbox, which involved a very high cost in launching and
marketing; the shareholders would have probably left Sony and Nintendo
to create games, and keep the Xbox money;
o spreading risk across a range of businesses;
o the expectations of powerful stakeholders, including top managers, can
sometimes drive inappropriate diversification.
2.3.5 Quality policy, Quality plan and Quality costs
Educational institutions are involved in quality assurance activities on the basis of
professional responsibility, as well as other reasons linked with the competition inherent
in educational marketplaces or from the need to demonstrate accountability. According to
Sallis (2002), there are four quality imperatives that reflect the complex environment in
which educational establishments operate:
the moral imperative: it is the duty of educational professionals and
administrators to provide the very best possible educational opportunities for
students, parents and the community.
the professional imperative: professionalism entails a commitment to the
students’ needs and an obligation to meet those needs by putting the most
appropriate methodology into practice.
the competitive imperative: competition has become a reality in the educational
sector, this requires strategies that makes institutions different from their
competitors, and most often quality is the only differentiating factor for an
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
27Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
institution; focusing on students’ needs is one of the most effective ways of
tackling competition and surviving.
the accountability imperative: as part of their communities, schools have the duty
to publicly demonstrate their high standards, thus meeting the political demands
for education.
Should the institution fail to meet any of the above imperatives, its well-being and survival
can be in jeopardy. These are moments in which both politicians and parents’ demands
are high, and for the industry of education quality improvement is no longer an option,
but a must.
The quality of education an institution provides can be assessed using external quality
standards, which are not compulsory and many institutions chose not to be burdened with
meeting someone else’s standards; however, they are worth considering when developing
a quality programme, for the following reasons:
they help the institution develop a TQM culture,
they can be used as a framework for auditing quality processes, and
they serve as a self-assessment tool.
From the general to the specific, from the international to the national, Figure 9 identifies
some of the school award schemes an educational institution may choose to follow.
Even though it is not compulsory for schools to apply for these awards, it is, to some
extent, important since customers – students, parents and the community - need the
assurance and confidence that the supplier – the school – has the ability to provide the
product or service consistently to the defined quality.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
28Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
In contrast, Ofsted inspections are compulsory and schools cannot opt out. Ofsted is an
independent and impartial body reporting directly to Parliament, who inspect and
regulate services which care for children and young people, and those providing education
and skills for learners of all ages; therefore, hundreds of inspections and regulatory visits
throughout England are carried out every week (www.ofsted.gov.uk).
Figure 9 External Standards in Education
These inspections serve, for educational institutions, as means of verifying self-assessment
and quality control, rather than quality improvement, which is a much greater task and
cannot be externally imposed. Institutions cannot hand over the process of improving
quality to an external inspector.
Quality costing implies to measure the benefits of quality improvement. TQM aims at
approaching things the right way first time and every time, with zero defects. Most often
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
EXTERNAL STANDARDS
IN EDUCATION
ISO9000:2000
INVESTORS IN PEOPLE
OFSTEDAWARD
QUALITY MARK
IQM(INCLUSION
QUALITY MARK)
HEALTHY SCHOOLS
ARTSMARK
ECO-SCHOOLS
29Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
the costs involved in prevention, are essential to stop things going wrong and to ensure
things are done properly. While these costs can be directly quantified, the costs of failure,
which usually involve opportunity costs – lost opportunities or businesses, are more
difficult to measure. Figure 10 below provides some examples of how costs can be
prevented and what may cause cost failure, both at an internal and external level.
Figure 10 Examples of prevention and failure costs in education (Sallis, 2002:131)
2.3.6 Feedback and evaluation
If the institution is a learning organisation, in order to prevent failure and to ensure quality
systems are in place, monitoring, feedback and evaluation are key elements in strategic
planning. This should customer-focused and should explore two issues:
the degree to which the institution is meeting the requirements of its customers,
or stakeholders, both internal and external;
how well it is achieving its mission and goals, at the three levels discussed above:
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
30Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
o intermediate – by checking students’ progress on a daily basis; this is quite
an informal evaluation, carried out termly by teachers, for instance;
o short-term – involving more structured assessment to verify the students
are on track, and can be used as a quality control method to highlight
mistakes and problems; the focus here is on corrective action to prevent
student failure or under-achievement;
o long-term – implying an overview of the progress towards achieving
strategic goals; as an institutional-led evaluation, it requires large-scale
sampling of customer views as well as monitoring of institutional PIs. This
type of evaluation can result in the institution’s updating the strategic
plan.
2.4 Organisational considerations
Educational institutions and their environments are in a state of constant change, and like
all organisations, they have a life cycle, i.e., formation, growth, maturity, and either
decline and decay, or renewal and revitalisation (Figure 11). Therefore, at each stage, an
institution must change, adapt and develop. With its powerful components of long-term
strategic planning and the engagement of staff in continuous improvement, TQM provides
the necessary means of confronting challenges at each stage.
The question that should be discussed now concerns what type of organisational structure
and design is most effective in light of the TQM model.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
31Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 11 Phases of institutional development (Sallis, 2002:61)
2.4.1 Organisational structure and design
Organisations have existed for over two millennia, where human beings, forming social
entities have worked together towards a common goal arranged in a structure designed
according to the influence the environment exerts on it, and traditionally directed by a
manager assigning tasks and responsibilities to other individuals or groups. The system in
which a company’s important tasks are subdivided and grouped to create the processes,
decision centres, and behavioural network that carries out the strategies is known as
organisational structure (Bloisi et.al., 2003), which are usually represented by a symbolic
structure with boxes and lines showing the positions and reporting relations, i.e. an
organisational chart. Another important concept is that of organisational design, defined
as ‘the process managers go through to create meaningful structures, decision and
information networks, and governance systems’ (Bloisi et.al., 2003: 624). The design is the
framework on which a more organic, emergent social structure develops as people
interact, argue, fall out, come together and otherwise manage their daily situation (Bate
at.al., 2000), whereas organisational structure includes both ‘the prescribed frameworks
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
32Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
and realised configurations of interaction, and the degrees to which they are mutually
constituted and constituting’ (Ranson, 1980: 3).
The organisational design is important because it provides for
1. the allocation and grouping of tasks;
2. communication networks;
3. a structure locating the authorities;
4. processes for coordination, control and conflict resolution; and
5. the way to link key activities with the relevant external stakeholders.
Traditionally, four basic structures have been identified as a method of organisational
design (Bloisi et.al., 2003):
organisational design by function groups people into departments according to
expertise, functions performed, and similar skills;
organisational design by geography applies when organisations grow, they usually
expand to other regions, or even countries;
organisational design by product line groups different departments according to
the product or service they provide;
organisational design by customer/channel market allows the staff to concentrate
on specific services based on the type of customer or channel market.
Even though organisations may be structured in different ways, probably the most
common ones are tall, flat and matrix structures.
Tall structures show a both hierarchical and psychological distance between the
top and the bottom. They can result in complex reporting relationships, operating
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
33Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
and support systems, promotion and career paths, and differentiated job titles;
however, spans of control tend to be small and the proportion of staff with some
form of supervisory responsibility tends to be high with respect to the whole
organisation (Pettinger, 2007). For instance, in Figure 12 below, the Human
Resource Manager (reporting directly to Director C) and the IT controller
(reporting directly to Director B) are in staff relationship to the organisation as a
whole.
Figure 12 Example of a tall structure: staff relationship
Flat structures, in contrast, show a short hierarchical distance between top and
bottom as there few levels or ranks, and jobs tend to be concentrated at lower
levels, often carrying responsibilities of quality control or deadline targets. Spans
of control is usually large and career paths may be limited, but these may be
replaced by opportunities for functional and expertise development as well as
participation in various projects.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
S u p e rv iso r
C h ie f c le rk 1
C le rk 1 C le rk 2
C h ie f c le rk 2
S u p e rv iso r
M a n ag e r 1 M a n ag e r 2
D ire c to r A
IT co n tro lle r
M a n ag e r 3 M a n ag e r 4
D ire c to r B
H u m a n R e sou rce M a n a g er
D ire c to r C
C E O
34Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 13 Flat organisational structure in a small school district
Matrix structures incorporate dual responsibilities and reporting relationships
linking certain functions with specific products or projects. This type of structure is
generally used in organisations where people with functional expertise are
assigned to a project only temporarily, and then are reassigned to another project
once the previous one has been accomplished (Bloisi et.al., 2003).
Figure 14 Matrix structure of a school
2.4.2 Centralisation vs. decentralisation
The structure of an organisation usually tells where decisions are made, and managers
usually have to decide whether to adopt a centralised or decentralised approach.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
35Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Centralisation ‘is the concentration of authority and decision-making towards the top of
an organisation’, whereas decentralisation ‘is the dispersion of authority and decision-
making to operating units throughout an organisation’ (Bloisi et.al., 2003: 631)
Many medium-to-large companies tend to have a degree of both centralisation and
decentralisation in their structure, whereas large organisations, with highly qualified
employees are less centralised, diffusing decision-making and allowing greater
participation.
Naturally, both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. Table 1 summarises
the advantages of these two approaches:
Table 1 Advantages of centralised and decentralised structures
Advantages of Centralised Structures Advantages of Decentralised StructuresSenior managers enjoy greater control over the organisation.
Senior managers have time to concentrate on the most important decisions (as the other decisions can be undertaken by other people down the organisation structure.
The use of standardised procedures can results in cost savings.
Decision making is a form of empowerment. Empowerment can increase motivation and therefore mean that staff output increases.
Decisions can be made to benefit the organisations as a whole, whereas a decision made by a department manager may benefit their department, but disadvantage other departments.
People lower down the chain have a greater understanding of the environment they work in and the people (customers and colleagues) that they interact with. This knowledge skills and experience may enable them to make more effective decisions than senior managers.
The organisation can benefit from the decision making of experienced senior managers.
Empowerment will enable departments and their employees to respond faster to changes and new challenges. Whereas it may take senior managers longer to appreciate that business needs have changed.
In uncertain times the organisation will need strong leadership and pull in the same direction. It is believed that strong leadership is often best given from above.
Empowerment makes it easier for people to accept and make a success of more responsibility.
Contrastingly, the drawbacks of both styles are summarised below (Campbell and Craig,
2007):
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
36Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Table 2 Disadvantages of centralised and decentralised structures
Disadvantages of Centralised Structures Disadvantages of Decentralised StructuresIt restricts the ability of certain area managers to use their knowledge of specific circumstances to adapt their area of activity for the optimum benefit of the organisation
It may lead to the problem of co-ordination at the level of an enterprise as the decision-making authority is not concentrated.
It has a detrimental effect on management development by stifling initiative
It may lead to inconsistencies (i.e. absence of uniformity) at the organisation level.
It is generally incompatible with effective management in highly competitive environment
It is costly as it raises administrative expenses on account of requirement of trained personnel to accept authority at lower levels
Bureaucracy controls of efficiency inhibit overall organisation's effectiveness
Its introduction may be difficult or impracticable in small concerns where product lines are not broad enough for the creation of autonomous units for administrative purposes.It creates special problems particularly when the enterprise is facing number of uncertainties or emergency situations
Burns and Stalker (1966) grouped organisations according to how they respond to their
environment into two categories: mechanistic and organic organisation. Mechanistic
organisations show a rigid hierarchical structure, where control and authority is at the top,
tasks are divided into specific functional duties, also related to individual roles. Here a
direct link with the centralised approach can be established. On the other hand, organic
organisations tend to value knowledge and experience for its contribution to the common
task, and individual tasks are seen in relation to the organisation as a whole, which are
constantly redefined through the interaction with others. Authority and control has a
lateral direction, rather than vertical, and power is based around knowledge, which can be
located anywhere in the organisation, and therefore, prestige is more associated with
experience than position (Morgan, 2006).
These two types of organisations are found at opposite ends of a continuum and most are
expected to have a mix of both types.
2.4.3 An effective TQM structure
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37Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
An effective TQM institution is usually diametrically opposed to the traditional centralised
model. Quality is integrated into its structure, involving everyone at all levels to make their
own contribution; thus the institution acting like one in a more organic fashion.
An institution embracing TQM tends to eliminate hierarchies, which are replaced by a
flatter structure with strong cross-institutional links built around a strong teamwork. Tall
hierarchies, such as the one in Figure 12, with excessive layers of management usually
hold back the job of those in the classroom. Whereas such traditional organisations are
structured around functions, a TQM institution is organised around processes which are
under a single and simple chain of command. Excellent organisations have simple and
non-bureaucratic structures based on active and enthusiastic teams. Some of the main
differences between a quality and an ordinary organisation are summarised below:
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Figure 15 The differences between a quality institution and an ordinary institution (Sallis, 2002: 64)
38Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Taking into account that structure follows process under TQM, the features needed for
any quality institution are the following (Sallis, 2002):
Table 3 Features of a quality institution
Unit optimisation every department needs to function efficiently and effectively operating within clear quality standards
Vertical alignment it may not be necessary for all members of staff to have a detailed breakdown of objectives but all of them need to understand the strategy, the direction and mission of the institution
Horizontal alignment there should be mechanisms in place in order to bar out any problems arising from competition between departments and gear everyone towards an understanding of the aims and requirements of other parts of the institution
A single command for each process key processes such as curriculum, pastoral and administrative should be charted and organised so as to bring each process under a single chain of command. The charting process usually results from analysing who the customer is what their needs are and the standards they should expect.
Figure 16 Institutional alignment (Sallis, 2002: 65)
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
39Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
An institution is not required to undergo a structural reorganisation for TQM since, as
much as useful and necessary process it may be a, it can divert attention from quality
improvement and lead to institutional fatigue. Therefore, the most sensible move is
probably to avoid institutional restructuring at the beginning of the programme and let
structure change be an effect of the quality improvement process, rather than been
forced upon it.
2.5 Educational leadership and TQM
Leadership is the key factor in any TQM institution. The leader should be visible and have
an understanding and feeling for the front-line and the process of the institution. The
leader should communicate the vision and the values of the institution to others, and in
order to do this effectively, the leadership style they need to exercise is that of
‘management by walking about’ (MBWA) (Peters and Austin, 1986). A passion for
excellence and the values of the institution are not communicated behind an office desk;
the leader must get out among the staff and the customers and experience the service for
themselves. The figure below summarises the attributes of an educational leader (Peters
and Austin, 1986).
In order that the improvement process can be sustained, leadership must be at all levels
of the institution. The primary role for any leader should be that of commitment to
quality, and equally important are those of communicating the vision, developing a quality
culture and empowering teachers. That is why TQM is said to be a top-down process.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
40Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 17 The attributes of an educational leader
2.5.1 Communicating the vision
Mission, vision and inspiration should be communicated and cascaded throughout the
institution by senior management. It is probably middle managers who may find it more
difficult to accept and implement this total quality, as this presupposes a change of the
management mind-set, from that of “I’m in charge” to the one of leader of front-line staff
supporting them to deliver the quality of learning. The ultimate aim is to empower
teachers and provide them with greater scope for initiative. For this reason, it is often said
that TQM institutions require less management and more leadership (Sallis, 2002).
2.5.2 Developing a quality culture
In order to develop a quality culture in the institution, leader must (Sallis, 2002):
have a vision of total quality for their own institution;
have a clear commitment to the process of quality improvement;
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
the Headteacher or Principal must communicate the institution’s values to the staff, students and the wider communit
Vision and symbols
this is required leadership style for any institution‘Management by walking about’
the educational equivalent to ‘close to the customer’, it ensures the institution has a clear focus on its primary customers‘For the kids’
educational leaders must encourage innovation among their staff, but they should also be prepared for failures, which inevitably accompany innovation
Autonomy, experimentation, and support for failure
the leader should create a feeling of community among the all the pupils, students, parents, teachers and support staff of the institution
Create a sense of ‘family’
these are the essential personal qualities required of the educational leader
'Sense of the whole, rhythm, passion, intensity, and enthusiasm'
41Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
communicate the quality message;
lead innovation within their institutions;
lead staff development;
build effective teams;
be careful not to blame other when problems arise without looking at the
evidence; often problems result from the policies of the institution itself rather
than from staff’s failures;
ensure organisational structures clearly show responsibilities and delegation in
line with accountability;
be committed to the removal or artificial barriers, either organisational or cultural;
ensure that customer needs are at the centre of the institution’s policies and
practices;
ensure there are adequate channels for the voices of the customers;
develop appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating success.
2.5.3 Empowering teachers
It is important that the leaders guide, support and empower not only teachers, but also all
those involved in teaching-learning process, so that they feel committed to and involved in
the course of improving their students’ learning.
Spanbauer (1992) argues that educational leaders should guide and assist others to
develop a similar set of characteristics, encouraging shared responsibility and a style
which will create an interactive working environment. Leaders must be patient and
‘understand that change happens by degree, not by decree’ (Spanbauer, 1992: 16). He
concludes that in order to empower teachers, leaders should:
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42Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
involve teachers and all staff in problem-solving activities;
induce thinking by asking them how they would go about things and how projects
can be handled, rather than actually telling them how they would happen;
share as much management as possible in order to help foster their commitment;
find out from staff what systems and procedures prevent them from delivering
quality to their customers (students, parents, colleagues?);
strengthen professional growth by moving responsibility and control for
professional development directly to the teachers and technical workers;
implement systematic communication among everyone involved in the school;
develop skills in conflict resolution, problem-solving and negotiations while
displaying greater tolerance for and appreciation of conflict;
learn to be more like a coach and less like a boss;
provide autonomy and allow risk-taking while being fair and compassionate;
be helpful without having all the answers and without being condescending;
model by personally exhibiting desired characteristics and spending time walking
around, listening to teachers and other customer;
provide education in quality concepts and subjects such as team building, process
management, customer service, communication, and leadership;
engage in the delicate balancing act of ensuring quality to external customers
(students, parents, the community), while at the same time paying attention to
the needs of internal customers (teacher, board members and other colleagues)
2.6 Teamwork for quality
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43Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
A TQM organisation is built around strong teamwork which must penetrate, permeate
throughout the institution and extend at all levels and across all functions including both
teaching and support staff.
The synergy required to make quality improvements comes from people working in
harmony. The team is considered to be the essential building block for delivering quality
and has a number of important functions (Miller et.al., 1992):
being accountable for the quality of learning;
being accountable for the use of the teachers’ time, non-teaching time as well as
the materials and space;
being a vehicle for monitoring, evaluating and improving quality;
acting as a channel of information to management on the changes needed to
improve provision and the opportunities for its learners.
Too often in education teamwork is just expected to happen, but the fact is that this is a
skill and we have to learn to be part of a team. It is not a natural human function (Crosby,
1979). A team is made of individuals with different personalities, ideas, strengths and
weaknesses, levels of motivation and demands from their jobs. Some of them may like
each other from the start while some other may tend to disagree on certain things more
often. However, each one of these individuals has to learn how to pick up the best
qualities of each team member and identify their strengths and weaknesses in order to
work effectively together. Like people, teams also need nurturing and mentoring if they
are to function at its best, and here is where the leader should come in.
Traditionally, four stages of team formation have been identified, to which a fifth was
added later (Tuckman, 1965; Tuckman and Jensen, 1977; Taggar and Ellis, 2007):
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
44Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 18 The five stages of team formation
A well-functioning institution consists of a large number of overlapping teams, and mixed
teams – of academic and non-academic staff – playing an important role. Whereas some
teams may have a long life, others will take on smaller short-term tasks. Figure 19
illustrates some tips that could be followed so that teams work effectively.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Forming
The team is assembled and the task is allocated. Team members tend to behave independently and although goodwill may exist they do not know each other well enough to unconditionally trust one another. Time is spent planning, collecting information and bonding.
Storming
The team starts to address the task suggesting ideas. Different ideas may compete for ascendancy and if badly managed this phase can be very destructive for the team. Relationships between team members will be made or broken in this phase, some of which may never recover. In extreme cases the team can become stuck in the Storming phase.
Norming
The team moves towards harmonious working practices, agreeing on the rules and values by which they operate. Teams begin to trust themselves during this phase as they accept the vital contribution of each member to the team. Team leaders can take a step back from the team at this stage as individual members take greater responsibility.
Performing
Team members have worked out their differencies, established their ways of working and can start the process of working together solving problems. This is a fully mature mature team, functioning at a very high level., with the focus is on reaching the goal as a group.
Adjourning
The project is coming to an end and the team members are moving off into different directions. The team leader should ensure that there is time for the team to celebrate the success of the project and capture best practices for future use.
45Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 19 Tips for an effective team
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
clearly defined roles among its memberssuch roles as the leader, the facilitator (i.e., the one assisting the team to make the best use of problem-solving and decision-making tools), the researcher, note-taker and the one in charge of public relations
clear purpose and goalsthe teams needs to know where it is going and what goals to achieve; the task set must be achievable
the basic resources to operatepeople, time, space, and energy (usually neglected but important to harness and dot over-extend its life)
clear knowledge of accountability and authority limitsto know who they are accountable to
a plan to work toincluding the terms of reference, the mission, perhaps a flowchart on the steps to follow and the resources available to the team
a set of rules to work tointegral part of the norming stage, they set high standards of behaviour and to keep the team on course
appropriate tools to tackle problems and to arrive at solutionssuch as brainstorrming and flowcharting- among others, which are easy to adopt and can be powerful problem-solving and decision-making tools
development of beneficial team beaviour such as initiating discussions, seeking information and opinions, suggesting procedures for reaching goals, clarifying or elaborating or ideas, summarising, compromising and be creative in resolving differences, getting the group to agree on standards, praising and correcting others with equal fairness, accepting both praise and complaints- among others
46Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
3.The Research Study
The context of study has already been established in the introductory chapter and
the background of the organisation has been exposed. This chapter aims at describing my
research study in detail, referring to the research philosophy, the method of research and
data collection, sample selection and ethical issues to the taken into account.
3.1 The research philosophy
Due to the complexities that are always involved in any educational institution, the
philosophy underpinning this piece of research follows the realist stance. This research
has intended to assume a scientific approach, reflected in the data collection methods and
approach to analyse that data. Thanking into account that business and management
research is focuses on the social world we live in, of two forms of realism (Saunders, 2009)
this research is more identified with critical realism. In this view, the researcher will only
be able to make sense of the social world once s/he understands the social structures
resulting in the phenomena s/he is trying to understand (Bhaskar, 1989). In other words,
this stance helps understand the bigger picture, which is not always evident. Dobson
(2002) argues that social conditioning has an effect on our knowledge of reality and
cannot be understood independently of the social actors involved in the knowledge
derivation process. What is more, critical realism recognises the importance of multi-level
study, i.e., it looks at all levels of the institution (the individual, the group and the
organisation) and how they interact with one another, rather than looking at them
separately, as direct realism does. Therefore, it could be argued the critical realism
perception that the social world is always changing is more in agreement with the purpose
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
47Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
of business and management research, which is quite often to understand the cause of
phenomena as a precursor to recommending change.
3.2 The method of research and data collection
The research method which I found most useful for this study is the case study method.
Adelman et.al. (1976), in defence of the case study method, argue that the research of a
single case is a genuine form of investigation. The researcher selects an instance from the
class of objects and phenomena s/he is investigating, and studies the way this instance
functions in context. In other words, the case study researcher observes the
characteristics of an individual case – say a child, a class, or a school – with the purpose of
probing and analysing in depth the significance of the multifarious phenomena that
constitute the life cycle of the case in order to establish generalisations about the wider
population which this case belongs to (Cohen and Manion, 1985).
Adelman et.al. (1976) identify six main advantages of the case study as a research method:
1. it is strong in reality, and therefore likely to appeal to practitioners,
2. generalisations can be drawn from a single case,
3. it can represent a multiplicity of viewpoints,
4. it provides a database of materials which may be interpreted by future
researchers,
5. the insights yielded by a case study can be immediately put into practice for
diverse purposes,
6. the data collected from case studies are usually more accessible than
conventional research reports.
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48Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Saunders et.al (2009) suggest that for descriptive research, such as this one, attitude and
opinion questionnaires and questionnaires of organisational practices should be
undertaken in order to help identify and describe the variability in different phenomena.
The objective-approach study involved a quantitative method using a self-assessment
checklist in a form of questionnaire (Appendix 1) in order to audit the school effectiveness
on the ten TQM indicators (Sallis, 2002:156). The whole checklist has been divided into
two questionnaires: questionnaire 1 was intended for students and parents/carers, since
the indicators are more customer-service related, and questionnaire 2 was aimed for
teaching and non-teaching staff at all levels, including senior management. The indicators
have been weighed to show their relative importance in the quality process:
access (5%),
service to customers (5%),
leadership (15%),
physical environment and resources (5%),
effective learning and teaching (20%),
students (15%),
staff (15%),
external relations (5%),
organisation (5%),
standards (10%)
The checklist also includes a grading scale, where score 5 is for poor performance and 1,
for excellence. The criteria for each score are as follows:
grade 1: excellent performance, there is a majority of strengths and few
weaknesses;
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
49Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
grade 2: good performance, strengths outweigh weaknesses;
grade 3: average performance, there is a balance between strengths and
weaknesses;
grade 4: below average performance, weaknesses outweigh strengths;
grade 5: poor performance, there is a majority of weakness and few strengths.
Since the respondents live in different geographical locations within the UK, and some in
Sweden, the questionnaires were intended to be administered electronically using the
Internet (Internet-mediated questionnaires) via the website SurveyMonkey.com. The
following steps were intended to be followed:
1. establish a pre-survey contact with the recipients by email advising them to
expect a questionnaire,
2. email a direct web link with a covering email, keeping the letter, questionnaire
and/or link as part of the email body to avoid viruses and to avoid rejection, since
attachments tend to be put aside, whereas answering an email is more practical
and quicker,
3. email one follow-up thanking early respondents and reminding non-respondents
to answer,
4. email a second follow-up to those who have not responded after three weeks, and
5. should the response rate not be as high as expected, and time allowing, email a
third follow-up.
The study was going to follow a qualitative method of research, whereby data was going
to be collected using semi-structured interviews, with a list of topics and questions to
cover, allowing also to omit or alter the order of the questions. This type of interview was
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50Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
chosen hoping it could help me understand the ‘whats’ and the ‘hows’ of my research
questions, and also emphasising on the ‘whys’.
The interviews would have been conducted either face-to-face, by telephone or by Skype,
as conveniently agreed previously between the respondents and myself. Whereas the
advantages of face-to-face interviews are obvious, the latter offer advantages related to
access, speed and cost, bearing in mind that none of the schools is located in my area.
However, it is true that in face-to-face interviews a relation of trust can be established,
which is difficult to achieve over the telephone. An alternative to face-to-face and the
telephone is Skype, although this relation of trust would still be difficult to establish.
The interview would have consisted of five explorative questions related to the areas
included in the questionnaire. Again two sets of questions were prepared, one for
students and parents/carers and the other for senior managers and staff (see Appendix 2).
However, when it came the time to actually collect the data, I approached to my
gatekeeper within the organisation and had the unfortunate surprise that they would no
longer support me in this project. All access to the organisation was denied and I and was
therefore unable to collect any data using the methods explained above. Nevertheless, I
collected my data through articles and video interviews available on the Internet, as well
as some legal and policy documents available to the public on the LST website.
3.3 Sample selection
For the administration of questionnaires random sampling would have been used. This
involves selecting members if the population to be included in the sample on a completely
random basis, and this way, it minimises the effects of any subjective variables that might
affect the outcome of the survey study (Dörnyei, 2003). The population would have
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51Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
consisted of 40-50 respondents, including the CEO of Kunskapsskolan Sweden, the MD of
Kunskapsskolan UK, the CEO of the LST, the Principals (headteachers) of the Academies in
the UK, middle-lower managers such as HoDs, other teaching and non-teaching staff, such
as LSAs, some students and parents/carers.
Interviews would have been conducted to 8-9 respondents taking part in the
questionnaire. However, this time, convenience or opportunity sampling would have been
used, where an important criterion of sample selection was convenient for me, the
researcher. Members of the target population would have been selected on the basis of
meeting certain criteria, such as graphical proximity, availability at a certain time, or easy
accessibility. Again, this sample would have included the MD of Kunskapsskolan UK (my
gatekeeper), a Principal of one Academy, HoDs, teaching and non-teaching staff as well as
a few students, and their parents/carers, if possible.
However, as access to the organisation had not been granted, my sample included content
and data extracted from the Internet. This involved careful scrutiny of content available on
the web taking into account the source of such data and bearing also in mind ethical
issues in connection with data extracted from the Internet. The sources where the data
was collected from were authoritative enough, including journalistic reports and
interviews, legal and policy documents from the LST website and information available on
the Kunskapsskolan’s website. Naturally, the data from the organisation’s website may
raise some issues regarding objectivity, which have also been taken into account.
3.4 Ethical issues
Kunskapsskolan agreed to support me in this research study after emailing the CEO of the
organisation in Sweden, the MD in the UK and the CEO of the LST, and it was agreed that
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
52Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
the MD would act as my gatekeeper, who, naturally, holds a very powerful position within
the organisation.
From the moment the organisation agreed to support me in this project, I started
considering a number of key ethical issues that could arise across the stages and during
the study which relate to the:
privacy of possible participants;
voluntary nature of participation and the right to withdraw partially or completely
from the process;
consent and possible deception of participants;
maintenance of the confidentiality of data provided by individuals or identifiable
participants and their anonymity;
reactions of participants to the way sought to collect data, including
embarrassment, stress, discomfort, pain and harm;
effects on participants of the way in which data is analysed and reported, in
particular the avoidance of embarrassment, stress, discomfort, pain and harm;
behaviour and objectivity of myself as a researcher.
Needless to say, I assured my gatekeeper that all kind of information would be treated as
confidential and no reference to specific names of staff would be made. This issue of
confidentiality and anonymity is of crucial importance. It becomes evident in an interview,
for instance, where points of significance are likely emerge and the researcher may want
to explore certain issues with other participants or senior managers within an
organisation, which may lead to participants indirectly identifying which person was
responsible for making the point that the researcher wishes to explore with them.
Because this may result in harmful repercussions for the person whose openness allowed
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53Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
to identify this point for exploration, the researcher must exercise great care in
maintaining each participant’s right to anonymity. For example, in order to get others to
discuss such a potentially sensitive point the researcher may try to steer the discussion to
see if they will raise it without in any way making clear that one of the other participants
has already referred to it.
Use of the Internet and email during data collection can also lead to serious ethical, or
“netiquette”, issues related to confidentiality and anonymity. For instance, it would be
possible to forward the email (or interview notes) of one research participant to another
in order to ask this second person to comment on certain raised issues, which would not
only violate the right to confidentiality and anonymity even causing harm, but would also
lead to a data protection issue related to the use of personal data, which is why it should
definitely be avoided (Saunders, 2009).
Even though access to the organisation was not granted, meaning there were no ethical
issues involving the information provided by respondents, I still had to bear in mind ethical
issues involving data protection from the data collected from the Internet. Therefore, data
was taken only from sources available in the public domain; however, I have chosen to
disclose the full name of children interviewed to preserve their identity, even though their
full name may appear on the video interviews on YouTube.
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54Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
4.Findings and Analysis
Kunskapsskolan's founding idea is that successful learning must be personalised and based
on each student’s individual strengths, weaknesses, previous educational experiences and
goals. This task demands a tailor-made education at an individual level. Kunskapsskolan
assumes the responsibility of conceptualising and standardising materials, tools and
systems, thereby freeing the schools to customise and personalise the students’
education. When the resources of learning — time, curricula, syllabuses, premises and
working tools — are geared to support the same educational concept and if these
resources are designed from the best proven practices, optimal conditions are created for
schools to succeed in the task of focusing on each individual.
Even though the organisation granted me access and agreed to support me in this project,
at the time the data had to be collected through the questionnaires and interviews, they
argued they could no longer support me due to their busy schedule in running the schools.
Therefore, most of the data collected to analyse the organisation against the literature
review has been based on independent resources such as interviews published on the
web, an Ofsted report from the inspection at one of the Academies, as well as information
and legal documents downloaded from their website. For this reason only those areas
where information was found will be analysed below.
4.1 Kunskapsskolan’s strategic planning
Kunskapsskolan pride themselves in their systematic approach to quality assurance. Their
strategic planning to quality will be analysed here in the light of the above literature
review.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
55Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
4.1.1 Mission, vision, values and goals
Kunskapsskolan’s mission is to “develop and operate outstanding schools where students,
through personalised learning and clear goals will stretch their boundaries and learn more
than they thought possible” (www.kunskapsskolan.com). Their mission is both educational
and social: a long-term commitment to excellence and world-leading standards in schools
and education. As a company of experienced teachers and educators, they are convinced
all children can grow beyond what is thought possible, provided the time, skills and
resources are available to identify their unique individual needs and talents.
The organisation's educational vision “empowers every student to master the challenges
of today and shape the world of tomorrow” (www.kunskapsskolan.com). All aspects of
their schools are designed to provide a personalised education that meets the needs of
each student and is built around the following their four core values:
1. All people are different : we all learn in different ways and at different rates, and
they have set this as their challenge to meet, regardless of students’ ability.
2. Clear requirements and challenging goals : reaching excellence in knowledge and
skills demands a mutual agreement between students and teachers – individual
commitment from students through their own hard work, perseverance, and
ambition, on the one hand, and teachers’ cooperation, guidance and support, on
the other.
3. Education is for life : it empowers young people to make a positive contribution to
society and to enjoy a fulfilling life by preparing them to live and work in a
modern, global society full of challenges and difficult choices.
4. Life is what I make it !: each student is given a foundation for personal
development where self-discipline, empowerment, a sense of responsibility and
self-confidence provide the foundation for a constructive attitude.
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56Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Last but not least, Kunskapsskolan’s goal is to run the best schools. “Best” is defined in
four dimensions:
1. The best academic performance
2. The most satisfied students and parents
3. The best and most satisfied teachers
4. Operational excellence – generating an operational surplus for long term
development
The ultimate aim is to establish, operate and develop schools where every student is
recognised as a unique individual with the ability, ambition and support to learn and grow
beyond what they thought possible.
Figure 20 Kunskapsskolan’s corporate mission (adapted from de Wit & Mayer (2010: 598))
Figure 20 summarises their compelling and consistent corporate mission, where the four
components mutually reinforce. Clearly, the company’s strategy is breaking the mould
through the provision of personalised learning and education for the future. The idea is to
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Organisational Purpose: (Why does the firm exist?)
"Recognise students as unique individuals"
Organisational Beliefs:(What are the driving ideas and assumptions?)
"develop and operate outstanding schools where students, through personalised learning and clear goals will stretch their boundaries and learn more
than they thought possible"
Organisational Values:(What is of fundamental
importance?)
"all people are different,clear requirements and
challenging goals,education is for life,
life is what I make it"
Business Definition: (Where does the firm operate?)
"the education industry"
57Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
find an educational concept for this century, where the rigid structures of the traditional
school are replaced with modern techniques for coaching, thus empowering each
individual student.
4.1.2 Stakeholder analysis and CSR
As already mentioned, Kunskapsskolan is a private company jointly owned by Mr
Emilsson’s family and other shareholders. The company runs schools not only in Sweden,
but also in the US and the UK. It would actually be quite difficult to analyse all the
customers/ stakeholders involved in the process due to the complexity of the
organisational structure, discussed further on. Internal stakeholders are the board of
directors, senior managers, departments, the schools and senior management staff in the
different geographical locations, and all the employees, from teaching and support staff to
other staff, such as cleaners.
Figure 21 Kunskapsskolan’s internal and external customers
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Board of DirectorsCEO PresidentManaging DirectorKUNSKAPSSKOLAN
IT , Design, Legal, Finance, etc. Departments
schools in Sweden, USA, UKTeaching/support staff & other
satff
Learners
Parents
Architects,Designers
& Suppliers
Owners & Shareholders
Government Local
Authorities
Trade Unions
Universities/ future
employers
General Community
58Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Of the three subgroups of external stakeholders (Figure 21) Kunskapsskolan pays greater
attention to their students, i.e. the key payers who benefit directly from the curriculum
(Appendix 3.5) and the premises where learning takes place (Appendix 3.4). These are
some of the comments on the design of the premises and the furniture (Isis Concepts -
Twickenham Academy, 2011):
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
I think this kind of room is brilliant for the students because depending on their abilities and
particularly their uses of technology, they’ve got the freedom they want to take it as far as they
would go […] It’s good because it’s quite a relaxed environment so it suits all the different type of kids
in different ways. (member of staff at Twickenham Academy)
It’s easier to learn cos you’re excited to learn […] you have your own space work, you don’t have
to listen to all other people irritating you(a student at Twickenham Academy)
59Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Students seem to also benefit a great deal from the learning portal (Appendix 3.3). They
get their course materials through the web portal, and they take the classes in workshops
set to their proficiency level. Commenting on the use of the learning portal, one student
said (Welle, 2008):
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
I like the pods because they’re soundproof and you can work without anybody having to be
disturbed (a student at Twickenham Academy)
They go “wow” when they go into this space, so it lifts them, and they feel good about themselves and about their learning […] I have absolutely no doubt, from the
responses given by the students, that they really value a learning space like this and that enables us to think about and plan, both for teachers and for students, how we’re
going to teach and learn in the future. So the environment, and furniture makes a really big different to
that.(Principal at Twickenham Academy)
60Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Some of these comments make reference to some questions in Questionnaire 1 (Appendix
1), showing that the students (at least) seem satisfied with the premises and the facilities,
such as access to resources and opportunities for students to organise their activities;
although there are many other important questions that remain unanswered.
Other key players are Kunskapsskolan, in Sweden, and the LST, in the UK, i.e. the trust
running the schools and, of course, the teaching staff, who provide as much individualised
instruction as possible to the students. However, particular attention should be paid to
Central government who should, as well, be placed in box D of the stakeholder mapping
matrix, since the organisation receives funding directly from them. In Sweden, each
student has a funding allocation from the public system, and the school the student
choses gets the tuition funds. Therefore, the more students, the more tuition money.
Likewise, in the UK, the Secretary of State pays the Learning Schools Trust directly to
establish, maintain, and run an Academy. The Secretary of State also pays grants towards
capital and recurrent expenditure for each Academy. However, unlike the Swedish
schools, the UK Academies are not funded according to the number of students they have,
and the admissions policy they operate is the same as that of the LA schools they replace.
The Master Funding Agreement states (LST, 2010:25):
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
We are responsible for ourselves. Everyone works at their own pace and we don’t worry about what the others students are doing, how far they’re in each subject. I
make my own decisions, and I think it’s great.(Signe, 14 year-old Swedish student)
61Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
a) Formula Funding: Funding equivalent to the level of funding which would be provided through the funding formula of the LA to a maintained school which had all of that Academy’s relevant characteristics, including its number of pupils; b) Local Authority Central Spend Equivalent: Funding representing a proportion of the LA Education Budget money which the LA would be able to retain, from the non-delegated elements of the Schools Budget and the relevant items in the LA Block, if that Academy were a maintained school. The proportion which this funding will represent will be based on the elements of the LA's Section 52 Budget Return which are relevant to that Academy. c) Specialist Schools Allowance: Funding equivalent to that which a maintained school with that Academy’s characteristics would receive in respect of their participation in the specialist schools programme.
The media, being the shaper of public opinion, should be kept satisfied as they may
enhance or ruin the organisation’s reputation. Trade Unions also fall into this box, and
especially in connection to the Ipswich Academy, in relation to which special policies have
been issued together with the LST. Equally satisfied must be Ofsted, the external body that
will eventually assess the Academies’ quality of educational provision. Even though
Academies are run independently, i.e., without the intervention from the Local Authority
(LA), a representative of the LA for the area in which the Academy is situated must be a
member of the Advisory Board (LST, 2010), thus placing the LA in quadrant C.
The learning portal not only benefits the students, but also their parents/carers, who are
kept informed by being able to take part in their child’s learning by following their
timetable and performance. Shareholders are also placed in quadrant B, since so far they
have not been paid any profits, which private schools under Kunskapsskolan have proved
possible in the field of education. Per Ledin, the company’s CEO, explains the following
(Welle, 2008):
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
62Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Naturally, this was with the reference to the educational system in Sweden, as in the UK
they would not be allowed to make a profit out tax-payers’ money.
Finally, the LST agreed that the schools they run “will be at the heart of its community,
sharing facilities with other schools and the wider community” (LST, 2010: 8); therefore
placing them in box A. Figure 22 summarises the stakeholders influencing the
organisation.
Figure 22 Stakeholder mapping of Kunskapsskolan/ LST
By looking at the company’s mission, vision values and goals when considering its social
responsibility stance, there is no doubt it can be placed on the right end of the spectrum
as a shaper of society (Figure 4 above). As discussed above, all educational institutions
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
AMinimal effort- Other schools- Local Community
BKeep informed- Parents- Governors- Shareholders
CKeep satisfied- Ofsted- Media- Local Authority-Trade Unions
DKey players- LST/ Kunskapsskolan- Headteachers and senior staff- Teaching staff- Learners- Government
We don’t pay our profits to our shareholders. Instead, we invest in new school, but at some point we might change that.
(Per Ledin, CEO Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB)
63Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
should fall into this category, as they are the shapers of the minds of the future
generations. This becomes evident in Kunskapsskolan’s vision statement:
Kunskapsskolan's educational vision empowers every student to master the challenges of today and shape the world of tomorrow.
4.1.3 Kunskapsskolan’s CSF’s and Benchmarking
A vital part of Kunskapsskolan’s concept is its system for monitoring and assessing results.
Kunskapsskolan’s qualitative and quantitative key performance indicators (KPI’s) – their
term for CSF’s – for both the schools’ and students’ performance are designed to support
the organisation’s four goals:
to have the best student performance among their peers,
to reach the highest student and parental satisfaction,
to have the best and most motivated teachers, and
to operate with financial prudence and sustainability.
Kunskapsskolan’s R&D programme identifies correlations and possible common
denominators for achieving excellence. In all these key areas — student outcome, student
and parent satisfaction, teacher satisfaction and motivation, and financial performance —
their goal is that Kunskapsskolan’s performance shall exceed that of comparable schools.
All the schools, therefore, work to develop the KPI’s and assessment methodology in each
area.
Kunskapsskolan measures performance and outcomes according to their four overarching
goals. Student outcomes and results are monitored through tests, marking systems and
benchmarking against other schools, within and outside the network of the organisation.
Surveys are used to measure student, parent and employee satisfaction and motivation. In
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
64Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
addition, the set of KPI’s are also employed to measure financial prudence and the
efficiency of school operations. Figure 23 gives an overview of the performance
management system.
Figure 23 Overview of Kunskapsskolan’s performance management system in Sweden (www.kunskapsskolan.com)
According to this chart, Kunskapsskolan seems to perform in line with their objectives.
Most of their schools in Sweden are among the best in their districts and they are above
average in academic performance as well as student and family satisfaction, in their view.
It would seem fair to say that all educational institutions organise their CSF’s in the best
way that works for them. Kunskapsskolan organises them according to goals, rather than
in an external/internal dichotomy as discussed above.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
65Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 23 seems to suggest they carry out functional, best-practice as well as internal
benchmarking. Unfortunately, it was not possible to have access to any official data
regarding the actual results of their benchmarking practices carried out in Sweden, or in
the UK by LST, who have chosen to work with a private company for this, as they believe it
provides them with an integrated framework enabling them to benchmark management
information across their partnership of academies.
4.1.4 Kunskapsskolan’s Business and Corporate plan
The organisation’s business model approach is to structure and organise the building
blocks of excellence. They offer a complete and coherent system for excellent secondary
education: the KED programme. For all key elements of the educational programme
(Appendix 3), Kunskapsskolan provides developed methodology, educational material and
support from their Pedagogical Development team.
All other systems in Kunskapsskolan are designed to support and facilitate the educational
programme and the effectiveness of the school — both from a pedagogical and an
administrative perspective. In key areas, Kunskapsskolan provides ready-to-adapt systems,
manuals and support. Each area also has dedicated Kunskapsskolan specialists who
provide the support to all the practitioners in their schools. In this way, they are able to
maximise their collective experience and expertise, making sure continuous development
and improvement. Every member of the Kunskapsskolan network also gets access to the
collective result of all efforts in the network.
A KED school not only practices the KED education programme, but also has access to an
extensive system of supportive resources and systems, ranging from helping apply for
licenses, applications, grants and setting up schools, to administrative systems and
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
66Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
exchange of experiences with other schools. In all of these areas, Kunskapsskolan has
developed best practices, manuals and guidelines and has its experts standing by to
support you. The figure below gives an overview of areas of Kunskapsskolan resources,
which are the building blocks of a KED school (www.kunskapsskolan.com).
Figure 24 KED's Building blocks
The supportive systems and concepts are the foundations of the programme. Figure 25
outlines the main components of each of them.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
67Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 25 Supportive systems and concepts of the KED programme
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Market research and planningStakeholder counselling processes Project management and concept adaption process School application processes Grants management Professional development in the KED programme
School establishment and start up
IT vision and policyPlatforms and applicationsIT development and support
Information Technology (IT)
Facilities, policies and programme Architectural and design programmeReal Estate
Quality and performance definitions Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) Grading and evaluation modelsTests and surveysPerformance management database
Performance Management
Financial performance indicators Accounting model Reporting system
Finance
EDS —Educational Documentation System Organisation model Planning model Administrative tools and support
Organisation and administration
Intellectual Property (IP) Protection Licenses and agreements Governmental relations and legal support
Legal
Job descriptions Tools for recruiting and evaluation HR development Talent management Training tools
Human Relations
Educator exchange and cooperation International student networking Alumni services
Network and exchange
Intranet and internetCommunication policy and manuals Branding policy and manuals Marketing and communication plans Crisis management plans Marketing and stakeholder surveys Marketing and communication templates and material Public relations and public affairs
Marketing and Communications
68Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
In terms of Kunskapsskolan’s strategic plan to compete in the educational market, no
official data could be collected. However, there is enough to be able to trace their plan
and summarise it using the Ansoff matrix (Figure 26):
Figure 26 Ansoff Matrix summarising Kunskapsskolan’s strategic plan (Ansoff, 1988)
Before when the non-socialist government in Sweden had implemented its “free-school
reform”, the public sector had a monopoly on educating Swedish pupils. After the reform,
municipals schools and the new free schools were competing against each other to attract
students, who were able to choose which school to attend. Therefore when Peje Emilsson
launched his new school company in 1999, their strongest competitors were without
doubt their municipal counterparts. Non-municipal schools were new and unpractised and
there was an ingrained Swedish tradition keeping the driving forces of free enterprise and
competition outside school doors. The KED programme was developed, after years of
research, in order to offer personalised education thus catering for all kinds of students,
since no pupil learns in the same way (Fällgren, 2011).
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
A: Market penetration/Consolidation - penetrate & consolidate Swedish market- penetrate & consolidate market in UK, USA and other countries
B: Product development- develop KED programme in the light of personalised education
C: Market development- develop and adapt KED programme according to educational curriculum in different countries
D: Diversification-develop mobile apps to connect to the Learning Portal??
-develop the KED programme for primary education??
69Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
After penetrating and consolidating the educational market with over 30 schools in
Sweden, the organisation has decided to expand their wings to other territories. They
have taken advantage of the educational reform initiated by the former Labour
government, under Tony Blair, introducing the Academy reform, and expanded into the
new free-school reform under the current Tory government, and Kunskapsskolan decided
to sponsor three state schools in the UK maintained by their corresponding LEAs: Whitton
School and Hampton Community College (Richmond upon Thames LAE) and Holywells
High School in Suffolk. The three of them were reborn under the names of Twickenham
Academy and Hampton Academy in 2010, and Ipswich Academy in 2011. The Ofsted
report of these three schools in the years 2008-2009 had not been very good, ranging
from “satisfactory” to “good“, and the schools being issued with notices to improve . It is
probably because of Mr. Emilsson’s desire of “giving children the best possible start in life”
(Fällgren, 2011:10) that Kunskapsskolan decided to “adopt” these three schools.
Kunskapsskolan has also opened schools in the US and is planning to expand in other
continents as well, possibly Asia.
Needless to say, because of the different nature of the educational curricula in these
countries, the KED programme will have to be developed and adapted in line with the
requirements of each country’s educational system. For example in the UK, there several
more steps per subject because the programme here covers five years of secondary
school, also bearing the GCSE exams in mind, compared to four years in the Swedish
system, with a different grading system.
It is difficult to guess how this organisation may diversify in the future, and if they will do it
at all, or if they will just keep expanding into new countries and penetrating the
educational markets there. However, with all this technological advancement, it would not
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
70Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
be difficult to imagine that they may create applications for mobile phones for students,
and parents, to access their portion of the Learning Portal on the go. Likewise, since the
KED has proved so effective for secondary school provision, it could be developed and
adapted for primary education.
4.1.5 Quality policy, Quality plan and Quality costs
While the quality of the academies is judged externally by Ofsted in its inspection
framework, and by the annual production of performance data published by the DFE, the
LST assesses the quality of what it does against a clear set of objectives, values and
principles, at the heart of which is the Planning Cycle, comprising the Strategic Plan, the
Annual Operational Plan, the Academy Activity Plan and the Quality Report (LST, 2012).
The LST Board sets the Strategic Plan and provides long term direction in alignment with
other schools operated by Kunskapsskolan. The Strategic Plan includes the vision, values,
organisational concept, and core objectives of the LST, each of which has measurable
medium-term (3-5 years) outcomes. It also identifies the key social and educational
contexts in which the three Academies operate, and provides the framework for the
Annual Operational Plan which the Trust produces each year, which draws on the Strategic
Plan, the LST Quality Report and priorities identified in the Academy Activity Plans and
Quality Reports.
The Annual Operational Plan identifies the strategies, actions and targets to be achieved at
the LST levels against each of the core objectives. It is based on the evaluation of data and
process from the previous year including:
Data regarding student attainment, progress and engagement;
Surveys of students, parents and staff;
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
71Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
The staff appraisal processes;
Benchmarking between Academies and with other schools;
Internal and external quality reviews (e.g. learning walks, operational reviews,
OFSTED inspections);
Input from the LST Board, Academy Councils and other stakeholders;
Professional judgements of strengths, challenges and priorities of the LST
Executive and Academy Leadership Teams.
Following the review of the Strategic Plan in the spring, the Board will consider a draft
plan, including budgets and staffing recommendations in the summer before confirming
the final plan at the beginning of the autumn term when the previous year’s student
outcome and results have been analysed. The LST Board will review progress against the
Annual Operational Plan during the year, and an LST Quality Report will be produced in
the summer each year to review achievement against the objectives and actions in the
Annual Operational Plan. The Quality Report will be a major input to the next year’s
Operational Plan. The targets within the LST and Academy annual plans will be used to set
personal objectives for LST Executives.
The Annual Operational Plan will be developed in parallel with the LST plan and will
provide context for each Academy to produce an annual Academy Activity Plan setting the
strategies, actions and targets specific to each Academy against each core objective.
The targets within the Academy Activity Plan will be used to set personal objectives for
Principals and other Academy based staff.
The progress of the Academy Activity Plans will be reviewed by the Academy Councils
during the year. For this, the Academies will monitor pupil progress at two points through
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
72Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
the year and conduct an annual survey of student, teacher and parental opinion. Each
Academy will produce a Quality Report each summer which will review achievement
against the objectives and actions in the Activity Plan. The Quality Report will include the
extent to which the Academy is delivering measurable objectives as well as how it is
implementing the LST learning model. The Quality Report will be a major input to the
following year’s Activity Plan.
The KED programme appears to be a self-contained unit which Kunskapsskolan has
created to ensure quality is well looked after across the board. Under this programme, the
purpose of the school is to be a greenhouse for learning and development, where the
student — as an individual, with capabilities, ambitions and personality, is the centre, and
the most important assets for student success are skilled teachers with the time and
capability to teach, coach and support the learning process. Therefore, CPD becomes an
essential component of the teaching and learning strategy. LST’s CDP programme provides
access to training opportunities arranged so that each one of them fulfils their potential. It
includes the following elements (LST, 2011:12)
induction for all new staff;
an annual programme for NQTs (newly qualified staff);
a weekly session for training of all staff supported each month by the central
pedagogical team;
three training days which are subject- based and common to all academies where
subject specialists meet with curriculum leads to review work and look at
outstanding teaching and learning strategies;
two academy focused training days;
leadership development and support;
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
73Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
individual support where the programme matches the business plan of the
schools or the Trust;
individual coaching sessions for all staff on a monthly basis.
The former Hampton Community College (HCC) –now Hampton Academy– was rated
‘satisfactory’ and ‘good’ by Ofsted in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Even though students’
achievent had improved considerably from Ofted’s previous visit, the quality of teaching
remained variable: “much is now good, but a large proportion is satisfactory and a small
amount inadequate” (Russell, 2009:2).
In April 2012, the Academy had another visit from Ofsted and “the teaching observed was
at least satisfactory with an increasing proportion of good teaching” (Ofsted, 2012:3).
Effort is devoted to improve the quality of teaching and good or outstanding practice is
beginning to be shared across the academy. However, the overall GCSE results mask
weaknesses in Maths, mainly due to difficulties in recruiting experienced Maths teachers,
which has affected outcomes. Because of this, senior leaders have set challenging targets
for the current academic year with a strong focus on improving teaching, literacy and
numeracy across the curriculum. Since the start of the current academic year, partnership
work with St Mary’s University, intensive and regular professional development, and links
with local partner schools, coaching and mentoring have been used to improve teaching
further.
Ofsted corroborates that, in line with the LST’s policies discussed above,
“the academy has robust monitoring systems for all areas of provision and
uses its evaluation schedule and data to ensure that all students have equal
access to the provision and support. This highly effective approach to
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
74Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
monitoring and evaluating has resulted in targeted support for students in
difficult circumstances; those requiring additional intensive literacy and
numeracy; and girls, who are not all performing as well as boys. […] The
Academy Council participates in reviews and provides challenge. It is keen
to increase the level of challenge through monitoring visits. Procedures to
ensure that students are safe are robust” (Ofsted, 2012:5).
Of course changes and excellent results do not happen overnight. Nevertheless, with the
strong system Kunskapsskolan and the LST seem to have in place and patience and
dedication, there is no doubt the Academy is on the right path. It will be very interesting
to read Oftsted’s report after their visit in a few years’ time.
4.1.6 Feedback and evaluation
As the policy documents of the organisation show, feedback and evaluation from
students, parents and teachers is essential in order to plan for quality, since good quality
of the school is critical to student achievement, and therefore it is very important for the
organisation to measure satisfaction and find out how students perceive their life in
school and how parents look at the children’s achievement.
The results of the satisfaction surveys conducted each year with students and parents are
analysed carefully and should a school have worse outcomes in the survey in any
significant respect, measures are sought at once in order to find a solution. Schools that
receive high scores in the surveys serve as role models for other schools, who are able to
embrace the best Kunskapsskolan’s practices. Figure 27 shows the result of the aggregate
performance of 23 Kunskapsskolan schools in Sweden, according to which 75% of the
students think they have good teachers and 80% are satisfied with their achievement.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
75Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Similarly, 84% of the parents agree that their children’s hard work at school contributes to
a positive development of their personality and 79% recommend the institutions
(www.kunskapsskolan.se).
Figure 27 Result of a survey carried out in 23 Kunskapsskolan schools in Sweden
This follow-up process stems from the view that students are customers and that
potential students constitute a market. Teachers are providers of a service that students
expect from the school. The surveys clarify any variations in the teachers’ performance
within a school during a particular year. Then the principal reviews the surveys with each
teacher, the results are openly compared to those of achieved by other teachers, clarifying
each teacher’s individual performance and indicating what is missing and what can be
improved. The outcomes of students’ surveys are compared to the results of other
schools, which enables Kunskapsskolan to see performance in another dimension and
understand, for instance, why so many students in this schools recommend their school to
their peers. This, in turn, surveys a school’s performance, which is important to know as it
may have a decisive bearing on the number of students wanting to attend a particular
school.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
76Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
4.2 Kunskapsskolan’s organisational structure
Kunskapsskolan Education Sweden (KED) is headed by a Board of Directors and a line of
managers, which is represented in Figure 28, which, in turn is headed by Peje Emilsson, its
founder in 1999. Cecilia Carnefeldt, Mr. Emilsson’s daughter, was member of the team
that started Kunskapsskolan in 1999. During the last two years, she has been working on
the internationalization of Kunskapsskolan, focusing on the Academies project in the UK.
She is also the Executive Chairman of Kunskapsskolan Sverige AB and member of the
board of the LST in the UK.
Figure 28 Board of Directors of KED
It is worth noticing that two of the Board members are related to one of the owner
companies, Investor AB. Daniel Nodhäll is Investment Manager at Investor AB focusing on
consumer and capital goods sectors, and Johan Röhss is Investment Manager of the
Operational Investments at Investor AB. Call Emilsson is Mr. Emilsson’s son and Board
member of other renowned companies.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Founder and Executive Chairman of Kunskapsskolan
EducationPeje Emilsson
CEO & President of KED
Cecilia Carnefeldt
Executive Vice President of KED
Odd Eiken
Executive Vice President of KEDFredrik Lindgren
Global Director of Education of KEDBirgitta Ericson
Member of the Board 1
Calle Emilsson
Member of the Board 2
Daniel Nodhäll
Member of the Board 3
Johan Röhss
77Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Former State Secretary for Schools and Adult Education in the Swedish Ministry of
Education and Science in 1991-94, Odd Eiken has been a member of the board of
Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB since 2009 in his position of Executive Vice President,
together with Fredrik Lindgren, who also joined Kunskapsskolan in 2009 to focus on the
internationalisation process after holding several positions at Investor AB. Mr. Lindgren is
a member of the board of Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB and the LST.
Birgitta Ericson was part of the team that developed the Educational Program of
Kunskapsskolan in 1999. She was school manager in one of the first Kunskapsskolan
schools in Sweden and Education Director of the Swedish Operations 2001-2011, and in
2011 Ms. Ericson joined Kunskapsskolan Education as Global Director of Education,
responsible for the Educational Program worldwide.
KED is the mother company with ownership of Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB, headed by its
own Board of Directors and Per Liden as CEO. Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB operates many
schools in Sweden, providing them with shared services for real estate, IT, finance,
marketing, communication and educational development. Figure 29 shows the structure
of the Board of Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB:
Figure 29 Board of Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Executive Chairman
Cecilia Carnefeldt
Odd EikenMember of
Board 1
Fredrik LondgenMember of
Board 2
Birgitta EricssonMember of
Board 3
78Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 30 below illustrates the structure of Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB, showing the CEO
overseeing the 33 schools. However, for the sake of concision and space, only some
schools and positions are represented.
Since the organisation was founded, it has shown an organisational design by function of a
hierarchical type, where board members and managers are grouped by function, similar
position or skills. As the organisation grew and started setting up schools in the rest of in
Sweden it shows an organisation design by geography, covering new areas of the country,
but also retaining the hierarchical design by function. Figure 29 shows, for instance, that
all schools are headed by a Principal, who in turn is responsible for a group of people,
namely, the school coordinator, the doctor, who, in turn is responsible for the school
nurse. In the cases where the same principal heads two schools, as in the case of
Helsingborg and Landskrona, an Assistant Principal has also been appointed, sharing their
responsibility for the school coordinator, the doctor, as well as other staff.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
79Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
In the last two years Cecilia Carnefeldt directed KED’s internationalisation, resulting in the
creation of Kunskapsskolan International KIAB SB (KIAB), which oversees the schools run in
the USA and the UK and is headed by Steve Bolingbroke as Managing Director.
In the United Kingdom, Kunskapsskolan the three Academies in England through the LST,
also headed by a Trust Board, composed of 12 members, some of which are members of
KED’s Board of Directors (www.learningschoolstrust.org.uk):
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Board of Kunskapsskolan i
Sverige AB
CEOPer Ledin
BoråsPrincipal: Björn
Nyman
School Coordinator Doctor
School Nurse
Responsible for Kitchen and Café
Resource for Kitchen and Café
HelsingborgPrincipal: Joakim
AnderssonAssistant Principal: Lotta
Björklund
School Coordinator
LandkronaPrincipal: Joakim
AnderssonAssistant Principal: Lidija Lapadatovie
School Coordinator Doctor
School Nurse
Figure 30 Partial organisational structure of Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB
Chairman & Independent Director(Per Unckel)
Sponsor Director 1 Sponsor Director 2 Sponsor Director 3(Beatrice Engstrom-Bundy) (Birgitta Ericson) (Cecilia Carnefeldt)
Sponsor Director 4 Sponsor Director 5 Sponsor Director 6(Fredrik Lindgren) (Patricia Hamzahee) (Per Ledin)
Chief Executive & Educational Director
80Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Below the line is the Trust Executive, composed of the CEO and the Principal of each
academy: Hampton Academy, Twickenham Academy and Ipswich Academy. Figure 32
gives a snapshot of the organisational structure after its internationalisation. This shows
again a hierarchical organisation, by function and naturally, by geographical location, both
at an international level (Sweden, USA and UK), and at a local level again in the UK
(London and Ipswich). Even the LST Trust Board seems to be arranged by nationality and
function or position within the company: from the Chairman to Sponsor Director are all
Swedish, and from the CEO to the Parent Director are all from England.
The LST Board has a sub-committee for each Academy known as the Academy Council.
This is made up of representatives of various stakeholders including students, parents,
staff and the local community. The parents who serve on the Academy Councils elect one
of their members to serve as a Director on the main LST Board.
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Chairman & Independent Director(Per Unckel)
Sponsor Director 1 Sponsor Director 2 Sponsor Director 3(Beatrice Engstrom-Bundy) (Birgitta Ericson) (Cecilia Carnefeldt)
Sponsor Director 4 Sponsor Director 5 Sponsor Director 6(Fredrik Lindgren) (Patricia Hamzahee) (Per Ledin)
Chief Executive & Educational Director
Figure 31 The LST Trust Board
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Figure 32 International expansion of Kunskapsskolan
Since all schools have to comply with the laws and regulations of their own country, up to
a certain extent, this international geographical design coincides with a design by product
line. Here the product is education/instruction but in the UK, the qualifications offered are
based on the National Curriculum incorporating Kunskapsskolan’s unique personalised
learning model.
In the UK, it is against the Law for a private company, like Kunskapsskolan, to make profit
out of tax-payers’ money, unless they link up with some other non-profit organisations,
such as charities, resulting in the creation of the LST. It can be argued that this structure
shows semi-decentralisation, since the LST oversees the academies in the UK. However,
most of the Trust Board members are KED’s Directors and/or have relationship with
Investor AB for it is in the best interest of the organisation to provide the schools with the
adequate resources. Needless to say, there is a partnership spirit among the three
academies which offer different specialisms, or “product lines”, summarised in Figure 33:
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Kunskapsskolan Education Sweden AB
(KED)
Kunskapsskolan International KIAB SB (KIAB)
(UK & USA)MD: Steve Bolingbroke
Learning Schools Trust (LST)
CEO: John Baumber
Hampton Academy
Principal: Sue Demont
Twickenham Academy
Principal: Nick Jones
Ipswich AcademyPrincipal: Nancy
Robinson
Kunskapsskolan USA
President: Margaret Hoey
Kunskapsskolan i Sverige AB(Sweden)
CEO: Per Ledin
33 schools in Sweden
TRU
ST E
XECU
TIVE
82Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
Figure 33 Specialisms of the Academies in the UK
It can be argued that the geographical design of the organisation in its post-international
expansion also illustrates a design by customer or market channel. For example, both
Hampton Academy and Twickenham Academy are located in London, but they offer
different product lines, different specialisms. Twickenham’s “product” seems to cater for
the more holistic student. ‘Themed COURSES´ students study technology, humanities and
the arts, undertaking exciting projects, dealing with the ‘Big Issues’ and emphasising the
connections between subjects. Students study six COURSES in the academic year. PSHCE
(Personal, Social, Health & Careers Education) is delivered through the ‘Themed COURSES’
and within the three college structure (www.twickenhamacademy.org.uk).
Even though the customers are students and students’ parents, the market channel
changes, and therefore their “product lines” should be marketed according to the
different countries and locations, respecting also the educational laws of regulations of
each country.
Analysing the organisation according to the mechanistic/organic dichotomy, there is no
doubt Kunskapsskolan organisational structure shows a mechanistic, hierarchical and
bureaucratic type. Management shows a top-down approach, with power, authority and
control is at the top, rather than a flatter structure.
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Ham
pton
Aca
dem
yThe Arts
Ipsw
ich
Aca
dem
y
Business & Enterprise
Twic
kenh
am A
cade
my
Themed Courses:>Humanities>Arts>Technology
83Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
It could be argued that at the school level the organisation is more of the organic type
since “individual tasks are seen in relation to the organisation as a whole”. However, the
organisational charts of the Swedish schools show a hieratical order, and so do the English
Academies. Figure 34 shows part of the top-down organisational structure of Ipswich
Academy (www.ipswichacademy.org.uk):
The organisational structure and design depend upon the strategies and the goals that
drive a given organisation. Accordingly, organisations can show a flat structure, if people
tend to be more goal-oriented or a hierarchical vertical structure if centralised control is
important.
“Kunskapsskolan’s mission is to develop and operate outstanding schools where students,
through personalised learning and clear goals will stretch their boundaries and learn more
than they thought possible” (www.kunskapsskolan.com). The figures and charts described
above show that this is better achieved by having a vertical structure, with control at the
top, ensuring the KED programme is applied in all schools on an equal basis and that all
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671
Figure 34 Partial overview of management line at Ipswich Academy
84Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
decisions made benefit the organisation as a whole. Also, the organisation, having
expanded as they have, needs strong leadership to pull all institutions in the direction; and
most often strong leadership is best given from above.
4.3 Educational leadership at Kunskapsskolan
In Ofsted’s view (Ofsted, 2012), the leadership and management of the Hampton academy
results from the well-established experience of the Principal and the LST structure,
especially the support from the CEO, John Baumber, and the Executive Team (comprising
the Principals of the LST academies) as well as the Academy Council. The Principal is and
surrounded by a cohesive and experienced senior team, all driving forward improvements
effectively.
Ofsted has also perceived clarity of vision and a skilful approach to leading staff through
the complexities of innovative change meaning that the Principal and the LST have won
the loyalty and commitment of staff, parents, carers and students, and that there is a
mature understanding of the academy’s strengths and weaknesses. For instance, despite
the on-going construction of the new build, the leaders and managers have been
persistent in establishing the approach to learning, even though the technology and space
required for the operation of the learning concept is not all finalised. “This is leadership at
its best in relation to communicating a shared vision about the future, which all
understand and are working towards, despite continuing obstacles” (Ofsted, 2012:5).
Also, according to Ofsted, the Principal uses a coordinated approach to develop the
unique features of the academy. Effective management systems are established across the
three levels of the school. Responsibilities are clear and a detailed development plan
provides staff with a clear overview of the journey the academy is undertaking to raise
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85Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
standards and enable every student to fulfil their potential. The fact senior leaders have
set challenging targets for the current academic year with a strong focus on improving
teaching, literacy and numeracy across the curriculum is a clear example of this.
4.4 Teamwork for quality at Kunskapsskolan
Teamwork seems to be a fundamental quality Kunskapsskolan and the LST look for in
teachers and all staff members. A strong feature of the organisation is their employees’
involvement in R&D and concept development. More than 30 full time employees in
Sweden, for instance, work with pedagogical and methodological development and a large
fraction of all Kunskapsskolan’s professional teachers also participate as discipline or
methodology specialists serving the entire network of schools. Each teacher belongs to a
subject team that includes staff members teaching the same subject to other year groups
at the school. For example, Martin, a teacher at Kunskapsskolan Eskede, leads a team of
humanities teachers for Year 6, 7, and 9, and Sanna is a team member for Swedish, but
together they comprise the work team for Year 8 and their mission is to ensure that those
students get as much out of their school year as possible.
A team of curriculum leads for all of the UK academies develop the resources on the
Learning Portal. Each academy has a teacher responsible for a specific subject managing
the school’s local work in order to develop new curriculum packages for the Learning
Portal, and all teachers can contribute new course and exercise material. All teachers of
the UK Kunskapsskolan academies are able to utilise these step and theme resources once
published on the Learning Portal. One of the teachers at Twickenham Academy
comments:
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“Being able to participate and influence the content of our education,
and to develop exciting assignments and themes, is an incredible
opportunity. [...] it’s a strength to know that we’re operating in the same
fashion as Kunskapsskolan schools in other countries. Twickenham
Academy is put in an international context” (Fällgren, 2011:58).
Working in such a collaboratively manner does not only make teachers feel empowered,
but it also makes them feel they are part of something bigger and that their efforts pay
off. Teachers also feel they are a vehicle for monitoring, evaluating and improving quality,
thus making them accountable for the quality of learning.
By working in teams teachers are accountable for the use of the teachers’ time, non-
teaching time as well as the materials and space. For example, at the Hampton Academy,
in order to create extra time, the teachers have to collaborate in a structure manner. Ms
McMahon forms part of a team teaching science, and all the team member work together
to develop the curriculum for steps on the Learning Portal as well as exchange lesson
material and exercises. When Ms McMahon does not have to prepare her own material
for every single lesson, she can devote that time to coaching and workshops. One of the
teachers assumes the main responsibility for each subject and in turn, reports to the
curriculum lead, who works across the academies to develop the entire new curriculum
for Kunskapsskolan in the UK. This scenario illustrates another benefit of teamwork: that
of acting as a channel of information to management on the changes needed to improve
provision and the opportunities for its learners.
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87Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
5.Conclusion
In today’s world we can see a shift of power from capital to knowledge, and knowledge,
when managed properly, can drive the development of individuals and a society. For this
reason, there is no doubt that good quality educational provision is of utmost importance
to educate our younger generations.
There are many reasons that lead me to doing research in TQM in education. First, I
worked in the teaching profession for many years in my country and after a few years in
the UK I decided to retrain as a teacher in the UK educational system by engaging in a
PGCE course, during which I felt, and was made felt, like a misfit in the system because
there were so many things I did not agree with, starting with the rigidity of the curriculum,
and the setting system many schools apply for grouping students according to ability. It
was equally demotivating to see so many teachers and senior teaching staff with so little
passion for their job, and the students with so little enthusiasm for learning. It was as if
both teachers taught for inertia and learners went with the flow. I should probably admit
that in Argentina I used to teach in a private school where students were aware of the
value of the education and worked very hard, with some exceptions, of course.
A few years after starting my PGCE my son was diagnosed with Autism, and this changed
the way I looked at educational provision, on which I starting reflecting on the quality of
education, but now as a parent. Although my son has attended an “outstanding” school in
the area, I still noticed they were not flexible enough. At the beginning I blamed the
school, but I later realised that it was the system, maybe the LEA to which the school was
accountable. However, since the new educational reform introducing free schools, I have
started noticing some changes in my son’s school educational approach, even though it is
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88Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
still accountable to the Local Educational Authority. However, since it is now his time to
move to a secondary school, I cannot help thinking what is the best kind of school for him
and that he would benefit so much from the kind of personalised education
Kunskapsskolan offers.
As a teacher I have always strived for bringing quality into the classroom, and as a parent I
have always demanded quality from the school. Also, I have always been horrified at cases
where the government decided to close down a school. This research study has helped me
realise that quality in education not only involves isolated cases, a good teacher who
prepares good lessons, or a good headmaster who works hard to lift the schools from
“special measures”, or even “good” students, but a set of aspects that when well managed
and led result in good quality educational provision. Despite the limitations of not having
been granted access to the organisation and the subsequent inability of collecting
quantitative data, up to a certain extent this research has met my objectives and
answered my research questions.
I have found out that in order to guarantee good quality educational provision, schools
need to put their customers first, and to recognise that all students are different, and that
it is the school’s duty to cater for those differences. When people are allowed to express
their differences by making personal choices, individuals and society can develop.
Kunskapsskolan also knows that teachers are probably their most valuable asset, without
whom their personalised educational programme could not be delivered, this is why CPD
programmes are so valued by the organisation. But in the same way as Kunskapsskolan
expect students to stretch their boundaries to learn more than they thought possible,
teachers are equally expected to stretch their limits to instruct more than they thought
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89Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
possible. By effectively using their most valuable resource – time, teachers show true
professionalism.
The organisation first has to comply with the quality standards for educational provision
set by the different countries in which they operate. However, Kunskapsskolan has its own
system in place whereby everyone, including the organisation itself, follows goals. All
students have long-term goals in all subjects for each term which are decided together
with the student’s personal coach and the parents. These are set as measurable grade
goals that have to be reasonable but also challenging in order to stretch the student’s
boundaries. Similarly, teachers’ goals are also reasonable but challenging to ensure
students progress as far as possible in their learning. Teachers systematically follow each
student’s results in relation to the goals at the beginning of their first term in order to
determine whether they may be missing any curriculum goals and what additional
learning aids can be put in place. All teaching results are compared as well as the grade
goals of the subject teams. If any subject team if far below the goal, then the principal
advises the teachers to step up their efforts to be come closer to the goal. All the results
combined also show the school’s performance, and the whether it has met the
organisation’s goals.
This illustrates the organisation follows a top-down management and leadership approach
in order to ensure organisational effectiveness and performance; i.e., to ensure the KED
programme is applied in all schools on an equal basis, that all decisions made benefit the
organisation as a whole, and to ensure all institutions pull in the direction.
This is enough to conclude that Kunskapsskolan meets all the characteristics of a TQM
organisation:
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unit optimisation, since every department and school aims at functioning
efficiently and effectively operating within clear quality standards;
vertical alignment, since all members of staff understand the strategy, the
direction and mission of the institution;
horizontal alignment, since there are mechanisms in place in order to gear
everyone towards an understanding of the aims and requirements of other parts
of the institution;
a single command for each process, since such key processes as curriculum,
pastoral and administrative are charted and organised under a single chain of
command: the KED programme, which has resulted from analysing who the
customer is what their needs are and the standards they should expect.
This study focused on how a private Swedish organisation manages the quality of
educational provision in schools funded directly from Central Government in the UK. It
would be interesting to retake this study in a few years’ time, once the schools have fully
settled in with Kunskapsskolan new methodology in order to compare quality and
achievement results before and after. It would be equally interesting to carry out a
comparative research study including Kunskap schools, mainstream and independent
schools comparing the relationship between their management approach to quality and
student achievement.
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91Total Quality Management in Secondary Education
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Appendix 1: Quantitative research
Questionnaire 1: Customers: students and parents
Quality indicators Grades1 2 3 4 5
1. Access (5%)Advice and guidance▌There is a clear initial contact point for all customers▌There is a welcoming reception▌Telephone response times are short▌Advice and guidance facilities are readily available▌There are clear signs around the campus
Open access▌There are appropriate ramps and lifts for people with disabilities▌Signs and literature are produced in community languages
2. Services to customers (5%)Advice and guidance▌An effective information and guidance service is available▌Effective pre-entry guidance is available for all students▌Appropriate continuing guidance is available to all students▌Careers guidance is readily available▌Accessible student welfare and counselling is available to all students who need it.
Learning resources▌A well-resourced library and resource centre is available with appropriate resources to meet curriculum needs▌Open access to learning resources is available to all students
Social and refreshment▌Affordable canteen facilities are available when students require them▌Adequate sports facilities are available▌Appropriate relaxation facilities are available▌There are opportunities for students to organise their own activities
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Questionnaire 2: Organisation and Staff
Quality indicators Grades1 2 3 4 5
1. Leadership (15%)Head/ Principal▌S/He has a vision and shares it▌S/He champions the message of TQM▌S/He walks the job (walks around the school)▌S/He knows the staff▌S/He knows the students▌S/He provides leadership▌S/He ensures the quality champions are in place▌S/He leads innovations and creativity▌S/He gives top priority to quality improvement
Governance▌The Board/ Trustees works with the Hear/ Principal to develop the institution’s mission▌Ensures that the institution has a framework for quality improvement in place▌The Board/ Trustees effectively monitors the quality of provision, including the major indicators of success:
- Student achievement- Student retention- Student recruitment- Financial solvency- The self-assessment report and action plan
Values▌The institution’s mission and ethos is clear and understood by:
- Staff- Students- The community
▌The equal opportunities policy is in place and implemented▌There is a strong commitment to the needs of the community
2. Physical environment and resources (5%)Buildings, classrooms and workshops▌The buildings are clean and attractive▌The facilities are fit for purpose▌Classrooms contain appropriate visual aids and learning aids
Stimulating learning environment▌Classroom layouts/ individual learning programmes are exciting to students▌The learning environments are well planned and organised
Health and safety▌Student perception/ incident logs are kept▌Health and safety policies are regularly monitored▌There is a strong commitment to maintain a safe and secure environment
Resource control and allocation▌There is appropriate delegation of resource management▌Effective resource control is exercised▌Resources are controlled by those who use them
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Quality costs▌The institution has a clear idea of the costs of quality failures▌Quality costs are regularly monitored and reported
3. Effective learning and teaching (20%)Appropriateness of learning methods▌There are teaching and learning strategies appropriate to course and programme goals▌A variety of learning modes are available to meet learners’ needs▌Teaching and learning strategies are regularly reviewed and measured by a range of specified criteria▌Teaching and learning strategies are measured by student response▌Learning is student centred▌Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning▌There is a recognition of prior learning▌There is a good climate of purposefulness among students
Appropriateness of the curriculum▌The curriculum is appropriate to learners’ needs▌The content of programmes is relevant and up to date▌There is a short response time for the development of new course and programme content
Monitoring and evaluation▌Student feedback is regularly obtained▌Feedback from other customer groups is regularly obtained▌Student and community questionnaires are used where appropriate▌The institution has formal systems for review and evaluation▌There is evidence that student feedback is used in policy making
4. Students (15%)Students matter▌The communal areas are clean and well-decorated▌Student handbooks and guides are available▌There is an absence of artificial barriers▌There are good transport arrangements for students▌There are good range of leisure, recreation and sporting facilities available to students
Student satisfaction▌There is good rapport between staff and students▌Happy students and satisfied customers are evidenced through surveys and questionnaires▌Students have a sense of pride in their work▌Students are kept informed about developments that affect them▌Students’ views are regularly solicited
Monitoring students’ progress▌Students’ progress is regularly tracked and monitored▌Students’ attendance is regularly monitored and tracked▌Tutorial provision is used effectively to ensure that students are on track.
5. Staff (15%)Attitude and motivation▌Staff are committed and knowledgeable▌Staff have a student-centred approach
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▌Staff take responsibility for their own quality▌Staff have a sense of pride in their work▌Staff readily respond to individual needs
Teamwork▌There is a commitment to teamwork and team approaches▌Staff are trained in the skills of teamwork▌Staff have strong cohesion▌Teams have a clear idea of the limits to their authority▌There is a resource base that allows them to improve quality▌Teams are regularly consulted on policy
Staff development and training▌The institution is committed to developing its staff▌The institution is proactive and clearly states institutional needs▌Staff development starts with a review of individual needs▌Staff training is adequately resourced and funded▌Staff training is an institutional priority▌Training includes all staff▌Staff are trained in quality improvement techniques
Facilities▌There are good staff workrooms▌There are adequate and appropriate equipment and facilities▌There are opportunities for professional discussion and debate
6. External relations (5%)Marketing▌There is a coherent marketing strategy▌Market research is regularly carried out▌The institution is positively seeking out customer views▌Student and employer questionnaires are regularly used
Community▌Excellent links with relevant communities are maintained▌Community views are regularly solicited▌There are strong links with business and industry through partnerships▌There are strong links with community agencies through partnerships
7. Organisation (5%)Strategic planning▌The institution has broad aims and objectives▌Staff at all levels are aware of the institution’s direction▌The institution has a written strategic plan▌The plan identities how staff can contrite to success
Organisational culture▌The institution has a simple and lean organisational structure▌The institution’s managers are committed to quality improvement▌Authority is delegated down▌A positive attitude to change is part of the culture▌There is universal statement of direction▌There is a strong commitment to peer evaluation and review▌The organisations is praised upon teamwork▌Learning maximisation and prudent risk-taking are emphasised▌There is a tolerance of mistakes
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Communications▌Good communications are seen as a major priority▌Communications are bottom-up not just top-down▌Mutuality in communication is seen as the lifeblood of the institution
Knowledge management▌There is a policy in place for effectively using the institution’s knowledge resources▌An active approach is taken to managing knowledge through techniques such as learning stories▌Teams across the institution learn from each other’s success
Quality tools and techniques▌A range of quality tools and techniques is used to improve quality▌Project teams are formed to tackle quality issues
8. Standards (10%)Hard standards▌The institution has excellent exam results and student success▌The institution has high student retention rates▌The institution has high progression rates for students obtaining appropriate employment or places in other educational institutions▌Effective use of resources, measures of value-added capabilities are in place▌Good student and community feedback based on systematic data collection is obtained▌There is effective budgetary control
Soft standards▌There is a caring atmosphere▌Student welfare is a priority▌Customer service is in evidence▌There is a welcoming environment▌There is a commitment to learners of all abilities
Benchmarking▌Appropriate benchmarking data is obtained▌Appropriate use is made of benchmarking information
Value added▌The institution knows what value it has added to each student who leaves it▌Measures or value added are used to set students targets▌Value-added data is used as part of the benchmarking exercise▌There are strategies in place to improve the value added
Self-assessment and target setting▌A rigorous programme of institutional self-assessment is in place▌Appropriate targets are set based on best practice benchmarking data▌The institution does not measure itself on ‘hard’ priorities alone▌Data cycled back into improvement initiatives
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Appendix 2: Qualitative research
Set 1: Customers: students and parents
1. How would you compare your old school with this new “learning school?
2. Can you see any differences in students’ behaviour? (In terms of discipline,
bullying, etc.)
3. What is your relationship with your teachers like? Can you see any differences
from previous years in your old school?
4. How exiting is the “Learning Portal”, in your opinion? How useful do you find the
logbook?
5. What is the canteen like? Is the food good and healthy?
Set 2: Senior management, teaching and non-teaching staff
1. How would you compare teaching in your old school run by the LEA to this
“learning school”?
2. What is your relationship with your teachers like? Can you see any differences
from previous years in the old school?
3. How effective is the leadership style to maintain the quality of educational
provision?
4. How useful are the Learning Portal and the logbook in terms of monitoring pupils’
achievement and progress?
5. What are the systems that are put in place so far to guarantee quality education
(e.g. surveys, comparison with other schools in the area or with the other learning
schools)? And how do you use the results to monitor quality in educational
provision?
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Appendix 3: The KED Programme
Imagine the typical school from 10, 50 or even 100 years ago: a building divided into classrooms, all connected with dead space of corridors and hallways. The teaching staff allocated to classrooms. One teacher isolated in each room, struggling to find a level of teaching that is neither too high nor too low and at the same time trying to find some time for personalised tutoring for those who need it most. Students divided into groups of some 20-30, each group constituting a class unit separated from the others.
Traditionally, the equation of education starts with the building and ends with the student. That “tradition" can be turned on its head: start with the student. Not some statistical average of a student, but the individual student with all of her individual ambitions and needs. Set the goals and decide on the optimal strategies to reach them. Dedicate a teacher to her as a personal learning coach, supporting the student in every step to reach her goals. Develop the material, the infrastructure and the processes supporting the learning. Design the facilities, not only for standardised teaching but for personalised learning. Leverage on all the opportunities for personalised support, real time feedback and access to best practices provided by modern technology.
That is education for the 21st century. That is the philosophy behind the KED programme.
Educational philosophy
The KED programme is a concept for personalised education. This means that students, with the guidance of their coach, set and work towards their own personal goals, with the ambition of achieving high final results. Students allocate their study time based on their previous educational experience as well as their individual strengths and weaknesses.
Personalised education should not be confused with students being left on their own without guidance or teaching. This is not about cutting down teacher resources, it is about maximizing teachers time spent on their most important task - teaching and coaching. Another key element is the strict and comprehensive system for assessment, follow-up and feedback. In addition to ordinary teaching sessions, all students receive support and direction from a personal tutor/coach every week. During these individual sessions the objective is to increase the students´ desire and ambition to learn more than they thought was possible.
Modern societies are characterised by globalisation, a high pace of change in economy, working life, culture, science, and technology and thus require an increasing need for learning and education. Academic skills, individual knowledge, flexibility and the ability to take personal responsibility are becoming more important and complex. At the same time, interpersonal skills and the ability to collaborate are more important than ever.
An unpredictable future calls for a competence comprised of different skills, abilities and insights as well as factual knowledge. The link between strong academic knowledge, the ability to see context and the flexibility to adapt to different situations are all essential.
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Personal development
Personal development - the process through which an individual’s potential manifests itself - is a significant part of their competence. This lays the foundation for the student to develop into an intellectually empowered and responsible individual who also understands the importance of human interaction and interdependence.
The foundation for continuous personal development is built by:
personal coaching that helps strengthen the student’s endurance, self-confidence and purposefulness.
having students learn to take responsibility and influence their personal learning process. basing learning on the students´ individual attributes collaborating so that students learn to participate in group processes. conducting ethical discussions on an ongoing basis from a common set of values (e.g., in
thematic courses or daily current events discussions). exposing the students to situations and problems that challenge and foster inquiry as well as
stimulate critical, creative, and flexible thinking. giving students a variety of assignments in which they learn to formulate questions and
develop problem-solving tools.
3.1. Personalised Goals and StrategiesThe KED programme puts the individual student at the centre. The teacher is the student's personal coach, guiding her in the learning process and in the effort to reach her goals. Resources in the form of time, facilities, curriculum and learning material - are organised to support that process.
Upon entering a KED school the first meeting is a discussion with the student and her family. Together they identify the students long-term educational goals. What does she want to achieve in school? What does she need to learn? What will it take - from her, her family and the school - to succeed? The long-term goal is then decided and documented in writing.
Strategies for learning
The student is then assessed to determine what level she will start on and accordingly what strategies she will need to reach her long-term goals. The strategies are not only a list of hours that need to be spent or pages that have to be read. It is also a choice of lectures, lessons, assignments and everything else that can support the learning. This provides everyone with a working plan, which will be divided into medium-term goals for the semester and short-term goals for the week to come. Each step is followed up in the student´s weekly coaching sessions with her personal learning coach. In progress reviews and development discussions - whenever needed or at least every six months- progress is tracked and the goals and their strategies are reviewed. Is she making progress according to the plan? Does the strategy put in need to change, the efforts, or should the goals be revised?
Every goal should be both challenging and reachable. Every strategy should provide a reasonable roadmap for the learning journey. In the beginning is a process of setting goals, choosing strategies and assessing improvements often strongly geared and guided by the teacher. But step-by-step. Our students learn their capabilities and how to stretch them. Setting goals, choosing strategies, doing the job, assessing the result and draw the conclusions for next step. It all becomes part of the learning, just as natural as all the facts and knowledge achieved.
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Creating meaning
Unlike conventional schools, outcomes—grades, exams and achievements—are not only an account in retrospective. It is something the student can identify and influence along the way. Neither are outcomes a surprise for the family, since every step is assessed and documented. Through the Educational Documentation System (EDS) on the Learning Portal, families — as well as the student and the teacher - get a real time insight into how learning is progressing.
Setting up individual goals and strategies to reach them creates meaning and motivation in school. It is much more interesting going somewhere if you know where you are going, how and why you will get there. Being able to see the result and your own progress step by step is satisfying and provides motivation for learning more. The ability to set up goals and strategies, to break them down into smaller steps and to experience that sometimes strategies need to be revised, is knowledge that has a life-long value. Not to mention the feeling you have, when you reach and surpass your goals and see the new horizon and opportunities ahead!
3.2. CoachingThe personal coaching method is based on thinking from several areas, such as motivational- and developmental psychology, but also from pedagogy and cognitive psychology. The theory of multiple intelligences has inspired our way of working to help students develop personalised learning strategies.
Personal coaching contributes to the student´s personal development as the student´s learning is structured, supported, assessed, and followed up. Through personal coaching, students learn to set clear and realistic, but still challenging, goals for their studies and to work in a goal-driven manner.
The student´s personal coach plays a decisive role in making the studies successful. The personal coach instructs the student in a structured manner that is not based on subject matter. This means that students receive help with defining goals, finding the strategies to reach them, planning and following up their goals and strategies and reflecting on their own learning process.
Personal coaching is not limited to scheduled talks to discuss the student´s coaching and development — it is a continuous dialogue between the student and the coach. This dialogue is characterised by closeness and concern. The coach is responsible for ensuring that the students assume the responsibility they can manage — and no more.
The content of the one-on-one tutorials varies, as in all coaching, depending on the student´s level of maturity and needs. In the beginning, the students receive mainly help and support with procedures — to accomplish their personal planning and understand the working methods. The focus gradually shifts to reflections on the student´s own learning process, where the students reflect on their goals, work, strategies and results. As students deepen their studies, they assume greater responsibility and receive additional coaching towards new challenging goals.
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One-to-one coaching session. In the KED programme this is a structured session that occurs weekly and if needed daily. It is our way of organizing education and hereby leveraging on teachers´ time, the most precious of all resources in school.
To ensure a structured and successful tutoring process, we have developed a number of tools for the teacher/coach, the student and the parents:
Personal tutorials/coaching sessions: Students have a scheduled discussion with their coach on a weekly basis. This review, which is well-prepared, follows up and assesses each student´s performance according to the set goals and strategies by reflecting on their schoolwork, results and strategies. Reviewing and reflecting on their own learning process is a central part of the student´s discussion with the coach. As an outcome of the discussion, the goals, strategies and schedule for the next week are established.
Logbook: Each student has a logbook, containing his/her learning goals, activities/tasks and timetable for the coming week. The logbook is the main tool for the student´s planning and reflection process. It is important for monitoring and guiding the student´s learning process and is therefore a central tool for personalised learning. The assessment of the past week is also entered into the logbook.
Progress tracking review/Development discussion: When needed — but at least once every six months — students have a progress tracking review with their personal coaches. During the review, the goals and strategies for the student´s course of study are discussed and assessed. The review sheds light on the student´s school situation from a personal and social perspective and the goals are revised if necessary.
Individual study plan: At the first progress tracking review/development discussion, the student, parents and the coach develop the student´s curriculum with personal goals and strategies. These are the medium- and long-term goals that should be attained within six months. Ultimate goals are those that the student aims to achieve for her entire education, the courses the student wants to take, and the quality of the knowledge as expressed in marks or exam scores. Based on these goals, objectives are set for the next six months. The individual study plan is documented in the EDS. The individual study plan is a living document that is reviewed and revised on a continuous basis.
EDS: With the Educational Documentation System (EDS), the coach, student, and parents can follow the student´s learning process. The EDS contains the student´s personal curriculum and ultimate goals, and goals and strategies for the school term. The student´s grade results as well as their own personal reflections of his/her performance during the term are also documented in the EDS.
3.3. The Learning PortalTM
The Learning PortalTM is the KED programme's collective and web-based source of wisdom.
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Students can find most of the learning material on the portal: the courses, the content, objectives and criteria for every step, assignments, texts, pictures, links and tests. The Learning Portal is an important tool in personalised learning because the content of the Learning Portal provides a wide variety of choices and is accessible to students anywhere and anytime.
In the KED programme we don´t need to divide tasks into schoolwork or homework. You have work to do, and you can get it done in school, at home or anywhere there is an internet connection. KED Schools have work stations all around the school where students can access the Learning Portal. Many of our schools also have a Wi-Fi network, so students can continue their work after and between lessons. Thus learning is not an activity limited to the premises of class room.
The web-based Learning Portal is the backbone of the KED Programme concept. It contains all the best material, developed by all the best teachers, and is distributed around the network of schools participating. It is under continuous development and review as teachers contribute with new material and experiences. The Learning Portal enables teachers
to spend less time preparing lessons, while still being able to use all the best material, and leaves more time to spend with their students. From an educational point of view, this way of working assures students, families, and society that what is learned is not solely a function of an individual teacher.
The Learning Portal for teachers
For teachers the portal is also our common knowledge management system. Each subject has its own community and pages. Here teachers collaborate and contribute, with their best presentations and lectures and with best practices. The forum is moderated by some of our most experienced subject experts. This is a way of sharing and enabling the learning process for teachers. Every minute saved for a teacher who doesn´t have to prepare a lesson that has already been developed by colleagues is a minute that could be spent on personal coaching instead of preparation. That is one of the reasons why it is possible for our schools to provide more personal coaching time with the same staff resources as a conventional school. The
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Learning Portal gives teachers a realistic opportunity to “meet" each student where they happen to be in terms of their current knowledge development.
The Learning Portal for families
The family can take part in their child´s learning through the portal as well, by following the student´s timetable and performance through the EDS.
3.4. Room for learning “We human beings are affected by the rooms we act in. In the traditional school there are always corridors connecting classrooms. Those kinds of facilities are consuming areas without being very pedagogically effective. Schools Kunskapsskolan design, build and operates have no traditional corridors or classrooms. We have rooms of different sizes and character, because we all learn differently. All our premises are for study and learning, not only transportation, for small or bigger groups or for individual studies. And they are all designed to address different individuals´ different needs. That is my contribution to personalised education. (Kenneth Gärdestad, Chief Architect at Kunskapsskolan.)
The architecture in the KED programme has been recognised and awarded around the world. But even so, architectural design is just the last part in our formula for outstanding education. The purpose of architecture, in our philosophy, is not just to create an icon or a statement in society, but to create the optimal environment for learning.
The room as a resource
The room - in the wide sense of the word - is as a resource for student´s different ways of learning that can be seen in two perspectives. First, all our premises are designed to suit the various needs of different students and learning tasks while in school. Second, students have the option to choose other places than the school to work with their studies - provided this is beneficial to the learning process.
Our premises are modern and innovative in design. They give an open, inviting and spacious impression, characterised by bright colours, aesthetic yet functional light and frequent glass walls. This unique design creates security that provides peace and quiet for working, while at the same time it facilitates supervision.
Kunskapsskolan schools have few corridors and spaces that are not used for learning purposes. Instead, there are a variety of purpose-designed, multi-functional facilities for lectures, group sessions and individual studies. This approach allows the faculty to use the facility optimally for each individual learning task.
Besides being a superior design for pedagogical reasons, this provides a better use of space and hence economy and creates greater opportunities to convert premises originally built for other purposes to schools. Not the least, it creates a learning environment that resembles that of higher education and modern work life. Just what schools are supposed to be about — a preparation for life beyond school and for lifelong learning.
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3.5. CurriculumThe curriculum in the KED Programme is based on national or state standards and core curriculum. Students shall at least reach state goals in stipulated time, but they also have the opportunity to reach further. But the curriculum in the KED programme is structured in another way than in the conventional school.
All subjects in KED Schools are organised as step courses or thematic courses. The content of the steps and courses, as well as the performance, knowledge or grade requirements, are carefully adapted to meet the requirements of local curriculum and examinations.
The steps are designed to give the student an opportunity to study at his/her own level and pace. After an introductory assessment, students start on the step that matches their current level of knowledge.
The study pace will depend on the student´s personal goals and starting point. This way a gifted student has the opportunity to study at a faster pace and a student with difficulties can spend more time. Thus, the steps are a way to organise the learning process and enable personalised learning that provides depth in knowledge and opportunities for integrating academic skills. Depending on curricula, typical subjects to be studied as steps are home language, Mathematics, Modern Foreign Languages, and Science.
All subjects in KED Schools are organised in step courses or thematic courses. Step courses provide academic depth, perspective and opportunities to advance your knowledge. Thematic courses provide the context and breadth. The picture illustrates the UK curriculum in the KED Programme
Some subjects can be studied in thematic courses. In some cases, context is just as important as hierarchy in a subject and the courses integrate several different subjects to illuminate different perspectives of a topic. In thematic studies, students are trained to change and widen their perspectives as they identify whole contexts and clarify the patterns between content subjects. In combination with the course structure, the thematic courses then form the basis for the educational process.
3.6. The Teacher
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In the KED programme, the teacher accommodates and leads the students´ different ways of learning. This demands a different mind set because the teacher is not only teaching and lecturing, but she or he is first and foremost the students´ partner and coach in learning.
A teacher´s role in the KED programme consists of four parts: being a personal coach, a general coach, a subject expert, and a team member:
Personal coach: Each teacher is a personal coach for the students belonging to the teacher´s “base group." Personal coaching includes instructing and counselling the students on their knowledge, personal, and social development.
General Coach: The teacher serves as a support resource for all students in the school, teaching the students how to learn, mediate and explain general strategies. The teacher also serves as a role model for students.
Subject teacher: As a subject expert, the teacher, in collaboration with his colleagues is responsible for planning and conducting workshops, seminars, lectures and other activities in steps and thematic courses. The collaboration between teachers is done locally at the school as well as with teachers from other schools. The teachers also participate in the joint work to develop and modify the step and thematic courses on the Learning Portal.
Team member: The teachers in a school are organised into teams. The teachers in these teams work together to plan, review, develop, and evaluate their work.
3.7. TimeTime is a resource for the student´s learning. In a world where there is a good argument for every knowledge and skill you can learn, it is also the most scarce and limited of resources in school. The way it is utilised should therefore, as far as possible, be based on the student´s individual learning style and not be organised according to a traditional collective timetable.
Each student has a personal timetable that directs how time is used, based on the student´s personal goals and strategies. The school has a timetable for activities led by the teachers. From this timetable students, in consultation with their coaches, select activities that are relevant to their studies and enter those activities in their logbooks. Students also enter other activities they have planned: the development discussion/progress tracking reviews with their coaches, time for group work, their individual work tasks, etc.
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Every student has a personal and tailored schedule, depending on her knowledge, goals and strategy — and best way of learning. This week's goals, schedule and action list is written down in the log book.
The students are therefore responsible for the way they spend their time and have much influence over it. However, the personal responsibility is never greater than what the individual student can manage. The personal coach is responsible for ensuring this.
Rather than the only option being the traditional classroom format, teaching and time are arranged in various forums: workshops, seminars, communication sessions, and lectures. When planning how to teach the content, the school chooses the format that is optimal for learning, ranging from individual studies to arena lectures, and every format in between. Activities led by teachers, the individual work of the students, and their work with other students is brought together in order to provide a joint foundation for the student´s learning.
(Available from www.kunskapsskolan.se)
Dissertation Module – MA ManagementLondon Metropolitan University Carina Balbo – ID No.10029671