Explore the vast range of titles available.

This paper extends existing understandings of how actors' constructions of ambiguity shape the emergent process of strategic action. We theoretically elaborate the role of rhetoric in exploiting strategic ambiguity, based on analysis of a longitudinal case study of an internationalization strategy within a business school. Our data show that actors use rhetoric to construct three types of strategic ambiguity: protective ambiguity that appeals to common values in order to protect particular interests, invitational ambiguity that appeals to common values in order to invite participation in particular actions, and adaptive ambiguity that enables the temporary adoption of specific values in order to appeal to a particular audience at one point in time. These rhetorical constructions of ambiguity follow a processual pattern that shapes the emergent process of strategic action. Our findings show that (1) the strategic actions that emerge are shaped by the way actors construct and exploit ambiguity, (2) the ambiguity intrinsic to the action is analytically distinct from ambiguity that is constructed and exploited by actors, and (3) ambiguity construction shifts over time to accommodate the emerging pattern of actions.

In 2003, the Institute of Medicine called for all undergraduate college students to have access to education in public health. Several major national initiatives have been launched to achieve this goal, such as the Educated Citizen and Public Health Initiative hosted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in partnership with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), and the ASPPH-led 2010 Undergraduate Public Health Learning Outcomes Model that introduces students to public health at two- and four-year colleges and universities. Here, Leider et al analyze this previously unused administrative dataset to improve the understanding of trends in public health undergraduate training during the past two decades.

In 1951, the American Library Association (ALA) Council approved new standards for accrediting library education programs. These standards shifted accreditation from the bachelor's degree to the master's degree, making the master's degree in library science the professional credential for entry into the profession. At the time, librarians believed this change would transform the practice of librarianship, the nature of library education, and the social standing of librarianship as an occupation. In The MLS Project: An Assessment after Sixty Years, Boyd Keith Swigger examines the reasons the American Library Association enacted the change and looks at the consequences of this decision. Reviewing the last several decades, Swigger addresses a number of concerns: What were librarians' and library educators' arguments for changing the system of library education? What problems were they trying to solve? What were their objectives? Did the change in the structure of library education solve the problems perceived in the late 1940s? Have the objectives set then been accomplished in the half century since? What have been the intended and unintended outcomes of the change? In his review, Swigger draws general conclusions about the MLS Project, the perception of librarianship, libraries, the developments of curriculums in library schools, and how librarianship compares to the new information professions. The MLS Project is an informative and critical evaluation that every librarian should read.

The World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) Recognition Programme was created to ensure the comparability of medical school accrediting agencies, so that the schools accredited by those agencies would have similar educational quality. WFME explicitly values transparency and has recognition criteria that relate to agencies making information publicly available. Our study examined 20 WFME-recognized agencies’ transparency by reviewing agency websites for 27 information elements related to accreditation standards, procedures, and processes. We contacted agencies as needed for information that we could not find on their websites. We were only able to retrieve additional information from 3 of the 12 agencies that we attempted to contact. We found that while 12 agencies had over 90% of expected information elements available, 6 agencies had less than 50%. Our findings illustrate barriers for those who wish to better understand medical school accreditation in some regions and raise questions about how comparable WFME-recognized agencies are.

Articulating thoughtful learning outcome statements for courses and majors improves teaching and learning and satisfies accreditation requirements. After reading this paper, economists will be able to construct learning outcome statements that guide and enhance teaching and learning in their courses and programs. We present a framework for developing learning outcomes based on a set of five fundamental competencies in economics. We then provide another public good, offering a complete set of learning outcomes for an introductory microeconomics course, which instructors can include in their syllabi. For additional guidance, we construct examples of lesson-specific learning outcomes as well.

We develop a theory that examines how a particular type of third-party quality signal, certifications, influences an actor's long-term reputation by addressing two different types of uncertainty. The first type deals with the degree to which the capabilities of an actor can be inferred over time based on known performance dimensions. We label this technical uncertainty. The second type deals with assessing whether the perceived capabilities of the actor meet the standard of desirability, which we call performance standard uncertainty. We propose and test that certifications will positively influence the long-term reputation of actors in situations that involve minimal technical uncertainty, and that, across levels of technical performance, certifications will have an inverted U-shaped relationship with assessments of actors such that certifications will have the greatest impact on assessments of actors who are close to the uncertain standard of desirability. We test our hypotheses in the context of the voting for Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame, an environment where comprehensive technical performance measures leave little technical uncertainty. Our results support our hypotheses and suggest that certifications can influence an actor's reputation by reducing performance standard uncertainty rather than just technical uncertainty, as previously presumed.

Business school rankings have been criticized, to blindly “follow the money” with their strong focus on salaries and economic performance, thereby reflecting the values and expectations of the times the rankings were created. Rankings are increasingly seen as out of touch with changing demands on business and business schools to address issues of social impact and sustainability. The newly created Positive Impact Rating for Business Schools (PIR) provides an answer to these demands. This paper presents a case study on the new PIR. It first provides an overview of the critique of current business school rankings. It highlights emerging trends towards including social impact and sustainability in the business school landscape, with a focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, research initiatives, accreditations, and rankings. It then presents and discusses in detail the new PIR launched in January 2020 at the WEF in Davos and its initial reception. This new “by students and for students” rating reaches out to students to assess their own business schools on how they perceive them in creating a positive impact on and for the world.

The assessment of curriculum outcomes is an essential element for continuous academic improvement. However, the collection, aggregation and analysis of assessment data are notoriously complex and time-consuming processes. At the same time, only few developments of supporting electronic processes and tools for continuous academic program assessment and curriculum performance feedback have emerged. In this paper, we introduce a novel course assessment process supported by a Web based interface that articulates and streamlines the assessment data collection, performance evaluation and tracking of remedial recommendations. To close the assessment loop, the Web interface provides also a mechanism to follow up on the implementation of remedial recommendations and analyzes their associated reflective actions during the subsequent course assessment cycle. A guide to map assessment instruments to the course and overall program outcomes is advocated by the proposed tool to propagate the course assessment results towards higher educational objectives (e.g., student outcomes) in a dashboard-like assessment interface. This approach streamlines improvements in education through reflecting the achievement of course outcomes on the achievement of higher educational objectives. In addition, the tool maps the course outcomes to the corresponding course outlines to facilitate the detection of areas where revisions in the instruction and content is needed, and to best respond to recommendations and remedial actions. We provide a methodical approach as well as a Web-based automation of the assessment process, which we evaluate in the context of our regular academic assessment cycles that have eventually led to a successful international accreditation experience. The collected assessment data shows a significant improvement in the achievement rate of the student outcomes after deploying the tool.

In response to the global competitiveness in higher education, the government, in recent years, has encouraged Taiwan colleges and universities to seek international accreditation, which raises several questions, such as jurisdiction over national accreditation, a single set of standards for local and global quality assurance, demand for the mutual recognition of review outcomes, etc. With the looming pressures for change that international accreditation will likely pose on a Taiwan national framework of quality assurance, multiple impacts on institutions and national accrediting agencies in Taiwan are now beginning to be increasingly felt. Hence, this paper examines current academic international accreditation programs and institutions, recognizes Taiwan's accrediting organizations, and analyzes the challenges that institutions and national accrediting agencies are facing. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

A 2013 survey of Indiana local health departments (LHDs) measured accreditation activity and progress. Reported activities were categorized using the Public Health Accreditation Board's (PHAB's) accreditation steps as a guiding framework and matched with selected sociodemographic, organizational, and technical assistance variables. Findings indicated that 42 (59.2%) of responding Indiana LHDs reported pursuing accreditation. Of LHDs pursuing accreditation, 21 were at the initial introductory step, 18 were at the prerequisite step, one reported submitting an application to PHAB, and two reported no activity, yet intent to pursue accreditation. Reported receipt of technical assistance was associated with accreditation progress (p=0.01) and, specifically, with being at the prerequisite step. Facilitating the pursuit of LHD accreditation in states with low public health investment is possible with targeted accreditation resources. Finding meaningful measures of accreditation progress will help advance the study of factors associated with LHD accreditation on a broad scale and for the long term.