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Full-Text Articles in Education

Reconciling Organisational Realities With The Research Mission Of The Irish Institutes Of Technology, Deirdre Lillis Jan 2007

Reconciling Organisational Realities With The Research Mission Of The Irish Institutes Of Technology, Deirdre Lillis

Conference papers

A key principle in systems theory is that a system, such as a Higher Education Institute (HEI), will self-correct and stabilise to align itself with its overarching ‘system goals’, irrespective of interventions. System goals may be explicit and obvious, such as published performance indicators, however change initiatives can often fail because the initiative is acting against some underlying, implicit and/or hidden system goal. In addition, if one accepts the premise that people will work toward what is recognised and rewarded then the measures of performance used within a HEI are likely to be important forces for change in their own …


Engaging The Academic Heartland:A Key Factor In The Effectiveness Of Strategic Planning And Self Study Programs., Deirdre Lillis Jan 2007

Engaging The Academic Heartland:A Key Factor In The Effectiveness Of Strategic Planning And Self Study Programs., Deirdre Lillis

Conference papers

Conventional wisdom in the literature attests to the importance of involving academic staff in strategic planning and self study programs but there is a lack of empirical evidence to substantiate this argument. This paper reports on the findings of an empirical investigation of the effectiveness of three strategic planning and three self study programs, undertaken in one Higher Education Institute (HEI), between 1997 and 2006. It was found that the level of engagement of academic staff was a key factor in the effectiveness of the programs – the more engagement the more effective the programs were. The research methodology was …


Steering By Engagement:Towards An Integrated Planning And Evaluation Framework In Higher Education Institutes, Deirdre Lillis Jan 2006

Steering By Engagement:Towards An Integrated Planning And Evaluation Framework In Higher Education Institutes, Deirdre Lillis

Conference papers

Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) worldwide are investing significant resources in strategic planning and self study programs to improve institutional performance. Both are expensive undertakings in terms of the time invested by participants and it is not unusual to see both programs underway in a HEI at the same time. The underlying knowledge produced about the challenges facing the Institution and the necessary responses can be broadly similar although their methodologies and presentation may differ. This paper reports on the comparative effectiveness of three strategic planning and three self study programs undertaken in one HEI over an 8 year timeframe under …


Bar Raising Or Navel-Gazing?:The Effectiveness Of Self-Study Programmes In Eading To Improvements In Institutional Performance, Deirdre Lillis Jan 2006

Bar Raising Or Navel-Gazing?:The Effectiveness Of Self-Study Programmes In Eading To Improvements In Institutional Performance, Deirdre Lillis

Conference papers

Higher Education Institutes worldwide are investing significant resources in self study programmes to improve institutional performance, to enhance quality and to meet external stakeholder demands. The institutional impacts of both internally and externally mandated self study programmes is an area where little empirical research exists. A key question is whether self study programmes are effective (or otherwise) in leading to improvements in institutional performance and the reasons why. Covering an eight year period, from 1997–2006, this paper reports on the use of systematic evaluation methodology (Rossi et al., 2003) to evaluate the effectiveness of three self study programmes in leading …