The effectiveness of higher educational institutions : a Hong Kong study employing the competing values framework

Institutional performance assessment in higher education tends to employ criteria which represent an implicit and untested view of organizational effectiveness. However, the Competing Values Model (Quinn and Rohrbaugh 1981, 1983) which has been proposed as 'a general paradigm of organizational effectiveness' (1981; p. 139) contains criteria or dimensions of effectiveness which may be relevant to higher educational institutions. This paper describes a study which developed scales suitable for the valid and reliable self rating of Hong Kong higher educational institutions, in four of the Competing Values Model's nine effectiveness dimensions. In the process, the applicability of the Competing Values effectiveness criteria to Hong Kong higher education was examined. The Hong Kong analysis suggests that institutional self-assessment in higher education may benefit from both the process and outcome of the instrument development method presented in this paper.