A Perspective on Commissioning and Education -- Total Quality, Total Force

Abstract

Internal and external pressures drive leaders, planners, and senior decision makers to evaluate educational programs for efficiency, effectiveness and long-term benefits. This paper focuses on such issues with respect to Department of Defense (DOD) commissioning programs. Meshed with older educational concerns for development and reform, a growing emphasis on Total Quality Management (TQM) offers opportunities and challenges in meeting such pressures and in supporting evaluation. TQM areas of particular importance in tailoring TQM to commissioning programs are customer and product identification, quality definition and measurement, leadership and teamwork in organizational culture, and benchmarking. Data is needed to support decision making and program improvement at all levels. Several metrics of comparative quality are available, with one being surveys of supervisors for newly commissioned officers. A case is made that better coordination of evaluative data and commissioning programs is needed. Ultimately, this coordination should extend within each service, across the joint services, and through career-long professional military education.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA283215

Entities

People

  • Ronald D. Reed

Organizations

  • Air War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Business Administration
  • Commerce
  • Employment
  • Instructors
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Education
  • Military Science
  • Military Training
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Service Academies
  • Students
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Economics
  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.