Gwenny Ruël

ISO 9000 series: Certification and performance

In this article, the relationship is studied between certification on the ISO 9000 series and the performance of organizations. It is often claimed that ISO certification generates an improvement in the performance of organizations. This research aims to find out if ISO certification indeed results in better performance outcomes for organizations. This is of importance, for example, for those organizations that seek ISO certification in order to improve their performances. To test the hypothesis, an instrument is developed to measure the performance. The performance of organizations is operationalized through five performance indicators, which were derived from the literature: production process, company result, customer satisfaction, personnel motivation, and investment on means. Besides this main research interest the question is posed if other factors can explain for the performance. The concept of motivation is introduced which is the focus of the second part of the study.

Innovative learning systems: The influence of the teacher's new role on student performance

The business world is asking management schools to deliver innovative learning systems adapted to their specific needs. In September 1996 the Faculty of Management and Organization implemented a completely revised “problem oriented” curriculum. One of the main goals of the new curriculum was to establish a closer link between business and education. This would thereby supply the labor market with graduates possessing adequate professional knowledge and practical skills. An important characteristic of this new curriculum is that students, working on projects in small teams, are no longer consumers of knowledge, but are made self-responsible producers of knowledge. This changed the role of the teachers from an all knowing “expert” into a “coach” who supports the small groups in their learning process. Now five years after the implementation of the new curriculum we are interested in what roles the teachers actually fulfill and what the influence is of these roles on the performances of the students.