UPDATED 1/17/2008

Required Text:

Evans, J.R. and Lindsay, W.M. Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence, 7th Edition.  ISBN-10: 0324382278.   ISBN:  9780324382273.

Course Goals:

 The Following Policies Apply to All Students in this Course

A.    Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisite risk being deregistered from the class.

B.     Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Student Tools/Flashfast) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until Friday, January 25, 2008 to correct the error with your advising office.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

C.    Academic Honesty:  Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit.  The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense.  It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade for the work or course.  Repeat offenses result in dismissal from the University.

D.    For Spring 2008, the course withdrawal deadline is Sunday, March 30, 2008.   Withdrawal before the deadline results in a "W" on the official transcript; after the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported.

E.     Students with disabilities:  University policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access equal access course content.  If you have documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments.  Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through the Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.kent.edu/sas for more information on registration procedures).

Communications:  Individual communications and/or discussion between the student and instructor are encouraged.  I will make every effort to be available both before and after class. If necessary, I encourage you to call me. E-mail is another method of communication, and I encourage you to use it.  To make sure that I will promptly answer any email, you must use "M&IS 44150" as the first part of any subject heading. Generally accepted business English must be used in all email communications.

Class:  Class time will be devoted to lectures.  You are encouraged to ask questions.  While attendance is not mandatory, you are encouraged to attend all classes.  A tentative schedule of lecture topics, exams, and due dates for papers is included.   Any changes to the schedule will be announced in class and the changes will be made to the schedule posted on the class web site.  It is the students' responsibility to be aware of any change in the schedule.

Performance Evaluation: the points earned determine the final letter grade. 

During the Fall 2005 semester, KSU implemented a Plus/Minus Grading System.  If you have questions about this change, please see Plus/Minus Grading System – FAQ at http://business.kent.edu/news/plusminus.asp

This class will use the plus/minus grading system with letter grades assigned as shown below. 

Points are earned from the following components.

·         This assignment qualifies Total Quality Management as a writing intensive course.  In accordance with University policy, you will have the opportunity to submit two versions of this paper.  The first version of the paper must be presented in final form, as if you are turning it in for final grading.  I will not evaluate hand-written papers, or papers that are clearly in draft form.  I will evaluate the first version.  You will then have the opportunity to submit a second version for final grading.  Should you fail to submit the first version or submit it in hand-written form or as a draft, you will NOT be given the opportunity to submit a paper on the final due date.

·         You must have a minimum of five sources, at least three of which are NOT Internet sources.

·         The length of the paper is to be nine to eleven typed pages (double-spaced, 12 point).  This does not include the cover page, any appendices and the bibliography.

·         General guidelines for the paper are provided after the class schedule.  Some examples of “average” and “below average” papers will be made available.

Paper Guidelines:

In addition to improving the students writing skills, the aim of the paper is to enable students to examine in depth how quality concepts have a bearing on current business operations.  Accordingly, you will be expected to scan current business periodicals to find a news item about a company as a basis for your paper.  You will then be expected to go to the library to gather further information on the company/people involved.  Possible sources of information are Business Week, Fortune Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Moody’s Industry Reports, Dunn and Bradstreet, Harvard Business Review, Quality Progress, Quality Digest, or the Internet.

The paper must contain several levels of headings.  Headings should not be underlined and no period should be used at the end.   Main Headings should be used to designate the major sections of your paper.  An initial heading such as “INTRODUCTION” should not be used.  Main headings should be on a line of their own, centered, with all the letters capitalized.   Secondary headings should be on a line of their own, typed flush to the left margin, with major words beginning with capitals.  The headings will essentially be an outline of the paper.  Two or three major headings should be sufficient; and if subheadings are required, there should be at least two for each major heading.

Page numbering should start with page 2 of your text with the page number in the upper right corner with your name in the upper left corner.

1.      The paper must be free of spelling errors.

2.      The paper must be grammatically correct.

3.      Appendices must be used for all tables and diagrams.

4.      Sources can be acknowledged in the text by quoting the author (or periodical), and the year in which the article (or periodical) appeared, in parentheses.  For example: Several studies (Adams, 1974; Brown & Haley, 1975; Collins, 1976) support this conclusion.

5.      Page numbers are included only to designate the source of direct quotations.   For example: Bloggs has said that the MBA "is a most worthwhile qualification"(1974, p.3).

6.      As an alternative method (preferred and easier) of indicating sources, you may in the bibliography assign numbers to each source and then use the number in your text. For example: Several studies [2][3][5] support this conclusion.  Note that the numbers are in brackets, and are 10-point type.

7.      Footnotes must not be used.

1.      The appendix number must be centered at the top of the page.

2.      A short identifying title of the appendix should immediately follow the appendix number.

1.      For books: Author’s last name, initials. Title of the book in quotes or underlined. Name of publisher, city, state, year of publication.

2.      For periodicals: Author’s last name, initials. Title of article or paper.  Name of publication, year, volume number, and page numbers.

3.      For Internet references: Name of Web page and its Internet address.