Higher education managers’ perspectives on quality management and technology acceptance: A tale of elders, mediators, and working bees in times of Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasized the role of educational management information systems (EMIS) for quality management (QM) in higher education, and set new directions for post-pandemic studies. Successful implementation of QM processes depends largely on managers' perceptions about quality and educational technology. However, higher education managers’ profiles regarding these quality perceptions and their EMIS acceptance have been insufficiently investigated so far. In response to this research gap, we identified such profiles based on a quantitative survey of N = 70 managers from Chilean higher education institutions during the Covid-19 pandemic. A cluster analysis revealed three distinct manager types: “Elders” (oldest participants, almost equally distributed across positions, with least frequent EMIS access, moderate EMIS acceptance, and highest QM perceptions), “Mediators” (in operational and middle-management positions, with moderately frequent access to EMIS, and lowest EMIS acceptance and QM perceptions), and “Working Bees” (younger females in operational positions, with most frequent EMIS access, highest EMIS acceptance, and moderate QM perceptions). Knowledge of these profiles may enable customized training in the recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic.