Accreditation: a voluntary process conducted by peers through non-governmental agencies for purposes of improving educational quality and assuring the public that programs and services meet established standards

Accountability: a system that assigns responsibility for insuring that duties or tasks are performed and goals are met in a manner that meets the expectations for them

Benchmarking: benchmarking is an improvement tool whereby an organization measures its performance or process against similar organizations’ best practices, using the information to improve its own performance

Best Practice: evidence-based standards of scholarly excellence widely recognized within a discipline or industry

Measure: quantitative or qualitative indicator of the result of the performance of a function(s) or process(es)

Mission Statement: brief statement of the purpose of a company or organization, used to guide its actions

Staff Development: The process of increasing effectiveness in accomplishing work responsibilities of staff members

Strategic Planning: a specialized planning method for organizations based on the three core elements of a clearly defined mission statement, acknowledgement of basic values that must be expressed in its actions and a vision of desired future outcomes

Strategy: overall methods used to achieve a goal

SWOT Analysis: the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis helps you look critically at your organization; it is a tool to help produce a good fit between a company’s strengths and its opportunities

Values: organizational values are deeply supported and broadly endorsed beliefs about what is important to members of the organization; organizational values define how members approach their work, helping to determine appropriate behavior and guide individual decision making

References: CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education, 6^th Edition; Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009; Goodstein, Nolan & Pfeiffer, 1993; Norris and Poulton, 2008; Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Kouzes & Posner, 1995