QE Foundation funding
Lerner College students earn grant to promote quality, efficiency
9:14 a.m., June 2, 2011--Is it possible to maintain performance with fewer resources – to do more with less without compromising quality or efficiency? Xiaobo Chen and Susan Steward, graduate students in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware, recently received QE Foundation fellowship grants to research just that.
Chen, a doctoral candidate in economics, and Steward, a master’s student in economics and applied econometrics, will participate in promoting research on the QE Foundation’s “Concepts of Economics and Work Productivity,” featuring the QE Principle and the QE Staffing and Scheduling Methods.
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The research is part of a global initiative on obtaining a better understanding of various cultural constraints to creating more jobs, more quality services and products and more efficient economies.
“I am excited to be a recipient of the grant and to promote further research on the QE concepts and methods,” said Chen. “This will give me a chance to learn something new and to challenge myself.”
"Being selected is a great honor and I look forward to working with the great people within the foundation,” added Steward. “I am also especially honored to have been selected alongside Xiaobo, whom I feel is not only a great economist but a good friend."
The QE Principle, a conceptual model that was initially developed for measuring and balancing quality and efficiency in the delivery of health care services, is applicable to any service industry or government organization that must balance its revenues and expenditures to meet the needs of its consumers with the intent of maximizing both quality and efficiency.
The principle, which takes its abbreviation for the concept of quality and efficiency as one entity, defines quality as the degree of performance satisfaction required to meet the needs of consumers; efficiency is the degree to which a required performance satisfactorily meets the needs of consumers using a minimum amount of resources such as time, money and effort.
"In promoting the QE concepts, we hope to educate and continue the research in taking steps toward solving the existing problem of labor costs and quality,” said Steward.
“The QE principles are interesting because the concept is so simple that it often makes people question the effectiveness at first glance. Through research, education and continued social outreach programs we hope to enlighten others regarding the principle and how the foundation can assist in solving current economic issues."
Chen came to the United States from China after receiving her master’s degree in finance from Sun San-Yet University and her bachelor’s degree in economics from Zhejiang University. She has research interests in cultural economics and finance and experience with a financial firm in Pennsylvania.
Steward is a graduate of Salisbury University in Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Her research interests are developmental economics, labor and health care, and she has a background and experience in business and labor management in Maryland and Delaware.
Article by Kathryn A. Marrone