Further iterations on using the Problem-analysis Framework

A core component of applied educational and child psychology practice is the skilfulness with which practitioners are able to rigorously structure and conceptualise complex real world human problems. This is done in such a way that when they (with others) jointly work on them, there is an increased likelihood of positive outcomes being achieved for clients. The Problem-analysis Framework as discussed in this paper offers one way of working with such complexity which is grounded in a sound knowledge based in applied psychology. This paper provides further clarity on using the framework within applied practice. The authors were all trained in and use the Problem-analysis Framework and now work in many different types of applied settings within Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom. This paper illuminates important aspects of the problem-analysis approach itself for those currently learning it, as well as providing an aide-mémoire to those using it and those who want to develop their skills in this area.     

Case Study Research: A Valuable Learning Tool for Performance Improvement Professionals

Although it is sometimes recommended that performance improvement (PI) professionals include experimental research designs in their repertoire of PI tools and methods, it has been long understood that experimental designs can be difficult to implement due to impediments resulting from the complex nature of the organizational settings. However, the utilization of case study research has proven to be an effective alternative to aid in the identification of strengths and opportunities for the improvement of organizational procedures, policies, processes, or programs. Case study research helps managers and practitioners make sense of real world problems. This article presents a summary of steps in the design of case study research and provides examples of how these methods have been used within organizational settings. Implications for PI practitioners are provided.     

The Role of Demographics as Predictors of Successful Performance of Sales Professionals in Business‐to‐Business Sales Organizations

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact demographic variables of gender and sales experience have on the performance of business‐to‐business (B2B) sales professionals. If a deeper understanding can be established of how gender and sales experience variables relate to B2B sales performance, human resource development (HRD) and human performance improvement (HPI) professionals can use these indicators during the hiring and selection process. This article reports findings of the study and offers implications to the field of HRD and HPI.     

Our future as performance improvement practitioners: A follow‐up wake‐up call

In a recent article (Vieregge & Moseley, 2012), we reported the findings of an informal pilot survey we conducted at a meeting of the Michigan International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) chapter. The survey was intended to secure responses to a brief set of future‐focused questions from both the emerging and the seasoned talent who attended the meeting. Recently, we made the survey available for others in the human performance improvement (HPI) field to participate and offer their responses. In this article, we report the results in hopes that they will encourage continuing discussion about our future as HPI practitioners.     

What's in a Name? A Comparison of Instructional Systems Design,Organization Development,and Human Performance Technology/Improvement and Their Contributions to Performance Improvement

What are the similarities and differences between instructional systems design, organization development, and human performance technology/improvement (HPT/HPI)? This article defines these fields and highlights how they contribute to the performance improvement domain. With Rossett's view of HPT as a “perspective, or habit of mind, that inclines us towards data, analysis, systems, alignment and partnerships” (A. Rossett, personal communication, October 28, 2012), HPT/HPI will be presented as the overarching framework for selecting and measuring instructional systems design or organization development interventions.     

Change Factors Influencing the Diffusion and Adoption of Green Building Practices

This study aims to improve how human performance improvement (HPI) practitioners manage attributes of change. While there have been numerous studies addressing various aspects of change management, few have examined how the characteristics of the change itself contribute to adoption. This study addresses a change scenario of current importance and interest. Researchers coded applicable survey responses from a previous study and performed factor analysis to identify barriers and incentives to green building, including Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, for construction industry professionals in the Pacific Northwest, and how those professionals feel about adopting “green” building practices—among them, the LEED rating system. Findings suggest that (a) the qualities of some changes have far more influence on adoption than others, such as difficulty of transition, and (b) other characteristics combine to exert their influence in concert with one another. Finally, a user's perception of the value of the change was significant. The article's conclusion addresses how HPI practitioners can integrate the findings into green building adoption specifically, as well as within the greater context of change management and implementation practices in general.     

T4 MAP™: A Scholar‐Practitioner Model for Performance Improvement

The world of work is changing and we must adapt how we apply human performance technology (HPT) expertise to address our 21st century challenges. This is a formidable challenge. The scholar‐practitioner model seems ideally suited to this high‐speed world by combining the ability to apply theory and rigorous processes to solve practical problems. The T⁴ MAP (T⁴) models a new action research process grounded in human and organizational development (HOD) theory. It incorporates quantitative and qualitative data and so equips scholar‐practitioners and practitioners to address workplace problems and advance theory by enabling a deeper contextual understanding of people in the organization. A T⁴ pilot demonstrated the ability to generate salient data that helped teams identify performance improvement opportunities and enabled participants to take accountability for implementation. It offered a basis for grounded theory and presented opportunities for future research.     

一种基于工作流的业务流程集成框架

提出一种基于工作流的业务流程集成框架,该框架将各应用逻辑视作分布计算环境下的平台组件,采用面向服务的视图,将组件提供的服务封装到适配器中,使用XML消息协调服务间的交互,通过全局工作流引擎控制业务流程.给出了框架的分层架构模型,设计了框架的核心组件:工作流引擎、适配器和消息代理.以企业订单创建流程为例,验证了框架的有效性.     

Potential pitfalls on the road to a process‐managed organization (PMO), Part 1: The organization as system lens

Process design and improvement over the past 20 years have yielded great gains in customer satisfaction and cost containment in organizations throughout the world. This article presents what we call the Organizations as a Systems Lens. It provides a way of looking at organizations essential to being process centered. We present a powerful framework called the Processing System Hierarchy, which makes it quite clear what must be done to successfully travel the road to the process‐managed organization.     

Leadership for Literacy: A Framework for Policy and Practice

This article provides a framework for practitioners and policy actors that links leadership and literacy. The focus is on the specification of research-anchored scaffolding that can assist school administrators and policy players in their quest to strengthen student performance in reading. The framework itself isbuilt frommaterial culled from4 lines ofempirical investigation: quality instruction, effective reading programs, school effects, and educational leadership. The analysis represents an important dimension of what we refer to as second-generation work on instructional leadership.     

Performance Consulting With Rummler's Anatomy of Performance: A Case Study

Rummler's Anatomy of Performance framework provides performance improvement practitioners with a tool and method to understand and analyze organizations in a systemic way, and also to align solutions at multiple levels (i.e., organization, process, and job) by focusing on results. The Anatomy of Performance was used on a project with a large automotive manufacturer (Big Auto 2) to prepare the organization for the placement of 20 new field managers dispersed throughout the United States.     

Theoretical Frameworks of Performance‐Based Models

The purpose of this article is to highlight theories that support the functions of performance‐based design models and to discuss the implications of integrating divergent models into the system‐oriented human performance technology (HPT) and performance improvement (PI) disciplines. HPT, PI, and instructional systems design (ISD) share a systems framework, along with the influence of common theories such as performance theory, learning theory, adult learning, cognitive psychology, and behavioral psychology (Foshay, Villachica, & Stepich, 2014). This article focuses on the role of theory as a tool in the practitioner's toolbox and as a connection point when working with teams and organizations that have different theoretical orientations. Performance‐based ISD models are discussed, including Robinson and Robinson's (1989) Training for Impact, Brethower and Smalley's (1998) Performance‐Based Instruction, and Bradford and Boler's (2015) Horizon Model. Allen and Sites's (2012) successive approximation model (SAM) retains elements of ADDIE as a process, but the model is iterative rather than systematic in design.     

The Realistic Meaning of“the Human World”From“Chuang-Tzu”

The human world is always changing; one generation is different from another. It is easy to do nothing, but rather difficult to do something without hurting the spirit. Only those who have no prejudice and do not insist on their own selves can follow the changes and not suffer. Everything has its natural ability. And as to human beings, the best way of protecting ourselves and getting an advantageous position in the human world is to forget what must be forgotten; to be"useless"; to let everything do its own work according to its own ability and have its own names.     

A General Framework for Performance Management Systems: Structure,Design, and Analysis

Employees may spend their time on the job behaving in a variety of ways. The purpose of a well‐designed performance management system should be to channel and motivate employees to concentrate their energies on value‐added performance. The extent to which an organization achieves this outcome depends upon the design and structure of its performance management system. The basic framework of any performance management system as presented here involves four levels of operations, policies, and practices: (1) executive leadership; (2) the infrastructure of strategy, measurement and control, and work process; (3) human resource policies and practices in attracting, hiring, developing, and compensating employees; and (4) workplace working conditions shaped and driven by the practices of managers and supervisors and the dynamics of the work group or team. The issues that performance improvement specialists need to consider in analyzing an organization's performance management system are noted.     

Potential application of particle based simulations in reservoir security management

In order to model the movement progress in case of risks such as dam collapse and coastal inundation, particle-based simulation methods, including the discrete-element method and smoothed particle hydrodynamics, which have specific advantages in modeling complex three-dimensional environmental fluid and particulate flows, are adopted as an effective way to illustrate environmental applications possibly happening in the real world. The theory of these methods and their relative advantages compared with traditional methods are discussed. Examples of 3-D flows on realistic topography including the flooding of a river valley as a result of a dam collapse and coastal inundation by a tsunami are introduced. Issues related to validation and quality data availability are also discussed. The results show that the simulations provide a valuable insight in a given situation for the security management of reservoir dams. Validation can only be performed where both the initial and final states can be very well characterized.     

The development of an evaluation framework

Evaluation has much to offer those in professional services. Yet, it has received less attention in this area of higher education than in teaching and learning. Drawing on the insights of professional service practitioners, this study begins by considering the case for using evaluations in the work of those in allied and support services. Besides affording a means of assessing the success of projects and programmes, and providing evidence to regulators and other stakeholders of what has been achieved, evaluation presents an opportunity to reflect on practice and learn more about those who professional service departments support. However, whilst its value was recognised amongst the practitioners surveyed, its use has been limited by uncertainties over how evaluations should be conducted. The second part of the paper introduces a framework aimed at addressing these concerns, with feedback from practitioners confirming its capability in guiding the evaluation process.     

HPT and Six Sigma: Is There a Difference That Matters?

This article explores the major differences and similarities between Six Sigma and human performance technology or human performance improvement (HPT or HPI). It addresses the definitions and foundations of both Six Sigma and HPT as major performance improvement approaches. It explains how their methodologies are similar in some aspects and different in others. It compares the popularity and applicability of the two approaches in both small and large companies. It discusses the psychological elements underlying each method. Moreover, it considers the criteria of success in managing HPT and Six Sigma projects. It also addresses the reasons for the similarities and differences between the two processes and suggests an integrated approach that focuses on both human and nonhuman improvement in an attempt to overcome the limitations of each approach.     

Towards the Idea of a World University

Could anyone reasonably oppose the idea that quality and excellence are essential to the university? However unlikely it seems, that is exactly what we would like to do in this article: we would like to reject the demand for quality and excellence in the university. We would like to arrive at a point at where the need for quality is no longer necessary. In this article, such a refusal will direct us to a proposal for using the spaces offered by the university and its teaching and research in a different way; in a way that transforms the university into a world university. This paper will argue that a world university is concentrated around attentive pools of worldly study. It is a university that has to invent new languages in order to answer the question “How can we live together?” In order to answer this question, and to be “present in the present,” we will clarify our argument that both acceptance and attention are needed in the world university. This position implies a kind of curiosity that is not driven by the “will to know” but by a caring attitude to what is happening now.