Improve the Process for Managing Change

Even though the skills needed today for managing change are as critical as those for managing performance routines, there is no generic model or game plan for managing change. The IMPROVE model for managing change attempts to remedy that situation by identifying the seven functional requisites for effective change management: increasing organizational readiness for change, management approval, preparing leaders, raising employee motivation for change, operationalizing change interventions, validating the change process, and embedding change into the organization. Methods and techniques for satisfying these functional requisites are provided. By following this overall process, the chances for successful and efficient organizational change are increased.     

A Review of Organizational and Human Performance Frameworks

The frameworks or models used to conceptualize workplace performance are as diverse as the organisations they attempt to mirror. The purpose of this review was to examine a sample of the frameworks used to model human performance in organizations with respect to: 1) change orientation, 2) theoretical basis, 3) organizational results level, 4) unit of analysis, and 5) performance analysis. Organizational system and performance system frameworks were contrasted with systematic process models of performance improvement. Frameworks are defined as system‐orientod representations of the flow or linkages of resources, inputs, processes, goals, and results within and external to an organization. Performance improvement process models are defined as representations of systematic processes that define steps to be taken to implement a particular solution or identify a problem. It is recommended that solution designers blend frameworks of organizational system and performance system architectures into systematic, participatory design processes.     

How to Connect Diversity to Performance

Diversity programs are common in the American workplace. Most organizations, either formally or informally, have facilitated diversity interventions designed to educate employees about cultural differences, to recruit a diverse workforce, to enhance career opportunities, or to improve cross‐cultural interactions. Unfortunately, many of these programs have failed to deliver the desired results. One reason for this lack of success is the failure to connect diversity programs to organizational performance systems. This article offers a five‐step process to use in systematically developing performance‐focused diversity interventions and evaluating their impact on individual and organizational success.     

Heterogeneity or Homogeneity

While research has focused on the effects of diversity on individual and group level outcomes, there has been little inquiry concerning the organizational level. Cox (1994) states that the most frequently asked question by executives regarding workforce diversity involves how it affects the performance of organizations. In order to manage the growing diversity of the workforce, organizations need to implement systems and practices so that the potential advantages of diversity are maximized and the potential disadvantages are minimized (Cox, 1994). While the goal of these programs is organizational success, from a human resource perspective they introduce unique challenges. In particular, these challenges relate to activities such as the socialization of culturally diverse employees. Therefore, in an effort to increase understanding of the effects of cultural diversity on organizational performance, this paper examines the moderating impact of socialization tactics on the relationship between cultural diversity and firm performance.     

Designing for performance,Part 1: Aligning your HPT decisions from top to bottom

Wanting to improve individual and organizational performance is a worthwhile ambition. Yet your success in accomplishing this relies heavily on the suitable selection, design, and development of performance technologies. Only when capable performance technologies are systematically aligned with the desired results of your organization and its partners will you achieve sustainable performance improvements. In this article, the first of a three‐part series, you will find a systematic process for initiating the design of a performance system that will accomplish useful results. From identifying the performance expectations of internal and external partners to justifying the performance objectives you establish as guides for future decision making, the systematic processes described in this article will provide you with the initial tools for successfully selecting an integrated set of performance technologies that have the capacity to accomplish valuable results.     

Performance Support Engineering: An Emerging Development Methodology for Enabling Organizational Learning Originally published in 1995, PIQ 8.1

This paper discusses an emerging development methodology, Performance Support Engineering, that can be used to design and build performance support systems. It introduces a new model called the Organizational Performance/Learning Cycle that describes the dynamics of the organizational learning process and provides a framework for thinking about the technologies (Ariel 1994) and methodologies that enable that process. The author argues that previous definitions of EPSS were too limited and restricted in their scope and expands on these earlier definitions to take into account this new model of organizational learning. The new definition clearly distinguishes EPSS from traditional systems development, which focuses on data, not on knowledge, and from expert systems development, which focuses on knowledge rather than on enabling performance. This new view of EPSS offers a clear opportunity for organizations to recognize the strategic importance of managing their knowledge assets. Most of the current methodologies in use by different functional groups are limited in their capability to enable this model and the expanded definition of EPSS. The author describes how the emerging Performance Support Engineering methodology overcomes these limitations.     

走向治理:高职院校兼职教师组织管理新趋势

高职院校兼职教师组织是松散性教育组织,其特征为组织结构分散化、信念多元化和职能多样化三个方面,同时又存在管理行政权力泛化、管理手段集中化和行政思维及行为的路径依赖等问题。要解决这些问题,须走向参与式决策、平行沟通、多样激励和模糊评价的治理,这也是实现高职院校兼职教师有效管理的必然趋势。     

Passionate pedagogy and emotional labor: students’ responses to learning diversity from diverse instructors

This qualitative study examines emotion themes reflected in student evaluations from required diversity courses at a predominantly white, US public university. We analyze two years of student evaluations for 29 instructors. Situated by the work of Acker, Jaggar, and Hochschild, we find contradictory themes of perceived instructional bias and the value of diversity lessons. Student evaluations result in systematic disadvantage for minority instructors that may be heightened for female instructors of color. Non-minority instructors (both male and female) gain privileges by avoiding dealing with diversity directly which is reflected in student evaluations through the process of “ducking diversity”. The organizational structure of required diversity courses marginalizes the scholarship and emotion work of minority instructors and inherently reproduces the very inequalities they are designed to combat.     

Research and Theory as Necessary Tools for Organizational Training and Performance Improvement Practitioners

Human Performance Technology (HPT) is the applied study and practice of improving organizational performance through training and non-training interventions. For practitioners working in this area that identify themselves as an HPT practitioner, organizational training and performance (OTP) specialist, or instructional designer—offering the right intervention set requires understanding of how humans work and function internally and within organizations that are bounded by environmental, societal, and economic realities. The HPT field is rooted in a multi-disciplinary knowledge base and has its own models and theories, which are generally developed by practitioners to guide their practice. Because HPT follows a systematic, data-driven process akin to action research, HPT practitioners are applied researchers even if they do not see themselves as such. What we need is more collaboration between scholars, practitioners, professional associations, and businesses to create a culture of engagement and involve everybody in the validation of applied research and theory development.     

The role of transformational leadership, organizational culture and organizational learning in improving the performance of Iranian agricultural faculties

This empirical research was conducted to investigate the role of transformational leadership, organizational culture and organizational learning in improving the performance of Iranian agricultural faculties and leading them to become learning organizations. The research population consisted of all faculty members of public agricultural faculties affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. A sample of 329 faculty members was selected using stratified random sampling method with proportional allocation. Questionnaire was the main tool for data gathering. Validity of the questionnaire was verified using average variance extracted. Composite reliability coefficients were calculated for determining the reliability of the questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed by structural equation modeling technique using Lisrel 8.50 software package. The results showed that there was a positive and significant relation between contextual components (transformational leadership and learning organizational culture) and process component (organizational learning). These two contextual components could explain 87.3 % of the process component variance. Also, there was a positive and significant relation between process component and performance component, and the process component could explain 36 % of the performance component variance. Our findings support that transformational leadership and learning organizational culture with the effect on organizational learning process not only improve the agricultural faculty performance, but also change them to learning organizations.     

Performance Support Engineering: An Emerging Development Methodology for Enabling Organizational Learning

This paper discusses an emerging development methodology, Performance Support Engineering, that can be used to design and build performance support systems. It introduces a new model called the Organizational Performance/Learning Cycle that describes the dynamics of the organizational learning process and provides a framework for thinking about the technologies (Ariel 1994) and methodologies that enable that process. The author argues that previous definitions of EPSS were too limited and restricted in their scope and expands on these earlier definitions to take into account this new model of organizational learning. The new dofinition clparly distinguishes EPSS from traditional systems development, which focuses on data, not on knowledge, and from expert systems development, which focuses on knowledge rather than on enabling performance. This new view of EPSS offers a clear opportunity for organizations to recognize the strategic importance of managing their knowledge assets. Most of the current methodologies in use by different functional groups are limited in their capability to enable this model and the expanded definition of EPSS. The author describes how the emerging Performance Support Engineering methodology overcomes those limitations.     

个体学习、组织学习与学习型组织之辨析

本文从行政组织理论和学理比较角度,对学习型组织的核心概念:个体学习、组织学习和学习型组织三者之间的区别和联系以及个体学习和组织学习的转化机制、知识传递机制进行了研究和辨析,结果显示:个体学习是构建学习型组织的基础,组织学习是个体学习的系统性整合,学习型组织是组织学习的学习指导理念与奋斗目标.     

Diversity,Conflict, and Team Performances Summary of Program of Research

ABSTRACT : Increased productivity, creativity, and enhanced morale depends not only on the presence of diverse viewpoints and perspectives but also on the effective management of the conflict that arises due to these forms of diversity and the smooth implementation of the new and improved ideas. My co-authors and I have developed a model that includes a broader range of diversity characteristics and describes the processes by which diversity is beneficial in organizations. I present a summary of five research studies that we have conducted to validate and elaborate this model of diversity and performance. Teams that focus on differences in individual's work experience, educational training, and functional expertise (informational diversity) are able to debate constructively in an accepting setting (task conflict). However, teams that focus on differences in gender, race, and age (social category diversity) are more likely to stereotype and interpret things in a personal manner that is often destructive (relationship conflict). Teams that hold similar values about work and group goals are much less likely to debate about resource and work allocation (process conflict) and less likely to engage in personal attacks (relationship conflict). The summary of our research findings informs managers, team leaders, and organizational theorists.     

关于高校"去行政化"的几个问题

高校行政化倾向是目前我国高校普遍存在的突出问题。高校行政化的实质是指＂高校官本位＂,其主要表征是行政权力主导学校学术与教学事务,干部任命官员化,编制机构设置上的党政同构,权学交易等。高校行政化有深刻的历史根源和复杂的现实背景,其制约了大学功能的有效发挥与健康发展,增加了办学成本,滋生了腐败,影响了社会风气。高校去行政化是一个复杂的系统工程,从根本上讲,首要的是改革政府对高校的管理模式,其次是改革高校内部的治理模式。     

Managing Pressure in Organizations

Humans have an innate sense for recognizing and responding to pressure. Many outcomes of pressure in organizations have been studied in the personal and organizational improvement literature, including stress, turnover, employee health, and organizational performance. Surprisingly, very little research focuses on the two alternative forces of pressure, tension and compression, and how these forces affect individual, group, and organizational‐level outcomes. Nor has research studied antecedents to the rise of either type of pressure in organizational life. Notwithstanding this void, tension and compression create the social and structural order that allow pressure to have an impact on individual decisions, organizational culture, and performance. This article contributes to our understanding of performance improvement by developing a theory about and providing practical applications for managing pressure in organizations.     

Career Development; The Linkage Between Training and Organizational Development Originally published in 1989, PIQ 2.1

Improved organizational efficiency can only be accomplished if the employees within an organization have developed the skills, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes to perform at the highest possible levels. To a limited degree this can be accomplished via training, but employees develop the fundamental skills, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes related only to their current job. As a result, the organization is only indirectly impacted. This refers to the micro perspective of improved organizational efficiency. Organizational efficiency can also be accomplished through organizational development, but the individual employee is often overlooked during this process. Without employee commitment to improve efficiency, it will be short-lived. This approach refers to the macro perspective of improved organizational efficiency. Both the micro and macro perspectives of improved organizational efficiency have their weaknesses. Thus, a combination of the two processes is necessary. Career development is that combination. Career development is a process which enables employees to develop beyond the fundamental skills, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes required for their present job assignments. It is a process which is focused on improving organizational efficiency while relying on the development of the individual employee. Performance improvement practitioners can provide learning activities which improve employees' skills, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes by viewing improved organizational efficiency from, an individual (micro) perspective while remaining dedicated to the overall enhancement of the organization (macro). However, many performance improvement practitioners fail to see the connection between training and overall organizational development. These terms are often used interchangeably which leads to the increased confusion and misapplication of each process. It is necessary, therefore, to arrive at an acceptable definition in order to communicate effectively the intent as well as the similarities and differences of the processes. This will enable performance improvement practitioners to better understand the commonalities of each process. It is this understanding that serves as the basis of this article and the forthcoming recommendations.     

Examining the yields of growth feedback from science teachers and students' intrinsic valuing of science: Implications for student- and school-level science achievement

Students' science knowledge and skills are considered critical to growing the intellectual capital on which societies rely to innovate and prosper. However, recent research has documented notable declines in students' intrinsic valuing of science and science achievement in Australia and other western countries. As a result, there have been calls to investigate factors at both the student- and school-level that can improve intrinsic valuing of and achievement in science. Growth feedback from science teachers to students has been identified as one such factor. Growth feedback, which specifically targets individual student growth and improvement, is considered an effective form of teacher feedback. Because recent research has demonstrated the benefits of effective teacher feedback on intrinsic valuing of science and the positive link between intrinsic valuing of science and science achievement, the present investigation examined (at both the student- and school-level) the extent to which growth feedback in science predicts intrinsic valuing of science and the extent to which intrinsic valuing predicts science achievement and mediates the relationship between growth feedback and achievement. This study examined this hypothesized process with the 2015 Australian PISA sample (N = 14,530 students in N = 758 schools) via a multilevel structural equation model. Findings indicated that at both the student- and school-level, growth feedback significantly predicted intrinsic valuing, and intrinsic valuing significantly predicted achievement; growth feedback also had significant indirect effects of achievement via intrinsic valuing. Taken together, our findings indicate that there are personal and whole-school yields for science achievement from the experiences of growth feedback in and intrinsic valuing of science.     

Appraising the work of a college

In this article, we show that school leaders find themselves increasingly tom between pressures for conformity and diversity. We argue that pressures toward conformity undermine the ability of schools to respond effectively to diversity in their local communities. This, in turn, threatens the capacity to learn. If schools are to become learning organizations, then school leaders must recognize and challenge the confines of sameness while exploring a conception of leadership that values difference. Finally, four strategies are suggested by which leaders assist their schools in valuing and learning from difference.     

The performance architect's essential guide to the performance technology landscape

The first two editions of the Handbook of Human Performance Technology helped define the rapidly growing and vibrant field of human performance technology—a systematic approach to improving individual and organizational performance. Exhaustively researched and edited by Dr. James A. Pershing, CPT, this third edition not only updates key foundational chapters on organizational change, evaluation, instructional design, and motivation, but features breakthrough chapters on “performance technology in action” and addresses many new topics in the field, such as certification, Six Sigma, and communities of practice. In this chapter, reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (copyright 2006), Roger Addison and Carol Haig take you on a journey through the key elements of a full performance process with its pitfalls and how to avoid them.     

Managing knowledge performance: testing the components of a knowledge management system on organizational performance

The main purpose of the current study is to validate the framework of knowledge management (KM) capabilities created by Gold (Towards a theory of organizational knowledge management capabilities. Doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) 2001) in a study of South Korean companies. However, the original framework did not provide a thorough explanation of the effect of incentives, which motivate and encourage the knowledge management process. In this study, the modified framework that includes incentives in the knowledge infrastructure capability was tested. Moreover, since there is a weak linkage between KM and organizational performance, this study used empirical evidence to identify the relationship between KM capabilities (KMC) and four perspectives of organizational performance. Since structural equation modeling (SEM) is mostly used to describe causal relationships among unobserved (latent) and observed variables, this study used SEM procedures to determine whether there were any structural relationships between knowledge management capabilities and four perspectives of organizational performance. Moreover, the SEM procedure is “a statistical test to find whether a model fits a set of data, whether it matches a theoretical expectation” (Vogt, Dictionary of statistics & methodology. Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, p 135, 2005). Therefore, this study also used SEM procedures to test a hypothesized model that had a good fit indicates that the model adequately describes the sample data. This study assumed that knowledge management capabilities could be divided into two types: knowledge infrastructure and process capabilities. The original hypothesized model showed that there was a positive relationship between knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance, but the overall model fit was insufficient to be accepted, because knowledge infrastructure and process capabilities were highly correlated. This study proposed two alternative models to find the best fit and found that knowledge infrastructure and process capabilities should be combined under the higher-order latent variable as subordinate latent variables. Lastly, there was a positive relationship between KMC and organizational performance. This study might not be free from common method bias to some degrees. It would be better to divide participants into two groups to respond to either the knowledge management capabilities survey or the organizational performance survey and to investigate the correlation between them. There are two main contributions for the field of knowledge management. First, this study attempted to integrate the fragmented literature of knowledge management into a holistic view and develop a framework for knowledge management. Moreover, this study found that there is a strong and positive relationship between KM infrastructure and process, which could refer that, to improve organizational performance, an organization should support KM processes, as well as build decent KM infrastructure. The results of this study would help KM practitioners to advocate the importance of KM to top managements.