A performance technologist's approach to process performance improvement

Process performance management provides detailed understanding of the design of a process to improve performance. This article highlights a process performance model aligned with the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) steps of the Six Sigma model, but with additional substeps to guide process improvement. It thus identifies process improvement as one of the key tools in the performance technologist's toolkit and provides recommendations for methods, practices, and tools.     

Client partnership throughout the performance improvement/human performance technology model

Partnerships between the performance consultant and client occur through collaboration with all stakeholders to make decisions during every phase of the human performance technology (HPT) process. During the HPT process, the performance consultant fulfills the role of expert, critic, facilitator, doer, and spectator. Regardless of the role, a performance consultant needs to assess the ongoing situation, apply the appropriate skills and techniques required to adequately handle the situation, and foster customer partnership and collaboration through the HPT life cycle.     

Teacher development and school improvement: The process of teacher change

The overall goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between teacher success in implementing innovative programs, teacher perceptions of self-efficacy, and the teacher-perceived value of the programs. Using behavioral observations, interviews, and questionnaires, teachers' performance, self-perceptions, and attitudes were measured at several time points during the initial year of implementation of an innovative adaptive mainstreaming program. Significant increases were observed in both teachers' levels of success and their perceptions of self-efficacy. Moreover, the timing of the most significant improvements suggests a natural sequence of development leading from improvement in teacher implementation of an innovation to subsequent increases in their perceptions of self-efficacy.     

Fundamentals of performance improvement: Optimizing results through people,process, and organizations,third edition

The third edition of Fundamentals of Performance Improvement includes substantial changes that reflect the movement toward evidence‐based practice within the field of performance improvement. This comprehensive book has something to offer every type of reader, including students, novice practitioners, and experts in need of a refresher course on any aspect of the field. Fundamentals of Performance Improvement: Optimizing Results Through People, Process, and Organizations, third edition (2012, 664 pages) is published by Pfeiffer/Wiley/ISPI.     

Effective performance improvement and management strategies for the information technology industry

Information technology (IT) not only has a significant impact on various fields of human endeavor, it also creates the potential for greater operational efficiency and influences changes in the way business activities are performed. Nevertheless, it is still perceived as more of an operational cost than a benefit. Use of effective performance improvement and management strategies in the IT industry provides a means to ensure that IT remains a pivotal force in driving businesses to achieve strategic competitive advantage and success.     

Black hair culture,politics and change

Since the period of black enslavement in the Americas, Diaspora people have used their bodies as a canvas on which to articulate their presence as subjects. This propensity to use the body as a key medium of creative and political expression emerged from an amalgam of African retentions and new, grounded syncretisms in the West. It was further influenced by their denial of access to the academies and cultural institutions such as music halls, galleries, theatres, museums and even clubs. But more than an embodied locus of creativity, the black body has been a site of political struggle since the antebellum period. Whether generated by an oppressor who sought to condition the black subject for labour by inflicting pain on his/her body or driven by the conflicts within some black subjects for physiognomic valuation, the body of the diasporic settler has been and remains a key site of political contestation. This paper will explore these two themes through the medium of black hair culture. In the process, it will look at the centrality of hair to diasporic aesthetics and hair as a symbol of black resistance to oppression. In doing so, it offers students and educationalists with an interest in issues‐based enquiry in art and design education a pathway to project development with a focus on hair culture that could be developed in a variety of media, while opening up avenues for dialogue that should enhance understanding.     

The influence of national and organizational culture on the use of performance improvement interventions

This exploratory study examined the influence of national and organizational culture on the use of various performance improvement interventions. Data on intervention use were collected from practitioners in the United States and South Asia. Results revealed that orientation programs, organizational communication, instructor‐led training, and performance appraisals were among the most used interventions in both the United States and South Asia. Findings also indicated that factors such as organization size, location of headquarters, learning and development budget, and reporting structure are related to the use of interventions. Practitioners in South Asia predominantly had expertise in disciplines such as human resources, while those in the United States had experience in instructional design and human performance technology. These differences may influence the development and implementation of instructional and noninstructional interventions.     

Feedback providing improvement strategies and reflection on feedback use: Effects on students’ writing motivation, process, and performance

This study investigated the effects of feedback providing improvement strategies and a reflection assignment on students’ writing motivation, process, and performance. Students in the experimental feedback condition (n = 41) received feedback including improvement strategies, whereas students in the control feedback condition (n = 41) received feedback without improvement strategies. Within each feedback condition, half of the students received a reflection assignment on feedback use and the revision (experimental reflection condition), while the other half received a reflection assignment on feedback perception (control reflection condition). Results indicated that in the experimental feedback condition writing performance gained from the control reflection assignment, while in the control feedback condition it gained from the experimental reflection assignment. Improvement strategies negatively predicted self-efficacy beliefs, especially when initial self-efficacy beliefs were low, and positively predicted planning/revising. Reflections on feedback use and the revision positively predicted mastery goal when mastery goal initially was low or moderate.