Skills for the 21st Century Supervisor: What Factory Personnel Think

The study reported here is an attempt to fill a void in research regarding the opinions of people who actually work on the shop floor. In addition to providing historical and modern perspectives on the supervisory profession, its primary contribution is a prioritized set of 30 supervisory skills, synthesized from extant literature in the area of human performance. Factory personnel believe these skills are what are needed for leading and improving employee performance in the complex manufacturing environment of the 21st century. Using Likert‐type rating scales to serve as the data collection instrument, subject groups (sorted by employees, supervisors, and managers) representing manufacturing firms in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Iowa, metropolitan areas were asked to rate the importance of each of the 30 skills. Three data analyses were conducted: a Pareto analysis to determine which categories and skills were most important, a comparative analysis to measure how the groups differed in their ratings, and a one‐way analysis of variance F‐test to determine significant differences between the mean ratings of the groups. Where significant differences were discovered, apost hoc test was also conducted to assess pairwise differences. This study was successful in identifying a Taxonomy of Supervisory Skills for improving employee performance. Although the subject groups rated all 30 skills relatively high, six specific skills were found to be most important. In the rating of nine particular skills, significant pairwise differences were discovered.     

Policy considerations based on a cost analysis of alternative test formats in large scale science assessments

This article compares the costs of four assessment formats: multiple choice, open ended, laboratory station, and full investigation. The amount of time spent preparing the devices, developing scoring consistency for the devices, and scoring the devices was tracked as the devices were developed. These times are presented by individual item and by complete device. Times are also compared as if 1,000 students completed each assessment. Finally, the times are converted into cost estimates by assuming a potential hourly wage. The data show that a multiple choice item costs the least, and that it is approximately 80 times as much for an open ended item, 300 times as much for a content station, and 500 times as much for a full investigation item. The very large discrepancies in costs are used as a basis to raise several policy issues related to the inclusion of alternative assessment formats in large scale science achievement testing. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 615–626, 2000     

The Changing Corporate Mind: Organizations,Vision, Missions,Purposes, and Indicators on the Move Toward Societal Payoffs

Where are the world's organizations headed? What do they see as their primary destination and contribution? What do they commit to deliver and to whom? How rigorous are they in defining their destinations? What label do they use to describe statements of their intended future? To find the answers to these and other questions, we examined 26 of the leading organizations internationally as well as 60 leading organizations in the United States. Based on this sample of world organizations, we found indications that many organizations see some aspect of societal good as basic to their future, while many others regard their own organization's well-being as what is most important. We find no clear favorite for what organizations label their statements of purpose: most use “mission” while some use “vision,” and some use “values” or “philosophy.” Few of the organizations in our sample state their intended destination in measurable performance terms. From these data, we discuss the implications in terms of an increasing emphasis in the literature on organizations having to deliver outputs that contribute to external clients and society. We also note that purpose statements must be accompanied by appropriate actions to achieve those intentions. In addition, we discuss how this move toward socially-responsive organizations is impacting the role of the performance technologist.