Performance Indicator Maps: A Visual Tool for Understanding,Managing, and Continuously Improving Your Business Metrics

Organizations are complex systems that require managers and employees alike to understand the interdependencies between their performance accomplishments and those of others, as well as the specific means and actions that affect them. Performance indicator maps (PIMs) are graphical representations that illustrate the relationships among organizational performance indicators. When properly designed, performance indicator maps can increase the effectiveness of feedback generated by dashboards, trigger tangible improvement actions today, and allow us to get the results we want tomorrow.     

Colonizing Bodies: Corporate Power and Biotechnology in Young Adult Science Fiction

The American cultural and political landscape has seen changes on the level of seismic shifts in the past four decades, thanks in part to the two very diverse fields of big business and biotechnology. Linking the two arenas together in the literary landscape is a growing body of young adult science fiction that envisions a future shaped profoundly by both. This paper surveys how the interplay between corporations and biotechnology is represented in this emerging body of work to explore diverse facets of a common theme: the biotechnical subjection of human matter to market force.     

An Academic Program Profile: Wayne State University

Since 1948, the Learning Design and Technology (LDT) program at Wayne State University has been offering degrees. Presently, the LDT program offers PhD, EdD, master's, and undergraduate degrees and two certificates. The degrees are delivered using various methods including face‐to‐face, blended, and online. The program focuses on the application of learning sciences and relevant disciplines to improve performance in organizations. The program has two concentration tracks: design and performance systems and learning technologies. Four full‐time and seven adjunct faculty are engaged in various research initiatives and projects with funding in excess of $5 million total. The faculty members serve in leadership roles in several academic and professional associations. In terms of programmatic initiatives, the LDT faculty members have renovated their programs to help make sure students can complete all required courses in 2 years, and the PhD in 4 years. They also are initiating a full‐time research intensive program. With capable faculty members and an excellent curriculum, the LDT program at Wayne State University nurtures competent scholars and professionals. —Sung “Pil” Kang, Ph.D. and Yeol Huh, Ph.D. column editors     

Students with disabilities in higher education: a biographical-narrative approach to the role of lecturers

This article presents an analysis of how lecturers respond to students with disabilities, the initial question being: do lecturers aid or hinder students? Findings pertain to a broader research project being developed by a multidisciplinary team employing a non-usual research methodology in higher education (HE) research and students with disabilities: biographical-narrative methodology. The general aim is to analyse – by listening to the students themselves – barriers and support identified as affecting access, academic performance and overall perception of the HE experience. The present paper analyses lecturer-centred data to focus specifically on one of the objectives of our research project: the role that lecturers play in the inclusive education of students with disabilities. Unlike other international research, this article explores the barriers and support differentiating between five fields of knowledge: health sciences, experimental sciences, social sciences (law and education), engineering and technology and humanities. Findings are organized in four topic areas: lecturer attitudes, practices in the classroom, curricular adaptations and faculty training. Key findings are discussed in the conclusions section, together with a discussion of contributions made by earlier studies.     

Planning a responsive evaluation: Establishing solid partnerships by clarifying expectations and purpose,part 2

For evaluation to be worth the resources it consumes, it must enable decision makers to make sound decisions based on relevant, reliable, and valid data that lead to improved performance. It is from here that all evaluation efforts stem. All components of the evaluation must be aligned with the objectives and expectations that the organization and its stakeholders value and the decisions that will have to be made as a result of the evaluation findings. These decisions should be concerned with how to measurably improve performance at all levels of the organization. This article, the second of a two‐part series on evaluation (see Guerra‐López, 2007b, for part 1), describes how to create a responsive evaluation through the identification of stakeholders and expectations as a first and fundamental step.     

Key Competencies Required of Performance Improvement Professionals

Despite the growing literature about the criticality of a performance focus in our field, the literature on empirically formulated competencies for performance improvement professionals reflecting this shift has been scarce (Dean, 1999). While this study was being conducted (2000–2001), there were no formally recognized standards to guide performance improvement professionals. What the literature did offer was standards for instructional designers, specifically, the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (IBSTPI) released the third edition of Instructional Design Competencies: The Standards (Ritchey et al., 2000). Around this same time, The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) was simultaneously, and independently, working on developing such standards. This study pursued similar efforts through two overarching purposes. The first purpose was to identify competencies required of competent performance improvement professionals. While previous studies had generally addressed what constitutes ideal practice, no data had been collected on current practice. Thus, the second purpose was to determine how often performance improvement practitioners believed they (1) should be, and (2) are currently applying each of the identified competencies. The relationships and gaps between these two indicators were also examined.     

Intermittent hypoxia exposure in a hypobaric chamber and erythropoietin abuse interpretation

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of intermittent hypoxia exposure on direct and indirect methods used to evaluate recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) misuse. Sixteen male triathletes were randomly assigned to either the intermittent hypoxia exposure group (experimental group) or the control normoxic group (control group). The members of the experimental group were exposed to simulated altitude (from 4000 to 5500 m) in a hypobaric chamber for 3 h per day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks. Blood and urine samples were collected before and after the first and the final exposures, and again 2 weeks after the final exposure. While serum EPO significantly increased after the first [from a mean 8.3 IU x l(-1) (s = 3.2) to 16.6 IU x l(-1) (s = 4.7)] and final exposures [from 4.6 IU x l(-1) (s = 1.4) to 24.8 IU x l(-1) (s = 9.3)], haemoglobin, percentage of reticulocytes, and soluble transferrin receptor were not elevated. Second-generation ON/OFF models (indirect rhEPO misuse detection) were insensitive to intermittent hypoxia exposure. The distribution of the urinary EPO isoelectric profiles (direct rhEPO misuse detection) was altered after intermittent hypoxia exposure with a slight shift towards more basic isoforms. However, those shifts never resulted in misinterpretation of results. The intermittent hypoxia exposure protocol studied did not produce any false-positive result for indirect or direct detection of rhEPO misuse in spite of the changes in EPO serum concentrations and urinary EPO isoelectric profiles, respectively.