Productivity and the Process of Organizational Improvement

2018 ◽  
pp. 9-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Improvement

scholarly journals Ideology in Vicarious Learning–Related Communication

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juha-Antti Lamberg ◽  
Jukka Luoma
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Development ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
Vicarious Learning ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
The Future

Organizations often learn vicariously by observing what other organizations do. Our study examines vicarious learning–related communication through which individuals share their observations with other organizational members. Most students and members of present-day organizations would expect that this communication is driven by a prodevelopment logic—that communication serves the purpose of organizational improvement and competitiveness. Our unique historical evidence on learning-related communication over multiple decades shows that the subjective and collective attitude toward prodevelopment communication may be ideologically conditioned. Prodevelopment communication is the norm in capitalist organizations, but competing ideologies may emphasize other goals higher than organizational development. Consequently, increasing challenges to capitalism as the ideological basis of economic organization can have deep impacts on how organizations learn and produce innovations in the future.

scholarly journals Safety Climate and Culture Review: A Case Study of Water and Power Project

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Badr Almalki ◽  
Adel Zakaria ◽  
Mansour A. Balkhyour ◽  
Ijaz Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Safety Culture ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Safety Climate ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Societal Culture ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Power Project

Systematic management of occupational safety and health (OSH) issues requires attention in many aspects like regulatory, technical, organizational and managerial. Approaching OSH from an organizational culture perspective can also facilitate achieving sustainable improvements in organizational OSH performance. OSH culture helps in seeing and organizing safety from different perspectives and should not be reduced to a matter of culture only. The knowledge, information and data gathered is expected to be very useful in the process of improving OSH-related procedures, practices and policies, eventually leading to enhanced OSH performance. This paper attempts to describe a cultural approach towards understanding organizational OSH. It will help the readers, professionals, authorities, and policy makers in understanding OSH from a cultural point of view, and how to assess this OSH culture as part of the of organizational improvement process. The aim is to disseminate latest information on this complex topic, trying to build a bridge between practice and research. The scientific literature shows these two terms, safety climate and safety culture, are often interchangeable, but they are distinct but related concepts. The word "safety culture" is a complex and persistent feature reflecting fundamental assumptions, expectations, norms and values, which are also represented by societal culture while "safety climate" best pronounces attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of employees classically measured by surveys and observations. Safety culture measurement requires detailed investigation of how members in an organization interact to form a shared view of safety. This paper explores the ideas of an organization’s safety climate and culture for the purpose of determining which is more advantageous for accurately describing a "state of safety”. Preliminary results of a case study from a water and power project from Saudi Arabia has been added. 

Survey-Guided Change in Ship Design and Production: Prospects and Limitations at U.S. Ship

1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (02) ◽  
pp. 81-93
Author(s):  
Jeffrey K. Liker
Keyword(s):  
Task Force ◽  
Ship Design ◽  
Employee Morale ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
Traditional Management ◽  
Management Culture ◽  
Complex Dynamic Systems ◽  
Trust In Management ◽  
Organizational Autonomy ◽  
Improvement Effort

This paper describes and analyzes an attempt to improve the ship design organization of a U.S. shipbuilder guided by data from a survey of the engineering workforce. While the survey was effective in diagnosing social and technological impediments to effectiveness and while it influenced the priorities of a task force established to improve engineering effectiveness, ultimately the task force was dissolved in response to short-term pressures to complete delivery of the first ship on a major contract on schedule. Why was this improvement effort cut short just as it was gaining momentum? The paper argues that the problems that surveys are intended to diagnose are often symptomatic of the very nature of the organization's structure and culture. Organizations are complex, dynamic systems. In the traditional, bureaucratic organizational systems that characterize U.S. shipyards, there are powerful internal dynamics that mediate against major system change. This case illustrates the paradox of using surveys to change a traditional management culture. If managers in the system had the personal flexibility or organizational autonomy to change in response to survey data, it is unlikely that their employees would have reported the problems they reported originally. Overall, this case example suggests that surveys should be viewed not as a guiding force, but rather as an input to organizational change. The survey without a well-designed and orchestrated change process will not lead to organizational improvement and may lead to a change in the wrong direction—a decline in employee morale and trust in management.

Designing Assessment, Assessing Instructional Design

2020 ◽  
pp. 1004-1019
Author(s):  
Stefanie Panke
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Educational Technologies ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Assessment Techniques

Assessment plays a vital role in delivering, evaluating, monitoring, improving and shaping learning experiences on the Web, at the desk and in the classroom. In the process of orchestrating educational technologies instructional designers are often confronted with the challenge of designing or deploying creative and authentic assessment techniques. For an instructional designer, the focus of assessment can be on individual learning, organizational improvement or the evaluation of educational technologies. A common question across these domains is how to translate pedagogical concepts such as authenticity and creativity into concrete practical applications and metrics. Educational technologies can support creative processes and offer connections to authentic contexts, just as well as they can curtail creativity and foster standardized testing routines. The chapter discusses theoretical frameworks and provides examples of the conceptual development and implementation of assessment approaches in three different areas: Needs assessment, impact assessment and classroom assessment.

A Re-Distributed Knowledge Management Framework in Help Desk

2011 ◽  
pp. 1374-1381
Author(s):  
Nelson K. Y. Leung
Keyword(s):  
Business Systems ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
Widespread Application ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Help Desk ◽  
Management Framework ◽  
Business Information Systems ◽  
Software Application ◽  
Optimal Productivity ◽  
Application Programs

In the past two decades, the widespread application of Information Technology (IT) has resulted in majority of organizational activities being automated and computerized. In order to solve business problems, gain competitive advantage and sustain organizational improvement, organizations have been investing heavily in IT and business information systems development. Consequently, the complexity of business systems has created an infinite number of technical and functional problems. This complexity also means that users are not able to work at optimal productivity when they encounter technical problems related to the system. Organization may face potential loss in income, whether direct or indirect, immediate or in the future. Help Desks (HD) were established to provide technical support to users when they encounter technical problems related to hardware, software, application programs and network connections.

The “service excellence chain”: an empirical investigation in the healthcare field

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1623-1663
Author(s):  
Roberta Guglielmetti Mugion ◽  
Flaminia Musella ◽  
Laura Di Pietro ◽  
Martina Toni
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Healthcare Sector ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Excellence ◽  
Synthetic Index ◽  
External Customer

PurposeThe linkage between internal and external satisfaction is an understudied topic in the service field. This study aims to address this gap by proposing an original research model, the service excellence chain (SEC), that connects the internal and external perspectives by conjoining performance-excellence models and the service-profit-chain approach. Theoretical assumptions and quantitative measures are proposed by using advanced statistical techniques.Design/methodology/approachThe SEC is investigated through an empirical study in the healthcare sector, focusing on an Italian hospital and involving two of its core units. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. First, internal and external customer satisfaction were separately tested through structural equation modeling. The linkage between internal and external satisfaction is then proposed by mathematically defining a synthetic index, the internal and external customer satisfaction index (IEGSI), modeled through Bayesian networks (BNs) and object-oriented BNs to provide an overall measure able to predict organizational improvement.FindingsThe distinct measured models show good internal validity and adequate fit both for patients' and employees' perspectives. The IEGSI allows rigorously connecting internal and external satisfaction by developing conjoint scenarios for organizational improvement.Originality/valueThis study proposes the SEC model as an innovative way to connect internal and external satisfaction. The findings can be useful both for private and public organizations and may provide several useful insights for healthcare managers as well as for policy-makers in relation to developing strategies for improving service quality.

Will You Recall What You Knew?

2010 ◽  
pp. 115-126
Author(s):  
Jerry Westfall
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Employee Training ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
Training Material ◽  
Training Activity ◽  
Personal Impact ◽  
Seci Model ◽  
Training Materials ◽  
Maximum Benefit ◽  
Explicit Training

This chapter discusses employee recall due to training presentations. Recall is an employee’s ability to remember what they knew or have learned via a training activity. This recall is improved when one utilizes structured training material. This eliminates selective scanning and provides program control for the training material. This chapter is specifically concerned with the transition from the externalization phase to the combination phase of the SECI model where the authors turn organizational tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. They use these explicit knowledge materials to train employees for the purpose of organizational improvement. Research into employee recall is somewhat limited at this point, but the economic and personal impact for the employee and the organization are considerable when compared to the over US$2 trillion dollars spent annually by organizations on employee training worldwide. The motivation then is to design our explicit training materials so that we receive maximum benefit from improved employee recall leading to overall improvement of our organizations.

5S – a quality improvement tool for sustainable performance: literature review and directions

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jugraj Singh Randhawa ◽  
Inderpreet Singh Ahuja
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Production Quality ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
Effective Utilization ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sustainable Performance ◽  
Development Professionals ◽  
The World

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the comprehensive literature review on 5S and suggest possible gaps from the point of view of researchers and practitioners. The manuscript presents the overview of 5S implementation and highlights the achievements realized from deployment of 5S initiatives for sustainable performance of organizations. Design/methodology/approach The paper critically examines the literature on 5S, analyzes and reviews it systematically. The study highlights the critical barriers and success factors for sustainable 5S implementation in the organizations in the competitive world. Findings 5S is an outstanding Japanese philosophy for the development of any type organization all over the world. This study bring out the concept of 5S, requirements for its holistic implementation, relationship with other lean tools, benefits, success factors and obstacles in 5S implementation. The significant contributions through 5S initiatives in the organization like production, quality, safety and effective utilization of workspace for the sustained organizational improvement have also been highlighted in the study. Practical implications The literature on assortment of 5S technique has been so far very limited. The present paper reviews large number of research publications related to 5S to highlight the significance of 5S philosophy in the sustainable organizational improvement across the world. It foregrounds the approach advised by the various researchers, practitioners and appraises censoriously the reason behind the demand of 5S program in the organization. The needful steps and obstacles are also foreground for the effective implementation of 5S in the organization. Originality/value The paper presents a comprehensive review of literature publications in the area of 5S and their assortment to develop an understanding of the significance and implementation of 5S in the organizations. The paper will be helpful or useful to researchers, safety executives, development professionals and managers in the organizations.

Understanding and Assessing Organizational Social Context (OSC)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
Organizational Assessment ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Social Service Organizations ◽  
Worker Attitudes ◽  
Multiple Dimensions

This chapter describes the OSC measurement system. The OSC measure assesses culture, climate, and worker attitudes as the key components of OSC. Including multiple dimensions of culture and climate, the OSC measure provides a personality profile of organizations based on the responses of direct service providers within the work units that are assessed. Empirically derived, the dimensions and resulting measurement profiles allow users to assess the health of their organization’s social context using national norms for behavioral health and social service organizations. The authors explain the use of the OSC measure in their ARC organizational improvement process, and they integrate research and case examples to illustrate how the OSC measure can be applied for organizational assessment and change efforts. These efforts include using social context profiles to identify targets for change, action plans, and objectives to achieve within organizational development efforts.

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