This volume of Transforming Institutions follows from and builds on its predecessor of five years ago (Weaver et al., 2015) with a mix of case studies, models, and analyses. The authors and editors provide key perspectives for advancing change initiatives in higher education and STEM education. The Transforming Institutions conferences and book series began with the first convening in 2011 at Purdue University, organized by the Discovery Learning Research Center (DLRC), and continues with the 2019 and 2021 Transforming Institutions Conferences. The meeting sought then, as it still does, to bring together researchers, academic leaders, national organizations and funding agency representatives to discuss the practical aspects of changing institutional practices to align with the large body of evidence in the field. The editors and authors of this volume consider this work to be a beginning and hope it will be a call to action for every reader.View this book online at: http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/ascnti2020/
This book examines how organizations can, and should, transform their practices to compete in a world economy. Research results from a multi-disciplinary team of MIT researchers, along with the experiences and insights of a select group of industry practitioners, are integrated into a model that stresses the need for systemic and transformative rather than piecemeal or incremental changes in organization practices and public policy. This integration of research and experience results in an argument for a new organizational learning model--one capable of gaining advantage from employee diversity, cooperation across organizational boundaries, strategic restructuring, and advanced technology. The book begins with a foreword by Lester C. Thurow.
In a world where current political climates and management cultures make risk aversion commonplace, Transforming Organizations shows how all organizations, including large and cumbersome institutions, can transform to suit the needs of our rapidly evolving economic and social realities. This book looks at how organizations and their leaders can adapt to an increasingly volatile and uncertain operating environment through the 4Cs: Creativity Critical reflection Communication Collaboration Based on extensive research in the education, organizational and business sectors, Michael Anderson and Miranda Jefferson show how the 4Cs can be embedded, embodied and enacted in many different types of organizations to make them more responsive to emerging challenges, threats and opportunities. Transforming Organizations highlights clear links between leading and learning – because leadership is no longer (if it ever was) just a role for CEOs, CFOs and senior managers. For organizations to be flexible and agile in the 21st century, all employees must have the opportunity to exercise leadership. But this can only happen if deep learning is a standard feature of a leadership approach that actively and deliberately incorporates key 21st-century skills – the 4Cs themselves. There is a substantial gap between companies knowing what they should do to be flexible, creative and have clear channels of communication, and how to make that a reality. Transforming Organizations provides the evidence and inspiration necessary for doing business differently. Written for those who have become disillusioned or frustrated with business practices that cannot meet the fast-moving demands of the 21st century, the book provides strategies and approaches developed from the authors' work in real organizations in order to implement change and see organizations transform for the better.
Prospective college students and their parents have been relying on Loren Pope's expertise since 1995, when he published the first edition of this indispensable guide. This new edition profiles 41 colleges—all of which outdo the Ivies and research universities in producing performers, not only among A students but also among those who get Bs and Cs. Contents include: Evaluations of each school's program and "personality" Candid assessments by students, professors, and deans Information on the progress of graduates This new edition not only revisits schools listed in previous volumes to give readers a comprehensive assessment, it also addresses such issues as homeschooling, learning disabilities, and single-sex education.
Higher education is coming under increasing scrutiny, both publically and within academia, with respect to its ability to appropriately prepare students for the careers that will make them competitive in the 21st-century workplace. At the same time, there is a growing awareness that many global issues will require creative and critical thinking deeply rooted in the technical STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines. Transforming Institutions brings together chapters from the scholars and leaders who were part of the 2011 and 2014 conferences. It provides an overview of the context and challenges in STEM higher education, contributed chapters describing programs and research in this area, and a reflection and summary of the lessons from the many authors' viewpoints, leading to suggested next steps in the path toward transformation.
Transform your financial organisation’s formula for value creation with this insightful and strategic approach In Transforming Financial Institutions through Technology Innovation and Operational Change, visionary turnaround leader Joerg Ruetschi delivers a practical and globally relevant methodology and framework for value creation at financial institutions. The author demonstrates how financial organisations can combine finance strategy with asset-liability and technology management to differentiate their services and gain competitive advantage in a ferocious industry. In addition to exploring the four critical areas of strategic and competitive transformation — financial analysis, valuation, modeling, and stress — the book includes: Explanations of how to apply the managerial fundamentals discussed in the book in the real world, with descriptions of the principles for reorganization, wind-down and overall value creation An analysis of the four key emerging technologies in the financial industry: AI, blockchain, software, and infrastructure solutions, and their transformational impact Real-world case studies and examples on how financial institutions can be repositioned and rebuilt on a path of profitability Perfect for managers and decision makers in the financial services industry, Transforming Financial Institutions through Technology Innovation and Operational Change is also required reading for regulators, tech firms, and private equity and venture capital funds.
Transforming Organizations provides in-depth case studies of outstanding government executives who dramatically changed both the performance and management of their organizations. The book includes case studies of Dan Goldin of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ken Kizer of the Veterans Health Administration, James Lee Witt of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and four high-ranking government officials who changed procurement in the Department of Defense. In addition, the book includes interviews with NASA Administrator Goldin and FEMA's Director Witt. The volume also includes an essay by Ken Kizer on his experience transforming the Veterans Health Administration. From these case studies, Mark A. Abramson and Paul R. Lawrence develop eight lessons that all executives can learn from in transforming their organization: select the right person, involve key players, engage employees, and persevere.
This book examines numerous topic areas that are considered to be especially relevant for making a strategic leader development investment. The topics covered are areas that have theoretical and empirical connections to important aspects of growth, change, adult development, and underlying abilities, skills, and competencies needed to lead effectively in times of great complexity. In addition, these are investment areas identified by the U.S. Army--a world-class organization faced with the need for radical transformation--as particularly relevant for success and survival. This book identifies key concerns in developing leaders and leadership, and in transforming organizations to better meet the challenges of a complex world. There are two aspects of this book that distinguish it from the numerous existing volumes on leadership in the scholarly and popular-press literatures. Most important, the overarching focus of the present book is on development. There are many offerings on the topic of leadership, but relatively few that focus on leader development--especially from a scholarly, academic perspective. Also, this volume offers a unique perspective in examining those underlying psychological competencies and processes that are viewed as especially relevant for leader development. The chapters that are collected in this edited volume were originally commissioned by the U.S. Army Research Institute as "white papers" to better help Army officers and researchers understand important issues in leader development. The present organization of the papers is around four central themes: a) Accelerating Leader Development, b) Cognitive Skills Development, c) Developing Practical and Emotional Intelligence, and d) Enhancing Team Skills.
This book addresses the combination of pedagogical, curricular, and institutional commitments necessary to create and sustain diversity on campus. Its premise is that the socially just classroom flourishes in the context of a socially just institution, and it invites faculty and administrators to create such classrooms and institutions.This book grew out of a project – involving deans and directors of teaching centers and diversity offices from six institutions – to instigate discussions among teachers and administrators about implementing socially just practices in their classrooms, departments, and offices. The purpose was to explore how best to foster such conversations across departments and functions within an institution, as well as between institutions. This book presents the theoretical framework used, and many of the successful projects to which it gave rise.Recognizing that many faculty have little preparation for teaching students whose backgrounds, culture, and educational socialization differ from theirs, the opening foundational section asks teachers to attend closely to their and their students’ relative power and positionality in the classroom, and to the impact of the materials, resources and pedagogical approaches employed. Further chapters offer analytical tools to promote inquiry and change.The concluding sections of the book demonstrate how intra- and inter-institutional collaborations inspired teachers to rise to the challenge of their campuses’ commitments to diversity. Among the examples presented is an initiative involving the faculty development coordinator, and faculty from a wide range of domains at DePauw University, who built upon an existing ethics initiative to embed social justice across the curriculum. In another, professors of mathematics from three institutions describe how they collaborated to create socially just classrooms that both serve mathematical learning, and support service learning or community-based learning activities. The final essay by a student from the Maldives, describing how she navigated the chasm between life in an American college and her family circumstances, will reinforce the reader’s commitment to establishing social justice in the academy.This book provides individual faculty, faculty developers and diversity officers with the concepts, reflective tools, and collaborative models, as well as a wealth of examples, to confidently embark on the path to transforming educational practice.
The book focuses on key emerging areas concerning flexible systems management as an approach for transforming organizations. It is divided into three parts, discussing Enterprise Flexibility and Performance Management; Transformational Strategies and Organizational Competitiveness; and Supply Chain Flexibility. Part I addresses the integration aspects of learning, innovation, and entrepreneurship for organizational success, performance gains through cross-border acquisitions, flexibility measurement, and organizational competitiveness, impact of disinvestment, employability gaps and sustainable growth. Part II then examines risk governance structure, supporting culture, channel collaboration, waste management, IT-based process re-engineering, HR flexibility and adoption of big data as transformational strategies. Lastly, the third part investigates the development of a framework for a green flexible manufacturing system, measuring the effect of supply chain design on firm performance, exploring and ranking logistics service providers’ best practices, and exploring the relationship between optimism and career planning in the context of manufacturing sector, and analyzes customers’ emotional engagement and their inclinations towards the brand. The concept of flexibility is a common thread running through the three parts. The book is supported by both quantitative- and qualitative-based research as well as case applications relating to different areas of government and profit and not for profit organizations. Written by leading academics and practitioners, it is a useful resource for management students, scholars, consultants and practicing managers in both government and corporate sectors.
