Process improvement can itself be considerably improved by the use of information technology. Distributed and a synchronous group support systems, such as e-mail, computer conferencing and the World Wide Web are likely to play a major role in this improvement. Process Improvement and Organizational Learning: The Role of Collaboration Technologies analyzes the relationship between collaborative technologies, process improvement and organizational learning. It is based on the author's experiences in numerous process-focused organizational development projects where process improvement groups were aided by the support of collaborative technologies.
Reshapes the way teachers and administrators think about people, practices, and policies... This innovative book about organizational learning in K–12 settings reshapes the way teachers and administrators think about people, practices, and policies while providing a compelling roadmap for transformation from within today′s school systems. Key Features: Six interrelated conditions support organizational learning: prioritizing learning, fostering inquiry, facilitating the dissemination of knowledge, practicing democratic principles, attending to human relationships, and providing for members′ self-fulfillment. An on-going case study connects everyday practices in school systems to a holistic framework that helps practitioners understand how their thinking and behaviors influence learning, work environments, collegial interactions, decision making, and innovation. Numerous practical examples bring complex theoretical concepts to life, while a series of essential questions, activities for getting started, and reflective journal prompts allow practitioners to apply content and ideas to their own settings
This new edition of this bestselling guide offers an integrated approach to process improvement that delivers quick and substantial results in quality and productivity in diverse settings. The authors explore their Model for Improvement that worked with international improvement efforts at multinational companies as well as in different industries such as healthcare and public agencies. This edition includes new information that shows how to accelerate improvement by spreading changes across multiple sites. The book presents a practical tool kit of ideas, examples, and applications.
Some 70 percent of U.S. manufacturing output currently faces direct foreign competition. While American firms understand the individual components of their manufacturing processes, they must begin to work with manufacturing systems to develop world-class capabilities. This new book identifies principles-termed foundations-that have proved effective in improving manufacturing systems. Authored by an expert panel, including manufacturing executives, the book provides recommendations for manufacturers, leading to specific action in three areas: Management philosophy and practice. Methods used to measure and predict the performance of systems. Organizational learning and improving system performance through technology. The volume includes in-depth studies of several key issues in manufacturing, including employee involvement and empowerment, using learning curves to improve quality, measuring performance against that of the competition, focusing on customer satisfaction, and factory modernization. It includes a unique paper on jazz music as a metaphor for participative manufacturing management. Executives, managers, engineers, researchers, faculty, and students will find this book an essential tool for guiding this nation's businesses toward developing more competitive manufacturing systems.
Drawing the reader's attention with ample real-business examples, the authors discuss corporations as entities that must adapt, generate ideas and act upon new information. The writing team - Arthur K. Yeung, David O. Ulrich, Stephen W. Nason and Mary Ann Von Glinow - delve into learning styles, basing their work on research and material gleaned from a widespread survey of corporations and organizations. They stack up the building blocks necessary for organizational learning, the corporate ability to generate and implement ideas. Although based on scholarly research, the book is concisely written in an easily accessible, conversational tone, and comes to life with corporate case studies. getAbstract recommends this book to managers, executives and owners whose organizations might need to learn a thing or two.
The ability of a business to engage in real organizational learning and to do so faster and in a more sustainable way than its competitors is being increasingly seen as an essential component of success. In Making Sense of Organizational Learning, Cyril Kirwan examines the wide range of factors necessary to create and sustain organizational learning and knowledge at all levels. At the individual level, the generation of continuous learning opportunities and reflection on experiences are critically important. At the team level, it’s about encouraging collaboration, team learning and the sharing of knowledge. At the organizational level, the emphasis is on building systems to capture and share knowledge and providing strategic leadership for learning. The book shows you how you can best exploit the knowledge that already exists within your organization while at the same time develop the capability of the people that work there. It deals in turn with individual learning; learning with others; learning in organizations; and in particular the role of the HR function and of line managers. Each chapter provides theoretical background and real-world examples. Diagnostic questionnaires, checklists and other tools are also included. Making Sense of Organizational Learning provides an evidence-based argument for the adoption of effective organizational learning policies and practices, and offers a real opportunity to improve performance. Thinking practitioners working in and around learning and development or organization development will find it invaluable, as will those undertaking post-graduate study in HR and related disciplines.
Knowledge management (KM) is a set of relatively-new organizational activities that are aimed at improving knowledge, knowledge-related practices, organizational behaviors and decisions and organizational performance. KM focuses on knowledge processes—knowledge creation, acquisition, refinement, storage, transfer, sharing and utilization. These processes support organizational processes involving innovation, individual learning, collective learning and collaborative decision-making. The “intermediate outcomes” of KM are improved organizational behaviors, decisions, products, services, processes and relationships that enable the organization to improve its overall performance. Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning presents some 20 papers organized into five sections covering basic concepts of knowledge management; knowledge management issues; knowledge management applications; measurement and evaluation of knowledge management and organizational learning; and organizational learning.
A comprehensive guide to developing a culture of learning and education within your business. In any kind of organization, learning has become a vital part of the growth and development process, but it only produces effective results if it is pursued strategically and embedded deeply into the culture of the workplace. In recent years, there has been a growing consensus that, for many organizations, learning is their only sustainable competitive advantage – ensuring a committed and engaged workforce that is positioned to identify and exploit business opportunities in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world. This makes it essential for leaders and senior managers to investigate the full range of learning processes and to understand exactly how individual, group, machine and organization-wide learning can produce long-lasting results for individuals as well as for the company itself. Backed by new academic theory, yet designed to be completely accessible to a business readership, The Learning-Driven Business highlights the importance of Organizational Learning (OL) for organizations which wish to remain competitive and profitable, before clarifying the various pathways and frameworks that can lead to success. With the onset of automation and artificial intelligence, as well as the proliferation of redundancies and the economic instability of modern times, organizations and their employees must prioritise effective OL in order to overcome these challenges and remain competitive and relevant in the 21st century. This book is a guide for all business leaders and academics looking to adapt to the changing world through OL, using Garand & Golds' unique and original academic model.
As a field, education has largely failed to learn from experience. Time after time, promising education reforms fall short of their goals and are abandoned as other promising ideas take their place. In Learning to Improve, the authors argue for a new approach. Rather than “implementing fast and learning slow,” they believe educators should adopt a more rigorous approach to improvement that allows the field to “learn fast to implement well.” Using ideas borrowed from improvement science, the authors show how a process of disciplined inquiry can be combined with the use of networks to identify, adapt, and successfully scale up promising interventions in education. Organized around six core principles, the book shows how “networked improvement communities” can bring together researchers and practitioners to accelerate learning in key areas of education. Examples include efforts to address the high rates of failure among students in community college remedial math courses and strategies for improving feedback to novice teachers. Learning to Improve offers a new paradigm for research and development in education that promises to be a powerful driver of improvement for the nation’s schools and colleges.
As the use of remote work has recently skyrocketed, digital transformation within the workplace has gone under a microscope, and it has become abundantly clear that the incorporation of new technologies in the workplace is the future of business. These technologies keep businesses up to date with their capabilities to perform remote work and make processes more efficient and effective than ever before. In understanding digital transformation in the workplace there needs to be advanced research on technology, organizational change, and the impacts of remote work on the business, the employees, and day-to-day work practices. This advancement to a digital work culture and remote work is rapidly undergoing major advancements, and research is needed to keep up with both the positives and negatives to this transformation. The Research Anthology on Digital Transformation, Organizational Change, and the Impact of Remote Work contains hand-selected, previously published research that explores the impacts of remote work on business workplaces while also focusing on digital transformation for improving the efficiency of work. While highlighting work technologies, digital practices, business management, organizational change, and the effects of remote work on employees, this book is an all-encompassing research work intended for managers, business owners, IT specialists, executives, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in how digital transformation and remote work is affecting workplaces.
