During a period of financial difficulty, presidents and chief financial officers can be tempted to restrict the flow of information and to discuss financial exigencies only with senior staff members, so that board members and people throughout the campus do not become worried. However, it is better to get the facts out rather than to allow…

Qualitative evaluation can be used to facilitate change in the immediate higher education professional environment. This evaluation method enriches the collection and interpretation of data by involving all groups and persons who have a share in the problem. In contrast to qualitative research, qualitative evaluation assists in situation-specific…

Reviews research on group problem solving and offers suggestions for improving participation and task accomplishment in the workshop format. (JOW)

Action-reflection learning (ARL) is a learning-by-doing alternative to expert-based training. In an ARL program, training becomes a project in which learning takes place while participants try to solve a work-related problem. The process is always conducted in teams. (Author/JOW)

Explains how business owners can determine when to involve employees and when to make decisions alone. Reviews problem-solving and decision-making methods, obstacles to overcome, and meeting management techniques. (SK)

From its start in Japan after World War II, the Quality Control Circle (Q.C.) approach to management and organizational operation evolved into what it is today: people doing similar work meeting regularly to identify, objectively analyze, and develop solutions to problems. The Q.C. approach meets Maslow's theory of motivation by inviting…

This article describes developments at Indiana University over the past two decades. Since 1985, two task forces have countered the Holmes Group Report and set up a unified teacher education program. (IAH). (IAH)

Self-directed teams (SDTs) are small groups of employees responsible for an entire work process or segment, expected by some to be the workplace wave of the future in terms of organization and peak performance. SDTs work to improve their operation or product, plan and control their work, and handle day-to-day problems. (JOW)

One of the most valuable skills in group decision making is the ability to make trustworthy judgments about group performance. It follows from the "inferential model" of social cognition (Pavitt, 1989; Pavitt & Hight, 1986), that there are three types of judgments relevant to the group context: (1) behavioral (what the group did);…

Background information on the history and use of quality circles is provided in this paper, along with a discussion of the applicability of this management technique to the community college setting. First, introductory material is presented on the development of the approach in the early 1950s, its widespread use in the industrial and business…

Quality Circle members identify problems, select one for attention, analyze the potential causes of the problem, and identify and select preferred solutions that are proposed to the administration. Skills, knowledge, and experience gained by people in an education Quality Circle become theirs as well as those of the school. (MLF)

Earlier this year, the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence released a report highlighting practices in Kentucky's high-performing, high-poverty schools. Researchers collected information using the same audit tool that the Kentucky Department of Education uses to diagnose problems in schools identified for improvement, then compared those…

The traditional, closed model of program development is being replaced in many places by local problem-solving groups. These community groups involve democratic decision making and require new skills of educators--listening, reflecting, and making inferences about needs. (SK)

Extension educators can benefit from using a variety of styles when participating in learning and problem-solving coalitions. The first section of this paper describes nine stages of the coalition-building process, which can be grouped into three phases. In the emergence phase, issues and concerns have heated up and risen to the surface, and…

Four paradigms of labor-management relations are found in American small schools: paternalism, collective bargaining, collegial problem solving, and community problem solving. Examination of the conditions under which each is likely to exist and their unique characteristics, reveals the circumstance which will enhance the effectiveness of each.…