Addresses questions related to team building: Are teams appropriate for the situation? What kind of team is most relevant? What practical steps will develop and sustain effective teamwork? Looks at needs of four kinds of teams ranging from informal to formal, temporary to permanent: project, work, alliance, and network. (SK)

The author explains why creating new programs in an organization and maintaining the programs over time requires a good program leader, integration into the organization, and constant attention to barriers and pitfalls. (CT)

Describes a mentoring program that matched senior managers with high-potential people. Steps include matching mentors and proteges, meeting with participants, implementing the program, and evaluating the program. (JOW)

Organizational flexibility is increasingly vital in business. The use of information technology allows people to work in whatever ways best enable them to contribute, through new patterns such as telecommuting. These new patterns require new approaches to personnel management. (JOW)

In the context of educational institutions, intrapreneurs are proactive and innovative educational leaders who work as entrepreneurs inside the institution. In order to successfully carry out intrapreneurial activities, community colleges must have a structural and administrative framework that supports a market orientation and a reduced…

Can Total Quality Management (TQM) improve the performance of school systems in meaningful ways? This paper evaluates the soundness of TQM as an improvement program for education by comparing its philosophy and prescriptions with the mounting theoretical and empirical wisdom on introducing and sustaining large-scale organizational change and more…

This paper presents and illustrates some principles for organizational development approaches to improving school climate. It discusses a specific structure for facilitating school improvement entitled Program Development Evaluation, and it illustrates the use of school climate assessments for school diagnosis and the evaluation of improvement…

Presents five tips for successful planning and implementation of distance education programs in organizations: (1) obtain support from top management; (2) focus on specific projects; (3) take time and resources to plan thoroughly and design well; (4) select media tools according to program needs; and (5) select, train, monitor, and reward…

Discusses 10 major school change strategies engaging the author's energy, beginning with training in group dynamics in the 1950s through today's emphasis on school restructuring. Other strategies included innovation diffusion and transfer, organizational self-renewal, knowledge transfer, creation of new schools, supported implementation, local…

In this commentary, we examine the articles in this special issue in terms of a continuum of research to practice strategies currently used in school psychology. On one end of the continuum is the "publish and hope" approach, and at the other end is the "change the organization to fit the innovation" approach. We present the concept of innovation…

Most community colleges are involved in some sort of staff development program and are also undergoing constant change involving restructuring, rightsizing, or developing new missions and objectives. In general, the more institutionalized and integrated a staff development program is, the more effective the organization will be. Organizations are…

Quality is an important part of the process of managing institutional change. This book focuses on how Total Quality Management (TQM) as a management philosophy translates into practice, both in school systems and corporations. Data were obtained through observations and interviews conducted at 11 sites--4 companies and 7 educational facilities.…

Intended to provide background information and preliminary options for the California Community Colleges' Commission on Innovation, this document describes the principles of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and describes policy options for implementation in the state's community colleges. Following introductory materials, the paper recommends…

Teams in an organization are more than cooperative working groups. Advantages of group work, as opposed to individual work, include producing a better end result, providing satisfaction for the individual and the organization, and assisting the organization through coordination and work allocation. Disadvantages of group work include producing a…

Career development has become important in organizations struggling with restructuring and its effects on employees. Employees now understand the process as a way to gain employability skills in order to obtain different jobs within their companies or elsewhere. Career development often takes place in workshops, although many people prefer a more…