In 2008, we established the Integrated Graduate Program in Physical and Engineering Biology (IGPPEB) at Yale University. Our goal was to create a comprehensive graduate program to train a new generation of scientists who possess a sophisticated understanding of biology and who are capable of applying physical and quantitative methodologies to…

The purpose of this study was to explore women district leader's perceptions of organizational change in a rural women's education and empowerment program in India, using an appreciative inquiry framework. This is a qualitative case study of the Mahila Samakhya (MS) program, which was initiated to provide non-formal education and empower rural…

This article describes a new approach, employing a combination of Positioning Theory and Semantic Polarities, that educational psychologists can use to develop and facilitate change in organisations and groups. Resistance to change can be seen as reflecting a lack of the language that the members of an organisation need to participate effectively…

The purpose of this article is to share the history of one Professional Development School (PDS) partnership in an effort to help others reflect, set visions, and move forward into a new educational future. The emergence, development, and continuation of this partnership was dependent upon finding ways to create a growth-oriented environment,…

Utilizing student peers is one vital avenue for improving the prevention, detection, and treatment of mental health disorders on college campuses (The Campus Suicide Prevention Center of Virginia, 2011). This article will briefly review research findings indicating the importance of student peers and then focus on a promising model and growing…

This commentary is part of an ongoing dialogue that began in the October 2011 special issue of "Performance Improvement"--Exploring a Universal Performance Model for HPT: Notes From the Field. The performance improvement/HPT (human performance technology) model represents a unifying process that helps accomplish successful change, create…

Principals are traditionally the instructional leaders of a school. However, instructional coaching moves the emphasis from principals to instructional coaches by charging instructional coaches with improving the effectiveness of teachers who are critical to ensuring the successful education of a student. This research analyzed the leadership…

Between 2008 and 2010, Lund University took part in three international benchmarking projects, "E-xcellence+," the "eLearning Benchmarking Exercise 2009," and the "First Dual-Mode Distance Learning Benchmarking Club." A comparison of these models revealed a rather high level of correspondence. From this finding and…

Planning from a strategic perspective has been a mainstay of organizational management for decades. Founded in the private sector, strategic planning is now embraced by the nonprofit world as a catalyst for sound resource allocation, transformative decision making, and motivating staff. Student affairs professionals who think, plan, and act…

In "Education Unbound: The Promise and Practice of Greenfield Schooling," this author argued for new education service-delivery organizations that, free from the constricting norms and rules of traditional providers, focused single-mindedly on executing their model. The challenge for reformers is to recognize that enabling such providers is not…

Since 2004, Rhodes State College has been at the forefront of developing an institution-wide model of institutional effectiveness--Strategic and Institutional Effectiveness Planning System (SIEPS). A focus on both measuring mission effectiveness and strategic achievement led to development of a unique electronic application that tracks the direct…

This quantitative, quasi-experimental study examined the application of a business simulation against training in support of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Defining more effective training strategies is a critical concern for organizational leaders and stakeholders concerned by today's economic challenges. The scope of this…

At least since the early 1990s, academic libraries have been merging Circulation and various other related functions into a single department typically labeled "Access Services." In many cases, however, that merger has proven to be administrative rather than functional, with minimal integration of common workflows. This article describes…

Purpose: Through an organizational case study approach, this paper seeks to describe the ongoing diversity initiative of a graduate school of social work (SSW). Organizational change is usually built around the activities of change agents or teams, who seek to bring about changes in human resources, systems, programs, and services.…

Drawing on their experience in a Midwest healthcare system, the authors propose a model of leadership development through action learning that embraces "concentric collaboration" at its core. The present study suggests that the process of concentric collaboration can serve to strengthen the skills of the individual leader as well as…