This chapter describes organizational structures and processes at the institutional and project levels for the development and support of distance learning initiatives. It addresses environmental and stakeholder issues and explores principles and strategies of effective leadership for change creation and management.

If some practitioners are more research minded than others, then promising approaches for bridging the research to practice gap may be developed by describing research-minded practitioners and examining how to locate and support them. This article follows this basic logic in providing an overview of organizational development and practitioner…

Purpose: While the importance of organizational learning for sustainability has been stressed by a number of authors in the literature, the practicalities of how organizational leaders might foster such learning are seldom treated. This paper seeks to demonstrate that there is much that could be learned from the aviation industry about…

This qualitative study identified the best practices utilized by community colleges to achieve systemic and cultural agreement in support of the integration of institutional effectiveness measures (key performance indicators) to inform decision making. In addition, the study identifies the relevant motives, organizational structure, and processes…

Many authors (Kezar, 2005; Duke, 2002; Keeling, Underhile, and Wall, 2007; Matier, Sidle, and Hurst, 1994) propose a new model of higher education organizations or a style of decision making whose central component is collaboration. This key characteristic helps make full use of all of the institution's resources to increase the likelihood that it…

Crisis management has been a largely overlooked territory in human resource development (HRD) despite the increasingly recognized impact of organizational crises on the individual and organizational performance. This article explores the strategic role of HRD in the context of organizational crisis management using Garavan's strategic HRD model as…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conceptually demonstrate that the relationship between turnover and innovation is not direct as some research suggests, but rather indirect, with organizational learning as the prerequisite social mechanism that ties the two phenomena together. Design/methodology/approach: This paper integrates research…

Purpose: How people learn and create knowledge together through interactions in communities of practice (CoPs) is not fully understood. The purpose of this paper is to create and apply a model that could increase participants' consciousness about knowledge creation processes. Design/methodology/approach: This four-month qualitative research was…

Evaluation capacity building, or ECB, is an area of great interest within the field of evaluation as well as in Extension evaluation. Internal Extension evaluators have long offered training and technical assistance to help Extension educators conduct evaluation. Today ECB in Extension encompasses myriad activities and processes to advance…

This special supplement discusses the six major models for strategic planning, how to choose a strategy and apply it to an organization, how to begin participating in the strategic process, and how to influence the strategic process. (JOW)

Research on performance appraisals has often overlooked the importance of attitudinal and organizational variables. To test a model of the influence of organizational contextual variables on the perceived utility of performance appraisals, 239 Virginia mental health workers completed a questionnaire. The 21 items were designed to measure the four…

The concept of synergistics is presented as a model for organizational behavior. The writer contends that, within a systems approach to education, utilizing the idea of synergistics, which capitalizes on human resources as an input to the system, dramatic changes in education can take place. (Author/DN)

Proposes a framework for using experiential programs to facilitate community building through individual and organizational learning. Discusses single-loop and double-loop learning by individuals and organizations, use of reflection and metaphors, program design, and dialog as an approach to creating shared meaning. Contains 21 references. (SV)

Describes the Employee/Corporate Human Objectives" model, with suggestions for dealing with now generation" workers. (Editor/SP)

A study tested a model of organizational variables that earlier research had identified as important in influencing what model(s) of public relations an organization selects. Models of public relations (as outlined by J. Grunig and Hunt in 1984) are defined as either press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical, or two-way symmetrical.…