Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose how a bottom-up creation of an ambidextrous organization can be enabled. By integrating research on "contextual ambidexterity" and "individual and organizational capacity building", an "innovation capacity building" framework is conceptualized that suggests how balance…

Employee involvement (EI) activities were established by management to create more meaningful work for employees and to make companies more competitive. What is missing is a clear method to link the problems of an organization with the appropriate EI activity. (JOW)

Describes the Pittsburgh Public Schools' efforts to institutionalize a shared decision-making model in secondary schools to provide more supportive educational and professional environments. The article examines the Schenly High School Teacher Center staff development program, noting that organizational development takes time and effort by the…

Used a quasi-experimental design to assess the effect of a quality circle intervention on behavior and attitudes of 88 employees at a large Midwestern organization. Results provide mixed support for the purported ability of circles to improve work behavior with no change for absenteeism and productivity but positive change for quality of work.…

This report presents a theoretical model and a practical guide for a survey feedback-problem solving-collective decision intervention in educational systems. The intervention focuses on work roles and relationships; job function, authority, and communication patterns; and on reviewing group progress and problems. One objective of the strategy is…

Researchers examined the way selected Australian organizations understand and enact the notion of a learning culture. The diverse approaches that have been used to foster the learning cultures revealed through the case studies confirmed that the concept of a culture of learning was not a homogenous one. The study revealed that embedding a culture…

This paper presents the initial findings of a comprehensive 28-school multi-site case study, which sought to identify patterns in schools that are changing bureaucratic work patterns to those found in quality-management systems. The schools are located in Florida, Virginia, Minnesota, and Louisiana; all are led by principals who are trainers in…

Limited research has been conducted on the direct and indirect impact of union-management cooperation (UMC) programs on worker autonomy, work group effectiveness, and worker satisfaction. For this study, a research questionnaire designed to explore these relationships was mailed to four Ohio unions and was returned by 339 members. Workers at…

A study examined the impact of work teams on production, quality, and morale within the State of Alaska Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, using data from fiscal years 1992 and 1993 when a change from a hierarchical organization to a team-based approach took place in the agency. Production was defined as the percentage of placements achieved…

This booklet synthesizes symposium discussions exploring how to transform organizations to compete in the rapidly changing world economy. First, the new cooperative organization is defined. Next, practical advice on making partnership organizations a reality is summarized. Suggestions include appealing to people's self-interest; coming up with…

In an era of deregulation, technology, foreign competition, and merger mania, corporations are forced to respond to a changing corporate culture climate. Traditionally based on a top-down structure, corporate culture--loosely defined as the sum total of how employees and management think, feel, act, or do not act--is changing toward a structure in…

This booklet is one of six texts from a workplace literacy curriculum designed to assist learners in facing the increased demands of the workplace. It briefly explains how team building concepts affect businesses in new ways and how they help create an environment that provides job satisfaction for everyone and high-quality products for the…

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…

The 11 chapters in this book focus on "The New American Workplace" and assess its adequacy or inadequacy as a guide for the U.S. labor movement in relation to new work systems. "Unions and Workplace Reorganization" (Bruce Nissen) introduces the subject. "The New American Workplace: A Labor Perspective" (AFL-CIO Committee on the Evolution of Work,…

Western enterprises confront an era of global competition in which industry leaders can no longer overlook negative effects originating from past Taylorist and autocratic organizational structures. Corporate leaders are exploring innovative methods to change their organizations from the Taylorist model to workplace environments that foster worker…