As recently as the 1980s, most companies did not pay much attention to executive education. In the 1990s, many see executive education as a must for revamping competitive strategies, increasing productivity, improving quality, reducing cycle time, and revitalizing corporate culture. (Author/JOW)

Themes of the 1980s affecting human resource development (HRD) include customer service, the total organization, lack of definition of the field, the bottom line, globalization, and workforce productivity. Future directions include defining the field, the learning organization, and the size of the HRD operation in an organization. (SK)

Any organized activity centered on human development could legitimately be seen as human resource development (HRD). A more holistic view defines HRD as a wide range of integrating processes aimed at developing greater purpose and meaning, higher performance, and greater capacity to respond to change, leading to more effective individuals, teams,…

Many practitioners and policy makers view personalized school environments as a means to promote student commitment to school and engagement in learning. Personalization also rewards teachers and encourages their commitment and accountability. A personalized environment is the product of deliberate, strategic choices about organizational…

Organizations can improve success in hiring or placing change agents by emphasizing needed competencies, confirming credentials, establishing contracts, and ensuring that change agents speak the organization's language and are flexible and focused on objectives. (SK)

A literature review on action learning in management/executive development concludes that few meaningful examples of action learning have been assessed for their effects on organizations. There has been more focus on team building than on individual or organizational learning. (SK)

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is hoping to stem member institution defections to the National Collegiate Athletic Association by reorganizing national staff, emphasizing regional competition, and helping members with local marketing efforts. The organization's 340 members are primarily small regional public and private…

Introduces Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) as a factor that contributes to the performance ratings of counselors. Describes models of OCB and circumstances that encourage its use. Suggests a method for integrating OCB sensitization training into counselor education programs as a means to prepare counseling interns, including information…

Organizations are using story telling to communicate values, adapt to change, define their culture, develop communication skills, and refine employee relationships. Examples include the anecdotal or biographical story, creative characterization, and story as metaphor. (SK)

Illustrates how job coaching networks can be implemented using adult education principles, with dialog and conversation as the foundation. Network success depends on in-house expertise, program ownership, and enough structure to maintain program integrity while allowing creativity. (SK)

Explains socially constructed cognition in terms of learning organization concepts (personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, systems thinking). Describes the enterprise culture, learning universities, and workplace learning. Examines the role of consultants in promoting organizational learning. (SK)

A learning organization is viable when the learning climate successfully changes managers' mindsets. A case study of a financial services enterprise illustrates ways to keep mind sets from hardening and shows how changing learning activities and tools can change habits of thinking and learning. (Contains 30 references.) (SK)

Interviews with 16 mentors and 18 proteges in 2 organizations that matched pairs in different ways identified how organizations benefit from mentoring and how the process develops knowledge, skills, and insights. Matching in terms of values, style, interests, preferences, and other characteristics depends on the developmental goals of the…

The Margin in Life (MIL) Scale and Readiness for Change Scale were completed by 131 manufacturing workers. Overall, MIL predicted readiness for change. Readiness was predicted by employees' personal power, managerial position, and newness to the company. (SK)

Proposes combining organizational learning (in learning organizations) and total quality to form a holistic framework of integrated methods, tools, and techniques. (SK)