Although research in goal setting has demonstrated that specific, difficult goals lead to better performance, more refined research on the affect of participative decision making and supportive leadership on goal setting has produced ambiguous results. To investigate the relative importance of goal setting, leader supportiveness, and task…

This monograph provides educational staff with a theoretical basis for decision-making skills for application in quality circles. Roadblocks to good decisions are outlined, as well as the differences between group decision-making and individual decision-making (both have problems). The influence of values and personality characteristics on…

A quality circle approach was implemented at Valley Forge Military Junior College during two semesters of an American History survey course. Student input into the academic progress of the course was at the root of the quality circle experiment, with students determining the type and frequency of written assignments, course structure, the…

The second of two volumes on planning parent participation programs, this guide is intended to be an aid in the actual program development. The importance of involving school faculty in the planning is emphasized. A description is provided of a seven-step development process in which the faculty team: (1) states program goals; (2) examines sample…

A longitudinal study compared the effectiveness of worker buyouts and quality of work life programs (QWL) in reversing the shutdown of supermarkets in Philadelphia. Working conditions, worker attitudes, and economic outcomes at a group of employee-owned stores and a group that had adopted QWL strategies were compared at three points in time…

The abstract and complex nature of decision-making processes and structure in colleges and universities is discussed from the perspective of organizational behavior theory developed in the industrial sector. After an introductory discussion of the history of organizational problems in higher education, the two main sections of the book are…

This guide is intended to be a first-time, general introduction to employee involvement for trade unionists--local leaders, stewards, and rank-and-file members. It makes no attempt to be comprehensive, but instead raises the major issues concerning employee involvement framed in trade union terms. Part I looks at the kinds of employee involvement…

This five-part paper provides an overview of the use of quality circles as a participative management technique in community colleges. Section I offers an introduction to the technique, reviewing the history of quality circles from their development in Japan in the early 1960s to their introduction in American higher education in the early 1980s.…

This paper reviews literature on trainee-oriented training programs, which assign to individual employees predominant responsibility for diagnosing organizational problems requiring changes in employees' behaviors. A Self-Change, Adaption, and Modification (SCAM) Model is developed. The literature support for the model is written in similar…

The process of long-range planning, political considerations, and approaches to the publication of such plans, are examined, based on the experience at Western Carolina University, North Carolina, a public regional institution conferring bachelor's and master's degrees. A key element for a successful strategic planning effort is the involvement of…

By using a collegial, "power-with" supervisory model that balances both institutional and individual needs, a manager can realize greater success in selecting, motivating, and retaining clerical staffers. Candor, accessibility, recognition, and two-way communication are the hallmarks of this participatory management model, with the goal of…

A northern Illinois school district (School District 300), forced by budget cuts to curtail its teaching staff, used incentives and the decisionmaking methods of William Ouchi's Theory Z to reduce layoffs. The superintendent and the teachers' union leadership established a Transfer Council of six administrators and nine teachers to plan staff…

To implement School Based Management (SBM) in Charleston County, South Carolina, the school district was reorganized to include a management team to make shared decisions on all phases of district activities. Local schools were required to develop short and long range plans that encouraged needs assessment, goal identification, strategy…

To illustrate decision making as negotiation, this report utilizes P. H. Gulliver's theories concerning negotiation and two case studies of decision making by cooperative labor-management Quality of Work Life (QWL) committees. Negotiation as joint decision-making is discussed and two models that are central to Gulliver's theories of processual…

Quality circles may be regarded as a form of organizational intervention strategy to enhance productivity and product quality through employee participation. Operationally, small groups of individual employees voluntarily meet regularly to (1) identify problems relating to productivity and product quality, (2) discuss them, (3) identify and…