Uses Eisner's educational connoiseurship approach to illuminate larger organizational design issues and analyze and appraise Virginia State Superintendent for Public Instruction Joseph Spagnolo's reorganization plan. The analysis focuses on several design issues: fit/form, focus/function, force, and fulfillment. The Spagnolo design is constantly…

Japanese firms are reducing work force size and costs without layoffs. However, these restructurings appear to be symbolic rather than substantial. They seem intended to signal the need for corporate culture change and diminished expectations. (SK)

Describes the use of small-scale change projects by Philadelphia's Department of Human Services to generate new outcomes and new skills and experience that improved basic day-to-day operations, strategic planning, and cumulatively produced larger-scale changes in service, financing, and performance. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the accelerating pace of change that librarians must cope with and suggests looking to the private sector for strategies to become more comfortable with change. Describes the five disciplines comprising the learning organization culture: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning. (LRW)

Examines the traditional hierarchical administrative structure in academic libraries. Also analyzes some of its features, and questions specific principles of management in order to propose a more balanced organizational type based on organizational behavior and leadership that will best enable academic libraries to meet challenges. (PEN)

Organizations learn when they embed new practices and values and make real changes. Organizational learning must address group tendencies toward helplessness and conformity. Individuals still bear responsibility for monitoring what is learned. (SK)

The globalized economy appears to promote economic insecurity and underemployment. Lifelong learning is increasingly focused on competitive advantage. Adult educators should encourage discussion and debate about the nature of these changes and advocate lifelong learning that benefits the whole person and broader community. (Contains 30…

Examines challenges that high school department chairpersons faced while changing to a 4 x 4 block schedule. Finds that chairpersons experienced multiple learning curves and increased tensions between departmental and teaching responsibilities, problems exacerbated by reduced release time. Recommends aligning job descriptions with procedures,…

A participant-observation study in a South African mining company that used self directed work team training identified organizational constraints that hindered training effectiveness: lack of materials, machinery breakdown, decentralized budget, and imposed standards. Miners more often used improvisation and initiative to solve daily problems,…

Describes three types of communication assessment: structural assessment; functional assessment; and process assessment. Contends that these traditional approaches are inappropriate for assessing organizational change. Proposes that complexity theory explicitly focuses on evolutionary processes and thus is a more appropriate foundation for…

Discusses organizational change strategies that school districts can adopt to help all students achieve at high levels. Provides a chart classifying organizational strategies. Draws implications for superintendents using these strategies. (PKP)

Responses from 90 management development graduates (of 293 surveyed) from 1989-2000 reported that the program had a positive impact on career advancement and professional development. They believed it helped their organizations deal with and manage change but did not have an impact on succession planning or gender equity. (Contains 32 references.)…

Asserts that, if long-term care is to progress from custodial model to therapeutic model of rehabilitation, role of nursing assistants must be redesigned. Reviews current methods of institutional staff training and management and proposes model for geriatric, long-term care facilities. Discusses organizational resistance and offers suggestions for…

Reacts to two points in an article by Felice Schwartz that has drawn reactions from a variety of sources: (1) the cost of employing women is greater than that of employing men, and (2) to reduce this cost, corporations should provide more flexible arrangements for women who want to combine career and family. (JOW)

Describes a qualitative research study (using cultural analysis) to determine the degree to which schools change, based on a local needs assessment study. Although needs assessments did not play a significant role in enabling local school change, a small number of schools indicated some progress. Includes 18 references. (MLH)