Examines the religious educator's role as catalyst in transforming local church culture. Proposes model of congregational education aiming to change the corporate life of a religious community through members' work to reshape concrete behaviors, structures, and roles in carrying out the church's mission. Notes the range of skills required of…

Describes a roundtable on institutional change attended by 27 college and university senior business officers and other school executives in which participants used a case study of Sears, Roebuck and Company to draw parallels with higher education, then focused on "telling the story" of higher education, and finally developed plans for…

Many organizations are creating a database of technical experts as a mechanism for identifying key people who can solve problems, transfer information and best practices, and/or identify other experts with the needed expertise. This article discusses experts versus skills; identifying experts; responsibilities of the expert; expert profiles;…

Examines the integration of a systematic in-house certification framework and outlines an evaluation model to validate and justify certification as a performance management tool of value to organizations and individuals. Discusses the six elements of effective competency certification programs: competency analysis; training for certification;…

Over the last several decades many systematic management approaches, such as Total Quality Management, aimed at improving organizational performance and employee satisfaction have captured organizations' attention. Given their origins in statistics, operations management, and engineering, many of the concepts and techniques are technical. When…

Protege selection was examined in a laboratory experiment and a field study of experienced mentors. The results from both studies indicated that protege willingness to learn was a critical component of protege selection. Results of the field study also revealed that organizational rewards for developing others related to the influence protege…

Why is it that many higher education institutions choose to disregard the student body as one of their most reliable and significant sources of labor? Why do institutions insist on keeping separate the departments of student employment and human resources? How can aligning these two areas improve organizational development and increase labor…

In an organizationally competent school, everyone has a role that defines his or her obligations and everyone is part of a reciprocal relationship that spells out mutual obligations. Reciprocal role relationships enable informal communities of practice to bubble up and institutionalized collaborative cultures to trickle down. When such informal…

Describes research into the way graduates are inducted into an organization. Investigates, in particular, the extent to which organizations encourage innovation among their future managers. Contends that, while there is much talk about fostering innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, the approaches used tend to be counter-productive. Puts…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the advantages of using intelligent agents to facilitate the location and customization of appropriate e-learning resources and to foster collaboration in e-learning environments. Design/methodology/approach: This paper proposes an e-learning environment that can be used to provide customized…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between change interventions and organizational learning. It seeks to identify the process through which team learning is developed, the factors that affect organizational learning and its influences on organizational effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: Two groups of…

By utilizing a 2-year longitudinal design, the present study investigated the experience of work engagement and its antecedents among Finnish health care personnel (n = 409). The data were collected by questionnaires in 2003 (Time 1) and in 2005 (Time 2). The study showed that work engagement--especially vigor and dedication--was relatively…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the effectiveness and practical utility of an organizational learning intervention for an organization that was not progressive, was not specifically chartered as a learning organization, and was situated in an urban, culturally diverse, and under-privileged community. Design/methodology/approach:…

Most studies of lean production are based on surveys of managers. This article examines the labor process under lean production at a high-end garment factory in Central Mexico through ethnographic research, consisting of nine months of work at the factory, and in-depth interviews with 25 managers and 26 workers. The author found that…

Contemporary universities, serving mass higher education markets, find themselves delivering complex, broadly based projects such as student support and welfare, human resource development, and business enterprise. Established concepts of academic administration and devolved management have been overlaid by more fluid institutional structures and…