Human resource development (HRD) uses a wide variety of theories from multiple disciplines and fields of study to create its own unique field of scholarly practice. As with any field, however, we tend to get comfortable with familiar theories and theorists and fail to explore other possible sources of wisdom. One scholar whose work is worthy of…

Action learning is based on the premise that action and learning are inextricably entwined and it is this potential, to enable action, which has contributed to the growth of action learning within education and management development programmes. However has this growth in action learning lead to an evolution or a dilution of Revan's classical…

This book contains 18 chapters, written by different authors, on preparing for the future of multimedia computing (MMC). It is organized into four sections which focus on the following areas respectively: technology, applications and benefits, applications and development, and end users. The first section concerns the relationship between MMC…

This paper provides information about the development of a successful quality-assurance process in the New South Wales, Australia, school system. In 1992 the New South Wales (NSW) government announced its commitment to a program of quality-assurance reviews of schools. During that year, approximately 100 meetings were held with principals, school…

This paper examines the issues that emerged in the first six months of a collaborative program initiated by the Massachusetts State Department of Education for simultaneously developing or improving middle school teacher preparation programs and restructuring middle schools. The literature on interorganizational collaboration provides a framework…

This study examined how sustained faculty participation produced substantial increases in external funding for a College of Education while the organizational climate of the college collapsed and faculty morale plummeted. The paper first offers a review of the literature on work motivation that provides a rationale for strategies for increasing…

These two papers were presented at a "town forum" on human resource development (HRD) moderated by Martin Mulder at the 1996 Academy of Human Resource Development Conference. "Human Resource Development with Integrity" (Ronald L. Jacobs) reflects on the conference theme and offers two definitions of integrity as applied to HRD. The second paper,…

This book is addressed to educators and work-place trainers interested in applying the Malcolm Baldrige award criteria and/or the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 training guidelines for program improvement. An initial section compares and contrasts the ISO standards and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award…

This book traces the restructuring of a Texas school district that moved from management by coercion to continuous improvement for quality. In 1990, the Dickinson Independent School District (Texas) began implementation of Continuous Improvement Management (CIM), based on the teachings of W. Edwards Deming, William Glasser, and J. M. Juran.…

A literature survey established that a substantial amount of research has been conducted on the relationship between productivity and the following specific high performance work practices: employee involvement in decision making, compensation linked to firm or worker performance, and training. According to these studies, high performance work…

This book is based on the belief that the American education system is in crisis and requires radical systemic change. Because this change is to be designed and carried out by those within schools and not through external mandates, the book focuses on the management responsibilities of the principal and teachers. It draws heavily on the…

A survey of French research by CEREQ ("A French research centre for analysis of occupations and of vocational education and training") shows that firms have undertaken a number of experiments, most of them large scale, to retrain their work force. These initiatives are situated within a general context of change. Training programs based…

The purpose of this book is to aid vocational rehabilitation professionals in maximizing human resource capacities. It is intended to help build a delivery system based on needed skills and attitudes among its work force, through integration of various human resource components. The book proposes that in order for rehabilitation agencies to…

National- and state-level reports on education indicators have been produced since the mid-1980s. However, the debate continues over which education indicators to select and report. This paper outlines the lessons gained by a national organization in building an education indicators system through cooperation with state education agencies and…

The Workforce Virginia 2000 Advocacy Council committee recommends that for Virginia to respond effectively to the growing global challenge, it must take positive action aimed at improving the productivity and skills of its work force and establishing high performance work organizations. Virginia must shift to a high performance work organization…