Organizational and Developmental Dynamics of Project Review Teams in Technology Environment

This paper is the result of a week long participant observation of a technical project review team within a large organization. A detailed log was maintained during the study and the results were analyzed to understand the relationship of the observations to prior research in organizational dynamics. Some of the existing literature implies that the current research on organizational development may be applicable to entities of various sizes. In some cases the observations from this research fell within the framework of the existing theories. However, alterations must be made to the current theories to apply specifically to small work groups who have specific missions and limited working time frames. Understanding the dynamics of these suborganization may lead to more effective management and result in a higher quality work product

"You've got to start messy" :an exploration of the process of involvement in a large scale educational collaboration

Phd thesisThere is increased pressure on Higher Education (HE) institutions from Government to collaborate, which is reflected in funding calls where collaborative bids are often favoured. Academic collaborations at the institutional level have built on research partnerships between individual academics. Although collaborations between HEIs are increasing, it is an under researched area. The focus of research has mainly been on smaller scale collaborations at the level of individual academics or between professions. However, the process of collaboration between institutions needs more attention. This qualitative study addresses the gap in existing research in social psychology and organisational theory by exploring the experience of involvement and the lifecycle of collaboration in a large scale HE-NHS collaboration. The study setting was CETL4HealthNE, a five year HEFCE funded collaboration. The study utilised semi-structured interviews (n=14) with members of the collaboration and longitudinal documentary analysis (n=46, length=5 years). The two main areas of interest were individual experience of involvement and the development of the collaboration. Participants perceived their involvement as a balancing act, involvement in the collaboration was hard work but very rewarding. Relationships with others were central as participants believed the networking formed foundations for future partnerships. Deepening trust at an individual level translated into improved partnership at an organisational level. The lifecycle of the collaboration had three distinct phases: formation, mobilisation and revision. This study portrays collaborations as socially constructed entities where relationships and the context play a vital part. The lifecycle of an individual collaboration is part of a larger cycle of collaborations, traces of the past are carried into the future through personal connections. With the increase of HE collaborations and the proposed organisational changes to the NHS, the study highlights the need to find ways to utilise the connections of previous working partnerships to enable new collaborations to benefit from them

Preparing business students for workplace reality: using global virtual teams in logistics and SCM education

Purpose: This paper presents and examines the use and effects of global virtual teams as a tool in the logistics and supply chain management classroom to prepare students in a simulation environment for the demands of their future careers in the profession. Design/methodology/approach: Literature of logistics and supply chain management education is combined with streams from management learning literature. The way the tool of global virtual teams was applied is explained, followed by an analysis of quantitative and qualitative participant response data. From the data analysis the effects of individual factors in the design and application of the global virtual team are isolated and recommendations are extracted for future use of the tool. Findings: The paper finds that the application of global virtual teams helped participating students to develop the management skills required for a career in logistics and supply chain management. Although students perceived the international nature and the lose frame provided by the tool as challenges, most learning effects were caused by these challenges. The paper also shows that the set up by the involved educators is crucial for the learning effect in particular towards similar weights of the assessments and the number of group members from each geographical area. Research limitations/implications: The paper does not examine all potentially amendable factors but focusses on those that were seen as relevant and practically achievable under the available resources to ensure the tool can be easily scaled up by adding further institutions and participants. Originality/value: The paper is the first application of global virtual teams in logistics and supply chain management education. It provides the theoretical foundations and rationale for its application and is relevant to educators by giving them access to this tool for improvement of their students’ career preparedness

OPERATIONALIZING A LEARNING COMMUNITY FOR A LEARNING HEALTH SYSTEM: A PRACTICAL GUIDE

This guide is intended as a practical resource that can be used when forming and operationalizing a learning community as part of a learning health system. It was initially developed by contributors from the University of Michigan Department of Learning Health Sciences during the 2019 calendar year based on different experiences with planning and operationalizing LHS learning communities and should be. This guide is intended to be used as a starting point for those interested in forming an LHS learning community. Information and concepts included in this guide can be tailored and modified for use as needed. This guide will continue to be expanded upon as more is learned through future experiences with forming and maintaining learning communities as part of Learning Health System projects. We also envision this guide to eventually become a component of a larger toolkit that can be used for operationalizing entire LHS projects. Included in this guide are detailed descriptions of activities, best practices, challenges and approaches as well as sample tools, templates and resources for operationalizing a learning community for a Learning Health System. For reference and ease of use, this information has been segmented into a framework that represents a phased approach to operationalizing the learning community. As such, the materials in this guide have been organized by policy, technology, process and people components that correspond to each operational phase.This guide is intended as a practical resource that can be used when forming and operationalizing a learning community as part of a learning health system. It was initially developed by contributors from the University of Michigan Department of Learning Health Sciences during the 2019 calendar year based on different experiences with planning and operationalizing LHS learning communities and should be. This guide is intended to be used as a starting point for those interested in forming an LHS learning community. Information and concepts included in this guide can be tailored and modified for use as needed. This guide will continue to be expanded upon as more is learned through future experiences with forming and maintaining learning communities as part of Learning Health System projects. We also envision this guide to eventually become a component of a larger toolkit that can be used for operationalizing entire LHS projects. Included in this guide are detailed descriptions of activities, best practices, challenges and approaches as well as sample tools, templates and resources for operationalizing a learning community for a Learning Health System. For reference and ease of use, this information has been segmented into a framework that represents a phased approach to operationalizing the learning community. As such, the materials in this guide have been organized by policy, technology, process and people components that correspond to each operational phase.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163515/1/LearningCommunityPracticalGuide_FINAL.pdfDescription of LearningCommunityPracticalGuide_FINAL.pdf : Practical Guide for Operationalizing a Learning CommunitySEL

Beyond the Program, Beyond the Individual: Impact of a University Medical Teacher Development Program on Practice

This study investigates the impact of a University Teacher Development (UTD) Program. It explores how a cohort of medical educators who completed a Master of Medical Education degree are facilitating change in their own workplaces several years after graduating. The experiences of these participants elicits a new meaning of program impact as a longer-term, negotiated, socially situated phenomenon of shifts in the teaching and learning practices of workgroups and organisations. In this sense, UTD program impact occurs both beyond the individual and beyond the program. UTD programs are now commonplace in Australia. With the increasing regulation of teaching quality in higher education, governments and universities are seeking indicators of quality such as the number of staff who complete UTD programs and evidence that these programs ‘work’, to justify the time and resources allocated to their continuation. This study analyses participants’ experiences of program impact one to three years after completing a UTD program. This analysis identified that impact, as a longer-term phenomenon, is best understood as being socially negotiated and contested and requiring interactions with students, with colleagues and with the profession. This suggests that understanding the impact of a UTD program requires investigation over time, not just at the point of graduation. It also requires an interpretation of longer-term impact through shifts in educational practice within organisations, not only changes in individual attitudes and approaches. This study advocates for a methodological approach in which a hermeneutic process is used to distil the essential elements of participants’ accounts and a practice theory lens to make sense of those elements. This approach facilitates engagement with the experiences of program participants to form a complex understanding of the impact of the program on them and on the organisations in which they operate

The Confluence of Intersubjectivity and Dialogue in Postmodern Organizational Workgroups

Nascent revival of dialogue is struggling to reach its potential within the postmodern organizational milieu. Concurrently, interpersonal intersubjectivity has steadily been de-pathologized, via reassessments of countertransference in the psychoanalytic sphere, allowing exploration of its utility in other domains of relational process. Effective use of dialogue is critical and foundational to developing meaningful and sustainable enterprise in the immediate future. Despite the risks, intentionally explored intersubjectivity is a powerful tool to enrich the container of dialogue. This paper qualitatively explores the literature on intersubjectivity and dialogue with an hermeneutic approach to discern the implications of their convergence for collaborative workgroups in emergent enterprise

MAKING SENSE OF AN UNCOORDINATED APPROACH TO CURRICULAR TRANSITIONS AND STANDARDISATION BETWEEN TWO MODERN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENTS

The causes behind an uncoordinated approach to curricular transitions and standardisation between two modern languages departments are critically analysed using the Tavistock approach. By drawing on data provided by focus groups, evidence is provided for the existence of basic-assumption behaviour and how it stifles cooperation and effective curricular transitions across two divisions. Affective containment strategies and other recommendations, as well as possibilities for further enquiry, are put forward

The Perceived Relationship Between Leadership Practices and Job Attitudes In Human Service organizations

This paper contributes to leadership knowledge in the field of child welfare by studying the relationship between agency leadership and caseworker job attitudes. This qualitative study included three focus groups with administrators and caseworkers to explore perceived leadership practices and caseworker job attitudes. Qualitative findings revealed a divergent perception of leadership practices between caseworkers and administrators, while providing specific content representative of both strengths and limitations of agency leadership. Lastly, frontline workers exclusively also perceived a relationship between certain leadership practices and job satisfaction. Findings lead to a number of organizational implications

THE IMPACT OF PLACE ATTACHMENT ON CAMP COUNSELOR RETENTION IN SUMMER CAMPS

Summer camps employ over one million staff members every summer, most of whom fall between the age range of 18-25 (ACA, 2012). Surveys done by the American Camp Association show that approximately 50% of camps have a 48% rate of return for counselors each summer, yet little research has been conducted to focus on what impacts staff retention (ACA, 2011). The theory of place attachment proposes that people form and retain bonds to physical locations by means of place dependence, place identity, social bonding, and affective attachment (Kyle, Mowen, & Tarrant, 2004; Milligan, 1998; Scannell & Gifford, 2010). Place attachment literature has been used to explain workplace attachment and employee retention in other settings, but it has never been applied to organized camps (Inalhan & Finch, 2004; Pretty, Chipuer, & Bramston, 2003). The purpose of this study was to examine the connection between a counselor\u27s place attachment to camp and his or her intent to return to the same camp for another summer of employment. An online survey was administered to camp counselors who worked at various camps during the summer of 2012. This survey consisted of participant demographics, camp experience, place attachment, and his/her intent to return. The results demonstrated that place attachment to camp was related to a counselor\u27s intent to return to camp the next summer, and a relationship was found between the number of years a counselor worked at camp and his/her place attachment to camp. Age and gender did not to play a role in place attachment or intent to return to camp. The uniqueness of the environment of camp may explain why place dependence and affective attachment are formed. Place identity in counselors could be a result of personal growth experienced at camp because of the unique role that being a camp counselor provides to emerging adults. While social bonding did not have as strong an impact in this study as expected, previous research on the social aspect of counselors provides direction for further research on this area and the other sub-dimensions of place attachment. Future research on how to facilitate place attachment through involvement of counselors in and out of camp could provide deeper insight to counselor retention and the growth of camp as an industry