Experimenting with self-organised learning for organisational growth: A person-centred approach

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis records my professional search for a management model which will harness the fill capabilities of people in organisations to the achievement of the organisations, goals. This search has taken place in the context of the lost Office in which I have spent my working life. The key event in this search was my introduction to Self-Organised Learning (S-O-L) in 1984, during the Centre for the Study of Human Learning's S-O-L action research project on supervisory and managerial effectiveness. My survey of the literature in the fields of management, learning and psychology has prompted me to identify the need for a more person-centred approach to management. The survey focuses on 5 key issues, the motivation of people to contribute to the achievement of organisational goals, responsibility and control, assumptions or myths about people, attitudes towards people, and learning for continuous improvements. I have followed the action research paradigm in four main research projects: (i) a trial of S-O-L in leading Read Post Office in 1995/86; (ii) the use of S-0-L in the Parcel Sort Centre near leading between 1906 and 1990; (iii) a major Management Development and Productivity Improvement Programme in the Parcel Sort Centre in 1990. (iv) further use of S-O-L in the Parcel Sort Centre near Reading in 1991 and 1992. In the research I have used the key S-O-L tools, the Learning Conversation and the Personal Learning Contract, and I have deployed my on approach to people management which is based on trust, openness, support and encouragement. The action research results have been evaluated on a multi-perspective basis taking account of the benefits to: participating managers both as individuals and as teams; the organisation; myself, as a manager, action researcher and person. Included in the evaluation are the results of evaluation conversation held with members of my management team at the Parcel Sort Centre. These are presented in the form of Personal Learning Biographies which address the learner's own as well as others' evaluation. A major outcome of my research is the development of a Person-Centred Model of Organisational Growth. Together the action research results and the model highlight my conclusion that, as managers and trainers, we are failing to release the potential of people in organisations to learn and grow and thereby fully participate in the achievement of organisational goals. We are not developing effective personal and group relationships based upon the motivation theories of Maslow and Berzberg, McGregor’s Theory Y and Rogerian concepts. The thesis demonstrates that the systematic practice of Learning Conversations on-the-job in a variety of work based contexts transforms the attitudes of people towards work and empowers them with learning focused skills and competencies, which enable them to work more productively and effectively in individuals and as a team to meet organisational goals. This is a mutually beneficial process, enhancing the powers of the individual and the objective demands (productivity, quality of service and cost effectiveness) of the organisation. More than this, the S-O-L approach creates a structured, systematic Learning Environment which proactively encourages change and development in ways which can sustain individual development and organisational growth. This thesis identifies move of the hidden mythologies and constraints which need to be deconstructed and reconstructed in the support environment during the change process of individual and organisational growth

Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Bulletin

Graduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2020-2021. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for graduate programs

Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Bulletin

Graduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2022-2023. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for graduate programs

A framework for the development and implementation of career centres in senior high schools

viii, 182 leaves ; 29 cm. --Work and career development have always been a part of human existence. Career development theories have sought to offer different perspectives about the meaning of work in people's lives. Some suggested that behavioural style and personality type are intrinsic to a person's choice of career path; others believed that people attempt to implement their self-concept into their occupation; still others considered the impact of sociological and economic factors on an individual's career decision. An underlying theme in these theories is that work in people's lives is important. These and other theories have made substantial contributions to the understanding of career decision making and career development. They have also created a theoretical bridge to a more contemporary and holistic life career development approach. The life career development approach helps individuals project themselves into future possible life roles, life settings, and life events while realizing the importance of gender, ethnic origin, religion, race, and socioeconomic status on their development. A holistic approach is necessary in the economic climate in which we live. These economies are expecting trained and effective workers and therefore require new ways of preparing students for entering and manoeuvring through the world of work and life. There has been significant recent research done on the career development needs of youth (e.g., Alberta Learning, 2001; Hiebert, 2001a; Hiebert & Tomlinson, 1996; Magnusson & Bemes, 2002; Mailandt, 1998; Wells, 1998) to support the "whole-person" approach to preparing youth for adult and working life. Despite the fact that these studies identify the need for better career services, very little has been done to develop a comprehensive approach to addressing the identified needs. Career centres are being advocated as a means of meeting career planning challenges of youth. Effective school board-based career centres facilitate " ... career education for all students and provide a focus foe career activities in the communities" (Ba1come, 1995, p. 13). Career centres are a catalyst for a comprehensive career development approach in high schools and their programs are more integrated and inextricably linked to schooling than ever before. The central purpose ofthis project was to create a career centre model, to implement the model within the Calgary Board of Education (CBE), and then to expand the implementation to other schools within the CBE. Another purpose was to provide schools or school systems with a step-by-step guide for implementing career centres. The intent of this guide is to provide a thorough career centre implementation strategy. With such a strategy, one can go a long way toward ensuring that today's youth are provided with well-coordinated career services that prepare them for entering and manoeuvring through the world of work and life

Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Bulletin

Graduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2018-2019. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for graduate programs

Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Bulletin

Graduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2021-2022. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for graduate programs

Change management and organisational development initiatives introduced at a retail organization.

Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.This study was an evaluation of the change management strategy implemented at the Foschini Retail Organization. An explanatory study was conducted by drawing up a case study and thereafter comparing the initiatives taken in the case study to an ideal change process model. In order to conduct a more focused design only four factors updating on the change management process were considered. These factors were :The nature of organizational change and the philosophy behind the Foschini Retail Academy; The need to develop a change approach which is suitable for the organizational specific context; The managerial and personal status designed by a successful change agent; The difference between the design of recipe - driven or formulaic approaches to change implementation and more context - specific approaches. Information for the case study was mainly obtained from interviews and focus groups. The problem matching technique was performed the case study, where strategy implementation was compared to those recommended in literature. It was found that there was effective change planning and communication. The change management process was tailored to suit the organization's specific context. The change agent had to have strong managerial and leadership status. The senior management team at Foschini had identified specific outputs that they expected after the role out of the academy and thereby careful emphasis and plan went into the context - specific approaches to the change process. The management team at Foschini had taken all aspects into account when designing the change strategy as recommended, by information gathered from literature and certain areas in communication and planning that needed to be implemented

Developing strategic managers for UK public services---a competing values and competences approach.

Abstract not available

In Search of Marketing Management : A Study of Managing in Marketing.

This empirical study attempts to craft a richer description, and deeper understanding, of the work of managers in marketing than that elaborated in the managerial work literature and within the marketing management discourse. Perspectives on both the character of the 'content' and 'conduct' of marketing manager work are sought. Several marketing managers, operating in diverse commercial contexts, were interviewed and observed. The field research deployed an array of longitudinal methodologies including programmes of diary-stimulated interviews, work shadowing, participant self-observation, and action research. A description of managerial work is developed that rests at an 'ontic level' between that of classical / 'Fayolian' management theory and the conceptualisations generated through the empirical study of managerial work. The developed model characterises the 'substance' of managerial conduct as the 'shaping and sustaining of commitments'. The model, based on a metaphorical temporal rope, elaborates the various interweaving strands and threads of what is argued to be the quintessence of managerial behaviour, the forms and characteristics of organizational commitments, the character of their crafting and conducing, and the properties of the so-emerged commitment webs. The 'content' of the subject managers' work is elaborated through the concept of endeavour portfolios, and the inherently political, weak-situation / wicked-problem character of their endeavours is illuminated. The 'rhetorical technology' of the marketing discourse is found to permeate the content of the subject managers' endeavours, and provide adequate labels for the strands and threads of their endeavours. However, outside of their use in the staging of truth effects, the processual prescriptions of the marketing discourse are not evident in their daily work. The marketing management discourse is found not to speak to the milieu, or substance of the subject managers marketing management. This 'substance' rests in their pursuit of innovative reconciliations for the complex of contradictions that confronts them