130 research outputs found
An appreciative view of human performance technology
Human performance technology has been successful in resolving organizational issues and prompting a variety of business improvements. Yet there are times when the problem- centered approach is not sufficient. Instead, attention to organizational strengths and a focus on creating and building a positive vision for the future represent a better strategy. This article looks at a new variation on the consulting modelââHPT: Appreciative Approach.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56085/1/132_ftp.pd
How are we doing? âBest of ISPIâ Appreciative Inquiry member survey
The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) Board of Directors undertook a study to uncover the âbest of ISPIâ to enhance their strategic planning. The approach used Appreciative Inquiry methods, which emphasize discovering âwhat's working.â This article describes the study and concludes with some thoughts on how to use this information to enrich member experiences and provide new benefits.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60910/1/20011_ftp.pd
Recommended from our members
"Many Secrets Are Told Around Horses:" An Ethnographic Study of Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy
This dissertation presents an ethnography of equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) based on nine months of fieldwork at "Equine Healers," a non-profit organization in central Colorado that specialized in various therapeutic modalities associated with EAP. In bridging scholarly work around animals, a literature suffused with the notion of "companion species," as well as scholarly work around psychotherapy, and most especially the idea of "psychotherapy as conversation," the connective conflict these two interests share, and from which this dissertation emerges, is over questions of language and communication. Specifically, the overarching problem that this dissertation addresses is: what counts as talking, in the context of "the talking cure," when beings that do not share human language are necessarily implicated in human conversations. Beginning with Das' (1997) encouragement to understand "pain as the beginning of a language game," most of this dissertation will therefore be about dropping the reader into the silences between the humans and the horses, and between the words the humans use to talk about their experiences with the horses, thereby raising fundamental questions about the communicational dialectics that can transform human experiences. I argue that anthropologists must re-arrange our analytical frames around humans and animals, beginning with how we understand language, in the context of communication, to be organized. Rather than privileging subjects and objects, I suggest returning to Bateson (1972) and attempting to privilege relationships. To explore these ideas, this dissertation will attend to a particular therapeutic modality employed at Equine Healers, a set of practices called a "group sculpture." To set up and make it possible to appreciate the complexity of this modality, this dissertation will first consider framing conversations among humans and horses as rhythmically ordered interactions. To do this, I generate a model of conversation based less on grammatical rules derived from the use of words, or the possibilities offered by subject-object "thing" relationships, and instead lean on musical relationships of rhythm. Initially emerging through conversation, I then trace out rhythms carried between horses and humans by particular physical, material pieces of their world. These brushes, clickers, and bridles ultimately bridge vocal and pneumatic rhythms; and it is movement along this connection, an ebb and flow of voice and breath that, in aligning, generate opportunities for iconic relationships with one's self
HPT and small business: Gold mine or land mine?
Performance consulting is typically applied to large organizations. Almost all of the literature on the topic discusses the art and science of human performance technology in these types of organizations. In the United States, however, 99.7% of employer organizations are small businesses. This article addresses some of the opportunities and challenges of working with smaller organizations and presents ways that performance consultants can build a sustainable practice in this market.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58578/1/200_ftp.pd
Antioxidant responses and NRF2 in synergistic developmental toxicity of PAHs in zebrafish
Author Posting. © The Authors, 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Oxford University Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Toxicological Sciences 109 (2009): 217-227, doi:10.1093/toxsci/kfp038.Early piscine life-stages are sensitive to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure,
which can cause pericardial effusion and craniofacial malformations. We previously reported that
certain combinations of PAHs cause synergistic developmental toxicity, as observed with co-exposure
to the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) agonist ÎČ-naphthoflavone (BNF) and cytochrome P4501A
inhibitor α-naphthoflavone (ANF). Herein, we hypothesized that oxidative stress is a component of
this toxicity. We examined induction of antioxidant genes in zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio)
exposed to BNF or ANF individually, a BNF+ANF combination, and a pro-oxidant positive control,
tert-butylhydroperoxide (tBOOH). We measured total glutathione, and attempted to modulate
deformities using the glutathione synthesis inhibitor buthionine sulfoxamine (BSO) and increase
glutathione pools with N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). In addition, we used a morpholino to knockdown
expression of the antioxidant response element transcription factor NRF2 to determine if this would
alter gene expression or increase deformity severity. BNF+ANF co-exposure significantly increased
expressions of superoxide dismutase1 and2, glutathione peroxidase 1, pi class glutathione-s-transferase,
and glutamate cysteine-ligase to a greater extent than tBOOH, BNF, or ANF alone. BSO
pretreatment decreased some glutathione levels, but did not worsen deformities, nor did NAC
diminish toxicity. Knockdown of NRF2 increased mortality following tBOOH challenge, prevented
significant upregulation of antioxidant genes following both tBOOH and BNF+ANF exposures, and
exacerbated BNF+ANFârelated deformities. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that antioxidant
responses are a component of PAH synergistic developmental toxicity, and that NRF2 is protective
against prooxidant and PAH challenges during development.This work was supported by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciencessupported
Duke University Superfund Basic Research Program (P42 ES10356), National Institute for
Environmental Health Sciencesâsupported Duke University Integrated Toxicology & Environmental
Health Program (TS ES07031), United States Environmental Protection Agency STAR fellowship (to
A.T.âL.), Duke University RJRâLeon Golberg Memorial Postdoctoral Training Program in Toxicology
(to A.T.âL.), and the Postdoctoral Scholar Program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
with funding provided by the J. Seward Johnson Fund and The Walter A. and Hope Noyes Smith
Chair (to A.TâL)
Corporate-sponsored environmental education : a case study
iii, 149 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm
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