Acorn, L. R. (1991). "Kentucky Officer Personalizes Service for Large Probation Caseload." Corrections Today: 26.

Kentucky Probation Officer Virginia Helbling has a caseload of about 100 offenders, yet she says the best aspect of her job is that it allows her to give each probationer individual attention. "We have so much freedom in the Kentucky system," she explains. "The leeway we have for handling each case is very important, because for every individual there are different reasons for what they do. Some offenders know better, others may not. You may need to show them how to act and help them through counseling or referrals." This dedication to helping her clients made Helbling the Kentucky State Parole Officers' Associations (KSPOA) 1990 Officer of the Year. It also helped turn one of her probationers into a real success story.

Andrews, R., G. A. Boyne, et al. (2006). "Strategy content and organizational performance: An empirical analysis." Public Administration Review 66(1): 52-63.

This study presents the first empirical test of the proposition that strategy content is a key determinant of organizational performance in the public sector. Strategy content comprises two dimensions: strategic stance (the extent to which an organization is a prospector, defender, or reactor) and strategic actions (the relative emphasis on changes in markets, services, revenues, external relationships, and internal characteristics). Data were drawn from a multiple-informant survey of 119 English local authorities. Measures of strategy content are included in a multivariate model of inter-authority variations in performance. The statistical results show that strategy content matters. Organizational performance is positively associated with a prospector stance and negatively with a reactor stance. Furthermore, local authorities that seek new markets for their services are more likely to perform well. These results suggest that measures of strategy content must be included in valid theoretical and empirical models of organizational performance in the public sector.

Ayas, K. (2002). "Creating high-performing organizations: A conversation with Roger Saillant." Reflections 3(3): 10-18.

Roger Saillant is the sort of gifted practitioner who, in my view, has always been the heart and soul of the SoL community. First of all, he has been very successful from the standpoint of business results. Over the years, he developed within Ford a reputation as the type of person who could be tossed into the most difficult of assignments-like a faltering manufacturing facility in Northern Ireland established by the English or a startup facility in Chihuahua, Mexico, tasked to produce a new product with a new process with which virtually none of the 3,000 workers had any prior experience. In these and many other assignments, Roger has helped people build high-performing organizations that have lasted beyond his limited tenure.

Baker, W., R. Cross, et al. (2003). Positive Organizational Network Analysis and Energizing Relationships. Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline. K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton and R. E. Quinn. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler: 328-342.

We begin by reviewing the social network literature, tabulating evidence of the prevalence of data on positive ties in network studies. Next, we introduce finding from a series of research studies that examine the social structure and performance outcomes of "energizing relationships" (defined below) in organizational settings (Cross & Baker, 2003). Here we demonstrate how POS scholars can employ both visual and quantitative social network techniques to further understand the social network context of positive organizational phenomenon. Next we offer quantitative evidence of the link between position in a network of positive ties and individual performance controlling for traditional network and information-processing predictors of performance. By doing so, we demonstrate on way in which network research can be extended to account for positive dimensions of relationships. We conclude the chapter with suggestions for future research in this area.

Barrett, H., J. Balloun, et al. (2005). "Success factors for organizational performance: Comparing business services, health care, and education." SAM Advanced Management Journal 70(4): 16-28.

Past research findings in the management, entrepreneurship, and marketing areas have demonstrated that market orientation, learning orientation, entrepreneurial management style, and organizational flexibility are highly correlated with organizational performance. Most of the related research has been in the manufacturing area and only recently has the nonprofit sector received research attention (Ignacio, Gonzalez, Vijande, and Casielle, 2002; Hurley and Holt, 1998).

A recently published study (Barrett, Balloun, and Weinstein, 2004) showed that nonprofits and businesses did not consider themselves as performing differently on the four success factors, although businesses self-report higher performance levels than nonprofits. A logical next step is to compare business services to health care and education, the major services of the nonprofit sector.

This project was designed to research topics that have received little or no academic attention. While it is exploratory, our findings demonstrate a great need for additional research into each of these emphases.

Bartczak, L. (2005). A Funder's Guide to Organizational Assessment, Fieldstone Alliance Publishing Center.

Practical advice for funders, grantees, and consultants looking to understand and improve their own capacity and that of their grant recipients. It is primarily written for grant makers who are aware of the benefits of providing capacity-building support and are interested in learning how capacity assessment tools can strengthen their work with grantees. Book comes with one CD-ROM

Batt, R. (2002). "Managing customer services: Human resource practices, quit rates, and sales growth " Academy of Management Journal 45(3): 587-597.

This study examined the relationship between human resource practices, employee quit rates, and organizational performance in the service sector. Drawing on a unique, nationally representative sample of call centers, multivariate analyses showed that quit rates were lower and sales growth was higher in establishment that emphasized high skills, employee participation in decision making and in teams, and human resource incentives such as high relative pay and employment security. Quit rates partially mediated the relationship between human resource practices and sales growth. These relationships were also moderated by the customer segment served. Research in strategic human resource management has made considerable progress in documenting a link between organizational performance and human resource (HR) strategies, often referred to as high-involvement or high-performance systems, generally include coherent sets of HR practices that enhance employee skills, participation in decision, and motivation

Baumeister, R. F. and J. J. Exline (1999). "Virtue, personality, and social relations: Self-control as the moral muscle " Journal of Personality 67(6): 1165-1194.

Morality is a set of rules that enable people to live together in harmony, and virtue involves internalizing those rules. Insofar as virtue depends on overcoming selfish or antisocial impulses for the sake of what is best for the group or collective, self-control can be said to be the master virtue. We analyze vice, sin, and virtue from the perspective of self-control theory. Recent research findings indicate that self-control involves expenditure of some limited resource and suggest the analogy of a moral muscle as an appropriate way to conceptualize virtue in personality. Guilt fosters virtuous self-control by elevating interpersonal obligations over personal, selfish interests. Several features of modern Western society make virtue and self-control especially difficult to achieve.

Becker, B. and B. Gerhart (1996). "The Impact of Human Resource Management on Organizational Performance: Progress and Prospects." The Academy of Management Journal 39(4): 779-801.

We describe why human resource management (HRM) decisions are likely to have an important and unique influence on organizational performance. Our hope is that this research forum will help advance research on the link between HRM and organizational performance. We identify key unresolved questions in need of future study and make several suggestions intended to help researchers studying these questions build a more cumulative body of knowledge that will have key implications for both theory and practice.

A rapidly changing economic environment, characterized by such phenomena as the globalization and deregulation of markets, changing customers and investor demands, and ever-increasing product-market competition, has become the norm for most organizations. To compete, they must continually improve their performance by reducing costs, innovating products and processes, and improving quality, productivity, and speed to market. With this Special Research Forum on Human Resource Management and Organizational Performance, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of the role of human resource decisions in creating and sustaining organizational performance and competitive advantage.

Bigley, G. A. and K. H. Roberts ( 2001). "The Incident Command System: High-Reliability Organizing for Complex and Volatile Task Environments " Academy of Management Journal 44(6): 1281-1299.

The incident command system (ICS) is a particular approach to assembly and control of the highly reliable temporary organizations employed by many public safety professionals to manage diverse resources at emergency scenes. Our inductive study of a fire department's use of the ICS identified three main factors enabling this distinctively bureaucratic system to produce remarkably flexible and reliable organizations for complex, volatile task environments. This research suggests the possibility of new organizational forms able to capitalize on the control and efficiency benefits of bureaucracy while avoiding or overcoming its tendencies toward inertia.

Bing, J. W. (2004). "Metrics for Assessing Human Process on Work Teams." International Association for Human Resource Information Management Journal 8(6): 26-31.

Management has been defined simply as "getting things done through others." Managing and leading complex organizations is challenging, at least in part because the most utilized tools to assess management's approaches are end-point financial measures. Reviewing quarterly profit/loss statements as a guide to management's skills is a bit like measuring a doctor's skills by the apparent health of the patient rather than reviewing the full set of analytic results which more effectively predict health or illness. We know too well that reliance on short-term profit results is no certain indicator of the long-term health of a company. We need other measures, measures that assess both the application of specific managerial approaches and policies in addition to the output measures of financial returns. In so doing, we increase the opportunities open to managers to understand and improve the effects of their policies and approaches. I suggest in this article that measurement and monitoring of work teams over time is a crucial way for organizational leaders to both support improved team performance and to measure, through the aggregation of human performance metrics on a digital dashboard, changes in team performance and, in turn, to relate these measures to bottom line financial changes.

Boone, H. N. and B. A. Fulton (1996). Implementing Performance-Based Measures in Community Corrections. NIJ: Research in Brief, U.S. Department of Justice: 5.

Traditionally, low recidivism rates have been used as the primary -- and often sole -- measure of success for community corrections programs. The 1990's have brought growth to community corrections organizations along with demands for accountability and fiscal restraint. In a climate where accomplishments mean more than tradition, organizational viability depends increasingly on strategic planning, systematic monitoring, and ongoing evaluation of performance against stated goals and objectives, so that, if necessary, mid-course corrections can be made.

Boone, H. N. J., B. Fulton, et al. (1995). Results-Driven Management: Implementing Performance-Based Measures in Community Corrections. Lexington, American Probation and Parole Association.

The 1990s have been a period of growth for community corrections, not just in terms of increasing offender populations and the concomitant responsibilities, but in terms of integrity and professionalism. Over the past decade, a sound knowledge base has been established upon which to build credible programs and improve operations. As community corrections faces increasing challenges, it becomes even more imperative that the exploration for efficient and effective practices continues. This monograph offers a strategy for continuing that exploration--a model for the development and implementation of performance-based measures for community corrections...

Bunderson, J. S. and K. M. Sutcliffe (2002). "Comparing Alternative Conceptualizations of Functional Diversity in Management Teams: Process and Performance Effects." The Academy of Management Journal 45(5): 875-893.

Functional diversity in teams has been conceptualized in a variety of ways without careful attention to how different conceptualizations might lead to different results. We examined the process and performance effects of dominant function diversity (the diversity of functional experts on a team) and intrapersonal functional diversity (the aggregate functional breadth of team members). In a sample of business unit management teams, dominant function diversity had a negative, and intrapersonal functional diversity, a positive effect on information sharing and unit performance. These findings suggest that different forms of functional diversity can have very different implications for team process and performance and that intrapersonal functional diversity matters for team effectiveness.

Bunderson, J. S. and K. M. Sutcliffe (2003). "Management Team Learning Orientation and Business Unit Performance." Journal of Applied Psychology 88(3): 552-560.

Although research has suggested that teams can differ in the extent to which they encourage proactive learning and competence development among their members (a team learning orientation), the performance consequences of these differences are not well understood. Drawing from research on goal orientation and team learning, this article suggests that, although a team learning orientation can encourage adaptive behaviors that lead to improved performance, it is also possible for teams to compromise performance in the near term by overemphasizing learning, particularly when they have been performing well. A test of this proposition in a sample of business unit management teams provides strong support. The results confirm that an appropriate emphasis on learning can have positive consequences for team effectiveness.

Cameron, K. S. (2008). Positive Leadership. San Francisco, CA, Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Cameron, K. S., J. E. Dutton, et al. (2003). Foundations of Positive Organizational Scholarship. Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline. K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton and R. E. Quinn. San Francisco, Berrett- Koehler: 3-13.

POs is concerned primarily with the study of especially positive outcomes, processes, and attributes of organizations and their members. POS does not represent a single theory, but it focuses on dynamics that are typically described by works such as excellence, thriving, flourishing, abundance, resilience, or virtuousness. POS is distinguished from traditional organizational studies in that it seeks to understand what represents and approaches the best of the human condition.

Cameron, K. S., J. E. Dutton, et al., Eds. (2003). Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Written by senior scholars and internationally known authors, Positive Organizational Scholarship establishes a new field of study in the organizational sciences. While the concept of positive organizational scholarship encompasses the examination of typical and even dysfunctional patterns of behavior, it emphasizes positive deviance from expected patterns. Positive Organizational Scholarship examines the enablers, motivations, and effects associated with remarkably positive phenomena-how they are facilitated, why they work, how they can be identified, and how researches and managers can capitalize on them. The contributors do not adopt one particular theory or framework but draw from the full spectrum of organizational theories to understand, explain, and predict the occurrence, causes, and consequences of positivity.

Positive Organizational Scholarship rigorously seeks to understand what represents the best of the human condition based on scholarly research and theory. This book invites organizational scholars to build upon and extend the positive organizational phenomena being examined. It provides definitional, theoretical, and empirical foundations for what will become a cumulative body of enduring work.

Carmeli, A. and A. Tishler (2004). "The Relationship between intangible organizational elements and organizational performance." Strategic Management Journal 25(13): 1257-1278.

Despite the growing awareness of the importance of researching core strategic resources and activities, the work that has been done to date has largely taken the form of anecdotal reports and case study analysis. We have yet to see large-sample studies demonstrating how organizational elements, independently, complementarily and interactively, may or may not enhance the organization's performance. Moreover, little attention has been given to researching this topic in public sector organizations. The present study aims to bridge this gap by examining the impact of a set of independent intangible organizational elements and the interactions among them on a set of objective organizational performance measures in a sample of local government authorities in Israel. The results of a multivariate analysis indicate that organizational performance (measured by self-income ratio, collecting efficiency ratio, employment rate, and municipal development) can be well explained by six intangible organizational elements (managerial capabilities, human capital, internal auditing, labor relations, organizational culture, and perceived organizational reputation) and the interactions among them, which need to be taken into account in any cost effective development.

Christensen, G. E. (2006). Our System of Corrections: Do Jails Play a Role in Improving Offender Outcomes?, The Crime and Justice Institute & National Institute of Corrections, Community Corrections Division: 41.

The last 10-15 years have provided research and information founded on empirical evidence to help corrections professionals influence prosocial behavioral change in offenders. This literature, referred to as "What Works," has spurred a movement toward Evidence Based Practice within corrections. Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is a theme that has been followed in healthcare and business for some time -- to measure through scientific methods actual outcomes to ensure quality of service and/or efficiency. Before such an orientation is realized within our overarching system of corrections, the parts of our system must be analyzed in the context of their contribution to a shared goal and recidivism reduction. Jails are an integral component of any correctional system and, despite their closed nature, must be included in correctional treatment strategies or processes that are validated through scientific outcome evaluation to reduce offender recidivism. This document will review the role of jails and incarceration within United States' correctional systems and propose opportunities for jail officials to interact and collaborate with local criminal justice entities with the shared purpose of enhancing long-term public safety.

Ciavarelli, A. (2006). Assessing high reliability organizational effectiveness: The high-reliability organizational effectiveness survey (HROES), Human Factors Associates, Inc.: 1-27.

This document contains a power point presentation of the high-reliability organizational effectiveness survey.

Dilulio, J., Ed. (1993). Performance Measures for the Criminal Justice System. Washington, DC, U.S. Bureau of justice Statistics.

Chapters:

Rethinking the Criminal Justice System: Toward a New Paradigm (Dilulio, J.)

Criminal Justice Performance Measures for Prisons (Logan, C.)

Measuring the Performance of Community Corrections (Petersilia, J.)

Performance Measures for the Trial Crts, Prosecution, and Public Defense (Cole G.)

Measuring Police Performance in the New Paradigm of Policing (Alpert, G. and Moore, M.)

Measuring Performance When There Is No Bottom Line (Dilulio, J.)

The Problem of Defining Agency Success (Wilson, J.Q)

Dimovski, V., M. Skerlavaj, et al. (2008). "Comparative analysis of the organizational learning process in Slovenia, Croatia, and Malaysia." Expert Systems with Applications 34: 3063-3070.

Several empirical studies have proved that better organizational learning induces higher organizational performance. However, none of them addressed the issue of organizational learning process simultaneously in several countries. In our contribution, we aim to test differences in the way companies learn in Slovenia, Croatia, and Malaysia. We used the OLIMP questionnaire, a measurement instrument developed and tested by [Dimovski, V. (1994) Organizational learning and competitive advantage. PhD Thesis, Cleveland, Ohio; Dimovski, V., & Sˇ kerlavaj, M. (2005). Performance effects of organizational learning in a transitional economy. Problems and Perspectives in Management 3(4), 56-67]. It employs three measurement variables (information acquisition, information interpretation, and behavioral and cognitive changes) as well as 38 items (presented in the paper) to measure the organizational learning construct. In autumn 2005 data from 203 Slovenian, 202 Croatian and 300 Malaysian companies were gathered. The results indicate that companies in all three countries under scrutiny are closest in terms of behavioral and cognitive changes, meaning that globalization and other challenges of the modern business environment demand all of them to change and adapt quickly. However, the ways they are coping with these challenges are different. There are more similarities than dissimilarities between Slovenia and Croatia, while this is not the case when comparing both countries to Malaysia. When acquiring information, Slovenian and Croatian companies rely more on internal sources (own employees, past decisions, etc.), while Malaysian companies tend to rely more on external sources and more often have employees dedicated to searching for external information. When trying to interpret the information acquired, Slovenian and Croatian companies rely more on personal contacts, informal team meetings and believe that information given to subordinates must be simple and concise, while Malaysian companies tend to use more formal collective decision-making and written communication to understand the meaning of information.

Edmondson, A. (1999). "Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams." Administrative Science Quarterly 44(2): 350-383.

This paper presents a model of team learning and tests it in a multimethod field study. It introduces the construct of team psychological safety - a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking-and models the effects of team psychological safety and team efficacy together on learning and performance in organizational work teams. Results of a study of 51 work teams in a manufacturing company, measuring antecedent, process, and outcome variables, show that team psychological safety is associated with learning behavior, but team efficacy is not, when controlling for team psychological safety. As predicted, learning behavior mediates between team psychological safety and team performance. The results support an integrative perspective in which both team structures, such as context support and team leader coaching, and shared beliefs shape team outcomes.

Emmons, R. A. (2003). Acts of Gratitude in Organizations. Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline. K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton and R. E. Quinn. San Francisco Berrett-Koehler: 81-93.

My primary purpose in the chapter is to sketch the possibility of a psychology of gratitude for organizational studies. In order to accomplish this goal, the chapter is organized around the following: defining gratitude; providing a brief overview of gratitude in the history of ideas; identifying the key benefits of gratitude in organizations; and articulating key areas of research that organizational scholars should pursue. The argument to be developed is that gratitude is a wellspring of trust and goodwill that can serve as hallmark of positive organizational performance.

Ericksen, J. and L. Dyer (2005). "Toward a strategic human resource management model of high reliability organization performance." International Journal of Human Resource Management 16(6): 907-928.

In this article, we extend strategic human resource management (SHRM) thinking to theory and research on high reliability organizations (HROs) using a behavioral approach. After considering the viability of reliability as an organizational performance indicator, we identify a set of eight reliability-oriented employee behaviors (ROEBs) likely to foster organizational reliability and suggest that they are especially valuable to reliability-seeking organizations that operate under ‘trying conditions’. We then develop a reliability-enhancing human resource strategy (REHRS) likely to facilitate the manifestation of these ROEBs. We conclude that the behavioral approach offers SHRM scholars an opportunity to explain how people contribute to specific organizational goals in specific contexts and, in turn, to identify human resource strategies that extend the general high performance human resource strategy (HPHRS) in new and important ways.

Finn, P. and A. K. Newlyn (1993). Miami's "Drug Court", A Different Approach, National Institute of Justice, Program Focus.

America's courts are becoming increasingly clogged with drug-related cases, and many of our jails and prisons are overflowing with drug offenders. Nationwide, there were more than one million arrests for drug offenses in 1991 - a 56% increase since 1982. Two-thirds of those arrests were for illegal possession of drugs; one-third for fro manufacturing or selling drugs. Dade County (Miami), Florida, is no exception to this crisis: Police arrested 9,409 individuals for drug offenses in 1991, including 6, 923 for illegal possession of drugs.

Fulton, B., A. Stichman, et al. (1997). "Moderating Probation and Parole Officer Attitudes to Achieve Desired Outcomes." The Prison Journal 77(3): 295-312.

Much has been written about officer role orientations in probation and parole and about principles of effective correctional intervention, but little research adequately reflects the importance of linking these two discussions. The present study on officer attitudes provides a first step toward making this link. An officer attitude survey was conducted with both regular and intensive supervision officers at two different program sites. Each site recently implemented a prototypical model of intensive supervision that encourages a balanced approach to supervision and is based on principles of effective correctional intervention. Prior to implementation, the intensive supervision officers at each site participated in comprehensive training and development activities. The primary purpose of this research was to learn the extent to which attitudes of the intensive supervision officers differ from those of regular supervision officers--who did not participate in the training and development activities--in terms of their focus and style of supervision. The results suggest that a comprehensive approach to training and development can effectively instill in officers the supervision attitudes that are most conducive to promoting offender change.

GAO (2005). "Human Capital: Practices that empowered and involved employees." US Government Printing Office: 1-36.

People are the federal government's most valuable asset. Studies of private and public sector organizations have shown that high-performing organizations value and invest in their employees--human capital--and align their "people policies" to support organizational performance goals. In the federal government, however, strategic human capital management is a pervasive challenge. GAO has included human capital on its high-risk list. The Administration's emphasis on workforce planning and restructuring will require federal agencies to flatten their organizational hierarchy and improve their work processes. To optimize the services provided to citizens, federal employees must understand the link between their daily work and the results their organization seeks to achieve. For the initiatives GAO reviewed, agencies had to overcome organizational and cultural barriers, including a lack of trust, resistance to change and lack of buy-in from front-line employees and managers, and various implementation issues, such as workload demands. The agencies developed strategies to address these barriers, such as maintaining open communication and reassigning and hiring personnel. In implementing the practices to empower and involve employees, agencies identified a range of examples to demonstrate the performance improvements these efforts have accomplished.

García-Morales, V. J., F. J. Lloréns-Montes, et al. (2007). "Influence of personal mastery on organizational performance through organizational learning and innovation in large firms and SMEs." Technovation 27(9): 547-568.

This paper analyzes the influences of personal mastery on organizational performance, both directly and indirectly through the dynamic capabilities of organizational learning and innovation. Although these indirect interrelations are very important for improving organizational performance, they are not usually explored in research. We confirm these influences empirically in both large firms and SMEs, basing our research on a sample of 401 Spanish firms. The results reveal that in both types of firms: (1) personal mastery influences organizational performance directly and indirectly through organizational learning and innovation; (2) organizational learning influences organizational performance positively, both directly and indirectly through organizational innovation; (3) organizational innovation influences organizational performance positively.

Garcia-Morales, V. J., A. Ruiz-Morenao, et al. (2007). "Effects of technology absorptive capacity and technology proactivity on organizational learning, innovation and performance: An empirical examination." Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 19(4): 527-558.

Technology is crucial for organizations in the knowledge society, but little empirical research has been conducted on technology absorptive capacity and technology proactivity. Based on existing theoretical studies, this article formulates a global model to analyze how technology absorptive capacity and technology proactivity influence organizational learning and organizational

innovation, and how these dynamics capabilities affect organizational performance. The model also shows how organizational learning affects organizational innovation. The hypotheses are tested using data from 246 Spanish technological firms. The paper discusses the findings and provides several implications for future research. The findings are important for management practice, especially for firms where technology is the main strategic element.

Gardner, A. (2005). "Building High-Performance Organizations in the 21^st Century." Armed Forces Comptroller 50(3): 20-21.

Provides an overview of the discussion by Dr. Anton S. Gardner on organizational issues during the American Society of Military Comptrollers Professional Development Institute 2005 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Theory of organizational waves according to Alvin Toffler; Information on Naturally Occurring Groups; Characteristics of a high-performing organization.

Gittell, J. H. (2000). "Organizing work to support relational co-ordination." The international Journal of Human Resource Management 11(3): 517-539.

Service operations that are highly uncertain, interdependent and time constrained require a competency that I call relational co-ordination - co-ordination that is carried out by front-line workers with an awareness of their relationship to the overall work process and to other participants in that process. Relational co-ordination is characterized by frequent, timely, problem solving communication, and by helping, shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect. Previous work reports significant positive effects of relational co-ordination on performance in such settings. This paper addresses how organizations achieve, or fail to achieve, high levels of relational co-ordination. I find significant correlations between relational co-ordination and the use of cross-functional liaisons. IT, supervisors, cross-functional performance measurement, employee selection, conflict resolution and flexible work roles. I explore the implications for team effectiveness and organization design, and for the theory of organizational social capital.

Glaser, E. M., H. H. Abelson, et al. (1983). Putting Knowledge to Use. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.

The problems involved in putting knowledge into practice increasingly burden many fields, including business and industry, education, science, government, and social services. Many promising new ideas and programs are never implemented. And programs and practices that have been successfully used in one organization often fail to reach others that could also benefit. While a great deal has been written on ways to apply knowledge to bring about improved operations, practices, and services, this information is scattered throughout journals and reports in widely disparate fields and is not readily accessible. This book brings such material together in one convenient volume, consolidating, organizing , and analyzing a wealth of research from a variety of disciplines to provide comprehensive, up-to-date information on the application of knowledge for planned change. The authors present the most important and useful findings from psychology, organizational behavior, sociology, economics, education, evaluations research, and other fields on ways to assess the readiness of organizations to change; overcome resistance to change; apply effective problem-solving strategies; evaluate proposed and ongoing programs; improve interpersonal and written communication; enhance collaboration between researchers and practitioners; overcome problems in transferring technology to developing countries; assess the effect of political and economic factors, such as regulations and subsidies, on planned change; and many other topics.

Green, K. W., C. Wu, et al. (2006). "The impact of strategic human resource management on firm performance and HR professionals' work attitude and work performance." International Journal of Human Resource Management 17(4): 559-579.

The impact of strategic human resource management (SHRM) on organizational performance is assessed. Additionally, the impact of a SHRM approach on the individual performance, organizational commitment and job satisfaction levels of human resource professionals is investigated. An organization exhibits SHRM when the human resources function is vertically aligned with the mission and objectives of the organization and horizontally integrated with other organizational functions. Data from a national sample of 269 human resource professionals from large US manufacturing firms were analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques. Results indicate that the direct impact of SHRM on organizational performance is positive and significant, as hypothesized. Further, SHRM was found to directly and positively influence individual performance, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Top managers implementing a SHRM system can, therefore, expect improved organizational performance and improved levels of individual performance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment from the organization's human resource professionals.

Guitouni, A. (2004). " Decision-aid to improve organizational performance." European Journal of Operational Research 162: 581-583.

Decision-making is an important duty of human being. It is a regular activity within organizations. Decisions are the means by which an end state vision is translated into course of action. Whether in terms of production, human resources management, acquisition of goods and services, sales or purchases, one or more agents are called on to make decisions in response to foreseen or unforeseen events:delibe rative or reactive decision-making. Some decisions may not be tremendously important, while others may be strategic to the point of mortgaging the future of the whole organization. Routine decisions are made in the heat of the action and sometimes automatically as reflexes. However, the more strategic decisions require a major effort to analyze, coordinate and anticipate. The decision-maker needs then to gain a situation awareness, to analyze different options and their consequences, and to consider his values and expectations. Thus, decision-making is a very difficult process. It relays on analysis (e.g., science, statistics), perception, intuition and guts. For instance, it is possible to use scientific methods to compute fuel consumption, short route for movement, and cargo load. Items like intuition about future courses of action, creativity, and leadership are examples where art and the guts are mostly useful.

Gulati, R. and D. Kletter (2005). "Thinking core, expanding periphery: The relational architecture of high-performing organizations." California Management Review 47(3): 77-104.

Examines how firms find pathways to high performance while simultaneously focusing on their top and bottom lines by aggressively developing and managing their relationships with key stakeholders. Top-performing firms are shrinking their core while expanding their periphery. At the same time that they are contracting their organizational centers and outsourcing increasing portions of their activities, these firms are extending their organizational borders by trying to provide customers with greater sets of products and services. As companies refocus, they have become increasingly dependent on reinforcing mutually beneficial ties to four sets of critical stakeholders: customers, suppliers, alliance partners, and intra-organizational business units. In each of these relationships, successful firms work their way up a ladder in which they intensify their collaborative efforts with that particular constituent. This phenomenon, which is evident across an array of industries, is one of the hallmarks of a new operating model: the relationship-centered organization.

Håkonsson, D. (2006). "How misfits between managerial cognitive orientations and situational uncertainty affect organizational performance." Simulation Modeling Practice & Theory 14(4): 385-406.

This paper explores the relationship between managerial cognitive orientations and situational uncertainty to organizational performance. The paper adapts a contingency and an information processing perspective, and develops a simulation model in which performance implications are added to the compelling argument of matching managerial cognitive orientations and situational uncertainty. In contrast to previous studies, this permits objective measures of both cognitive orientations and situational context. It is found that a match between managerial cognitive orientation and situational uncertainty has positive performance consequences, and that the effect of this relationship is most pronounced in high discretionary environments.

Heinrich, C. J. (2007). "Evidence-based policy and performance management: Challenges and prospects in two parallel movements." American Review of Public Administration 37(3): 255-277.

This study considered evidence-based policy and performance management. Specifically, the questions of what should count as evidence, how it should be communicated, who should judge the quality and reliability of evidence and performance information, and how to find a balance between processes that produce vital, accurate decision making information and those that cultivate oversight and accountability.

Specifically, the study asked five questions:

1. In building bases of information on government effectiveness, are the rigorous standards and principles of the scientific method for producing knowledge incompatible with the demands of performance management to produce timely information for decision making?

2. What should count as evidence? Are there “gold standard” methods for producing evidence that should count for more than others?

3. In communication information and evidence, does the use of more technically sophisticated methods to produce evidence put it out of reach of policy makers and the public and jeopardize its value to policy making?

4. Who should judge the quality and reliability of evidence and performance information used, and how can high standards for its production and use be upheld under accountability pressures?

5. Is it possible to achieve a balance between processes that produce rigorous information to be applied methodically in decision making and those that facilitate public input and stakeholder representation with the goal of fostering democratic governance and accountability?

Hillgren, J. and E. Morse (1998). "High-performing Organizations." Executive Excellence 15(10): 9.

Reveals similarities between high-performing business organizations in terms of financial results, employee morale and customer service and satisfaction.

Jacobs, J. B. and E. Olitsky (2004). "Leadership & Correctional Reform." Pace Law Review 24(2): 447-496.

In this article we argue for recognizing the importance of investing in the leadership cadre of American prisons and jails. We point out the obstacles to recruitment, development, promotion and retention of leaders for this field. We sketch out some proposals for moving in that direction. We recognize that such proposals need to be fleshed out, that they will not be easy to implement and that they will not (in most cases) be cheap. At this point, however, we think it is important simply to generate and call attention to goals for leadership development that might attract governmental, foundational, and academic interest and support. Working toward these goals would be a major contribution to addressing a major national problem. The human infrastructure of corrections must be considered a national resource; nurturing and improving it must become a national goal.

Knudsen, H. K., L. J. Ducharme, et al. (2008). "Clinical supervision, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intention: A study of substance abuse treatment counselors in the Clinical Trials Network of the National Institute on Drug Abuse." Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 35: 387-395.

An intriguing hypothesis is that clinical supervision may protect against counselor turnover. This idea has been mentioned in recent discussions of the substance abuse treatment workforce. To test this hypothesis, we extend our previous research on emotional exhaustion and turnover intention among counselor by estimating the associations between clinical supervision and these variable in a large sample (N=823). An exploratory analysis reveals that clinical supervision was negatively associated with emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. Given our previous finding that emotional exhaustion and turnover intention were associated with job autonomy, procedural justice, and distributive justice, we estimate a structural equation model to examine whether these variable mediated clinical supervision's associations with emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. These data support the fully mediated model. We found that the perceived quality of clinical supervision is strongly associated with counselors' perceptions of job autonomy, procedural justice, and distributive justice, which are, in turn, associated with emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. These data offer support for the protective role of clinical supervision in substance abuse treatment counselors' turnover and occupational well-being.

Kuchta, W. and S. Berg (2004). "The Paychex formula for talent: Hire attitude, teach skill." Journal of Organizational Excellence 24(1): 31-37.

The founder of Paychex built a high-performing organization on an unconventional premise at the time: Hire people with the right "attitude" and then teach them the skills to do the job. But rapid growth in the 1990’s showed Paychex that it needed a more systematic approach to reliably execute this philosophy throughout its geographically dispersed operations, especially at the important front line of customer service. The resulting solution-one that includes more sophisticated hiring practices, more extensive training and development, and multiple reinforcement mechanisms-still serves the company well today.

Kuh, G. D. (2007). "Risky Business: Promises and Pitfalls of Institutional Transparency." Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 39(5): 30-35.

The heat is on. After a year of public hearings and not-so-private debate, the National Commission on the Future of Higher Education last year proposed six sweeping recommendations to improve “the less than inspiring realities of post secondary education” in the United States (see A Test of Leadership, Resources). One key recommendation was creation of a “consumer-friendly information database” on issues such as cost, price, and student success, to enable prospective students to compare colleges and universities in order to make informed decisions about where to attend college. According to Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, who formed the commission, the goal is to provide answers to the kinds of questions typically asked when consumers make major purchases: How much does it cost? What are the financing options? How does the “product” perform compared to others like it?
Reasonable people may disagree about whether something akin to a J.D. Powers automobile “rating” system can do justice to the multidimensional performance of post secondary institutions and their students. But what is all but certain is that some form of a common reporting template will be coming soon to an institution near you. Public reporting about various aspects of institutional performance is long overdue. But as with any new initiative, the technology can get ahead of the public’s capacity to use it responsibly and productively. To maximize the benefits and minimize the possible mischief of making public heretofore unreported information about student and institutional performance, I offer some observations about the appropriate and inappropriate uses of a common reporting template that makes institutional-performance data public.

Kuh, G. D., J. Kinzie, et al. (2005). "Never Let it Rest: Lessons about Student Success from High-Performing Colleges and Universities " Change 37(4): 44-51.

There's a lot of buzz these days about student success and educational effectiveness. College costs are rising and enrollments are at an all-time high, yet the proportion of students earning degrees has stayed more or less constant for decades. This leads some to conclude that colleges aren't holding up their end of the educational bargain. The question. Do they graduate? is receiving the most scrutiny by state legislatures and by those drafting the reauthorization legislation for the Higher Education Act. But policymakers, parents, and students are also asking tough questions about what they can reasonably expect from colleges and universities while students are enrolled. Are schools allocating resources in ways that enhance student learning? Are students challenged and supported in their studies? Do they acquire the lifelong learning skills and competencies that will enable them to lead productive, civically responsible lives after college?

A time-honored approach to improving effectiveness is to learn what high-performing organizations within a given industry do and then to determine which of their practices are replicable in other settings. A team of 24 researchers coordinated by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institute for Effective Educational Practice at the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research set out to do just that. The Documenting Effective Educational Practices (DEEP) project was a two-year study of 20 four-year colleges and universities that had both higher-than-predicted graduation rates and higher-than-predicted scores on the NSSE. Graduation is increasingly used in accountability and performance systems as an indicator of institutional effectiveness, and student engagement is important because research shows that it's linked to a host of desirable outcomes of college.

Lamb, S., M. R. Greenlick, et al. (1998). Bridging the Gap Between Practice and Research: Forging Partnerships with Community-Based Drug and Alcohol Treatment. Washington D.C., National Academy Press.

Today, most substance abuse treatment is administered by community-based organizations. If providers could readily incorporate the most recent advances in understanding the mechanisms of addiction and treatment, the treatment would be much more effective and efficient. Informed by real-life experiences in addiction treatment including workshops and site visits, Bridging the Gap Between Practice and Research examines why research remains remote from treatment and makes specific recommendations to community providers, federal and state agencies, and other decision makers.

Lin, Z. (2006). "Environmental determination or organizational design: An exploration of organizational decision making under environmental uncertainty." Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 14(4): 438-453.

The relationship between the environment and organizational designs has been a main focus for the past several decades, often with different and even opposing views. Through a computer simulation model, this study attempts to provide a coherent framework by exploring how environmental uncertainty affects organizational decision making performance in an open systems setting where organizations can have different design conditions such as simple versus complex structures and operational versus experiential decision procedures. Results from this study suggest that, while distinctive effects indeed exist, there are important linkages between the environmental condition and the organizational design in affecting organizational performance.

Lipton, D. S., D. Thornton, et al. (2000). "Program Accreditation and Correctional Treatment." Substance Use & Misuse 35(12-14): 1705-1734.

In the correctional field, treatment program accreditation requires the support of correctional administrators and program providers for successful introduction. How accreditation criteria are developed and a support structure for the process in corrections is achieved is in itself an interesting story. Her Majesty's Prison Service has , in 3.5 years, accelerated the effectiveness of correctional treatment programming, established a platform for program integrity, obtained acceptance by the institutional leadership, and increased pride and morale among prison officers. In this article we describe the development, structure, content, and benefits of correctional treatment program accreditation as it has occurred in England and Wales.

Lucken, K. (1997). "Privatizing Discretion: "Rehabilitating" Treatment in Community Corrections." Crime & Delinquency 43(3): 243-259.

This article seeks to fill the void of discussion of community corrections by examining a rapidly growing trend to use private treatment agencies to provide mandates counseling services to probationers.

Maak, T. and N. M. Pless (2006). "Responsible Leadership in a Stakeholder Society." Journal of Business Ethics 66(1): 99-115.

We understand responsible leadership as a social-relational and ethical phenomenon, which occurs in social processes of interaction. While the prevailing leadership literature has for the most part focused on the relationship between leaders and followers in the organization and defined followers as subordinates, we show in this article that leadership takes place in interaction with a multitude of followers as stakeholders inside and outside the corporation. Using an ethical lens, we discuss leadership responsibilities in a stakeholder society, thereby following Bass and Steidelmeier’s suggestion to discuss ‘‘leadership in the context of contemporary stakeholder theory’’ (1999: 200). Moreover, from a relational and stakeholder perspective we approach the questions: What is responsible leadership? What makes a responsible leader? What qualities are needed? Finally, we propose a so-called ‘‘roles model’’ of responsible leadership, which gives a gestalt to a responsible leader and describes the different roles he or she takes in leading stakeholders and business in society.

MacKenzie, D. (2000). "Evidence-based corrections: Identifying what works." Crime & Delinquency 46(4): 457-471.

Relatively few policy decisions regarding corrections use scientific evidence to assist in making informed decisions. This article emphasizes the importance of using evidence-based corrections if we are to be successful in reducing crime in the community. An assessment technique designed by University of Maryland researchers is used to assess the effectiveness of correctional strategies, interventions and programs. This technique uses a two step procedure for drawing conclusions about what works, what doesn't, what is promising and what we don't know.

Marais, K., N. Dulac, et al. (2004). Beyond Normal Accidents and High Reliability Organizations: The Need for an Alternative Approach to Safety in Complex Systems, MIT: 16.

Organizational factors play a role in almost all accidents and are a critical part of understanding and preventing them. Two prominent sociological schools of thought have addressed the organizational aspects of safety: Normal Accident Theory (NAT) and High Reliability Organizations (HRO). In this paper, we argue that the conclusions of HRO researchers (labeled HRO in the rest of this paper) are limited in their applicability and usefulness for complex, high-risk systems. HRO oversimplifies the problems faced by engineers and organizations building safety-critical systems and following some of the recommendations could lead to accidents. NAT, on the other hand, does recognize the difficulties involved but is unnecessarily pessimistic about the possibility of effectively dealing with them. An alternative systems approach to safety in described, which avoids the limitations of NAT and HRO. While this paper uses the Space Shuttle, particularly the Columbia accident, as the primary example, the conclusions apply to most high-tech, complex systems.

Margolis, J. D. and J. P. Walsh (2003). "Misery loves companies: Rethinking social initiatives by business." Administrative Science Quarterly 48: 268-305.

Companies are increasingly asked to provide innovative solutions to deep-seated problems of human misery, even as economic theory instructs managers to focus on maximizing their shareholders' wealth. In this paper, we assess how organization theory and empirical research have thus far responded to his tension over corporate involvement in wider social life. Organizational scholarship has typically sought to reconcile corporate social initiatives with seemingly inhospitable economic logic. Depicting the hold that economics has had on how the relationship between the firm and society is conceived, we examine the consequences for organizational research and theory by appraising both the 30-year quest for an empirical relationship between a corporation's social initiatives and its financial performance, as well as the development of stakeholder theory. We propose an alternative approach, embracing the tension between economic and broader social objectives as a starting point for systematic organizational inquiry. Adopting a pragmatic stance, we introduce a series of research questions whose answers will reveal the descriptive and normative dimensions of organizational responses to misery.

Martin, S. and P. C. Smith (2005). "Multiple public service performance indicators: Toward an integrated statistical approach." Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 15(4): 599-613.

Public service organizations usually produce multiple outputs, measured on different scales, giving rise to a suite of performance indicators. The traditional approach to statistical analysis of organizational performance has been to develop a separate regression model for each performance indicator. This piecemeal approach, the article argues, may discard valuable information, as it ignores potentially important relationships between individual performance measures. We therefore propose modeling an organization’s performance measures simultaneously; using the methods of seemingly unrelated regressions. The approach implicitly introduces a latent organizational variable into the regressions and may therefore economize on the need to assemble explicit measures of organizational characteristics. The method is illustrated using an example from English public hospitals.

McGarry, P. and B. Ney (2006). Getting it Right: Collaborative Problem Solving for Criminal Justice. Maryland, Center for Effective Public Policy.

From years of working with jurisdictions across the country, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) has concluded that collaboration and rational planning are the keys to creating an effective criminal justice system. These principles were at the heart of NIC’s Criminal Justice System Project (CJSP), a 3-year initiative that helped policymakers in selected communities develop a meaningful range of effective and coordinated criminal justice sanctions. This guide is a product of the CJSP initiative. Building on the experiences and lessons of CJSP and other NIC projects, the guide spells out a practical, team-based approach to envisioning the kind of criminal justice system a community wants, assessing the current system, and planning and implementing strategies for "getting it right." The guide was developed primarily for local (city or county) criminal justice policy teams-- representing corrections, police, the courts, prosecution, and other agencies-- who want to work together toward a system that promotes safety, prevents and solves crime, and holds offenders accountable. Intended as a working tool for these teams, the guide breaks down the planning process into logical steps and presents much of its information in the form of vignettes, examples, and exercises. The detailed, collaborative approach described in this guide is hard work and takes time. Experience has shown that the result-- a criminal justice system that truly meets a community's needs and uses its resources wisely-- can be well worth the effort.

McGrath, R. G., I. C. MacMillan, et al. (1995). "Defining and Developing Competence: A Strategic Process Paradigm." Strategic Management Journal 16(4): 251-275.

In this paper, competence is defined in operational terms as the degree to which the firm or its subunits can reliably meet or exceed objectives. Two antecedents to competence (and thus competitive advantage) are then developed and defined. These are the 'comprehension' of the management team working on developing competence and the 'deftness' of their task execution. Empirical results from a study of 160 new initiatives in 40 organizations from 16 countries suggest that: (1) it is feasible to operationalize and measure these constructs; (2) comprehension and deftness are important correlates of an organization's degree of competence as defined; and (3) a process-centered paradigm for understanding competence development shows promise.

McNeill, F., S. Batchelor, et al. (2005). 21st Century Social Work: Reducing Re-Offending: Key Practice Skills. School of Social Work. Edinburgh, Scottish Executive: 46.

This literature review was commissioned by the Scottish Executive's Social Work Services Inspectorate in order to support the work of the 21st Century Social Work Review Group. Discussions in relation to the future arrangements for criminal justice social work raised issues about which disciplines might best encompass the requisite skills for reducing re-offending in the community. Rather than starting with what is known or understood about the skills of those professionals currently involved in such interventions, this study sought to start with the research evidence on effective work with offenders to reduce re-offending and then work its way back to the skills required to promote this outcome.

The National Objectives and Standards for Social Work Services in the Criminal Justice System (NOS), initially published in 1991, were recently updated in the document 'Criminal Justice Social Work Services National Priorities for 2001-2002 and onwards'. This latter document identifies three intended outcomes for community-based criminal justice interventions with offenders in Scotland: public protection through reduced re-offending, reducing the unnecessary use of custody and social inclusion of rehabilitated offenders. Although protecting the public by reducing re-offending has moved to the apex of the triangle as the super-ordinate purpose, Scottish policy and practice continues to recognize the interdependence of the three priorities.

McWhorter, L. B., M. Matherly, et al. (2006). "The connection between performance measurement and risk management." Strategic Finance 87(8): 50-55.

conventional wisdom says that a strategic performance measurement system (SPMS) improves organizational performance and employee efficacy. But did you know it can also enhance your enterprise risk management (ERM) system? An SPMS and ERM have several similar characteristics. First, both encourage a holistic view of the organization. For example, in an SPMS environment, managers will view the organization from multiple perspectives, such as those in the balanced scorecard: financial, customer, internal business, and learning and growth. At the same time, ERM assesses risk enterprise-wide. Second, when using an SPMS and ERM, it's important to establish a link to organizational strategy: an SPMS through performance measures and ERM through risk management. Finally, both an SPMS and ERM educate employees about strategic objectives. The SPMS conveys corporate objectives to employees so they can choose actions consistent with organizational strategy. ERM uses internal communication to enlist everyone's participation in the risk management process.

McWhorter, L. B., M. Matherly, et al. (2006). "The connection between performance measurement and risk management." Strategic Finance 87(8): 50-55.

conventional wisdom says that a strategic performance measurement system (SPMS) improves organizational performance and employee efficacy. But did you know it can also enhance your enterprise risk management (ERM) system? An SPMS and ERM have several similar characteristics. First, both encourage a holistic view of the organization. For example, in an SPMS environment, managers will view the organization from multiple perspectives, such as those in the balanced scorecard: financial, customer, internal business, and learning and growth. At the same time, ERM assesses risk enterprise-wide. Second, when using an SPMS and ERM, it's important to establish a link to organizational strategy: an SPMS through performance measures and ERM through risk management. Finally, both an SPMS and ERM educate employees about strategic objectives. The SPMS conveys corporate objectives to employees so they can choose actions consistent with organizational strategy. ERM uses internal communication to enlist everyone's participation in the risk management process.

Mena, K. C. and J. D. Bailey (2007). "The effects of the supervisory working alliance on worker outcomes." Journal of Social Service Research 34(1): 55-65.

This study explored the effects of the supervisory relationship, as conceptualized by Bordin's working alliance, on social service worker's job satisfaction and burnout. Hierarchical linear model analyses of survey results from supervisors (n=51) and workers (n=80) in Healthy Families America agencies revealed that the workers' sense of rapport within the supervisory relationship is related to job satisfaction. While it was expected that the supervisory relationship would also relate to levels of burnout, no association was found in the analyses. However, strong negative correlations were found between the workers' feelings of rapport within the supervisory relationship and both emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.

Mintzberg, H., J. Lampel, et al. (2003). The Strategy Process: Concepts Contexts Cases Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall.

From the Authors...

"We tried to provide the reader with a richness of theory, a richness of practice, and a strong basis for linkage between the two. We rejected the strictly case study approach, which leaves theory out altogether, or soft-pedals it, and thereby denies the accumulated benefits of many years of careful research and thought about management processes. We also rejected a alternate approach that forces on readers a highly rationalistic model of how the strategy process should function. We collaborated on this book because we believe that in this complex world of organizations a range of concepts is needed to cut through and illuminate particular aspects of that complexity.

There is no 'one best way' to create strategy, nor is there 'one best form' of organization. Quite different forms work well in particular contexts. We believe that exploring a full variety systematically will create a deeper and more useful appreciation of the strategy process. In this revised edition, we remain loyal to these beliefs and objectives."

Moynihan, D. P. and S. K. Pandey (2005). "Testing how management matters in an era of government by performance management." Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory 15(3): 421-439.

Public administration finds itself in an era of government by performance management, which is reflected in the widespread assumption that management is a key determinant of performance, and that it is reasonable to expect managers to measurably improve organizational effectiveness. This article joins a growing literature in seeking to conceptualize and empirically test how external environmental influences and internal management factors combine to create performance, relying on data from the 2002-2003 National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-II) survey of state government health and human services officials. We categorize managerial efforts to facilitate organizational performance as determined either through their interactions with the organizational environment, or through employing workable levers to change internal organizational culture, structure, and technology. Among the external environmental variables, we find that the support of elected officials and the influence of the public and media have positive impact on effectiveness. Among internal management choices, the ability to create a developmental organizational culture, establish a focus on results through goal clarity, and decentralize decision-making authority are all positively associated with organizational effectiveness.

North, M. A. (2007). Seven Ways to Improve Your Resource Bank. Information Outlook. 11: 11-16.

In today’s information-driven economy where nearly everyone is a “researcher” in some way, research asset management has become a critical competency. By implementing best practices for research asset management, you can not only deliver extraordinary value for your organization but also firmly cement your own role. More than ever, success for many organizations depends on quickly finding and acting on various kinds of research assets. Yet even sizable organizations with otherwise sophisticated capabilities vary considerably in how, and how effectively, they manage these diverse research assets. Research assets include internal information such as plans, presentations, and analyses, and external information such as news items, Web resources, magazines, and industry analyst reports.

Research asset management is the combination of people, processes and technology by which an organization manages the high-value internal and external information assets that its professionals at all levels use to gain insights, plan, and execute. Poor research asset management carries a high price tag. Employees are forced to spend time looking for information, instead of using that information in more strategic and creative ways. Poor “institutional memory” and inadequate information sharing are at best inefficient and at worst extremely damaging. Employees waste time recreating information that exists but can't be found. (In working with a top global consumer packaged goods company, consulting firm McKinsey estimated that the company’s marketing organization was spending 40 percent of its time re-creating things.) They waste money purchasing duplicate information. It takes too long for new or transferring employees to get productive. Effective research asset management, on the other hand, not only ensures your organization’s success—it also ensures your success, by tightly linking your efforts to the company’s overall objectives.

“Organizations that embrace best practices for research asset management typically are rigorous about the metrics for their organizations in general,” said Phillip L. Green, Inmagic’s president and CEO. “In talking with organizations about how they determine the payoff from effective research asset management, we consistently heard about ‘operating smarter, faster, and cheaper,’ and being able to leverage and institutionalize’ their employees’ best work.” By working with many organizations that have complex information needs (driven by organizational structure, velocity of internal change, or the number of staff and geographies), Inmagic identified seven themes for the effective management of research assets. The company also determined how organizations that are deploying these best practices gauge their effects and calculate their benefits.

Park, N. and C. M. Peterson (2003). Virtues and Organizations. Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline. K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton and R. E. Quinn. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler: 33-47.

Thinkers as early as Aristotle posed the question, "What is the good of a person?" and answered it by enumerating moral virtues readily interpretable as traits: general styles of behavior evident in thought, feeling, and action that develop over time and are displayed or are not in accordance with the situation broadly construed. on of the most important situations is the context provided by organizations--school, workplaces, communities, and entire culture--and specifically their prevailing roles, rules, norms, and reward structures. In some cases, the organizational context affords moral excellence on the part of members, and in other cases, sadly not.

Perrow, C. (1984). Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies. New York, Basic Books.

This book is a classic analysis of complex systems conducted from the point of view of a social scientist. It was first, or one of the first, to propose a framework fro characterizing complex technological systems such as air traffic, marine traffic, chemical plants, dams, and especially nuclear power plants according to their riskiness. "Normal" accidents are called that because they seem to start with something that seems ordinary or that happens all the time, almost always without causing great harm. Perrow also uses a term that seems better, system accidents, which conveys the idea that apparently trivial events cascade through the system in unpredictable ways to cause a large event with severe consequences.

Perrow, C. (1994). "The limits of safety: The enhancement of a theory of accidents." Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 2(4): 212-220.

Scott Sagan has written an extraordinary book which, among other things, draws a short contrast between two theories of accidents in large scale systems with catastrophic potential. High reliability Theory (HRT) believes we can do such things as learn from our operating and regulatory mistakes, put safety first and employer lower levels, thereby making risky systems quite safe. Sagan contrasts this with Normal Accident Theory (NAT) which says, among other things, that no matter how hard we try there will be serious accidents because of the interactive complexity (which allows inevitable errors to interact in unexpected ways and defeat safety systems) and tight coupling (in which small errors propagate into major ones) of most risky systems. Catastrophic accident are 'normal' (though rare) because they are inherent in the system ,Sagan checks out the two theories with an amazing wand frightening account of accidents and close calls in the US nuclear weapons system during the Cold War. He finds much more support for NAT than for HRT.

Perrow, C. (1999). "Organizing to Reduce the Vulnerabilities of Complexity." Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 7(3): 150-155.

Complex and tightly coupled systems are inherently vulnerable to major system accidents, but some difficult structural changes can reduce their vulnerability. They can be decomposed into units that are connected by monitored links, despite the inefficiency of such decentralization. Designs can be inelegant and robust, rather than elegant and sensitive, despite this affront to engineering norms. Redundancies and all other safety measures should be designed in from the start and not added afterwards, since add-ons are disproportionately the source of accidents. Skepticism should be structured into the organization through explicit roles and generating worst case scenarios, and sensitive channels deliberately opened to daylight and monitoring. A formal system of error feedback should be instituted with contributions rewarded. Most important of all is increasing the role of external stakeholders in accident investigations and organizational changes, thus creating a dense network of independent organizations that keeps the risky system honest. Secret organizations which gather intelligence and perform covert actions are especially vulnerable to complexity but the least likely to adapt such structural changes. Examples are provided for each of the points.

Perrow, C. (2008). "Disasters Evermore? Reducing our vulnerabilities to natural, industrial, and terrorist disasters." Social Research 75(3): 733-752.

I have a simple message: disaster from natural, industrial, and technological sources, and from deliberate sources such as terrorism, are inevitable, and increasing. We may prevent some and mitigate some, but we cannot escape them. At present we focus on protecting the targets, or reducing the damage to them or the people involved. We do not do an adequate job at this; our organizations are not up to it and rarely will be. Meanwhile we neglect the more basic strategy of reducing the size of the targets. This involves reducing three kinds of concentrations. First, there are the concentrations of humans in risky locations. Second, there are the concentrations of energy found in hazardous materials in populated areas. Finally, there are the concentrations of corporate power that sit astride our critical infrastructure.

Pfeffer, J. (1998). The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First. Boston, Harvard Business School Press.

The lure of new and profitable markets has lead many companies to formulate strategies to capture these markets. This focus on strategy often leads to downsizing and the shedding of old businesses in favor of a "lean" economic model that stresses outsourcing. The strategy that leads to downsizing has its short-term rewards--a fatter bottom line and happy shareholders. Jeffrey Pfeffer argues that much of this downsizing is nothing more than a throwback to 100-year-old employment practices. Instead of cutting costs as a means to increase profits, companies should focus more on building revenue by relying on solid people-management skills. Through dozens of examples, Pfeffer demonstrates that successful companies worry more about people and the competence in their organizations than they do about having the right strategy. Pfeffer contends that the strategy part is relatively easy--it's the day-to-day execution that's hard. Companies that understand the relationship between people and profits are the ones that usually win in the long run.

Pratt, M. G. and B. E. Ashforth (2003). Fostering Meaningfulness in Working and at Work Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline

K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton and R. E. Quinn. San Francisco Berrett-Koehler

309-327.

As with other authors in this volume, we see meaningful work (and other forms of positive meaning) as central to positive organizations. Although research on the salutary effects of meaningfulness has been sparse, it does suggest that a sense of meaningfulness--whether from work or other social domains--is associated with (and may even be a defining feature of) psychological and even physical health (e.g, Baumester, 1991: Dunn, 1996; Ryff& Singer, 1998a, 1998b; Treadgold, 1999) In this chapter, we examine organizational practices that foster workers' experience of "meaningfulness" both in and at work.

Roberts, K. H. (1990). "Some Characteristics of One Type of High Reliability Organization." Organization Science 1(2): 160-176.

This paper is concerned with defining organizational processes necessary to operate safely technologically complex organizations that can do great physical harm to themselves and their surrounding environments. The paper first argues that existing organizational research is little help in understanding organizational processes in such organizations. It then identifies nuclear powered aircraft carriers as examples of potentially hazardous organizations with histories of excellent operations. The paper then examines a set of components of "risk" identified by Perrow (1984) and antecedents to catastrophe elucidated by Shrivastava (1986) and discusses how carriers deal with these factors to lessen their potentially negative effects. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

Roberts, K. H. and R. Bea (2001). "Must accidents happen? Lessons from high-reliability organizations " Academy of Management Journal 15(3): 70-78.

In the more than 15 years since the initial publication of Charles Perrow's Normal Accidents, practitioners and academic have contemplated how plane crashes, earthen dam collapses, ship collisions, nuclear disasters, and chemical plant explosions can be prevented, mitigated, or avoided. while no one has yet learned how to make the inevitable avoidable, a literature on high-reliability organizations (HRO) has developed that gives some hope that disasters can be minimized in frequency and severity. The value of this research to practicing executives is to take the lessons learned through the research on HROs and apply them to their own organizations. This article is about how to beat the odds of having an incident or accident that one is unprepared for, regardless of the organization's purpose. Neither the sausage maker nor the chemical-plant manager is immune from errors that can have far-reaching consequences. The three major recommendations we offer are that managers should aggressively seek to know what they don't know, design reward and incentive systems to recognize the cost of failure and the benefits of reliability, and communicate the big picture to everyone.

Roberts, K. H. and B. G. Robert (2001). "When Systems Fail." Organizational Dynamics 29(3): 179-181.

Managers often fail to realize how vulnerable their organizations are to fatal error. That was certainly true of those managing the Exxon Valdez, Barings Bank’s Singapore operation, the Space Shuttle Challenger, the U.S. Marine Corps low flying aviation activities in Italy, and the 1999 Mars orbiters. These organizations did not exhibit characteristics of high-reliability organizations (HROs) in a world increasingly demanding high-reliability operations. In a generation or two, the world will likely need thousands of high reliability organizations, running not just nuclear power plants, space flight, and air traffic control, but also chemical plants, electrical grids, computer and telecommunication networks, financial networks, genetic engineering, nuclear-waste storage, and many other complex, hazardous technologies. Our ability to manage a technology, rather than our ability to conceive and build it, may become the limiting factor in many cases (R. Pool Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology, Oxford University Press, p. 276.)

This limiting factor is now widely represented in many industries, not all of them technologically complex. In numerous industries it is often said that 80% of the events contributing to a disaster are human or organizational, and only 20% are design or other factors. When a catastrophic error occurs and an investigation is conducted, it usually focuses first on the engineering design and manufacturing components of the incident. This is somewhat analogous to the drunk who looks for his lost keys under the streetlight because that is where the light is. When findings from that approach are limited, the next step is to examine individual error to name and blame the culprit. The investigation usually ends here, but this is almost never the whole story, because individual acts are embedded in systems that direct the individual’s behavior. This situation probably exists because many designers and managers of systems that can fail spectacularly have engineering backgrounds. However, there is a growing social science literature concerned with managing HROs. This literature attempts to identify managerial causes of failure and managerial failure prevention strategies.

Robertson, P. and S. Seneviratne (1995). "Outcomes of Planned Organizational Change in the Public Sector: A Meta-Analytic Comparison to the Private Sector." Public Administrtion Review 55(6): 547-558.

Can planned organizational change efforts in public sector organizations be as successful as those in private organizations? Prior theory and research reflect some ambiguity regarding this question. Literature regarding traditional differences between the public and private sectors suggests that basic characteristics of public organizations may impede the success of planned change interventions. However, growing recognition of the fact that distinctions between the two sectors are becoming blurred reduces the viability of this assumption. Furthermore, prior empirical comparisons of intervention success have found that patterns of success are similar in the two types of organizations. Peter J. Robertson and Sonal J. Seneviratne address this question by using meta-analytic procedures to evaluate the impact of planned change interventions on seven categories of organization variables. Their findings suggest that, by and large, organizational change interventions are just as successful in both sectors. However, they found differences between the sectors for three variable categories, indicating that it is more difficult to implement changes in public organization work settings but that organizational performance can be improved more readily in public organizations.

Rochlin, G. I. (1989). "Informal organizational networking as a crisis- avoidance strategy: US naval flight operations as a case study." Industrial Crisis Quarterly 3(2): 159-176.

The requirement for maintaining responsiveness and flexibility with a high degree of operational reliability and safety puts considerable demand on any organization. In the case of US Navy flight operations at sea, conditions of extraordinarily tight coupling and high technical complexity, flexible demand and uncertain environment provide more potential sources of crisis and accident than there are management personnel or permanent structure to cope with them. This paper discusses the Navy's evolved and relatively successful strategy of creating and maintaining a set of informal, evanescent, functional networks whose primary purpose is to anticipate and deflect emerging crises rather than merely react to them.

Rodriguez, D., R. Patel, et al. (2002). "Developing competency models to promote integrated human resource practices." Human Resource Management 41(3): 309-324.

Today, competencies are used in many facets of human resource management, ranging from individual selection, development, and performance management to organizational strategic planning. By incorporating competencies into job analysis methodologies, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has developed robust competency models that can form the foundation for each of these initiatives. OPM has placed these models into automated systems to ensure access for employees, human resource professionals, and managers. Shared access to the data creates a shared frame of reference and a common language of competencies that have provided the basis for competency applications in public sector agencies.

Rogers, E. W. and P. M. Wright (1998). "Measuring organizational performance in strategic human resource management: problems, prospects, and performance information markets." Human Resource Management Review 8(3): 311-331.

A major challenge for Strategic Human Resource Management research in the next decade will be to establish a clear, coherent and consistent construct for organizational performance. This article describes the variety of measures used in current empirical research are discussed amidst the challenges of construct definition, divergent stake-holder criteria and the temporal dynamics of performance. The concept of performance information markets that addresses these challenges is proposed as a framework for the application of multi-dimensional weighted performance measurement systems.

Rogers, P. and M. Blenko (2006). "Who has the D?" Harvard Business Review 84(10): 52-61.

This study reveals the importance of viewing information processing within the context of the strategy a firm pursues. Information processing theory is used to examine the unique planning processes of banks pursuing different strategies. The co-alignment of strategy, planning, and information is examined in top-performing banks and the performance implications of fit are revealed.

Saul, J. (2004). Benchmarking for Nonprofits, Fieldstone Alliance Publishing.

'An essential companion for anyone trying to thrive in today's nonprofit sector. Benchmarking offers nonprofits a critical instrument for communicating and learning from shared experiences. Developing this capacity is important if we are to become more than sideline players in influencing social and economic policy.'

Schulman, P. R. (1993). "The Negotiated Order of Organizational Reliability " Administration & Society 25(3): 353-372.

A critical problem facing modern organizations in a variety of settings is the erosion of slack. Given narrowing performance margins allowed many organizations, managers are tempted to "lock in" organizational performance through elaborated rules and procedures, formal authority assignments, and clearly differentiated job responsibilities. A case study of one organization seeking very high reliability in its performance—a nuclear power plant—is offered to demonstrate a contrary point of view. Reliability, it is argued, can best be achieved not through attempts at organizational invariance but through the management of fluctuations in important organizational relationships and practices. This strategy enhances reliability while preserving the protective functions of organizational slack.

Staber, U. (2003). "Social capital or strong culture?" Human Resource Development International 6(3): 413-421.

Organization scientists have recently introduced the concept of social capital to explain how the fabric of social connections among organization members leads to superior organizational performance. In this paper, I argue that the typical formulations of social capital sound remarkably similar to familiar conceptions of organizational culture, especially those features that indicate tightly coupled and deeply embedded social relations. I identify the common strands in the concepts of social capital and organizational culture. I propose that, without further efforts of conceptual clarification and empirical verification, the wholesale adoption by human resource development practitioners of the most popular features of the social capital concept is risky and likely to lead to disillusionment.

Stamatelatos, M., Dr. (2006). NASA Safety and Health Managers Meeting, Cocoa Beach, FL.

PEP is a center level safety and health management tool to evaluate their safety and health “culture” and to prepare them for self evaluation and show readiness for the OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance is the office of primary responsibility for the Performance Evaluation Profile. The PEP survey program was originally certified by Dr. Roger Durand, Professor of Marketing at the University of Houston, Clear Lake.

Starbuck, W. H. and F. J. Milliken (1988). "Challenger: Fine-Tuning the odds until something breaks." Journal of Management Studies 25(4): 319-340.

The Challenger disaster illustrates the effects of repeated successes, gradual acclimatization, and differing responsibilities of engineers and manager. Past successes and acclimatization alter decision-makers' beliefs about probabilities of future success. Fine-tuning processes result from engineers' and managers' pursuing partially inconsistent goals while trying to learn from their experiences. Fine-tuning reduces probabilities of success, and it continues until a serious failure occurs.

Sutcliffe, K. M. and T. J. Vogus (2003). Organizing for Resilience. Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline

K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton and R. E. Quinn. San Francisco, Berret-Koehler: 94-110.

Studies of organizing in the face of adversity have been focused on the negative. This tendency to focus on failures, decline, and maladaptive or pathological cycles is revealed in images such as threat rigidity, downward spirals, vicious cycles, and tipping points that dominate the organizational literature. This chapter is an effort to reverse that trend.

Svyantek, D. J. and J. Bott (2004). "Received wisdom and the relationship between diversity and organizational performance." Organizational Analysis 12(3): 295-317.

The hypothesis linking diversity and organizational effectiveness is a largely unquestioned, accepted assumption in the organizational literature. We chose to investigate the relationship of diversity and performance. The remainder of this article (I) defines diversity within organizations; (2) provides ways to measure the effects of diversity on performance; (3) provides a review of available literature on the effects of diversity on performance and a general discussion of the results of this literature where (4) reasons for the development of the received wisdom about the relationship between diversity and organizational performance are provided; and (5) a new conception of the manner in which diversity impacts reaching organizational goals is proposed.

Tewksbury, R. and J. Levenson (2007). "When Evidence Is Ignored: Residential Restrictions for Sex Offenders." Corrections Today 69(6): 54-57.

This article examines the importance of correctional institutions to rely on evidence-based approaches to practice. This paper focuses on the instance of a poorly developed community corrections policy as it applied to residential restrictions for registered sex offenders and shows how re-integration and public safety were both impacted by the failure of policy makers to use evidence-based research to make policy.

The NIC Project Team (2005). NIC Innovation Process: A Project Proposal. The NIC Balanced Score Card (BSC) initiative. Washington, D.C., National Institute of Corrections: 29.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) Balanced Score Card (BSC) initiative; Establish a Formal Innovation Process is an outgrowth of the need to stay ahead of emerging issues, interests and opportunities in the field of corrections and criminal justice. The BSC Project Management kickoff training was held May 7-9, 2004. At this time a project scope was developed and a project team was assembled consisting of: Mike Dooley, NIC Academy, project manager; Peg Ritchie, NIC Information Center; Vicci Persons, NIC Jails; Cameron Coblentz, NIC Community Corrections; Richard Geaither, NIC jails; Tom Quinn, Colorado Judicial Services; Rita Rippetoe, NIC Administration; and Nancy Shomaker, NIC Academy. The initiative will reinforce NIC's leadership role in the field by allowing the Institute to substantially fulfill its legislative mandate in providing services for the betterment of corrections and justice as a whole. What follows is the outcome of work done by a group of persons (The Project Team) assembled from inside and outside NIC to develop the project. The Innovation Project (the Project) purpose is to create and establish a formal, recognized process to generate and advance innovative thinking, planning and implementation of services, products and practices for customers external and internal to NIC. The Project will be supported and reinforced by a formal program of recognition for the implementation of innovative services and products. The Project has two initiatives: 1) Design & Establish an Innovation Process; 2) Implement a Recognition Program.

Tonry, M., Ed. (2004). The future of imprisonment. New York, Oxford University Press.

The Future of Imprisonment unites some of the leading prisons and penal policy scholars of our time to address fundamental questions about the state of our prisons. Inspired by the work of Norval Morris, the contributors look back to the past twenty-five years of penal policy in an effort to look forward to the prison's twenty-first century future. Their essays examine the effects of current high levels of imprisonment on urban neighborhoods and the people who live in them, how current policies came to be as they are, and the theories of punishment that guide imprisonment decisions. A definitive guide to imprisonment policies for the future, this volume convincingly demonstrates how we can prevent crime more effectively at lower economic and human cost.

US Department of Justice. (1998). Critical Elements in the Planning, Development, and Implementation of Successful Correctional Options, US Department of Justice: 1-45.

In the fall of 1995, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reported that the Nation's prisons and jails held nearly 1.6 million incarcerated inmates, compared with 1.5 million inmates in 1994. This correctional population explosion caught many jurisdictions by surprise and found them ill equipped to handle the problem. In response, many States have begun and, in some cases, completed large-scale prison and jail construction projects. However, this massive construction effort has not been able to keep pace with burgeoning correctional populations. As capital and operational costs soar in a correctional system that is continually expanding, correctional officials are recognizing the need for more effective and less expensive approaches to sanction and supervise nonviolent offenders.

Van Marrewijk, M., I. Wuisman, et al. (2004). "A phase-wise development approach to business excellence: Towards an innovative, stakeholder-oriented assessment tool for organizational excellence and CSR." Journal of Business Ethics 55(2): 83-98.

The European Corporate Sustainability Framework (ECSF) is, among other concepts, based on a phase-wise development approach as described by Clare Graves' Levels of Existence Theory. As much as corporate sustainability has a sequence of adequate interpretations, aligned with each development level, also the notion of business excellence can be defined at multiple levels, as this paper demonstrates. Furthermore, the authors analyze the current EFQM Excellence Model for particular biases towards various development levels and suggest a new and innovative two-step approach to assessing organizational performance with respect to organizational excellence (OE) and corporate sustainability. According to the organization's ambition, the assessment is either limited to a shareholder approach, mainly focusing at optimal usage of resources, or it also includes an additional assessment format based on the stakeholder approach, with specific reference to the organization's performance on the financial, social and ecological bottom line. This paper demonstrates the need and feasibility of an EFQM-Based assessment tool with a combined focus on corporate sustainability and OE.

Virany, B., M. Tushman, et al. (1992). "Executive succession and organization outcomes in turbulent environments: An organization learning approach." Organization Science 3(1): 72-91.

This paper explores executive succession as an important mechanism for organization learning and, thus, for organization adaptation. We argue that executive succession can fundamentally alter the knowledge, skills and interaction processes of the senior management team. These revised skills and communication processes improve the team's ability to recognize and act on changing environmental conditions. Especially in turbulent environments, succession may be critical for improving or sustaining the performance of the firm. We explore continuity and change of CEOs and their executive teams as associated with first and second-order organization learning, which are differentially important under stable versus turbulent environmental conditions. We also link these organization learning ideas to the nature of organization evolution. A series of hypotheses link executive-team succession and strategic reorientation to subsequent organization performance. Results in a study of 59 minicomputer firms, all founded between 1968 and 1971, indicate that succession exerts a positive influence on organization performance. We also show that it is important to distinguish between CEO succession and executive-team change, which independently improve subsequent organization performance. The positive impact of succession is accentuated when it coincides with strategic reorientation. Finally we examined how longer term patterns in succession and reorientation affect organization performance. We discovered two modes of organization adaptation in this turbulent industry. The most typical mode combines CEO succession, sweeping executive-team changes, and strategic reorientations. A more rare, and over the long-term more effective, adaptational mode involves strategic reorientation and executive-team change, but no succession of the CEO. Consistently high-performing organizations are managed to sustain a relatively high level of learning (through turnover of senior executives and strategic reorientation), and at the same time to maintain links with established organizational competencies (through retention of the CEO).

Virany, B., M. Tushman, et al. (1992). "Executive succession and organization outcomes in turbulent environments: An organization learning approach." Organization Science 3(1): 72-91.

This paper explores executive succession as an important mechanism for organization learning and, thus, for organization adaptation. We argue that executive succession can fundamentally alter the knowledge, skills and interaction processes of the senior management team. These revised skills and communication processes improve the team's ability to recognize and act on changing environmental conditions. Especially in turbulent environments, succession may be critical for improving or sustaining the performance of the firm. We explore continuity and change of CEOs and their executive teams as associated with first and second-order organization learning, which are differentially important under stable versus turbulent environmental conditions. We also link these organization learning ideas to the nature of organization evolution. A series of hypotheses link executive-team succession and strategic reorientation to subsequent organization performance. Results in a study of 59 minicomputer firms, all founded between 1968 and 1971, indicate that succession exerts a positive influence on organization performance. We also show that it is important to distinguish between CEO succession and executive-team change, which independently improve subsequent organization performance. The positive impact of succession is accentuated when it coincides with strategic reorientation. Finally we examined how longer term patterns in succession and reorientation affect organization performance. We discovered two modes of organization adaptation in this turbulent industry. The most typical mode combines CEO succession, sweeping executive-team changes, and strategic reorientations. A more rare, and over the long-term more effective, adaptational mode involves strategic reorientation and executive-team change, but no succession of the CEO. Consistently high-performing organizations are managed to sustain a relatively high level of learning (through turnover of senior executives and strategic reorientation), and at the same time to maintain links with established organizational competencies (through retention of the CEO).

Virany, B., M. L. Tushman, et al. (1992). "Executive Succession and Organization Outcomes in Turbulent Environments: An Organization Learning Approach." 3(1): 72-91.

This paper explores executive succession as an important mechanism for organization learning and, thus, for organization adaptation. We argue that executive succession can fundamentally alter the knowledge, skills and interaction processes of the senior management team. These revised skills and communication processes improve the team's ability to recognize and act on changing environmental conditions. Especially in turbulent environments, succession may be critical for improving or sustaining the performance of the firm. We explore continuity and change of CEOs and their executive teams as associated with first- and second-order organization learning, which are differentially important under stable versus turbulent environmental conditions. We also link these organization learning ideas to the nature of organization evolution. A series of hypotheses link executive-team succession and strategic reorientation to subsequent organization performance. Results in a study of 59 minicomputer firms, all founded between 1968 and 1971, indicate that succession exerts a positive influence on organization performance. We also show that it is important to distinguish between CEO succession and executive-team change, which independently improve subsequent organization performance. The positive impact of succession is accentuated when it coincides with strategic reorientation. Finally we examined how longer term patterns in succession and reorientation affect organization performance. We discovered two modes of organization adaptation in this turbulent industry. The most typical mode combines CEO succession, sweeping executive-team changes, and strategic reorientations. A more rare, and over the long-term more effective, adaptational mode involves strategic reorientation and executive-team change, but no succession of the CEO. Consistently high-performing organizations are managed to sustain a relatively high level of learning (through turnover of senior executives and strategic reorientation), and at the same time to maintain links with established organizational competencies (through retention of the CEO).

Walker, D. M. (2000). "Human Capital: A self-assessment checklist for agency leaders." 40.

The federal government employs a diverse and knowledge-based workforce composed of individuals with a broad spectrum of technical and program skills and institutional memory. They are the government’s human capital, its greatest asset. To attain the highest level of performance and accountability, federal agencies depend on three enablers: people, process, and technology. The most important of these is people, because an agency’s people define its character and its capacity to perform. Social, economic, and technological changes have become a constant in our society and our world. Just as they have in the private sector, these changes inevitably affect the way government agencies must approach their work. Although the management challenges facing leaders in the public and private sectors often differ significantly, leaders in both areas are becoming acutely aware of how much they rely on their human capital to achieve results. To meet the changing environment, federal agencies need to give human capital a higher priority than ever before and modernize their human capital policies and practices. Agencies must, for example, become more competitive in attracting new employees with critical skills, especially in a tight labor market; create the kinds of performance incentives and training programs that motivate and empower employees; and build management-labor relationships that are based on common interests and the public trust. Modern human capital policies and practices offer the federal government a means to improve its economy, efficiency, and effectiveness to better serve the American people. As the nation’s largest employer, the federal government needs to take the initiative on human capital and seize the opportunity to lead by example. During the 1990s, Congress responded to long-standing shortcomings in the way federal agencies were managed by creating a framework for more businesslike and results-oriented management. The three major areas addressed by the reforms were financial management, information technology management, and performance-based management. The consensus needed to fill the remaining gap in that framework—strategic human capital management—has not yet emerged. But even in the absence of fundamental legislative change, agency leaders can still take practical steps to improve their human capital practices. The first step to this end is self-assessment.

Walker, D. M. (2005). 21st Century Challenges: Transforming government to meet current and emerging challenges. Washington, D.C, Government Accountability Office.

The daunting challenges that face the nation in the 21st century establish the need for the transformation of government and demand fundamental changes in how federal agencies should meet these challenges by becoming flatter, more results-oriented, externally focused, partnership oriented, and employee-enabling organizations. This testimony addresses how the long-term fiscal imbalance facing the United States, along with other significant trends and challenges, establish the case for change and the need to reexamine the base of the federal government; how federal agencies can transform into high-performing organizations; and how multiple approaches and selected initiatives can support the reexamination and transformation of the government and federal agencies to meet these 21st century challenges.

Weick, K. E. (1993). "The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster." Administrative Science Quarterly 38(4): 628-652.

The death of 13 men in the Mann Gulch fire disaster, made famous in Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, is analyzed as the interactive disintegration of role structure and sensemaking in a minimal organization. Four potential sources of resilience that make groups less vulnerable to disruptions of sensemaking are proposed to forestall disintegration, including improvisation, virtual role systems, the attitude of wisdom, and norms of respectful interaction. The analysis is then embedded in the organizational literature to show that we need to reexamine our thinking about temporary systems, structuration, nondisclosive intimacy, intergroup dynamics, and team building.*

The purpose of this article is to reanalyze the Mann Gulch fire disaster in Montana described in Norman Maclean's (1992) award-winning book Young Men and Fire to illustrate a gap in our current understanding of organizations, I want to focus on two questions: Why do organizations unravel? And how can organizations be made more resilient? Before doing so, however, I want to strip Maclean's elegant prose away from the events in Mann Gulch and simply review them to provide a context for the analysis.

Weick, K. E. (2003). Positive Organizing and Organizational Tragedy. Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline. K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton and R. E. Quinn. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler

66-80.

Organizational disasters such as Tenerife (Weick, 1993), Challenger (Vaughan, 1996), Bhopal (Shrivastava, 1987), Exxon Valdez (Roberts & Moore, 1993), and Mann Gulch (Weick, 1993) are tragic because they de-story lives, reputations, firms, resources, legitimacy, jobs, trust, confidence, ad illusions of control. This dark picture is sometimes relieved by small pockets of positivity that take the form of heroes who rise to the occasion in a disaster or of lessons learned so that people don't die in vain. But are there larger implications for positive organizing in these events? If organizational life is a million accidents waiting to happen, do we credit positive organizing for the fact that 999,999 of those accidents don't happen? If issues can turn into problems, which can then turn into crises, does positive organizing turn into problems, which can then turn into crises, does positive organizing occur when issues are kept from enlarging into problems and crises? If systems tend toward disorder and entropy, and if entropy and disorder are dangerous, then do we credit positive organizing when order is preserved, chaos is reversed, and near misses get no worse? If any disaster could have been worse, does that mean that whatever kept it from being worse is an instance of positive organizing? Questions such as these lie behind the following discussion and animate it.

Weick, K. E. and K. H. Roberts (1993). "Collective Mind in Organizations: Heedful Interrelating on Flight Decks." Administrative Science Quarterly 38(3): 357-381.

The concept of collective mind is developed to explain organizational performance in situations requiring nearly continuous operational reliability. Collective mind is conceptualized as a pattern of heedful interrelations of actions in a social system. Actors in the system construct their actions (contributions), understanding that the system consists of connected actions by themselves and others (representation), and interrelate their actions within the system (subordination). Ongoing variation in the heed with which individual contributions, representations, and subordinations are interrelated influences comprehension of unfolding events and the incidence of errors. As heedful interrelating and mindful comprehension increase, organizational errors decrease. Flight operations on aircraft carriers exemplify the constructs presented. Implications for organization theory and practice are drawn.

Weick, K. E. and K. Sutcliffe (2001). Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.

The authors' goal is to help us learn to cope in real-world organizations and to work together to improve them. Particularly on transition fires, the unexpected is par for the course. Our interagency wildland fire organization and the land management agencies that support it should be constantly prepared to manage the unexpected. Yet how many times have we seen executives and administrators attempt to manage the unexpected after the fact by blaming it on someone-usually someone else? Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity (John Wiley & Sons, 2001), by Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, offers insight into this problem. But the reader shouldn't expect easy answers, because the authors' goal is to help us learn to cope in real-world organizations and to work together to improve them. For that, we must abandon the search for quick fixes and embrace the reality of living in complex, adaptive systems and organizations. Staying "Mindful." Why the title "Managing the Unexpected"? The reason is simple. Most of the time, we can't manage the human and natural environment to conform to the wishes of an organization. More often than not, it works the other way around. As we try to manage organizations to function well despite the variability of the environment, we need to be constantly "mindful"-a key concept for Weick and Sutcliffe-to watch for changes in the environment and adjust organizational behavior accordingly. Weick and Sutcliffe contrast mindfulness to mindlessness-following the rules-which is useful, too, in the right context. The authors define mindfulness as "the combination of ongoing scrutiny of existing expectation, continuous refinement and differentiation of expectation based on newer experiences, willingness and capability to invent new expectations that make sense of unprecedented events, a more nuanced appreciation of context and ways to deal with it, and identification of new dimensions of context that improve foresight and current functioning." That is certainly a mouthful--and a mind-full. However, Weick and Sutcliffe stress that sometimes you can't wrap complex subjects into the neat, tidy packages too often seen in the business and management literature.

Weick and Sutcliffe spend a lot of time leading us through a study of "High Reliability Organizations" (HROs), such as flight deck crews on aircraft carriers, where you really don't want things to go wrong. They do this to help us better understand pitfalls and strengths in the management of all organizations. Only by learning from mistakes can we learn to do better-to adapt. Focusing on the Unexpected. Oddly enough, it is by studying HROs that we can see firsthand just how important it is to focus on the "unexpected," to learn to act mindfully. In HROs, you ignore the unexpected at your immediate peril. In other organizations, you can ignore the unexpected for much longer, pretending that somehow the universe will eventually align itself with your vision and mission. In Managing the Unexpected, Weick and Sutcliffe explore the shadow side of organizational culture that many other authors overlook. They stress things like "dynamics of surprise," "preoccupation with failure," and "reluctance to simplify." Even the terms they use are unexpected to those who are steeped in win/win or quick-fix reactive management cultures.

Weick, K. E. and K. M. Sutcliffe (2003). "Hospitals as Cultures of Entrapment: A re-analysis of the Bristol Royal infirmary." California Management Review 45(2): 73-84.

Organizational culture is often used to explain extraordinary organizational performance. In fact, the term "safety culture" has recently emerged in the healthcare literature to describe the set of assumptions and practices necessary for healthcare organizations to provide optimal care.' Culture enables sustained collective action by providing people with a similarity of approach, outlook, and priorities.^ Yet these same shared values, norms, and assumptions can also be a source of danger if they blind the collective to vital issues or factors important to performance that lie outside the bounds of organizational perception.' Cultural blind spots can lead an organization down the wrong path, sometimes with dire performance consequences. This was the case at the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI). The example of BRI represents a sustained period of blindness associated with organizational culture. Culture can entrap hospitals into actions from which they cannot disengage and which subsequently lead to repeated cycles of poor performance. The working definition of culture used in the BRI inquiry was "those attitudes, assumptions, and values which condition the way in which individuals and the organization work."" While Schein provides a more detailed definition,"* a more compact definition is used here to treat culture as "what we expect around here.'* Cultural entrapment means the process by which people get locked into lines of action, subsequently justify those lines of action, and search for confirmation that they are doing what they should be doing. When people are caught up in this sequence, they overlook important cues that things are not as they think they are.

Wilks, D. (2004). "Revisiting Martinson: Has Corrections Made Progress in the Past." Corrections Today: 108-111.

In 1975, Robert Martinson, with co-authors Douglas Lipton and Judith Wilks, shook the criminal justice field when he published research results in The Effectiveness of Correctional Treatment: A Survey of Treatment Evaluation Studies. In the publication, Martinson noted that “while some treatment programs have had modest successes, it still much be concluded that the field of corrections has not yet found satisfactory ways to reduce recidivism by significant amounts.” Subsequently, legislators and the public began to question the previously postulated rehabilitation theories and the effectiveness of correctional programs. Since that time, the number of offenders under supervision has grown and the use of residual community corrections has become common place. But, has anything hanged since Martinson’s revelation?

Winsor, B. (2005). "The DFAS Accounting High Performing Organization." Armed Forces Comptroller 52(2): 14-17.

The article focuses on the high performing organization (HPO) developed by the U.S. Defense Finance and Accounting Services being implemented at several sites. The implementation of HPO is aimed at increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and earning savings for the customers of the Department of Defense. An overview of the development of the HPO concept is presented. It details the accounting organization structure for HPO implementation.

Wood, R. and A. Bandura (1989). "Social cognitive theory of organizational management." The Academy of Management Review 14(3): 361-384.

This article analyzes organizational functioning from the perspective of social cognitive theory, which explains psychosocial functioning in terms of triadic reciprocal causation. In this causal structure, behavior, cognitive, and other personal factors and environmental events operate as interacting determinants that influence each other bidirectionally. The application of the theory is illustrated in a series of experiments of complex managerial decision making, using a simulated organization. The interactional causal structure is tested in conjunction with experimentally varied organizational properties and self-regulatory determinants. Induced beliefs about the controllability of organizations and the conception of managerial ability strongly affect both managers' self-regulatory processes and their organizational attainments. Organizational complexity and assigned performance standards also serve as contributing influences. Path analyses reveal that perceived managerial self-efficacy influences managers' organizational attainments both directly and through its effects on their goal setting and analytic thinking. Personal goals, in turn, enhance organizational attainments both directly and via the mediation of analytic strategies. As managers begin to form a self-schema of their efficacy through further experience, the performance system is regulated more strongly and intricately through their self-conceptions of managerial efficacy. Although the relative strength of the constituent influences changes with increasing experience, these influences operate together as a triadic reciprocal control system.

Woodward, B. (2001). Collaboration: The Essentials. Topics in Community Corrections, National Institute of Corrections, U.S. Department of Corrections: 2-4.

Collaboration in community corrections is a necessity. No longer do we have the luxury of going it alone. Collaboration is difficult to achieve, however. It requires both sharing resources with and enhancing the capacity of another agency. Nothing could be more difficult to accomplish. Without a conscious, directed focus on a shared vision of the future, agencies find it difficult to achieve genuine collaboration.

Wright, P. M. and R. R. Kehoe (2008). "Human resource practices and organizational commitment: A deeper examination." Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 46(1): 6-20.

This paper examines newer conceptualizations of HRM practices in the HR-performance relationship as well as newer conceptualizations of commitment. Juxtaposing these categories of HR practices and types of commitment provides a clearer theoretical rational for at least some ways that HR practices can influence organizational performance, be that positive or negative. Implications for research are then discussed.

Wright, T. A. and B. M. Staw (1999). "Affect and favorable work outcomes: Two longitudinal tests of the happy-productive." Journal of Organizational Behavior 20(1): 1-23.

This research examined relationships between alternative measures of affect and supervisory performance ratings. The first study showed that dispositional rather than state affect significantly predicted supervisory ratings of performance over time. Since the measures of affect differed on both content and temporal dimensions, a follow-up study was conducted to explicate the results. The second study found that a pleasantness-based measure of dispositional affect (Berkman, 1971a) again predicted rated performance over time, but activation-based measures of both dispositional and state affect (using PANAS scales) were not predictive of supervisory evaluations of performance. The implications of these findings in terms of research on affect and the longstanding pursuit of the happy-productive worker are discussed.

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