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Back to the Performance Improvement Journal Home PageSeptember, 2002 Editor's Notes by James A. Pershing Commentary: Building a Top-Performing Organization From the Bottom Up Allow Us to Introduce: Claude S. Lineberry, Jr. Essay: Digital Versus Analog: A Question of Time HPT Models: An Overview of the Major Models in the Field Making Training More Like Teaching Using Psychological Type as a Guide for
Successful Online Instruction Appreciative Inquiry as an Organizational
Development Tool Using Focus Group Interviews Tools of the Trade: Software Support for Performance Reviews Executive Summaries
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Article Summaries |
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HPT Models: An Overview of the Major Models in
the Field As the field of human performance technology (HPT) gains more mainstream attention with individuals charged with improving organizational efficiency, questions arise about how to put these concepts and theories into practice. To answer these questions, several HPT models have been developed and can be divided into three categories: diagnostic, process, and holistic models. Diagnostic models inform the performance analyst where HPT can be applied. Process models instruct the performance analyst how HPT can be applied. Finally, holistic models are nonlinear and consist of domains that exist separately but can be combined to form an ideal performance zone. While all of these models have advantages and limitations, taken together, they give the human performance consultant a wide range of tools to help find solutions for their client. Making Training More Like Teaching We talk of training employees but of teaching students. Training is generally associated with accumulating procedural knowledge or learning how (to do something). It implies non-problematic absorption of specific, standardized job skills. Teaching is generally more concerned with learning what, with acquiring declarative knowledge. It implies rational engagement to gain a broad understanding of complex ideas. A common employer complaint is that many employees are poor problemsolvers, particularly in unique situations. This problem may be alleviated by making training more like teaching. Strategies include focusing more on understanding and emphasizing some intrinsic goals of learning, complexifying the job, allowing time for learning, and attending to the manner of training/teaching. Within specific courses, using a repertoire of subject-specific strategies is important. Many such strategies are known only to individual trainers; it would be highly useful to collect and publish them to make them accessible to all. Using Psychological Type as a Guide
for Successful Online Instruction Learning online has become a part of the culture of education and training. Both the number of courses offered online and the number of learners enrolling in these programs have experienced a steady increase since 1994. Many instructors are now facing the challenge of moving their courses to an online environment. While there are several factors that impact this transition, this article focuses on one key element: the instructor. Whereas instructional objectives, teaching styles, and learner preferences are among the core factors influencing effective teaching, the element that individual instructors have the most control over is their own approach to instruction. This article uses the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a framework for describing instructional strategies and how to select them based on an instructor's MBTI preferences. An instrument for determining your instructional type, suggestions for appropriate instructional strategies, and links to resources are included. Appreciative Inquiry as an
Organizational Development Tool
Appreciative inquiry (AI) is a change model that uses traditional organizational development processes (team building, strategic planning, business process redesign, management audits) in a new way. AI is a philosophy and a process. As a philosophy AI emphasizes collaboration and participation of all voices in an organization and focuses on changing the organization rather than the people. As a process, it has steps that are used in working with organizations, communities, families, and even relationships. David Cooperrider conceptualized AI in the late 1970s. His landmark study simply interviewed half of an organization looking for problems and the other half looking for success. Data were dramatically different. But more remarkably, when the data were reported back, the client did not believe that the data came from the same organization. AI is based on a number of scientific principles such as the placebo affect. It is widely practiced throughout the organizational development community. Using Focus Group Interviews Focus group interviews are an in-depth, group-based research and evaluation methodology that helps researchers understand how or why people hold certain beliefs. In a focus group session, six to twelve purposefully selected participants from a target population are brought together to have an open dialogue. A moderator oversees this conversation, and while it is taking place, researchers record the participants' comments and observe their nonverbal cues. Due to the depth and accuracy of insights revealed by them, focus groups have potential to aid performance technologists in their analyses of performance deficiencies, as well as their formative and summative evaluations of performance interventions. This article examines focus groups from a performance technology perspective, describes the entire focus group process, and discusses the method's uses and misuses.
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