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September, 2006
Volume 45 / Number 8
Editor's Notes: Performance Levers
and Lessons
by Holly Burkett, CPT, MA, SPHR
Commentary: The Congruency Between Performance Improvement
and Performance
Management
by George M. Piskurich
LES Is More (When Evaluating Training)
by Sarah Ward, Godfrey Parkin, and Karen Medsker
Many training and performance improvement professionals see evaluation as a
dreaded task or one that many of their clients do not sufficiently value. This
view is often the result of ad hoc, piecemeal approaches to evaluation, in which
performance improvement interventions are evaluated as isolated projects. The
authors of this article advocate the design and implementation
of a learning evaluation strategy (LES) to transform evaluation into a
comprehensive, strategic, integrated, and streamlined system of data gathering
and analysis to support decision making. They define the LES and its components
(strategies, policies, plans, and procedures), identify the inputs and processes
needed to create a LES in an organization, summarize the impacts on
stakeholders, and explain the benefits. They also show how the LES can overcome
or reduce persistent concerns about evaluation.
The Cure for the OCD (Objectives-Compulsive Disorder)
by William W. Lee
Instructional designers often agonize over the form of objectives to the point
of obsession and forget the purpose of an objective: to measure what learners
will know, what they will be able to do, and how they will react. This article
presents five prescriptions that can lead to a cure for the
Objectives-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Although others have advocated eliminating
objectives and still others have recommended eliminating the entire
instructional design process, this article suggests that there can be
significant improvement and simplification in writing objectives while still
staying within the framework of the traditional instructional design process.
The prescriptions that will lead to a cure are using common terminology,
limiting the number of objectives to three for any intervention, changing the
format of lesson objectives, changing the placement of objectives, and
eliminating the measurement component from objectives, replacing that component
with an evaluation plan that will measure the effectiveness of the entire
intervention.
Self-Examination as the Road to Sustaining Employee Engagement and Personal
Happiness
by Hubert Rampersad
Lack of engagement is endemic and is causing large and small organizations all
over the world to incur excess costs, underperform on critical tasks, and create
widespread customer dissatisfaction. Improving organizational performance
requires a highly engaged and happy workforce. Research suggests that worker
well-being plays a major role in organizational performance and that a strong
relationship exists between worker happiness and workplace engagement. This
article entails some new and unique principles that will help organizations
overcome lack of engagement and tread the demanding and often frustrating road
toward sustained employee engagement and performance improvement.
Inspiring High Student Performance Through an Integrated Philosophy of Education
by Peter M. Collins
Whether students in collegiate and graduate courses in philosophy of education
are given grades must be considered in view of the principle that some kind of
evaluation or assessment is persistently essential in the classroom and in the
workplace. If this were not the case, goals would be useless and progress would
be meaningless.
Asking each student in a philosophy of education course to submit a personal
statement of his or her philosophy of education and evaluating it without
assigning a letter grade has its pitfalls. Nevertheless, my experience has
demonstrated that students will be motivated if the task is perceived as
personally and presently significant. A teacher in the classroom and a
supervisor in the workplace can contribute to the possibility of such an outcome
in various kinds of projects by explanation and example.
Subjective Performance Measures in Bonus Payouts
by Tahir M. Nisar
This article explores the practice of subjective performance measures in bonus
payouts. New
forms of incentive pay are increasingly being introduced by company management:
for example, bonuses are now linked to wider business goals, such as quality and
customer service, company reputation, and employee hiring and retention
policies, replacing the traditional focus on output or profit measures. Research
in incentives has analyzed these changes under the rubric of subjectivity. Using
case studies of three financial institutions, various forms of bonus pay are
examined, particularly those that employ subjective performance measures.
Specific environments where subjective bonuses will work to enhance performance
outcomes are also delineated.
Book Review-Organization Development: Principles, Process, Performance
by Gary N. McLean
reviewed by Shane K. DeMars
Executive Summaries
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