This practical hands-on tool kit for managers demonstrates when, where, and how to implement significant organizational change through teamwork. The use of self-managed, cross-functional, benchmarking, and outside linking teams by high-performance firms is employed in a case study format.

Total quality management (TQM), reengineering, the workplace of the twenty-first centuryâ€"the 1990s have brought a sense of urgency to organizations to change or face stagnation and decline, according to Enhancing Organizational Performance. Organizations are adopting popular management techniques, some scientific, some faddish, often without introducing them properly or adequately measuring the outcome. Enhancing Organizational Performance reviews the most popular current approaches to organizational changeâ€"total quality management, reengineering, and downsizingâ€"in terms of how they affect organizations and people, how performance improvements can be measured, and what questions remain to be answered by researchers. The committee explores how theory, doctrine, accepted wisdom, and personal experience have all served as sources for organization design. Alternative organization structures such as teams, specialist networks, associations, and virtual organizations are examined. Enhancing Organizational Performance looks at the influence of the organization's norms, values, and beliefsâ€"its cultureâ€"on people and their performance, identifying cultural "levers" available to organization leaders. And what is leadership? The committee sorts through a wealth of research to identify behaviors and skills related to leadership effectiveness. The volume examines techniques for developing these skills and suggests new competencies that will become required with globalization and other trends. Mergers, networks, alliances, coalitionsâ€"organizations are increasingly turning to new intra- and inter-organizational structures. Enhancing Organizational Performance discusses how organizations cooperate to maximize outcomes. The committee explores the changing missions of the U.S. Army as a case study that has relevance to any organization. Noting that a musical greeting card contains more computing power than existed in the entire world before 1950, the committee addresses the impact of new technologies on performance. With examples, insights, and practical criteria, Enhancing Organizational Performance clarifies the nature of organizations and the prospects for performance improvement. This book will be important to corporate leaders, executives, and managers; faculty and students in organizational performance and the social sciences; business journalists; researchers; and interested individuals.

A practical guide to recently developed management principles, Improving Organizational Performance takes the reader beyond the basics of the TQM fad to the core concepts that undergird it. The book provides a basic reference and field guide for mental health service organizations that are interested in learning about and applying sound management principles. In addition to basic theory, it presents procedures for putting quality practices in place, using examples from the field to illuminate points, and including a complete case study to help organizations learn the quality improvement team process. Improving Organizational Performance is an effective tool for improving performance for managers in mental health, human services, and social services.

The secret of achieving and sustaining organizational excellence revealed In an ever-changing world where only a third of excellent organizations stay that way over the long term, and where even fewer are able to implement successful change programs, leaders are in need of big ideas and new tools to thrive. In Beyond Performance, McKinsey & Company's Scott Keller and Colin Price give you everything you need to build an organization that can execute in the short run and has the vitality to prosper over the long term. Drawing on the most exhaustive research effort of its kind on organizational effectiveness and change management, Keller and Price put hard science behind their big idea: that the health of an organization is equally as important as its performance. In the book's foreword, management guru Gary Hamel refers to this notion as "a new manifesto for thinking about organizations." The authors illustrate why copying management best practices from other companies is more dangerous than helpful Clearly explains how to determine the mutually reinforcing combination of management practices that best fits your organization's context Provides practical tools to achieve superior levels of performance and health through a staged change process: aspire, assess, architect, act, and advance. Among these are new techniques for dealing with those aspects of human behavior that are seemingly irrational (and therefore confound even the smartest leaders), yet entirely predictable Ultimately, building a healthy organization is an intangible asset that competitors copy at their peril and that enables you to skillfully adapt to and shape your environment faster than others—giving you the ultimate competitive advantage.

Our world changes faster today than at any time in the history of mankind. Organizations, like living breathing organisms, must learn to adapt to changes in the environment in which each operates. It is generally held today, by those who study organizations, that those who fail to adapt to seemingly unending change are certainly doomed but those able to adapt to constant change tend to thrive. The purpose of this book is to describe the leadership required to successfully implement continuous process improvement in organizations. The author begins the journey with a discussion of organizational culture as he sets out to describe how leaders develop a culture where continuous improvement can thrive. The challenges of organizational change faced by all leaders who strive to take advantage of the benefits of continuous process improvement is discussed, as well as what leaders must do to make change stick. The goal is to provide a description of the leadership necessary to make continuous process improvement a reality in any organization.

This book presents the Cube One framework, which provides a basis for understanding, diagnosing, and improving organizational performance. It is based on the premise that successful organizations enact practices that satisfy three key constituents: the enterprise itself, customers, and employees. This book offers a uniquely empirical approach by examining enterprise-, customer-, and employee-directed practices. Validity evidence is provided by survey research, studies of financial metrics, and the analysis of cases involving well-known organizations (such as Google, Four Seasons, and Mayo Clinic). The Cube One framework is equally applicable to organizations in the for-profit, nonprofit, and government sectors. After reading this book, students and scholars, as well as organizational practitioners in the fields of organizational behavior and management, will find a practical approach to improving organizational performance.

Improving Performance in Service Organizations guides professionals through the application of lean concepts and methods in the service sector. Agencies can use this innovative approach to analyze operations and determine ways to eliminate activities that are wasteful and add no value to the services delivered. Service organizations that undergo a lean transformation optimize the use of time and money associated with operations and ensure that scarce resources are allocated to the activities that produce the greatest value for clients served. Using a lean lens within the context of the organization's goals and mission taps into the latent energy and innovative ideas of personnel and releases resources trapped in a vicious cycle of wasted work efforts. By applying the lean concepts, methods, and tools introduced in this book and creating a culture of continuous improvement, service organizations can increase effectiveness and improve accountability for the funding they receive. This book is also well suited for academic courses in quality improvement/business operations management in business and/or social service programs.