Improving Organizational Problem Solving in a School Faculty

Abstract

The intervention detailed here was aimed at improving the flexible organizational problem solving of a junior high school faculty. It was pointed toward organizational development, not personal change. Even though the emotional reactions of faculty members were considered in designing the training events, our intervention remained fixed on organizational roles and norms and their interrelationships. We hoped to learn whether improved organizational functioning could be produced in a faculty by integrating group training in communication and problem solving with the normal business of the school. We began our intervention just prior to the academic year and returned intermittently until February. Data evaluating the effects of the intervention support the claim that a number of salutary outcomes were at least partly due to the intervention. Movement in favorable directions occurred in a number of concrete, observable organizational changes, in verbally expressed attitudes about the principal and staff meetings, in the kinds of innovations reported, and in the changing organizational norms of the faculty. Strengths and weaknesses of the intervention are discussed.

Organization Development Techniques: Their Impact on Change

“…Bragg and Andrews (1973) also reported improved morale and climate, increased productivity, and reduced absenteeism subsequent to an eighteen-month team-building program in a hospital laundry group. Schmuck et al (1969) attempted to build a team consisting of the staff, faculty, and administration of a junior high school over a six-month time period. Changes reported as a result of the team-building effort included improved climate and morale, reduced turnover, and improved performance quality, as measured by behavioral changes reflecting OD values and norms; e.g., the faculty reported using techniques learned in the team-building sessions (such as the &dquo;fish bowl&dquo;) in their classrooms as conflict-reducing mechanisms.…”

A novel approach for the design of context-aware services for social inclusion and education

“…The class life should embody democracy, not only in the way students learn to make choices to carry out academic group projects, but also in the way they relate each other. Thanks to this approach, students learn the observation of rules, the respect to the other, and to solve problems together" [64]. Learning in a group is not only effective from the cognitive point, but also realises positive socio-relational processes: the increase of self-esteem, the sense of responsibility, social skills, the sense of collaboration with others to achieve a common goal, the sense of belonging and interdependence within the group.…”

Organizational and systems theory: An integrated review.

“…The consultant is seen as a key contributor to OD program planning, especially in achieving an integration of the most relevant techniques during the course of the change effort. Beer and Huse, (1972);Schmuck, Runkel and Langmeyer (1969); Dyal and Thomas (1968);and Waters (1968) reported on the theoretical and research " implications of integrated OD approaches. Porter et al (1975) viewed organizational change as a multidimensional phenomenon, thus .…”