Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations or Improving Organizational Performance

Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations

Author: Hallie Preskill

How does evaluative inquiry contribute to your organizational learning? How do you practice evaluative inquiry to maximize individual and team learning? Offering you a way of thinking about and conducting evaluative inquiry in every kind of organization, Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations provides a data-based approach to organizational learning and change. By focusing on the use of evaluative inquiry processes within organizations rather than across large-scale, multisite programs, authors Hallie Preskill and Rosalie T. Torres are able to bridge the gap between what research "says" about individual, team, and organizational learning and what it "says" about evaluation. The authors lay the foundation and context for evaluative inquiry by including:

- How organizations are changing.

- What it means to learn at the individual, team, and organizational levels.

- The four learning processes that facilitate evaluative inquiry.

Through the use of an illustrative case, the authors guide you through the three phases of evaluative inquiry - from focusing the inquiry to developing action plans. Also included are interviews from four different organizations: Land O'Lakes, Colorado Department of Education, Ford Motor Company, and Presbyterian Hospital and Healthcare Services. These interviews allow you to "hear" how participants perceived and experienced these procedures. This exciting volume concludes with additional considerations when practicing evaluative inquiry, including an exploration of the evaluator's role and challenges to implementing evaluative inquiry in today's organizations.

Writtenfor evaluators, managers, consultants, and trainers, Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations shows you how to integrate evaluative inquiry into your organization's work processes so that its members are better able to make their organizations successful.

 

Booknews

Provides a data-based approach to organizational learning and change, focusing on the use of evaluative inquiry processes within the organization rather than across large-scale, multisite programs. Illustrative cases demonstrate three phases of evaluative inquiry, from focusing the inquiry to developing action plans. Interviews with managers at four different types of organizations reveal how participants experienced these procedures. For evaluators, managers, consultants, and trainers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Table of Contents:

	List of Strategies, Exhibits, and Figures
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction
1	Evaluative Inquiry and Organizational Change	1
2	Learning in Organizations	17
3	Evaluative Inquiry Learning Processes	51
4	Focusing the Evaluative Inquiry	71
5	Carrying Out the Inquiry	97
6	Applying Learning	131
7	Building the Infrastructure for Evaluative Inquiry	153
8	The Practice of Evaluative Inquiry	183
	Questions for Facilitating Evaluative Inquiry	193
	References	201
	Index	211
	About the Authors	217

Book about: The Move to Community Policing or The Business Case for Enterprise Class Wireless LANs

Improving Organizational Performance: A Practical Guidebook for the Human Services Field

Author: Gary V Sluyter

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.

Booknews

Provides a basic reference and field guide for managers of mental health, human services, and social service organizations. Includes basic theory as well as practical information: specific procedures for implementing quality practices, examples from the field, and a case study to help organizations learn the quality improvement team process. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.