External management of curriculum change

At a time of rapid curriculum reform, some schools are turning to external change agents for assistance, but what's the best way to initiate such an approach?

Human resource management and innovation: what are knowledge-intensive firms doing?

An undeniable shift in focus from traditional production companies to Knowledge-Intensive Firms (KIFs) poses challenges for academics and practioners alike. In particular, effective management of an organization's human resources has become a critical issue for ensuring sustained innovation capacity. The relationship between Human Resource Management (HRM) in KIFs is however still a largely unexplored arena. The objective of this paper is to explore this relationship in an effort to identify HRM practices that support innovation. To this end, the paper includes reviews of the literature relevant to HRM and innovation in KIFs and four case studies from companies in Denmark and Australia that have been recognized for excellence in innovation. On the basis of content analyses conducted on the case data, some preliminary conclusions are posited regarding the role of HRM in KIFs. More specifically, the findings from this study suggest that while there are commonalities between HRM practices in traditional manufacturing companies and KIFs, there are also important differences, especially in terms of staffing practices. The paper contributes by offering recommendations for management of HRM in innovative KIFs and potential avenues for research to further develop our understanding of how HRM can support innovation in KIFs.

Encouraging Generosity: The Practice and organization of Fundraising Across Nations

The international collaboration in this book creates a unique opportunity to establish, discuss and draw conclusions about fundraising across nations. Based on the 26-country dataset provided by the authors in this volume, this chapter describes and analyzes for the first time the diverse fundraising environments around the world that are shaped by different historical, cultural, social, religious, political and economic conditions. It begins by noting the lack of research on fundraisers and fundraising in contrast to the extensive studies undertaken of donors, and argues that the demand side of charitable transactions is worthy of greater attention if a complete and dynamic understanding of giving is to be achieved. It then presents and discusses key themes related to fundraising in the countries represented in this book. A typology is suggested to impose order on the huge variety of fundraising approaches and stages of development in the organization of this activity around the world; this typology also strengthens understanding of the connection between asking and giving. After offering suggestions for future research in this area of study, the chapter ends by noting that despite global differences in the evolution of fundraising as a profession and the diversity of current contexts, fundraisers in every country face shared challenges that would benefit from greater exchange of knowledge and best practices.

The necessary alignment between technology innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness

Organisations are increasingly investing in complex technological innovations such as enterprise information systems with the aim of improving the operations of the business, and in this way gaining competitive advantage. However, the implementation of technological innovations tends to have an excessive focus on either technology innovation effectiveness (also known as system effectiveness), or the resulting operational effectiveness; focusing on either one of them is detrimental to the long-term enterprise benefits through failure to achieve the real value of technological innovations. The lack of research on the dimensions and performance objectives that organisations must be focusing on is the main reason for this misalignment. This research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative, three-stage methodological approach. Initial findings suggest that factors such as quality of information from technology innovation effectiveness, and quality and speed from operational effectiveness are important and significantly well correlated factors that promote the alignment between technology innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness.

Management, organisation, and ethics in the public sector

Since the 1980s, in Australia and other developed nations, public sector management philosophies and how the public sector is organized have changed dramatically. At the same time, there have been many demands, and several attempts, to preserve and promote ethical behaviour within the public sector - though few go much beyond the publication of a code. Both developments require an understanding of how public organizations operate in this new environment. Organizational and management theory are seen as providing important potential insights into the opportunities and pitfalls for building ethics into the practices, culture and norms of public organizations. This book brings together the experience and research of a range of "reflective practitioners" and "engaged academics" in public sector management, organizational theory, management theory, public sector ethics and law. It addresses what management and organization theory might suggest about the nature of public organizations and the institutionalization of ethics.

Report on relationship management and culture change

Brisbane Water (BW), a commercialised business arm of Brisbane City Council (BCC) entered into an alliance with a number of organisations from the private sector in order to design, construct, commission and undertake upgrades to three existing wastewater treatment plants located at Sandgate, Oxley Creek, and Wacol in Brisbane. The alliance project is called the Brisbane Water Environmental Alliance (BWEA). This report details the efforts of a team of researchers from the School of Management at Queensland University of Technology to investigate this alliance. This is the second report on this project, and is called Stage 2 of the research. At the time that Stage 2 of the research project was conducted, the BWEA project was nearing completion with a further 8 months remaining before project completion. The aim of this report is to explore individuals’ perceptions of the effectiveness and functioning of the BWEA project in the latter stages of the project. The second aim of this report is to analyse the longitudinal findings of this research project by integrating the findings from Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the project. This long-term analysis of the functioning and effectiveness of the alliance is important because at the current time, researchers have little knowledge of the group developmental processes that occur in large-scale alliances over time. Stage 2 of this research project has a number of aims including assessing performance of the BWEA project from the point of view of a range of stakeholders including the alliance board and alliance management team, alliance staff, and key stakeholders from the client organisation (Brisbane Water). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 18 individuals including two board members, one external facilitator, and four staff members from the client organisation. Analysis involved coding the interview transcripts in terms of the major issues that were reported by interviewees.