Archive for category Managing and Organizations

The Tyranny of Middle Class Values and How Some Think About Work

Posted by Robert Bacal in Managing and Organizations, Training and Consulting Business, human resources, organizational development on April 13, 2010

I wrote on the human resources discussion list, a short piece that was stimulated by one consultant’s praise for the employment engagement concept, one that, by the way, I abhore for a number of reasons.
The gist is that pretty much all the fads that get popular — employee engagement, autonomy, TQM, etc are based on [...]

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Dr. Russell Ackoff On Systems Thinking (Videos)

Posted by Robert Bacal in Managing and Organizations, Videos of Note, organizational development on March 11, 2010

Dr. Russell Ackoff is considered by many to be the father of systems thinking. Definitely worth getting into and understanding. Here are some videos of him speaking. We’ve posted the series so you don’t have to hunt them all down.
1) Systems Thinking – Part I

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How DARE He Pan My Perfect Phrases Book!

Posted by Robert Bacal in Managing and Organizations, Performance Management and Appraisal, Robert's Editorials, human resources on February 17, 2010

I don’t know this guy. I do know that on April 1, 2009,  (that IS April Fools Day) Tom Roche wrote what would have been a scathing review of my book, Perfect Phrases For Performance Reviews, if only he had actually read the book. I have to admit dismay and amusement at people who can’t [...]

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Strategic Management For Senior Leaders: Free Book – A Handbook for Implementation

Posted by Robert Bacal in FREE!, Managing and Organizations on February 17, 2010

Free stuff always excites me and here’s a free full length book available to read online out of the U.S. Navy Total Quality Management Department. on managing in a strategic way. It’s a little awkward to read online but I believe you can download it free provided you register with them. I’d be interested in [...]

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Do you want to have a radio show on organizational development?

Posted by Robert Bacal in Managing and Organizations, Training and Consulting Business on February 4, 2010

Got a phone call out of the blue asking me if I was interested in hosting a regular radio show (I think it’s a radio show) on org. development. While I would jump at the chance to do something like this if someone paid me enough, at this stage of my career, I’m not interested [...]

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Stories: How They Limit Us. How They Help Us Learn (Discussion)

Posted by Robert Bacal in Managing and Organizations, Research, Thought Jolts on February 4, 2010

About 6 years ago I started work on a book manuscript about the power of the stories we tell, both in terms of how they limit us, and how they can be used to help us learn. My interest at that time had to do with PERSONAL stories and how they embody our beliefs about [...]

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Employee Engagement – The Mad Fad of the 2000’s – A Poor Construct

Posted by Robert Bacal in Managing and Organizations, Performance Management and Appraisal, Research, Robert's Editorials, Site News, human resources on February 1, 2010

A colleague asked me where one could find criticisms of Employee Engagement, the buzzterm championed by marketplace monster, Gallup. There’s tons of stuff about it pushing it and making it appear to be as vital and important as…well, let’s see, Total Quality Management, Quality Circles, Employee Empowerment, and on and on.
There is very little PUBLICLY [...]

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Customer Engagement — Guess What? It’s Not About “You” (#trdev) Comments welcome

Posted by Robert Bacal in Managing and Organizations, Robert's Editorials, Training & Technology, adult education, marketing on August 31, 2009

Over the last decade the word “engagement” has been re-packaged, resold an remarketed so that it’s become a buzzword linked with organizational success (we must have engaged employees), customer relationships and social networking (we must be engaged with the customers”, and even, perhaps more sadly, in education. I say sadly because the meaning is unclear, [...]

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Organizational Culture and Institutional Transformation (Research)

Posted by Robert Bacal in Managing and Organizations, Research on August 24, 2009

During the past two decades higher education in America has attempted a number of reforms. Reform efforts are predicated on the assumption that proactive, intentional change efforts in colleges and universities can succeed despite the predilection for tradition and maintaining the existing culture. Culture proves to be a critical component in understanding the process of [...]

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The Learning Organization – In Depth Myths and Realities Series

Posted by Robert Bacal in Learning Theory To Practice, Managing and Organizations, Research, adult education on August 17, 2009

Myths and Realities by Sandra Kerka, 1995
The Learning Organization
At least since the 1990 publication of Senge’s The Fifth Discipline, the concept of the learning organization (LO) has been promoted as a way to restructure organizations to meet the challenges of the coming century. What are learning organizations-in theory and in practice? [...]

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