In order to face the challenge of effective organizational learning in our public policies, we need to address three pressing questions: 1. How does learning work in our public organizations? 2. What promising practices can we implement to advance learning in public organizations? 3. What changes in public management are required to combine learning with the growing demands of performance and accountability? This book is an attempt to address those questions in a systematic and empirical manner. The answers presented in this volume are the result of a four-year empirical research project conducted in Polish ministries and study visits in public institutions of twelve countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

This open access volume provides insight into how organizations change through the adoption of digital technologies. Opportunities and challenges for individuals as well as the organization are addressed. It features four major themes: 1. Current research exploring the theoretical underpinnings of digital transformation of organizations. 2. Insights into available digital technologies as well as organizational requirements for technology adoption. 3. Issues and challenges for designing and implementing digital transformation in learning organizations. 4. Case studies, empirical research findings, and examples from organizations which successfully adopted digital workplace learning.

Just after 9:00 a.m. on February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart and was lost over Texas. This tragic event led, as the Challenger accident had 17 years earlier, to an intensive government investigation of the technological and organizational causes of the accident. The investigation found chilling similarities between the two accidents, leading the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to conclude that NASA failed to learn from its earlier tragedy. Despite the frequency with which organizations are encouraged to adopt learning practices, organizational learning—especially in public organizations—is not well understood and deserves to be studied in more detail. This book fills that gap with a thorough examination of NASA’s loss of the two shuttles. After offering an account of the processes that constitute organizational learning, Julianne G. Mahler focuses on what NASA did to address problems revealed by Challenger and its uneven efforts to institutionalize its own findings. She also suggests factors overlooked by both accident commissions and proposes broadly applicable hypotheses about learning in public organizations.

Calls for performance measures and metrics sound good, but public sector organizations often lack the tools required to assess the organization as a whole and create true change.In order to implement an integrated cycle of assessment, planning, and improvement, government agencies at all levels need a usable framework for organizational assessment that speaks to their unique needs. Organizational Assessment and Improvement in the Public Sector provides that framework, an understanding of assessment itself, and a methodology for assessment focused on the public sector. The book introduces the concept of organizational assessment, its importance, and its significance in public sector organizations. It addresses the organizational theory that underlies assessment, including change management, organizational and individual learning, and organizational development. Building on this, the author focuses on the processes and demonstrates how the communication that results from an assessment process can create a widely accepted case for change. She presents a model grounded in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program criteria but adapted for the culture of government organizations. She also addresses the criteria that form the basis for assessment and implementation and provides examples and best practices. Facing decreasing budgets and an increasing demand for services, government agencies must increase their capabilities, maximize their available fiscal and human resources, and increase their effectiveness and efficiency. They often operate in an atmosphere that prizes effectiveness but measures it in silos assigned to individual programs and a structure that encourages people to do more with less while systematically discouraging efficiency. Stressing the significant and important differences between a business and a government, this book supplies the knowledge and tools necessary to create a culture of assessment in government organizations at all levels.

`A valuable resource for academics and practitioners in management and corporate strategy, as well as those involved in mangement training and development' - European Foundation for Management Development 'The editors' overall assessment is that there has been insufficient dialogue between the two camps of action research and theorizing.... As a contribution to mapping this divided house, the text is an apt illustration of these problems. The editor's overview is of interest...' - Stephen Gibb, University of Strathclyde, MCB University Press The debates surrounding concepts of `organizational learning' and the `learning organization' receive a welcome synthezis in this book. Inte

Institute a culture of learning to boost organizational performance and agility What makes organizations successful? Today, most successful companies are learning organizations. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to join their ranks and bring your organization up to the head of the class. This book is a practical, actionable guide on how to boost performance, successfully manage change, and innovate more quickly. Learning organizations are composed of engaged, motivated employees who continually seek improvement, which leads to organizational agility and the ability to innovate ahead of the curve. When you encourage learning at every level, from the intern to the C suite, you gain a more highly skilled workforce with a greater ability to act in any situation. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to create this culture in your organization, with detailed explanations, practical examples, and step-by-step instructions so you can get started right away. Written by a recognized thought leader in the training industry, this informative and insightful guide is your roadmap to a more effective organization. You will discover how to: Attract, retain, and motivate the best employees Become a more innovative and agile organization Create a culture of continuous self-improvement Encourage learning at all levels and translate it into action Learning and education doesn't end at graduation—it's a lifelong process that keeps you relevant, informed, and better able to achieve your goals. These same benefits apply at the organizational level, making the culture self-sustaining: learning organizations attract top workers, who drive the organization forward, which attracts more top workers. If you want the best people, you have to be their best option. Building an Innovative Learning Organization gives you a blueprint for building a culture of learning, for a stronger, more robust organization.

In Changing Bureaucracies, international experts provide an unparalleled look at how public sector bureaucracies can better adapt to the reality of unprecedented levels of uncertainty and complexity, and how they can better respond to the emerging needs and demands of citizens and beneficiaries. In particular, they discuss in detail how evaluation can play an important role in aiding bureaucracies in adapting, while noting that the value of evaluation is not at all automatic. Written in a clear and accessible prose, the contributors identify stability as a strength of bureaucratic structures, although adaptability is required in order to remain relevant. They also emphasize the need for bureaucratic rules and practices to be open to examination, such as through evaluation, noting that these rules may take on a life of their own, increasing distrust and conflicting with a meaningful focus on how outcomes and impacts benefit citizens. The book concludes with guidance for both evaluators and for public sector leaders about steps that they can take to improve the responsiveness and relevance of public sector organizations. Pioneering the provision of reflections on how evaluation can play an important role in aiding bureaucracies in adapting, Changing Bureaucracies is an important acquisition for public sector leaders, evaluators, evaluation managers and commissioners and academics alike.

Written by a team of highly respected authorities on management and organizational behaviour, this core textbook is grounded in an extensive body of international research and analysis that demonstrates that knowledge work depends primarily on the behaviours, attitudes and motivations of those who undertake and manage it and not simply on the implementation of information systems technology. Throughout the book, engaging case studies and role plays demonstrate the range of perspectives that can be applied to knowledge work, and the organisational conditions under which it can be managed effectively. This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students on modules covering Knowledge Management, and ideal for modules in Human Resource Management and Organisational Studies. New to this Edition: - Updated case studies based on the latest research and with international reach - Enhanced learning and teaching tools to help students understand important concepts - A new companion website with lecturer resources

With a focus on a broad spectrum of topics--race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and sexual orientation at the federal, tribal, state, and local levels--this book equips readers to better understand the complex, real-world challenges public administrators confront in serving an increasingly diverse society. The book's main themes include: What is cultural competency and why is it important? Building culturally competent public agencies; Culturally competent public policy; Building culturally competent public servants; How do agencies assess their cultural competency and what is enough? PA scholars will appreciate the attention given to the role of cultural competency in program accreditation, and to educational approaches to deliver essential instruction on this important topic. Practitioners will value the array of examples that reflect many of the common trade offs public administrators face when trying to deliver comprehensive programs and services within a context of fiscal realities.

This enlightening book scrutinizes the shifting governance paradigms that inform public administration reforms. From the rise to supremacy of New Public Management to new the growing preference for alternatives, four world-renowned authors launch a powerful and systematic comparison of the competing and co-existing paradigms, explaining the core features of public bureaucracy and professional rule in the modern day.