Browsing by Subject "Organizational learning"
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Analysis of the relationship between data use and organizational learning from teacher perspectives(2011-05) Ka, Shin-Hyun; Reyes, Pedro, 1954-; Wayman, Jeffrey C.; Heilig, Julian V.; Woolley, Jacqueline D.; Clark, Charles T.This study was conducted to explorer the relationships between teachers’ perceptions of educational data use, their school’s capacity as a learning organization, and the performance of students at their school. This study employed a quantitative research design featuring a Web-based online survey and collected data from a stratified random sample of 112 middle schools and junior high schools nested in nine school districts in Texas. I used the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (Watkins & Marsick, 1993, 1996) to measure the schools’ capacity as a learning organizations and the Survey of Educator Data Use (Wayman, Cho, & Shaw, 2009b) to measure teachers’ educational data use. I also used the student performance data provided by Texas Education Agency. For the data analysis, I employed the statistical techniques of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM). I found that educational data use and support did relate to the schools’ organizational learning capacity, and that this dynamic acts as an important factor in enhancing campus performance. This finding gives a clear indication that data use and support has an indirect effect on campus performance, and that this effect is mediated by organizational learning. This research is significant in that it reveals that organizational learning worked as a crucial mediating variable in enhancing student achievement through effective use of data. This finding can give meaningful direction to the pursuit of school improvement through data use in school sites, a practice that began as simple top-down policy implementation.Item Assessment of CII knowledge implementation at the organizational level(2002) Kim, Sang Bum; Gibson, G. Edward (George Edward), 1958-The construction industry has become increasingly more competitive and organizations need to continuously improve in order to remain successful. One way of improving organizations is implementing knowledge or existing research products typically developed by various universities and research institutes such as the Construction Industry Institute (CII). Although there are valuable research products available which have tremendous potential to improve construction project performance as well as the organization’s business processes, many of them have not been implemented to a significant extent on real world projects (CII, 1995). Despite the importance of the implementation effort, there is little research focused on the implementation of existing research products or methods of measuring the degree of the implementation effort. The traditional philosophy of construction management places great emphasis on the ability to plan and execute individual projects (Chinowsky, 2000). In contrast, a similar emphasis on the overall ability of an organization is many times lacking in the construction industry. This dissertation focuses on assessing a construction organization’s implementation effort at organizational level using construction-related knowledge that CII has developed. A survey questionnaire was developed based on the information gathered from literature and inputs from industry participants to evaluate organizational implementation status. The survey was validated through two pilot tests and the finalized questionnaire was distributed to 88 CII member organizations including both owner and contractor companies. The data collected from surveys were analyzed by using independentsamples t tests, ANOVA, and reliability tests. Based on the survey data, the CII Knowledge Implementation Index (CKII) was developed to quantify the level of organizational implementation status. Evaluation of the CKII against other implementation indicators, such as project use indices, verified that the CKII is consistent with other related measures. The level of the CII Best Practice implementation was also evaluated in terms of the frequency and intensity. A significant and positive relationship was found between the CKII and project performance as measured in various performance variables. Research procedures, conclusions, and recommendations for industry and for future research are also discussed in this dissertation.Item Community and the college classroom: an exploration of teacher, student, and classroom variables(2006) Salazar, Tammy Tomberlin; Weinstein, Claire Ellen; Svinicki, Marilla D., 1946-Currently, many colleges and universities are embracing learning communities as a way of addressing the problems of student retention and academic achievement (Chesebro, Green, Mino, Snider, & Venable, 1999). Current research on learning communities indicates that students who participate in a learning community have greater motivation, strategy use, involvement, interactions with other students and with faculty, and academic achievement than those students who are not part of a learning community (Gabelnick, MacGregor, Matthews, & Smith, 1992; Tinto and Goodsell, 1993; Tinto, 1997; Heller, 1998; Chesebro, Green, Mino, Snider, & Venable, 1999; Pike, 1999; Stefanau & Salisbury‐Glennon, 2002). The primary definition of a learning community used in past research is one that exists outside the classroom setting. There has not been sufficient empirical research on a community of learners inside the classroom. This study was designed to understand teacher, classroom, and students variables that play a part in classroom community. The course that was examined in the present study, EDP 310: Individual Learning Skills, meets the criteria for a learning community, in that it contains a small number of students (maximum of 28), promotes active and collaborative learning and knowledge construction, enables students to interact with other students as well as the instructors of the course, ties in different areas of study, and enables instructors to work together to plan and implement classroom activities that promote meaningful learning. Both quantitative instruments and qualitative examination was used. The results showed that students’ satisfaction with their teacher was the biggest predictor of classroom community measured at mid‐semester and that it was the combination of teacher (students’ satisfaction with the teacher), classroom (students’ satisfaction with the course) and student (motivation) variables that was the biggest predictor of classroom community measured at the end of the semester. Overall, the instructor had the most significant impact on classroom community.Item Learning and corporate evolution: a longitudinal study of how product-market relatedness and environmental relatedness impact firm scope(2003) Lampert, Curba Morris; Ahuja, Gautam; Huber, George P.I examine corporate evolution, i.e. how a firm changes its scope through diversification into new businesses and exits from existing ones and what it learns from this process. I analyze the type of scope experience acquired by the firm, and suggest that the firm’s scope decisions entail two types of learning, product-market learning and environmental learning, that have distinct effects on the firm’s future scope choices. I suggest that by failing to account for environmental differences and focusing too closely on product-market relatedness, firms may be misled into presuming that potential new businesses are much closer to their existing businesses than they truly are. I use longitudinal data on the Fortune 250 firms to test these arguments and show that ignoring environmental relatedness may be one explanation for an unanswered riddle in the strategy literature: why does related diversification fail?Item Machina ex deos. Successes and challenges of implementing mobile computing technologies for development. The experience of nine Indian village health projects using a project-issued mobile application(2016-05) Schwartz, Ariel, Ph. D.; Weaver, Catherine, 1971-; Densmore, Melissa; Heinrich, Carolyn; Lentz, Erin; Ward, PeterAs mobile computing technologies become increasingly functional and affordable, global donor and local development organizations find ways to justify and fund their use in grassroots development work. This dissertation asks two questions: (1) In resource-constrained social sector settings, what project features govern and structure use of work-issued mobile devices? And: (2) How do decision-makers adjust to maximize the benefit of newly-introduced devices while minimizing new burdens to the project and project staff? More simply, what variables under social sector projects’ control might promote successful use of information and communication technologies in development (ICTD) projects? This research represents systematic, qualitative comparison of nine extended deployments of a popular mobile health application, CommCare. Each studied project deployed devices loaded with CommCare to health workers in India as a supportive job aid and/or a data collection tool to help monitor beneficiary populations’ health status and frontline workers’ work. This dissertation examines the conditions under which these health workers were able and willing to use CommCare devices in their jobs, and whether and how they deviated from the use of those devices prescribed by their supervisors. Primary data for this study come from 62 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, extensive review of project documents, and personal observations from field study in India over six months in 2013. Employing a sociotechnical lens and a principal agent model, my data support expectations that use of CommCare devices would help align community health workers’ behavior with their supervisors’ organization and mission-related priorities. Use of the devices improved health workers’ professional competence and improved communications, data quality, and data access. These improvements facilitated project supervisors’ monitoring of health workers and beneficiaries, and funders’ monitoring of projects. Contradicting expectations, use of CommCare devices also weakened organizational oversight and control through new data challenges and increased health worker autonomy in their personal and professional lives. These dual benefits and challenges ultimately served the overall projects’ missions.