Business Commons^™

Effective Communication In The Performance Appraisal Interview: Face-To-Face Communication For Public Managers In The Culturally Diverse Workplace, John F. Kikoski

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

A study restates and then extends a thesis about the performance appraisal process first published almost 15 years ago - that the public manager's performance in the face-to-face encounter of the appraisal interview itself is the Achilles' heel of the entire process. This 1983 article held that many public managers experience discomfort approaching the actual performance appraisal interview and difficulty in conducting it. They are usually untrained and may even be unaware of the scholarly work that has identified the skills that make for more effective face-to-face communication. The 1983 article also presented 6 specific microcommunication skills to help public …

Redefining Loyalty: Motivational Strategies And Employee Loyalty In An Era Of Downsizing, Sandra Obilade

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Retaining employee loyalty after restructuring is a problem for all types of businesses. The major issue concerns how management and employees can establish a new, mutually acceptable "psychological contract" which ensures employee loyalty but not lifelong employment. Eighteen small businesses in Fairfield County, Connecticut were surveyed to investigate loyalty and motivation after downsizing. A significant correlation was found between loyalty and motivation. Furthermore, several motivational techniques employed were inconsistent with employee needs. Suggestions are offered on how to retain employee loyalty.

The Changing Context Of Practice, Stephen M. Brown

WCBT Faculty Publications

Environmental and organizational changes are putting new demands on training. Training must change to support new organizational structures within a complex and changing business and social environment.

Evaluation of training must be multilevel, customer focused, and support continuous improvement of training.The challenge is to provide meaningful data that enables assessment of customer satisfaction, business impact, and return on investment.

The Organizational Action Research Model, Morton Elfenbein, Stephen M. Brown, Kim H. Knight

WCBT Faculty Publications

This chapter proposes a paradigm, which empowers practitioners to practice research to meet their needs and to advance the profession to which they belong. It proposes the integration of practitioner and researcher role as an alternative to the fragmented model that currently exists. In doing so, it draws much from the past tradition of the action researchers as well as the science approach espoused by others. In this way, the needs of individual managers to evaluate their espoused theories and their theories-in-use can be undertaken so that their organizations can function more realistically and can respond more effectively to the …