Creating and managing a vanguard organization: design and human resource lessons from Jossey-Bass

Article Abstract:

Jossey-Bass Inc. has developed a unique organizational structure to deal with the problems that businesses encounter in an increasingly information-based and constantly changing society. Called the holonomic shamrock, the firm's structure is limited to a core of professionals who are organized into autonomous, self-directed teams based on publication areas. Being project-focused, all teams are concerned with the same functions of producing, forming, editing, financing, marketing and leading. Top management is also organized as a team with each executive heading an area and acting as designer, steward and educator simultaneously. In contrast, all peripheral or support services are contracted out. Such a set-up provides an unconventional solution to management problems wherein subordination, values, competence and quality override supervision, rules, function and profits.

author: Lundberg, Craig C.
Book publishing, Publishing industry, Management, Business enterprises, Jossey-Bass Inc.

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Human resource management practices to improve quality: a case example of human resource management intervention in government

Article Abstract:

The quality approach to government management is demonstrated in Project Pacer Share (PPS), the application of total quality management (TQM) principles at the McClellan Air Force Base, Sacramento, CA. Under PPS, the following changes were implemented: job consolidation, salary grading, profit-sharing, modified promotion criteria, elimination of probations for and increased mobility of new hirees, and the removal of annual performance reviews. The project resulted in increased productivity, cost and supervision reduction, improvements in relations among employees and with management, upgrading of staff skills and workplace conditions, and national recognition for quality development. The study provided insights on how to implement and train personnel on the use of TQM, especially for purposes of reforming the US Civil Service System.

author: Gilbert, G. Ronald
Innovations, Civil service, Organizational effectiveness, McClellan Air Force Base, California

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Fostering and facilitating entrepreneurship in organizations: implications for organization structure and human resource management practices

Article Abstract:

To understand how human resource management activities support and encourage entrepreneurship within a corporate environment (also known as "intrapreneurship"), and how the organizational structure itself figures prominently in successful corporate entrepreneurship efforts, the concept of entrepreneurism must first be understood. Entrepreneurism is the process by which innovation is practiced throughout the organization, by meeting the necessary administrative challenge, and this is accomplished through structural and human resource practices. These practices are reviewed, and their implications are described.

author: Schuler, Randall S.
Usage, Employee motivation, Organizational change, Entrepreneurship

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subjects list: Methods, Human resource management
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