Academic libraries, pursuing excellence in their products and services, are a natural entity for total quality management (TQM). Basic TQM principles include making decisions based on objective data, respecting people and their ideas, empowering all library staff, focusing on the process, and doing the job correctly the first time, all to benefit…

Argues that, with shrinking budgets, academic libraries must obtain optimal performance from their human resources, requiring a larger investment in staff training and development. Discusses how strategic planning and changes in organizational structure to include greater staff participation in decision making can improve staff effectiveness. (16…

Examines how participation in decision making affects acceptance of planned change. Hypothesizes that participation influences tactical decisions whereas direction affects strategic decisions. Reports that 222 Israeli managers, completing a battery of psychological ability tests, were given the choice to change test type. Concludes that decision…

This paper describes present learning environments for students with mild disabilities, especially instructional practices that thwart student motivation for learning. The Foxfire experiential approach to learning is then outlined, through discussion of 11 core practices that promote student involvement in instructional decision making and the…

Describes school restructuring themes that may be promoted through staff development, including developing a purpose and shared vision, challenging traditional norms of schooling, creating a collaborative school culture, establishing new roles in school governance, and encouraging reflective practice and critical inquiry. Addresses the role of…

College administrators have an obligation to educate faculty and staff as consumers of retirement plan services. Employers can face liability if they limit plan participation to overly restrictive investment alternatives. A task force representing employees should be appointed to make vendor selections. (MSE)

Examines the process through which a high school principal learned to share power. The principal and teachers grappled with issues of shared governance, choice, and responsibility. Teacher and principal interviews indicated teacher empowerment and collegiality occurred as the principal enforced his vision of instructional improvement through…

The entire concept of shared decision making can be accommodated into collective bargaining if the parties involved begin by building trust and deal with matters outside of the contract. Community Consolidated School District No. 34 in Glenview, Illinois, has had apparent positive results in shared decision making. (MLF)

Discusses school-based management, explaining what PTAs need to be prepared for discussions about restructuring through school-based management. The article discusses origin of governance, school-based management councils, decision making, and parent-community involvement. (SM)

Advocates the Redfern Model of teacher evaluation, which involves the teacher in the evaluation process through goal setting and self-evaluation in cooperation with the evaluator. The Redfern Model can be combined with the Classroom Observations Keyed for Effectiveness Research (COKER) as an objective measurement of classroom performance. (KS)

Discusses Plenary Review, a policy decision process utilized in a series of experimental seminars. Emphasizes the use of students as decision makers to assess the social, economic, moral, political, and institutional consequences of implementation efforts in a public policy area. Recommends decision forcing and praises the multidimensional…

Unlike traditional school management, Toyota of America recognizes thinking employees and emphasizes problems and measurable approaches to improvement. Instead of meeting to discuss short-term goals, specific problems, and concrete successes, school leaders often alienate staff by leading year-end discussions of standardized test score data.…

Describes a principal's efforts to help staff restructure an Arizona junior high school's entire curriculum while struggling to achieve a successful transition to middle school status. The most traumatic change for staff involved a radical scheduling change from one-hour classes to two-hour time blocks with alternating subjects from quarter to…

Examines the principal's role in school restructuring using essential school precepts. Based on qualitative data from a 2.5-year longitudinal study, results indicate that principals must assume a more inclusive, prominent role in restructuring efforts. The Coalition of Essential Schools' metaphor "student as worker, teacher as coach"…

The article examines reasons for the decline in use of quality circles in higher education. A 1988 survey of eight universities and colleges using circles in 1986 found that because quality circle principles were violated, similar problems (such as inadequate training, problematic group membership, and exclusion of supervisors) were encountered at…