Departmental Objectives Research Articles

Assessing the Impact of In-Service Training on Staff Performance at University of Education, Winneba Campus, Ghana

In-Service training (INSET) is an important means through which staff are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to improve overall goals and departmental objectives. The extent to which INSET achieves or impacts on organisational and individual performance is often questioned. Winneba Winneba Campus. Using an open and closed questionnaire, views where solicited from the non-teaching staff on the effectiveness of the forms of training method/delivery; impact on task/job) and how it had enhanced job as well as career development of staff. Descriptive statistics was used in the analysis. The outcome was that training had an impact on staff performance in terms of knowledge and skills gained. It was recommended that more research is undertaken on all UEW campuses to add to both literature and knowledge of INSET. Keywords : Staff Performance, In-Service Training, Staff Development International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 3 (2) 2007 pp. 217-224

Assessing Knowledge of the Health Sciences through Case‐Study Presentations

In order to measure knowledge of the health sciences at Mercy College of Health Sciences in Des Moines, Iowa, a rubric was generated to validate the following sciences: anatomy, physiology and pharmacology (minimally required scientific courses for all degree programs). Three times during the semester, groups of 2–3 students were given a short clinical scenario in their Physiology course. The students had a two-week time frame to research, prepare and organize their presentations. The student presentations included an explanation of the diagnosis, the scientific understanding of mechanism concerning the etiology, symptoms and treatment of the pathophysiological condition. Since the presentations required a PowerPoint presentation, a minimum of a 5-minute speech and critical thinking, the presentation also facilitated 3 of the 6 Liberal Arts and Sciences departmental objectives (use of technology, effective speaking, and critical thinking). Peers and faculty were able to ask questions and challenge student thought processes. Peers in the class were required to take notes and learn from the presentation through a 10-point quiz assessment that followed the next week in class. The rubric was utilized to grade and assess the students. Each presentation was worth 5 points. Mercy College of Health Sciences had 95% of the students scoring 4 or 5 points. This was established as the benchmark for obtaining scientific knowledge of the health sciences at the associate degree level.

Learning to Design and Teach an Accounting Capstone

This paper describes the rationale, implementation issues, and our learning experiences in designing and teaching a senior accounting capstone course. A capstone course is usually a culminating academic experience that ties together all previous courses in an academic discipline and facilitates transition to a chosen career (Henscheid 2000). The rationale for our accounting capstone course is based on institutional and departmental objectives, as well as accounting education change initiatives. We review characteristics of capstone courses in undergraduate education, and discuss similarities to our course. We also address implementation issues with respect to course content, instructional methods, assignment of faculty, class size, and assessment. Finally, we describe course requirements and specific assignments from our accounting capstone course. Appendices include our course syllabus, and a comprehensive list of topics and readings.

Advancing Departmental Objectives through Assessment

Advancing Departmental Objectives through Assessment

Practitioner competency assessment and career ladders as a recruiting and retention tool.

The assessment of competency for respiratory care practitioners involves a thorough understanding of what defines competence, the development of a well-planned, continuous process that starts with new employee orientation, and a clearly communicated set of staff expectations. Career ladders are a tool that can be used to aid staff retention and recruitment, thereby reducing multiple costs associated with a high employee turnover rate, and to encourage professional development and accountability while achieving important departmental objectives.

Reengineering of the Laundry Service at a University Campus: A Continuous‐Improvement Quality‐Management Methodology

The Department of Auxiliary Services of the University of Miami had been the recipient of numerous anecdotal complaints by resident students regarding the service of the laundry system offered at the residential on‐campus dormitories (students often complained about nonworking and/or busy machines). In this paper we present a holistic systems approach that utilizes total quality management and quantitative decision‐making tools in a seamless fashion to improve the students' satisfaction and perception related to the laundry system. At the same time, other departmental important objectives, such as the implementation of an ongoing in‐house procedure that supports its continuous‐improvement program, are taken into account. Results that document the improved system performance are further presented.

Development and evaluation of an assignment heuristic for allocating cross-trained workers

An assignment heuristic is developed for allocating cross-trained workers to multiple departments at the beginning of a shift. The cross-trained workers may have different levels of qualification in different departments. With non-linear departmental objective functions and binary decision variables, the problem's formulation represents a variant of the generalized assignment problem, whose difficulty is well known. The new assignment heuristic is based on a linear assignment approximation that takes advantage of the special structure of the cross-utilization problem. It is shown that this assignment heuristic is superior to a classical Lagrangian heuristic and a simplistic Greedy approach. Experimental evaluations are facilitated by the development of a technique that provides tight bounds for the problem. Based on a standard measure of performance, assignment heuristic solutions average within 0.09% of upper bounds across a variety of problem characteristics.

The Citizen Police Academy: Measuring Outcomes

During the past two decades, many American police departments have developed Citizen Police Academies. These programs are intended to improve police-community relations, to educate the public, and to further the implementation of community policing strategies. Despite their widespread use, few efforts have been made to empirically evaluate Citizen Police Academies. This study examines the impact of one Citizen Police Academy program by surveying past program participants. The results show that although the Citizen Police Academy satisfied the department's objectives, the majority of participants entered the program with positive views of the agency. These findings are discussed in terms of the program's overall impact within the community.

Table of Contents

Abstract Articles RANDY L. SWING DEDICATED ASSESSMENT DAYS: MOBILIZING A CAMPUS'S EFFORTS TRUDY W. BANTA EDITOR'S NOTES DANIEL NELSON, KARI J. NELSON ENLISTING STUDENT AID IN ASSESSING DEPARTMENT OBJECTIVES JOHN BIGGS ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING: WHERE DID WE GO WRONG? Columns JUDITH A. OUIMET ASSESSMENT MEASURES PHIL SPEARY COMMUNITY COLLEGE STRATEGIES Feature CALENDAR

Facilitating those dreaded discussions on diversity, through threaded discussions: An inter‐institutional, internet‐based model

This article presents an inter‐institutional, Internet‐based model for promoting discussions about diversity among graduate students and faculty, developed collaboratively by Hampton University (Hampton, VA) ‐ predominately African American ‐ and Rockhurst University (Kansas City, MO) ‐ predominately Euro‐American. While these institutions are demographically and geographically different, their similarities in size, institutional missions, and departmental objectives facilitated the inter‐institutional development and delivery of the course. We present the rationale behind the development of the course, describe its content and format, and consider the benefits and risks of utilising the Internet to better prepare all students for living and working in a diverse society.

Judging surgical research: how should we evaluate performance and measure value?

To establish criteria to evaluate performance in surgical research, and to suggest strategies to optimize research in the future. Research is an integral component of the academic mission, focusing on important clinical problems, accounting for surgical advances, and providing training and mentoring for young surgeons. With constraints on healthcare resources, there is increasing pressure to generate clinical revenues at the expense of the time and effort devoted to surgical research. An approach that would assess the value of research would allow prioritization of projects. Further, alignment of high-priority research projects with clinical goals would optimize research gains and maximize the clinical enterprise. The authors reviewed performance criteria applied to industrial research and modified these criteria to apply to surgical research. They reviewed several programs that align research objectives with clinical goals. Performance criteria were categorized along several dimensions: internal measures (quality, productivity, innovation, learning, and development), customer satisfaction, market share, and financial indices (cost and profitability). A "report card" was proposed to allow the assessment of research in an individual department or division. The department's business strategy can no longer be divorced from its research strategy. Alignment between research and clinical goals will maximize the department's objectives but will create the need to modify existing hierarchical structures and reward systems. Such alignment appears to be the best way to ensure the success of surgical research in the future.

Training needs analysis for IT training

Without appropriately educating staff about new technologies and what they can do for them, businesses will go on incurring the cost of software implementation without exploiting the benefits. Tailored training solutions are almost universally offered these days, but do companies really know what they are getting? What do we mean by “tailored training” anyway? How is the content of the training determined and will it suit each of those to be trained? Key Training have pioneered the creation and development of an automated Training Needs Analysis (TNA 2000) a tool used to establish the organisational, departmental and individual objectives of those to be trained.

Managing Budget Conflicts: Contribution of Goal Interdependence and Interaction

AbstractManagers are confronted with many conflicts when they use a budget. How they discuss their opposing views may have a substantial impact on whether the conflicts contribute to the budget process productively or destructively. This study used the theory of cooperative and competitive goal interdependence to analyze the interaction between managers as they deal with budget conflicts. Structural equation and other analyses of interviews with managers in a large utility indicate that cooperative goals support an open‐minded discussion of opposing views, which in turn promotes productivity and work relationships that result in acceptance of the budgeting system and a sense of team unity. The results were interpreted as suggesting that organizations that structure cooperative goals and develop constructive controversy skills help their managers use their budget conflicts productively.RésuméLes ≪ managers ≫ sont confrontés à de nombreux conflits lorsqu'ils utilisent un système budgétaire. La manière dont ils traitent leurs points de vue divergents influencera fortement le processus budgétaire, soit de façon productive, soit destructive. Cette étude s'est servie de la théorie de l'interdépendance entre les buts de coopération et ceux de compétition, afin d'analyser les interactions entre les ≪ managers ≫, lorsqu'ils sont aux prises avec des conflits d'utilisation d'un budget. Les équations structurelles et les analyses d'entrevues avec les ≪ managers ≫ indiquent dans une large mesure que les buts de coopération permettent une discussion franche sur des points de vue divergents, ce qui améliore la productivité et les relations de travail. De cette façon, il y aura acceptation du système budgétaire et création de solidarité au sein de l'équipe. Les résultats sont interprétés ici dans le but de proposer aux organisations d'utiliser cette structure de buts de coopération et de développer des aptitudes au dialogue constructif lors de controverses, afin d'aider les ≪ managers ≫à utiliser productivement leurs conflits liés au budget.

A Culture of Mismanagement: Environmental Protection and Enforcement at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection

In April of 1997, far-reaching regulations aimed at the protection of New York City's (City's) drinking water supply went into effect. The Watershed Agreement was reached after more than two years of delicate negotiations by the City, the Coalition of Watershed Towns, the State of New York, the Environmental Protection Agency and a handful of environmental groups. Under this celebrated compromise, the City will spend $1.2 billion to protect its water supply at its source, rather than construct a physically massive and extraordinarily expensive filtration plant that would be required by the federal government under the Safe Drinking Water Act. If the Watershed Agreement is to succeed, however, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)-the City agency charged with the duty to implement Watershed protection and enforce the new regulations-must fundamentally reform itself. Presently, Watershed protection is hampered by a toothless enforcement regime with conflicting departmental objectives. This Article examines the institutional culture of mismanagement that plagues the DEP, which jeopardizes the water quality and health of nine million consumers.

The objectives of medical education: reflections in the accreditation looking glass.

The authors explored the extent to which medical schools have established institutional and departmentalized educational objectives, by examining the accreditation databases, institutional self-studies, and site visit reports of 59 schools surveyed by the Liaison Committee on medical Education (LCME) in 1994-1996. In this study, the individual school was the unit of analysis, and the dependent variables were statements--in outcomes' terms--of institutional and departmental learning objectives. Objectives were classified as "robust" when they were expressed as measurable learning outcomes in the domains of knowledge and skills and behaviors. Departmental objectives were assessed separately for core basic science courses and clinical clerkships. A number of independent variables were studied for their association with the elaboration of outcomes-based educational objectives: centralized management of the curriculum, curricular reform, an office of education, an institutionalized faculty development program, problem-based learning, interdisciplinary teaching, systematized assessment of educational outcomes, and structured clinical skills assessment. Of the 59 schools, 15 (25%) had robust institutional objectives that identified items of measurable knowledge, skills, and behavior, while 44 (75%) had modest objectives, usually descriptions of the purpose of the curriculum, global statements about the knowledge and behavior qualities that students should acquire, and the subjects that instructors intended to tech. Schools with well-articulated learning outcomes were more likely to have centralized management of the curriculum, a record of curricular reform, a program of problem-based learning, rich basic science course and clerkship objectives, and structured assessment of students' clinical skills. Well-stated and diverse educational objectives were found for basic science courses in only 13 of the 59 schools (22%). Thirty of the schools (51%) had clerkships with robust learning objectives, more commonly in the generalist specialties of pediatrics, family medicine, and internal medicine. Clerkships with stout objectives more often employed structured assessments of students' clinical skills. Schools that paid attention to the explication of learning objectives were more likely to link specific institutional and departmentalized outcomes with methods of evaluating students, in turn guiding the content and methods of instruction. Schools with vapid objectives attracted 40% more accreditation citations for shortcomings in curricular management, course and clerkship quality, and the evaluation of student achievement, especially in the clinical skills domain. In the future, accreditors should focus more closely on this association.

Linking strategy and performance: Developments in the New Zealand public sector

In recent decades, many governments have sought to improve their systems of strategic management and priority setting. Few of these attempts have met with unequivocal success. In particular, the systems for “whole-of-government strategizing” have not been well integrated into the ongoing budgetary processes and departmental performance management systems. In 1993—1994, as part of its comprehensive reforms of the public sector, the New Zealand government instituted a new system of strategic management. The new approach—which in part grew out of the National government's attempt to outline its long-term vision in a document titled Path to 2010—involves the ministers specifying a series of medium-term policy goals, referred to as “strategic result areas” (SRAs), and then translating these into more detailed departmental objectives, known as “key result areas” (KRAs). More specific “milestones” are subsequently identified to serve as benchmarks against which the achievement of departmental KRAs can be assessed. This article describes and evaluates this new approach and considers its possible application in other countries.

The implementation of a quality management system in a department of diagnostic radiology

The quality management systems of the Departments of Diagnostic Radiology of St George's Hospital, London, and Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) have been certified with the British Standard 5750. These were the first clinical departments in the UK to be certified to this internationally recognized quality assurance (QA) standard. Quality is a much used term; in this context it is defined as 'fitness for purpose', and quality assurance is the mechanism by which quality is achieved. The paper describes the features of the quality system which have been implemented at St George's Hospital, and how a management concept for manufacturing industries has been adapted successfully to a National Health Service Department. The paper also demonstrates how the quality system has led to the setting and achieving of departmental objectives.

No Longer Destined to Eat Their Young: Satisfaction among Army Family Practice Faculty

In January 1987, all 63 faculty members at Army Family Practice Residencies received satisfaction questionnaires. Fifty-nine faculty (93.8%) responded with 40 (67.8%) being satisfied and 19 (32.2%) dissatisfied. Compared to faculty 7 years prior, these faculty are slightly older, have more practice experience, more opportunities for fellowship training, and are less likely both to have remaining mandatory military obligation and to leave the Army after 3 years. The key areas of faculty development, control over professional life, administration, and departmental goals and objectives truly discriminated satisfaction from dissatisfaction. A strategy to systematically develop potential faculty and reduce dissatisfaction is proposed.

The Department of Defense communications in the 21st century

The Department of Defense (DoD) is one of the biggest users of communications in the world. Communications systems are used not only for the administration of the Department, but, most critically, for the command and control of force structures. To this end, the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) strives to ensure that the Department's missions are carried out with state-of-the-art communications systems. In this article an architecture is postulated to achieve the Department's objective of rapid, reliable, secure exchange of information at an affordable price. The goal is one system for all communications services (data, voice, video, imagery) including Office Automation (OA) needs.This article was written with the view toward communications systems which are commonly referred to as fixed systems used on military bases and for long-haul transport of information, rather than tactical communications systems used on mobile platforms such as armored vehicles, ships, and airplanes. However, due to advances in VLSI and flexibilities afforded by new transmission frameworks and switching fabrics, the concepts described in this article could apply to tactical systems as well.The views contained in this article are those of the author and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of DCA and DoD.

Using pharmacists' perceptions in planning changes in pharmacy practice

Pharmacists' perceptions of and goals for clinical pharmacy services, as well as the proportion of time devoted to clinical services, were studied at one hospital as part of the process for establishing departmental goals. Three methods were used in evaluating pharmacists' perceptions of clinical pharmacy services. The first was a departmental survey. Second, staff members were asked to generate and prioritize a list of goals for clinical pharmacy services; this was done by means of an interactive, small-group process. Finally, a work-sampling study was performed that indirectly measured use of staff pharmacist and technician time. Staff pharmacists perceived that clinical pharmacy services were being provided to individual patients; however, support for these services from upper management was perceived as inadequate. Staff development had the highest priority for the further development of clinical pharmacy services. Only 19.7% of pharmacists' time was devoted to clinical services. Data from all three studies were incorporated into the development of a strategic plan that set forth long-term departmental goals and objectives. The plan includes a statement of commitment to develop management systems to eliminate deficiencies identified in the study. Among the changes in pharmacy operations introduced as a result of the survey were (1) a career-ladder system, (2) new opportunities for staff development, and (3) improved documentation systems. Surveying staff perceptions of existing services, joint goal setting and prioritization, and work-sampling studies formed the basis for the development and implementation of a new model of integrated pharmacy services at this institution.