Organization Development: a Group Centred Approach to Improving the Effectiveness of After-care Hostels

Summary This paper describes an approach to improving the effectivenessof voluntary hostels in which (a) the target for change is theentire management group of the hostel, (b) the content of therelationship between the management group and the consultantis real work problems and (c) the method of achieving changeactively involves members of the management group in the identificationand diagnosis of problem areas and in the development of strategiesto improve the situation. The aim of this approach is to encouragethe management group to take the initiative and manage ratherthan drift along and react to new circumstances as they arise.     

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT'S NEW “REQUISITE VARIETY”

This essay is based on my plenary address at the second annual meeting of the Production and Operations Management Society on November 11, 1991. I propose that as the competitive environment in which production and operations management (POM) practitioners operate becomes ever more demanding and the problems about which POM academics study and teach become more complex and interrelated, we need new approaches both in our teaching and our research. I describe five ways of expanding our “requisite variety” of capabilities.     

DEVELOPING POM FACULTIES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Having added total quality management (tqm), operations strategy, new product development, and many other topics to its repertoire over the past two decades, operations management is being pushed-by practitioners and students alike-to extend its reach both horizontally (to encompass the whole supply chain and the interface with other functions) and internationally. Moreover, the increasing sophistication of computer technology and the growth of the intemet are expanding the teaching and research methodologies that can be used to address these complex issues. Meeting the challenges posed by this ever-broadening conceptualization of our mission and the new tools available to us will require more than simply new knowledge and new courses. It also will require an influx of new people having very different backgrounds than in the past. We have to learn how to attract such people, how to prepare them to be effective teachers and researchers in production and operations management (pom), and how to work effectively with them. The locations of faculty, students, and potential partners in the learning experience also will be transformed, forcing us to reconsider how we organize to do our work and when and where we do it.