1958 Inter-department, cross-functional, hands on exposure to world-class manufacturing of luxury automobiles (self-sufficient in situ, except for Fisher Body).
1960 Innovation-Implementation experience (from Research through Customer Delivery w followup Servicing)
1962 Military Service & Military-Industrial Product Life Cycle involvements, augmenting commercial Consumer Product delivery and followup logistics for readiness.
1962 Beginnings of a merger re Graduate Engineering & Applied Social Science Educations, and conducting of improvement implementations (i.e. initiating the dev of "Fresh FEV Mindfulness").
1964 NASA (Immediate) Startup demands required the achievement of brand new "Fresh Goals" w existing Occupational Skills, and by fostering new Talent Competencies. An accelerated, emphasized employee development, approach was recommended (which reflected recently proven career development practices, learned from ongoing systems and technology laboratories).
1964 NASA (Long Range) Startup Assistance was provided by involvements in defining: +Hqs-Field charted relationships for more effective communications, +the ARAC charter for disseminating NASA new technology findings, and +the issues to be considered when starting up AID.
1965 Completed a draft of a doctoral thesis re "Team Building for New Business" (with statistically verified conclusions of major significance) to support Survey-Feedback Reporting processes, and learning in general.
1969 Participated in a Corporate MIS Implementation, as a representative
the Integrated Logistics for Field Site Control disciplines.
1977 Interstate family living and employments provided "New Learned Perceptions" for a better understanding of Organization Behavior re social theory and structure, and economic progress.
1989 Key roles in creating a Supercharged Thunderbird, Luxury Mark VIII, and Performance Mustangs involved many interfacing-interaction responsibilities and complex collaborating.
1990 Materials characterization & selections for parts & systems enabled Configuration Management for optimal human system & product performances.
1993 An Employee Relations appointment within Product Development for Instructional System Design (& Implementations), as well as the conduct of Organizational Improvement Surveys (w Report-outs), addressed many technical, administrative, and conceptual challenges.
1996 Ongoing Product design upgrades, with prove-outs- as requirements and conditions emerged during product life cycles- involved skilled design insight and relationship building for effective implementations.
2001 A Design & Build construction program involving owner-buyer and prime contractor cooperation, & skillful collaboration, was fully engaged to achieve optimally successful home ownership results.
OD Team Building, and Making more Headway- re Education, Roles, Jobs, People Specialists, Productivity, and Economic Outlooks
February 2, 2011
Drafted: 31Jan2011, by William J. LeGray.
Human education processes, and systems, currently are intent on making more headway for stronger Economic Outlooks. Desires abound for getting “it” right. And, the “right stuff” seems related to regroupings and retooling, HSD (Human System Development) and Organizational Effectiveness (OE), and optimizing societal benefits and sustenance. All (of this) seems to exist for improving lean, smart, and happy consequences.
Societies have always had keepers of the “flames” for comfort and enlightenment. And, these “torches of knowledge” have been passed forward for enlightenment, cooperative endeavors (teamwork), creativity and reinvention (innovation), beginnings and change (for a renaissance, now and then), and, finally for continuing individual development and organizational growth (to actualize progress).
As populations have increased, and new territories have been settled, civil ways have emerged among people for jointly motivating actions for success, and maintaining the camaraderie and faith necessary for a better future. The enactment of schooling, and eventually that of education (and higher education), became the place where the stewardship and conservation of knowledge about roles and responsibilities were active. These activities of mutual concern provided the primary focus for assuring perpetual improvements. They effectively enabled the preservation of heritage and progress (throughout the years), and were primary.
Bartering- the exchange of services, and currencies- when trading valued (product and/or or effort) became the way for organized human accomplishment. And, preferably, the exchanges were freely expressed, mutually guided, and self-directed. These business involvements (this business of trading) usually reflected interactions, which were collaborative and cooperative, and also resulted in future, investments in ongoing relationships for increasing economic advancement and progress. Learning these processes became “central” to becoming prepared to do the jobs required, the job performances demanded, and the creation of new, improved, job roles and responsibilities.
More specifically, most often, the knowledge and status “about jobs”, and the history and outlook for future employment possibilities, has generally been tracked by our institutions for accelerated learning (both formal, and informal), our governing agencies, our Personnel & Organization activities, and our HRD (Human Resources Development) “people specialists.” And, the marketing, searching, hiring, and placement of individuals into jobs (within organized endeavors) evolved to become a jointly influenced process where the participants shared mutual benefits.
OD Team Building research in the Applied Behavioral Sciences has discovered by statistical significance, from out of a semi-structured interviewing situation, that two primary (especially important) variables affecting Job Performance are “Role Clarity, and Job Security.” (1) With regard to the management of “Roles” in organizations, there has been extensive study and reporting of “Requisite Organization” – a set of principles that provide guidance for effective action. (2) Applying these concepts has resulted in improved performances and exemplary workplaces, and the guidelines have been widely promulgated.
Regarding “Job Security”, this variable appears to be primarily the consequence of: an individual’s self-development and fortitude, and the interpersonal and intra-organizational administrative milieu- i.e. all those actions which are the result of personal desires and surrounding influences when striving to achieve effectiveness. Research has also shown that “self worth, and belonging” are especially important variables regarding these organizational matters. (3)
Roles and Jobs come and go. They are constantly changing and in transition. The behavioral economics and performance consequences can be explained rationally and irrationally. (4) There are mature, established, developing, emerging, and fleeting (in appearance) occupations, professions, and practices. Individual goals for stability and sustenance suggest that people strive to create and maintain a strong grasp on all of the knowledge and organizational factors that are relevant in order for them to be effective. Most often, sufficiency is reliant on associations, and affiliations, which are the result of groups and networks, which revolve around “common, shared” concepts, principles, and purposes.
Historically, there are regular assessments about “Where the Jobs are”, and, correspondingly, where they are unlikely. (5) And, because the “governance of nations” and “cooperation between peoples” both ultimately determine resultant conditions, it has recently become useful to track such intersections between profit making and policy making to understand and communicate personally relevant information. (6)
For once in a lifetime, today, we are fortunate to have Humanitarian, World Banking, United Nations, and other caring and assisting organizations for peace keeping and economic improvement. All of these efforts, and many more, add value and are of great importance. Yet, for many (most) of us, participation is out of reach because of needs to attend to immediate daily responsibilities. However, it behooves each of us to keep informed- so that we can properly participate in our democratic processes of shared governance, and also do our very best to be knowledgeable about controlling our own destiny.
Note: Several additional references are included (below) to assist comprehension of these “OD Team Building, and Behavioral Economic Implications”, which have been discussed.
REFERENCES:
1. “TEAM BUILDING FOR NEW BUSINESS: Over-riding Organizational Influences, and Implications for Changes- a Short Narrative”, by William J. LeGray, a Final Reporting of Case Institute (CIT), OB PhD, Thesis research, 1965, starting from where I left off at COB 1965, posted on LinkedIn in Box Net files, April 2010.
2. “Organization Design, Levels of Work and Human Capability: Executive Guide, by 40 authors from around the world, edited by Ken Shepard, Jerry L. Gray, & James G. (Jerry) Hunt, published by the Global Organization (GO) Design Society, July 16, 2007.
3. “Interpersonal Competence and Organizational Effectiveness, by Chris Argyris, of Yale University, from the Irwin-Dorsey Press, 1962.
4. “Irrational Exuberance- Second Edition”, by Robert J. Shiller, published by Broadway Books, New York, 2005 (originally by Princeton University Press, in 2000).
5. “Where the Jobs are”, by Bill Saporito, article in Time magazine, pg. 26, February 17, 2000 issue.
6. “Bloomberg Government Insider”, (new) from Bloomberg Government (b.gov.com), a (new) special Winter 2011 section of Bloomberg Business Week magazine, a January 2011 issue.
7. “New Patterns of Management”, by Rensis Likert, Source: from the University of Michigan, December 1961.
8. “Dynamics of Planned Change: A Comparative Study of Principles and Techniques, by Ronald Lippitt and etc., Source: from the University of Michigan, December 1958.
9. “A Theory of Group Development”, by Warren G. Bennis and Herbert A. Shepard, 1956, a Chapter in “T-Group Theory and Laboratory Method: Innovation in Re-education”, edited by Leland Bradford, and published by Wiley, January 1, 1967.
10. “On Temporary Systems”, by Matthew B. Miles, Chapter 19 in “”Innovation in Education”, edited by Matthew B. Miles, Teachers College Press, Columbia University, New York, 1964.
11. “Managing Intergroup Conflict in Industry”, by Robert R. Blake, Herbert A. Shepard, and Jane S. Mouton, Gulf Publishing Co., Houston, Texas, 1964.
12. “Rules of Thumb for Change Agents”, by Herbert A. Shepard, reprinted by kind permission of Portsmouth Consulting Group, 1974.
13. “The People Specialists”, by Stanley M. Herman, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1968.
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