Performance Improvement

Online Master's Degree Program

Course Objectives:

• Determine the nature of organizations in terms of structure, environments, and outcomes.
• Analyze the significance of the human element in organizational behavior.
• Develop an understanding of the role and effectiveness of leaders and management decision making in the modern organization.
• Provide an opportunity to think creatively and to apply skills and learning in innovative ways.
• Assess the research skills needed and apply the scientific method to a topic of interest in organizational behavior.
• Describe the fundamentals of decision making, including the basic steps and the need to balance ideal and satisfactory decisions.
• Explain the factors managers should consider in determining the level of associate involvement in managerial decisions.
• Define key elements of organizational structure, including both structural and structuring dimensions.
• Explain how corporate and business strategies relate to structure.

Course Objectives:

• Articulate the fundamental, foundational aspects of Human Performance Technology.
• Articulate the Fundamentals of the HPT Process.
• Distinguish the difference of HPT interventions at the worker/work team level vs. workplace/organizational level and their corresponding differences in methodology.
• Examine and articulate effective performance measurement techniques.
• Summarize how standards and ethics of performance improvement are reflected in professional organizations such as ISPI, ASTD, SHRM, APQC, CCQI, etc.
• Examine future trends in HPT.
• Develop and present a project plan to address issues relevant to real world organizations.

Course Objectives:

• Explain the purpose and importance of performance assessments.
• Explain social responsibility and human resource management.
• Define the strategic management process.
• Discuss proper alignment of management and IT.
• Compare and contrast the different types of performance modeling.
• Develop a plan to launch a project and create effective related metrics.
• Design and architect effective performance assessments.
• Explain techniques to ensure proper deployment, integration, adoption, and performance management.

Course Objectives:

• Assess alignment/non-alignment of case study business groups to their organizations strategic goals.
• Show performance gaps through development of work or systems requirements and provide case scenarios.
• Create process flows that show improvement opportunities.
• Determine whether professionals really use alignment and process analysis tools in their work.
• Critique a design identifying missed opportunities.
• Create a simple project for a one-person project lasting three weeks or less including a schedule of work and communications plan for that project.
• Create a simple evaluation plan for using available (extant) data and generating required supporting data for case study scenarios.

Course Objectives:

• Identify opportunity types based on brief problem descriptions.
• Mine case dialogues and video clips for clues to the real success factors desired.
• Build analysis strategies for testing assumptions, mining easily available (extant) data, and gathering data from key sources.
• Draft communication plans for building relationships and increasing partnership around the perceived value of the analysis before beginning an analysis.
• Identify two or more ways to speed up the analysis, when presented with a case and proposed analysis.
• Demonstrate data gathering from: Interviews, A focus group, Survey and Observation.
• Review of personnel records (mock records).
• Draft reports based on data collected or provided where each report includes:
  • Executive Overview (1 page or less in-depth review of data)
  • In-depth analysis, data and summary of findings
  • Presentation to executives of findings

Course Objectives:

• Differentiate inputs and indicators that the evaluation system must reflect.
• Analyze appropriate measures of reaction, learning and confidence.
• Analyze appropriate measures of implementation and impact.
• Formulate benefits, costs, and returns.
• Design progress reports that include measures and reports that describe acceptance of an evaluation system or scorecard.
• Analyze cases to determine the stage of development for a given evaluation system.

Course Objectives:

• Justify the need for workforce demographic changes.
• Evaluate the need for outsourcing in today’s workplace.
• Debate the use of telecommuting employees within the workplace.
• Evaluate the legal issues that affect compensation.
• Generate a plan to recruit quality employment candidates.
• Create a performance evaluation plan for the workplace.
• Debate the use of unions within the workplace.
• Explain the importance of understanding culture and law when doing business overseas.

Course Objectives:

• Describe the functions, roles and common organizational structures that support learning and performance improvement.
• Explain the role of memory, emotion, attention and practice in learning.
• Compare three (3) learning theories' strengths and weaknesses
• Classify types of learning along axis of explicit-tacit and theory-practice.
• Describe the cycle of knowledge creation and socialization
• Contrast purpose, best use, strengths and weakness of three (3) types of collective learning.
• Explain the value received by aligning the planning of learning to performance improvement needs.
• Critique three common types of leadership learning programs
• Diagram the relationship between learner, instructor, content, and other learners for three different learning delivery technologies.

Course Objectives:

• Define your vision and values for your brand of performance consulting.
• Build a portfolio of products and services that you have already delivered.
• Present a "sales" presentation promoting your consulting services and explaining your processes.
• Illustrate change adoption and success stories with both anecdotal and measurable data.
• Mock up a scorecard that graphically shows before and after data for a change initiative.
• Create a presentation that guides decision-makers through the selection of an invention or set of interventions.
• Create a presentation that shares "bad news" data that shows results did not occur.

Course Objectives:

• Apply key strategies in information systems.
• Analyze information systems and their uses.
• Analyze the impact of information systems in organizations.
• Examine managerial issues in design, control, and business processes.
• Assess enterprise architecture, infrastructure, and sourcing.
• Analyze and apply managerial issues in IS project management.
• Evaluate the governance of the information systems organization.
• Analyze knowledge management technologies and practices.

Course Objectives:

• Contrast advantages and disadvantages for each of five or more common learning theories.
• Isolate factors in given learning technology solutions that will support or dilute learning.
• Select appropriate learning modalities, methods and architectures for given case situations.
• Break out priority learning design elements required in order to create learning transfer.
• Identify cultural factors that will change design choices.
• Design a problem-based learning event in two versions – one that uses low-technology solutions and one that uses high-technology solutions.
• Lead a design peer-review that reviews one of your own designs.

Course Objectives:

• Interpret major components of a strategic management process.
• Evaluate the organization’s motivation, innovation strategy and people strategy.
• Explain the role of ethics and corporate social responsibility in strategic planning.
• Describe different types and levels of strategies and how they need to be suited to the culture of an organization.
• Conduct external assessments in order to identify opportunities and threats.
• Analyze an organization’s remote environment, industry environment, and internal environment.
• Perform internal strategic audits for the identification of strengths and weaknesses.
• Assess an organization’s competitive position and possibilities, formulate and select suitable strategies, and analyze an organization’s industry environment.
• Evaluate the organization’s competitive position and possibilities, potential generic strategies for an organization, potential value disciplines for an organization, and potential grand strategies for an organization.
• Summarize the role of strategic planning in an organization.
• Develop organizational change management strategies.
• Analyze the key external environmental assumptions and internal metrics that must be monitored when implementing a business plan.
• Discuss how to execute strategies and tactics and to monitor their implementation and process.