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Here is a new conceptual framework for organizational learning (OL) that applies to both planned reform and emergent change. It integrates strategic and operational, micro and macro perspectives. It has three parts: (a) a revised definition and typology of OL, (b) seven reform stories that define stages and tasks, (c) a management and assessment guide demarcating four areas of OL: (i) action learning within core operations; (ii) sharing learning and innovations across the organization; (iii) mission/s-beyond ambidexterity; (iv) integration-managing mission conflicts and other paradoxes, which ensure endogenous change. Dynamic capability is therefore intrinsic to this view of OL that is illustrated from two cases: NYPD and public school reforms.

This study reports on a survey of experienced emergency management personnel in Australia and New Zealand to identify the influence of organisational features in perceived emergency management performance. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of organisational features in emergency response performance and to discuss how this knowledge can be used to enhance the response capacity of emergency services organisations.

Based on a review of the literature, a conceptual theoretical model for organisational performance is first developed based on four organisational features found to be previously important in emergency management organisation. These are, adaptability, leadership, stability (mission and direction) and stakeholder communication. An organisational survey was distributed to all 25 fire and emergency services agencies in Australia and New Zealand which included indicators of these elements. Responses were received from experienced emergency management personnel from fire and emergency services agencies. The sample was stratified into the three main organisational types, namely, established, expanding and extending organisations.

The findings reveal that the predictive significance of organisational features in emergency response performance vary among established, expanding and extending organisations. The predictive significance of stability, adaptability and leadership for perceived success is strong in all organisational types. It is interesting to note that the predictive significance of communication with external stakeholders is low in all organisation types. This indicates the preference of emergency services agencies to look internally within their own operations than externally to build relationships with different specialism.

The theoretical model in this study makes a first attempt to understand the role of organisational features in emergency response performance of organisations in Australia and New Zealand. This work contributes to theorizing emergency operations by highlighting how organisations need to manage two orientations simultaneously: their own internal as well as external orientations, together with their processes for managing both mission and direction and the need for change and flexibility.

Attempts to conceptualize a framework for understanding and implementing self‐management in school from a multi‐level perspective. Proposes that there are three levels of self‐management in school; namely, the school level, the group level and the individual level. Each level of self‐management follows a self‐propelling and cyclic process comprising five stages. By following these self‐management cycles, the school, the groups and its individual staff members are sensitive to environmental changes and capable of self‐learning and development. In order to implement self‐management successfully, various conditions at the three levels are to be fulfilled. Also discusses the importance of school leadership and mission. It is hoped that this framework could provide a comprehensive view of self‐management in school and consequently contribute to the worldwide ongoing school management reforms and school development research.

After two decades of research, the effect of a mission statement on an organization's performance is still unclear. In order to address these shortcomings, a research project via the setting‐up of this paper seeks to identify all empirical studies addressing the mission statement‐financial performance relation, analyze how the mission statement‐financial performance relation is operationalized, and aggregate the findings of the identified studies by means of a meta‐analysis.

A systematic literature review procedure was developed to identify all relevant articles and meta‐analytic procedures were used to calculate the effect size of the selected studies.

The study results indicate a small positive relation between mission statements and measures of financial organizational performance. However, additional analyses indicated that interstudy differences in measures significantly influenced the estimates (population effect sizes of the created subsamples ranged from 0.0808 to 0.4100).

These contradictive findings stress the importance and impact of operationalization decisions in mission statement‐performance research, and provide paths for future practice‐oriented research.

This study is the first to assess the performance impact of one of the most popular management instruments, namely mission statements, by means of meta‐analytical techniques and, to evaluate the moderation effect of operationalization decisions on the cited relationship. Furthermore, by aggregating research on the mission statement‐performance relationship, a knowledge base was devised which provides normative advice on the characteristics of a “good” mission statement.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the activities of the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO). The study identifies the various roles and activities of the APO and evaluates how well it performs in these roles. The study also investigates the impacts of the APO on the productivity initiatives of National Productivity Organisations (NPOs) in 16 Asian countries. These productivity initiatives are important in enhancing productivity performance and national competitiveness in the countries of interest.

The study collects data from stakeholders in the NPOs in 16 countries. A Likert-scale questionnaire was used to collect data from two types of respondents – NPO CEOs and NPO professional/technical staff. Data were analysed by comparing the responses across the participating countries.

The result shows that there was general satisfaction with the mission, vision and strategic direction of the APO. With respect to the operational performance of the organisation, the study showed that there were some differences in perception of the performance of the APO although the overall perception was positive.

The study provides insights into the top management of the APO with regards to deciding on the future direction of the organisation and, in particular, the ways in which it understands and supports the varied requirements of the different NPOs.

Organisations such as the APO dedicate significant resources into supporting NPOs, and by extension productivity-related commercial operations, in several countries. It is important to understand how these services are perceived and experienced in these countries, and a definitive study to examine this has not previously been carried out.

The paper's aim is to thoroughly examine solutions to mission diffusion and mission drift in the microfinance industry.

Extensive field experience relating to individual microfinance institutions and industry trends provide the grounding for a review of the trade and academic literatures in microfinance and social enterprise management.

Mission diffusion arises from pursuing diverse approaches to poverty alleviation and addressing disparate and changing stakeholder interests. Mission drift arises from commercialization and conversion activities aimed toward enhancing ratings and achieving scale. Mission clarity can be regained through clarification of the mission along with more effective corporate governance and performance management systems, and a research function.

The tension between financial and social performance is not merely ideological – economic realities make it almost impossible to stay on mission. Understanding these realities can help microfinance institutions maintain and regain clarity of mission.

The paper sheds new light on solutions for challenges of mission drift and diffusion in the microfinance industry. Addressing this would enable the industry to deliver on promises of poverty alleviation during a period of heavy demand rapid scaling.

Suggests that, in a rapidly changing environment, it is necessary to monitor and adapt to those developments which influence managerial decisions and operational procedures. Sees strategic planning as a powerful management tool, which is a holistic approach encompassing not only the intended mission of an organization, but also the human resource planning and development necessary to fulfil that mission. Analyses the application of strategic planning in the library and information field, with particular reference to the special library, although the ideology is relevant to all sectors. Presents two case studies which highlight the areas of management reviews and the marketing of library services.

Considers the vocabulary employed by writers of library planning documents, and analyses the terms used for the various concepts. Notes that concepts are often given diverse terminology in planning documents, and that frequently there are inconsistencies in the application of concepts as well as terms. Proposes definitions for three key concepts: mission, plan and goal.

Mission statements are a key element of any organization. Ideally, the mission statement should be written at the initial stages of an organization’s life to be a useful tool to guide future organization’s decisions and strategy. However, at the early stages of an organization’s life, the organization might still be under development with the objective and stakeholders not yet well-defined, and therefore, stating the mission so early on, might neglect some important elements. In this paper, the authors explore the difference in mission statement quality between missions that have been created at the birth stage of an organization versus missions that are just explicitly formulated once the organization is already well-established and an underlying implicit mission already exists. The authors use as an empirical setting university research parks.

The authors evaluate mission statement quality using content analysis. The authors then test the differences on mission statement quality between two groups of research parks, those that have followed a creation strategy versus those that have followed a formulation strategy, using mean of differences test.

The authors find that a formulation strategy produces more complete mission statements than the creation strategy. Research parks that have followed a formulation strategy include in their mission statements more references to relevant stakeholders, such as investors, than parks following a creation strategy with respect to their mission statement.

The research setting is Spanish Science Parks. This research setting is appropriate to answer the research question, as two Park creation strategies, planned and unplanned, allow the researchers to clearly differentiate between two mission conception strategies. However, the sample size is rather small.

Research has shown that a well-defined mission helps organizations focus and strategy formulation. The authors’ research offers some guidance on how to achieve a high-quality mission statement which will, in turn, help organizations have a better definition of their purpose.

Research until now has assumed that the mission statement should be formulated at the initial stages of the organization’s life. The authors’ research shows that defining the mission statement later in the process creates higher-quality mission statements that better reflect the organizations purpose and relevant stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate US lodging properties’ organizational employee‐retention initiatives and practices, and to examine the impact of those initiatives on employee turnover and retention.

Using the Directory of Hotel & Lodging Companies, a convenient sample group of 24 management companies are selected. A self‐administered mail survey instrument is developed to measure and test organizational initiatives and practices on employee turnover and retention. Using SPSS 16.0, two statistical tests are employed to test study hypotheses. Correlation analysis is used to identify the relationships between predictor and response variables. Likewise, regression analysis is used to examine the relationships between predictor and response variables hypothesizing that the effectiveness of practicing the human resource management organizational initiatives on management and non‐management retention and turnover will differ.

The findings reveal that Corporate Culture, Hiring and Promotions and Training practices influence non‐management employee retention. At the same time, Hiring and Promotion practices impact management retention, as well. Moreover, Organizational Mission, Goals and Direction, and Employee Recognition, Rewards and Compensation were found to positively reduce non‐management employee turnover.

Owing to the study methodology and the relatively low response rate, generalization of the study findings is limited. Future replication studies are recommended.

The findings will equip lodging organizations and industry professionals with the contemporary tools to proactively reduce employee turnover and for maintaining employee retention. This should have a positive impact on workforce productivity.

This study makes a major contribution to the relative influence of the practice of eight study‐defined organizational initiatives on turnover in lodging businesses.