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A preliminary investigation and discussion of effective methods of staff development as identified by a sample of teachers from international schools. Discusses the nature and purpose of staff development, and the views of teachers on the most effective methods of staff development. Identifies the importance of staff development by colleagues from within a school as one of the most effective methods, and also the development of local school groups as a means of enhancing development for both the individual and the institution. Develops a list of questions that both teachers and administrators may wish to address when evaluating the role and effectiveness of staff development within their own schools.

Believes that an urgent need for in‐depth understanding of the relationship of staff development to education quality exists in current educational reforms, policy making, and teacher education. Based on the existing knowledge of education quality, quality management and effective schools, aims to propose a framework to show how staff development can be designed and managed to contribute to the assurance and enhancement of school education quality from the perspective of seven multimodels of school education quality. Different models emphasize different aspects of school education quality and propose different strategies to enhance it. For ensuring long‐term school education quality in a changing educational environment, staff development can be organized and managed according to the major concerns of multimodels. Proposes some practical considerations for designing and implementing school‐based staff development.

This paper seeks to describe an approach to staff development and workforce planning which is implemented as part of a process of internal reviews of service areas within an academic library.

The paper describes the factors leading to the development of such a process within the Deakin University Library.

A number of different factors – internal to the library, at the university level and in the wider environment – have driven the need for such reviews and influenced their design. The approach developed focuses on comparing current workforce capabilities (competencies and resource levels) with the set of competencies and resources required to deliver the projected services to the standards required. This account highlights the links between the review process and the implementation of a library‐wide staff development framework.

A number of practical implications may be drawn: the value of a flexible approach taking into account the local and institutional environment; the critical importance of organizational needs driving individual staff development and the benefits of mapping links from strategic goals to staff development.

The paper focuses on an emerging process for service delivery in an academic library.

Explores the relationships between quality assessment and staff development in higher education and their role in changing the culture of higher education. Addresses the processes of quality assessment and the nature of staff development. Demonstrates how staff development has contributed to quality assessment and how quality assessment has contributed to staff development, and offers some suggestions for future directions.

Considerable research has been conducted into the outcomes of vocational lifelong learning (VLL) funding in terms of courses offered and their effectiveness, but much less into the work, professional development needs and careers of staff organising and delivering VLL programmes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the career management and development needs of such university staff.

A survey was conducted of VLL professionals in higher education to establish the position and their future prospects.

A survey revealed that experienced VLL staff are being required, in some cases unwillingly, to move away from activities concerned with external training to take on work in areas such as technology transfer and general student recruitment. This development is likely to be to the detriment of VLL provision by universities.

VLL staff identify further knowledge of new developments in the field, stronger IT skills, and competence in conducting research as their major development needs.

The paper puts forward some concrete suggestions for improvements.

Observes that staff development, undoubtedly, effectively enhances staff performance and job effectiveness, and the climate of interpersonal relations in an organization. Focuses on the need for professional staff development in an academic library and describes the state of the art of professional staff development at the University of Science and Technology Library, Kumasi, Ghana.

The academic literature and motivational theory recognise the positive role of motivation on organisational performance and considers personal development as a key motivational factor. In practice, most organisations employ a personal development review (PDR) process to drive and plan the development of their staff. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interrelation and impact of the PDR process, and its elements, on staff motivation.

The study is based on a case study research approach carried out in two large manufacturing-engineering departments of a world-class manufacturing organisation. A survey questionnaire was designed, validated and distributed to the engineering staff and its results were analysed using descriptive statistics.

The study's results indicate that in most of the cases, a PDR process does not by itself motivate staff. But it argues that a poorly designed and conducted PDR process may make motivation, through personal development, difficult to achieve.

This paper provides manufacturing managers with an opportunity to understand whether a common business process (i.e. PDR), and the elements that comprise it, can be employed as a method to aid in the motivation of their staff.

This research expands the current knowledge on motivational and manufacturing management theory by performing an initial and exploratory study that establishes the impact of the PDR process on staff motivation. It is among the very first investigations that correlate the PDR process and motivation, especially in the manufacturing industry.

In Germany up until now, there has been very little research on staff development in schools. The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively assess school-based staff development and to describe the interplay between different instruments of staff development (e.g. classroom observations, development discussions) at the school level.

Considering that different constellations of organizational management tools may be differentially effective in different contexts (see Mintzberg, 1983/1992), an approach that takes a combination of different staff development instruments into account was chosen. Data were gathered from principals of primary and secondary schools in two federal states of Germany. Using regression, cluster analysis, and analysis of variance, the authors examined different instruments and patterns of staff development used in everyday school practice and determined how these affected the professional development of teachers.

Five staff development patterns could be identified. With regard to the extent of professional development activities of teachers, these patterns have been proven to have a different impact. Furthermore, the use of the different staff development patterns seems to be heavily dependent on the type of school.

Further research would be needed that examines if the three most relevant staff development patterns identified in this study can also be proven to be effective with regard to somewhat “harder” criteria than the extent of professional development activities of teachers. Such criteria could be teachers’ teaching skills or even student achievement.

The current study is the first to examine staff development in German schools systematically. The results provide some good leads for further studies in this area.

This paper reports on ongoing research examining the present and desired state of academic library staff education and professional development in Indonesia. The long‐term goal of the research is to determine ways in which Indonesian academic libraries and their staff can be supported in order to assist universities in producing high‐quality research, teaching, and learning outcomes. The paper seeks to address these issues.

A survey was delivered to managers of libraries serving Indonesian public universities. The survey instrument used in this research was based on that used in the neXus2 survey distributed to Australian library managers in 2007. The paper includes a comparison of survey results on key outcomes for Indonesian and Australian library managers.

The paper reports on the library policies and practices regarding the current level and type of continuing professional development and work place training; and the management, funding and prioritisation of continuing professional development in Indonesian academic libraries.

The results have implications for the planning and implementation of continuing professional development in Indonesian academic libraries.

This paper reports the results of one of the few major studies of library staff development undertaken in a developing country.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of staff development committees (SDC) in the motivation, morale and education of library staff by relying on previous research and by using Utah State University's (USU), Merrill‐Cazier Library SDC as a case study.

Discussion and analysis emerge from the documented formation of USU's SDC, including its membership, goals, and evaluative practices, especially as it relates to current research in this area. Informal staff comments regarding benefits and limitations of the committee are included.

Staff development has been approached from various perspectives. Most programs form as the results of formal or informal needs assessments. Goals for the program, or for the resulting staff development committee, vary and fluctuate depending on the time‐specific needs of the library. Successful elements of USU's SDC include its emphasis on building inter‐departmental relationships and its ability to elicit feedback from every level of the library. Challenges include having clearly defined goals and meeting a variety of individual and institutional needs through the creation of related events and activities.

This paper provides ideas on forming a staff development committee, including examples for specific events and activities. It details how to structure membership and explores literature relating to designing and implementing institutional goals for staff development.

Many studies lack a comprehensive literature review that focuses on the scope and purpose of staff development committees. This paper combines a literature review with an explanation of how USU's Library created a staff development committee to fill certain library‐wide goals, including challenges and benefits that emerged as a result.