Learning & Development

Do you relate to Dilbert's view of the work environment as endless rows of bland cubicles or are you fortunate to work in an environment that promotes creativity and flexibility? Organizations are increasingly turning to flexible work environments to decrease costs and/or improve productivity. But what does this mean to the individual employee? What are the potential drawbacks and benefits organizations need to understand?

Students, faculty, staff and alumni of Northwestern University's MS in Learning & Organizational Change Program regularly share knowledge and resources online about strategic change, leadership, knowledge management, and learning and development. Browse the April 2013 highlights from Twitter, blogs, Google+ and other online resources. Then join the conversation this spring!

Students, faculty, staff and alumni of Northwestern University's MS in Learning & Organizational Change Program regularly share knowledge and resources online about strategic change, leadership, knowledge management, learning and development and design. Browse the March 2013 highlights from Twitter, blogs, Google+ and other online resources. Then join the conversation this spring!

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't -- you're right" - Henry Ford

The assumption behind the modern work team is that better decisions are made through sharing and discussion of diverse points of view. However, there are a number of factors — including organizational culture, personality, cultural diversity, and level of experience — that can prevent team members from feeling confident about their ability to add value to the decision making process. This article explores how an individual team member’s lack of self-efficacy can lead to self-limiting of contributions to the team decision making process.

Examining organizational change is clearly central to the MSLOC program. Through a series of blog posts about changing habits, Susan Barrett Kelly, a faculty member and alumna of MSLOC, shares with us a detailed look at individual change.

Students, faculty, staff and alumni of Northwestern University's MS in Learning & Organizational Change Program regularly share knowledge and resources online about transforming organizations. Browse the February 2013 highlights from Twitter, blogs, Google+ and other online resources. Then join the conversation this spring!

Measurement is a very critical element for all organizations. At MSLOC, we constantly explore the various elements of designing good measures for assessing both tangible and intangible results. MSLOC student and Knowledge Lens guest blogger Teresa Torres explores this topic as it relates to product development.

Students, faculty, staff and alumni of Northwestern University's MS in Learning & Organizational Change Program regularly share knowledge and resources online about transforming organizations. Browse the January 2013 highlights from Twitter, blogs, Google+ and other online resources. Then join the conversation this winter!

Students, faculty, staff and alumni of Northwestern University's MS in Learning & Organizational Change Program regularly share knowledge and resources online about transforming organizations. Review the Fall 2012 highlights from Twitter, blogs, Google+ and other online resources. Then join the conversation this winter!

Knowledge organizations commonly attempt to sustain their intellectual capital by utilizing in-house experts to train novice staff, but an expert’s ability to predict what is necessary to transfer knowledge to novice learners can be compromised by biases associated with an expert’s superior level of expertise (Hinds, 1999). Findings from this MSLOC Capstone study suggest that experts misdiagnose novice learning needs and though they usually attempt to adjust content to accommodate the novice learner, those adjustments are less successful than the experts perceive.

Students, faculty, staff and alumni of Northwestern University's MS in Learning & Organizational Change Program regularly share knowledge and resources online about transforming organizations. Review the August/September 2012 highlights from Twitter, blogs, Google+ and other online resources. Then join the conversation this fall!

Many dual-income couples with children report working too many hours and struggle with managing the increasingly overlapping work and family domains. This study investigates whether there are differences in satisfaction with job, job flexibility, work-family balance, and family by comparing part-time and full-time working mothers.

Psychological Capital (also known as personal resources) describes the within-person capacities of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. Targeted towards training & development professionals, this paper presents the findings of a study designed to identify an influential indicator in the selection of preferred training methods across these four within-person capacities.

It is important to understand the challenges to implementing 360-degree feedback in a team setting to gain the anticipated benefits of increased individual self-awareness, transparent communication and ultimately improved team performance.

Lawyers and law firms are of particular interest in the management context because of the natural tension between the practicing law firm lawyer and the manager. This study examines managerial success and failure of mid-level attorney managers in becoming senior attorney managers in law firms.

Organizations in the current global competitive environment are under increasing pressure to innovate rapidly to deliver breakthrough ideas and products to the market in what has been described as a shift from a knowledge economy to a creativity economy (Berner, Brady, & Nussbaum, 2005).

Trust is a critical ingredient to ensuring a healthy team dynamic, with its absence dramatically hindering team success in any organizational context.