Cheryl Harvey

Visions of excellence in Australian and Canadian human services organizations

Addresses the issue of how Australian and Canadian managers of human services organizations(HSO) define organizational excellence. Presents a study in which HSO managers were interviewed in order to ascertain their vision of an excellent ideal. Describes the methods and findings and discusses those findings in the context of the literature on management. Addresses the implications of the research through a series of recommendations to subvert barriers to excellence.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Maslach Burnout Inventory

Abstract Although the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is widely used to assess burnout in human service workers, doubt has been cast on the usefulness of the conceptualization on which it is based and the independence of its subscales. A confirmatory factor analysis using the methodology employed in a previous study of child welfare workers revealed that the final model had only a minimally adequate fit and the constructs of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were not separate and unique. The findings suggest that research in child welfare settings should avoid continued reliance on the MBI for the assessment of burnout. Scales that are balanced in terms of positive and negative items and where each dimension represents a distinct construct need to be developed.

Organization Structure and Design: The Club ED Exercise:

Using cases and news reports about Club Meds evolution, we have developed a five-stage exercise that involves students in the design and redesign of an organization as it changes from a simple, single-site enterprise to a complex, multinational business. Students grope with discovering the solutions to the problems of differentiation and integration, control, operating in a variety of cultural rather than national contexts, and responding with strategic and organization design changes to shifts in the competitive environment. This exercise can be done in one 3-hour session or extended over two or more shorter class periods.

Putting Self-Management into the Classroom: One Person's Journey

In an act born of feelings of desperation over poor student course evaluations, the author attempted to create a self-managed classroom. This article describes that journey, its results, and the implications of doing in the classroom what others are taught to do in their organizations.