Research
Projects
Student
and Faculty Perceptions of Innovative Teaching, January - July, 2005
This study
explored student and faculty perceptions of innovative teaching. 48
faculty and 52 students at a Southeastern University participated in
interviews during which they were asked to free-list characteristics
of innovative teaching. At the second stage of the study, all free-lists
were carefully reviewed and the most frequently mentioned characteristics
of an innovative teaching were consolidated into final lists. The final
list for faculty contained 27 items, whereas the student list included
23 items. The final lists were emailed to the participants asking them
to rate the descriptors as characteristic or not characteristic of innovative
teaching ( a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from "strongly agree"
- to "strongly disagree" was used). The highest ranked descriptors
of innovative teaching by the faculty members were: getting students
to learn how to construct knowledge for themselves, being open to new
ideas, being original, being knowledge motivated, being up to date on
scholarship, being willing to evaluate the effectiveness of her/his
innovative teaching method, and developing new or modifying old teaching
strategies. The following items received the highest rankings in the
student sample: engaging students and responding to their feedback,
enthusiasm (conveying a genuine interest and fervor for the subject
matter), encouraging students to think outside the box, making students
excited about learning, being open minded, thinking outside the box,
introducing material from different angles and multiple perspectives,
and being challenging. Interestingly, while cultural consensus analysis
indicated that the within-sample agreement for faculty and student samples,
the rankings of descriptors/characteristics of innovative teaching differed
for the two samples.
Results
of this study are discussed in the following manuscript:
Jaskyte,
K., Taylor, H., & Smariga, R. Student and faculty perceptions of
innovative teaching, Journal of Social Work Education (under review).
Organizational
Culture and Innovation in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations, August
2003-present
This study
seeks to enhance our understanding of the role of organizational culture
in facilitating innovation in nonprofit organizations. Specifically,
it examines the relationship between cultural consensus (degree to which
employees share organizational values), organizational values (the content
of consensus), and the structure of organizational culture and organizational
innovativeness.
The first
phase of the study will involve testing and validation of the proposed
model in a nonprofit organization called Communities in Schools, which
operates through 48 local programs. Data will be collected using a variety
of techniques: semi-structured interviews, surveys, and organizational
documents. After testing and validating the model, the second phase
of the study will include data collection in a larger sample of Communities
in Schools organizations in the states of North Carolina (27 sites),
Florida (17 sites), and South Carolina (30 sites).
The study
will have important theoretical, methodological, and practical implications.
It will improve innovation models by incorporating organizational culture
into the conceptual model. By applying innovative theoretical and methodological
tools from the field of cognitive anthropology, the study will address
some of the conceptual and methodological issues plaguing innovation
and culture research. Finally, while the findings of this study will
have implications for all types of organizations – nonprofit,
business, and public - they will be especially relevant for nonprofit
organizations partnering with school systems. Having knowledge of how
organizational culture affects innovativeness of an organization will
help not only organizational managers, but also school administrators
to identify the ways in which culture needs to change in order to foster
innovation, and to design managerial practices for influencing and modifying
organizational culture.
Results
of this study are discussed in the following article:
Jaskyte,
K. & Min Hong Lee. Interorganizational relationships: A source of
innovation in nonprofit organizations? Administration in Social Work,
30(3), 43-54.
Jaskyte,
K. (2005). The National Science Foundation: Funding opportunities for
social workers. Research on Social Work Practice, 15(1), 47-51.
The
Effects of Work Context on Employee Creativity in
Nonprofit Organizations: A Cross-Cultural Study, May - July 2004
This paper reports findings
from a study designed to test a model of creativity in the United States
and Lithuania. Five independent variables were derived from the creativity
literature: leadership, organizational culture, work group relations,
job design, and motivational orientation. They were used to predict
creativity in a sample of 201 employees of nonprofit organizations.
The results differed for the two countries. Interestingly, while in
the US cultural norms, consideration leadership behavior, and hierarchical
level were related to employee creativity, in Lithuania intrinsic motivation
and job design constituted major predictors of creativity. Based on
the results of the study, the author suggests practical implications
for nonprofit managers on how to capitalize on their employee creativity
and discusses implications for future research.
Results
of this study are discussed in the following articles:
Jaskyte, K. A Comparative
Study of Employee Creativity in American and Lithuanian Nonprofit Organizations.
Nonprofit Management and Leadership (revise and resubmit).
Jaskyte, K., & Kisieliene,
A. Determinants of Employee Creativity: A Study of Lithuanian Nonprofit
Organizations. VOLUNTAS, International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit
Organization (accepted).
Characteristics
of Innovative Nonprofit Organizations in Argentina, March - July 2003
The purpose
of this study was to discover the characteristics of innovative organizations
as perceived by employees of Argentine nonprofit organizations. The
free listing technique, adapted from the field of cognitive anthropology,
was used to achieve this task. Fifteen representatives of variety of
Argentinian nonprofit organizations participated in the study. Among
the highest rated characteristics were searching for new ways, solutions,
and unconventional forms of work, adapting to new times, suggesting
new forms for solving problems, and reflecting over organizational activities
and actions. Rated as least characteristic were encouraging role changes
within teams, focusing on organizational mission, not being afraid of
failure, and generosity (sharing information with other organizations).
Results
of this study are discussed in the following article:
Jaskyte,
K. & Riobo, S. (2004). Characteristics of innovative nonprofit organizations
in Argentina. International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organization,
15(1), 71-79.
Assessing
the Relationship between Organizational Culture
and Innovation in a Sample of Lithuanian Nonprofit Human Service
Organizations, January 2003
This exploratory
study sought to describe the types of innovations implemented by Lithuanian
nonprofit social service organizations, their leadership practices and
organizational cultures. It also assessed the relationships among organizational
innovation, leadership, organizational culture, and size. Thirty five
nonprofit organizations in Kaunas, Lithuania, constituted the sample.
Technological product innovation was by far the most often implemented
innovation type. While technological innovation was not related to any
of the independent variables, administrative innovation was positively
related to the value dimensions of team orientation and stability. Taking
a closer look at the relationship between leadership and organizational
culture variables provided useful insights into why there was little
association between organizational innovation and the independent variables.
Limitations of the study are discussed along with implications for social
work practice.
Results
of this study are discussed in the following article:
Jaskyte,
K., & Kisieliene, A. Organizational factors, leadership practices,
and adoption of administrative and technological innovations: An exploratory
study of Lithuanian nonprofit organizations. European Journal of Social
Work, 9(1), 21-37.