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Understanding student experiences and the ability to predict satisfaction and retention continues to be an important topic in higher education. Among the many variables that have predictive capacity, recent research shows that a sense of belonging may be an important factor. The present study extends this logic to examine if a sense of community (which contains a subconstruct of belonging) is a better predictor of satisfaction and retention perceptions compared with academic achievement (i.e., grade point average and Dean's List status) and engagement (i.e., in class, in programs, and with others). Second, we examine if a sense of community responsibility predicts behavioral engagement toward the campus community (i.e., organizational citizenship behaviors). We carry out these aims to test the efficacy of the community experiences model and its application in higher education institutional research contexts.

Twenty-five years after John A. Miller described his seminal experiential Introduction to Organization and Management course in "JME," MGMT 101 (formerly MG 101) continues to be the foundation of management education at Bucknell University. In this article, the current MGMT 101 faculty members provide their perspective on contextual and operational changes in the course by providing an overview of MGMT 101's foundations, nuts-and-bolts elements of the course that have remained consistent and those that have evolved, and key elements that have either been affected by or have led to changes in the course. In all, this is the story of our ongoing efforts to assure that student learning is deep, meaningful, and responsive to the uncertain, daunting, provocative, and intriguing circumstances faced by organizations today.

Purpose: Administrators in higher-education settings routinely create planning documents that help steer the organization in mission-centric ways. In the area of sustainability planning, strategic plans, sustainability plans and climate action plans are the most common methods used. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if specific forms of planning predict sustainability outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: This question was evaluated via an empirical archival study of the AASHE STARS database in relation to planning, administration and governance credits and criteria to determine if specific forms of planning were predictive of sustainability implementation outcomes in the categories of Education and Research, Operations, Diversity and Affordability, Human Resources, Investment, Public Engagement and Innovation. Findings: Findings support the notion that climate action plans were most predictive of achieving sustainability outcomes, and strategic plans were best able to predict educational outcomes. Practical implications: These findings have important implications for the design and execution of sustainability planning processes in higher-education institutions. Originality/value: The academic literature contains relatively few empirical studies that demonstrate the capacity of planning on the realization of sustainability outcomes.

Recent scholarship has demonstrated that experiences in the community (i.e., a sense of community [SOC] and a SOC responsibility) can enhance employee psychological and behavioral outcomes. Recent evidence also shows that the experiences of the community are better able to predict employee outcomes compared to long‐regarded management and public management constructs. However, very little empirical evidence exists on antecedent conditions that help build community experiences at work. To evaluate this gap, we conducted interviews with executive leaders, and focus groups with administrative leaders, across four major facilities in a large nonprofit healthcare system that is headquartered in Pennsylvania, United States. The study confirmed the propositions of the Community Experience Model, and explored organizational conditions that appear to build community experiences. The findings help frame factors that scholars can empirically test in future studies, and assist executives, human resource professionals, and managers throughout an organization, in building community at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors highlight the potential for rethinking approaches to community and social change interventions that draw on participatory action research at the organizational and community level. They distinguish problem-centric from opportunity-centric approaches to social change. Theory on social norms suggests that problem-centric approaches work with the momentum of norms without substantively changing them. By contrast, opportunity-centric approaches have the potential to reframe and dramatically shift organizational and community norms. Appreciative inquiry (AI), a growing practice in organization development, is presented as an example of opportunity-centric change that induces innovation and collaboration through participatory methods. It is distinct from other methods that focus on resolving problems in organizations. The authors illustrate how an AI Summit, a large-scale inquiry designed with four phases: Discover, Dream, Design, and Destiny, can assist in an opportunity-centric process. They conclude by describing how opportunity-centric methodologies like AI fit well with the tenets and concerns of community psychologists. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Recent evidence has shown that when employees experience perceptions of community at work (i.e., a sense of community and a sense of community responsibility), psychological well‐being and behavioral engagement improve (e.g., greater job engagement, organizational citizenship, and leadership). Recent evidence also shows that experiences of community, as a motivational state, are better able to predict employee outcomes compared to a series of factors that have long been studied in the general management (i.e., affective organizational commitment, organizational identity) and in the public management literature (i.e., public service motivation). However, we know less about the conditions that lead to perceptions of community experiences at work. One recent qualitative investigation exposed a series of organizational conditions that appear to stimulate perceptions of community at work including C‐Suite leadership support, organizational structure and context, characteristics of connection, managerial, job, and work unit characteristics, and responsibilities of human resource management professionals. The present study extends this study by empirically investigating organizational cultural conditions that are associated with perceptions of community at work. We test the ability of the Competing Values Framework, which includes constructs of Hierarchy, Market, Adhocracy, and Clan organizational cultures, and their ability to predict perceptions of the community. Findings showed that clan culture was most associated with perceptions of community in general and that clan culture within a department plays an important role in perceiving community at work. This study helps scholars understand cultural conditions that can lead to psychological experiences of community, it begins to frame cultural factors that scholars can empirically test in future studies, and it assists executives and managers in conceiving approaches to building cultures of community at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research suggests experiencing community at work (i.e., perceiving a sense of community [SOC] and a sense of community responsibility [SOC‐R]) is important for employee and organizational outcomes, however, we know very little about how these constructs operate in human resource management contexts. This study peers into the strategic human resource management "black box," which is an organizational setting where psychological and social variables are believed to influence employee perceptions in ways that impact their individual functioning, and subsequently improve organizational outcomes. Specifically, the study tests hypotheses regarding the relationship between high‐involvement work climate (i.e., a human resource context), psychological need satisfaction, SOC, SOC‐R, organizational identification, and organizational citizenship behaviors, in an attempt to theoretically ground, and empirically test, if experiences of community matter in the human resource management "black box." Data from 312 employees across multiple organizations were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling, and the findings reveal that experiences of community likely play an important role in the strategic human resource black box. The findings highlight that human resource practitioners, and scholars at the intersection of community psychology and human resource management, should consider further evaluation and action around experiences of community at work. Such a focus may help to create and build more socially sustainable organizational contexts for employees where they can thrive while organizations attempt to achieve collective goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that a sense of community responsibility is crucial to mitigate the effects of viral spread. Many citizens across the world have heeded the call to isolate and self-distance, yet large numbers of individuals do not seem to understand their responsibility for others. This article explores how a sense of community responsibility is born in community contexts, how various features of a crisis impact community responsibility, and how public administration plays a crucial role in facilitating mitigation and solutions to crisis. The article also explores the utility of the Community Experience Model in crisis management contexts, and sets the stage for further exploration of community experiences in disaster and crisis scholarship and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrative reform has been a pervasive topic in public management over the past 140 years, and recent administrations continue to implement various methods of reform. In the past 25 years, the new public management agenda has dominated the reform landscape, yet recent conversations in public management suggest that a public value governance movement is afoot. As the United States faces a potential second term of Donald Trump, it seems logical that new public management and values-based governance scholarship will continue to inhabit the landscape of public management research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a new construct to the field of management called Psychological Sense of Community (PSOC). This is important because management scholars are calling for the creation of communities in organizations in an environment that lacks appropriate construct development. The aims of this article are threefold: (a) develop a working definition of PSOC via a review of the extant literature on PSOC from other disciplines with the goal of translating it into the domain of management, (b) synthesize findings from parallel literatures on the outcomes of PSOC with an eye toward exploring the relevance of such outcomes in management contexts, and (c) assess the value of PSOC as it relates to its uniqueness in relation to other prominent management constructs and its scope of applicability in a variety of management inquiry areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including the usage of action research as a primary investigative tool, the intersection of organization studies and community action, and the organization development (OD) concept of network organizations.

This article explores organization development (OD) interventions and their likelihood of increasing social change outcomes in public agencies. The central argument of this work is that public and nonprofit organizations can deliver better social outcomes by systematically engaging in OD interventions. An in-depth survey was conducted in 3 agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the end of the gubernatorial administration of Tom Ridge (1995-2002). During his administration, Governor Ridge led the agencies of Pennsylvania government through a large-scale change effort to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The change effort was a remarkable event for the Commonwealth because no other governor in the history of the state had attempted to conceptualize and deliver a comprehensive large-scale change management initiative. The successes and setbacks served as a fertile context to shed light on the following research question: Do OD interventions increase the likelihood that public organizations will deliver better social outcomes? This question is important in that public organizations may need to engage in organization development activities to improve their internal operations, which in turn may help them provide exemplary social outcomes to those whom they serve. In short, organization development interventions might allow public organizations to help themselves to help others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]