International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
Development plan for the organization
In addition to university level, development plans are always made for department and individual level. All
development plans involve writing down the targets of improvement, goals, means, schedule, persons in charge,
evaluation, and monitoring. The plans can be made for a shorter and longer period of time separately (Viitala
2008, 258.)
The development plan for university is executed by the management, and it can thus define the methods for
improving and developing the whole organization. The departments themselves can further clarify the goals for
them to achieve. Individual development plans (picture 4) are specified in development discussions. Also
individual needs as well as the university’s definition of development will be observed in these discussions. An
individual development plan can be added to the development discussion form which then will be analyzed in
the following discussion (Hätönen 2003, 51.)
Picture 5. Competency development process.
From the point of view of a university the objective of competency development is to improve competency,
and thus enhance operation and its quality. The requirements for the success of the university are competency
development and profitability improvement.
Personnel training and in-service training are traditional methods of improving competency at work.
Orientation
Competency development begins with orientation to person’s employment. In order to do this there should
exist an updated orientation guide. Having the guide in e-form facilitates adding new links and removing the old
ones. A follow-up form guarantees a proper implementation of orientation. The success and implementation of
orientation should be evaluated semiannually, for example.
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