Improvement is the process of a thing moving from one state to a state considered to be better, usually by a change or addition that improves. The concept of improvement is important to governments and businesses, as well as to individuals.
Improvement is the process of a thing moving from one state to a state considered to be better, usually by a change or addition that improves. The concept of improvement is important to governments and businesses, as well as to individuals.
The term "improvement" in general means "gradual, piecemeal, but cumulative betterment", which can refer to both individuals and societies as a whole. [1] The term "improvement" historically referred to land improvement, the process of making wildland more suitable for human uses, particularly the cultivation of crops. [2] Agricultural writers contrasted "improvement" with the traditional custom that governed farming practices at the time. The belief in agricultural "improvement" was the belief that the earth could be made more fruitful. More specifically, it was the belief that "the knowledge of nature would allow the best possible use of resources". [3] It emerged in late medieval England and later shaped the colonies of the British Empire, through what Richard Drayton describes as "enlightened imperialism". The British believed "that they ultimately knew better than those on the ground". [4]
This limited agricultural use of the term changed in the 17th century, when "its metaphoric range was extended to include a host of social and political reforms aimed at growth, development, or perfection". [2] In short order, the term "improvement" became "nothing less than shorthand for the civilizing process", [2] [5] and thereafter "played an important role in eighteenth- century European debates over the foundations of social order". [2] Friedrich Nietzsche criticized this concept of "improvement" in his notes published in The Will to Power , asserting that it created a false and self-serving sense of human superiority over nature, and that the "civilizing" of man was actually a "softening". [6]
In the 20th century, the concept of improvement expanded even further. Businesses developed philosophies of having a continual improvement process, wherein all activities of the business are constantly examined to weed out inefficiencies and better ways of carrying out tasks. At the same time, the concept of an individual self-improvement blossomed, leading to "tremendous growth in self-help publishing [and] self-improvement culture", [7] wherein people assessed their lives in much the same way. Home improvement, the process or result of improving the efficiency, livability, or market value of a personal dwelling, has also become a substantial industry.
Sarah Tarlow, a professor of archaeology, has argued that the idea of “improvement” is so familiar to us today that it seems natural. It is therefore difficult to fully understand the history of “improvement” as a concept and to appreciate that it was a genuinely new way of thinking in the early modern period. Furthermore, in contemporary use, the notion of “improvement” is assumed to be positive. This assumption has limited the critical attention given to the history of the idea and the practices associated with it. For example, the enclosure of common land for private use was understood as an “improvement” in the eighteenth century. But this had both positive and negative effects for the different people involved. The poor family who were denied a crucial means of subsistence did not regard the newly enclosed fields as “better”. [8]
Many theories and practices exist with respect to improvement in business. For example, business process improvement is a systematic approach to help an organisation optimise its underlying processes to achieve more efficient results. One such approach is focused improvement, the ensemble of activities aimed at elevating the performance of any system, especially a business system, by working on eliminating its constraints one by one while not working on non-constraints. Performance improvement focuses on measuring the output of a particular business process or procedure, then modifying the process or procedure to increase the output, increase efficiency, or increase the effectiveness of the process or procedure. Quality improvement is one of the four aspects of the concept of quality management. A crucial component of professional development is evaluation. Recently, we have seen a push for evaluation systems to be used to sort and fire teachers—a supposed quick fix, but one that ignores the vast majority of dedicated educators. To be effective, an evaluation system must identify strengths and weaknesses, so that all teachers can get the necessary support to improve their practice.
Your commitment and ability to improve defines your potential which is of interest to anyone who is a customer, employer, stakeholder as like a craftsman his ability to improve represents the marked improvement in his work from one to the next.
Governments often use language proposing an improvement of processes or areas. In some places a business improvement district or tourism improvement district may be incorporated into urban zoning, with the enactment of laws intended to benefit businesses that are established in the area. An improvement trust, a type of legal trust created for the improvement of something, may be settled for the benefit of a municipal area.
In Western anthropology, philosophy, and literature, the Myth of the Noble savage refers to a stock character who is uncorrupted by civilization. As such, the "noble" savage symbolizes the innate goodness and moral superiority of a primitive people living in harmony with Nature. In the heroic drama of the stageplay The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards (1672), John Dryden represents the noble savage as an archetype of Man-as-Creature-of-Nature.
The ISO 14000 family is a set of international standards for environment management systems. It was developed in March 1996 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of it is help organizations (a) minimize how their operations negatively affect the environment ; (b) comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements; and (c) continually improve in the above.
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defined from a human resources perspective, where it denotes a level of discretion granted to an employee in his or her work. In such cases, autonomy is known to generally increase job satisfaction. Self-actualized individuals are thought to operate autonomously of external expectations. In a medical context, respect for a patient's personal autonomy is considered one of many fundamental ethical principles in medicine.
Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost.
An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon." Auditing also attempts to ensure that the books of accounts are properly maintained by the concern as required by law. Auditors consider the propositions before them, obtain evidence, roll forward prior year working papers, and evaluate the propositions in their auditing report.
Organization development (OD) is the study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change. The goal of which is to modify a group's/organization's performance and/or culture. The organizational changes are typically initiated by the group's stakeholders. OD emerged from human relations studies in the 1930s, during which psychologists realized that organizational structures and processes influence worker behavior and motivation.
Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative or positive qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. Criticism falls into several overlapping types including "theoretical, practical, impressionistic, affective, prescriptive, or descriptive".
A business process, business method, or business function is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks performed by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product for a particular customer or customers. Business processes occur at all organizational levels and may or may not be visible to the customers. A business process may often be visualized (modeled) as a flowchart of a sequence of activities with interleaving decision points or as a process matrix of a sequence of activities with relevance rules based on data in the process. The benefits of using business processes include improved customer satisfaction and improved agility for reacting to rapid market change. Process-oriented organizations break down the barriers of structural departments and try to avoid functional silos.
Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), previously called rational therapy and rational emotive therapy, is an active-directive, philosophically and empirically based psychotherapy, the aim of which is to resolve emotional and behavioral problems and disturbances and to help people to lead happier and more fulfilling lives.
A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to alternatives because it tends to produce superior results. Best practices are used to achieve quality as an alternative to mandatory standards. Best practices can be based on self-assessment or benchmarking. Best practice is a feature of accredited management standards such as ISO 9000 and ISO 14001.
PDCA or plan–do–check–act is an iterative design and management method used in business for the control and continual improvement of processes and products. It is also known as the Shewhart cycle, or the control circle/cycle. Another version of this PDCA cycle is OPDCA. The added stands for observation or as some versions say: "Observe the current condition." This emphasis on observation and current condition has currency with the literature on lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System. The PDCA cycle, with Ishikawa's changes, can be traced back to S. Mizuno of the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1959.
Other is a term used to define another person or people as separate from oneself. In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other distinguish other people from the Self, as a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person; as acknowledgement of being real; hence, the Other is dissimilar to and the opposite of the Self, of Us, and of the Same. The Constitutive Other is the relation between the personality and the person (body) of a human being; the relation of essential and superficial characteristics of personal identity that corresponds to the relationship between opposite, but correlative, characteristics of the Self, because the difference is inner-difference, within the Self.
Progress is movement towards a perceived refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. It is central to the philosophy of progressivism, which interprets progress as the set of advancements in technology, science, and social organization efficiency – the latter being generally achieved through direct societal action, as in social enterprise or through activism, but being also attainable through natural sociocultural evolution – that progressivism holds all human societies should strive towards.
This glossary of philosophy is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to philosophy and related disciplines, including logic, ethics, and theology.
Secular ethics is a branch of moral philosophy in which ethics is based solely on human faculties such as logic, empathy, reason or moral intuition, and not derived from belief in supernatural revelation or guidance—a source of ethics in many religions. Secular ethics refers to any ethical system that does not draw on the supernatural, and includes humanism, secularism and freethinking. A classical example of literature on secular ethics is the Kural text, authored by the ancient Indian philosopher Valluvar.
Competence is the set of demonstrable personal characteristics or KSAOs that enable job performance at a high level with consistency and minimal difficulty. Competency in human resources is an organizational criterion for excellence that encompasses the behaviors, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable employees to perform their roles effectively and reliably.
This glossary of education-related terms is based on how they commonly are used in Wikipedia articles. This article contains terms starting with A – C. Select a letter from the table of contents to find terms on other articles.
Managerialism is the idea that professional managers should run organizations in line with organizational routines which produce controllable and measurable results. It applies the procedures of running a for-profit business to any organization, with an emphasis on control, accountability, measurement, strategic planning and the micromanagement of staff.
Inclusive capitalism is a theoretical concept and policy movement that seeks to address the growing income and wealth inequality within Western capitalism following the financial crisis of 2007–2008.
An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or goals, rights and responsibilities. The concept of an individual features in many fields, including biology, law, and philosophy. Every individual contributes significantly to the growth of a civilization. Society is a multifaceted concept that is shaped and influenced by a wide range of different things, including human behaviors, attitudes, and ideas. The culture, morals, and beliefs of others as well as the general direction and trajectory of the society can all be influenced and shaped by an individual's activities.
