Organization Structure and Strategy.

The first of the four papers in this symposium, "Human Resource Development's Contribution to Strategic Service Quality Performance in Radisson Hotels Worldwide" (Richard A. Swanson, Julie M. Hays, Arthur V. Hill, George John, David W. Johnson, Susan Geurs), illustrates the strategic alignment and contribution of HRD (human resource development) to service quality through improvement in performance measures in 29 hotels testing a performance improvement program that included a primary HRD component. "Mastering Turbulent Growth: A Growth Audit at a Major Pharmaceutical Research Center" (Michael Leimbach, Meredith Ceh) presents a model for conceptualizing the nature of organizational growth and provides a case example of how this framework was applied as a diagnostic tool within a major pharmaceutical research center, with results that clarified the human resource implications of the organization's growth strategy. "A Study of the Role of HRD in Response to External Environmental Change in Public Service Organizations" (Kenneth R. Bartlett) explores the role of HRD in response to external environmental change as a component of strategic human resource management planning, with results showing a high level of support for HRD activities highlighting the need for HRD researchers to concentrate efforts on developing frameworks that are of equal applicability in large and small private and public agencies. "Operationalizing Alignment: Testing Alignment Theory" (Steve W. Semler) presents a theory-based operational definition of organizational alignment for research; it includes an operationalization of the alignment construct and a description of an alignment measurement instrument. (KC)