bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dynamics of the manufacturer‐supplier relationships in emerging markets
Authors: Petison Phallapa , Johri Lalit M.
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nature and the evolution of manufacturer–supplier relationships in Thailand's automobile industry and to identify the factors that influence the evolution of these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on case research method involving in‐depth interviews with 120 local and expatriates of 7 companies and their 14 suppliers.

Findings

In Thailand, the manufacturer–supplier relationship starts out as a market‐exchange‐type relationship, and then gradually moves to a partnering type. The stages in evolution involve constant efforts on the part of foreign manufacturers to develop the suppliers by offering resources, training, feedback and solutions. The supplier capability building programs, bridging of cultural differences and formation of trust provides the basis for enduring partnerships. These partnerships are symbiotic relationships in which manufacturers benefit from suppliers' knowledge of local production and market factors and suppliers benefit from manufacturer's technical and managerial support. Additionally, closer collaboration with suppliers helps to prevent the leakage of business intelligence and theft of intellectual property and to prevent suppliers from working with competitors, thus allowing manufacturers to devote undivided attention to smooth supply of parts without any shortage.

Practical implications

In emerging markets, the local suppliers play key role in the success of foreign automobile companies. However, the local suppliers need technical and managerial support from manufacturers. The process of building a network of competent local suppliers consumes time and resources, therefore manufacturers should take a long‐term view of the market. The undeniable importance of overcoming cultural differences and building trust is the hallmark of successful partnerships.

Originality/value

The paper highlights the importance and process of developing local suppliers in emerging markets using Thai automobile industry as an example.
Hearts at stake
Authors: Balle Nana
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The paper aims to present a model for communicating mergers and acquisitions.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a case study of a corporate merger.

Findings

Communication is a crucial strategic tool in the integration process that follows a merger or an acquisition. M&As differ from other changes as virtually everything is at stake – both practical issues as well as the corporate identity. Hence, the identity issue must be addressed specifically, as a change in corporate identity is expected to affect the employees seriously due to the identification with the corporate identity. The paper also emphasizes the importance of empowering and enabling middle managers for the communication task in order to act as change agents, as the middle manager has reason to feel as “endangered” by the acquisition as his/her employees.

Originality/value

The paper offers a practical model for integration communication.
Workout management of non‐performing loans
Authors: Rottke Nico B. , Gentgen Julia
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The German banking sector has recently been facing high real estate loan default rates resulting in the accumulation of a high volume of distressed real estate debt in the banks' balance sheets. As a consequence, German banks are confronted with the workout of their non‐ and sub‐performing real estate loans to proactively solve the problem. When doing so, banks have to decide whether they want to conduct the loan workout in their own workout departments (integrative approach) or whether they prefer to outsource the workout to a third party servicer or even sell their bad loan exposure to an external investor (disintegrative approach). This paper aims to investigate this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

A bank's decision to employ an integrative or a disintegrative approach can be transferred into a make‐or buy‐decision as described by the transaction cost economics. The transaction between the bank and the workout manager is analysed by the transaction characteristics of the transaction cost economics. The specificity of the human capital required for the loan workout of real estate loans is a key consideration for answering the question of integration or disintegration. Assuming highly specific investments for both, the workout manager and the bank, a formal model compares the aggregated pay offs for the bank and the workout manager to determine the optimal control structure for the specific assets.

Findings

Following the assumptions of the transaction cost economics, the specificity of the investment of the workout manager (and also the bank) is crucial for the decision of integrating or disintegrating the workout of real estate loans. The degree of specificity required to perform the workout tasks depends on the status of underlying credit engagement and the characteristics of the collateral (the real estate). The formal analysis shows that the bank and the workout manager both under‐invest in integration and disintegration scenarios. However, if the degree of specificity of the investments is equal, nonintegration is superior to integration. Forward integration is superior to nonintegration, if the bank's investment is more specific than the workout manager's investment.

Originality/value

This research paper approaches the problematic from an academic stand point, integrating both the banking and the real estate perspective and aims to provide a recommendation for banks on the integration or disintegration of the workout unit for a certain real estate secured loan portfolio.
Facing the future: energy performance certificates and commercial property
Authors: Dixon Tim , Keeping Miles , Roberts Claire
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The paper aims to present the findings of a “situation review” of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), focusing on energy performance certificates (EPCs) to highlight areas of specific importance for the UK property investment community. The paper is based on research commissioned by the Investment Property Forum (IPF) and funded through the IPF Research Programme (2006‐2009).

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews were undertaken with experts from the fields of property investment and building engineering. The interviews were undertaken with to identify: the current knowledge of EPCs in the property investment sector; key issues with practical implementation of the legislation; and perceptions of the potential impacts of legislation, particularly in relation to value stakeholder and behaviour.

Findings

The paper finds that, although the regulations have been published, there is still a need for clarification in the marketplace with regard to some of the detail of regulations and the certification process. The following areas are of most concern to property investors: costs of surveys; potential difficulties with the process; and a shortage of assessors. With respect to these impacts it is becoming clear that investors who have not yet started considering the EPBD and its requirements within their strategy are likely to face difficulties in the short term. The most significant value‐related impacts of EPBD are expected to be value differentiation of properties and “price chipping” against the rental or capital value of the property, where an occupier or potential purchaser will use the recommendations contained within an EPC to force a reduction in value. The latter is expected to emerge in the short term, whereas the former is expected to be realised over the medium to long term. Both these impacts have potentially significant implications for property investment holdings and also future investment behaviour.

Originality/value

The paper provides useful information the importance of EPCs.
Accelerating the improvement process
Authors: Mugglestone Mark , Maher Lynne , Manson Nick , Baxter Helen
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a structured improvement process that is used in all programmes of work of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (NHS Institute).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper outlines the background to the development of the improvement process, specifically how learning from the domains of new product development, user centred design and innovation and creativity have been incorporated into the process.

Findings

There are key elements of evidence and experience that can be taken from other domains and incorporated into a structured approach to healthcare improvement.

Practical implications

An improvement process is outlined that could be used as a basis for any healthcare improvement effort, and will help to ensure the development of better solutions more quickly.

Originality/value

This paper introduces a process that will help anyone interested in improving healthcare create better solutions to the challenges they face in shorter timescales.
Attainment of competency in management and leadership
Authors: Clark John , Armit Kirsten
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of a research and consultation project being undertaken by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to develop an integrated medical management and leadership competency framework. This will apply to all doctors in training at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and post‐registration.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review and consultation approach has been adopted. By interviewing appropriate stakeholders from medical professional, educational, service and regulatory bodies, a high level of awareness and engagement has been realised. This should pay dividends at the implementation phase.

Findings

Whilst some management and leadership is included within current curricula, it is highly variable both in terms of its coverage and relevance. At undergraduate level, it is often covered within professional development modules. At postgraduate level, some exciting initiatives are offered for some doctors but no integrated, systematic and coherent framework exists. Findings from the research are influencing the design and content of the emerging competency framework.

Research limitations/implications

The approach used has provided a good range of information however, neither an exhaustive set of views or a full literature review has been obtained.

Practical implications

Introduction of the Medical Leadership Competency Framework will have a significant impact on how doctors are trained. To be deemed an effective and safe doctor in the future, competence in both clinical and wider non‐clinical competences including management and leadership will be required.

Originality/value

This paper will raise awareness of this important initiative and offer a methodology for other clinical professional groups, nationally and internationally.
Maximizing shareholder‐value
Authors: McSweeney Brendan
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the claim that the pursuit of maximum value (wealth) for shareholders optimises economic and social benefits for society as a whole.

Design/methodology/approach

Evidence cited in support of the claim and the methodology employed by its supporters are examined. Counter‐evidence from a wide range of disciplines, including accounting, economics, finance, and medical sociology, is considered.

Findings

The evidence does not support the claim. Bias and severe methodological flaws in its supporters' research is revealed. Considerable evidence of adverse consequences is identified.

Originality/value

This paper draws from an unusually wide range of disciplines to expose the fallacy and a number of powerful myths about the economic and social benefits of making maximizing shareholder value the primary aim of corporate governance.
Corporate social responsibility in Nigerian banking system
Authors: Achua Joseph K.
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The ongoing reforms in the Nigerian banking system have resulted to mega banks, driven by advanced competition. This has raised concerns about their social and environmental performance. The purpose of this paper is to agitate for the prioritization of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the foremost condition for banking stability in the reforms.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws largely from the theory of CSR, and reviews pertinent policies and practices in the Nigerian banking system.

Findings

The paper identifies self‐induced vices, regulatory laxity, inauspicious macro‐economic environment, and endemic corruption in the economy as the major constraints to the discharge of CSR in the Nigerian banking system.

Practical implications

It may be necessary to restructure the Central Bank of Nigeria to clearly separate the roles of banks' supervision from fiscal policy management for a more effective economic, social and environmental viability of the banking system. Furthermore, the banking system should focus less exclusively on shareholders and financial measures of success to include all stakeholders' relationships in their mission to sustain competitive success in the future.

Originality/value

It is imperative that external regulation should be blended with conscious self‐regulations by the banking institutions for the reforms to effectively include the delivery of CSR. This should be anchored on effective corporate governance in the banking institutions in the system.
Tackling opposition to implementing fiscal reform in developing countries
Authors: Caspary Georg
Published: February 2008

Purpose

This paper seeks to examine ways in which political opposition to market‐oriented reforms in emerging markets can be challenged.

Design/methodology/approach

An in‐depth study of two industrial sectors is undertaken – natural resource industries and infrastructure since both these sectors are closely related to poverty alleviation in developing countries. The paper is based on a two‐year discussion and review process the OECD organized among its member countries (mostly aid agencies that had been involved in fiscal reform in developing countries) in collaboration with the IMF, the World Bank, and experts and government representatives from China, India and South Africa between 2003 and 2005.

Findings

A series of findings related to government policy in the face of opposition to economic reforms include an emphasis on consultation, local ownership and pragmatism.

Originality/value

This paper offers clear guidance on government reforms in emerging markets based on specific analysis of key sectors.
Conceptions of learning and managing the flow of knowledge in the project‐based environment
Authors: Sense Andrew J.
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how people can conceive learning and knowledge management processes within project teams and provides conceptual guidance on the most effective way to managerially approach these important and often neglected project issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper which draws on and dissects a very broad and relevant literature on learning and knowledge management.

Findings

Based on the analysis conducted, and with an eye to improving project learning, project outcomes and participant learning skills, the key argument of this paper is that participants in project teams must acknowledge and pursue a more socially oriented trajectory in their learning and knowledge management activities. Therein, the participants, their project practices and the organization of the project environment become the focal points of attention and action.

Research limitations/implications

This paper puts forward a conceptually grounded argument for a greater practical emphasis to be placed on the social systems in learning and knowledge management processes in projects. The opportunity exists to test this argument in further empirical project studies.

Practical implications

This paper provides a foundation for project practitioners to critically reflect on their current learning and knowledge management attitudes and practices, while encouraging their attention towards the management of their project social systems.

Originality/value

This paper confronts conventional and limited perspectives about learning and managing the flow of knowledge within projects, and serves to stimulate participant and researcher reflection on more socially oriented approaches towards these project activities.
Leading dynamically complex projects
Authors: Cavaleri Steven , Reed Fred
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The paper seeks to establish a critical role for leaders in guiding projects to higher levels of effectiveness. This role centers on using the thinking capacities associated with systems thinking, knowledge processing, action learning, and pragmatism. It is also to design systems to imbue these capacities into the operation of project teams.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a case study, action‐research observations, and conceptual models. Actual case studies including a medium‐sized US manufacturer and a large shipyard.

Findings

This paper includes a section that presents research findings that suggest efforts by managers to improve profits actually reduced profit in the longer term due to erroneous learning and low‐quality knowledge.

Research limitations/implications

The research presented does not focus specifically on project teams, but rather on the interplay between project teams and the larger organizations of which they are part.

Practical implications

In certain industries, the performance track record of project teams for operating according to schedule and within budget is dismal. Such failures have been wrongly attributed to bad staffing, poor decision making, internal politics, or external forces. This paper proposes that the more common reasons for such failures are erroneous learning caused by misperceptions of dynamic feedback, low‐quality knowledge, imbalances among system elements, and failure to account for dynamics and time delays. An approach called project management system pragmatics is proposed for use by leaders as a way to improve the effectiveness of project teams.

Originality/value

This is the first approach to project management/leadership that offers practical ways for leaders to conceive of how to deal with the ambiguities posed by the dynamics of the complex systems many project teams operate within.
Subcontractors' business relationships as risk sources in project networks
Authors: Artto Karlos , Eloranta Kirsi , Kujala Jaakko
Published: February 2008

Purpose

This paper seeks to address the risks for a main contractor firm's project business that arise from subcontractors' inter‐organizational relationships in complex‐ and dynamic‐project networks.

Design/methodology/approach

Existing project risk management research neglects the management of such relational risks in networks. This paper discusses this un‐researched area by analyzing triads representing sub‐networks of three actors in a larger network. The empirical study employed several semi‐structured interviews in two global contractor organizations. Critical incidents identified in triadic settings were used to explain the logic of how risks arose from subcontractors' inter‐organizational relationships.

Findings

This paper identifies four categories of risk sources characterized by subcontractors' inter‐organizational relationships. The four risk source categories are based on subcontractors' relationships with other subcontractors, the contractor's competitor the contractor's client and non‐business actors (e.g. a local authority or regulatory body).

Research limitations/implications

The empirical study emphasizes the dynamic nature of the risks that business relationships cause in the main contractor's current and future projects and business. Furthermore, the empirical analysis suggests that the risks arising from subcontractors' relationships have an impact on two different layers: the temporary project network layer and the permanent business network layer. The impacts of risk on the temporary project network layer relate to specific sales and delivery projects, whereas the impacts of risk on the permanent business network layer relate often to changes in the network position of the business players.

Originality/value

This paper suggests a novel risk management approach, where risks and opportunities arising from subcontractors' relationships are actively taken into account in subcontractor management.
Project management: a case study of a successful ERP implementation
Authors: Carton Fergal , Adam Frederic , Sammon David
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The success rate of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations is not high in view of the sums invested by organisations in these applications. It has often been indicated that a combination of inadequate preparedness and inappropriate project management have been responsible for the low‐success rate of ERP implementations. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a successful ERP implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors use a case study of a very successful roll out of an ERP application in the Irish subsidiary of a UK multinational to investigate the validity of one of the most commonly cited project management frameworks, the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK), to ERP projects. Discussing each category of the framework in turn, the case data to illustrate where the PMBOK framework is a good fit or needs refining for ERP projects is used.

Findings

It is found that, by and large, PMBOK, because it is a very broad framework, can shed light on most of the key aspects of an ERP project. However, the specificities of this type of project require a different emphasis on some of the factors, as discussed in the authors conclusions. The case analysis also raised some interesting insights into how companies evaluate the success of such highly complex change management initiatives.

Research limitations/implications

This research work will need to be extended to cover other case studies of ERP implementation across other industries and organisational contexts; for example in less tightly regulated industries and smaller organisations.

Practical implications

This discussion will be of great value to ERP project managers who are in the early stages of a project and need to understand and anticipate the areas which will require specific attention on their part, based on their knowledge of the specific circumstances within their organisational context.

Originality/value

This paper presents an investigation into the project management strategy adopted in the Pharma Inc. case and illustrates the mechanics of a successful ERP project implementation, categorised using the PMBOK framework.
The other side of projects: the case for critical project studies
Authors: Hodgson Damian , Cicmil Svetlana
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this research note is to articulate the limitations that project management (PM) currently faces by outlining the PM literature's frequent neglect of political, social and ethical dimensions of PM work in order to raise a number of important themes that can be usefully integrated into mainstream PM literature.

Design/methodology/approach

Extensive research note which updates us on where PM research is heading.

Findings

PM is a highly complex, political and social process. The paper challenges readers, PM academics and practitioners to view PM more critically and to expand their appreciation of PM work as being more complex in its social context that merely delivering instrumentalist and mechanistic functional management processes.

Originality/value

This paper triggers a debate using critical PM research to engage with all levels of the project hierarchy with the aim of initiating some transformation in how actors perceive themselves, their voice, their broad responsibility and their influence in shaping their own social place.
Organizational commitment and intentions to quit
Authors: Addae Helena M. , Praveen Parboteeah K. , Davis Evyan E.
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The study, conducted in Trinidad and Tobago, seeks to investigate the relationships among perceived organizational support, psychological contract, and affective organizational commitment. In addition, the study aims to test the moderating effect of psychological contract breach in the relationship between affective commitment and turnover intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was a cross‐sectional study of employees in media organizations in Trinidad and Tobago.

Findings

Perceived organizational support led to affective commitment and the latter, in turn, led to lowered turnover intentions. However, employees with higher levels of affective commitment who perceived a psychological contract breach were more likely to think about quitting their jobs. There was no significant relationship between employees' psychological contract and their affective commitment.

Research limitations/implications

The study's findings are generalizable to other print media organizations and perhaps to similar businesses in the Caribbean region. Future research should examine the antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment in other parts of the Caribbean and in non‐Western settings. This will serve to determine the cross‐national applicability and generalizability of results found in studies conducted elsewhere.

Practical implications

The study suggested that to avoid psychological contract breach and retain employees who identify with their values and goals, organizations ought to provide feedback, support career development, and engage in participative decision‐making.

Originality/value

This study contributes to theory and research in organizational commitment in two main ways. Firstly, this is one of the few studies to examine the phenomenon in the Caribbean. Secondly, the findings of this study lend support to similar studies that have been conducted mainly in North America.
Consequences of restrictive and promotive managerial control among American university professors
Authors: Elias Steven M. , MacDonald Scott R.
Published: February 2008

Purpose

While managerial influence has received much research attention, Scholl has presented a fairly new approach to examining such influence. This approach distinguishes between restrictive (pushing one's wishes through, although they may run counter to the interests of another) and promotive control (influencing another in a way that is in line with his or her interests). The current research intends to offer a preliminary investigation into the relationships between these control tactics, leader‐member exchange, and organizational commitment.

Design/methodology/approach

University faculty members (n=46) completed measures of restrictive and promotive control, leader member exchange and organizational commitment in relation to their department chairs.

Findings

Statistical analysis indicates relationships exist between all variables of interest, but that leader‐member exchange mediates several managerial control‐organizational commitment relationships.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation for this study is its relatively small sample size. As a result, implications of the results are discussed with an emphasis on future research.

Originality/value

The distinction between restrictive and promotive control is important because it offers a highly parsimonious way of viewing influence and leadership.
An examination of cognition and affect in strategic decision‐making
Authors: Kim Kong‐Hee , Tyge Payne G. , Tan James A.
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to better understand the nature of the decision maker's cognitive‐affective information processing behavior in the context of strategic decision making.

Design/methodology/approach

Reviews of the psychological science, organizational behavior, and strategic management literatures serve as a foundation for the development of a model and a series of research propositions. Propositions and model development lead to a discussion regarding limitations of the current literature, as well as areas for future research that incorporates cognitive‐affective information processing issues in organizational research.

Findings

Organizational homogeneous and heterogeneous behaviors in the organizational adaptation process depend on a strategic decision maker's cognitive‐affective informational interpretation of both internal and external environmental stimuli.

Research limitations/implications

The focus of this article is limited to the individual level of analysis. Further theoretical and empirical research should investigate how the framework could be applied at the team and organizational levels and how it holds under various industrial and/or environmental conditions.

Practical implications

This article informs practicing managers of how their decision‐making behavior is influenced by both cognition and affect when they scan and process their strategic informational environment and, furthermore, how these influence their choice of organizational forms and practices.

Originality/value

Extends theoretical understanding of cognitive‐affective informational processing and its influence on the organizational homogeneous‐heterogeneous adaptation process.
The impact of work alienation on organizational citizenship behavior in the Canary Islands
Authors: Jesús Suárez‐Mendoza María , Zoghbi‐Manrique‐de‐Lara Pablo
Published: February 2008

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to examine work alienation (WA) as a mediator in the relationship between employees' perceptions of person‐organization (PO) fit – operationalized as value congruence – and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) directed at their organization (OCBO), co‐workers (OCBIC), and students or clients (OCBIS).

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 99 of the 156 (63.5 percent) teachers at a district high school in Spain. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the predicted relationships.

Findings

Results support that PO fit is an antecedent of OCBO, OCBIC, and OCBIS and also, in general, that the three dimensions of WA (powerlessness, meaninglessness, and self‐estrangement) mediate this link. Separately, all WA dimensions are totally or partially supported as “full mediators,” except for powerlessness and meaninglessness that appear to act on OCBIS as “partial mediators.” The model tested suggests PO fit predicts OCB and that this relationship can be explained by the mediating role of WA.

Research limitations/implications

Subjects in this study reflect job conditions peculiar to the public sector. This may limit the ability to extrapolate the findings to the private sector. Also, results may not generalize to other cultural or national contexts. The findings contribute to an improved understanding of the influence of PO value fit/misfit on OCB.

Practical implications

Understanding how PO fit is able to affect citizenship behavior suggests that actions designed to promote PO fit may be useful for more efficiently managing employee WA, and, therefore, more powerfully eliciting OCB in the workplace.

Originality/value

Employee work alienation is demonstrated to be a mediator in the relationship between PO fit and OCB. This is the first empirical test of this relationship.
The Female Chief Executive:An Analysis of Career Progress and Development Needs
Authors: Kakabadse Andrew , Margerison Charles
Published: February 2008

A study of US female chief executive officers (CEOs) identifies the women as more creative, better qualified, and appointed to the role of CEO at a younger age. Although female CEOs identify the importance of motivation, personal drive and people skills as key reasons for success, they equally emphasise organisation and administrative skills, while the male CEOs highlight working effectively in teams. Based on these results, recommendations concerning the development of the female CEO are offered.
Work Attitudes in an Employee‐owned Company:
Authors: Cacioppe Ron L. , Kenny Graham K.
Published: February 2008

A study of employee involvement in the management and ownership of NVC Australia Pty Ltd indicated high levels of work satisfaction, job security, decision influence, productivity, communication, commitment and involvement. Although only one organisation has been analysed, it is clear that employee ownership and participation provide interesting alternatives for organisations to face the challenges of the present social and economic situations.
Reality and Illusion in Senior Executive Decision Making
Authors: Heller Frank A.
Published: February 2008

The “Peter Principle” is contradicted here. Alternative methods of decision making and research are examined and it is concluded that many organisations have untapped reservoirs of skill and experience which, if utilised, could increase the talent available to companies.
Recruitment and Selection for Company Culture
Authors: Bergwerk Jonathan
Published: February 2008

What should recruiters be looking for when they are selecting managers or potential managers? Standard methods of recruitment are examined and new ways are rwcommended, based on the author's experience of four major needs: the needs of the job itself, the current needs of the team that will work with the jobholder, the needs of the organisation and the needs of the future.
A Computer‐based Employee Skills Inventory System
Authors: Lorenzo Robert V.
Published: February 2008

The process of designing, developing and implementing a computer‐based employee skills inventory system within the Ford Motor Company is described. Important factors influencing the success of such a system are focused on from the perspective of an industrial/organisational psychologist. It is argued that the key to successful consultation is the adoption of a collaborative style that encourages and supports the active involvement of management and employees.
Police Chief Officers: A Management Development Survey
Authors: Kakabadse Andrew , Dainty Paul
Published: February 2008

The personalities, style and job demands of top ranking police officers have never before been seriously analysed. Here, by using a management development survey, key personality characteristics and the management and interpersonal styles of top ranking officers are identified. The views of chief officers are discussed, together with an examination of the necessary qualities required. Ways in which senior officers can improve their performance through management training and development and how this can assist their professional growth and development, are emphasised.
Steps to Improved Performance Counselling
Authors: Wayne Smith H.
Published: February 2008

Performance counselling is a powerful motivational tool and can be defined as a formal discussion between a manager and a subordinate for the purpose of discussing the subordinate's current job performance, determining why the performance is at its current level (whether acceptable or not), and outlining ways in which the subordinate can perform better in the future — to the ultimate benefit of all: the subordinate, the manager and the organisation. They key is to focus on the future. The challenge to the manager is to provide a climate in which employee growth is actively encouraged.
Reactions to Incongruency: Job Expectations and Reality
Authors: Savery Lawson K.
Published: February 2008

Burnout of employees has been a major concern of researchers in management for a number of years. Much of the work, however, has tended to concentrate on professional people rather than employees with various level of skills. This present research studies the employees of a major local government in Western Australia comparing several suggested outcomes. The results suggest that failure to achieve expectations causes occupational stress and low job satisfaction. These outcomes appear to cause the sufferers to exhibit the classic symptoms of burnout, such as irritability and misdirected anger. One way to reduce these problems, it is suggested, is to introduce participative management.
Cost‐effective Approaches to Women's Career Development
Authors: Rothwell Sheila
Published: February 2008

Most of today's policy proposals are considered according to whether they are ‘cost‐effective’. It is no longer enough to attempt a retrospective cost‐benefit analysis, although this is also often needed. Given this requirement for cost‐effectiveness, how can one justify expenditure on women's career development? Is it an expensive luxury at the best of times, let alone during the worst recession for fifty years?
Onward, Ever Onward
Authors: Holman Jackie
Published: February 2008

‘Onwards and Upwards’ is the rallying title of the unit's ‘reunion conference of all women who have attended courses and conferences run by the Industrial Society for women over the last ten years’. I was cheating, of course; I had never been on one of their courses, but I was invited along, and so set off one fine Saturday morn in May.
Team Evaluation
Authors: Edwards Mark R. , Cook Suzanne H.
Published: February 2008

A disturbing productivity loss occurs through the underutilization of women, and a negative effect on productivity is caused by the mis‐classification and under‐representation of truly high performers and by the inflation of the ratings of mediocre performers.
A Programme of Positive Action
Authors: Knowles Wilf
Published: February 2008

In response to readers' requests, we are including occasional articles that define certain concepts that are basic to the subject of women in management. In this first article, Wilf Knowles, Assistant Chief Executive at the Equal Opportunities Commission, discusses positive action.
Women's Work Motivations & Positive Action
Authors: Serdjénian Evelyne
Published: February 2008

Why are more and more women entering the employment market and remaining in it when they have children, and what can their employers do to help? Evelyne Serdjénian first looked into these questions ten years ago in a study of 3500 women in IBM France, which she edited, called Femmes 76. Here she reports the study's findings on women's work motivations and work dissatisfactions and goes on to consider the opportunities and limitations of equality at work and the conditions required for implementing affirmative action programmes.
Enter the entrepreneuse
Authors: Skinner Jane
Published: February 2008

Why is Jane Skinner starting a women's enterprise agency at the Aston Management Centre, where she is Director of Post Experience Studies? Not only because there's a strong demand for it, she says, but also because it represents an opportunity for women to make work of their own choosing which is open only for a brief time—now.
What Exactly Are The Differences in Male and Female Working Styles?
Authors: Vinnicombe Susan
Published: February 2008

Women have different managerial styles than men: they are more co‐operative, prefer creative involvement to administrative disengagement and are personal rather than detached … or such are the stereotypes. Now Dr Susan Vinnicombe has something more substantial to say about women's different qualities as managers. She reports here on research she conducted at Cranfield School of Management which reveals how women differ from men as managers.
Home Thoughts of A Broad
Authors: Baines Alison
Published: February 2008

In the autumn a woman's fancy lightly turns to—working abroad? They do if they are prompted by recent memories of exotic foreign parts, contrasting with the gloom of la rentŕee. The expatriate life is not only the province of fast‐stream executives in international companies. As some of the women Alison Baines talks to below show, it can be a leg‐up in career terms. Here she outlines some of the issues involved in exporting your skills.
Wanted—women experts
Authors: Novaković Ana
Published: February 2008

Seeing women experts in action helps build up women's credibility as leaders and experts in a wider range of fields than traditional ‘women's work’, but it is all too infrequent to find women with authority appearing in the media. Hoping to put this right is a new campaign to gather and promote women as experts, through the media of radio and television.
CYBERNETICS OF AGEING
Authors: HELVEY T.C.
Published: February 2008

The process of ageing is discussed from the point of view of biocybernetics. In the first part of the paper analytical factors are enumerated. Later in the paper the synthetic‐cybernetic aspects of gerontology are discussed and some illustrative examples mentioned. Finally, assuming a successful prolongation of the life‐expectancy of man, some philosophical questions are raised concerning cybernetic interactions in a world, in which one of the most important component subsystems, man, will interact maybe five times longer with the total system than in its present semi‐homeostatic equilibrium.
CONCEPTUAL BASIS FOR A MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF GENERAL SYSTEMS
Authors: MESAROVIC MIHAJLO D.
Published: February 2008

In view of the increased domain of application of the systems approach there is a need for reappraisal of its foundations and a sharpening of the basic systems concepts. This is done in the article on the basis of a general theory of systems developed within the set‐theory and related branches of abstract mathematics. Importance of the goal‐seeking representation of the systems behavior and the basic classification of large‐scale systems are briefly discussed.
SYSTEMIC RESEARCH FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Authors: DAVID MITCHELL P.
Published: February 2008

Educational research today operates within the context of existing educational institutions, rarely breaking through conceptual and practical barriers to systemic change. But new educational needs, resources and technology demand change in organization and policy. In order to provide adequate educational services we need a new breed of researcher, comparable to the early operational research group, who will contribute multi‐disciplinary skills to systemic analysis and management of education as a whole. From this perspective they may formulate a metasystemic model of education containing a hierarchy of subsystems arranged according to where education occurs. An Educational Development Directorate, by providing continuous analysis of such a model, will feed back to all educational planners the probable effects of their decisions and provide them with alternatives. Such an information system should lead to optimization of resources and genuine alternatives in education.
WORDS AND MODELS (Systems Approach to Linguistics)
Authors: GOLDSMITH EDWARD
Published: February 2008

What is the unit of semantic analysis? A word by itself does not mean a great deal. It means more when associated with other words, i.e. when used in a specific context. Together they can be regarded as constituting a model. When building a model one must choose the appropriate variables for them. Words suitable for one context or model are not necessarily appropriate for another. Thus the words used in ordinary language are not always appropriate for the more objective models built by scientists; they were developed for a more subjective model that has come down to us as part of our cultural heritage. The fact that contexts are often implicit rather than explicit makes it possible to use words in such a way as to convey to them their meaning when used in a totally different context. This is the basis of many ambiguities and verbal tricks. It is facilitated by our tendency towards “nominal realism”, i.e. towards regarding words as real things as opposed to units of a model designed to represent real situations for specific purposes. It is only by regarding them in the latter way that such ambiguities can be avoided.
A GENERAL THEORY FOR AUTOMATIC DIAGNOSIS
Authors: HEAPS H.S.
Published: February 2008

The problem of automatic diagnosis by use of a computer is expressed as an optimization problem in which parameters are chosen to minimize the diagnosis errors in reference to a previously treated set of patients. The results are expressed in terms of statistical measures of mutual associations of symptoms, and of symptoms with diseases. A decision criterion is discussed, and a formula is derived to describe the diagnostic value of each symptom. No assumptions are made regarding mutual exclusiveness of diseases or statistical independence of symptoms.
DEVELOPMENT OF A REAL‐TIME ADAPTIVE CONTROL TECHNIQUE
Authors: SWANICK B.H. , SANDOZ D.J.
Published: February 2008

An adaptive technique is described which relies upon identifying the transition and driving matrices of a linear dynamic system. By identifying these matrices a sub‐optimal controller is updated so that effective control is maintained. The method may be extended to non‐linear and time varying systems by employing quasi‐linearization. The simplicity of the algorithm allows real‐time control of systems for which there is no a priori knowledge concerning system dynamics. The scheme is illustrated using a hybrid computing system specifically designed for this purpose. Application of this technique to plant is referred to. This paper gives a history of the development of this particular deterministic approach to the adaptive control problem.
SATISFACTION PRINCIPLE IN MODELING BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS
Authors: MESAROVIC MIHAJLO D. , ERLANDSON ROBERT , MACKO DONALD , FLEMING DAVID
Published: February 2008

Satisfaction principle is introduced as a basis for explanation of the homeostatic behavior of biological organisms in changing environment. The principle is applied to explain the response of the eye‐tracking system which could not have been explained either by classical feedback approach or by using the optimization principle.
SELF‐REPRODUCTION AND CHAIN REACTIONS
Authors: HUMPHRIES J.
Published: February 2008

In this paper a distinction is drawn between self‐reproduction and chain reactions that demonstrates that while the two processes are similar in some respects there is an important difference between them and that the two should not be confused. It is argued that this difference lies in the conditions required for the initiation of the processes. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the initiation of self‐reproduction are found in a mechanism that is an integral part of an object, but in chain reactions these conditions are found in the environment.
INTELLIGENT BEHAVIOUR SYSTEMS BASED ON SEMANTIC NETWORKS
Authors: AMOSOV N.M. , KASATKIN A.M. , KASATKINA L.M. , KUSSUL E.M. , TALAEV S.A. , FOMENKO V.D.
Published: February 2008

This paper develops a hypothesis concerning the structure and interaction principles of main psychological programs in form of semantic networks. Models for the brain information mechanisms are proposed, including planning, decision making, complex concept forming and situation evaluation. Some experimental studies are described.
NOTES ON “GARDEN OF EDEN” CONFIGURATIONS OF HIGHER DEGREE
Authors: MORGAN CHARLES G.
Published: February 2008

This paper contains a generalization of the existing theory of Garden of Eden configurations in tessellation automata. We consider spaces of at most two dimensions but with transition functions having arbitrarily large neighborhoods. A configuration c is said to be Garden of Eden of degree n just in case there is no configuration from which c can arise in n time steps; c is Garden of Eden of minimal degree n just in case there is no smaller m such that c is Garden of Eden of degree m. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of Garden of Eden configurations of higher degree (and of degree 1) are established. Results are obtained relating decision procedures for Garden of Eden configurations of degree one to decision procedures for Garden of Eden configurations of higher degree.