bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Creating and executing an internal communications plan for knowledge management systems deployments
Authors: O'Sullivan Kevin J. 
Published: March 2007

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to identify and define an internal communications plan that may assist in the successful deployment of a knowledge management system.Design/methodology/approachThis article focuses on communications strategies that may be adopted by organizations deploying knowledge management systems where resistance to the implementation of such systems may exist. Such resistance may be a result of issues such as trust, organizational culture and misunderstandings as to the nature of knowledge management and knowledge management systems. An internal communications plan is proposed with a focus on knowledge management systems which details target audiences, timing strategies and suggests possible media solutions including traditional collaterals and conversational support technologies to facilitate improved deployments of such systems.FindingsThe article proposes a framework of communications methodologies, timings and target audiences to be considered during the deployment, pilot and pre‐pilot phases of a KM system implementation. It concludes by discussing the opportunities to use conversational technologies in deploying KM systems to knowledge workers.Originality/valueThe deployment issues raised in this article are expected to be of value to KM system developers, project managers, systems analysts, business executives and academic researchers.
Measuring to learn whilst learning to measure
Authors: Parsons John 
Published: March 2007

PurposeA measurement system that strives to close the gaps between measures, vision and culture by aligning the cognitive and affective domains will address all the substantive measurement issues faced by leaders in complex organizations, thereby enabling the potential for organizational learning, enhanced decision making and sustainable performance improvement to be realized. This paper aims to explore the key technical (strategic) and social (cultural) issues that underpin the design and implementation of such integrated systems and the supporting tools and techniques available.Design/methodology/approachThis article analyses measurement systems and how they apply to decision makers.FindingsThe paper identifies vision, culture and measures as the elements of performance that must be aligned, highlighting the key dangers of misalignment and necessary remedial actions.Originality/valueThe paper demonstrates the importance of an organization's vision, culture and measures, and the need for the measurement system to address the cognitive (learning to measure) and affective (measuring to learn) domains. It defines new roles for practitioners and highlights the dangers that these bring despite the potential benefits for decision‐makers.
Challenging conventional wisdom related to defining business metrics: a behavioral approach
Authors: Buytendijk Frank A. 
Published: March 2007

PurposeMeasurement drives behavior. Unfortunately, most performance measurement initiatives overlook this fact. Implementations are performed top‐down with strategy as the starting‐point. There needs to be a better understanding of the cultural context of the metrics (What is driving the behaviors?) and a better understanding of what metrics are to define (How do we drive the right behaviors through measurement?). The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of a context‐based approach to performance metrics – by examining an organization's negative values – and the notion of a content‐based approach – by introducing the concept of business interface metrics.Design/methodology/approachThe article analyses business metrics.FindingsThe paper demonstrates the need to use interface metrics in order to better manager processes and deliver organizational values.Originality/valueTo get new insights, sometimes conventional wisdom needs to be challenged. Following best practices around metrics can prevent companies from reflecting on the effect of the metrics they are trying to put in place. By coming up with a different approach (business interface metrics and negative values), interesting insights can be gained. Moreover, taking a fresh approach ensures that new thinking takes place and that there are fewer conformist paths to fall back on.
Viability as a basis for performance measurement
Authors: Hoverstadt Patrick , Kendrick Ian , Morlidge Steve 
Published: March 2007

PurposeThe paper sets out to apply the concepts of cybernetics and the control of probabilistic systems to the issue of performance measurement within organizations.Design/methodology/approachConventional approaches to Performance Measurement have been based on a mechanistic “target‐plan‐variance” model that was introduced into mainstream management practice in the 1950s. It has been subject to criticism from within both the academic and practitioners community over the last 50 years but has proved remarkably resistant to change. Systems ideas, particularly those emanating in the field of cybernetics, have not been successfully applied in this field because, it is argued, the concepts have been misunderstood and falsely blamed for the perceived failings of conventional practice.FindingsThe paper identifies the shortcomings in “tradition” approaches to performance measurement in organizations and demonstrates how the application of cybernetics concepts can address these shortcomings.Originality/valueContrary to received wisdom in parts of the academic community, cybernetics potentially provides the intellectual building‐blocks for a new paradigm, based on a fundamental appreciation of what is required to manage the interdependencies between an organization and its environment and between its constituent parts. It holds the promise of developing a set of practice that is not only more efficient and effective as a control philosophy, but also more sensitive to the human need for self‐determination in the workplace.
Understanding decision making in organizations to focus its practices where it matters
Authors: Michel L. 
Published: March 2007

PurposeThe ability to make good decisions is the defining attribute of a high performance organization. The challenge is to ensure that good decision‐making practices permeate the entire organization. As organizations grow, employees make decisions in an increasingly complex, ambiguous, and uncertain environment. Formal practices enable employees to make decisions that are meaningful to the firm's stakeholders and guide their behaviours to align with the strategic intent of the firm as well as its values and norms.Design/methodology/approachThrough case studies and consultancy work the author has developed an approach to focus on management decision making and improved effectiveness.FindingsThis paper describes a diagnostic tool which helps companies understand how well their management systems support decision making and where CEOs should invest to focus leadership time and attention. The decision‐making scorecard and tools help CEOs design effectiveness management systems and focus its use to drive their specific business agenda.Originality/valueWith formal decision‐making practice in place, CEOs rely on delegation and control practices to ensure that employees make decisions in line with the organization's vision and values. Using the described approach, CEOs and employees focus their attention on the relevant control levers and use their time for interaction and learning rather than control. Furthermore they successfully apply more relevant decision‐making practices than before, and have abandoned extensive and expensive performance management projects in favour of more differentiated and focused initiatives that support their immediate goals with a direct impact. The tools have been used to ensure that the next strategic move delivers the expected value. In summary, good decision‐making practices translate the CEOs' power and responsibility into higher performance, growth and lower risk.
The public interest and the global, future telecommunications landscape
Authors: Blackman Colin 
Published: March 2007

PurposeTaking a forward looking and global perspective, the paper seeks to address the issue of whether the concept of public service telecommunications has any relevance to the future.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on published sources to look at the history of public service telecommunications, mainly in the USA, reviews the progress towards universal service across the world and explores the likely future developments in the telecommunications landscape over the next few decades.FindingsThe concept of public service telecommunications helped to stabilise the telecommunications industry in its infancy but ultimately stifled access to telecommunications services at affordable prices. However, the future will still need to be nurtured so that telecommunications are provided genuinely in a way that serves the public interest.Originality/valueProvides a global and forward‐looking view on the value of the public interest in telecommunications.
The labouring of the public service principle: union convergence and worker movements in the North American communication industries
Authors: Mosco Vincent 
Published: March 2007

PurposeThe paper aims to expand the public service principle to cover labour and worker organizations in the communication industry. It also aims to demonstrate the value of labour convergence as an instrument to advance the interests of knowledge workers and the public interest in communication.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws from conceptual debates around the nature of knowledge labour and of convergence. It draws from interviews and documentary evidence to determine the value of trade union convergence and new forms of worker organization in the communication industries.FindingsThe paper finds that communication workers are engaging in their own form of convergence and are using it to advance the public service principle in knowledge labour. In doing so, they are expanding the public interest in communication.Originality/valueThe paper is one of the only studies that connects the public service principle and convergence to knowledge and communication workers. It demonstrates that, despite significant challenges, these workers are a significant force in the communication arena.
Telecom musings: public service issues in India
Authors: Thomas Pradip 
Published: March 2007

PurposeIn assessing the contribution made by telecommunications in India by the state and civil society to public service, this article aims to identify the state's initial reluctance to recognise telecommunications provision as a basic need as against the robust tradition of public service aligned to the postal services and finds hope in the renewal of public service telecommunications via the Right to Information movement.Design/methodology/approachThis article follows a history of telecommunications approach that is conversant with the political economy tradition. It uses archival sources, personal correspondence, and published information as its primary material.FindingsThe findings suggest that public service telecommunication is a relatively “new” concept in the annals of Indian telecommunications and that a de‐regulated environment along with the Right to Information movement holds significant hope for making public service telecommunications a real alternative.Originality/valueThis article provides a reflexive, critical account of public service telecommunications in India and suggests that it can be strengthened by learnings gained from the continual renewal of public service ideals and action by the postal services and a people‐based demand model linked to the Right to Information Movement.
“Universal service” and China's telecommunications miracle: discourses, practices, and post‐WTO accession challenges
Authors: Zhao Yuezhi 
Published: March 2007

PurposeTo examine “universal service” as a policy objective in post‐WTO accession Chinese telecommunications and analyze the challenges of the Chinese telecommunications system in defining and promoting public service ethos in a country that is marked by staggering disparities.Design/methodology/approachA range of media, academic, industry, and policy discourses on “universal service” and a broader notion of “public service,” together with recent government efforts in promoting “universal service,” are examined and assessed to develop an analysis of the uneven nature of China's telecommunications development and reveal the dynamics of “universal service” policy formation, as well as the impetuses and impediments in developing any notion of public service telecommunications in China.FindingsPublic service issues in China need to be situated within a continuing process of uneven development which comprises dimensions other than residential telephone access. Although the ultimate policy goal appears to develop a nationally accessible telecommunications infrastructure as the basis of a unified national economy, this overall objective is beset by conflicts and contingent on the dynamics of elite and popular struggles over and beyond telecommunications development. Despite the spectacular expansion in telephone access, pragmatic concessions to dominant power groups, rather than a principled commitment to “universal service,” let alone efforts to define the social functions of telecommunications in more democratic ways, have shaped the development of China's telecommunications.Originality/valueThe development of China's telecommunications infrastructure offers lessons both as to the likelihood of successfully establishing an integrated national economy, and the role of public service in that context. However, the Chinese telecommunications policy field remains extremely fluid.
Network neutrality is the new common carriage
Authors: Sandvig Christian 
Published: March 2007

PurposeThis article considers internet system development with reference to what is currently termed the “network neutrality” debate; its aim is to develop improved ways of reasoning about the role of the public interest in networked communications infrastructures.Design/methodology/approachTo assess the degree to which a general non‐discrimination rule would be possible or useful, this article this article reviews documented examples of differential service by internet service providers that already occur. It then compares these practices to older debates about common carriage.FindingsMost of the debate about network neutrality focuses on a few kinds of content discrimination, while there are many more varieties at work. While the focus of the debate has been legal, the problem is often technological. Many kinds of discrimination are now at work, often secretly.Practical implicationsRather than one grand, neutral rule for a neutral internet, there is a need for a normative framework that can provide a larger picture of the role of this infrastructure in society, and therefore a way to reason about whether a particular kind of discrimination is normatively good or bad. There is also a need for more public disclosure of actions taken internally by internet providers.Originality/valueThis paper provides a set of examples that expand the scope of the network neutrality debate, adding nuance and complexity. It also calls into question the novelty of the issue and suggests that it is unlikely that a single rule (or a small set of general rules) will resolve this dispute.
The History of the Future: evaluating projects and service developments before they begin
Authors: Markland Margaret , Butters Geoff , Brophy Peter 
Published: March 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe an evaluation tool, “The History of the Future” exercise, which can be used at the beginning of a project or service development to clarify variation in participants' presuppositions and expectations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes what the tool is, the context in which it is useful, how it is presented and administered, and what kinds of results can be expected. It places it within the corpus of qualitative methods, relating it particularly to phenomenography.FindingsA case study of the application of the method is used to illustrate its use and the results, which it can generate. A complex European Commission funded research and development project, eMapps.com, provided a challenging environment for its use and helped to verify its utility.Practical implicationsThe exercise is a particularly useful activity at the beginning of a large or complex project, which has multiple stakeholders, especially when they form a widely dispersed community. It addresses the fact that different stakeholders may come to the project with different understandings, expectations and priorities, and aims to provide focus and common understanding of project aims and objectives.Originality/valueEvaluations rarely start early enough in a project to exert significant influence on outcomes. The History of the Future exercise is one way to provide very early information on differing perceptions and goals among those involved and so to establish full agreement on purpose, tasks and desired outcomes.
Marketing cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation training programs to nontraditional responders
Authors: Sneath Julie Z. 
Published: March 2007

PurposeTo illustrate the challenges involved in communicating cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation information and providing lay person training to improve the chance of survival for persons suffering out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 78 lay persons employed by manufacturing firms in an industrial park were surveyed and asked to identify their attitudes toward and knowledge of lifesaving techniques and willingness to participate in CPR and AED training programs.FindingsFindings suggest that most employees were interested in learning how to administer CPR and defibrillation. However, few had received training. The data also showed that training and relationship with a victim are determinants of level of comfort and willingness to engage in behaviors that would save a life.Research limitations/implicationsResults are not necessarily representative of all programs or employees in industrial settings. Sample is US based, which may limit its generalizability.Practical implicationsAlthough few people have been formally trained, awareness levels and willingness to participate in these programs are high. Opportunities for training exist, even though resuscitation programs' communications and training may be falling short of the intended outcomes.Originality/valueLay persons' attitudes toward and experience with CPR and defibrillation training programs are examined and implications for training and marketing communications are discussed.
Do mergers and acquisitions create shareholder wealth in the pharmaceutical industry?
Authors: Hassan Mahmud , Patro Dilip K. , Tuckman Howard , Wang Xiaoli 
Published: March 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze mergers and acquisitions (M&A) focusing on the US pharmaceutical industry in the period 1981‐2004. This industry is chosen because it is global, it engages intensively in M&A which it uses to both complement and substitute for early stage research, and because the potential abnormal returns to blockbuster drugs are substantial. It is assumed that if abnormal returns to M&A exist in the short and long run, this is the industry to find them.Design/methodology/approachThe study examines short‐term abnormal returns separating mergers from acquisitions and US‐based from foreign‐based M&A targets. It examined 405 mergers and acquisitions during 1981‐2004 to address the issues of our research.FindingsEvidence of short and long‐term abnormal returns, as well as accounting and efficiency effects are found for acquisitions but not for mergers. However, the tests do suggest that mergers with US‐based targets are not value destroying. It is also found that there are differences as to the effects of acquisitions of foreign‐based, as opposed to US‐based targets.Originality/valueTaken in total, the results provide support for the view that in the pharmaceutical industry, acquisitions of US‐based companies have a positive impact on wealth creation for company shareholders.
Winning the China vitamin war by building a strong brand
Authors: Chen Junsong , Burgers Willem P. 
Published: March 2007

PurposeTo provide insight on the characteristics of the Chinese multi‐vitamin marketplace and to discuss key issues involved in marketing work, including market testing, product positioning, market segmentation and targeting, differentiation, and branding strategy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a field‐based case study. An in‐depth interview has been used for data collection. The case is presented on a chronological order and could be divided into four stages (2001‐2005). Substantial information regarding the company's marketing strategy and tactics has been provided. Detailed sales data have also been given to facilitate the case discussion.FindingsThe case presents the uneven growing path of a Chinese multi‐vitamin brand. It has established the importance of brand‐building strategy on the basis of integrated marketing mix.Practical implicationsThe case provides an excellent basis for exploring the pros and cons of numerous marketing tactics – individual branding vs brand extension, penetration vs skimming, choice of promotional tools, etc. It has also illustrated different ways for product positioning and differentiation. In addition, it provides a basis for discussing ethics in advertising – e.g. the soft advertising.Originality/valueThe case has been used successfully in executive MBA courses. The case helps managers and researchers to understand China health supplement market which has indicated many special characteristics compared with Western market, or discuss general issues related to marketing.
Integrating multidisciplinary perspectives
Authors: Woodside Arch G. , Crotts John C. , Harrill Rich 
Published: March 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this editorial is to introduce theInternational Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research.Design/methodology/approachThe paper outlines the primary objective ofIJCTHR.FindingsThe journal is designed to serve as a valuable platform for new theory and research articles that integrate multidisciplinary perspectives in describing, explaining, predicting, and influencing tourism and hospitality behavior within and across cultures.Originality/valueThe editorial describes the objectives ofIJCTHRand, as the principal publication for the International Society of Culture, Tourism, and Hospitality Research, invites membership to the society, which is open to all scholars and individuals with professional or personal interests in acquiring knowledge on topics relating to culture, tourism, and hospitality.