bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Skill requirements of senior‐level logisticians: a longitudinal assessment
Authors: Murphy Paul , Poist Richard F. 
Published: October 2007

PurposeThe logistics discipline has been characterized by tremendous change since the early 1990s. One result is that the logistician's relevant skill set has likely changed as well. To this end, the present paper aims both to update, and to provide a longitudinal perspective of, a 1991 study that investigated the skill requirements of senior‐level logistics managers using the business, logistics, management (BLM) framework.Design/methodology/approachBoth studies used survey research of executive search firms to collect the relevant data. The surveys were transmitted via postal mail in the 1991 study and were transmitted electronically in the present study.FindingsThe results from the current study reinforce the 1991 study, which suggested that logisticians should be managers first and logisticians second. Comparison between the earlier and current study suggest a high degree of similarity in terms of the most important logistics skills, with less similarity in terms of business and management skills. The comparison also suggests that the contemporary logistician has more of a supply chain orientation than was the case in the early 1990s.Practical implicationsThe manuscript discusses implications for various logistical constituencies. For example, educators could use the findings to plan and design continuing education programs.Originality/valueThe update to the original study should prove valuable by highlighting the relevant skills associated with successful logisticians in the contemporary business environment. The longitudinal comparison provides insights into the logistician's skill set in the early 1990s and today.
Just‐in‐time implementation issues among automotive suppliers in the southern USA
Authors: Matson Jack E. , Matson Jessica O. 
Published: October 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the major supply chain issues of the automotive manufacturing industry in the southern USA.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on the results of a survey of automotive suppliers in Tennessee and Alabama. The survey focused on supply chain issues and demographics, specifically on 20 JIT‐related problems and 100 company characteristics.FindingsIdentifies the extent of JIT implementation in Tennessee's and Alabama's growing automotive industry and the general characteristics of the companies that use JIT. Also identifies the types of problems experienced by JIT automotive suppliers; categorizes the problems as one‐time, periodically recurring, or ongoing; and identifies the most troublesome problems.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey results point to several problem areas of JIT suppliers for research focus, including identification of ways that small companies can resolve JIT implementation issues, the most common ongoing problem of unstable customer schedules, and the most frequently cited problems of poor production quality.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study can help others considering a conversion to a JIT system improve the likelihood of a successful implementation by making them aware of the implementation issues experienced by the JIT automotive suppliers in Tennessee and Alabama. It also provides guidelines for specific improvements that could be implemented by Tennessee and Alabama suppliers.Originality/valueThis paper provides a concise review of JIT literature. It also examines the growing automotive manufacturing industry in the southern USA. These smaller, primarily non‐union automotive suppliers represent a research set that has not been previously studied.
Attracting Generation Y graduates
Authors: Terjesen Siri , Vinnicombe Susan , Freeman Cheryl 
Published: October 2007

PurposeBuilding on person‐organisation fit and gender self‐schema, this research aims to examine UK university final year students' perception of the importance of organisational attributes and their presence in three major graduate employers. This study also seeks to explore which organisational attributes attract Generation Y men and women to apply to a management trainee position.Design/methodology/approachIn phase one, 32 repertory grid interviews identify 84 common constructs in undergraduates' organisational choice. A short list of 20 organisational attributes was carried forward to the phase two survey of 862 undergraduates in their final year at 22 UK universities. The respondents rate the attributes in terms of importance and then evaluate three employers in terms of perceived presence of these attributes. The students also provide the likelihood that they would apply.T‐tests, correlation and multiple regression are used to test hypotheses.FindingsAmong university students, the five most important organisational attributes are: “invest heavily in the training and development of their employees” “care about their employees as individuals” “clear opportunities for long‐term career progression” “variety in daily work” and “dynamic, forward‐looking approach to their business”. Sex differences exist in both the importance of organisational attributes and the perceived extent of their presence in three organisations. In describing an ideal employer, women rate eight attributes as more important than do their male counterparts: “really care about their employees as individuals” “variety in your daily work” “friendly, informal culture” “employ people with whom you feel you will have things in common” “use your degree skills” “relatively stress‐free working environment” “internationally diverse mix of colleagues” “require you to work standard working hours only”. Compared to women, men rate just one attribute as more important: “a very high starting salary”. The perception of presence of these important attributes is significantly linked to likelihood to apply.Practical implicationsRecruiting firms can better understand how Generation Y men and women graduates perceive the importance of organisational attributes and their presence in firms.Originality/valueThe paper represents a seminal study relating organisational attributes to likely applicant behaviour across a large number of UK university undergraduates.
Exploring the development of a protean career orientation: values and image violations
Authors: Sargent Leisa D. , Domberger Shelley R. 
Published: October 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the development of a protean career orientation. In doing so, the paper also aims to assess how work experience, parents and peer networks co‐influence the development of a protean career orientation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses semi‐structured interviews with young adults and explores their past, present and future work and career experiences. They were also asked them to explain what career success meant to them. Interview transcripts were reviewed and coded based on two main categories representing protean orientation: self‐directed career management and the expression of personal values as a mechanism for career decisions. The paper also process mapped how a protean career orientation developed in the interviewees. Those who reported a protean career orientation were interviewed two‐and‐a‐half years later so as to further explore their career experiences and the extent to which self‐directedness and value congruence influenced career decisions.FindingsResults suggest that some reported a protean career orientation and of those that did they reported experiencing an image violation based on their personal values. Two types of personal values appeared important to the protean group, they were, making a contribution to society and maintaining work‐life balance. Those that were categorised as having a protean orientation also engaged in critical reassessment by interrogating the basis of their career values and strategies and this distinguished them from the rest of the interviewees who exhibited a more traditional career orientation. These findings are consistent with image theory's concept of a progress decision. This concept encapsulates the idea that individuals decide whether a career plan is moving them towards achievement of a career goal and if it is not, new or modified plans need to be taken up.Research limitations/implicationsThe exploratory findings have important implications for understanding the career strategies of protean careerists. Specifically, they elucidate how violations of values, goals and plans lead to career reappraisals. This paper provides important insights into reframing career choice and change in terms of image violations.Originality/valueThe paper provides a process map of the mechanisms that contribute to the development of a protean career orientation. Specifically, it focuses on image violations that appear to distinguish protean careerists from the remainder of the interviewees. Thus, the paper links protean careers with image theory as a means of understanding the underlying processes involved in early career decision making.
What “career success” means to blue‐collar workers
Authors: Hennequin Emilie 
Published: October 2007

PurposeCareer success such as it is classically modelled and measured is not necessarily representative of the perceptions of blue‐collar workers. Therefore, the goal of the present study is to understand what it means to succeed in blue‐collar occupations. A definition and a measure are useful starting points in explaining the individual's evaluation of success and in analysing the behaviour which results from it.Design/methodology/approachAfter a review of literature, in order to develop the theoretical framework for the research, 25 exploratory interviews were conducted with blue‐collar workers in order to obtain their criteria for career success. The results are reported, together with the methodological decisions and a proposed explanatory model.FindingsSuccess is traditionally described as having an objective and a subjective part. In order to understand the perceptions of blue‐collar workers, it is necessary to recognise that their perceptions are influenced by material, psychological and social aspects.Practical implicationsThe definitions developed in this paper could be used to develop employment programmes addressing the expectations of blue‐collar workers, and to attract new employees to this kind of occupation. More generally, with the flattening of organizations, it is necessary to re‐evaluate the concept of success for all workers, and to develop policies that are appropriate to changes in the labour market.Originality/valueThe majority of career studies focus on “white collar” workers. Traditional career theory has developed models which consider that all the employees are guided by the same systems of values (status, power, wages, etc.). Thus, this paper fulfils a need to develop an understanding of career success from the perspective of blue‐collar workers.
Collaborative benchmarking, transparency and performance
Authors: Braadbaart Okke 
Published: October 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how benchmarking affects transparency and economic performance in the public sector.Design/methodology/approachThe paper applies a quasi‐experimental method to 1989‐2000 time series data on benchmarking and non‐benchmarking water utilities in The Netherlands.FindingsBenchmarking immediately enhanced transparency, but only affected utility economic performance after benchmarking information entered the public domain. This confirms that benchmarking enhances transparency and performance. The findings do not support the yardstick regulation hypothesis that utility managers will only tighten financial discipline when benchmarking is embedded in a regime of managed competition.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study is its single‐industry scope. Further testing of benchmarking effects in other public services is needed to validate its findings.Originality/valueThe paper presents evidence from the Dutch water supply industry focusing on transparency and performance in collaborative benchmarking.
Benchmarking firm performance
Authors: Dawkins Peter , Feeny Simon , Harris Mark N. 
Published: October 2007

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to provide a framework for benchmarking firm performance (profitability) using panel data. Further, to illustrate how the estimation results can be used for simulation (what if?) exercises.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply the econometric techniques used in panel data to estimate profit functions, thereby enabling us to compute measures of firm efficiencies which can subsequently be used as benchmarking tools.FindingsThe results suggest that both large firms and those highly specialised, enjoy higher profit margins, whereas the more capital intensive a firm is, the lower is its profitability. As with previous studies there is strong evidence of the U‐shaped relationship between market share and profitability. The authors present an analysis of the distribution of firm efficiencies across industries as a whole, and by a number of industry groups.Research limitations/implicationsOnly a limited sample (with regard to the time span) of Australian firms is used. A major assumption of the procedure is that firm efficiencies are constant over time. Given the short time period used in the empirical application, this does not appear to be unrealistic.Practical implicationsThe paper provides firms with easy‐to‐use tools with which to benchmark their performance relative to other firms, conditional on their base characteristics.Originality/valueThis is the first time that this type of benchmarking exercise has been applied to firm profitability using relatively simple panel data techniques: it will be of use to market analysts, managers and shareholders alike.
Increasing the benefits of product‐level benchmarking for strategic eco‐efficient decision making
Authors: Wever Renee , Boks Casper , Marinelli Thomas , Stevels Ab 
Published: October 2007

PurposeWidely accepted classifications of benchmarking distinguish between different levels of benchmarking. Strategic‐level benchmarking is considered to be of a higher sophistication than product‐level benchmarking. Such strategic benchmarking would be based on process information instead of product information. The purpose of this paper is to research the possibility of obtaining strategic‐level information based on an extensive amount of product‐level benchmark data.Design/methodology/approachThe data used in this paper originate from the environmental benchmarking program of Philips Consumer Electronics (CE). Philips CE has successfully implemented benchmarking as an environmental improvement strategy for its products. Product‐level competitive benchmarking is used to assess the environmental performance of a Philips' product compared to its main economic rivals. Since the start of environmental benchmarking a considerable pool of product‐level benchmark data has been generated. This paper reports on an extensive data analysis of product‐level benchmarking data concerning the packaging of these consumer electronics products.FindingsIt is shown how strategic‐level information is obtained from a data analysis of these separate benchmarking studies, resulting both in useful strategic‐level managerial information and practical design input. Finally, advantages of this approach as compared to classic strategic‐level benchmarking are identified.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has yielded empirical data indicating a limitation in current benchmarking classification.Originality/valueThe paper offers insights into the benefits of product level benchmarking for strategic eco‐efficient decision making.
Using benchmarking to determine efficient usage of nodes in a cluster
Authors: Luecke Glenn R. , Li Ying , Cuma Martin 
Published: October 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate how to use nodes in a cluster efficiently by studying the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NASPB) on Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron dual CPU Linux clusters.Design/methodology/approachThe performance results of the NASPB are presented both with one MPI process per node (1 ppn) and with two MPI processes per node (2 ppn). These benchmark results were analyzed by considering the impact of cache effects, code scalability, memory bandwidth within nodes, and the impact of MPI and the MPI communication network. Memory bandwidth was benchmarked using MPI versions of the Streams benchmarks. The impact of MPI and the MPI communication network are evaluated by benchmarking the performance of MPI sends and receives, MPI broadcast, and the MPI all‐to‐all routines.FindingsThe performance results from running the NASPB and from the memory bandwidth benchmarks show that better performance can sometimes be achieved using 1 ppn. Performance results show that the AMD Opteron/Myrinet cluster is able to achieve significantly better utilization of the second processor than the Intel Xeon/Myrinet cluster.Practical implicationsMost Linux clusters are purchased with two processors per node. One would like to run all applications on a cluster with two processors per node using 2 ppn instead of 1 ppn in order to utilize the second processor on each node. However, our results show that this is not always the best choice. Users should always assess their program performance with both 1 ppn and 2 ppn before running production calculations. This issue becomes even more important with the emergence of multi‐core processors.Originality/valueTo the authors' best knowledge, this is the only detailed comparison of AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon dual processor node parallel performance on large Myrinet clusters. The paper should be of value to everybody considering running on or purchasing AMD or Intel‐based Linux cluster.
Benchmarking in Maltese internal audit units
Authors: Balzan Lara , Baldacchino Peter J. 
Published: October 2007

PurposeThe organisation‐wide drive towards total quality management (TQM) and the call for sound corporate governance require that Maltese internal audit (IA) units benchmark their operations as a first step towards the critical evaluation of their processes and the management of change. The purpose of this paper is to determine the awareness of this process in Maltese IA units, its perceived major benefits and limitations and also major barriers in its implementation.Design/methodology/approachThe objective of this study is achieved through a series of semi‐structured interviews with 12 Maltese IA executives representing most Maltese IA units.FindingsThis study concludes that Maltese IA executives have a weak grasp of the benchmarking process and that, current IA evaluation techniques are mere rudimentary comparisons, essentially backward‐ and inward‐looking in nature. Maltese IA executives appreciate the benefits of benchmarking as an effective IA quality tool but are divided as to its limitations. In addition, there are organisational and cultural barriers preventing them from attaining its potential benefits.Originality/valueIn addition to the analysis of major obstacles to the implementation and development of this TQM tool in a European ministate, this study points to possible regulatory and organisational changes for future improvements.
Gender‐based income disparity among self‐employed professionals
Authors: Mueller Stephen L. 
Published: October 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to test two possible explanations for persistent income disparity between male and female self‐employed professionals. First, men are more likely than women to be motivated by the potential for high income to establish a professional practice. Second, men are more likely than women to adopt a thinking‐over‐feeling cognitive decision‐making style.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a gender role/career motivation model to develop a set of hypotheses that explain observed gender‐based income disparity among self‐employed professionals. Hypotheses were tested using multivariate regression analysis with data drawn from a large‐scale national survey of male and female veterinarians in private practice.FindingsMale veterinarians showed less empathy toward their clients and were more likely to use a thinking‐over‐feeling decision‐making style than were female veterinarians. Also, practice income was greater for male veterinarians with high client empathy (CE) and feeling‐over‐thinking decision‐making style than for male veterinarians with low CE and thinking‐over‐feeling decision‐making style. However, there was no significant difference in practice income between female veterinarians with high CE and feeling‐over‐thinking decision‐making style and female veterinarians with low CE and thinking‐over‐feeling decision‐making style.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study was limited to American veterinarians, future research on income disparity should be expanded to include other self‐employed professionals and/or other national settings.Originality/valueThis study contributes to research on gender‐based income disparity among self‐employed professionals by examining underlying factors that potentially contribute to these differences such as motives for establishing the practice and the practice owner's decision‐making style.
Taos Pueblo: an indigenous community holding on to Promethean values
Authors: Paul Dana Leo , Brent Anderson Robert 
Published: October 2007

PurposeThis paper aims to give an account – using photographs as well as words – to describe a North American indigenous community that is retaining pre‐contact Promethean values.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts as its approach ethnographic literature and field interviews coupled with extensive photography.FindingsEntrepreneurship may be linked to Promethean values, a characteristic of Pueblo Indians who were imaginatively original, long before the arrival of Europeans. Since ancient times, the use of irrigation in agriculture allowed the Pueblo Indians to reside in permanent houses; these two features – sophisticated farming and settlements – resulted in these indigenous people being unlike their nomadic neighbours. Farming – as opposed to hunting – was the backbone of the Pueblo economies, and theocratic government developed to control land and water usage; complex religious ceremonies became prerequisites to harvests. Religion taught discipline, and religious values remain important. Discipline – significant in this community even today – may be the causal variable explaining Promethean over Dionysian values.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research might examine further differences between indigenous groups.Practical implicationsRegardless of how religious a person is, values perpetuated by religion can transcend to a generation that practises them less than their elders. In the case of Taos Pueblo Indians, traditional Promethean values are being perpetuated, including a highly disciplined work ethic.Originality/valueThe paper suggests that entrepreneurship values may be linked to traditional religion and historic innovation.