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The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategies of civil service reforms in Hong Kong and Thailand. It seeks to identify the drivers of reforms in the two cases and explain the divergence in processes that were intended to achieve similar ends.

This paper adopts a case study approach along with a thorough review of the literature. It is based on secondary materials, including academic studies, government publications and websites, and media reports. It compares approaches, strategies and outcomes of civil service reforms in Hong Kong and Thailand.

Civil service reforms in Hong Kong focused on improving management through the implementation of New Public Management (NPM) principles, while governance values were prominent in civil service reforms in Thailand.

This paper compares civil service reforms in two dissimilar Asian cases. It highlights the impact of global trends on traditional bureaucratic organizations and reform strategies, and recognizes the impacts of traditions, culture and capacity on civil service reforms.

Purpose – This study aims to design and build a wireless supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system based on Protocol AX.25 with the aim of monitoring the performance of several parameters in Microhydro Power Plant (MHPP). This system can monitor several MHPP parameters such as voltage, current, frequency, and turbine rotation so that it can be accessed directly at one central location.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The design is done by taking into account the real parameters that exist in the MHPP. Some parameters that become the main object to see the performance of MHPP are voltage, current, frequency, and turbine rotation. The voltage generated by the MHPP must be adjusted to the voltage supplied by State Electricity Company to the consumer, including the phase used. The resulting stream should also be monitored for power to be adjusted to the turbine spin. The generator frequency is kept stable according to the standard frequency of the State Electricity Company generator.

Findings – The remote terminal unit (RTU) system has been simulated using 2 ACS712 current sensors, voltage sensor, zero crossing point, frequency sensor, and rotation sensor functionalized to monitor MHPP parameters. The AX.25 protocol has been applicable in the wireless SCADA network for monitoring the performance of MHPP by embedding in KYL-1020UA transceiver radio using the 433 MHz frequency and the audio frequency shift keying modulation system. Radio transmitter KYL-1020UA has been successfully simulated to send data from sensors to display on the computer through SCADA built applications. The data changes in the RTU section can be displayed properly on the graphic user interface in accordance with the existing display at the MHPP location.

Research Limitations/Implications – There are only two RTUs that will be connected to communicate, in this case MHPP-1 with callsign “RTU-001” and MHPP-2 with callsign “RTU-002.” While the existing devices in the data access section parameters MHPP as master station with callsign “MSSCADA” monitoring the performance of parameters sent from the RTU. There is no collision or error in data transmission. Baudrate is varied at 1,200 bps, 2,400 bps, 4,800 bps, and 9,600 bps for effective throughput calculation and AX.25 protocol efficiency. The transmission distance is varied at 100 m, 200 m, 300 m, and 500 m to see the bit error rate with baudrate 1,200 bps and 9,600 bps.

Practical Implications – This product is expected to be applied to several MHPP locations in Aceh Province so that its monitoring system is more centralized and efficient.

Originality/Value – This research if for the efficient monitoring of several MHPP located far apart and can be monitored in one central location so that operators do not have to be located at the plant site.

Fragmentation can inhibit joint goals and performance measures. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the level of fragmentation between public, private and third sectors in a hybrid organization's performance management systems and the effects of this fragmentation to propose hypotheses and new research methods for future studies.

The inductive research design was based on a mixed method approach. As empirical data, a survey, interviews and documents were used in this case study examining a hybrid organization called Welfare Alliance.

The results showed low-level fragmentation in the performance management system of the hybrid. Although the level of fragmentation was low-level, it affected the hybrid's ability to implement joint performance goals and measures. Performance management practices suffered as a consequence.

As a theoretical contribution to research addressing performance management in hybrids, the study proposes new concepts and theoretical hypotheses concerning fragmented performance management systems in hybrids. These theoretical hypotheses propose how performance goals and measures can become fragmented because they isolate service production units and activities from each other. The proposed hypotheses for future studies also attempt to provide explanations for how fragmentation can spread from one management function to another (i.e. from goal setting to performance measurement).

The adoption of traceability systems (TS) and sustainability programs responds to different objectives among which the companies need to be considered legitimate; hence, this study aims, first, to identify what is the relationship between traceability and sustainability in the food supply chain (SC) and, second, to characterize the legitimacy-seeking purposes, i.e. moral, cogniti60ve or pragmatic-driving companies to implement TS along with sustainability initiatives.

This study analyses the coffee SC, a globally dispersed commodity chain, where traceability initiatives usually respond to mandatory and voluntary quality standards and certifications of origin. The study involves nine cases at different stages of the coffee SC.

This study provides a taxonomy of the TS applied in the coffee SC. In addition, three main approaches to traceability for sustainability are found in the coffee SC: synergistic, complementary or disconnected. Findings also reveal how traceability responds to different legitimacy-seeking objectives while triggering or complementing sustainability practices. Five research propositions and related directions for further investigations are elaborated from the results of our study.

This study explores a rather limited studied area, investigating how companies in a food commodity chain address traceability and sustainability together while seeking legitimacy in the market. Moreover, the study is grounded on legitimacy theory, thus adding robustness to the analysis.

The present study aims to describe the implementation of a facilitated dialogue model intended to improve communication across professional logics and knowledge boundaries in two units of a large health-care organization in Sweden.

This is a mixed-methods study with interviews, field observations and follow- up questionnaires that were conducted during the implementation process.

The conclusion drawn in this study is that it is possible to change and improve the dialogue between health-care professionals with the help of a tailored, facilitated dialogue model. The authors found that different professional logics can indeed meet and share perspectives if the right conditions are provided. Moreover, an improved dialogue between different professional groups may contribute to work satisfaction, engagement, social cohesion and communication between professionals.

This study shows that the right organizational conditions, such as support from managers, must exist if the model’s inherent possibilities are to be used. Inhouse facilitation may be a sustainable model for facilitated workplace dialogue when its implementation is supported by the overall organization.

The contribution is an empirically based analysis of a new form of model for mediating perspectives within an organization with distinct professional roles. This study shows how, under the right conditions, the model can contribute to a perspective awareness and thus a more mature work organization.

The purpose of this study is to explore what design principles need to be considered in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for humanitarian organizations (HOs) to enable agile, adaptive and aligned (Triple-A) humanitarian supply chain capabilities and digitize humanitarian operations.

This study follows an embedded case study approach with a humanitarian medical relief organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which engaged in a multiyear ERP design at its humanitarian field missions.

This research shows that ERP systems for humanitarian organizations should be designed as unique systems addressing humanitarian organizations' challenges and unique missions, their value generation processes, and resource base in an effort to improve organizational performance. This study presents 12 general design principles that are unique for humanitarian organizations. These design principles provide a high-level structure of guidance under which specific requirements can be further defined and engineered to achieve success.

The results of this study are based on a single case study limiting generalizability. However, the case study was analyzed and presented as an embedded case study with five autonomous subunits using different business processes and following different adoption and implementation approaches. Therefore, the findings are derived based on considerable variance reflective of humanitarian organizations beyond MSF.

This study recognizes that HOs have unique routines that standard commercial ERP packages do not address easily at the field level. The primary contribution of this research is a set of design principles that consider these unique routines and guide ERP development in practice. National and international HOs that are planning to implement information systems, private companies that are trading partners of HOs as well as vendors of ERP systems that are looking for new opportunities would all benefit from this research.

This study fills the gap in the humanitarian literature regarding the design of ERP systems for humanitarian organizations that enable Triple–A supply chain capabilities and it advances the knowledge of the challenges of ERP design by HOs in the context of humanitarian operations.

This article aims to investigate how institutional characteristics affect the level of financial development of economies collectively and compare between developed and undeveloped economies.

A dynamic panel with 131 countries, including developed and developing ones, was utilized; the estimators of the generalized method of moments system (GMM system) model were selected because they have econometric characteristics more suitable for analysis, providing superior statistical precision compared to traditional linear estimation methods.

The results from the full panel suggest that concrete and well-defined institutions are important for financial development, confirming previous research, with a more limited scope than the present work.

Limitations of this research include the availability of data for all countries worldwide, which would make the research broader and more complete.

A panel of countries was used, divided into developed and developing countries, to analyze the impact of institutional variables on the financial development of these countries, which is one of the differentiators of this work. Another differentiator of this research is the presentation of estimates in six different configurations, with emphasis on the GMM system model in one and two steps, allowing for comparison between results.

This study examines how the introduction of mobile money transfers, while making it efficient and convenient to access funds, has affected rural households’ savings behavior and the banking sector.

This study utilizes Fiji’s most recent agricultural census data to model the agricultural household’s saving decision. The study estimates an probit model to examine rural households' savings behavior. Furthermore, it utilizes time series secondary data to examine how funds transfer has been channeled to rural households in Fiji.

Firstly, the results demonstrate that with the mobile money transfer platform launch, the banking sector has lost substantial money previously used to pass through its system, thus losing service fees and interest income. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that those using mobile wallet platforms to receive money are more likely not to have a savings account with the bank. Noting the cultural systems and social settings of the native households and the ease of payments via the mobile platform, they tend to spend more on consumption rather than saving, thus making these households more vulnerable during shocks such as natural disasters.

While mobile money transfer is hailed as a revolution, no research has yet picked up the downside to it, that of undermining the very effort by policymakers to get low-income rural households to save. Secondly, this study also highlights how mobile money transfer deprives the banking system of a significant transfer fee income and a source of funds to pool and lend to earn interest income. Furthermore, this study brings to the forefront a dichotomy about how a rural indigenous community sees the welfare and prosperity of their community much differently than what economics textbooks portray.

This paper aims to report on a case study concerning the development of sustainable energy partnerships involving engineering faculty and undergraduate students at the University of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.

Faculty were motivated to seek partnerships with public and private entities in the local area for the purposes of realising mutually beneficial outcomes. The educational programmes of future engineers, when sustainability is considered, are analysed. Education for sustainable development has to include multidisciplinary active learning as a desirable competence. Active learning can be obtained when problems are based on real life because they are most motivating for students. Constructive alignment component is obtained because learning objectives are linked with learning activities related to the needs of public and private entities.

Through the provision of technical expertise, the adoption and success of renewable energy projects was facilitated on the one hand, while final year undergraduate students benefited in terms of hands-on experience in helping to bring these projects to life, drawing on the knowledge and skills they had acquired throughout their degree programmes. These works are addressed to students by faculty members with the aim of developing and promoting renewable energies. Outcomes from partnerships surpassed expectations; not only were different benefits realised as were initially hoped for, but this success led to partnerships being sustained over time.

Fossil fuel-based energy systems are associated with a myriad of negative environmental and social externalities. It is difficult to overstate the importance of transitioning towards alternative low carbon energy sources for climate change mitigation which are less centralised compared to the status-quo for energy security and energy independence. By actively facilitating the development of decentralised renewable energy sources in Catalonia, the projects reported herein are of significant value in social environmental and educational terms.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to describe Lean maturity in primary care using a questionnaire based on Liker’s description of Lean, complemented with observations; and second, to determine the extent to which Lean maturity is associated with quality of care measured as staff-rated satisfaction with care and adherence to national guidelines (NG). High Lean maturity indicates adoption of all Lean principles throughout the organization and by all staff.

Data were collected using a survey based on Liker’s four principles, divided into 16 items (n=298 staff in 45 units). Complementary observations (n=28 staff) were carried out at four units.

Lean maturity varied both between and within units. The highest Lean maturity was found for “adhering to routines” and the lowest for “having a change agent at the unit.” Lean maturity was positively associated with satisfaction with care and with adherence to NG to improve healthcare quality.

Quality of primary care may benefit from increasing Lean maturity. When implementing Lean, managers could benefit from measuring and adopting Lean maturity repeatedly, addressing all Liker’s principles and using the results as guidance for further development.

This is one of the first studies to evaluate Lean maturity in primary care, addressing all Liker’s principles from the perspective of quality of care. The results suggest that repeated actions based on evaluations of Lean maturity may help to improve quality of care.