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Analyses and discusses the relationship between productivity, performance and corporate communications, in the pursuit of business excellence. In this regard, develops strategic models, first, to engender competitive advantage and, second, to understand the process of corporation communications within a productivity framework. Corporate communications cannot afford to ignore the matters of ethical concern which should become an inherent part of the organization's culture.

Visual communications are defined and illustrated in their contemporary operations management setting. They manifest four distinct advantages: assimilation, exposure, evoking and unifying. In Japan, they are related to underlying inherent values and ensure employee involvement. The Japanese experience itself, with its consequent relative success in the field of visual communications, is both investigated and analysed as to type, functions and associated purposes. Visual communications are perceived as galvanising into company plans. Their potential and transferability to Western corporate cultures are explored with a view to their power to deliver information through the hierarchical organisational structure. The underlying thrust is towards achieving continuous improvement in communication, the impact of which would provide a better quality of work life for the employee and improve performance.

Argues that corporate responsibility must span over the legal, social, economic and technological domains. Places environmental system standards and auditing in their business strategic roles and gives a stakeholder approach to environmental management with its relationship to sustainability, economic growth and improved quality of life. Outlines the importance and relevance of “green” yardsticks in non‐financial performance measurement terms. Analyses ethical dimensions, stressing that, by developing an ethical corporate culture, businesses can create both a competitive advantage and environmental excellence. Provides examples of contemporary environmental strategies in a European context.

Emphasizes the productivity and quality connection in relation to competitive advantage in operations management and strategy. Discusses the issue of ethics and its interface with productivity and quality. Highlights the underlying relationship between these three elements and demonstrates their integration to offer a triadic gain in both economic and moral terms in the pursuit of corporate growth. Presents and analyses a survey of business organizations, in both manufacturing and services, in three European countries, the UK, France and Germany. It is the combination of productivity, quality and ethics which will establish the management culture of the future. Provides guidelines to sow the seeds for the basis of improved operations performance and business excellence.

Provides a critique of the present state of the art of productivity and performance measurement and management in logistics. The nature of logistics makes normal measures of productivity, based on an output/input concept, not always appropriate. Indicator or proxy approaches can be more suitable and would relate the quality of the system to total cost, complementing conventional total productivity thinking. Highlights the main ingredients of strategic logistics performance. Develops analytical frameworks and models to aid management in planning and decision making, both operationally and strategically. Discusses the challenges of such integrated approaches, accentuating the effectiveness of the productivity philosophy in logistics. The competitive key battlegrounds include quality, productivity, speed and innovation, all linked to good business ethics. Compares Japanese and Western logistics management approaches to productivity and performance.

Provides an overview of total productivity, in definition, measurement and management. Discusses the challenges of evaluating input and output factors, highlighting the basis of capital input measurement and taking into consideration the issues of inflation, operational capacity and technological change. Places productivity in a performance‐measurement context. Explores the affinity of productivity and its various measures to management accounting with special focus on price recovery and profitability. Devises models for capital input within total productivity, based on replacement cost. Examines and analyses surveys relating to productivity practices and perceptions. Demonstrates the interrelationship of capital and labour inputs with total productivity and its relevance to managerial strategic decision making.

States that people management is one of the most crucial variables of corporate success. Provides an analysis of the orientation process, comparing Japan with the West. Investigates Japanese recruitment philosophy in relation to its effective and planned orientation management. Examines and illustrates the scheduling of Japanese orientation programmes. Posits that within this scenario, employee development is perceived under three distinct headings: becoming part of a team, becoming a company person and becoming trained in organizational expectations. Emphasis is put on inter‐relationships, requiring a shared understanding of the direction and values needed for effective business and individual performance. Communication, through orientation, is seen as an essential key to the integration and efficacy of new recruits and existing employees facing strategic change.

Gives an overview of Japanese productivity management in both manufacturing and service industries. Discusses education and training, as well as corporate attitudes to productivity. Highlights the relationship of productivity to the Japanese economy, looking at both large and small organizations. Features approaches and underlying competitive philosophies to productivity management and their control systems. Reveals the prominence of productivity and quality in Japanese operations strategy through both analysis and models. Draws comparisons with the West through a discussion on how Japanese productivity management works and could work in Europe. Brings to the fore the inevitable challenges and changes facing Japanese industry since the recession, and their consequent reactions.

Provides a critique of the present state of the art of productivity and performance measurement and management in logistics. The nature of logistics makes normal measures of productivity, based on an output/input concept, not always appropriate. Indicator or proxy approaches can be more suitable and would relate the quality of the system to total cost, complementing conventional total productivity thinking. Highlights the main ingredients of strategic logistics performance. Develops analytical frameworks and models to aid management in planning and decision making, both operationally and strategically. Discusses the challenges of such integrated approaches, accentuating the effectiveness of the productivity philosophy in logistics. The competitive key battlegrounds include quality, productivity, speed and innovation, all linked to good business ethics. Compares Japanese and Western logistics management approaches to productivity and performance.

This chapter uses a dataset of heights calculated from the femurs of skeletal remains to explore the development of stature in England across the last two millennia. We find that heights increased during the Roman period and then steadily fell during the “Dark Ages” in the early medieval period. At the turn of the first millennium, heights grew rapidly, but after 1200 they started to decline coinciding with the agricultural depression, the Great Famine, and the Black Death. Then they recovered to reach a plateau which they maintained for almost 300 years, before falling on the eve of industrialization. The data show that average heights in England in the early nineteenth century were comparable to those in Roman times, and that average heights reported between 1400 and 1700 were similar to those of the twentieth century. This chapter also discusses the association of heights across time with some potential determinants and correlates (real wages, inequality, food supply, climate change, and expectation of life), showing that in the long run heights change with these variables, and that in certain periods, notably the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the associations are observable over the shorter run as well. We also examine potential biases surrounding the use of skeletal remains.