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11 – 20 of 55Philip G. Cutler and Brian H. Kleiner
Aims to provide a guide for companies to help them implement a successful quality programme, by learning from the many companies which have failed in this regard. By comparing the…
Abstract
Aims to provide a guide for companies to help them implement a successful quality programme, by learning from the many companies which have failed in this regard. By comparing the many companies which were unable to implement a successful quality programme, shows how success or failure can be pre‐determined by addressing four key areas. The first, planning, deals with setting the right quality course for success. The second, commitment, perhaps the broadest area, deals with effective practices for success. The third, opening the quality umbrella, tracks the failure of companies to implement quality company‐wide and beyond. Finally, true customer satisfaction asserts that a purely quality‐based focus is not enough to ensure the survival and success of a quality programme.
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The purpose of this paper is to present an interview with Professor Michael Beer of Harvard Business School, whose recent book is Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an interview with Professor Michael Beer of Harvard Business School, whose recent book is Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value, to learn what methods these leaders use.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper discusses his book, in whihc Beer and his co‐authors studied 36 corporate leaders who are recognized for inspiring their firms to create superior and lasting economic and social value. Beer calls this “higher ambition” management and says it is the key to transforming companies into high commitment, high performance organizations.
Findings
Beer and his co‐authors found evidence that creating social value unlocks the dormant creative energies that exist in all employees. Creating both social and economic value directly reinforces the primary motivators of people, purpose, autonomy and mastery.
Research limitations/implications
The authors did not systematically investigate leaders and companies who did not fit the higher ambition (HA) definition. Thus it is impossible to conclude definitively that the HA practices described in the book are distinctive – that they do not also exist in companies that do not fit the HA definition. The authors did, however, use their consulting experience with many companies over many years and interviews with a few CEOs who were not HA leaders to contrast HA leadership practices with “common” and “best practice.”
Practical implications
Beer's advice for rising executives aspiring to become higher‐ambition leaders: find your anchor, choose your teachers and company, learn from experience, and engage in honest conversations.
Originality/value
Beer explains why a leader's higher ambition is essential to creating a resilient and sustainable enterprise and how top CEOs do it.
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For insights into the debate between consultants who advocate authentic, character-based leadership and those that believe leadership is primarily an exercise of political power…
Abstract
Purpose
For insights into the debate between consultants who advocate authentic, character-based leadership and those that believe leadership is primarily an exercise of political power, S & L interviewed Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, author of Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time.
Design/methodology/approach
Professor Pfeffer believes “By any measure or set of relevant measures, the leadership industry has failed and continues to do so.” The interviewer asks him why he reached this conclusion and what implications this has for practitioners.
Findings
Simply put, leaders need to be true to what others need from them, not to how they may be feeling.
Practical implications
Professor Pfeffer offers a reminder of the enduring functionality of political skills and acumen in the workplace, which many adherents of the “inspirational leadership” approach don’t seem to want to embrace.
Originality/value
Professor Pfeffer offers a no-holds-barred account of the intersection of modern workplace realities and self-interested leadership.
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Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover…
Abstract
Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.
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The key characteristics that eventually came to be considered to be Australian ‘heavy metal’ emerged between 1965 and 1973. These include distortion, power, intensity, extremity…
Abstract
The key characteristics that eventually came to be considered to be Australian ‘heavy metal’ emerged between 1965 and 1973. These include distortion, power, intensity, extremity, loudness and aggression. This exploration of the origins of heavy metal in Australia focusses on the key acts which provided its domestic musical foundations, and investigates how the music was informed by its early, alcohol-fuelled early audiences, sites of performance, media and record shops. Melbourne-based rock guitar hero Lobby Loyde’s classical music influence and technological innovations were important catalysts in the ‘heaviness’ that would typify Australian proto-metal in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, loud and heavy rock was firmly established as a driving force of the emerging pub rock scene. Extreme volume heavy rock was taken to the masses was Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs in the early 1970s whose triumphant headline performance at the 1972 Sunbury Pop Festival then established them as the most popular band in the nation. These underpinnings were consolidated by three bands: Sydney’s primal heavy prog-rockers Buffalo (Australia’s counterpart to Britain’s Black Sabbath), Loyde’s defiant Coloured Balls and the highly influential AC/DC, who successfully crystallised heavy Australian rock in a global context. This chapter explores how the archaeological foundations for Australian metal are the product of domestic conditions and sensibilities enmeshed in overlapping global trends. In doing so, it also considers how Australian metal is entrenched in localised musical contexts which are subject to the circulation of international flows of music and ideas.
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Discusses the link between organizational context and the nature ofeffective teamwork. Using a variety of examples from the police force,highlights the importance of the explicit…
Abstract
Discusses the link between organizational context and the nature of effective teamwork. Using a variety of examples from the police force, highlights the importance of the explicit authority structure in terms of providing clear leadership and accountability. Other types of organizations are unable to provide this sort of absolute parameters, particularly since the trend is towards leaner, flatter structures and empowered workforces. Staff are likely to find themselves in a number of teams, all working to different agendas and with little guidance about priorities. One solution is to focus on translating the business strategy into clearly defined goals so that the context for teamwork is explicit and the priority of the outcome is clear.
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Wendy Johnston and Brian H. Kleiner
There have been several new developments in overtime pay within the last decade. The term “overtimepay” was born when congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938…
Abstract
There have been several new developments in overtime pay within the last decade. The term “overtimepay” was born when congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938. All new developments in overtime revolve around this Act. Immediately after this Act was passed, reform measures were underway. The recent issues that surround overtime include: Whom is exempt from overtime pay?; If employers dock employees for partial day absences does that entitle them to overtime pay?; Can employers give compensatory time in lieu of overtime pay?; And is it time to reform the 40‐hour work week?
David Worker and Brian H. Kleiner
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 was the first bill signed into law by President Clinton after taking office in 1993. The law, which took effect on August 5, 1993…
Abstract
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 was the first bill signed into law by President Clinton after taking office in 1993. The law, which took effect on August 5, 1993, requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to employees for childbirth, adoption, or family or personal illness. Employees are guaranteed their jobs or an equivalent position upon their return from leave. Prior to the FMLA's passage, the US was the last industrialised country in the world to require employers to provide family leave.