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Total Quality Management is an integrative managemetn philosophy aimed at continuously improving the performance of products, processes and services to achieve and surpass customer expectations. Very little has been published on the fundamental difference between manufacturing and service industries with regard to TQM implementation. The purpose of this study is to understand the concept of TQM in both industry sectors and to identify the significant differences (if any) in TQM practices in UK service and manufacturing organizations. The research is based on a pilot survey conducted in both industrial sectors. It was found that five out the eleven management factors are significantly different between manufacturing and service industries. They are top management commitment and recognition, supplier partnership or supplier management, quality systems and policies, communication in company and cultural change. It was also found that “customer focus’ is the most important factor and “supplier partnership/supplier management” is the least important factor for TQM practice in both manufacturing and service industries in the UK.

Dr Genichi Taguchi is a Japanese engineer and quality consultant who has promoted the use of statistical design of experiments for improving process/product quality at minimal costs. Taguchi has developed a practical and strategic approach for designing quality into products and processes at the product planning, design and development stages, which is often referred to as off‐line quality control. Although many companies in Europe and the USA have used the Taguchi approach to statistical design of experiments with success, very few applications of this method are realised in countries such as the Czech Republic. This paper reports the applications of experimental design advocated by Taguchi in two manufacturing companies in the Czech Republic. The results of the study are stimulating and will lead to wider applications of this methodology for tackling process and quality‐related problems in the Czech Republican industries in the near future.

Six Sigma is a disciplined approach to define, measure, analyse, improve and control processes that result in variability and defect reduction. Although Six Sigma has been widely embraced by many world class manufacturing companies, it is still new in the software industry. This paper initially makes an attempt to compare software industry with manufacturing industry. This is followed by presenting the results from a pilot survey on Six Sigma in the software industry. The focus is on the Six Sigma tools and techniques used by software industry, key Six Sigma metrics used by the software businesses, important attributes in the software development process and finally critical success factors for successful implementation of Six Sigma in software industry.

A successful supply chain should ensure that all participating members benefit from the marketplace. To achieve this goal, the supply chain members need to improve their competences all the time, which requires a continuous learning process. Thus, mutual learning, through knowledge sharing between the different members, is a necessary approach to increase the competence of supply chain partners. To realise efficient and effective knowledge sharing in a supply chain, this paper aims to explore and formulate a model that supports an enterprise with its management of the supply chain members' knowledge resource sharing (herein referred to as “advanced practice” and includes two levels of knowledge – strategic and operational). The model is based on the theories of supply chain management (SCM) and case‐based reasoning (CBR).

This research follows a conductive and inductive cycle. Firstly, based on the learning expounded through an extensive literature survey regarding SCM and CBR, as well as available empirical applications, the conceptual model is designed. Then the primary stage evaluation will be discussed regarding the feasibility and refinement of the model towards its maturity.

To share knowledge along the supply chain is theoretically sound, but a difficult task to realise in practice, due to the complexity of knowledge sharing between the different organizations.

This research explores one of the important topics in SCM – knowledge sharing within a supply chain, and the model also extends and explores a new tool for this knowledge‐sharing process by applying CBR methodology.

The designed model in this research will provide a practice‐oriented vehicle allowing the supply chain members to share and apply their knowledge.

This research applies CBR in the domain of SCM, it both enriches the available approaches to supply chain performance enhancement and enlarges the application domains of CBR methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the work-based learning (WBL) ethos of a professional studies doctoral program, a higher degree by research program implemented in Australia.

This is a preliminary case study of one higher degree by research program and two doctoral candidates participating in the program to explore the ethos and outcomes of the program.

The program has sought to develop a different type of higher education ethos, one characterized by an open-door communications policy, a critical friend philosophy, an emphasis on teamwork, pro tem supervision and a new model for doctoral supervision, self-designed work-based projects, self-directed research programs and the development of professional identity.

The characteristics and contributions of WBL programs at the doctoral level have been well documented in the academic literature, but the unique ethos, if there is one, of such programs has yet to be fully examined. This study goes some of the way to answering the question of whether such programs have a unique ethos and if so what are its features and how might it contribute to student development.

The purpose of the study was to specify the perceived outdated nature and lack of definitional clarity associated with the concept of work and further to outline that the nature of work has dramatically changed in the 21st century, while definitions of work referenced in research remain those that were dominant in the previous century. Lastly, the study aimed to propose an updated conceptualisation and definition of work to aid future research.

A scoping literature review was adopted as the methodology guiding the study. A scoping review is particularly suited to identifying the conceptual boundaries on a given multi-disciplinary topic and is used to map the key concepts underpinning a research area as well as to clarify working definitions.

Nine main themes underpinning the concept of work were extracted from the extant literature. These were assimilated with contemporary literature across multiple disciplines. Contexts of work as they relate to dimensions of work and workspace are developed and visualised. A proposed contemporary definition of work is presented.

The aim of the study was to address the problem with current and future research continuing to refer to traditional conceptualisations of work, while the nature of work has dramatically changed. The findings are preliminary and intended to stimulate further discourse towards a greater consensus of a definition. The implications of proposing an updated definition of work is that it is intended to better inform future research reflective of its multi-disciplinary and significantly changed nature.

The implications to practice are the main impetus of this study. The authors found that research associated with work was being confounded by traditional and outdated interpretations, excluding alternative forms of work or not recognising its multi-dimensionality. It is proposed by the paper that an updated conceptualisation of the nature of work in this era, as it is reflected across disciplines and practice, would positively contribute to the understanding, management and conceptualisation of work in practice.

A systematic literature review across disciplines of the definition of work will reveal the outdated nature and disparate interpretation of the concept of work. An inclusive, multi-disciplinary and contemporary definition of work has not been suggested. This scoping review was conducted to address this problem and gap in the literature. Further, this paper presents a multi-dimensional and spatial conceptualisation of work that is proposed to better inform future research and practice associated with work.

Issues around informal, non-formal and formal learning, intended and unintended learning and competencies and capabilities have been considered in work-based learning (WBL). However, demarcated modes of learning, or what can be called strategies or pedagogies of learning, associated with experience of work environments have yet to be examined. One mode of learning which has been highlighted in relation to work is reflective practice, and its centrality to learning at work has been established. But reflective practice as a core skill, and its relation to other approaches to learning and research in WBL, remains uncovered. The purpose of the present study therefore is to identify different modes of learning as they appear in the literature and to present a proto-theoretical “learning by …” model for WBL and research founded on learning by reflection.

Proto-theoretical modelling and qualitative descriptions of each mode of learning.

Work environments, and the higher degree WBL programmes which support them, should provide learning via every available mode of learning, thereby allowing students to find their own best orientation to learning and encourage it by any means.

The proto-theoretical model and 12 modes of learning applied to WBL are unique to this study. WBL provides participants of work with multiple opportunities and approaches to learn and similarly provides multiple modes through which learning can occur on the basis of knowledge and skills in reflective practice.

Corporatisation of the New Zealand electricity industry during the 1990s increased the need for improved accountability. The publication of annual reports is one of the prime ways in which organisations meet their accountability obligations. This paper describes the development of a disclosure index from a public accountability perspective and reports the results of its application to the 1999 annual reports of the 33 electricity retail and distribution companies. The index was developed with the support of a panel representing 15 stakeholder groups. It is designed to assess the comprehensiveness (both in extent and quality) of annual report disclosures and incorporates a best‐practice model of annual reporting. Key areas of inadequate disclosure relate to performance measures (financial and non‐financial), segmental information, asset valuation details, and the cost of electricity purchased / generated. Improved disclosure to meet best‐practice guidelines would contribute to improved communication between companies and stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the long-term correlates of bullying in school with aspects of functioning in adult employment outcomes.

Bullying is considered and evaluated as a proxy for unmeasured productivity, and a framework is provided that outlines why bullying might affect employment outcomes through differences in skills and traits. Using Bivariate and Heckit models the paper employs a variety of specifications and finds several interesting patterns.

By utilising the 2008 Greek Behavioural Study data set the regression outcomes suggest that labour force participation, employment rate and hourly wages are negatively affected by bullying. In addition, men, homosexuals, immigrants, unmarried people, those having higher negative mental health symptoms, and those having lower human capital are more negatively affected by bullying in terms of labour force participation, employment probability and hourly wages. Moreover, Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions suggest that labour force participation gaps, employment gaps and hourly wage gaps between minority and majority groups, especially for gay men and the disabled, can be explained by bullying incidents.

It seems likely that having been a victim of bullying also has economic implications later in life due to withdrawal from the labour market and lower wages.

The retrospective bullying index used in the current study measured the combined and ordered effect of the duration and intensity of bullying, which generates 17 outcomes that ultimately capture a large range of alternative options. In addition, the author suggested that bullying might be understood as a productivity trait that provides a direct input into the production process, which might drive abilities or traits and influence adult employment outcomes. Contemporary economic analysis suggests that cognitive and non-cognitive skills are important factors that affect labour productivity through reasoning ability and productivity.

In terms of the concept of broken home as a juvenile delinquency risk factor, whilst Nigeria and Ghana are culturally different from western nations (Gyekye, 1996; Hofstede, 1980; Smith, 2004), parental death (PDE) and parental divorce (PDI) have been previously taken-for-granted as one factor, that is ‘broken home’. This paper aims to deconstruct the singular model of ‘broken home’ and propose a binary model – the parental death and parental divorce hypotheses, with unique variables inherent in Nigerian/Ghanaian context.

It principally deploys the application of Goffman’s (1967) theory of stigma, anthropological insights on burial rites and other social facts (Gyekye, 1996; Mazzucato et al., 2006; Smith, 2004) to tease out diversity and complexity of lives across cultures, which specifically represent a binary model of broken home in Nigeria/Ghana. It slightly appraises post-colonial insights on decolonization (Agozino, 2003; Said, 1994) to interrogate both marginalized and mainstream literature.

Thus far, analyses have challenged the homogenization of the concept broken home in existing literature. Qualitatively unlike in the ‘West’, analyses have identified the varying meanings/consequences of parental divorce and parental death in Nigeria/Ghana.

Unlike existing data, this paper has contrasted the differential impacts of parental death and parental divorce with more refined variables (e.g. the sociocultural penalties of divorce such as stigma in terms of parental divorce and other social facts such as burial ceremonies, kinship nurturing, in relation to parental death), which helped to fill in the missing gap in comparative criminology literature.