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In this paper we demonstrate how an institution in higher education can apply the three‐phased, service‐based quality function deployment (QFD) methodology to translate the voices of customers (VsOC) in stages into operations requirements. The emphasis is at the operational level. The translated operations requirements form the basis of operational solutions to delivering quality programmes and services in higher education. An institution can satisfy the VsOC by mapping out a clear action plan to achieve high quality standards. Three applications found in the Business School at the National University of Singapore are presented. Important managerial implications are drawn.

The purpose of this research was to uncover perceptions of information technology outsourcing (ITO) project leaders and project teams regarding knowledge transfer between client and vendor partners during opening and closing transition phases of ITO projects.

Qualitative methods and exploratory case study design were used. Purposeful sampling was used to identify ITO knowledge assets including project team members and organizational documents and artifacts that may provide information regarding the knowledge transfer processes during the transition phases of the ITO project. Sample criteria were ITO project team members from one US-based client organization and the company’s international vendor partners. The study population included project managers, analyst, developers, subject matter experts (SMEs) and other ITO knowledge workers involved in the ITO project from one US-based organization. Interview and document analysis were done using of NVivo Pro 11^® research software.

Four themes emerged from participant responses relative to the opening and closing phases of ITO projects including KT approaches to plans and processes; KT dependencies relative to IT project team member’s reliance on project tools, processes and artifacts; determinants of KT success or failure relative to project team members’ perceptions; and role of documentation relative to communication and distribution of KT outcomes.

This research may provide insights into additional aspects of knowledge transfer during ITO transition phases, which may be used by IT leaders and project teams to plan for successful knowledge transfer during the transition phases of ITO projects.

This study aims to establish a rigorous model that can pragmatically evaluate the facilities management (FM) performance of hospitals.

Among the applicable performance indicators that were identified from extant literature, a focus group study shortlisted ten key performance indicators (KPIs) in four categories (safety, physical, financial and environmental) and verified their practicality. Using the analytic network process (ANP) method to process the focus group’s responses yielded importance weightings for the KPIs and developed the intended evaluation model. This model was then validated by a case study.

From the empirical data collected, two types of FM performance data and two scenarios of KPI scores were identified. To process these data and scores, a robust calculation method was devised and then proved useful in obtaining an overall score for holistic hospital FM performance. The case study confirmed the appropriateness and validity of the model developed.

Through illustrating how the ANP method could be applied to develop an FM performance evaluation model, the study contributes knowledge to the multi-criteria decision-making domain. Despite the geographical limitation of the model established (i.e. centered around a group of hospitals investigated in Hong Kong), the study can serve as a reference for developing performance evaluation models for other buildings or infrastructures globally.

The model constitutes a practical tool for evaluating the FM performance of hospitals. Using this model on a regular basis will enable performance benchmarking and hence, continuous improvement of FM services.

The ANP model established is the first of its kind tailored for evaluation of hospital FM performance.

The competition and challenges facing construction firms during the recent recession have brought risk management (RM) to the fore in people’s minds. Examination of the difficulties of implementing RM in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK construction industry has been relatively untouched. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

As part of on-going research to facilitate RM processing aimed at improving the competitiveness of SMEs, the difficulties in RM implementation were identified through a literature review of RM implementation in SMEs. Postal questionnaire were sent to SMEs who have experience of construction management.

Of the 153 of SMEs responding, most highlighted that the main difficulty experienced is how to scale RM process to meet their requirements. None of the available standards explain the fundamental principle of applying RM to the situations that SMEs find themselves in. This difficulty is further exacerbated by a lack of management skills and knowledge in the adoption of RM tools or techniques to identify and analyse the business’ risks.

The identified difficulties can be considered to develop a process to facilitate RM process within SMEs.

This chapter discusses the project to investigate, recommend, and create user-focused solutions for opening and operating Severn Library, a high-density storage facility, at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD.

This chapter takes the case study approach, discussing the practical application of project management techniques to various stages of a large-scale project to plan for a high-density storage facility.

Although the Severn Library project began with a large project team, lack of formal project management expertise and the massive nature of the project led to its breakdown into smaller constituent projects, with the two authors filling the roles of “accidental project managers” to complete the work on time. Although this approach was ultimately successful, the overall success of the project could have been improved through more formal application of project management techniques.

This chapter discusses the experience of the authors at one large, public state university. The experience of other libraries and library managers may vary based on institutional context.

This chapter will be valuable to library managers interested in project management techniques in libraries, and/or in planning for high-density library storage facilities.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the only writing on the application of project management techniques to construction and operation of a high-density library storage facility.

This paper aims to generate new research directions at the intersection of accounting, whistleblowing and publicness: defined as the attainment of public goals, interests and values.

A problematising review is used to challenge and rethink the existing accounting and whistleblowing literature by incorporating readings from the public interest and public value literature. The paper draws on the work of Dewey (1927), Bozeman (2007) and Benington (2009) to open up new ways of theorising relations between accounting, whistleblowing and publicness.

Firstly, the paper develops a public interest theoretical framework which shows whistleblowing is a public value activity that moves organisational wrongdoing into the public sphere where it is subject to democratic debate and dialogue required to reconcile the public's interests with what the public values. Secondly, this framework provides one answer to continuing questions in the literature of how to define accountings relationship to the public interest. Finally, the paper suggests this conceptual framework be used to stimulate debate on whether and how one should expand existing accounting and accountability knowledge boundaries to incorporate the broader social, political and moral concerns highlighted by whistleblowers acting in the public interest.

Accounting and whistleblowing research has ignored the theoretical implications of whistleblowing in the public interest. The paper shows how accounting and accountability can respond to the challenges of a shifting and intangible public interest by providing a conceptual framework to guide current and future theoretical questions of how accounting is connected to the public interest.

The smart building concept has gained prominence in the construction sector during the past decade. In the United Arab Emirates, although smart building technology has been widely adopted in different building sectors, no empirical studies have examined the applicability of the smart buildings concept in prison facilities. The current study aims to understand the current status of prison buildings in the UAE and the challenges faced by the prison industry to implement new smart technology.

This study involved a semi-structured interview consisting of 14 participants who were interviewed face-to-face about their opinion about the objectives of the study. The interviewees were experts from the prison and construction industry of the UAE working at the top management level. Mind-maps were created from the thematic data using Nvivo software.

The results demonstrated that among current issues prevailing in prisons, overcrowding was regarded as the most severe issue. Additionally, in most cases, there is no systemic classification of inmates. Concerning the potential challenges in the implementation of smart technologies in the prison buildings, being too old and outdated of prison buildings are a significant concern, followed by a substantial gap in the approval system of budget to purchase new smart technology.

The findings of this study are of vital importance and help to identify potential challenges involved in the implementation of smart technologies in prison buildings that should be taken into consideration before selecting any new smart technology.

This paper aims to understand an employee’s intention toward whistleblowing by analyzing Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) and Graham’s principled organizational dissent (POD). It also seeks to find the moderating effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on whistleblowing intention (BI).

A total of 220 usable responses, collected from government employees of India, were analyzed using structural equation modeling. For developing a questionnaire, items were adopted from the literature and were measured on a five-point Likert-type rating scale.

Results revealed that attitude, perceived behavioral control (PBC), subjective norm (SN) and perceived responsibility of reporting (PRR) positively influence BI whereas the perceived cost of reporting (PCR) negatively influenced BI. It was further found that POS negated the effect of attitude, PBC, PCR and PRR on BI and strengthens the effect of SN.

The present study adds to the list of academic literature on topics such as corporate governance and whistleblowing and provides new avenues to academicians and researchers for research. It provides a comprehensive understanding of whistleblowing concept, factors that influence BI and reasons to promote whistleblowing culture in organizations.

The findings may help government institutions to understand the factors that hinder whistleblowing practices and to devise strategies to foster a culture of whistleblowing. It may also offer insights to managers to mold human resource practices so that it includes policies of moral behavior.

This study is one of the initial studies in the Indian context to explore the moderating role of perceived organization support on employee’s intention to blow the whistle.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the critical factors for the diffusion of web technologies in supply chain management (SCM) functions, based on the technology‐organizational‐environment model, and to identify the benefits resulting from diffusion.

Data were collected, via an internet survey, from 251 respondents, ranging from middle‐level to top‐level managers, from firms which currently utilize web technologies for their supply chain activities. Structural equation modelling was employed for five factors: relative advantage; competitive pressure; complexity; trialability; and top management support, which have been hypothesized to affect the diffusion of web technologies in SCM functions.

The results suggest that all the factors except trialability are significant predictors of web technologies' diffusion in supply chain functions. The results show also that by diffusing web technologies, organizations can enhance their supply chain activities.

The survey was conducted in a Malaysian context, using a limited set of variables, thus limiting the generalizability of the findings.

This study provides a greater understanding of managers' perception of web technology diffusion in their organizational SCM functions, and benefits realizing from diffusion of web technology, such as operational efficiency.

Those interested in adopting web technologies in their supply chain activities may find these results helpful in guiding their efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of transformational leadership (TL) on follower emotional intelligence (EI) and examine the potential mediation role played by follower EI in the relationship between TL and follower outcomes (i.e. growth satisfaction in the job and job stress (JS)).

Data were obtained through survey using questionnaire collected from 908 employees who worked across six different sectors, i.e. manufacturing, IT, healthcare, hospitality, educational and public services in Southern India. The mediation model proposed in this study was tested using structural equation modelling and bootstrapping method.

The relationship between TL and Follower EI was significant. Follower EI was found to partially mediate the relationship between TL and followers’ growth satisfaction in job. Contrary to expectations, the follower EI did not significantly predict JS in this study and hence the follower EI did not mediate in the proposed model. However, follower EI and growth satisfaction in the job jointly mediated the relationship between TL and follower JS fully.

Self-report bias about supervisors’ TL behaviours and followers’ own EI assessment and collection of data from the mono-source (subordinate self-report) might have impacted the results of this study. Moreover, some items were negatively worded and reverse coded as cognitive speed bumps to restrain the respondent’s tendency to rush through answering the survey questionnaire.

This study established a partial and joint mediation of follower EI on the relationship between TL and follower outcomes. Basing on these findings, this study highlights the need for the practitioners to better understand the importance of EI training for the leaders in the organisations for obtaining better outcomes in the followers.

The study establishes the fact that the attunement of transformational leaders’ EI and follower EI help leaders as well as followers to guide their behaviour towards positive outcomes.

This study is among the first to examine the impact of TL on follower EI and the potential mediation of follower EI between TL and follower outcomes. From a theoretical perspective, this study is one step closer to fully understand the intervening process between TL and follower outcomes.