Search results

Examines the issue of excessive growth in the service firm, using the case example of People Express, a US domestic airline. Addresses the question of how service firms can grow and yet maintain financial stability. Focuses on sustainable growth a marketing planning method for determining the financial feasibility and desirability of a company′s product and market growth strategies. Concludes that an excessive growth firm must carefully examine its choices to be able to align its market opportunities with its financial resources, otherwise it faces disaster

Policy makers and practitioners argue that electronic exchange of clinical data across the healthcare system is a key component of improving health service delivery in the United States. Provider administrators, however, question the strategic value of participation in health information exchanges (HIEs) and remain reluctant to participate. Existing research fails to adequately illuminate the potential value derived from HIEs by participating organizations. This paper addresses this gap by developing a conceptual model informed by the complementary theoretical perspectives of the relational view and systems theory to specify both a provider organizationʼs internal conditions and the HIE structure necessary for both financial accrual and quality improvement. This two-sided model can assist policymakers as they attempt to encourage HIE development, as well as provider and HIE leadership that seek to benefit from HIEs. The propositions developed from this model can also help guide researchers as they evaluate the impact of HIEs.

This paper aims to provide evidence of pro-worker orientation and acceptance of socialist idealism in scientific management, with particular focus on Walter Polakov.

A range of original texts have been examined to identify the ideas expressed or accepted by the early scientific managers. These include Bulletin of the Taylor Society and the early publications of the socialist engineer and scientific manager Walter Polakov.

This paper shows how an avowed socialist is outspoken but unremarkable for the members of the Taylor Society in the 1910s and 1920s, contrary to the views expressed in textbooks and other histories which assert a deep antiworker bias in scientific management.

This is limited to a historical analysis of the role and extent of involvement of the Marxist engineer Walter Polakov in the US scientific management movement in the 1910s and 1920s.

This paper offers insights into the workings of the Taylor Society using a biographical approach. In so doing, it demonstrates, in a new way, the verity of claims that the original proponents of scientific management were not authoritarian or anti-worker in their views or ideals, but, rather, open to progressive and socialist ideals.

Notes that quality management practices of leading firms have increasingly been considered benchmarks for other companies in quest of successful competitive technologies. Shares the most relevant findings of the authors’ study on key quality practices of leading firms in Brazil. Includes comparisons with results of research in the USA. Identifies socio‐cultural factors as a root‐cause for the difficulties of employing these practices effectively in Brazil. Recommends the development of innovative capabilities and cultural synergies, in the scope of the increasing associations with foreign firms, to overcome at least some of the difficulties at issue.

This study aims to expand the current knowledge of the Six Sigma approach in a period of time when there is little direct evidence of the need to improve the credit card account opening process. This is an important but neglected area of focus in the Six Sigma literature. This study explores the extent to which process improvement practices are extended to the credit card department.

A case study methodology is adopted in this study to facilitate an exploration of the implemented Six Sigma approach in the credit card department of a leading commercial bank. The process improvement tool used is the define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) cycle.

The study’s results confirm that the Six Sigma approach improves the quality of the credit card account opening process. So, the Six Sigma approach can account for a reduced number of keying-in errors, resulting in better data accuracy and improved customer satisfaction.

The authors, in an attempt to render the study results more feasible for data collection, have chosen to focus on the process of the new accounts unit of the credit card department. Therefore, the authors have not taken into account the other units (e.g. transaction processing) of the same department.

The results of this study will be useful in persuading bank management to evaluate and implement the Six Sigma approach. Hence, this research will assist bank managers with replies to questions, such as: “What impact will Six Sigma have on process-centric improvement, such as the new accounts opening process of a credit card department?”

Within the literature on the Six Sigma practice, there is little research that focuses on the implementation of this particular toolset especially for credit card departments. This indicates a gap in the field. A new contribution to bridging that gap comes from the analysis of the results for the Six Sigma concept, which addresses the new accounts opening process.

A LETTER from the President of the Library Association (Mr. Berwick Sayers) has been received which we have pleasure in giving prominently.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

Previous work on employee-driven innovation (EDI) has demonstrated the benefits of employees’ proactive behavior in achieving success with innovations. The purpose of this paper is to employ the concept of personal initiative to investigate the underestimated role of employees’ agency in complex processes of innovation, showing the impact of personal initiative on employees’ innovation success.

Based on two embedded cases of environmental bottom-up innovation at a large manufacturing company, this study examines employees’ behavior in generating, championing and realizing such initiatives.

This paper provides insights into how employees succeeded, through taking initiative in generating, championing and realizing environmental initiatives despite facing high complexity, and resource constraints. Without being prompted from the top down, employees started these initiatives themselves and showed phase-specific behavior in overcoming the various challenges. Thus, self-starting behavior was found dominant in generating ideas, whereas proactive and persistent forms of behavior were found to be prevalent in championing and rolling out the initiatives.

Current understandings of EDI highlight the importance of developing employees’ potential capabilities and organizational-level guidance. Using an active performance perspective, this study emphasizes the importance of employees’ agency in ensuring EDI success, even when conditions are not conducive to their doing so.

Research has highlighted problems in accessing mental health services for people from minority ethnic groups. Much of this literature is focused on adults. The Minority Voices study aimed to identify and describe the perceptions and use of mental health services from the viewpoint of black and minority ethnic (BME) young people aged between 12 and 25 in England and Wales, and to examine initiatives designed to improve the access to, and acceptability of, services for these young people. It used a mixed methods approach, including a literature review, national service mapping, in‐depth interviews and focus groups in four sample areas and action research in preparing materials designed by BME young people. A number of issues that impede access to services, and that are specific to them, were identified and explored with young people from BME groups. These include concerns related to discrimination and racism, confidentiality, family and community pressures, uncertainty about any help they may receive, and marked fears of the stigma that surrounds mental health difficulties. Within services, a lack of capacity of targeted services and of cultural competence were highlighted. The research concluded that there is a need to improve awareness of mental health and information about services among BME communities, and for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to work with these communities to explore ways in which acceptable and appropriate mental health expertise can be made more readily available through both informal and mainstream provision.

No One Knows is concerned about people with learning disabilities and difficulties who get into trouble with the police and who enter the criminal justice system. The terms ‘learning difficulties’ and ‘learning difficulties’ are often used interchangeably to describe people with an intellectual disability, excluding those who, for example, have dyslexia or Asperger syndrome. No One Knows, however, has adopted a more inclusive approach and has included in its remit offenders with learning disabilities as defined by the World Health Organization as well as those with a broader range of learning difficulties. Although there is some discrepancy on prevalence, it is clear that high numbers of people with learning disabilities and difficulties are caught up in the criminal justice system. Once in the criminal justice system it is unlikely that an individual with learning disabilities or difficulties will be identified or that their support needs will be met. This causes difficulties for the individual concerned and for the staff who work with them, who receive little or no training for working with this group of people. The question of whether people with learning disabilities (meaning intellectual disabilities) should be diverted from the criminal justice system is considered.