Search results

The aim of this study is to report and reflect on the development of a tailored executive education programme rooted in state-of-the-art research and focused on enhancing and embedding project leadership competences in a multi-national project-based organisation.

Through a detailed description of an example of a leadership development programme, the paper reflects on the learning journey. Drawing on research in management education, leadership and project management competence development, the authors present the rationale, design, delivery and participant and organisational experiences.

Reflections on the learning journey identify five key points: a) the fundamental role of a programme champion, b) the importance of balancing rigour and relevance in executive education programme design, c) the importance of attending to the milieu of the clientele in terms of culture, demands and where they are in terms of their learning journey, d) the significant role that reflection can play in personal development and e) the competences necessary for project leadership.

This paper reflects on a single programme for a single organisation and is therefore at risk of being idiosyncratic and not generalisable. This is indeed a limitation. However, the authors are all experienced in delivering executive education – and therefore can use those experiences to view the reflections. Many of the considerations noted here resonate with other programmes (both in support and through experience of omission having detrimental effects).

The paper provides new insights into developing enduring and effective leadership competences in complex project management, i.e. one that has a lasting impact on the organisation and is recognised to provide benefits. The reflections on how the authors charted a course and embarked on a journey are deemed of relevance to academics and industry.

The paper provides, for both industry practitioners and academics, new insights into effective leadership development in complex project management, one that has a lasting impact on the individual and the organisation and is recognised to provide benefits.

Describes the process by which an NHS provider Unit sought to make quality assurance and improvement a shared concern of professionals and managers. Development of a quality assurance strategy and related action plans pulled together existing quality initiatives in the Unit and set new initiatives in an agreed framework for organizational development. Thus the strategy filled the gap between a statement of organizational values and detailed quality auditing practices at the sharp end. Through the active involvement of professional staff and managers in multidisciplinary and multi‐level project groups, the facilitated processes of strategy making, dissemination and implementation led to significant learning by and development of staff and managers and an unanticipated spill over of energy, enthusiasm and commitment throughout the organization.

It is argued that whilst operational and support processes deliver performance presently, it is the managerial processes that sustain performance over time. The purpose of this research paper is to better understand what these managerial processes are and how they influence organisational performance.

The theoretical background is reviewed covering literature on the subject of business process management, resourced‐based view (RBV), dynamic capabilities and managerial processes. A research framework leads to qualitative case study‐based research design. Data are collected from 37 organisations across Europe, classified according to their performance.

Findings suggest that the five managerial processes and their constituent managerial activities, identified through the empirical research, influence performance of organisations as an interconnected managerial system rather than as individual processes and activities. Also, the execution and maturity of this managerial system is influenced by the perceptions of the managers who organise it.

Within the limitation of the study the discussion leads to eight research propositions that contribute to our understanding of how managerial processes influence organisational performance. These propositions and ensuing discussion provide insights into the content and structure of managerial processes, as well as contributing to the debate on RBV by suggesting that managerial processes and activities could be considered as valuable, rare and inimitable resources. Furthermore, the discussion on how managerial perceptions influence the organisation and execution of the managerial system contributes towards our understanding of how and why dynamic capabilities develop.

The results suggest that in higher performing organisations, managers: demonstrate a wider awareness of the overall managerial system; achieve a balance between short‐term and future‐oriented activities; exploit their managerial activities for multiple purposes; demonstrate greater maturity of managerial activities; and pay greater attention to the organisation of the managerial system.

This paper presents one of the first empirical studies that attempt to understand how business processes, and particularly managerial processes, as an interconnected managerial system serve to sustain performance of organisations.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Development of key leadership competences helps project management firms enhance their effectiveness. Design of educational programs for leaders needs to focus on ensuring rigor, content relevant to participant needs and providing sufficient opportunities for the reflection that is crucial to personal and professional development.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This study aims to excoriate, define and delineate the main drivers of “change” in commercial construction projects and generate guidelines on how to minimise exposure to the associated adverse effects upon project stakeholders.

The research adopts mixed doctrines through a combination of epistemological lenses, embracing two primary philosophical stances: interpretivism, to identify the primary drivers of change based on a systematic literature review and a post-positivist, inductive approach to analyse the results of change within a Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) Design and Build (D&B) construction project case study.

The causal nexus of change during the construction phase is assessed and delineated; the key affecting factors are thematically grouped under headings: extent and severity; time in relation to implementing; instigating party; individual(s) responsible for managing the change; reason for the change; available resource; recoverable or non-recoverable; contract/project type; and type of client. Following this, the effects of change on key elements of the project are encapsulated and recommendations for adaptations which may provide improved experiences are offered.

The study tackles the common issue of managing the deleterious effects of change on commercial construction projects, defining management techniques to minimise stakeholder tribulation.

The aim of this paper is to conceptualize employees' sustainable work abilities, or their long‐term adaptive and proactive abilities to work, farewell at work, and contribute through working. Sustainable work is defined as to promote the development in personal resources leading to sustainable work ability.

The conceptual paper distinguishes vital personal resources underlying an employee's sustainable work ability and categorizes these resources with the help of integral theory. Collaborative work crafting was outlined as a tool to promote the development of personal resources and sustainable work ability.

Sustainable work ability depends on personal resources relating to our human nature as both individual and communal beings with both interior and exterior worlds. Work crafting may create sustainable work in which existing personal resources are benefited from, developed further through learning, or translated into novel resources.

When formal job descriptions and preplanned job design do not work in post‐industrial work, traditional job design can be replaced by collaborative work crafting, which allows development in both work and employees.

The paper synthesizes different types of personal resources needed for sustainable working and outlines their development processes, rather than adds one more theory to explain some specific aspect of well‐being, development, and functioning. The paper offers one of the first definitions of sustainable work.

International air express carriers, frequently referred to as international courier companies, operate integrated global networks consisting of aircraft, hubs, vehicles, data systems and tens of thousands of employees spread across all continents. The inherently global nature of such systems – the leading firm operates in 228 countries – makes them sensitive to a foray of risks and threats. This paper, which was presented at the Seventh International Public Relations Research Symposium (Lake Bled, Slovenia, 7th‐8th July, 2000), reports on an ongoing crisis management research project that started in 1997 and which investigates early markers of crises experienced by DHL Worldwide Express. After a concise literature overview, which maps the relationship between organisational crises and early warning signals, two research outputs are discussed. First, the production of a crisis register is described. Computer‐aided content analysis of an internal service bulletin identified 103 service crises which the company managed in 68 countries during a 15‐month period. Secondly, detailed case investigation generated a model of crisis gestation. Prior to conflagration, exacerbating conditions and precipitating events interact to produce a number of dynamic effects. Five types of gestation‐advancing effects are illustrated. The paper concludes by reflecting on some of the consequences globally dispersed operations can have on corporate crisis management processes.

ATTENTION has been repeatedly drawn to certain drawbacks in the library profession which tend to hinder progress in many ways, and recently some discussion has taken place concerning the long hours and short pay of library assistants. Some years ago there appeared, we believe, in one of Mr. Greenwood's valuable Library Year Books, an analysis of the hours of work in a large number of British Municipal Libraries, and it was made plain from this that a majority of assistants had to work considerably more than forty‐eight hours weekly. Conditions may have changed since then, although it is open to doubt, but the fact remains that too many assistants, and a considerable number of librarians in small places, are now working so long, and in such broken spells, as to preclude any possibility of attaining self‐culture or reasonable recreation. The case of the small town librarian is particularly distressing. In some instances he is a man who has been well‐trained in a large town library, and inspired by a mistaken ambition, elects to attain a position of independence by accepting the chief librarianship in a library of which he afterwards finds himself the sole officer. He is responsible for the cleaning, as well as the ordinary work of a librarian, and his efforts to convert a miserable library rate of a few pounds into an engine of immense efficiency (as expected by the local authority) are enough to make the financial operations of even an American millionaire seem petty in comparison. We have had several cases like this brought to notice within a few weeks, and they give added point to any plea for reform which may be advanced. One young man, well‐educated and well‐trained, undertook the charge of a small municipal library, chiefly because it happened to be near London, and he wished to be in touch with that great and attractive centre. He very soon discovered that the hours of the library were so arranged as to occupy his whole time and keep him employed all day, from 9 a.m. or earlier, till 10 p.m., with two short breaks which did not suffice for a visit to London. On Sunday he was too tired to think of London, apart from which, the institutions which interested him were closed, so that it is possible this librarian has not yet seen the longed‐for London of his cherished anticipations ! There are cases like this in the smaller libraries all over the country, where one official has to perform all the work in an unlimited number of hours. If, as is done in some places, the hours of opening are greatly curtailed in order to give the librarian his deserved and well‐earned rest, then the public suffer. On the other hand, a library administered by a single officer and kept open from nine to ten hours daily, is rather of the nature of a slave‐compound, in which an official is kept prisoner in the interests of the omnipotent ratepayer. Wherever small staffs are kept, there exists this tendency towards long hours, and a consequent eterioration in the efficiency and educational qualifications of assistants. A standing complaint among those who are engaged in the educational work of the Library Association is that so many candidates are deficient in the most elementary subjects, such as composition, spelling and arithmetic. This is undoubtedly caused by the employment of imperfectly educated assistants, who are afterwards tied so fast to their library duties that they are unable to find any time for study and reading. In libraries where small staffs and long hours of opening are found together, it is almost certain that the work‐hours of the assistants will be excessive, and the efficiency of the service impaired.

In operations and supply chain management, time is largely one-dimensional – less is better – with much effort devoted to compressing, efficiently using, and competitively exploiting clock-time. However, by drawing on other literatures, the purpose of this paper is to understand implications for the field of operations management if we also emphasize how humans and organizations experience time, termed process-time, which is chronicled by events and stages of change.

After a brief review, the limitations of the recurrent time-oriented themes in operations management and the resulting short-termism are summarized. Next, sustainability is offered as an important starting point to explore the concept of temporality, including both clock- and process-time, as well as the implications of temporal orientation and temporal conflict in supply chains.

A framework that includes both management and stakeholder behavior is offered to illustrate how multiple temporal perspectives might be leveraged as a basis for an expanded and enriched understanding of more sustainable competitiveness in operations.

Research by others emphasizes the importance of stakeholders to competitiveness. By recognizing that different stakeholder groups have varying temporal orientations and temporality, managers can establish objectives and systems that better reflect time-based diversity and diffuse temporal conflict.

This paper summarizes how time has been incorporated in operations management, as well as the challenges of short-termism. Sustainability forms the basis for exploring multiple perspectives of time and three key constructs: temporal orientation, temporality, and temporal conflict. A framework is proposed to better incorporate temporal perspectives as a basis for competitiveness in operations and supply chain management.