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Research into the identification and development of value propositions has recently been identified as a key research priority by the Marketing Science Institute. The purpose of this article is to identify and develop a process for value proposition deconstruction that can help organizations transform their value propositions in order to gain an improvement in their competitive position.

A case study of an exemplar organization in the health care sector is used to develop an approach for value proposition deconstruction. Using the business system concept as a theoretical framework, the key value-adding elements that comprise this organization's value proposition are identified. A leading financial services firm is used to demonstrate how this learning approach can be successfully applied in developing a new and innovative value proposition.

Using the business system framework, a structured process for deconstructing value propositions is developed. This framework is extended to explicitly acknowledge the value-in-use that results from different encounters, to incorporate learning processes and to recognize its interactive and recursive nature.

The authors provide practitioners with insight into how to formulate new or improved value propositions.

This work addresses two important and previously unaddressed research questions: how can the process of deconstruction of an exemplar organization's value proposition provide a more comprehensive understanding of the elements that comprise a superior value offering; and how can this process be applied to other organizations seeking to improve their value proposition?

Worldwide, major projects often make the headlines as they suffer from a fourfold whammy of delays, cost blowouts, benefit shortfalls and stakeholder disappointments. It seems that error and bias can explain their underperformance. Which overarching explanation outweighs the other? It is the question this paper aims to address.

Insights are garnered from decades of research on thousands of major projects in developed and developing countries worldwide. In particular, two high-profile project cases, the Veteran Affairs Hospital in Aurora, Colorado (USA) and the Philharmonie de Paris (France), are explored.

The case projects show that error and bias combine to best explain project (under) performance. Applying best practices or debiasing project cost and benefit estimates is insufficient to prevent cost blowouts and benefit shortfalls. The confrontation of the two overarching explanations is not merely platonic. It is real and may lead to a media and legal battle.

This viewpoint calls practitioners to transcend the error versus bias debate and reconcile two key characters in the world of major projects: the “overoptimistic” who hold a bias for hope and firmly believe that, despite error down the road, many projects would, in the end, “stumble into success” as creativity may come to the rescue; and the “overpessimistic” who hold a bias for despair and think many projects should not have been started.

Previous research provides adequate evidence on performance management (PM) for hospitals and healthcare providers; however, less is known about their individual and PM appraisal process. Additionally, there is limited research exploring PM in the Middle Eastern context. This study investigates PM practices in the Middle Eastern healthcare industry.

This study adopts the qualitative research methodology through semi-structured interviews of healthcare professionals in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Thematic analysis was adopted for analyzing this qualitative data.

The main findings have uncovered different facets of appraisal challenges for both the appraiser (i.e. manager) and the appraisee (i.e. employee). These challenges include communication deficits, lack of goal setting standards and regular meeting updates in order to ensure employee satisfaction and motivation in the workplace.

This study has significant implications for policymakers in Middle Eastern hospitals in terms of implementing PM for their staff. Moreover, future studies can conduct in-depth analysis and provide comparison between public and private sectors in the Gulf countries.

This study is one of the first to portray challenges involved in conducting PM in the Middle East healthcare sector specifically in the UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), both from the perspectives of the appraiser and appraisee.

I wish to make three points at the start of this talk. Firstly the views expressed are generally my own and are not necessarily those held by hospital authorities. Secondly, I have assumed that I am talking to an international work study audience and not a hospital audience. Thirdly, work study has been introduced extensively to the hospital field only within the last three years and the achieved contribution to the planning of new hospitals is still quite limited. This short talk is therefore a review of the progress and problems encountered in applying the normal techniques of work study to design work in a new field of considerable complexity rather than an elaborate exposition of new techniques.

This paper focuses on communication about hygiene in a hospital ward and with the relevant infection control organization. The purpose of this paper is to examine the function of the hygiene coordinator as a key change agent and the communicative challenges and role conflicts implied in her practice. The author suggests strategies for improving communication on hygiene on ward level.

The empirical material consists of interviews and recordings of communicative events in relation to a breakout of dangerous bacteria in the ward. Change communication is used as a contextualizing frame of understanding, and positioning theory and analysis are applied to shed light upon the core challenges of communicating as a change agent when the coordinator’s professional position and collegial relations do not support it.

It is shown how these challenges are connected to positional dilemmas regarding professional hierarchies and collegial relations. In order to have the hygiene coordinator gain authority and achieve empowerment in her function, additional documentation and training are needed, and communication efforts between the department management and the hygiene coordinator need strengthening. Furthermore, the hygiene area should be connected to the hospital’s overarching purpose of saving lives.

These findings point to the importance of taking communication on the departmental level into consideration in relation to change strategies, and they highlight the centrality of strategic positioning practices in a work environment which is organized in professional groups and according to distributed responsibilities.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for the improvement of healthcare services through an effective human resource management system. The case study highlights a need to analyze human resource management processes that exist in healthcare sector and suggests better ways to achieve higher levels of patient satisfaction.

The methodology consists of first developing a conceptual framework for human resource management in healthcare industry. The proposed framework comprises of three parts: inputs which include determining employee competencies, HR planning, job analysis, recruitment, selection, compensation benefits, pay/rewards, labor and employee relations; processes (training and development) focus on healthcare systems; and outputs which include quality, cost, technology, and responsiveness leading to patient satisfaction. Then, the framework has been studied with help of a case study conducted in a hospital in India.

The most important skill required for healthcare workforce to deliver high-quality care to patients is the human resource development. By appropriate workforce development, healthcare organizations can provide high-quality services to patients. Finally, it derives a set of conclusions from the case study research. Further research would be needed to validate the framework through empirical data.

This research is a new attempt as there is a limited research done earlier on the framework of human resource management in healthcare system and services. It is designed to facilitate training and development at both the individual and at organizational levels, advocating a balance between “healthcare employee” and “healthcare system.”

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)‐based strategies have become important concepts in dealing with firms' stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the processes of stakeholder legitimacy and interest detection, namely ethical considerations and community obligations, to promote CSR as an intangible strategic asset.

The two relatively large service‐based firms (contrasting not‐for‐profit with for‐profit) that were selected for study were Pittsburgh‐based, namely the largest single employer of the metropolitan area of Pittsburgh (The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)) and WESCO, a distributor of electrical construction products and electrical and industrial maintenance products and the largest domestic provider of integrated supply services.

It was found that the management teams at UPMC and WESCO approach CSR‐based strategies and its initiative from completely different perspectives. UPMC functions a not‐for‐profit organization while WESCO is a for‐profit entity. They also approach CSR differently as a result from its geographically based service and product offerings, UPMC being more local/regional and WESCO going for global markets. These differences promote differences in the groups and types of CSR that each company is currently engaged in promoting.

The paper demonstrates that both not‐for‐profit and for‐profit entities have a reason to be socially responsible, whether they are local or global firms. The overarching fact is that consumers expect firms to be conscience of the social concerns of the community in which they operate and socially responsible to the various stakeholder groups they serve.