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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of adopting an organizational ecological perspective to explore behavioural barriers in a UK operations & production management (OPM) setting.

An ethnographic case study approach was adopted with a narrative ecological stance to deconstruct the perceived realities and the origins of the inter‐departmental barriers applying Scott‐Morgan's unwritten rules methodology.

Despite an improvement in the physical proximity of the production and quality control departments, the qualitative approach revealed that latent, socially constructed drivers around management, interaction and communication reinforced inter‐departmental barriers. Conflicting enablers were ultimately responsible derived from the organizational structure, which impacted the firm's production resources.

As a case study approach, the specificity of the findings to this OPM setting should be explored further.

The paper demonstrates the use of theoretical frameworks in a production and manufacturing organization to provide insights for maximising process effectiveness. Using the organizational ecological perspective to uncover the socially constructed unwritten rules of the OPM setting beneficially impacted on operational effectiveness.

The paper contributes to organization ethnography literature by providing a detailed empirical analysis of manufacturing and services behaviour using an organizational ecology perspective. The example demonstrates that “qualitative” research can have real world impact in an advanced operational context. It also contributes to an ecological or complex adaptive systems view of organizations and, inter alia, their supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a model investigating the relationship among inter-departmental communication, buyer innovativeness, and retail competitiveness. The authors also explore whether a retail strategy of supply base diversification for managing suppliers moderates the association between innovativeness and competitiveness.

Hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model and survey data drawn from general merchandise managers of 149 supermarket retailers in Japan.

The results indicate that inter-departmental communication between merchandising and store divisions drives innovativeness among retail buyers and ultimately strengthens firm competitiveness. Moreover, when buyer innovativeness is evident and less actively the retail buyers utilize supply base diversification, the stronger is the retailer’s competitiveness. The study failed to find any direct impact of inter-departmental communication on retail competitiveness.

This study offers managerial insights into the roles that buyer innovativeness, inter-departmental communications, and supply base diversification play in developing effective competitive strategies.

This study makes two key contributions. First, it is novel in using inter-departmental communication to explain the antecedents of buyer innovativeness. Second, drawing on the power-dependence theory, the authors extend the well-established innovativeness-performance linkage by exploring the moderation effect of supply base diversification.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of staff development committees (SDC) in the motivation, morale and education of library staff by relying on previous research and by using Utah State University's (USU), Merrill‐Cazier Library SDC as a case study.

Discussion and analysis emerge from the documented formation of USU's SDC, including its membership, goals, and evaluative practices, especially as it relates to current research in this area. Informal staff comments regarding benefits and limitations of the committee are included.

Staff development has been approached from various perspectives. Most programs form as the results of formal or informal needs assessments. Goals for the program, or for the resulting staff development committee, vary and fluctuate depending on the time‐specific needs of the library. Successful elements of USU's SDC include its emphasis on building inter‐departmental relationships and its ability to elicit feedback from every level of the library. Challenges include having clearly defined goals and meeting a variety of individual and institutional needs through the creation of related events and activities.

This paper provides ideas on forming a staff development committee, including examples for specific events and activities. It details how to structure membership and explores literature relating to designing and implementing institutional goals for staff development.

Many studies lack a comprehensive literature review that focuses on the scope and purpose of staff development committees. This paper combines a literature review with an explanation of how USU's Library created a staff development committee to fill certain library‐wide goals, including challenges and benefits that emerged as a result.

In this empirical study of 382 US computer and electronics companies, the relationship between manufacturing flexibility and its five infrastructural scales was examined. These infrastructural scales include workforce autonomy, communication, inter‐departmental relationships, supplier flexibility and technology. The results suggested that all infrastructural scales, except workforce autonomy, have a direct and positive effect on a firm’s manufacturing flexibility. Discussion and managerial implications of the results were also presented in this paper.

The award of a Commonwealth Visiting Fellowship enabled the writer to investigate preparation programmes for educational administrators in twelve prominent Canadian universities. Interviews with professors, students and practising administrators, participation in lectures, seminars and assessment procedures provided the basis for the writer's impressions. An analysis of pre‐Master's, Master's and doctoral programmes revealed that, in general, students must select courses from (i) organization and administration theory, (ii) educational personnel supervision, (iii) education in Canada and (iv) a series of options. Evidence of a combination of discipline, theory, problems and career‐based approaches was found in most programmes. The writer argues that Canadian professors of educational administration are (i) anxious to improve the quality of the courses offered and grappling with the problem of programme relevance, (ii) not generally concerned with teaching as a skill and restricted in methods used, particularly simulations, (iii) somewhat insular in outlook and (prior to the establishment of CASEA) lacking an adequate means of inter‐departmental communication. Future developments in the preparation of educational administrators are foreshadowed by the writer.

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.

Social media has come of age in the business environment. Today social media is used internally to foster communication and inter‐departmental team working. Externally social networking can be used to create new markets, build relationships with existing customers and recruit the best new staff. To get the best out of social networking, organizations need to strategically plan how it will be utilized and manage this effectively.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

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.

Households account for 27 per cent of the UK's total CO₂ emissions therefore addressing housing energy efficiency has become a priority. Low-zero carbon technologies (LZCTs) for both new-build and the existing housing stock are one mechanism to reduce CO₂. A gap in previous research into the subject was identified – the ongoing maintenance or “Asset Management” of LZCTs. This is important, inefficient or ineffective Asset Management may have a negative impact on the sustainability of energy efficient housing stock from a number of perspectives, including physical, social and economic. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

The research presents a sector based study of the English social housing sector with seven individual organisations (known as “Registered Social Landlords”) represented by senior Asset Management practitioners, providing the units of analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to evaluate the past, current and future ability of the sector to successfully maintain LZCTs. The interviews were coded and a theme/sub-theme building process undertaken.

The interview analysis yielded three main themes (Asset Management Planning, Maintenance Skills and Occupier Impacts) and 12 sub-themes. Some of these confirmed findings from the literature review but others had not been previously located including inter-departmental conflicts and occupiers taking responsibility for maintenance.

A paucity of previous work specifically relating to Asset Management and LZCTs in the social housing sector was found. The findings should therefore be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders including registered providers, asset managers, surveyors, developers and policy makers.

Workforce diversity, experiential as well as cultural, has presented human resource development (HRD) professionals with opportunities as well as unique challenges. Describes such an opportunity, the design of a management training programme, to address specific goals identified by an organization′s senior management group. The challenge lay in designing a course which recognized the diversity in the backgrounds or experience levels of the company′s management personnel while simultaneously meeting company‐defined objectives. Additionally, because of time and certain other constraints, the training group would consist of mixed peer levels. This raised the possibility of injecting an intimidation factor which could take the form of reduced interactive participation. The challenge of mixed‐level groups and background diversity was addressed through course design, techniques of presentation, and evaluation – both post‐programme as well as long term. A comparison of the results of both evaluation phases highlights an overall successful approach in addressing the organization′s goals, as well as the issue of experiential diversity present in the management structure. The problem of mixed‐group participation in a programme designed to emphasize inter‐departmental co‐operation and teamwork produced mixed results. Includes recommendations regarding implications for other HRD professionals who may become involved in similar projects.

This paper describes the creation and work of a collaborative learning community, consisting of library staff from a variety of library departments. The purpose of this paper is to build proficiency in using tablet devices and to explore the potential application of tablets to various types of library work.

Data were collected from discussion sessions, journals, and a survey, which documented participants’ experiences in learning how to use tablets and how they applied them to work-related tasks.

The project helped increase participants’ awareness of different types of work across the library, encouraged inter-departmental communication, and provided an open environment for asking questions, trouble-shooting, and sharing tips about using tablets. Participants mastered basic functions and navigation and explored ways to use tablets in their work. Portability was the top advantage of the tablet.

Although participants found tablets to be convenient and portable for some tasks, they are not ready to entirely replace office computers for library work. Laptops remain a more flexible and powerful option at this time.

In 2009, Brigade Enterprises Limited, with operations in the real estate sector and construction in South India, prepared a blueprint for implementing Total Transformation in the organization. A central communication channel was identified as a “must” area for improvement. Aided by Wipro Consulting Services, active and passive measures were adopted to make the internal communication vibrant, which would, it was envisioned, change organizational culture and bring about attitudinal change. However, the review after 18 months pointed towards gaps in the existing model. Should BEL continue with the existing strategies or amend? Given the organizational dynamics, what new changes, if necessary, can be initiated?