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This paper investigates the pattern or trajectory of implementing ISO 9000 standards versus TQM in Western Europe from a longitudinal perspective, using empirical data. The research is based on three large‐scale surveys conducted in 1992‐1993, 1996‐1997 and 2001‐2002 respectively, in 13 Western European countries. The results of the surveys show that European companies have put considerable effort into ISO 9000 certification. However, the results also reveal that, around 1996‐1997, European companies had also planned to implement TQM. However, the result of the planned “go beyond ISO to TQM” fell short of the anticipated extent, indicating that the adoption of TQM in Europe was slower than expected. Early in the twenty‐first century, European companies are still very keen on implementing TQM, indicating an obvious intention to shift from ISO 9000 to TQM. To ensure that the shift will occur this time however, the two approaches must be integrated properly. Although both ISO 9000 standards and the TQM/EFQM model have been recently updated or modified, how to best incorporate the two systems remains one of the major tasks of quality management in the future.

Recent interests in total quality management (TQM) and business excellence (BE) had been fuelled with a range of national and regional awards. These awards are being increasingly used by organisations as part of the business improvement process and strategic benchmarking. This paper reviews the concepts and approaches of performance measurement (PM) and discusses the integration of PM with the TQM and BE philosophies. A TQM‐Be‐PM framework with a set of self‐assessment checklists was developed. In order to complement the literature base with empirical evidence, an industry survey was conducted and a trial implementation of the framework was carried out in a leading manufacturing firm in Hong Kong. The self‐assessment performance data of the firm was evaluated and then benchmarked with the industry averages obtained from the survey. This paper presents the empirical findings and discusses the applicability of the framework in measuring and benchmarking organisational performance toward continual improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and analyze a new multiple hypothesis receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) algorithm, which can handle simultaneous multiple ramp failures.

The proposed algorithm uses measurement residuals and satellite observation matrices of several consecutive epochs for failure detection and exclusion. It detects failures by monitoring the error vector rather than a projection of the error vector. The algorithm assumes that magnitude of range errors can vary with time, while the conventional sequential multiple hypothesis RAIM algorithm assumes that range errors are constant biases.

The algorithm can detect any instance of multiple failures, including failures that cannot be detected by the conventional RAIM algorithm. It can detect multiple failures with magnitudes of several tens of meters, even though the algorithm must solve an ill-conditioned problem. And it can also deal with ramp failures which cannot be detected by conventional sequential multiple hypothesis RAIM algorithm. The detection capability of the proposed algorithm is not dependent on satellite geometry or types of errors.

Implications for the development of the RAIM algorithm for aviation users are included. In particular, it can be a candidate for a future standard architecture in multiple constellations, multiple frequency and satellite-based augmentation system users.

A new multiple hypothesis RAIM algorithm with a relative RAIM concept is proposed. Also presented is a detailed explanation of the algorithms, including rigorous mathematical expressions, and an analysis of differences in detection capability between the conventional multiple hypothesis RAIM algorithm and proposed algorithm.

The purpose of this article is to identify design guidelines for online resources based on the subjective assessment criteria used by individuals to assess and process information resources. This method of creating design guidelines targeted at precise user groups has the potential to aid designers and developers to create more user-centred information resources.

The authors gathered data using a prospective longitudinal study investigating the information behaviour of expectant and new mothers. Women were asked to report on their information-seeking activities in a series of semi-structured interviews covering pregnancy and early motherhood.

This research identified 15 assessment criteria that were utilised by women to assess and process information resources. The most popular resource criteria amongst participants were credibility and convenience, while completeness and relevance were the most popular information content criteria. The authors found that assessment criteria were not considered in isolation, with criteria such as formatting and search engine ranking impacting on participants' perception of other criteria.

This research demonstrates the potential of linking a user groups subjective assessment criterion to design guidelines. The authors propose that these guidelines could be used to help design an online information resource. They could also be used to assess if an existing online resource met the needs of a user group. The methodology used in this study could be leveraged to create design guidelines for user groups.

This research uses subjective assessment criteria as a means of understanding how expectant new mothers process information resources. People use subjective judgements when processing information resources, and this should be incorporated into the design of information resources. Analysing longitudinal data allowed the authors to build a rich picture of how participants evaluated and compared different information resources.

The purpose of this project was to explore and identify factors that influence a consumer to purchase wine during an afternoon of product sampling (wine tasting). A panel of consumers was recruited for an afternoon of wine tasting at vineyards in Napa, California. Several potential hedonistic, utilitarian and logistical factors (i.e. winery facilities, quality of the wine and order in which the winery was visited) were measured using a journal log that was maintained by participants following the tasting experience for a period of one‐month. The conclusions drawn from this study were that group size, confidence in one's ability to purchase wine and overall assessment of a vineyard's wine portfolio were more important than the hedonistic factors in terms of inducing a sale immediately following a taste.

The employee-organization relationship (EOR) has increasingly become a focal point for researchers in organizational behavior, human resource management, and industrial relations. Literature on the EOR has developed at both the individual – (e.g. psychological contracts) and the group and organizational-levels of analysis (e.g. employment relationships). Both sets of literatures are reviewed, and we argue for the need to integrate these literatures as a means for improving understanding of the EOR. Mechanisms for integrating these literatures are suggested. A subsequent discussion of contextual effects on the EOR follows in which we suggest that researchers develop models that explicitly incorporate context. We then examine a number of theoretical lenses to explain various attributes of the EOR such as the dynamism and fairness of the exchange, and new ways of understanding the exchange including positive functional relationships and integrative negotiations. The article concludes with a discussion of future research needed on the EOR.

Social protection issues of employees is connected with laws to make in European Social Charter (1961) and Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers (1989). Some of the these rights are regulated in the Directives EC, which in the period of Polish assoiation with European Communities were implemented in the Polish labour law. After Polish accession to the European Community, three aspects of the social protection of employees are especially important and in these cases it is necessary to pay attention to them in this paper

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Nowadays it is — to a certain extent — popular to criticize international tourism to third world countries. These criticisms may base on widely divergent aspects of the phenomenon, ranging from for instance the economic impact to the environmental impact or the psychological impact. Without implicitly suggesting that the non‐economic effects of international tourism in developing countries are unimportant we will concentrate in the following on the economic impact. The reason for this is twofold: