Search results
1 – 10 of over 254000Miryam Barad and Tzvi Raz
There is little empirical research that demonstrates a link between quality management practice and better project management performance. Some evidence to this effect is…
Abstract
There is little empirical research that demonstrates a link between quality management practice and better project management performance. Some evidence to this effect is presented and analysed. Reviews two studies that examined the relationship between quality management practice and performance in two areas: manufacturing, and logistics. Next, data are analysed from a survey of project managers in the high‐tech and software industries in Israel. Finally, the results of the survey are integrated with those of previous work, and some insights regarding the contribution of quality management practices to project success are offered.
Details
Keywords
Nuraddeen Abubakar Nuhu, Kevin Baird and Ranjith Appuhami
This study examines the association between the use of a package of contemporary and a package of traditional management accounting practices with organizational change and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the association between the use of a package of contemporary and a package of traditional management accounting practices with organizational change and organizational performance.
Methodology/approach
Data were collected based on a mail survey distributed to a sample of 740 public sector organizations.
Findings
The findings indicate that while the prevalence of traditional practices is still dominant, such practices were not associated with organizational change or performance. Rather, those organizations that use contemporary management accounting practices to a greater extent experienced greater change and stronger performance.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that contemporary management accounting practices can assist public sector practitioners in improving performance and promoting organizational change.
Originality/value
The study provides an empirical insight into the use and effectiveness of management accounting practices in the public sector. The study provides the first empirical analysis of the effect of using a package of management accounting practices in the public sector.
Details
Keywords
Basil P. Tucker and Raef Lawson
This paper compares and contrasts practice-based perceptions of the research–practice gap in the United States (US) with those in Australia.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper compares and contrasts practice-based perceptions of the research–practice gap in the United States (US) with those in Australia.
Methodology/approach
The current study extends the work of Tucker and Lowe (2014) by comparing and contrasting their Australian-based findings with evidence from a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews with senior representatives of 18 US state and national professional accounting associations.
Findings
The extent to which academic research informs practice is perceived to be limited, despite the potential for academic research findings to make a significant contribution to management accounting practice. We find similarities as well as differences in the major obstacles to closer engagement in the US and Australia. This comparison, however, leads us to offer a more fundamental explanation of the divide between academic research and practice framed in terms of the relative benefits and costs of academics engaging with practice.
Research implications
Rather than following conventional approaches to ‘bridging the gap’ by identifying barriers to the adoption of research, we suggest that only after academics have adequate incentives to speak to practice can barriers to a more effective diffusion of their research findings be surmounted.
Originality/value
This study makes three novel contributions to the “relevance literature” in management accounting. First, it adopts a distinct theoretical vantage point to organize, analyze, and interpret empirical evidence. Second, it captures practice-based views about the nature and extent of the divide between research and practice. Third, it provides a foundational assessment of the generalizability of the gap by examining perceptions of it across two different geographic contexts.
Details
Keywords
Marcellin Chirimwami Luvuga, Deogratias Bugandwa Mungu Akonkwa and Didier Van Caillie
In recent times, the operating landscape of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) environment can be described as constantly changing. Their performance is more dependent on the…
Abstract
In recent times, the operating landscape of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) environment can be described as constantly changing. Their performance is more dependent on the managers' ability to implement effective control/management practices suitable for their context and operating environment. Through a multi-site case study, we examine the peculiarities of control/management practices in four SMEs in the city of Bukavu to ascertain whether and how those practices contribute to SMEs' performance. Our findings indicate the predominance of informal practices, which include coordination methods similar to the balanced scorecard, budgeting practices, cost imputation, cash monitoring and inventory management. Compared to the results from literature, these practices did not differ much from those observed in the SMEs of developed countries and are likely to contribute to performance achievement, which corroborates the proposition of the contingency theory.
Details
Keywords
Over a long period of time, the evolution and development of indigenous management theories and practices in Africa have been seriously distracted and hindered by European…
Abstract
Over a long period of time, the evolution and development of indigenous management theories and practices in Africa have been seriously distracted and hindered by European colonialism and Western education. The colonial administration introduced Western management theories and practices, considered as the drivers and the remedy for the continent’s socio-politico-economic development. Western scholarship and literature generally undervalued and condemned the management proficiency and practices of early African civilisations, as evidenced, for instance, in the building of the great Egyptian pyramids. Foreign management systems generally botched the development of indigenous African business practices as they failed to achieve the expected goals. We argue that the development of indigenous African management practices and philosophy ought to be rooted in the African culture, value system and beliefs to provide the practical way for the efficient and effective running of organisations in Africa. Nevertheless, there are still indigenous family business management practices that can be co-opted into today’s business practices. The Ubuntu management system and the ‘new management techniques’, which emphasise humanness, communalism and African patriotism, provide the veritable starting point for the development of indigenous African management philosophy. The chapter starts with a brief description of family business in Africa. Highlighting the relevant indigenous management practices, to mention, strategic process, governance, human resource and succession planning then follow in this order. The next section is on the origins of the indigenous management practices and then we conclude with a section on unique differences from Western models and provide advice to educators and practitioners. As an approach, the cases that have been used are for illustration purposes and do not claim to be representative of African indigenous business practices since Africa is too diverse.
Details
Keywords
Lawrence P. Grasso and Thomas Tyson
This study investigates the relationship between lean manufacturing practices, management accounting and performance measurement (MAC & PM) practices, organizational strategy…
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between lean manufacturing practices, management accounting and performance measurement (MAC & PM) practices, organizational strategy, structure, and culture, and facility performance. We extended past research by examining the relationships between lean manufacturing, MAC & PM practices and performance in a broader organizational context. Our study was performed using survey data provided by managers and executives at 368 facilities that had contacted the Shingo Institute for information or that had entered a Shingo Prize competition. Consistent with past research we found a significant positive association between lean manufacturing practices and lean MAC & PM practices. We found that greater employee empowerment, use of process performance measures, and use of lean accounting practices were driven primarily by lean strategy and secondarily by the extent of lean manufacturing practices. We also found that changes in organization structure to support lean are driven primarily by lean strategy and secondarily by lean manufacturing practices. Change toward lean culture, on the other hand, is driven by the extent of lean manufacturing practices. Further, we found that emphasizing process performance measures does not reduce emphasis on results performance measures and emphasizing results performance measures leads to improved financial performance. Process and results measures are being used in tandem and value stream costing has not replaced traditional accounting. The results of our study provide important insights for managers of companies engaged in lean transformation and for academics who teach or research lean accounting.
Details
Keywords
The aim of this paper is to outline how public managers' reflective thinking capacity is developed through integration of education and practice using a real-life organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to outline how public managers' reflective thinking capacity is developed through integration of education and practice using a real-life organizational problem as the educational starting point. Managers' reflective thinking capacity becomes important due to an increasing organizational complexity and the growing trend of introducing post-new public management paradigms.
Design/methodology/approach
Inspired by Brinkmann's (2012) approach to the inquiry on everyday life materials, semi-structured interviews were conducted with public managers taking a public management program. A phenomenologically inspired content analysis was applied in the process of scrutinizing the findings, subsequently informing the discussion on the development of problem solving through public management education.
Findings
The analysis indicates that the managers' pre-understanding of continuing education at the university level, managers' personal objectives, along with a growing experience with and insights into problem-based learning (PBL), appear to facilitate managers' integration of theory and practice. As revealed in this paper, an inquiry that integrates daily organizational practice and theoretical models and terms, as the origin of the personal development module, seems to facilitate managers' reflective thinking and self-reflexivity.
Originality/value
This paper illustrates that learning processes facilitated by seminars like the personal development module (PDM) not only facilitates the development of reflective thinking, but managers also seem to develop competencies in self-reflexivity – the latter being an underdeveloped element of Dewey's (1933) notion of reflective thinking. Thus, further theoretical and empirical research is needed to explore the potentials of developing a pragmatically inspired notion that offers an understanding of managers' self-reflexivity. By inquiring about managerial puzzlements through a personal development lens, a self-reflective focus adds to the Dewey-inspired approach to reflective thinking.
Details
Keywords
Majid Murad and Shuli Zou
This paper aims to investigate the impact of green human capital (GHC) on green supply chain management (GSCM) practices (environmental education and internal environmental…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the impact of green human capital (GHC) on green supply chain management (GSCM) practices (environmental education and internal environmental management) and sustainable supply chain performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a survey method to collect data from 350 randomly selected manufacturing firms in China, including supply chain and human resource professionals from the period of December 2021 to June 2022.
Findings
The partial least squares-structural equation modeling version 4 is applied to assess the data and test the hypotheses. Under the notion of resource-based view theory, the findings demonstrate that GHC has a positive and significant relationship with GSCM practices (environmental education and internal environmental management) and that GSCM practices are positively associated with the sustainable supply chain performance.
Practical implications
This study offers implications for Chinese manufacturing firms to use GHC on dimensions of GSCM implementations for achieving environmental, financial and social performance.
Originality/value
This study finds that GHC as a critical enabler for implementing GSCM practices, resulting in more robust and better sustainable supply chain performance (environmental, financial and social performance).
Details
Keywords
Wael Hassan El-Garaihy, Tamer Farag, Khalid Al Shehri, Piera Centobelli and Roberto Cerchione
Nowadays, a prominent research area is the development of competitive advantages in companies, due to their environmental commitment and orientation. Based on resource-based view…
Abstract
Purpose
Nowadays, a prominent research area is the development of competitive advantages in companies, due to their environmental commitment and orientation. Based on resource-based view (RBV) and institutional theory (InT), this paper aims to investigate the influence of internal and external orientation on businesses' sustainable performance while considering the effect of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 351 manufacturing companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have been collected and analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM) using the partial least squares (PLS) method.
Findings
The results indicated that both internal and external environmental orientation have important effects on SSCM practices, which in turn have a considerable beneficial effect on environmental, social and economic performance.
Originality/value
Although SSCM is constantly gaining ground in the literature, most SSCM research and models examine its effects, antecedents or motivation, mainly adopting a qualitative approach. Research on the topic adopting a large-scale empirical approach is still limited. In this context, this study contributes to the SSCM management literature by exploring the role of environmental orientation in facilitating the adoption of SSCM practices and improving companies' performance.
Details