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As employment costs and, regrettably, Government interference increase, companies are beginning to recognize the need for a rational manpower policy or strategy to take account of new circumstances. To do this many policies will need a complete re‐think and to make the new policies rational they will need to be based on reliable assessments of present and future manpower needs. This can only be done through the framework of manpower planning.

Manpower planning is defined in terms of the elements of prediction and control, and certain key aspects of these dimensions are identified. It is suggested that there is scope for integrating what are essentially quantitative and qualitative approaches to manpower planning. At organisational level, manpower planning activities have certain constraints and these must be considered. The question of personnel movement in relation to the organisation is discussed as a manifestation of organisational behaviour, and certain dimensions of organisational control are considered. It is argued that a consideration of the theoretical and practical contributions of behavioural scientists are essential for manpower planning.

INTRODUCTION It has become almost mandatory to start a text on manpower planning with a debate on the definition of the subject. (For a good example see Thakur[8].) There is a wide range of opinion and confusion on the topic of what manpower planning is. In this review I will concentrate on describing, collating and appraising the recent work which has been called Manpower Planning and the definition of the subject will therefore be the net coverage of the work reviewed. As an aid to the reader unfamiliar with the subject, the following preliminary definition is offered as a starting point: “Manpower planning is a strategy for matching future manpower numbers and skills with organisational activities”.

This study aims to advance the existing analytic model to include staff allocation information at the district level. Maintaining adequate size of staff is essential to law enforcement agencies' ability to ensure social order, fight crime and, increasingly, deliver a widening range of social services. Review of the scientific literature on police size of force and staffing calculation models indicates that this line of inquiry (i.e. manpower analysis) is attentive to population size and workload demands but generally inattentive to how service demands are affected by community-level variables. Current staffing calculation models specify number of staff needed for a jurisdiction but do not inform the allocation of personnel across districts within the jurisdiction.

To address this problem, the current study illustrates an enhanced analytic model to provide law enforcement staffing recommendations for a southern coastal county. An integrated per capita-workload manpower analysis model first factors the minimum number of law enforcement deputies needed per population size served and recent history workload demands and then executes the six-step workload model process. This study enhances staffing analysis by adding an additional seventh arithmetical step indicating the staffing needs by districts across a jurisdiction.

The results from the integrated per capita-workload analysis indicate the need to hire additional deputies to meet current and future demands.

Discussion centers on the need to include drivers of police services identified but not measured in this study's application of the hybrid manpower analysis model and its replication potential.

The process industries are particularly vulnerable to plant, process, and product failures. They are also interested in reducing labor costs and improving the efficiency and manpower utilization of the maintenance labor and supervision. This article suggests the utilization of data envelopment analysis (DEA) as an objective optimization approach for the comparative efficiency evaluation of the maintenance sections of a maintenance department. An example is presented with real life data from a local petrochemical company to demonstrate the application of the method. Comparative efficiency scores indicate that the petrochemical company could reduce the number of staff and supervisors in a number of maintenance sections or, alternatively, improve their outputs.

This study aims to improve the market competitiveness of iron and steel manufacturers in developing countries by reducing their production costs.

The research methodology relies on a case study-based approach. The study relies on six steps. The first is the preparation, then the five steps of the six-sigma – define, measure, analyze, improve, control. The qualitative and quantitative data were considered. The qualitative analysis relies on the experts’ judgment of internal status. The quantitative analysis uses the job floor data from three iron and steel manufacturers. After collecting, screening and analyzing the data, the root causes of the different wastes were identified that increase production costs. Consequently, lean manufacturing principles and tools are identified and prioritized using the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method, and then implemented to reduce the different types of waste.

The main wastes are related to inventory, time, quality and workforce. The lean tools were proposed with the implementation plan for the discovered root causes. The performance was monitored during and after the implementation of the lean initiatives in one of the three companies. The obtained results showed an increase in some performance indicators such as throughput (70.6%), revenue from by-products (459%), inventory turnover (54%), operation availability (45%), and plant availability (41%). On the other hand, results showed a decrease of time delay (78%), man-hour/ton (52.4%) and downgraded products (63.3%).

The current case study findings can be utilized by Iron and Steel factories at the developing countries. In addition, the proposed lean implementation methodology can be adopted for any other industries.

The current work introduces an original and practical road map to implement the lean six-sigma body of knowledge in the iron and steel manufacturers.

This work introduces an effective and practical case study-based approach to implementing the lean six-sigma body of knowledge in the iron and steel manufacturers in one of the underdevelopment countries. The consideration of the opinion of the different engineers from different sectors shows significant identification of the major problems in the manufacturing and utility sectors that lead to significant performance improvement after solving them.

To ascertain whether any relationship exists between the main processes of human resource management involved in the internal labour market (training and internal recruitment) and the use of temporary help workers (THW) in Spain.

Take into account the perspective complementary between internal and external employment systems, a questionnaire was sending by mail to a selected sample of companies to get information.

The results confirm that a relationship does exist between the use of THW and training and internal recruitment. Also reveal the effects of the size upon these processes and the use of THW.

The main drawbacks are that of not using a wider sample. The findings will not be fully extrapolable to other countries. Future works could be directed towards testing a model of the relationship between the use of THW and a greater number of parameters, and a wider sample of miscellaneous countries.

The training effort (TE) per employee and internal recruitment may be positively influenced by the employment of THW, which may be a source of motivation and increased productivity on the part of the regular staff.

This paper shows that the use of THW could favour the appearance and development of an internal labour market, supporting the perspective that internal and external employment systems are complements.

Gender divisions are embedded in and essential to the structure of capitalist production. While most men and women in the United States both now work for wages, they rarely work together. Gender segregation has been identified as one of the major issues of the earnings gap between men and women. An explanation of the forces responsible for this has been difficult to achieve. Most theories fail to consider the contribution of demand‐side factors to gender segregation. Neo‐Marxist analysis of labour market segmentation and theories of the dual economy have provided new frameworks for investigating these structural or demand‐side features of industrial organisation. The pattern of blue‐collar segregation in US manufacturing industries is examined drawing on these theories. Employment data from the US census is used to identify how the levels of blue‐collar segregation in manufacturing industries are influenced by the industry's location within the core or peripheral sector of the US economy. Many of segregation's proposed remedies stress the role of supply‐side factors. These strategies focus attention almost exclusively on male and female workers and ignore the structure of the workplace. Strategies that ignore the dualistic nature of the US economy offer only partial solutions and may be counter‐productive. If forced to eliminate or reduce segmentation, employers may simply restructure their labour processes in a way that undermines rather than contributes to gender inequality. It is apparent that the pursuit of gender equality in the workplace is intrinsically related to and dependent on the broader efforts of workers to achieve greater control over production, both at the workplace and in the economy as a whole.

This article analyzes the strategic use of microcomputers and software packages in corporate planning and decision making in SMEs. Data were collected from 44 SMEs from three cities in the Republic of Botswana to study their perceptions about the use of computer‐based technology to solve managerial problems, and analysed using simple descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that SMEs conduct both strategic and operational planning activities. However, microcomputers and software packages were used primarily for operational and administrative tasks rather than for strategic planning. SMEs perceive that strategic planning is costly and time‐consuming, and hence appropriate only for large firms. The study also showed that firm size and strategic orientation are related to the use of computer technology for strategic decision making. The major implication of the findings for future research has been identified and presented.

Addresses the standardization of the measurements and the labels for concepts commonly used in the study of work organizations. As a reference handbook and research tool, seeks to improve measurement in the study of work organizations and to facilitate the teaching of introductory courses in this subject. Focuses solely on work organizations, that is, social systems in which members work for money. Defines measurement and distinguishes four levels: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Selects specific measures on the basis of quality, diversity, simplicity and availability and evaluates each measure for its validity and reliability. Employs a set of 38 concepts ‐ ranging from “absenteeism” to “turnover” as the handbook’s frame of reference. Concludes by reviewing organizational measurement over the past 30 years and recommending future measurement reseach.