Search results

Little empirical analysis has occurred of the influence of performance-based budgeting on appropriation decision-making or budget outcomes, and most research has focused on the perceptions of budget officials. This research empirically tests to what extent the implementation of performance-based budgeting has had an impact on the actual allocation of resources in the form of Constant Per Capita Expenditures in the states. A pooled cross-sectional analysis is used to evaluate the time series encompassing before and after implementation as a means of determining the impact of performance budgeting on state budgeting outcomes as revealed in expenditure patterns of the states. Results indicate that the implementation of performance budgeting has a statistically significant and positive effect on budget outcomes in the states as measured by constant per capita expenditures.

Success and business reputation depend upon the quality of products where product quality depends upon the capability of a process, yield value and sigma score, etc. Poor quality of ceiling fan and mass rejection from quality check resulted in an alarming amount of cost for rework. As a result, the fulfillment of the production target was getting difficult day by day. The main purpose of this research is to identify the crucial causes for humming noise of ceiling fans and control it to a tolerable level so that maximum quality can be achieved.

The poor quality of ceiling fans was determined from the Pareto analysis of the define, measure, analyze, improve and control model which was humming noise during running and further actions were undertaken regarding the reduction of the humming noise. Project charter was formed before initiating the measure phase to study the suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs and customers diagram with process parameters and existing noise data were collected from random samples to determine the rolled throughput yield (94.95% existing) and existing sigma score which value of 3.14 and also the poor value (1.05) of process potential index implied that the process condition was below standard (<1.33) and need to be improved badly. Then root causes analysis and relationship diagram was prepared to identify the possible causes and with the design of experiments and correlation analysis, it was clear that the air gap between the stator and rotor was the main culprit behind the humming noise.

The minimum value of air gap was determined from boxplot analysis which was 0.2 mm–0.225 mm and the corresponding mean, the minimum and maximum value of sound level in dB (37.5–40.3 dB) for 0.225 mm air gap with the watt consumption (83 w) from the hypothesis test for the corresponding air gap. Finally, the updated sigma score and process capability analysis were performed with control charts to show the comparison after applying the DMAIC-six sigma methodology. The final sigma score was 5.1 which indicates a significant improvement of the process with the capability of saving US$23,438/year caused by the poor quality of ceiling fans.

Only quantitative values of the causes behind the humming noise were possible to identify. Other trivial many causes elimination might improve the sigma score closer to 6.00. The final sigma score that was achieved from this research was sustainable.

A structural approach with proper data analysis and application of various tools to detect the actual cause behind the humming noise of ceiling fans with numerical value has not been found in any literature. This research study can be a valuable asset for ceiling fan mass producers.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

Small and rural communities face severe fiscal constraints. Many factors affect governance in these localities. Because of this, a vital concern are the relationships between “Fiscal Stress” and other factors. Multivariate analysis techniques are utilized to examine these relationships based on data collected from a survey of West Virginia local public officials. The analysis showed that “Public Finance” and “Financial Management” factors affect Fiscal Stress while external factors, such as professionalism, population, and metropolitan status, have little to no impact on Fiscal Stress. Additionally, Public Finance and Financial Management issues are critical to explaining Fiscal Stress in small and rural governments and Fiscal Stress is critical in explaining Public Finance and Financial Management issues. However, the relationships are not of equal strength; Fiscal Stress and Public Finance influence each other more strongly than Financial Management factors.

Networking behaviors assist individuals in doing their jobs better and advancing their careers. However, most research emphasizes the effects of job characteristics on networking behaviors, neglecting the effects of individual differences in goal orientations. Moreover, few studies investigate the prospective evaluation of promotability and the mediating effect of networking behavior on the relationship between goal orientation and promotability. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the nomological network and to expand the domain of networking behavior by identifying networking as career- and community-based networking behaviors and by examining the differential relationships among goal orientation, networking behaviors, and promotability.

This study surveyed and collected data from 160 financial employees and 103 supervisors working at branches of a large bank in Taiwan. Questionnaires addressing both networking behavior and goal orientation were distributed to employees, and one week later their supervisors were sent another survey about employees’ promotability evaluations.

Learning goal orientation was positively related to both career- and community-based networking behaviors. Performance goal orientation was also positively related to career-based networking behaviors, but negatively related to community-based networking behaviors. Career-based networking behaviors, particularly maintaining contacts and engaging in professional activities, were found to be positively related to promotability. Results also show that career-based networking behaviors, particularly maintaining contacts and engaging in professional activities, mediated the relationship between goal orientation and promotability.

This study addresses the importance of distinguishing between networking behaviors as career based and networking behaviors as community based and shows that these two sets of networking behaviors arise from different goal orientations and have differential effects on supervisory evaluation of promotability.

By linking networking behavior with promotability, this study helps managers understand how employees’ enactment of specific networking behaviors can facilitate both the employees’ career development and the employees’ placement in important organizational positions.

This study fulfills an identified need to understand the nomological network of networking behavior.

Research suggests that engaging in networking behaviors can affect individual work outcomes. However, relatively less is known about how internal versus external networking behaviors influence work outcomes, and whether gender moderates these relationships. Drawing on social capital theory and social role theory, the authors propose a positive relationship between employees' internal and external networking behaviors and their work outcomes (job commitment and career success), and the moderating effect of gender. The authors also explore employee preference in networking.

Based on a sequential mixed-method research design with a four-month time lag, Study 1 data on networking behaviors and employee outcomes were collected via a survey of middle managers and their supervisors from 10 private sector organizations in Sri Lanka. Study 2 data were collected via interviews from a sample of those middle managers and their supervisors.

Study 1 findings indicate a positive relationship between internal networking behaviors and job commitment, and external networking behaviors and career success. The authors also found that internal networking behaviors enhance job commitment. Study 2 findings indicate men and women network differently and benefit differently from that networking but achieve equitable workplace benefits.

This study provides pioneering evidence that internal networking behaviors enhance job commitment among women. It appears that past research did not test the moderating effect of gender for internal versus external networking behaviors separately. Moreover, this study refines the evidence that internal and external networking behaviors differentially impact employee outcomes and explains the processes through a qualitative inquiry.

Networking behaviours are important for a range of work outcomes. Little empirical evidence of how internal vs external networking behaviours influence job commitment and job performance exists and whether political skills moderate these relationships. Using theories of social capital and personal initiative, this study examines the effect of internal and external networking behaviours on job commitment and job performance in the context of political skills.

Based on a sequential mixed-method research design with a four-month time lag, Study 1 data on networking behaviours, political skills and work outcomes were collected via a survey of middle managers and their supervisors from ten private sector organisations operating in Sri Lanka. Study 2 data were collected via interviews of a set of middle managers and their supervisors.

Study 1 findings indicate a positive relationship between internal networking behaviours and both job commitment and job performance. The authors also found a moderating effect of political skills on internal networking behaviours and job commitment. Study 2 findings explained, strengthened and extended results of Study 1.

Middle managers can use these research findings to understand how internal networking behaviours improve their job commitment and job performance. These managers can use their political skills and internal networking behaviours to improve their job commitment. They can also advance their career through improved job commitment and job performance. Senior managers and human resource managers should facilitate and encourage internal networking behaviours. Training and development managers should develop middle managers' networking behaviours and political skills.

This study provides pioneering evidence of how internal networking behaviours impact middle managers' job performance and job commitment, and how internal networking behaviours improve job commitment for middle managers with high political skills.

Networking refers to goal-directed behaviors focused on building and cultivating informal relationships to obtain career-related resources. According to Gibson et al.'s (2014) model, personality traits represent prominent and important antecedents of networking. This study seeks to provide robust evidence on relationships between personality and networking by summarizing prior research using meta-analytical tools.

The authors classify linking attributes between networking and personality into social, idea-related, task-related and affective behavioral domains and additionally include three compound traits that relate to several domains. They investigate two potential moderators: internal vs. external networking and prominent networking measures. Their comprehensive literature search identified 41 studies with 46 independent samples.

The authors find that social, idea-related and task-related traits have positive relationships with networking of medium effect size, whereas affective traits exhibit small but significantly positive effects. The compound trait of proactive personality appears to be the best predictor of networking. Moderator analyses indicate that there were hardly any differences concerning internal and external networking and also prominent measures.

The present study goes beyond narrative reviews contributing the first quantitative summary of these relationships. It identifies four behavioral domains that represent characteristics relevant to networking. The findings largely corroborate, but at times correct, narrative reviews on dispositional antecedents of networking. The authors highlight the importance of compound traits that have yet been overlooked by narrative reviews (e.g. self-monitoring).

I want to revisit also some of the ideas that linked memory and subjectivity that were popularised in the 1970s and 1980s response to limitations of the positivist tradition. I am concerned also with the relationship between the present and the past as it gets expressed in memory work to interrogate more fully not only ‘what happened’, but also how events come to be remembered in the ways that they are, and how they come to be understood as history. These ideas will be developed by drawing on some of what I consider to be key studies that use oral history, some directly related to education, some not. I will finish with voices that are not my own. These will be the voices of participants in an oral history project with which I have been involved. They will demonstrate in a more meaningful way, the ideas presented here and how a coming together of the fields of oral history and memory studies can enrich the understandings we have of experience in the history of education.