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Lean management tools are becoming increasingly applied in different types of organizations around the world. These tools have shown their significant contribution to improving business performance. In this vein, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of lean management on both occupational safety and operational excellence in Tunisian companies.

A survey was conducted among Tunisian companies, and it resulted in the collection of 62 responses that were analyzed using the software SPSS. In addition, a conceptual model linking the practices of the three basic concepts was designed to highlight the hypotheses of the research. Subsequently, factor analysis and structural equation method analysis were conducted to assess the validation of the assumptions.

The results obtained have shown that lean management has a significant impact on occupational safety. Similarly, occupational safety has a significant impact on operational excellence. However, lean management does not have a significant impact on operational excellence.

This work highlighted the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprise’s managers from emerging economies in the studied concepts’ practices. Likewise, it testified to the impacts of lean management on occupational safety and operational excellence in the Tunisian context.

A new conceptual model for corporate strategy in the construction industry is presented that is derived from two principal inputs. First, the fundamental components of the model are based upon observations drawn from an empirical study of 24 international firms competing in global engineering and construction markets. Second, the accumulated intellect of different strategic theories developed over four decades of strategic management research helps to fortify the model with theoretical propositions and establish linkages among the model's basic components. The proposed model is comprised of seven strategic fields, two organizational mechanisms and a boundary notion that divides a firm's internal setting from its external environment. The model's development leads to two central propositions: strategic fields and organizational mechanisms should function as variables to react with external dynamics, and the interaction of these variables consequently promotes higher order differentiation factors that will enhance the strategic outlook of a firm.

The purpose of this paper is to consider theory development related to returns management within supply chain strategy. The marketing/logistics relationship relative to the returns management process is investigated.

Grounded theory qualitative methodology. Managers in five Italian firms, across marketing and logistics roles, at strategic and operational levels were interviewed.

Four key findings emerged: strong evidence exists that strategic goals and policies are being implemented; cross‐functional integration within the firms is broader than was expected; the more integrated firms deal better with external factors influencing the returns management process; and supply chain orientation – including forward and reverse supply chain flows – is linked to effective returns management.

Firms were pre‐selected for participation, due to researcher's time constraints. Additionally, given the pan‐European approach to many supply chains, this Italian research needs to be replicated in other (western and eastern) European settings to determine the robustness of the factors posited to be important to the returns management process. Finally, other functional areas beyond marketing and logistics are involved in returns management, and will be more formally incorporated into future research.

Returns management – increasingly being recognized as affecting competitive positioning – provides an important link between marketing and logistics. The broad nature of its cross‐functional impact suggests that firms would benefit by improving internal integration efforts. In particular, a firm's ability to react to and plan for the influence of external factors on the returns management process is improved by such internal integration.

Returns management has been under‐represented in much of the logistics and supply chain literature. This paper represents the first stage of an on‐going research project aimed at providing a theoretical framework for understanding the returns management process within a firm's supply chain strategy.

The Chinese Government encourages firms to diffuse their operational-level environmental management (EM) into their organization’s mission and strategy to develop strategic EM to promote sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to utilize two concepts of institutional theory (isomorphic pressures and decoupling behavior) to assess how different institutional forces arising from Chinese macro-level factors (market pressure, business turbulence, legal voids, carbon policy, structural-level governmental interference and guanxi with government) influence the efficacy of strategic EM.

In partnership with a major consulting firm in China, the authors collect multi-informant survey data from 183 manufacturing firms drawn from a variety of industries for testing the hypotheses posited.

The efficacy of strategic EM in the sampled firms is confirmed by the positive association with environmental performance. The authors also find that the efficacy of strategic EM is weakened by market pressure, business turbulence and legal voids, whereas it is strengthened by structural-level governmental interference. However, carbon policy and guanxi with government do not impact it significantly.

To extend the findings on the environmental importance of strategic EM, future research can develop and validate a management framework to guide the adoption of strategic EM. With regard to the four valid macro-level factors influencing the efficacy of strategic EM, future research can identify the reasons (e.g. conflict with corporate functions) behind them to aid manufacturers to mitigate their negative influence or enhance the positive influence on strategic EM.

China’s Government and its manufacturers (or those sharing a similar institutional environment) can expand the scope of their EM efforts from operational-level EM practices to strategic EM. The findings on the valid macro-level factors have led to practical suggestions for government bodies and manufacturers to improve the efficacy of strategic EM adoption. Overall, the implications help achieve the higher levels of firm-level environmental performance and alleviate the global pollution problem.

A particular value of this work lies in the demonstration of combining institutional theory (organization decoupling, isomorphic pressures) with practical consideration such as guanxi with government in the particular institutional environment of China to help address an important and context-related problem, environmental performance.

This paper aims to help establish a more coherent and credible FM platform to support future developments and their alignment to business. A critical review is undertaken of current claims and assumptions concerning the importance of FM, particularly in relation to its scope and strategic impact. The paper finds that there is an urgent need to reposition and rebrand FM as an integral part of infrastructure and services management, within the business resource management process alongside finance, HR, IT and Intangibles. Only a summary account is included, but full references to some 30 sources are given. The paper provides the basis for a consolidated and coherent alignment of property and facility management to business strategy and operations. This paper will be of interest to academics, consultants and those in advanced FM practice who recognise the need for a secure theoretical base from which to market FM to business.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible causes of the heterogeneous productivity observed in Spanish firms, finding evidence of a link between managerial capability and higher productivity in the context of family firms. Also, innovative human resource policies are much more frequently found in companies where there is a high level of management capability.

Productivity differences in Spanish family firms are, for the first time, analysed from a managerial view, and using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA).

This paper proposes a way to measure managerial capability. Innovative human resource policies are much more frequently found in companies with high levels of management capability. The authors show that sustained competitive advantage is not just a function of single or isolated components, but rather a combination of human capital elements. Besides, a clear association between high managerial capability and performance in family firms is established. Thus, better management skills enable Spanish family firms to design the necessary strategies and internal structures to facilitate their adjustment to the business environment, and, thereby, achieve operational performance gains.

This paper proposes a way to measure managerial capability and its association with productivity in Spanish family firms using MCA. The authors also show a clear positive association between high managerial capability and performance in family firms. Thus, better management skills enable Spanish family firms to achieve operational performance gains.

Este artículo explora las posibles causas de la heterogeneidad observada en la productividad de las empresas españolas, buscando un vínculo entre la capacidad de gestión y la productividad en el contexto de las empresas familiares. Además, se muestra cómo las políticas innovadoras de recursos humanos se encuentran con mayor frecuencia en las empresas donde hay una mejor capacidad de gestión.

Por primera vez, se analizan las diferencias de productividad en las empresas familiares españolas desde el punto de vista de la gestión empresarial, utilizando análisis de correspondencias múltiples (MCA).

Este trabajo mide la capacidad de gestión de una forma innovadora. Las políticas de recursos humanos se encuentran con mayor frecuencia en las empresas donde hay una alta capacidad de gestión. Se muestra que la ventaja competitiva de la empresa no es la suma individual de cada elemento, sino más bien una combinación de elementos de capital humano. Además, se establece una clara asociación entre la capacidad de gestión y los resultados en las empresas familiares. Por lo tanto, la mejora de las habilidades de la gestión empresarial permite a las empresas familiares españolas diseñar las estrategias y estructuras internas necesarias para facilitar su adaptación al entorno empresarial, y de ese modo, lograr mejoras en los resultados.

Este artículo muestra la asociación entre la capacidad de gestión y la productividad de una forma original, a través de análisis de correspondencias múltiples (MCA). Establece una clara asociación positiva entre la capacidad de gestión y los resultados en las empresas familiares. Por lo tanto, la mejora de las habilidades de gestión permite a las empresas familiares españolas lograr mejoras en los resultados.

Recently, corporations have been confronted with a number of global environmental challenges such as global warming, acid rain, depletion of natural resources, waste management, green consumerism and pollution prevention. There is growing pressure to deliver products and services which are environmentally compatible. A number of corporations such as Du Pont, 3M, AT&T, Xerox and Procter & Gamble are, therefore, integrating various environmental policies and programmes into their operations strategy and specific decisions concerning operations such as product design/planning, process technology selection, and quality management. Introduces the concepts of environmental management (EM) and argues that firms which do not recognize the implications of environmental problems on the operations function will not succeed in the competitive market. Various environmental management practices (such as implementing aggressive pollution‐prevention programmes, initiating environment‐related performance measures and developing green products and process technologies) provide opportunities to strengthen a firm′s distinctive competence in terms of operations objectives such as highest quality, lowest cost, best dependability, and greatest flexibility. Thus, EM gives a competitive advantage and develops new links between operations strategy and the corporate strategy (e.g. cost leadership and product differentiation).

Over the past thirty years or so, a body, albeit a somewhat disarticulated body, of evidence on the work of managers has accumulated. The field of study which has given rise to this evidence is, from time to time, subject to ‘internal’ criticisms by some of its own practitioners (Luthans and Davis 1980, Marples 1967, Mintzberg 1973, Stewart 1983) whose main contention, predictably, is that the studies do not, methodologically or analytically, always live up to their self‐imposed project. The studies in short are upbraided for what they have imperfectly done. In an earlier paper (Hales 1986) I sought to extend and add to these criticisms of studies of managers' work. I argued that the studies fail to distinguish, within the vague term ‘managerial work’, between: first, ‘management’ as a process and ‘managers’ as a particular category of agents; second, managerial work as a totality and managerial jobs as clusters of that (and other) work; third, what managers are required to do (role definition) and what they actually do (role performance) and fourth, the outputs and purpose of managerial work (managerial tasks and responsibilities) versus the inputs and practice of managerial work (managers' behaviour and activities). These ambiguities are, I suggested, symptomatic of a rather narrow empiricist approach and failure adequately to theorise the ‘management’ which managers are, apparently, doing. In this way, I wanted to arrive at, rather than merely assert, the proposition that the activities of managers cannot be adequately understood without setting them, empirically and theoretically, in a wider context.

Research about the modern mutually beneficial nonprofit organizations (MBNPOs) has great value because of the increasingly important role that the MBNPO plays in society. The establishment and management of MBNPOs are critical for its development.

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) theory is applied to the research on establishment and management innovation. The establishment of MBNPOs needs four sequential steps: identifying the target group, providing services to meet the demand of stakeholders, designing appropriate communication tactics and deploying proper organizational structure to accomplish efficient communication.

Three types of approach enable traditional enterprises to transform into MBNPOs: product innovation, operational innovation and synergetic development. The application of IMC theory accomplishes management innovation of MBNPOs in three aspects: leading market-orientation specific to stakeholder-orientation, making management innovation systematic in MBNPOs and clarifying targets of management innovation in MBNPOs.

This is one of the first examinations of establishment path and management innovation of MBNPO based on IMC theory.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how holistic improvement work can be organized and what challenges can be observed in the process of adopting a holistic perspective on production system improvement.

A qualitative case study and a questionnaire have been carried out. Data for the case study has been collected through semi-structured interviews, archived documents and participatory observations. The questionnaire was done in order to increase the generalizability of the findings from the case study and further validate the conclusions.

The improvement work at the case company is organized as a continuous improvement approach in a Lean Production system in the form of a company-specific production system (XPS), in which two other improvement approaches are incorporated. Some of the identified challenges are: the establishment of a holistic perspective on improvement opportunities; the development of a process to update the production strategy; the continuous update of the Operational Management System during the XPS implementation; aggregating measures for the improvement work and measuring the effect of improvement work.

As the current case study is limited to one case company, future research is interested in expanding to other production systems contexts for further validation.

The present study offers an increased understanding of the integration difficulties of improvement work that many production companies face regarding operational effectiveness, and based on the findings, some implications for management are presented.