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1 – 10 of 879William Emitt Halal, Jess Garretson and Owen Davies
The purpose of this study is as follows: update the 1983 survey to determine the strategic practices being used in 2020, draw conclusions on major organizational changes since the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is as follows: update the 1983 survey to determine the strategic practices being used in 2020, draw conclusions on major organizational changes since the original 1984 study and recommend how leaders could use these findings to plan for strategic change.
Design/methodology/approach
This research updates an earlier study to learn how strategic planning and foresight are changing to cope with today’s high-tech world. The first author’s 1983 General Motors survey of “Strategic Planning in the Fortune 500” was updated by surveying 68 managers from 40 organizations to assess the current state-of-the-art. Results outline the leading edge of strategic practices today, illustrated by comments – from the respondents. Findings show a striking change from the earlier survey. Where strategic planning was formerly restricted to a top management function, respondents strongly think it should now include all units across the organization to form a bottom-up system. They also think it should extend to active participation from employees, customers, suppliers and other outside stakeholders. The main conclusion is that leaders should be developing the sophisticated systems that have been anticipated for many years but have rarely been practiced – strategic change from “the bottom up and the outside in.”
Findings
These results provide a rough assessment of the current state-of-the-art in strategic foresight.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited because the sample was not randomly selected to provide a rigorous study that permits accurate statements for a well-defined population and the sample size is modest.
Practical implications
The first conclusion affirms that the strategic planning cycle remains the primary theoretical framework guiding strategy. However, the planning cycle is increasingly elaborated by new practices summarized in the second two conclusions described above. As noted, the need for strategic change now cuts across all organizational functions and levels. With massive change a constant, there is a move to decentralize strategy to agile units able to move quickly and hierarchical structures are being replaced with adaptive systems and innovative cultures. Managers are also broadening their methods to facilitate planning with stakeholders. Sound sources of information are considered a must and include direct communication with diverse and dissenting voices.
Social implications
While bottom-up systems and stakeholder management have been discussed endlessly, the time seems right to move these powerful concepts from the leading edge that remains marginalized and into the mainstream of strategic foresight and management practice. Scholars and researchers should evaluate the level of participation in these models, their effectiveness and possible improvements. Strategic managers should start implementing these changes carefully, rather than introducing emerging technologies, advanced products and other organizational changes.
Originality/value
This study replicates a landmark survey of Strategic Planning in the Fortune 500. Results show that organizations should now implement crucial changes to operate from the bottom up and the outside in.
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Marvin J. Cetron, Owen Davies, Fred DeMicco and Mohan Song
The purpose of this study is to continue to forecast trends in the hospitality and travel industry with practical implications.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to continue to forecast trends in the hospitality and travel industry with practical implications.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is the updated version of our previous list of trends. The new edition updates the previous report on the implications for the hospitality industry of major trends now shaping the future. We focus mainly on energy, environmental and labor force and work trends and discuss sub-trends under each trend. We then implicate how the trends affect the Hospitality and Travel industry.
Findings
We shared implications under each sub-trends.
Originality/value
The value of this article is to analyze the impact of the environment on the Hospitality and Travel industry from a macro perspective. For each trend, we implicate an estimate for future trends. We hope this article sheds light on the prediction of the Hospitality and Travel industry.
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For this review of heavy duty robots Jack Hollingum went to Scotland to see a tunnel‐boring machine just completed by James Howden, and met Dr Owen Davies, Technical Manager, who…
Abstract
For this review of heavy duty robots Jack Hollingum went to Scotland to see a tunnel‐boring machine just completed by James Howden, and met Dr Owen Davies, Technical Manager, who considered the opportunities for automation and robotics in such machines.
Van Helmont considered he had found it in water, and thus records his famous Brussels experiment:
– The aim of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which hubristic behaviour on the part of Thomas Farrow contributed to the downfall of Farrow's Bank in 1920.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which hubristic behaviour on the part of Thomas Farrow contributed to the downfall of Farrow's Bank in 1920.
Design/methodology/approach
The article traces the way in which Thomas Farrow's behaviour changed over the course of his managerial career using primary sources obtained from various British archives, including: court records, witness statements, auditors' reports, newspapers, journals, and personal letters. The article then evaluates Farrow's actions in relation to the criteria outlined in Petit and Bollaert's “Framework for diagnosing CEO hubris” so as to assess how far he can be said to have become afflicted by managerial hubris.
Findings
All the collected evidence points to the conclusion that Thomas Farrow had, by the time of the Bank's collapse in 1920, become afflicted by managerial hubris. This was reflected most clearly in the fact that he increasingly came to view himself as being somehow above and beyond the laws of the wider community. As a result, he felt little compunction about fraudulently writing-up the Bank's assets so as to cover the huge losses that his reckless investments had produced.
Practical implications
The Farrow's Bank episode confirms that the probability of management hubris materialising is enhanced when external control mechanisms are either lacking or inefficiently applied. On top of this, the amateurish organizational set-up of the Bank also suggests that the likelihood of hubris syndrome developing is enhanced when organizations themselves grant too much discretion to their leaders.
Originality/value
The paper breaks new ground by applying the latest management and psychology theories on the subject of leadership hubris to the field of financial management. Its value lies in the fact that it provides scholars and practitioners with an in-depth insight into how hubris syndrome can develop in organizational settings.
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The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal…
Abstract
The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal took great pains to interpret the intention of the parties to the different site agreements, and it came to the conclusion that the agreed procedure was not followed. One other matter, which must be particularly noted by employers, is that where a final warning is required, this final warning must be “a warning”, and not the actual dismissal. So that where, for example, three warnings are to be given, the third must be a “warning”. It is after the employee has misconducted himself thereafter that the employer may dismiss.
Alex Appleby, Andrew Robson and Jane Owen
Presents the findings from a study of 48 Colleges of Further Education (FE) who have participated in a diagnostic benchmarking exercise using the learning probe methodology…
Abstract
Presents the findings from a study of 48 Colleges of Further Education (FE) who have participated in a diagnostic benchmarking exercise using the learning probe methodology. Learning probe has been developed from the established service probe tool (developed originally by London Business School and IBM Consulting) to support colleges of FE in their pursuit of excellence. Examines five main areas of business practice and performance consisting of business leadership; service processes; people; performance management and business results. Goes on to highlight the key strengths of the FE sector and their main areas for improvement (as defined by the sample of participating colleges). Although there are a number of practice and performance areas that need attention in particular practices relating to service processes, the sample also identifies that a number of colleges demonstrate strengths in these same areas. These issues are discussed and compared with experiences and anecdotal evidence collated from working with the FE sector over a number of years. Additionally, a comparison is made with a separate, regional benchmarking exercise that considered a number of educational organisations. Using the findings, the paper suggests a way forward for colleges to use the information which has grown out of this research. It is intended that the database will continue to grow as an information resource as learning probe becomes more widely adopted within the FE sector.
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Andrew Robson, David Yarrow and Jane Owen
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to assess the nature and extent of the link between employee satisfaction and organisational performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to assess the nature and extent of the link between employee satisfaction and organisational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines the link between staff satisfaction and organisational performance, presenting findings from 21 colleges of Further Education that have participated in both a survey of staff satisfaction (covering over 2,600 staff from these colleges) and in a diagnostic benchmarking exercise using the “Learning PROBE” methodology.
Findings
The results suggest that whilst each of the measured aspects of work are regarded as being important by a majority of survey respondents, the level of “satisfaction” displayed in each of these attributes is indicated by only a minority of those surveyed. The findings support the existence of a link between staff satisfaction and organisational excellence. Staff satisfaction levels are most strongly associated with the leadership and service processes indices, and even more so with the overall organisational diagnosis. This suggests that colleges that are implementing “good practices” covering a range of managerial aspects, and who are achieving corresponding organisational results, are likely to be closer to satisfying their staff. Practices relating to people, performance management and organizational results also show association with staff's satisfaction gap, although not as significantly as above. The results suggest an holistic approach to implementing business practices appears to be more effective than concentrating only on deploying good practices in only a single area of the managerial process.
Originality/value
The value of the paper is to the UK Further Education Sector in that it identifies those organisational practices, which improved, can in combination address to some extent the work satisfaction levels of their employees.
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One of the common law duties owed by the employer is his duty to take reasonable care for the safety of his employee. This common law duty is an implied term in the contract of…
Abstract
One of the common law duties owed by the employer is his duty to take reasonable care for the safety of his employee. This common law duty is an implied term in the contract of employment and is therefore contractual in nature. Because of the difficulties which may arise in bringing an action in contract for breach of the employer's duty of care, the employee who has sustained injuries during the course of his employment (although he may sue either in contract of tort will normally bring a tort action.
The present paper is intended to form an introduction to the ideas of machine translation; it is in no sense a complete account of the work which has been carried out at Birkbeck…
Abstract
The present paper is intended to form an introduction to the ideas of machine translation; it is in no sense a complete account of the work which has been carried out at Birkbeck College and elsewhere and which interested readers can study in more detail in a book which is in course of publication.