Search results
1 – 10 of over 99000Jeng‐Chung Victor Chen and William H. Ross
In recent years, electronic performance monitoring (EPM) has increased dramatically. The managerial decision to implement an EPM system is important for it has significant…
Abstract
In recent years, electronic performance monitoring (EPM) has increased dramatically. The managerial decision to implement an EPM system is important for it has significant implications for an organization. Even so, little attention has been paid by researchers to this decision. The present paper reviews the published research on EPM and identifies factors that probably impact this decision. A model is offered to help researchers identify relevant psychological and organizational variables that may impact the decision to implement an EPM system. Psychologically, issues of trust, privacy, social facilitation, justice beliefs and stress reactions must be considered. Organizationally, a firm's Human Resource strategy, organizational culture, and anticipated consequences of EPM (i.e., increasing performance, reducing theft) are also discussed.
Details
Keywords
Olga Smirnova, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf and Suzanne Leland
Public agencies contract out to pursue a variety of goals. But, these goals cannot be realized if the performance of contractors is not assessed and monitored. This study examines…
Abstract
Public agencies contract out to pursue a variety of goals. But, these goals cannot be realized if the performance of contractors is not assessed and monitored. This study examines the state of performance measurement and contract monitoring in the U.S. transit agencies. We focus on three research questions: (1) What monitoring capacity exists within transit agencies? (2) What monitoring methods are used by transit agencies? (3) What performance measures are tracked by transit agencies? We find monitoring units are common in a third of agencies in the study. Service and customer complaints are the most common performance measures, while penalties and liquidated damages are the most frequent form of penalties. Finally, we find that transit agencies utilize a variety of output and outcome measures to monitor contractors.
Alison M. Dean and Christopher Kiu
The increased use of contracting for service delivery involves new challenges in ensuring that quality is maintained. Performance monitoring involves both efficiency (costs) and…
Abstract
The increased use of contracting for service delivery involves new challenges in ensuring that quality is maintained. Performance monitoring involves both efficiency (costs) and effectiveness (quality) measures; however, there is little guidance from the literature to indicate the best approaches in different contexts. This paper therefore reports on an exploratory study in which approaches to performance monitoring, and respondents’ views on best practice, were explored in contracted services. Key findings are that organisations rely on inspections by their own employees or contractor checklists, but that these practices are in conflict with their views on best practice. However, the respondents agreed that performance monitoring has a large effect on quality outcomes. Using both the literature and the study, a model has been developed that provides managers with a framework for improving their performance and quality monitoring practices, and highlights areas for future academic research.
Details
Keywords
James W. Hesford, Michael J. Turner, Nicolas Mangin, Charles R. Thomas and Kelly Hoffmann
This study examines how firms’ use of competitor-focused accounting information, specifically competitor monitoring information, impacts their pricing, demand, and overall revenue…
Abstract
This study examines how firms’ use of competitor-focused accounting information, specifically competitor monitoring information, impacts their pricing, demand, and overall revenue performance. The monitoring activities examined are the scope of monitoring, monitoring above and below one’s own hotel class (i.e., market segment), and the extent of reciprocity of monitoring. Competitor analysis is a central element in strategic management accounting (SMA), yet little empirical research has been done since companies do not disclose competitor monitoring activities. Proving the value of competitive monitoring provides strong support for SMA. Archival, proprietary monitoring information regarding pricing, demand, and revenue were obtained from one of the largest hotel markets in the United States. Using regression, we modeled the relationships between performance measures (pricing, demand, and revenue) and monitoring behaviors, while controlling for quality (hotel characteristics and management skill), competitive intensity, hotel class, geographic location, and ownership type. Our results indicate that two aspects of competitor monitoring impact hotel pricing that, in turn, impacts hotel demand and revenue performance. Specifically, a hotel monitoring more competitors (what we refer to as Scope) achieves higher prices with unchanged demand, resulting in higher revenue performance. Most hotels monitor within their class. However, deviating from one’s class has profound outcomes: looking at lower (higher) quality hotels results in a hotel setting lower (higher) prices, resulting in higher (unchanged) demand and lower (higher) revenue performance. Surprisingly, we did not find support for the reciprocity of monitoring. That is, whether the competitors monitored by a hotel, in turn follow the target, has no impact on hotel revenue performance outcomes. While the SMA literature notes the importance of competitor monitoring, this study fills a gap in an important, under-researched area by documenting the link between competitor monitoring behaviors and organizational revenue performance. This may help promote greater diffusion of SMA practices.
Details
Keywords
Ismail Abdi Changalima, Alban Dismas Mchopa and Ismail Juma Ismail
This study aims to examine the effect of supplier monitoring on procurement performance in the Tanzanian public sector, as well as how contract management difficulty moderates the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of supplier monitoring on procurement performance in the Tanzanian public sector, as well as how contract management difficulty moderates the effect of supplier monitoring on procurement performance.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper cross-sectional data were collected from 179 Tanzanian public procuring organizations using a structured survey questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the PROCESS macro were used to analyse the collected data.
Findings
Supplier monitoring has a positive and significant relationship with procurement performance in terms of cost reduction, lead times and buyer satisfaction. Furthermore, contract management difficulty has a negative moderating effect on the relationships between supplier monitoring and procurement performance dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
Because public procurement is governed by laws and procedures, generalization of results should be done with caution. This is because the study is currently limited to Tanzanian public procurement. Apart from contract management difficulty, future research can look at other factors that may be needed to moderate the link between supplier monitoring and procurement performance.
Practical implications
Procurement practitioners must monitor major suppliers’ timeliness, product quality and order accuracy in order to improve procurement performance. Furthermore, proper contract management is required, which necessitates effectively reinforcing procurement contract managers’ responsibilities and providing contract management training for practitioners in order to control anomalies when suppliers and contracts are involved.
Originality/value
By adding a moderating variable, the study adds to the literature on supplier monitoring in public procurement and the on-going debate on supplier monitoring and performance.
Details
Keywords
Yuan Ye, Xiaosong (david) Peng, Raymond Lei Fan and Arunachalam Narayanan
Drawing on transaction cost economics (TCE) theory and organizational information processing theory (OIPT), this study investigates how the alignments between the characteristics…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on transaction cost economics (TCE) theory and organizational information processing theory (OIPT), this study investigates how the alignments between the characteristics of service (i.e. task complexity and measurement ambiguity) and governance mechanisms (i.e. contract specificity and monitoring) can affect service performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a rigorously designed survey to collect data from professionals who manage service outsourcing contracts in various industries. The respondent pool consists of randomly selected members of the Institute of Supply Management (ISM). The authors’ research question is analyzed using 261 completed and useable responses. Structural equation modeling is adopted to examine the data and test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The authors find that both contract specificity and monitoring have a positive impact on supplier performance. Further, for high task complexity services, contract specificity is more effective than monitoring, and for high measurement ambiguity services, the opposite is true. Moreover, the effect of contract specificity is mediated by monitoring.
Practical implications
Service outsourcers should use both contract specificity and monitoring in governing outsourced services and know that the former depends on the latter during execution. Facing resource constraints, they can prioritize crafting detailed contract provisions over implementing monitoring for highly complex services but consider monitoring as the primary governance tool in services whose outcomes are difficult to measure.
Originality/value
This study is the first to couple TCE with OPIT and consider the nature of outsourced services in the choice of governance mechanisms and empirically test the simultaneous effects of contract specificity and monitoring in the context of service outsourcing.
Details
Keywords
Faheem Ahmad Khan, Khuram Shafi and Amer Rajput
The purpose of this study is to reveal important insights by examining the relationships of two different field managers’ monitoring styles with performance through salespersons’…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to reveal important insights by examining the relationships of two different field managers’ monitoring styles with performance through salespersons’ engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from 318 salespersons’ from 20 pharmaceutical firms. Given the performance-driven nature of the pharmaceutical sales profession, field managers seek to adopt the best monitoring style, which can optimize individual’s performance while providing a healthy work environment.
Findings
The results from multivariate analysis show the evidence of positive relationship between interactional monitoring and salespersons’ engagement. The results also confirm that engagement partially mediates the proposed relationships.
Originality/value
Authors assimilate and extend research and theory on field managers’ monitoring, salespersons’ performance and salespersons’ engagement to advance a model of salespersons’ reactions to different monitoring styles based on self-determination theory. Perhaps in no other field, the salespersons-field managers’ relationship is as important as in the field of pharmaceutical selling. The study offers insights about the important consequence of two different monitoring styles; also the study is one of the exceptional efforts to provide evidence regarding the role of engagement in the relationship between two different monitoring styles and salespersons’ performance.
Details
Keywords
Joana Story and Filipa Castanheira
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between hybrid HR systems in call centers and their effect on workers' performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between hybrid HR systems in call centers and their effect on workers' performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on a sample of 337 call center operator-supervisor dyads, the authors analyzed how the joint perceptions of monitoring and high-performance work systems (HPWS) are associated with workers' authenticity to explain performance, rated by supervisors.
Findings
The authors found that when monitoring is perceived as low, HPWS is not associated with authenticity, suggesting that it requires the joint effect of monitoring and HPWS to communicate HR management priorities in call centers. In addition, the authors found that high ratings of monitoring combined with low perceptions of HPWS were associated with the lowest levels of authenticity, whereas the highest levels of authenticity at work were found when high monitoring was combined with high HPWS. The results supported a conditional indirect effect through authenticity to explain when and how hybrid HR systems are associated with better supervisor-rated performance.
Originality/value
This is the first study to test the interaction effects between HPWS and monitoring practices to explain authenticity as a key strategic component of performance in call centers.
Details
Keywords
Kenneth W. Green, Pamela J. Zelbst, Vikram S. Bhadauria and Jeramy Meacham
The purpose of this paper is to contribute significantly to the first wave of empirical investigations related to the impact of green supply chain management practices on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute significantly to the first wave of empirical investigations related to the impact of green supply chain management practices on environmental and organizational performance from a manufacturer's perspective within a supply chain context.
Design/methodology/approach
An environmental collaboration and monitoring performance model is theorized and assessed following a structural equation methodology. Data were collected from 159 manufacturing managers through an on‐line survey.
Findings
Environmental collaboration and monitoring practices among supply chain partners are found to lead to improved environmental performance and organizational performance.
Research limitations/implications
As a first wave investigation of the impact of green supply chain management practices on performance, the study is somewhat exploratory.
Practical implications
Practitioners are provided with a framework for assessing the impact of environmental collaboration and monitoring practices among supply chain partners on environmental performance and organizational performance. The study provides evidence that green supply chain practices lead to improved environmental and organizational performance.
Social implications
The results also have important societal implications. While green supply chain management practices enhance the economic sustainability of the firm, they also positively impact society through improvements to the overall environment.
Originality/value
The results of this investigation support the proposition that implementation of environmental collaboration and monitoring practices by supply chain partners are both environmentally necessary and good business. The paper provides manufacturing managers with a structured approach to improving both environmental and organizational performance through environmental collaboration and monitoring with customers and suppliers.
Details
Keywords
Elcio M. Tachizawa, Cristina Gimenez and Vicenta Sierra
– The purpose of this paper is to analyse the complex interrelationships among environmental drivers, Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) approaches and performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the complex interrelationships among environmental drivers, Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) approaches and performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was sent to a sample of managers in the field of Purchasing and Supply Management in Spanish firms. Data were analysed using SmartPLS 2.0 to test a model that relates GSCM drivers, GSCM approaches and performance.
Findings
Results show that coercive and non-coercive drivers have different implications in terms of GSCM approaches. Moreover, monitoring itself is not sufficient to improve performance; firms need to adopt collaborative practices with their suppliers. Results show that whereas collaboration has a direct effect on performance, monitoring has only an indirect relationship through collaboration.
Research limitations/implications
One of the main limitations of this study is the use of data from a single country (Spain). The main contribution of the paper is to show that coercive and non-coercive drivers have different effects on the GSCM approaches. Additionally, it quantifies the mediating effect of collaboration on the relationship between monitoring and environmental performance. As further research, the authors suggest the replication of this study in other countries (notably in emerging markets) and industrial sectors.
Practical implications
This study provides guidance to managers in the implementation of specific approaches of GSCM. For example, it shows that monitoring alone has no direct effect on performance whereas joint collaborative initiatives with suppliers have a significant effect on environmental performance.
Originality/value
This study analyses the implications in terms of drivers and performance for each GSCM approach (monitoring and collaboration), using a quantitative approach.
Details