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The European business excellence model offers organizations an effective framework for gauging if and how well they are delivering customer satisfaction. But it helps to begin with the end result, says Peter Hillman.

Discusses the advantages of and necessity for teamwork in a Total Quality Management programme.

Describes how John Brown Engineering and Constructors has set up project workshops for all involved parties to work together in a partnership environment. Reviews an approach combining the partnering style and the TQM philosophy. Contends that the design of the project workshop is crucial and it is important that it takes a holistic view of the problems identified. Concludes that competitive advantage will go to those who learn better ways to work together, and then rationally deploy this knowledge to the benefit of all. Partnering is teamwork between companies ‐ project workshops provide the chance to try it out, to train in it, and to excel.

Argues that implementing total quality can be carried out in many ways, but an effective communication framework is essential. Highlights the waste of time that ensues from “diverted” communications and says direct communication is far preferable. Suggests good communication is vital to agreeing TQM goals within the organisation and gives examples of what the author considers successful communication and methods to find out where communication is blocked or lacking. Concludes that quality is more important than quantity and gives examples: the meaning of the communication is the response it elicits.

Discusses the importance of recognising people′s contribution as an integral part of TQM, suggesting that it is recognition, and perhaps reward, for individual and team contributions, that helps to maintain both enthusiasm for and momentum of TQM.

The use of self‐assessment as a basis for evaluating progress with and achievement through total quality is increasing and like many initiatives there are some basic principles for success. Looks at the use of the EFQM Model as framework, outlines a self‐assessment process together with some of the do’s and don’ts for success. It also summarizes some of the benefits and suggests a practical framework for planning follow‐on action.

Reports on a discussion with Ilford, manufacturers of photographic equipment and materials, on how their shift from an “adversarial” style of supplier management to a more integrated and interdependent relationship with key suppliers, has brought them benefits. Shows the benefits of a strong vendor programme. Describes how the company embarked on its quality improvement process. Discusses the establishment of the vendor programme. Concludes that the programme is now an integral part of Ilford′s TQM. Contends that working to achieve TQM at the customer and vendor ends of the business is accelerating the company′s rate of progress and benefiting all.

This study aims to examine whether the sustainability committee, a specialized governance mechanism for environmental and social issues, is related to environmental performance. Specifically, the authors consider the presence and effectiveness of the sustainability committee.

Using a sample of Australian firms (2002–2016), the presence of a sustainability committee and sustainability committee effectiveness (consisting of 12 sustainability committee characteristics) are examined. Firms’ environmental performance is measured by Thomson Reuters Asset4 ratings.

The authors confirm prior findings of a positive relationship between the presence of a sustainability committee and the firm’s environmental performance. More importantly, sustainability committee effectiveness is found to be positively associated with environmental performance, indicating the active role that the composition and function of the sustainability committee plays in enhancing environmental performance.

The findings are of interest to directors and managers who are interested in improving firms’ environmental performance, in addition to investors and regulators who are concerned about environmental performance.

This study meaningfully expands the extant literature that studies the sustainability committee in at least three ways. First, the authors evidence the effect of an unexplored dimension of committee heterogeneity (sustainability committee effectiveness) by hand-collecting detailed information of sustainability committee members. Second, the authors distinguish from prior studies, in that the authors test the direct relationship between sustainability committee effectiveness and environmental performance. Third, by adopting different robustness tests of endogeneity along with sampling firms in various industries over 15 years, the authors offer more compelling and more comprehensive evidence in this regard. Broadly, the authors enrich the literature on corporate governance and environmental performance.

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the history and development of transaction log analysis (TLA) in library and information science research. Organizing a literature review of the first twenty‐five years of TLA poses some challenges and requires some decisions. The primary organizing principle could be a strict chronology of the published research, the research questions addressed, the automated information retrieval (IR) systems that generated the data, the results gained, or even the researchers themselves. The group of active transaction log analyzers remains fairly small in number, and researchers who use transaction logs tend to use this method more than once, so tracing the development and refinement of individuals' uses of the methodology could provide insight into the progress of the method as a whole. For example, if we examine how researchers like W. David Penniman, John Tolle, Christine Borgman, Ray Larson, and Micheline Hancock‐Beaulieu have modified their own understandings and applications of the method over time, we may get an accurate sense of the development of all applications.

This paper is a study of the current trends and conditions of electronic resources for Chinese studies, based on a recent survey on the Internet of 29 Chinese libraries in North America and eight Chinese libraries in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The survey discussed current electronic resources for Chinese studies, with a union list of major Chinese language databases currently used in libraries in Asia and the US. Current views on the use and development of electronic resources for Chinese studies were summarised.