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To examine the role of perceived team climate in facilitating leadership and sociotechnical optimization to affect quality related outcomes in a municipal government.

A survey was administered to employees working in a municipal government, measuring leadership, perceived team climate, technical subsystem components, and team performance. Hypotheses were tested with multiple regression, and the fit of a path model implied by all hypotheses was tested with structural equation modeling.

Institution‐level communications and department‐level leadership had the greatest effects in shaping perceptions of team climate. Perceived team climate predicted process improvement, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. Perceived team climate also substantially mediated relationships between leadership support for teamwork and technical components with these outcomes.

Data were collected at one point in time from a single source, workers in a US municipal government. Some measures were new. A longitudinal design would strengthen causal inferences regarding the origins and effects of team climates.

Soft controls such as norms influence the effectiveness of teams in process improvement. Mid‐level managers have the greatest impact among leaders in creating a team climate. Open communication makes a difference to virtually every aspect of performance.

This paper demonstrates the importance of shaping perceptions of a team climate to facilitate process and quality improvement. It emphasizes the importance of open communications and clarifies changing roles of leadership in modern organizations. Finally, it provides rare documentation of quality management in government.

This paper describes the results of a research project where respondents from a variety of disciplines were questioned about how they perceive quality improvement. Structured interviews were held with top managers from the fields of engineering, operations, strategic planning, marketing, planning, and human resources. We asked the following questions: How is quality defined by someone in (your field)? How do you define quality as it relates to your company’s products and services? What are approaches to quality that you view as leading edge? We find that there are differences in how quality is perceived by different functions. In spite of a long history of definition of quality terms, we find that more work is needed to overcome differences in functional perspectives when communicating quality plans and strategies.

The impact of business operations on the natural environment has been a public concern for decades and a research concern for years. To date, the focus of environmental impact research has been almost exclusively on manufacturing industries. Environmental research specific to service industries have been neglected, despite the fact that economies of developed nations are mostly made up of service businesses. This paper explores potential distinctions of service businesses as they may influence management motivation for taking environmentally friendly actions. Through a number of case studies, we observe some commonality of environmental motivations between service and manufacturing industries, as well as some environmental themes unique to services. These themes pertain to customer awareness of environmental initiatives of service firms by virtue of their involvement in the production process. Interestingly, customer involvement can have an adverse affect on environmental initiatives.

Organizations often experience difficulty in measuring the effects of automation‐based process re‐engineering. The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) methodology was used as a means to assess the effects of an automation‐based process re‐engineering of a purchasing process in a large regional hospital. Utilizing autoregressive statistical techniques, the automated purchasing process significantly affected productivity and performance both at the departmental and organizational levels. System implementation significantly reduced purchasing lead times, time to receive goods, and the time purchase orders stayed open. At the organizational level, values of issues per occupied bed increased, as did inventory turnover. The intervention analysis performed provided a means for management to assess the productivity improvements resulting from the re‐engineering project. Provides additional insight concerning implementation research and measuring organizational and departmental effects of automation projects.

Reports the results of a case study which undertook to examine the relationship between conformance and quality‐related costs. The controversial Lundvall‐Juran economic quality level (EQL) model has been criticized by various authors due to its acceptance of imperfect quality. While persuasive, this emotional aversion to imperfection does not provide a convincing critique of the EQL model. However, the EQL remains widely used in practice. Argues that several assumptions of the EQL model should be questioned including monotonicity, continuity, the positive relationship between prevention/appraisal costs and conformance, the negative relationship between failure costs and conformance, and the combining of costs. Further, the EQL model illustrates a single contingent relationship between quality costs and conformance. Provides several alternative cases of the relationship between quality costs and conformance. The results are then reported and the underlying relationships of the EQL model tested. The results showed that prevention and appraisal costs were positively and significantly associated with conformance. Failure costs were also positively and significantly related to conformance. These results provided support for a contingency view of quality‐related costs.

This chapter develops a model of professionalism via a synthesis of three extant theories from the sociology of the professions literature. Nine components or conditions of the model are used to trace the historical development of public accountancy through an Early Era from 1850 to 1929 and a Modern Era from 1930 to the mid-1980s. The conclusion is that concerted efforts over an approximate 130 year period were needed for accountancy to achieve elite professional status in the eyes of the U.S. public. The question remaining is if accountants have forgotten the history lessons on what has been required to achieve and sustain elite professional status?

Healthcare is a highly competitive global industry. People accept to travel to remote parts of the world in order to receive the service quality they hope for. Patients usually prefer to go to private hospitals, hoping to receive high service quality. On the other hand, healthcare organizations operating in the public sector are undergoing pressure from governments and the general public to improve quality and compete effectively with their counterparts in the private sector. This paper compares the service quality rendered by private and public hospitals. A questionnaire based on SERVQUAL is developed and tested for this purpose. This questionnaire is found to have five dimensions; namely, empathy, tangibles, reliability, administrative responsiveness and supporting skills. These dimensions, as well as overall service quality, are compared between private and public hospitals. Finally the implications of the results are highlighted for healthcare managers.

The purpose of this paper is to engage readers with Unity Productions Foundation (UPF) films, which provide a powerful, inspirational digital tool for teachers. The organization's mission is to create documentaries, films and educational materials that contribute to bringing to light compelling stories of Muslim engagement through history and culture. UPF films and educational projects aim to promote peace and understanding to increase cultural pluralism and counter bigotry in our world.

Teachers will be able to utilize the resources provided in this paper to harness the power of media in their classrooms. Outlining the process by which teachers can follow the C3 inquiry using the film Prince Among Slaves will prepare teachers to see the alignment of the C3 Framework with their teaching. The “best practice” classroom strategies in structuring deliberations are ones that encourage students to fully participate and emphasize their voice.

This paper will unpack the practice methods that address the film Prince Among Slaves to be of benefit when sharing narratives through digital film and engage students in critical thinking through the C3 Framework. UPF films are the product of scholarly research and innovative production teams as the films provide the opportunity to visualize and explore multiple perspectives to understand historical content by providing a context for inquiry teaching and learning that is inclusive through deliberative discussions in the classroom.

The author certifies that this manuscript submission is original work and that all authors were involved in the intellectual elaboration of the manuscript and all parties have been acknowledged.

President Bill Clinton has had many opponents and enemies, most of whom come from the political right wing. Clinton supporters contend that these opponents, throughout the Clinton presidency, systematically have sought to undermine this president with the goal of bringing down his presidency and running him out of office; and that they have sought non‐electoral means to remove him from office, including Travelgate, the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster, the Filegate controversy, and the Monica Lewinsky matter. This bibliography identifies these and other means by presenting citations about these individuals and organizations that have opposed Clinton. The bibliography is divided into five sections: General; “The conspiracy stream of conspiracy commerce”, a White House‐produced “report” presenting its view of a right‐wing conspiracy against the Clinton presidency; Funding; Conservative organizations; and Publishing/media. Many of the annotations note the links among these key players.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of carnivalization. The paper aims to widen the understanding of client initiated attempts to break away from a conflict of motives between conventional models and new ways of acting in service provision. Carnivalization emerges when the standard script falls apart and the actors start to construct unexpected meanings for the activity and create innovative solutions for the conflict of motives, which leads to new mode of collaboration.

The study analyzed the key features and significance of carnivalization in home care service encounters. The theoretical–methodological framework of the study draws on Bakhtin’s dialogical theorizing and cultural–historical activity theory. The analysis traces the processual movement from standard script toward carnivalization.

The key features of carnivalization involve conflict of motives between the actors, client initiatives, multiple chronotopes, artifact and role mediation, different modes of collaboration and the intertwinement of seemingly disconnected objects of collaboration. The findings indicate that carnivalization can enhance a new type of client–service provider collaboration. It can become an especially significant mode of collaboration for transforming an activity in which a historically established, stabilized script dominates the interaction. This paper suggests that the carnivalization type of collaboration should be deliberately fostered via organizational interventions to develop client-centered services.

As a consequence of the study, a new conceptual model is proposed for the analysis and promotion of carnivalization that can be applied in different organizational contexts.