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We present the results of one of the only in-depth studies of a police agency’s internal and external response to the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 (COVID-19). This study emphasizes the importance of law enforcement agencies conducting comprehensive case studies and after-action assessments to prepare, prevent and respond to prolonged public health crises and showcases the profound (and lingering) effects of COVID-19 on police organizations.

This multi-method case study combines document analysis, a workforce survey, a community survey, interviews and analysis of administrative data to detail and assess the agency’s internal and operational responses to the pandemic and the reactions of employees and community members to those responses.

Despite agency strategies to mitigate the pandemic’s effects, employees cited very high stress levels one year after the pandemic and a third of sworn officers considered leaving the policing profession altogether during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several policies intended by the agency to protect employee health and maintain staffing needs kept workforce levels steady but may have increased feelings of organizational injustice in both sworn and non-sworn individuals, with variation across racial and gender groups. A jurisdiction-wide community survey indicated general support for the police department’s responses but a preference for in-person rather than telephone-based responses to service calls. Officers, however, preferred continuing remote responses even after the pandemic subsided.

To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the only in-depth case studies that examine a police agency’s internal and external responses to COVID-19 and the sworn, non-sworn and community reactions to those responses.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the dimensions used in judging the hospital services quality; to develop a tool for measuring perceived service quality for hospitals; to test the validity and reliability of the new scale; and finally to use the results of the data collected to suggest improving service quality.

A cross-sectional field study was conducted among 400 hospital out-patients in Thailand. The researchers administered the SERVQUAL instrument in order to assess the applicability of these service quality attributes to the out-patient hospital setting in Thailand. The data collected were used to assess the psychometric properties of the SERVQUAL instrument and to analyze whether and to what extent the SERVQUAL dimensions adequately predicted overall service quality among Thai hospital out-patient respondents. The psychometric properties of the instrument were quite acceptable and the resulting five-factor structure was consistent to and confirms earlier measurement theory. The measurement model as estimated by the use of structural equation modeling further showed that the hypothesized model fit the empirical data quite well.

The results indicate that SERVQUAL's five latent dimensions had a significant influence on overall service quality. Responsiveness had most influence; followed by empathy, tangibles, assurance; and finally reliability.

The results of this study demonstrate that service quality can be assessed in diverse service settings such as hospital out-patient departments. Further, SERVQUAL is robust enough to capture the critical elements used to assess overall service quality. The study was limited in its external validity and prediction was constrained due to the nature of the data collected, i.e. cross-sectional design. This study also chose to focus on one outcome variable, i.e. overall service quality. Other critical variables might be reasonably assessed, e.g. customer satisfaction, loyalty intentions, firm performance.

The present study has several managerial implications for service quality enhancement in the hospitals in Thailand. First, given that responsiveness, was the strongest predictor of service quality, hospital out-patient employees can exercise strong influence over perceived quality by giving sincere and detailed information about service conditions, by being willing to help and by offering fast and efficient service to out-patients.

The World Bank reports that health care and hospital care in particular is a growing portion of the economic pie, now nearly 18 percent of GDP in the USA. Global health care administrators are under pressure to not just control costs but to offer a quality health care experience This study offers insight into how the health care out-patient consumer views service quality and the relative importance of the various service quality dimensions in predicting overall service quality.

The idea of competitive advantage is not new. What is new is the growing acceptance of this planning concept as a general philosophy of management. In all likelihood, the notion of competitive advantage will provide the guiding philosophy for the predominant management practice of the 1980s: strategic management. As experience at Clark Equipment Company shows, the answers to eight key questions can spell out a winning strategy.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/02632779510795430. When citing the article, please cite: William H. Johnson, Warren R. Matthews, (1995), “Disaster plan simulates plane crash into high-rise building”, Facilities, Vol. 13 Iss: 9/10, pp. 31 - 37.

The central job thrust for principals has been redirected in recent years from school maintenance to instructional leadership. School districts have responded to the job expectations of the 1980's by directing the principal's leadership to managing instruction. Simultaneously the research community has studied effective schools to learn what principals and teachers do that influences student achievement gains. Numerous studies have now verified that the principal indeed is a key factor in the school's attempt to alter achievement norms. In the article, we shall first synthesize the results of effective schooling characteristics that have been identified by numerous researchers. Second, we shall discuss the development of a diagnostic instrument used to assess the training needs of principals in relation to instructional leadership tasks: school planning, staff and program development, and evaluation. Finally, the results of a recent study assessing principals' perceptions of their training needs will be reported.

Book review by William H. A. Johnson. Casson, Mark et al., eds. The Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurship, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 9780199288984

During December 2012, Jorge Paulo Lemann, a co-founder and partner at 3G, proposed to Warren Buffett that 3G and Berkshire Hathaway acquire H. J. Heinz Company. Lemann and Buffett, who had known each other for years, jointly decided that the Heinz turnaround had been successful and that there was significant potential for continued global growth. 3G informed Heinz CEO William Johnson that it and Berkshire Hathaway were interested in jointly acquiring his company. Johnson then presented the investors' offer of $70.00 per share of outstanding common stock to the Heinz board.

After much discussion, the Heinz board and its advisors informed 3G that without better financial terms they would not continue to discuss the possibility of an acquisition. Two days later, 3G and Berkshire Hathaway returned with a revised proposal of $72.50 per share, for a total transaction value of $28 billion (including Heinz's outstanding debt).

Following a forty-day “go-shop” period, Heinz, 3G, and Berkshire Hathaway agreed to sign the deal. But was this, in fact, a fair deal? And what might be the future consequences for shareholders, management, employees, and citizens of Pittsburgh, the location of the company's headquarters? Last, what was the role of activist investors in bringing Heinz to this deal stage?

After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to:

• Understand the influence of investment bankers on M&A transactions

• Consider synergies that drive M&A

• Consider the role of activist investors in corporate strategic decision-making

• Understand the impact of M&A on key corporate stakeholders

• Apply core valuation techniques to support M&A valuation

Understand the influence of investment bankers on M&A transactions

Consider synergies that drive M&A

Consider the role of activist investors in corporate strategic decision-making

Understand the impact of M&A on key corporate stakeholders

Apply core valuation techniques to support M&A valuation

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue on innovation and education towards innovation in China.

The Guest Editors discuss the impetus behind the special issue and describe the papers published in it.

It is evident in the papers presented in this special issue that China is on its way towards becoming world‐class in a number of technological areas.

The paper introduces the special issue on innovation and education towards innovation in China, as well as an agenda for future research in the area.

The purpose of this paper is to describe, as a case study, the recent developments in high‐speed rail (HSR) technological development and economic and business development in China.

The authors use a descriptive case study design examining the factors behind the importation of foreign HSR technology and its development within the Chinese context. Various secondary sourced data are used to build the case that educational development in transportation technologies and strategic focus at the national level have created the ability to pursue the development and creation of a national strategic competency in HSR technology for the Chinese.

The authors find that a major factor behind HSR development in China appears to be the result of a need for the Chinese Government to build the competencies of strategic technologies at the national level. Given present usage levels of HSR, the internal development of HSR systems is not justified by the economic rationales of cheaper and more efficient transportation for the Chinese. However, the case does point out the importance of technological leapfrogging (or “hopping” over the competition, to use the analogy in the title). It is apparent in the case that Chinese engineering has advanced in such a way that it is not inconceivable that China may lead advanced technological state‐of‐the‐art designs in the near future. This building of national core competencies appears to be related to the increase in world‐class educational efforts. As such, the authors argue that the Chinese efforts in HSR are now described by fact‐based education and derivational innovation practices as illustrated in the staged model of innovation by Johnson and Weiss.

The case study is one of the first published in the academic management literature. It demonstrates the process of development of HSR in China and provides preliminary evidence of the importance of the educational and innovation practices in China on the development of an indigenous technological industry in the country.

Global competition is forcing American Managers to rethink the way they do business. It is no longer the “big that eat the small” it is now the “fast that eat the slow”. This paper will examine how business process orientation (BPO) has a positive impact on esprit de corps, reduced conflict and improve connectedness and overall business performance. This implies that there is a ROI for becoming more business process oriented and reengineering an organization to more horizontal structures.