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‘FOG in Channel: Continent isolated!’ Those were once the headlines in a national newspaper which thus succinctly, although with unintentional irony, expressed the British sense of complacency. Making allowance for an element of exaggeration, the incident contained enough truth to make its point. The new alignments of industry and commerce which are now taking place mean that this country cannot afford to retain even a vestige of such an attitude.

‘Supportive Participation’ is a term used to describe a formal role for workers in all phases of the decision‐making process except the final ‘vote’, on activities that affect their immediate work environment. These include problem origination as well as the generation of alternatives, activities which necessitate an active partnership between workers and staff. Final decisions for action are left to management. A typology of ‘participation’ is developed — these include seven factors which are grouped under ‘Category’ and ‘Extent’ dimensions. The paper reviews past examples of Supportive Participation, which include the programmes: Work Simplification, the Japanese ‘Quality Circles’ and the Scanlon Plan. Supportive Participation is directed towards jointly raising productivity and the ‘quality of working life’ and some proposals for new ways to apply the approach more effectively are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate and compare the moderating effects of the two basic business process change paradigms – business process reengineering (BPR) and total quality management (TQM) – on the business value generated for firms by their information and communication technologies (ICT) investment.

Using data collected through a survey of 271 Greek firms, moderated regression models founded on the Cobb‐Douglas production function are estimated, which have as the dependent variable the firm value added (objective measure of business performance), and as independent variables the yearly labour expenses, the value of the non‐computer capital, the value of the computer capital and BPR (TQM) measures.

From the above models it is concluded that both BPR and TQM have considerable positive moderating effects of a similar magnitude on the relationship between ICT investment and firm value added. Also, different BPR and TQM activities have different moderating effects on ICT business value; process simplification, process improvement and the creation of a horizontal interdepartmental process are the BPR activities with the largest moderating effects, while measurement of employee satisfaction and simplification of work methods for quality improvement are the TQM activities with the largest moderating effects.

The basic limitation of this study is that it is based on data from Greek firms. Another limitation is that only one business performance measure, although quite important and theoretically fundamental (i.e. firm value added), is used.

Both BPR and TQM are important ICT “complementary factors”, which, if combined with ICT, can increase the business value it generates. Therefore ICT should not be used simply as a tool for automating existing business processes, but for creating and supporting new business processes and practices, such BPR and TQM.

This study investigates and compares the moderating effects of the two main business process paradigms – BPR and TQM – based on reliable measurement of both through validated multi‐item scales, and also on theoretically sound models, founded on the Cobb‐Douglas production function.

The purpose of this paper is to assist organizations in the professional risk prevention.

It consists of a proposal for a BQA method of the work procedures analysis.

In the suggested method, the authors use the principles of BQA and propose a new formulation of parameters of a work procedures simplification.

The suggested method constitutes an invaluable help to implementation of the work permits system.

The suggested method facilitates the process of working safety assessment providing substantial assistance to one of the most important stages that is to decide which particular indicators will be considered.

This paper presents a review and classification of reported experiments in job design. The study is confined, in the main, to published experiments directed towards the improvement of the motivational content of blue‐collar jobs, and is intended principally to provide a reference source to those researchers or practitioners engaged in work in this field. Before describing these experiments, we shall briefly review the methods available to the job designers who seek to restructure jobs. Much has been written on the subject and for this reason our discussion will be brief, nor will we discuss the history or development of job design principles which is adequately dealt with elsewhere.

THE potentialities of television in industry were referred to by this journal (March, 1954) when we reported on the Pye TV unit which had been installed in the National College of Rubber Technology, enabling shop floor demonstrations to be seen in detail by large numbers of students in the lecture theatre some way off.

IT must not be left exclusively to the United States, her native land, to pay tribute to Dr. Lillian M. Gilbreth on the occasion of her eightieth birthday. Her work in applying science to the problem of increasing productivity deserves the gratitude of us all, since it has affected the economy of all industrial countries and contributed substantially to the higher standard of life which is now enjoyed.

“I can't make your drat time on this machine” or “It's all very well you standing there—you don't have to put up with this drat heat hour after hour”, typical comments which you, the work study technician, are continuously confronted with on the shop floor. And this is probably because the operator is trying to get even. Your apparent indifference while the study was taking place released all his pent up feelings about watches, work study, factory environment, pay, bonus and what have you.

WORK study was discussed at some length during the Committee stage of the Science and Technology Bill. It was ably expounded and strongly supported by Mr. Graham Page, Member for Crosby, whose speech we reported in March. The principal opposition to it came from Mr. Maurice Orbach, Member for Stockport South, whose remarks appeared in our April issue. On both occasions we refrained from any editorial comment so that readers could make their own objective assessment of the case.

Many managers responsible for functions where much of the work is of an administrative and clerical nature are expressing concern about the level of motivation apparent amongst employees. Changes in the nature of the tasks to be performed have resulted directly from mechanisation and automation. Such rationalisation is normally accompanied by reductions in staffing, a factor often leading to low morale. Opportunities for employees in clerical jobs to progress within the organisation are also diminishing, since the skills currently required for clerical work are not those generally demanded for management.