Customer service competencies: a global look

The purpose of the study was to identify competencies needed by those providing service to today's customers. A total of 460 service providers were interviewed from thirty-two different organizations in North America and twenty-six organizations in Asia and Europe. Based on 2.825 critical incidents, five major factors were identified to create the SERVE model: See the ‘big picture’ and how customer service fits into it; Establish an authentic human connection with each customer; Render timely, accurate and thorough service; Value and respond to unique customer needs; and Extend a hand to repair and strengthen relationships with customers who are upset or angry. Similarities and differences among the different geographic regions and among the different respondent types were noted. Implications for HRD practice and future research were discussed.     

Supply chain management: a supplier perspective

A new way of researching into supply chain management is introduced by adopting a supplier perspective. Details are given of mixed integer linear planning and simulation models. The planning model takes into consideration firm and forecast orders (customer's forecast purchasing orders) and the behaviour of the supplier's suppliers and suppliers' subcontractors. The simulation model takes into account the dynamic behaviour of the supply chain and includes the planning production behaviour of a supplying company based on the planning model. The supplier manager can use the simulation model to determine what kind of parameters most affect company performances and then propose new management rules. Quantitative results that prove the benefits of integrating forecast orders for an aeronautic supplier have been provided.     

Acquiring technological competencies through inter-organizational collaboration: An organizational learning perspective

Firms are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their technology strategies and are procuring know-how through a variety of collaborative methods including licensing agreements, joint ventures, minority investments, and equity acquisitions. This paper examines the relationship between an organization's learning capability and inter-organizational collaboration in acquiring technological competencies. Organizational learning is posited to be a mediating mechanism through which technological competencies are developed via varying levels of organizational interaction. A general model is developed which suggests an “efficient fit” relationship between an organization's ability to learn, characteristics of the technology, and mode of inter-organizational collaboration. The concept of a “learning gap” is introduced, and managerial implications are suggested. Finally, propositions are developed to facilitate future empirical research.     

Assessing global leadership competencies: the critical role of assessment centre methodology

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the use of assessment centre (AC) methodology for addressing the ever-increasing demand for effective talent management of global leaders. Research is reviewed on the most commonly used questionnaire tools for assessing global leadership competencies, which lack the AC’s ability to provide behavioural evidence of leadership competency. A literature search is conducted to identify the extent to which scholarly research to date has examined the use of ACs to measure global leadership competencies. Based on the findings from the review of the literature, the authors recommend further exploration of a leadership AC approach as a ‘best practice’ talent management tool for measuring global leadership competencies. A framework is provided for designing ACs to evaluate and provide developmental feedback on the competencies identified as critical for successful leadership performance in an organization’s global environment.     

The management accountant's role in quality management: A Queensland perspective

The successful implementation of quality management (QM) requires a change in both an organization's culture and structure. Consequently, as management accountants are organizational members their roles and systems will need to change to provide support for this QM implementation. This study found that although the majority of management accountants are involved in the implementation of quality concepts into the accounting area of the firm, there has been little modification of cost determination methods and limited development and use of quality related performance measures. Nevertheless, the overall results of this research imply that the role of the management accountant has altered due to the implementation of QM practices, but not to the degree indicated in the literature.     

The management of international manufacturing networks: a missing link towards total management of global networks

Abstract

The purposes of this article are to provide a brief overview of the research on international manufacturing networks (IMNs), identify corresponding gaps and provide background for the papers published in this special issue. First, this article shows the importance of addressing the management of IMNs, especially in times of global turbulence as a result of new economic, political and technological trends. Second, it highlights research into the management of IMNs as a missing link in the Operations Management (OM) discipline, as most of the current OM research neglects the fact that the internal structures and relationships of multi-plant organizations inside firms play a critical role in how a supply chain/network operates and relies mostly on scholars in other fields for insights into high-level and strategic issues in the management of global operations. Finally, this article argues there is still a lot to do in order to develop new theories towards the total management of global networks that can holistically analyze different global (intra- and inter-firm multi-functional) networks and address the complex interdependencies between them.     

The corporate energy policy: A management planning perspective

The energy problems facing the world have been receiving increasing attention in the press and in business journals. This article examines the attitudes of 224 U.S. business executives toward the energy crisis and examines the role of a corporate energy policy in minimizing the economic impact of future energy price increases and/or shortages. A plan for a corporate energy policy is proposed.     

Politics,government and company planning: The new perspective

This paper looks at the developing scene in the U.K., with gloom at home and turmoil overseas: and with a new government committed to non-intervention in industry; to exposure of labour and of products to market forces and to avoidance of detailed economic planning. It examines the reality of party stances over the general field of government/industry relations and over cuts in public expenditure in both central and local government.Finally it examines the role of the professional planner at times of maximum uncertainty: and concludes that given a clear mind and a cool head the planner may be a unique stabilising influence at the heart of the company's affairs.     

Beyond products: new strategic imperatives for developing competencies in dynamic environments

Strategy research has often taken a product-centered perspective. When firms compete in environments characterized by accelerating product life cycles, mass customization, and technological discontinuities, a product-centered perspective on strategy may help explain a firm’s current competitive advantage. However, this perspective adds little guidance in making strategies that create competitive advantage in the future. In this paper, we present a perspective in which dynamic environments require firms to focus on (1) building market-driven, technological, and integration competencies, not a stream of product improvements, and (2) decoupling these competencies from current products in order to create and exploit new opportunities. We discuss the perspective of products as a temporary integration of market and technology trajectories. Research propositions are presented and future implications are discussed.     

The new management team

There is no better place to instill the necessary sense of cooperation and collaboration than the top. If top management, both physician and nonphysician, can establish a suitable working relationship, and communicate both the necessity for and success of the relationship throughout the organization, breakdowns in cooperation and collaboration are far less likely to occur. Shared responsibility and decision-making at the upper levels can be a laboratory for their use in other organizational locations. The partnership between clinical and administrative leadership is more important now than ever before. Medical group practices are an ideal setting for testing a new form of shared management that will help to rid organizations of the confrontational and adversarial attitudes that have too long characterized relationships among managers and clinicians in our health care organizations and institutions.     

Supply chain management: A just-in-time perspective

Just-in-time (JIT) has been a widely recognized production philosophy alternative since the early 1980s. JIT principles and techniques have been widely adopted in many manufacturing firms. More recently, supply chain management has evolved as a discipline focusing on the design, planning and control of processes linking the initial raw materials to the ultimate consumption of the finished product. Supply chain efficiency is dependent on the efficiencies of the individual manufacturing organizations and the ability to connect along the supply chain. In this paper supply chain management from a JIT perspective is investigated, focusing on the linking mechanisms between successive companies and the collective efficiency of the supply chain.     

On the performance of platform-based international new ventures: The roles of non-market strategies and managerial competencies

The implications of non-market strategies have gained considerable attention in recent international business and strategy research. However, an in-depth understanding of these strategies and their underpinning mechanisms in platform-based international new ventures (INVs) remains underexplored. To close this gap, this study investigates the drivers and performance outcomes of non-market strategies embraced by internationalizing platform-based firms. We propose that non-market strategies mediate the relationship between managerial competencies and international performance. We also theorize that perceived domestic institutional voids (PDIVs) would have a full strengthening effect on the proposed model. We tested our conceptualization using a unique sample comprising 181 platform-based INVs whose headquarters are based in an institutionally precarious sub-Saharan African country-Ghana. While the results confirm most of our predictions, counterintuitively, our analysis provides no support for the moderating effect of PDIVs on the relationship between non-market strategies and international performance. Together, these findings offer important theoretical and practical implications for the IB and strategy research, especially for platform-based INVs.     

Organizational dynamics and global integration: A perspective from subsidiary managers

This study establishes a relationship between organizational dynamics and overall integration within MNEs from the perspective of foreign subsidiaries in a dynamic environment. While previous empirical studies have emphasized that overall integration is determined by environmental and industrial pressures, we propose that integration is also affected by strategic capabilities, organizational infrastructures and strategic needs of foreign operations. Analysis of survey data including 168 foreign subsidiaries in a large emerging foreign market suggests that the resource distinctiveness committed to local operations is positively associated with overall integration, while the strength of networking with local businesses and governments is positively associated with overall responsiveness. The effectiveness of established information flow and coordination between a focal subsidiary and the rest of the network has a favorable effect on integration. Moreover, strategic needs in exploitation of factor endowment contribute to higher levels of integration. These needs also moderate the relationship between dynamic capability and overall integration.     

The meaning of empowerment: the interdisciplinary etymology of a new management concept

Empowerment has become a widely used management term in the last decade or so, though, in practical terms, it shares the ambiguity of its predecessors in the HRM tradition. This paper sets out to unravel the web of meaning surrounding empowerment to show what a contested concept it is, and hence why its application in organizational settings is fraught with misunderstanding and tension. It does so by taking an approach that contributes to the examination of HRM discourse and management rhetoric. To demonstrate the ambiguity of empowerment as a concept, the paper reviews the various ways in which the term has been used across non-management disciplines (women, minority groups, education, community care, politics), culminating with a review of the use of empowerment in contemporary management theory. The paper concludes that organizations and managers have chosen to coin a phrase which is open to different, sometimes contradictory, meanings and which, when applied, evokes both subjective attitudes and objective behaviour, means different things in varying contexts, and is affected fundamentally by individual differences in perception and experience. Unless organizations offer clear operational definitions when using empowerment, instead of purely acquiescing to a vague and seductive version of the concept, they are abdicating responsibility for the unpredictable consequences that result.     

全球视角下跨境医疗服务研究述评与展望

本文从跨境医疗研究现状出发,对跨境医疗新趋势进行分析。研究发现关于跨境医疗的研究成果较多基于传统的医疗管理和公共卫生理论与模式。互联网时代跨境医疗的特征和医疗服务模式发生了变革,在这一背景下的相关研究较少。本文系统分析了跨境医疗整体概况及测度研究、驱动机制与服务模式研究成果,有针对性地提炼跨境医疗研究的理论框架,探讨跨境医疗带来的全球医疗资源均等化配置问题,提出新趋势下跨境医疗研究的关键科学问题与相关研究建议。研究成果对于推动国内外学者开展跨境医疗前沿领域研究,贡献全球健康事业有着重要的理论价值和实践意义。     

Internal marketing: A new perspective for HRM

The authors argue that there are trends currently present in industry and management which require human resource (HR) managers to have much higher levels of competence and skills. Concepts and techniques from marketing can provide means by which HR managers can be more effective.It is also pointed out that Chief Executive Officers have failed to recognize the importance of HR managers in their organizations — a weakness for which HR managers must also carry some blame.     

Understanding crisis and crisis management: an Indian perspective

This study explored individual perceptions of the concept of crisis and the strategies used to manage crisis events. Situated in the national Indian cultural context, this exploratory qualitative study addressed three questions: How do individuals from the Indian national culture define a crisis? How do individuals from the Indian national culture manage a crisis? What impact does the Indian national culture have on individual approaches to crisis management? Interview data were collected from 66 Indian participants with a focus on critical incidents related to crises. The findings from a thematic analysis revealed that, despite sharing the same national cultural heritage, the participants perceived crises very differently, and their approaches to crisis management could be classified into three categories: fighting, compromising, and avoiding. Further, culture influenced the strategies participants adopted to manage their perceived crises, and national cultural norms that bound the society were given the utmost importance by the participants.