From Domination to Alliance: Shifting Strategies and Accumulation of Power by the Bureaucracy in Bangladesh

Traditionally, the bureaucrats on the Indian subcontinent were unaccustomed to perform under political supervision, and this mindset continued to affect their relationship with politicians in Bangladesh. In the early years of Bangladesh as an independent state, the bureaucracy came under pressure to operate under political supervision, but this phase did not last long. Subsequent phases of military rule reinstated the bureaucrats in their entrenched positions and strengthened their grip over the system. After the restoration of electoral democracy in 1991, the dominant role of bureaucrats continued, mainly due to the tendency to practice confrontational politics and disregard to the political institutions. The bureaucracy draws strength from its permanent stature, organization, expertise and experience in administering the country. Using the resources at their disposal, this institution has been able to exert considerable influence. A number of reforms have been introduced to enhance the accountability of the bureaucracy. The response has been the development of a symbiotic relationship between the politicians and bureaucrats. The bureaucracy has changed its stance from a dominating approach to one of alliance with other powerful groups in the system and continues to exercise power. This has resulted in increasing politicization of the bureaucracy which affects the performance of the critical components of the government.     

Human resources management and corporate governance: Integration perspectives and future directions

The aim of this article is to investigate, through a systematic review of the literature, what has been studied and published in the international academic literature regarding the integration between human resources management (HRM) and corporate governance (CG).We accomplished it answering two research questions: How has evolved the academic publications regarding the integration between HRM and CG? and Under which theoretical perspectives the integration between HRM and CG has been studied? The research covered the publications from 2000 to 2017, and the analysis comprises 79 articles from relevant international journals. The results revealed the predominance of a shareholder theoretical perspective and the apparent legitimation of HRM as an important variable of CG, but with a secondary position, as consultant or processes provider. Besides exploring and exposing the state of the art in this area of knowledge, through a critical analysis of the literature, this study highlights the gaps in the literature and provides suggestions for future studies.     

The Coexistence of Competition and Cooperation between Networks: Implications from Two Taiwanese Healthcare Networks*

The issue of coopetition, the coexistence of cooperation and competition, has recently come to the fore in the strategic management field. Previous coopetition research has focused on the intra‐organizational level, inter‐organizational level and triad level, but less attention has been paid to coopetition at the network level. The purpose of this paper is to address the coexistence of competition and cooperation between networks, and to depict how networks with different structures interact with each other. Drawing from a detailed case study of two healthcare networks in Taiwan, we demonstrate how they first initiated competition, followed by cooperation and then coopetition. From our analysis of this example of network coopetition, we develop three propositions that address the forces driving competition and cooperation and the different structures that allow competition and cooperation to coexist. We found that two organizations will compete and cooperate simultaneously when each organization has complementary but distinctly different sets of resources and when the field of competition is distinctly separate from the field of cooperation. In addition, two networks will find it easier to balance competition and cooperation when each network has compatible but distinctly different structures. We argue that the simultaneous existence of cooperation and competition is not dependent on closeness to the customer, as previously suggested in the literature, but on the balance between the forces for cooperation and for competition. We suggest from this research that networks can maintain the balance between competition and cooperation when they act using different structures. Finally, we discuss the implications of the value of competition and then coopetition at multiple levels of analysis and the implications for future research from a practical perspective.     

Incorporating the environmental dimension in the assessment of automated warehouses

In today’s competitive context, the paradigm of sustainable development is becoming more and more significant, also in warehousing. Managers are progressively considering not only purely economic aspects but also environmental concerns. Despite such consciousness, the selection of automated warehousing solutions has been mainly based on operational and economic performance in both practice and theory so far, whereas energy consumption and environmental performance have not been adequately taken into account. To fill this lack, a model is proposed to evaluate the energy consumption and environmental impact of automated warehousing solutions. The model has been used to investigate whether and how the selection of automated solutions changes depending on the dimensions involved in the analysis (i.e. only economic, only environmental or both). The analysis has been performed considering autonomous vehicle storage and retrieval systems (AVS/RSs) and its natural alternative, i.e. automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RSs). Results confirm the importance of considering both dimensions in the assessment of automated warehouses, as depending on the scenario, the technology selection shifts from AS/RS to AVS/RS when considering not only the economic but also the environmental impact. Additionally, this study provides new insights on the suitability areas of AVS/RSs.     

利益相关者关系视角下考虑非期望产出的商业银行效率问题研究

商业银行效率评价及影响因素分析一直是学术界和实务界研究的热点问题,但尚未有文献从利益相关者视角展开研究。本文运用SBM模型对考虑非期望产出的商业银行效率评价问题进行了分析。结合契约理论、商业银行生产函数、期望理论的分析,得出利益相关者关系是影响考虑非期望产出的商业银行效率的关键变量,并构建了分析两者关系的Tobit模型。在此基础上,选取我国2004-2011年14家代表性商业银行为样本,对考虑非期望产出的商业银行效率的评价与影响因素问题进行实证研究,结果表明,利益相关者关系是影响考虑非期望产出的我国商业银行效率的关键因素。     

Cost containment in health care: a model for management research.

Cost containment is a dominant problem in the health care field, but it has not been addressed from a comprehensive management perspective. To fill this gap, we have developed an inclusive model of the cost containment process. The model has implications for management research in several areas: cost containment baselines, incentive systems, organization structures, cost/quality trade-offs, and cost containment constraints.     

Early experiences of mentoring: Design and use of multimedia materials for teaching OR/MS

The MENTOR project, based at the University of Strathclyde, is producing multimedia computer based learning materials with the aim of improving both the effectiveness and the efficiency of teaching Operational Research/Management Science in higher education. The process of development has been carefully designed to encourage ownership of and commitment to the materials amongst lecturing staff in Universities, with the aim of ensuring widespread use. The paper outlines this process of development and design of materials. Experiences in introducing students to the use of these materials as an integrated part of a Management Science class are reported. Feedback from students has been very positive but also indicates the need for ongoing support and direction.     

本土创新、能力发展和竞争优势——中国激光视盘播放机工业的发展及其对政府作用的政策含义

认为中国工业发展应当遵循“比较优势”的观点实质上是要求政府放弃工业政策和技术政策 ,但在解释工业竞争力源泉上却贫乏无力。本研究通过对中国激光光盘播放机工业发展经验的分析证明 ,基于本土市场需求特点的产品创新以及企业在技术学习和能力发展上的努力 ,才是技术相对落后国家的企业能够在开放市场条件下获得竞争优势的原因。中国DVD工业目前遭到被征收高额专利费的困境 ,突出说明了中国工业发展在技术结构上所面临的制约。突破这种制约不仅要求中国企业努力在技术上爬升 ,而且要求中国政府采取积极的技术政策和工业政策 ,因为在全球化条件下的市场机制既不能有效地解决通用技术知识的供给问题 ,也不可能公正地分配来自技术知识的收益。     

Reengineering of a supply chain management system: A case study

A business process reengineering (BPR) project concerning a supply chain management (SCM) system of a heavy machinery manufacturing company has been discussed in this paper. The BPR implementation process model has been described. The principal objective of this project has been to bring about radical changes in the mind sets, management styles and systems of a very mature but large organization in India. The implementation process has been very successful because the model has been explored by an organizational development initiative. BPR is both feasible and worthwhile in business only when ideas and ideals are put willingly in practice; and is practised in a collaborative mode to get closer to the people, especially at the floor level, and to customers and suppliers.     

Perceptions of leadership success from nonverbal cues communicated by orchestra conductors

Research has suggested that people can extract information relevant to leadership from thin slices of behavior. Nearly all of this research has been conducted in the context of large organizations where the relationships between leaders and followers are relatively indirect, however. We therefore examined here whether participants could extract similar information about leadership success from contexts with direct leader–follower interactions: conductors of orchestras. We found that perceivers could accurately discern conductors' success from brief video clips and that perceptions of expressiveness and age formed the basis for this accuracy. Thus, the current work demonstrates that leadership success is perceptible from nonverbal cues not only for the leaders of large organizations, but also in the context of groups where leaders and followers must continually and dynamically interact to produce successful outcomes.     

中国企业30年创新:机制、能力和战略

通过对宏观统计数据和我国领先企业调查资料的归纳、比较,分析了我国企业的创新机制、创新能力和创新战略模式.研究发现:在20世纪末,我国企业就已初步形成了市场导向的创新机制;改革开放30多年来,我国企业的创新能力已得到较大幅度提升;企业的创新战略模式从模仿创新开始,现已出现了原始创新和赶超创新;但是,与国外企业相比,我国企业的创新能力和水平还需继续提升.     

Process improvement by variance reduction for a single filling operation with rectifying inspection

Recently, there has been a great interest in the economics of quality control. Process mean targeting is one of the quality control problems which has attracted many researchers. Many papers have been written on finding the optimal mean setting of the process, but very few papers have considered the value of variance reduction. In this paper, we consider a single filling operation with rectifying inspection. We study the effect of the variance on the process performance. We analyse the cost saving which results from reduction in the process variance. We also provide a numerical example.     

Wages and Unemployment in Italy,a Long Term Perspective

ABSTRACT: This paper traces a long-term perspective of the relationship between wages and unemployment in the Italian economy from the end of the fifties to the mid-eighties. During this period, the rate of unemployment exhibited three distinct time profiles. After a cyclical episode from around 1958 to the mid-sixties, the unemployment rates changed very little for a decade, showing only mild fluctuations until 1975. Since then, unemployment has been increasing steadily, and in 1987 it exceeded 12|X% of the labour force. The aim of this paper is not to provide a new interpretation of facts, but rather to assess whether, and when, wage pressure has represented a significant factor in the evolution of unemployment. The main conclusion of the paper is that the considerable rise in unemployment observed since the mid-70s is part of a long term evolution, and that in the long-run wages are not exogenous. Though there have been periods of exogenous wage push temporarily affecting unemployment, the argument that the continuous rise in unemployment depends on inappropriate real wages has no empirical content.     

MBO: The fad that changed management

Management by Objectives was introduced just over 30 years ago by Peter Drucker. It has been one of the most widely written business topics but, in spite of this, there has been a continuing controversy about the meaning of MBO and whether it has been of value. The author argues that most of the problems have been due to the lack of a generally accepted definition. A new and comprehensive definition, based on Peter Drucker's original work on the subject, is presented. The author believes that this definition will help organizations use MBO to increase productivity, improve quality, lower costs, make faster decisions and serve customers better.     

市场化、经济结构变迁和政府经济结构政策转型--中国经验

改革开放以来,中国的经济保持高速持续的增长,但同时也带来了地区和产业发展的不平衡,这种不平衡反映到居民收入上,就造成收入分配的不平等,从而为今后的经济持续稳定增长埋下隐患。合理的经济结构调整政策应该力求弱化这种不平等局面,但这需要研究不平等的经济来源。本文通过构造表示中国市场化进程的市场化指数,利用协整模型对市场化指数、政府政策和产业发展、地区增长和收入水平数据进行协整分析,结果显示市场化进程本身带来了地区和产业的经济发展差距的扩大,进而造成收入分配不均,而政府过去的结构调整政策效果有限。因此,本文建议政府今后的经济结构调整政策应该从过去的增长为中心的结构政策转向以转移支付为中心的结构政策。     

家族企业网络化成长模式的主要影响因素及机制:基于中国东西部地区的实证研究

本文利用浙江、重庆等东西部省市家族企业的调查数据,实证检验了资源/战略需求、关系治理、权力结构、企业家特质对家族企业网络化成长模式的影响及机制,结果发现,资源需求对二级网络持久度有显著的负向影响,对二级网络开放度有显著的正向影响;合作机会对网络范围、二级网络强度有显著的正向影响;关系管理对一级网络强度、二级网络开放度有显著的正向影响;家族所有权对一级网络范围有显著的正向影响,对二级网络强度有显著的负向影响,家族管理权对一级网络范围有显著的正向影响;企业家年龄对一级网络强度有显著的负向影响,企业家行业工作经验对二级网络范围、网络持久度有显著的正向影响,企业家文化程度为大学本科的家族企业二级网络强度、二级网络开放度明显大于其它类型家族企业。研究结论对中国家族企业成长实践有重要指导意义。     

The role of transformational leadership in enhancing organizational innovation: Hypotheses and some preliminary findings

A wide range of factors has been found to affect organizational innovation. Of these, top managers' leadership style has been identified as being one of the most, if not the most, important. Yet, few studies have empirically examined the link between this factor and innovation at the organizational level. This study builds on the extant literature to propose four hypotheses about how top managers' leadership styles directly and indirectly (via empowerment and organizational climate) affect their companies' innovation. A multisource approach is used to collect survey data from 32 Taiwanese companies in the electronics/telecommunications industry. The findings support a direct and positive link between a style of leadership that has been labeled as “transformational” and organizational innovation. They also indicate that transformational leadership has significant and positive relations with both empowerment and an innovation-supporting organizational climate. The former is found to have a significant but negative relation with organizational innovation, while the latter has a significant and positive relationship. The implications of the findings and possible directions for future research are discussed.     

E.D. Smith and Sons,Ltd.

Lew Smith, the chairman of a privately owned Canadian processor, must decide whether his company will build a plant in the United States. He has been asked to do so by one of his major customers, Loblaw. The company has been making many improvements to its operations but it’s performance has been hurt by the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States. The company has been doing very well, however, as it shifts its focus from making private label to controlled label. Is now the right time to expand the business into a foreign market?     

Service Delivery Through E-Governance: Perception and Expectation of Customers in Fiji and PNG

Empirical studies on e-governance are replete with evidences highlighting its potential for improving service delivery. This study was conducted in PNG and Fiji using structured questionnaires distributed to different groups of respondents. The results indicate that e-governance has the potential to improve Public Service Delivery. It is also confirmed through the findings in this research that the expectations of citizens from public services are quite high, but experience has often been negative i.e. there is a huge variance in the perception and expectation of normal citizens in PNG (Papua New Guinea) and Fiji regarding service delivery, quality of services.     

Organizational Silence and Whistle‐Blowing on IT Projects: An Integrated Model*

An individual's reluctance to report bad news about a troubled information technology (IT) project has been suggested as an important contributor to project failure and has been linked to IT project escalation as well. To date, information systems researchers have drawn from the mum effect and whistle‐blowing literature to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence bad news reporting. More recent theoretical work in the area of organizational silence offers a promising new conceptual lens, but remains empirically untested. In this research note, we integrate key elements of Morrison and Milliken's (2000) model of organizational silence, which has never been empirically tested, with the basic whistle‐blowing model adapted from Dozier and Miceli (1985) . Using a role‐playing experiment, we investigate how organizational structures/policies, managerial practices, and degree of demographic dissimilarity between employees and top managers create a climate of silence and how this climate, in turn, affects an individual's willingness to report. Our results show that all three types of factors contribute to a climate of silence, exerting both direct and indirect influence on willingness to report, as hypothesized. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.