Reinventing my medical career

The author found himself in a surprising situation in the Fall of 1998. For the first time in his life, he was looking for a job. Kent Bottles, MD, shares his experience of reinventing himself from academic chairman in an integrated delivery system to health care consultant. He stresses that physician executives need to package their experiences in terms of transferable skills that are easily understood by potential employers. He also emphasizes that acquaintances are more important than friends in obtaining employment; one needs to network with acquaintances and rely on the sympathy of relative strangers. A lot of hard work, networking, and "selling" his reinvented self resulted in a CEO hiring him. With all the changes brought on by the global economy and the uncertainties of the health care marketplace, other physician executives may be faced with the need to reinvent themselves.     

Dealing with Conflict in Local Planning: Reflections from Australian Planners

Planners routinely deal with issues involving conflict, regularly engaging with people who may be upset, angry and at times aggressive. Yet planners are not conflict resolution specialists and their role is not necessarily to act as mediator. The level of conflict they experience can be stressful and challenging. This paper reports on interviews conducted with local government planners in Melbourne, Australia, in which they discuss their experience with conflicts and reflect on their preparation for this challenging aspect of their profession. The results indicate the need for more emphasis on training in a range of personal and professional behaviours within planning education.     

Reflections on operational research. A report from the Euro II Congress

The EURO II Congress at Stockholm contained a set of Invited Papers. The set included a group that appeared to be attempting a major review of the role of Operational Research (OR). We try here to give a short summary and a representative selection of extracts from these papers. This is done partly because the papers will not be easily available to all OR workers who are interested, but mainly because of the emphasis they place on the need for truly interdisciplinary OR which recognizes the complex and potentially partisan nature of what we do. Related work in the UK is noted in order to emphasise the beginning of a widespread concern over such issues. The remainder of the Congress demonstrated a distinctly different view of OR, which was characterized by a disregard for the nature of human behaviour and of power in organizations and society. We suggest that the reflections made by the Invited Speakers demonstrate again the need for a fundamental reorientation of OR.     

With a little help from my fans: the transformative role of the consumer in music co-production

This paper examines how the transformative role of the consumer in co-production is affecting key stakeholders within the music industry. The study explores the changing consumer role in co-production, how it is affecting content quality, the implications for music artists and record labels, and how they are approaching (and should approach) co-production. The research methodology consists of a three-stage interview design of 52 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior members of music organisations (including artist managers and major labels). An inductive, data-driven four-phase constant comparison analysis technique is used to analyse the data. The findings contribute to the co-production research domain by offering new insights from a music industry context and presenting new theoretical models for how co-production is affecting industry stakeholders. Implications for industry, policy and future research are also provided.     

Reflections from philips electronics,N.A.: Lessons from winning the WEC gold medal

Several years ago I went to a lecture in which documentary film maker Rick Burns described his new film on the history of New York City. He mentioned that his biggest challenge was to identify a theme—an element that was a common thread in the history of the city which he could use as the focus for the documentary. (He finally decided that the theme would be “money.”)To develop the theme for Philips Electronic's application for the World Environment Center's (WEC's) Gold Medal Award for Corporate Environmental Excellence, I encountered the same challenge as the film maker. What theme would I use for a company which is diverse, decentralized, and has a worldwide presence? While Philips was doing many worthwhile things and had significant accomplishments, how could I put that in a package which would be coherent, cohesive, and understandable to the independent judges from around the world?     

Speaking Truth to Power and Power to Truth: Reflections from the Pandemic

Public Organization Review - The complex relationship between science and politics has been a perennial issue in public administration. In this debate it is important to distinguish between...     

积极财政政策:评价与展望

一、引言为应对亚洲金融危机和扩大内需 ,中国政府从１９９８年开始实行积极的财政政策。其主要特征是增加赤字 ,增发国债 ,扩大公共投资。１９９８～２００１年分别发行１０００亿元、１１００亿元、１５００亿元和１５００亿元 ,共计５１００亿元长期建设国债 ,用于基础设施建设和技术改造贴息 (见表１)。虽然最初声称它只是特殊条件下采取的一种短期政策 ,但２００２年决定继续实施 ,这样积极财政政策实行已有５年 ,事实上成为一种中期政策 ,短期政策出现中长期化倾向。对此 ,国内外有两类代表性的观点：一种是主张继续执行积极的财政政…     

Reflections on management style

Management styles of three very successful engineering managers are examined. They are considerably at variance with generally accepted methods, suggesting that there is room for a wide range of behavior in effectively managing people and technical projects.     

Problem structuring methods as intervention tools: Reflections from their use with multi-organisational teams

Problem structuring methods (PSMs), also known as soft OR approaches, are most commonly employed with teams formed by members who tend to operate within an overall framework of authority and accountability, and most of whom have the ‘power to act’ on their recommendations. However, other PSM users include teams whose members are drawn from different organisational settings to work on a problem of common interest. The multi-organisational nature of such multi-organisational teams (MOTs) adds further complexity to the PSM modelling and facilitation processes by increasing the potential for conflict regarding the problem. In addition, members of MOTs tend not to operate within an overall framework of authority and accountability and, therefore, do not necessarily have full authority to commit themselves to their joint agreements. This paper reports on the design and application of a PSM-based methodology with three such groups, within the context of a multi-organisational collaboration in the UK construction industry. The paper reflects on the apparent success of the intervention, discusses the appropriateness of PSMs in this particular intervention context, as well as the generalisibility of the findings to other PSMs and/or multi-organisational contexts. Directions for the research and practice of PSMs with MOTs are also presented.     

You Can't Expect Rationality from Pregnant Men: Reflections on Multi-disciplinarity in Management Research

The paper attempts to debate and answer two questions: (1) Does multi-disciplinary research in management constitute a distinctive approach? To which the brief answer is `no', because multi-disciplinary research is not one approach among all those others which can also be applied when researching management. Multi-disciplinary research into management is, as it were, the only game in town. (2) Can we rationally choose multi-disciplinary research into management as such at all? To which the response is also `no', because management research and multi-disciplinarity are inseparable, by reason of the fact that management is, in its very essence, multi-disciplinary, rather than mono-disciplinary, in nature.     

I get by with a little help from my supervisor: Creative-idea generation,idea implementation,and perceived supervisor support

In two studies using both field (165 employees and their 24 direct supervisors from a manufacturing firm in Study 1) and experimental (123 second-year undergraduate student participants in lab Study 2) data, we explore how perceived supervisor support acts as a crucial contingency that enables higher levels of idea implementation from creative-idea generation. First, we suggest that excessive creative-idea generation (in terms of both frequency and creativity of ideas) can lead to diminished returns with regard to idea implementation. Drawing on a resource allocation framework, we hypothesize and find a curvilinear inverse U-shaped relationship between employee creative-idea generation and implementation. Second, we find that higher levels of perceived supervisor support dampen the curvilinear relationship between creative-idea generation and idea implementation. Accordingly, perceived supervisor support seems to provide employees with access to resources and support needed for idea implementation, making highly creative ideas more implementable.     

对公司影像的勾画

本文认为,经济学家有必要更加多层次和全方位地勾画企业的图景。为此,从三维角度观察企业管理而形成的影像,构成了本文“理想化的维度”。这些维度分别是公司的利润、社会需求以及社会责任。一家企业类似一幅画,是企业家个人创造力与管理艺术的体现。它拥有自身的形式与结构,而且旨在体现和满足社会需求。在以三维角度对企业前景分析中,利润、社会需求以及企业和企业家社会责任等维度,应是企业管理理念与实践的主要维度。由于管理不同,企业性质和体制的色彩极其丰富。随着企业社会责任的不断增加,企业活动图景的维度也在不断扩展。