An Exploratory Analysis of the Value of the Skills of IT Personnel: Their Relationship to IS Infrastructure and Competitive Advantage

Determining and assessing the requisite skills of information technology (IT) personnel have become critical as the value of IT has risen in modern organizations. In addition to technical skills traditionally expected of IT personnel, softer skills like managerial, business, and interpersonal skills have been increasingly cited in previous studies as mandatory for these employees. This paper uses a typology of IT personnel skills—technology management skills, business functional skills, interpersonal skills, and technical skills—and investigates their relationships to two information systems (IS) success variables, IS infrastructure flexibility and the competitive advantage provided by IS. The study investigates these relationships using the perceptions of chief information officers (CIOs) from mostly Fortune 2000 companies. The contributions of this study are: IT personnel skills do affect IS success, technical skills are viewed as the most important skill set in affecting IS infrastructure flexibility and competitive advantage, and modularity is viewed as more valuable to competitive advantage than integration. Several explanations are offered for the lack of positive relationships between the softer IT personnel skills and the dimensions of IS success used in this study.     

创新网络嵌入与高技术企业研发人员创新绩效关系研究

 创新驱动的实质是人才驱动,企业技术管理的重要核心之一是人员管理。研发人员是高技术企业的核心人力资本和主导资源,具有典型的稀缺性、创造性、主导性、体验性以及高信息需求等异质性特征,能否采取切实有效措施满足研发人员的异质性需求,激活其创新潜力和活力,是提升高技术企业创新绩效和管理技术人员的关键。        聚焦于高技术企业研发人员的异质性需求特征,运用创新网络嵌入理论,提出创新网络嵌入、创新效能感与创新绩效的关系假设模型;借鉴成熟量表,设计相关测量变量的调查问卷;利用Spss 19.0和Amos 21.0软件,对北京、上海、武汉、广州等地高技术企业研发人员的269个调查数据进行分析,考察创新网络嵌入对研发人员创新绩效的影响和作用机理,并验证创新效能感的中介作用。        研究结果表明,高技术企业研发人员的创新网络结构嵌入对创新过程和创新结果均具有显著正向影响,而关系嵌入仅对创新过程具有正向影响;创新网络结构嵌入和关系嵌入对创新效能感均具有显著正向影响,创新效能感对创新过程和创新结果具有显著正向影响;创新效能感在研发人员结构嵌入和关系嵌入对创新过程的影响中起完全中介作用,在结构嵌入对创新结果的影响中起部分中介作用。        从技术人员创新绩效管理的微观视角入手,探究高技术企业研发人员创新绩效的内涵、实质和影响因素,对高技术企业研发人员的创新网络嵌入与创新绩效的关系、创新效能感的中介作用以及创新网络嵌入与创新绩效的关系研究中关系嵌入悖论进行实证检验和解读,提出提升高技术企业研发人员创新绩效的创新网络嵌入式开发策略,包括聚焦产学研战略协同和集群创新、强化关系网络建设和位置管理、营造宽松氛围以提升创新效能感等。     

Employers' Recruitment Behaviour: An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Personnel Management Attitudes

The practical importance of recruitment is witnessed by the existence of specific personnel management functions within firms. The aim of the paper is to investigate the importance of firms' personnel management attitudes for recruitment procedures. We focus on the choice of the first search channel and on the subsequent search spell. The model is empirically estimated by using a data set on recruitment behaviour of Dutch firms. The results show that personnel management considerations are important for the choice of the recruitment channel. It appears that advertisement is preferred to the informal channel in that employers believe it is faster and generates applicants who better comply with the hiring standards. Furthermore, employers turn out to prefer mainly the informal channel when recruitment costs are considered important.     

Die nur fast gelingende Schließung des Personalentwicklungszyklus

The nearly closed cycle of personnel development. The growing popularity of personnel development like training, coaching or supervision is usually justified by the new challenges impending on organizations. The author presents an alternative explanation: Basing on considerations about the operative consistency of organizations, he argues, that the popularity of personnel development is to explain by the boom of personnel diagnostics during the last two decades. Only by potential analysis, assessment center, 360-degree feedback, several trainings and especially person-centered counseling like coaching and supervision could increase their attractiveness. In organizations, cycles of personnel development emerge, and by this a sort of all-round cares of the organisation members.     

Reconstructing nurse schedules: Computational insights in the problem size parameters

Managing nursing personnel properly is of critical importance as these resources comprise a vast share of the hospital's operational costs. The organisational support and the managerial policy decisions on the scheduling level are important determinants for the nurses' working conditions and the related quality of care. In this paper, we gain insights and understanding in the consequences and outcomes of various personnel re-rostering characteristics and strategies. We explore the boundaries of the time horizon and the nurse staffing size to consider for the nurse re-rostering problem based on computational experiments in a real-life problem environment.     

An investigation of career development programs,job satisfaction,professional development and productivity: the case of Taiwan

This study attempts to develop career development programs capable of responding to career needs at different career stages. The current implementation status of these career development programs in Taiwanese businesses is then examined, along with the level of satisfaction of R&D personnel with available career development programs. The relationship between the career development programs and job satisfaction, professional development and productivity is then examined, revealing an association between high satisfaction of R&D personnel with career development programs and high job satisfaction, professional development and productivity.     

Optimised buffer allocation to construct stable personnel shift rosters

Organisations need to construct stable baseline personnel shift rosters based on forecasts about the future personnel demand and employee availability. However, variability arises in the short-term, which renders these forecasts incorrect and affects the quality of the personnel roster. In this paper, we study how to anticipate this variability by introducing capacity buffers in the personnel shift roster. We propose a new approach by solving an equivalent deterministic formulation of a stochastic personnel shift scheduling problem. In contrast to traditional approaches, the size and position of capacity buffers are not defined in advance but are adequately determined as an endogenous variable by the proposed optimisation model to align the available personnel capacity to the stochastic demand. We propose different strategies to define the anticipated uncertainty and to allocate capacity buffers accordingly. We validate the performance of these strategies through a comparison with a deterministic minimum cost strategy and a more traditional resource buffer strategy based on a three-step methodology. This methodology makes use of simulation and optimisation to mimic the hierarchical personnel planning process.     

How to fight the regulator glut: the role of the HCFA-type survey

More and more hospitals in this country are being threatened by the removal of their Health Care Financing Authority (HCFA) Medicare Certification. A perception of competitiveness among HCFA, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), and other organizations has heightened this concern. This unpleasant situation has provoked many hospitals to prevent any type of regulator decertification. One of the practical methods of prevention is the use of a HCFA-type survey. These surveys prepare institutions for unexpected, unarmored review by regulators and should be part of the quality improvement (QI) process even in institutions with limited resources. This article discusses the means to accomplish the HCFA-type survey. The development of the survey process involves institutional commitment, hospital policy and procedures, a department review schedule, selection of review personnel, preparation of review personnel, record keeping, and department education.     

Some social implications of personnel planning

It would appear that most discussions on manpower or personnel planning are concerned with highlighting the dichotomy between organizational needs and personal needs. The assumption that these two separate need areas can be successfully harmonized through personnel planning is implicit. In this paper the intention is to discuss this relationship in terms of the consequences for employees of attempts to achieve the aims of organizational manpower plans through the establishment of personnel control mechanisms.     

Wirkungen von Führungskräfte-Coachings in der Sozialen Arbeit

The article analyses effects and changes of executive personnel in social work, who joined coaching trainings. Base of data are 18 Interviews with managers. Coaching training is realized effective for improving personnel management with regard to.     

SCAT AND SPAT: LARGE-SCALE COMPUTER-BASED OPTIMIZATION SYSTEMS FOR THE PERSONNEL ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM

The personnel assignment problem involves the assignment of people to tasks, projects, etc., in a manner that maximizes a measure of aggregate utility for the assignees subject to several assignment constraints. In addition to computationally efficient solution algorithms, the effective implementation of mathematical models to solve the personnel assignment problem must include data processing systems with comprehensive error checking/resolution procedures, end user reports, documentation, and training. This paper summarizes two successful computer-based systems for solving large-scale personnel assignment problems that frequently occur in university settings. SCAT, the Student-Company Assignment Technique, assigns students to job interview slots. SPAT, the Student-Project Assignment Technique, assigns students to project teams in an MBA field project course. The SCAT and SPAT approaches can be generalized to a wide variety of personnel assignment problems in university, industry, government, and military settings.     

Controlling and evaluation

Mr. Newton analyses the personnel strategy of Shell U.K. and describes how it is related to the corporate planning system. He then explains the measures which are taken to plan, control, and research the use of personnel. He deals in detail with the development of a computer based information system, attempts to determine the cost effectiveness of manpower, and the use of the Behavioural Sciences in a positive effort to shape personnel relations in the company. Finally, he mentions a number of changes which are likely to influence personnel strategy in the future.     

人事考核的多层次模糊综合评判法

本文从人事考核的模糊性入手,运用模糊理论和模糊思维,将定性分析和定量分析相结合,为人事考核工作的量化提供一种更能符合客观实际、且简便易行的方法。     

Coaching,Training und Co – ist das alles Personalentwicklung?

This paper focuses on coaching and similar types of consulting in the field of personnel development. First the author discusses the current debate concerning personnel development; finally she describes the special goals, target-groups and issues of coaching, clinical supervision, mediation, mentoring and outplacement-consulting within the field of personnel development.     

Risk Perception Among Nuclear Power Plant Personnel: A Survey

This study investigated risk perception, well-being, and organizational commitment among nuclear power plant personnel. The study group, 428 employees from a nuclear power plant, completed a questionnaire which included the same questions as those in previous surveys on risk perception of lay persons and industrial workers. Hazards at work were not seen as a sizable problem by nuclear power plant personnel. The study group estimated the safety of nuclear power plants better and the possibility of a serious nuclear accident as more unlikely than the general public. Compared to employees in other industrial companies, the overall perceived risks at work among plant personnel did not exceed the respective perceptions of the reference groups. Risk-related attitudes did not explain well-being among plant personnel, but the relationship between the perceived probability of a serious nuclear accident at work and organizational commitment yielded to a significant correlation: Those plant workers who estimated the likelihood of an accident higher were less committed to the organization.     

Exact and heuristic approaches for the automated design of medical trainees rotation schedules

This article addresses the problem of designing rotation schedules for the training of medical students in a healthcare institution in Colombia. Rotations are carried out along the course of a six months time period during which students rotate through different services both during one or multiple fortnightly periods. The hospital receives trainees from different universities that present heterogeneous requirements, and must accomplish different rotations constraints even in those cases when they come from the same university. Two different approaches are proposed to tackle the problem. First, a mathematical programming model is considered. Secondly, a metaheuristic approach based on Variable Neighborhood Search is adapted to solve the problem in an efficient manner. In both cases the objective function is proposed to be either a linear or a quadratic function that seeks a stable allocation of personnel to the services all along the considered time horizon. The proposed techniques are implemented as a part of a basic spreadsheet that helps personnel in charge generate, validate and fix the proposed plans as needed. The effectiveness of the methodology is tested through ex-post analysis, comparing it against schedules generated by the personnel in charge at the hospital, and over simulated data. The results indicate that the applied metaheuristic is competitive against specialized optimization software and facilitates the work of optimization for the health professionals in charge, reducing the planning tasks from several days to minutes.     

Personnel turnover in health care organizations: Test of a predictive model based on work assessments by employees

It is predicted that institutions in Dutch intramural health care will be increasingly confronted with problems in personnel supply. Instead of making great efforts to keep the inflow of new personnel on the desired level, control of turnover is an alternative solution. In this paper, an explanatory model is constructed, based on previous theories and research findings. It is hypothesized that the more employees have positive attitudes concerning their work and work situation, the greater their satisfaction and commitment and hence the less their intention to leave and the lower actual turnover. This model was tested using a large scale employee questionnaire. The instrument turned out to be reliable (internal consistencies above .70). The questionnaire was administered in eight institutions in four health care sectors (n = 1456). Results indicate that attitudes about work content and personnel management are relevant in predicting intention to leave. All in all, 8 work-related aspects predicted 21% of intention to leave. Aspects with the most predictive value were career guidance, work safety, responsibilities and job discretion. Furthermore, general satisfaction was shown to play an intermediary role in predicting intention to leave. It is concluded that improvements in work content and personnel management can reduce intention to leave and hence the demand for new personnel.     

A LARGE-SCALE PERSONNEL ASSIGNMENT MODEL FOR THE NAVY*

The U.S. Navy has been trying for years to develop a model to automate its personnel assignment process The requirement of rotating navy personnel frequently between sea duty and shore duty in accordance with multiple policies makes modeling efforts difficult. However, without a model to optimize assignments with regard to multiple policies, navy managers do not know the real impact of personnel assignments. This limits their ability to make effective decisions. This paper summarizes our effort to develop a large-scale network model for the navy's assignment problem. The navy has accepted this model for implementation, replacing the current manual assignment process. The approach in this paper can be generalized to a wide variety of perosnnel assignment problems.     

敏捷制造环境下分布式团队组织激励研究

敏捷制造环境下,人员组织的一般形式是分布式团队。由于分布式团队能在极短的时间内组成,在需求被满足后很快地被解散,与传统制造企业中相对稳定的组织形式相比,组织激励存在许多根本性差别。本文分析了其中主要的差别,并探讨了影响分布式团队组织激励有效发挥作用的主要外部环境因素。     

Personnel turnover in health care organizations: Test of a predictive model based on work assessments by employees

Abstract

It is predicted that institutions in Dutch intramural health care will be increasingly confronted with problems in personnel supply. Instead of making great efforts to keep the inflow of new personnel on the desired level, control of turnover is an alternative solution. In this paper, an explanatory model is constructed, based on previous theories and research findings. It is hypothesized that the more employees have positive attitudes concerning their work and work situation, the greater their satisfaction and commitment and hence the less their intention to leave and the lower actual turnover. This model was tested using a large scale employee questionnaire. The instrument turned out to be reliable (internal consistencies above .70). The questionnaire was administered in eight institutions in four health care sectors (n = 1456). Results indicate that attitudes about work content and personnel management are relevant in predicting intention to leave. All in all, 8 work-related aspects predicted 21% of intention to leave. Aspects with the most predictive value were career guidance, work safety, responsibilities and job discretion. Furthermore, general satisfaction was shown to play an intermediary role in predicting intention to leave. It is concluded that improvements in work content and personnel management can reduce intention to leave and hence the demand for new personnel.