Environmental Performance as a Basis for Competitive Strategy: Opportunities and Threats

Increasingly, companies are considering environmental differentiation as a basis for their competitive strategy. As they formulate and implement their strategy, these companies must decide upon an appropriate device to signal a superior environmental performance to consumers and other stakeholders. This article examines three of these devices: Corporate environmental reports (CER), eco-labeling programs, and the ISO 14001 environmental management systems (EMS) standard. Specific challenges and limits associated with their use are discussed and insight into ways to overcome potential barriers are offered. One of these challenges relates to skepticisms, whereas another resides with the risk of imitation from competitors. Hence, companies must both build trusting relationships, and continuously maintain and develop resources and competencies that will enable them to sustain their competitive advantage over competitors.     

Diversity as a Basis for Shared Organizational Identity: The Norm Congruity Principle

Although the social identity approach is generally used to explain the negative consequences of diversity for the formation of a common identity within organizations, we propose that social identity processes can also lead employees to evaluate their differences in a positive way. We propose norm‐congruency as a central principle to understand these issues. We argue that when differences among team members in organizations are congruent with norms and expectations, diversity can become a basis for organizational identification.     

Performance as a Basis for Price-setting in the Capital Goods Industry:: Concepts and Empirical Evidence

This paper discusses a new pricing strategy, which leads to a certain variability of prices as the supplier offers to fix prices to performance parameters of long-lasting industrial goods. The underlying idea is to give a signal of the supplier’s competence and/or to conclude a contract, which contains additional value for both parties to the market. Some theoretical findings are applied to this concept and lead to 13 hypotheses, especially dealing with the perceptions of the buyer. Empirical research covered 131 German mechanical engineering companies. The data were used to evaluate the use of performance-based pricing and test the hypotheses. The results show a mixed picture. Uncertainty-reducing effects are well perceived while other assumptions could not be confirmed. Based on the results recommendations are developed on how and when to apply performance-based pricing.     

Planning Systems as Institutional Technologies: a Proposed Conceptualization and the Implications for Comparison

Abstract

Spatial planning systems have become the subject of much comparative research in recent years. This has resulted in very general classifications, while a definition of the subject of comparison remains vague. Any attempt at comparative evaluation has proved therefore to be difficult and controversial, impeding further theoretical and institutional progress. Against this backdrop, the present contribution is aimed as an effort towards conceptualization. The notion of ‘institutional technology’ is adopted in order to understand planning systems as specific social constructs, thus encompassing also the shaping of respective planning cultures. Implications for analysis and comparison are discussed.     

Individual Performance as a Function of Group Contingencies and Group Size

The effects of small group incentive plans on the individual performance of a simple assembly task were studied in a simulated work environment. Subjects were 28 college students who worked under an individual monetaty incentive system, and then under a group incentive system in groups of two, four, five or nine. Following the group incentive condition, subjects again worked under the individual incentive system. Individual performance did not change significantly when subjects were exposed to the group incentive svstem nor did overall group productivitv differ as a function of group size. However, performance variability across individuals in the groups was dependent upon group size, with the greatest variability occurring in the groups of two, and the least variability occurring in the group of nine.     

把教育作为转变领导干部作风的基础——学习胡锦涛同志在中央纪委第七次全体会议上的重要讲话

胡锦涛同志在中央纪委第七次全体会议上的重要讲话,深刻阐述了新的历史条件下加强领导干部作风建设的重要性和紧迫性,大力倡导八个方面的良好风气,要求各级党组织切实把加强领导干部作风建设放在更加突出的位置,下决心抓紧、抓实、抓出成效。胡锦涛同志强调,必须进一步抓好领导干部教育,真正做到为民、务实、清廉。深刻领会和贯彻落实这一重要精神,对于转变领导干部作风、加强党的建设,具有重要意义。     

Planning for a professional association

Strategic planning for non-profit organizations presents special problems, both in concept and in application. The problems are particularly acute when the organization is a voluntary one, with highly heterogenous membership. This paper describes a multi-year effort to develop a member-needs based strategic long-range planning system for National Association of Realtors in the U.S.—a complex organization of 700,000 members, which combines the traditional functions of a trade association, an educational system, and of several professional societies. Problems, approach, and special techniques are described and discussed, with implications for senior managers and planners in both the public and private sector.     

Workplace Change and Employee Mental Health: Results from a Longitudinal Study

This study is intended to improve understanding of the impact of workplace change on employee mental health and well‐being. We construct and test a comprehensive measure of organizational change, which is then applied in a prospective longitudinal study of nearly 5400 employees in six UK National Health Service Trusts. Self‐rated mental health was assessed using the 12‐item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Just under a quarter of the sample were at increased risk of psychiatric morbidity (‘cases’). After controlling for a wide range of personal characteristics and work variables, it was found that respondents who reported an increase in the amount of work over the previous year were more likely to be classed as GHQ cases, whereas increased training and promotion and improved job security had a beneficial effect on employee mental health (less likelihood of being GHQ cases). Quantity or degree of change showed a somewhat ambiguous relationship with GHQ status. Our findings challenge the assumption that change will necessarily have an adverse effect on health, indicating areas, such as promotion and development, where a positive impact might be anticipated.     

朋友如何在班子内共事

在班子里,处理好朋友之间的关系是一个重要而又敏感的问题.而一对心心相印的朋友,一对素质高的搭档,即使因工作而产生了一些矛盾,也不能影响团结、削弱战斗力,出现的一切问题都要能很好地解决,否则,不但会引起整个班子的不团结,还会葬送多年的友谊.笔者认为,要正确处理好这样的关系,应注意以下五点.     

以团结促发展--我做"班长"的准则

经过多年的基层实践, 我深刻体会到:没有团结的领导班子就不可能有团结的集体、团结的群众。“千人同心,则得千人之力;万人异心,则无一人之用”。作为一镇的班长, 怎样才能打造一个团结战斗的集体? 我的体会是: 一、扮好角色,找准坐标—有 ——主见,但不主观;多谋善断,决不武断、独断 基层党委书记肩负着班长的责任, 在班子内部的影响力比其他成员要大些,分量要重些,但在重大决策的问题上,关键看是否能按照民主集中制的原则, 充分尊重班子成员的意见, 充分发挥一班人的整体作用。在这方面,我有深刻体会。一次,在制订陈桥镇发展规…     

Planning for profit: the commercialization of European airports

This paper examines the main factors that lie behind the expansion of commercial activities in European airports. It maintains that airport authorities have been forced to react to a variety of external pressures over which they have no control. This has led to a number of airports reassessing their strategic priorities in favour of a more commercially orientated approach. The paper highlights how this re-focusing has manifested itself in terms of the design, layout and allocation of commercial space within an airport. In addition it examines how this change has increased the role and prominence of commercial management.     

信任的信念基础——实验经济学的检验

信任涉及一个社会的基本秩序,它能提供稳定的心理预期,从而抵消一部分由于信息不对称所产生的交易费用.利用实验经济学和行为经济学的方法,设计信任博弈和扩展的独裁者博弈等实验,分离基于社会偏好的信任和基于信念的信任并考察其在信任行为中的影响权重,探究社会偏好-信念-信任的传导路径.通过中介效应检验发现,社会偏好具有部分中介效应,即社会偏好对信任除存在直接效应外,还通过信念影响信任有部分中介效应;考察社会偏好和信念对信任影响的权重系数,发现社会偏好对信任的影响程度大于信念对信任的影响程度;考察不同性别的信任结构,发现男性的社会偏好对信任的影响程度大于女性,女性的信念对信任的影响程度大于男性.研究信任的信念基础和结构对中国社会信任秩序的建设具有重要意义.     

Effective Public Administration for a Mid-Sized Space Power: Comparison of Canada and the United States

The development of space technologies is tied to economic and national interests. Historically, space technology development has been dominated by government agencies. There are key difference between the public administration models implemented by Canada and the United States due to the vast differences in resources. Topics examined in this article include legislative acts, organizational structure, contractor relations, breadth of research, national prestige, policy setting, and the economic activity generated by public space programs. In contrast to the United States, Canada has emphasized development of industrial, rather than in-house, capabilities and has focused on developing niche expertise to achieve national objectives.     

Planning for a university,using interactive forecasting

The benefits of programme review, forward planning and control have been demonstrated at the university-wide level. Within a faculty or department, there is also a clear need for developing and using planning methods which are rationally based and forward looking if appropriate responses to changing social and academic trends are to be made. This paper delineates a number of planning and control variables encountered at the faculty or departmental level, describes the development and use of a computer-based interactive forecasting model, and discusses the advantages and limitations of such models in planning a faculty's progress toward its goals.