中国人类发展指标体系构建及各地人类发展水平比较研究

本文在UNDP创建的HDI三个维度基础上,根据中国人类发展的特点,增加脱贫和公平维度,构建中国人类发展指数(CHDI),并运用中国各省区市2003、2005和2008年相关统计数据,计算出中国各省区市人类发展指数(CHDI)值,揭示各省区市人类发展水平现状,对各省区市人类发展水平、趋势进行判断;在此基础上,重点对中国各省区市人类发展水平进行聚类划分,为科学分析中国人类发展指数影响因子,揭示中国各省区市人类发展规律,制定正确的经济社会政策提供依据。     

Using an action research approach to involving service users in the assessment of professional competence

This paper reports on a piece of action research that has involved people who use mental health services in systematically providing feedback from a user perspective on participants’ assessed work completed for one module of a masters’ training programme in mental health. In an attempt to improve professional practice and include people who were accessing mental health services in so doing, it outlines how users were trained to provide feedback and the training methods employed. The findings summarise the kind of issues users raised in their feedback to participants about the evidence professionals provided to demonstrate their learning from the training programme. A focus group interview with professionals provides a contrasting insight into the participants’ experience of having their work commented upon from a user perspective. The paper draws on the experience of a five-year external evaluation of an interdisciplinary programme in community mental health at Birmingham University in the UK which has highlighted the involvement of people who use mental health services as a particular innovation in the design, delivery and evaluation of the curriculum.     

Moving HRD from the periphery to the centre for transformation of an Indian public sector bank: Keynote address, 4th Asian conference of the academy of HRD

The transformation of Bank of Baroda, one of the largest commercial banks in the public sector in India, into a highly customer centric, technology driven and an innovative entity in retail and SME (small and medium enterprises) segments represents one of India's most remarkable success stories and one of the quickest turnarounds ever in public sector banking.

Known as an important player in commercial banking with international operations for several decades, the bank was gradually declining in recent years. In an environment of competition within the public sector as also due to entry of private banks with latest technology and young staff, the bank plunged into an unprecedented spiral of failing to innovate and adopt new technology.

Drastic action was required to regain its leadership position in the public sector space. Over the next one and a half years, the bank was back in reckoning and was firing on all cylinders. It retained its core business on track with a bang, restored its image as the most vibrant player among public sector banks (PSBs) through wide-ranging initiatives such as a logo change, hiring a cricketing icon as brand ambassador, heightened credit growth, improving the work culture, initiating many customer-centric initiatives and restoring the customer base, derisking the treasury portfolio, and winning several accolades and awards.

Today, Bank of Baroda has embarked upon more wide-ranging changes and a new vision to change the bank from a ‘vanilla banking’ entity to a ‘multi-specialist bank’. The author, who joined the bank as a HR specialist and eventually rose to become CEO of the bank, extensively used his HRD knowledge and academic background to initiate changes to harness energy in the bank's 40,000 staff to drive organization change.

Achieving a successful outcome seems to be far more difficult for a public sector bank with a legacy culture, high degree of unionization, poor compensation and aging staff. In spite of these constraining factors, the paper argues that it is through mobilizing the passion of people that leadership can transform organizations and put them on high growth trajectory.     

Industrial investment and financial requirements

The present period of slack investment is likely to give way to a fresh investment cycle in the next 5–10 years. Internationally the savings necessary for the provision of capital will be more abundant than ever. However, the structure of savings is changing in favour of risk-averting forms. This is true of savings of private house-holds which benefitting from rising incomes, are increasing in significance. The same applies to the provision of savings, if any, through official insurance schemes, which at least in Europe are found to invest virtually exclusively in fixed-interest securities. The agglomeration of capital in the oil-rich nations, which is also invested with a view to risk aversion, operate in the same direction. By contrast, the capability of firms to generate savings and hence risk-bearing funds is declining. This lack of risk capital threatens to create serious financial obstacles to growth. For risk-bearing corporate capital funds form the yardstick by which the banks, as intermediaries between savers and investors, assess their possibilities to assist enterprises through loans or bond issues. This situation gives rise to political and social problems which must be considered seriously in all long-term policy planning and forecasts.     

The two ANSI standards for serial holdings statements: A comparison

The ANSI Standard on Serial Holdings Statements at the Summary Level is being withdrawn and a new holdings standard developed by NISO, entitled Serial Holdings Statements, is being approved in its place. This article compares the two standards, and describes the changes users will need to make when adopting the new standard.     

Strategic information management in global manufacturing

Responding to new forces on the competitive landscape, global manufacturing companies are restructuring corporate cultures, organizational cofigurations and management coordination channels and styles. The emergence of flexibility as a prime competitive parameter for manufacturing is paralleled by companies shifting toward flexible, adaptive structures. A major challenge is to develop and deploy information technologies linking organizational subgroups for a streamlines process of new product/service creation and delivery. This article describes the convergence of information management and manufacturing activities over the past 30 years and suggests what the future will hold.