Integration between flow scheduling and personnel allocation in a parallel line system in automotive industry

A state-of-the-art review over fifty years of flow shop scheduling research, written by Gupta and Stafford (2006), comes to the conclusion that the mathematical theory of flow shop scheduling “suffers from too much abstraction and too little application”. In this paper we will develop an extended mathematical model for flow shop scheduling with parallel lines and simultaneously a worker assignment to machines as well as a solution concept for practical use. Such production systems are realized by applying the BTO-(Build to order) concept, as can be found in the automotive or computer industry, which allows customers to make any changes to their vehicles or hardware configuration within a few days before final assembly. In these cases late configuration is an important task for the producer and a complex scheduling problem arises in this context.     

Bringing the Media in: Newspaper Readership and Human Rights*

Cross‐national studies examining human rights outcomes have seldom considered the role of the news media. This is unfortunate, as a large body of work in media studies suggests that the news industry effectively educates citizens, shapes public attitudes, and stimulates political action. I juxtapose these two literatures in a cross‐national context to examine the print media’s impact on a state’s human rights performance. First, examining micro‐level evidence from the World Values Survey, I show that an individual’s level of media consumption, including newspaper readership, is positively associated with participation in human rights organizations. Next, I present macro‐level evidence regarding the aggregate effect of a society’s newspaper readership on its human rights record. Analyzing an unbalanced dataset with a maximum of 459 observations across 138 countries covering four waves during the 1980–2000 period, I use ordered probit regression to examine the relationship between a state’s newspaper readership and its Amnesty International rating. I find that newspaper readership exerts strong, positive effects on a state’s human rights practices net of other standard predictors and temporal/regional controls. Moreover, the effect of readership is robust to a number of alternative specifications that address concerns with ceiling effects, measurement bias, influential observations, sample composition, mediation, endogeneity, and the impact of alternative forms of media consumption (i.e., the Internet and television).     

Using members’ dues for political purposes: The “paycheck protection” movement

Conclusion Both sides in the paycheck protection debate can make substantive, as opposed to political, arguments to support their positions. Supporters of paycheck protection measures argue that many workers disagree with the political positions their unions take, a point that is borne out by the scholarly research on members' attitudes towards politics. They contend that workers should have “the basic right to choose if and how their money is spent on political causes” (Kamburowski, 1998, p. 2). They further argue that ultimately it is an issue of fairness and choice and that “compelling workers to support causes they do not believe [in] violates the fundamental tenets of a free country” (Kamburowski, p. 2).     

How are employees of the nonprofit sector motivated? A research need

This article reviews research on motivation of employees in the nonprofit sector, with a major emphasis on the motivation of teachers and hospital nursing staff. Although both areas are widely researched in the nonprofit sector, empirical motivation research conducted in schools and hospitals is certainly not extensive. Nevertheless, based on these limited research findings, we derive potential hypotheses for future research in schools and hospitals.     

Agency conflicts between board and manager

Detecting agency problems is an important task when assessing the effectiveness of a nonprofit organization's governance. A first step is to examine the objectives of principals and agents and determine whether there is a systematic difference between them. Using a discrete choice experiment, we identify the objectives of board chairpersons (principals) and headmasters (agents) of Flemish nonprofit schools. We find systematic differences between the two groups. Of the seven possible objectives set out in the experiment, six are relevant for both headmasters and board chairpersons. For four of these, the preferences of both groups differ significantly. Whereas ideological values play an important role for both the board and the headmaster, they are significantly more important for the board. Both parties dislike having a large number of pupils, and the disutility is larger for the board. With respect to job satisfaction and pupil satisfaction, we find the opposite: while the board is prepared to give up pupil and job satisfaction in favor of the other objectives, these two objectives score very high on the priority list of the headmasters.     

Expertise-based lobbying and accounting regulation

It has long been recognised that accounting regulation is not a mere technical exercise but one that takes place in a political context and lobbying has been examined in numerous empirical studies. Most of these studies address lobbying of the accounting standard setter. However, standard setting is embedded in a political and institutional context. In their decision-making, these institutions depend on the expertise of potentially self-interested lobbyists. This expertise-provision element tends to be ignored in most lobbying studies. The present paper proposes an analytical model of lobbying of an accounting regulator that explicitly focuses on the provision of relevant information by lobbyists. It suggests that lobbying will generally be non-controversial, i.e. either those opposed to a standard will lobby or those favouring it, but not both. Analysis of the model furthermore implies an important role for the regulator’s ex ante leanings, both perceived and real, even when the regulator treats all information received impartially. This implies an important role for the institutional context of accounting regulation.     

The sociologist and the community developer: Autonomy and role conflict in qualitative research

Sociologists are being called upon to evaluate community development efforts in the United States at an increasing rate. These sociologists, as independent researchers, are working side by side with professional community development consultants. Based on an ongoing community development research project, which rests largely upon qualitative techniques, the roles of consultant and researcher are delineated. Methodological advantages and disadvantages of separating these roles are discussed. It is hypothesized that the presence of an independent research agent will likely produce four response phases on the part of the professional consultant during the course of the research project: (1) approval and support, (2) professional challenge, (3) apprehension, and (4) guarded acceptance. Suggestions are made regarding qualitative techniques that can minimize negative responses on the part of practitioners.     

Connecting Print Patrons to Electronic Holdings with Shelf Dummies

Abstract

After a two-year renovation, the Kent State University Music Library reopened as the Performing Arts Library. Before the closure, some serials were sent to the depository or reclassified within the library. In order to assist patrons browsing print journals or searching for articles in the stacks, library staff created shelf dummies detailing print and electronic holdings information as well as indexing for each title. Patron feedback has been positive, and the project has helped both library staff and patrons better understand accessibility and location of journals.