Quality management and performance: a comparison between the UK and Turkey

Purpose: The aim of this article is to detail the correlation between quality management, specifically its tools and critical success factors, and performance in terms of primary operational and secondary organisational performances.

Design/methodology/approach: Survey data from the UK and Turkey were analysed using exploratory factor analyses, structural equation modelling and regression analysis.

Findings: The results show that quality management has a significant and positive impact on both primary and secondary performances; that Turkish and UK attitudes to quality management are similar; and that quality management is widely practised in manufacturing and service industries but has more statistical emphasis in the manufacturing sector. The main challenge for making quality management practice more effective lies in an appropriate balanced use of the different sorts of the tools and critical success factors.

Originality/value: This study takes a novel approach by: (i) exploring the relationship between primary operational and secondary organisational performances, (ii) using service and manufacturing data and (iii) making a cross-country comparison between the UK (a developed economy) and Turkey (a developing economy).

Limitations: Detailed contrast provided between only two countries.     

危机管理中跨界治理的检视与改革之道:以汶川大地震为例

危机管理需要不同政府或行政机构之间的配合,当危机扩大到一定程度时,更需要把私部门、非政府组织和广大公民的力量整合到危机管理的过程中。因此,如何在危机管理中形成行政单位中跨组织、地理空间上跨区域和优势互补上跨部门的制度化"跨界治理网络",是政府危机管理的重要问题。如果就我国的具体情况而言,有些地方和部门已经积极探索危机管理中跨界治理的方式,但在总体上而言,跨组织、跨区域和跨部门的危机管理模式和机制还没有建立起来。因此,在今后的危机管理中,如何建立网络化的跨界治理模式与机制,不论对学术界还是实务界来说,都是值得持续关注、深入研究和积极探索的课题。     

论中国儒文化的政治意蕴

以儒家文化为主体的中华文化,两千年来始终受到强大的政治力量的支配.这就使中国文化不仅具有强烈的伦理情感,而且具有深厚的政治意蕴.     

EXPLORING MARKET PRICING STRATEGIES VIA DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING

Price determinants as well as strategies can be studies by use of simulation, particularly if cost and price relationships can be related to market activity [1] [9] [11]. But, through the use of dynamic programming, given the market conditions, one can extend the analysis to include an optimal strategy. This paper describes a dynamic programming approach to studying price strategy. A model is developed to show that in a market characterized by cost/volume and price/volume relationships, profitability can be extended beyond that resulting from a dominant market strategy to an optimal maximizing strategy. Extension of the model is suggested for studying (a) sensitivity of a strategy (solution) to price level and cost changes, (b) optimal timing of withdrawal, and (c) present value analysis.     

VC++中基于ODBC的数据库访问技术研究

ODBC是一个允许应用程序连接外部数据库服务器和文件、并执行查询操作的标准协议。应用程序只需要相同的ODBC源代码就可以访问不同的数据库管理系统。VC++提供了多种方法使用ODBC,比如ATL和MFC类库。对Windows2000环境下VisualC++6.0中MFC类库的ODBC数据库访问技术进行探讨。     

“We don’t have to talk about how I feel”: emotionality as a tool of resistance in political discourse among Israeli students – a gendered socio-linguistic perspective

This article demonstrates how the gendered patriarchal mechanisms that exclude women from the political sphere are being produced, re-produced, and challenged in interpersonal political conversations by concentrating on the discursive mechanisms that construct the way young Israeli women and men talk about politics. The research is based on a yearlong intra-group dialog process. The group met for weekly sessions during two semesters, in which the group members discussed and expressed their thoughts and feelings regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) demonstrated how the political space is being marked, defined and delimited through gendered discursive practices. We present the different roles participants take in the group, and in particular the different strategies women use in face of disciplinary discursive mechanisms. The process revealed that the development in the group discussion was strongly intertwined with the change in the positioning strategies of the female participants. In particular, we found that women deployed emotionality as a tool of resistance that challenges gender binaries and masculine dominance. Our conclusion highlights the importance of the daily interactions in creating, sustaining and changing the political discourse of a society in conflict.     

Occupations,migration, sex ratios,and nuptiality in nineteenth century English communities: A model of relationships

Two effects of occupational structure on nuptiality levels are examined: a direct functional effect related to the influence of socioeconomic characteristics on the feasibility and desirability of marriage, and an indirect structural effect related to nuptiality levels via sex selective migration patterns and population sex ratios. Our analysis shows that nuptiality levels in nineteenth century English and Welsh districts were responsive to occupational variation and that both direct and indirect effects were significant. Our results suggest that socioeconomic factors, often overlooked in favor of cultural explanation, must be considered in the analysis of nuptiality.     

Seasonality and vertical structure of light-attracted insect communities in a dipterocarp forest in Sarawak

Nocturnal flying insects were collected monthly for 13 months using ultra violet light-traps set at various vertical levels in a weakly-seasonal, tropical lowland dipterocarp forest in Sarawak, Malaysia. Abundance, faunal composition, size distribution and guild structure of these samples were analyzed with respect to temperal and vertical distributions. The nocturnal flying insect community in the canopy level was highly dominated by fig wasps (84%) in individual number, and by scarabaeid beetles (28%) in weight. A principal component analysis on monthly catches detected non-random, seasonal trends of insect abundance. The first two principal trends were an alternation of wetter (September to January) and less wet seasons (February to August) and an alternation between the least wet (January to March) and the other seasons. Many insect groups were less abundant in the least wet season than the other seasons, whilst inverse patterns were found in Scarabaeidae and Tenebrionidae. Significantly positive and negative correlations between monthly catch and rainfall were detected only in ovule-feeders and in phloem-feeders, respectively. Delayed, significant negative correlations between monthly catch and 1–3 month preceding rainfall were more frequently detected in phytophages, phloem-feeders, seed-feeders, wood-borers and scavengers. The peak in abundance along vertical levels were found at the canopy level (35 m) for phloem-, ovule-, seed-, root-, fungal-feeders and nectar collectors, at an upper subcanopy level (25 m) for scavengers and aquatic predators, and at a middle subcanopy level (17 m) for ants. Catches at the emergent level (45 m) did not exceed those at the canopy level.