Creating customer value by streamlining business processes

Much of the strategic preoccupation of senior managers in the 1990s is focusing on the creation of customer value. Companies are seeking competitive advantage by streamlining the three processes through which they interact with their customers: product creation, order handling and service assurance. 'Micro-strategy' is a term which has been coined for the trade-offs and decisions on where and how to streamline these three processes. The article discusses micro-strategies applied by successful companies.     

Eliminating smoking from the workplace

Employers are more readily realizing that a nonsmoking policy in the workplace is a more effective way to run their businesses. They are recognizing costs such as productivity losses, increased health and life insurance costs, employer liability for diseases jointly linked to smoking and occupational exposures, absenteeism, passive smoking-induced health care costs among nonsmokers, workers' compensation, and fire losses. Concomitantly, employees are supporting policies that limit smoking to achieve a clean air environment. Former Surgeon General Koop's goal of "a smokefree society by the year 2000" is being recognized by more and more segments of society.     

Clinical program renovation management

The day-to-day management of medical practice is so heavily influenced by tactical imperatives that few physicians have the time to think strategically. Traditionally, the difference between tactics and strategy is not a major concern of most physician executives. The realm of tactics is the short run, when managers must make do with the fixed resources at hand. Strategy addresses the long run, when all resources and markets are variable. A tactical focus is understandable, maybe even acceptable, in industries where nothing challenges traditional approaches to production of an established product or service. However, medical care in the 1990s is changing so fast that a physician executive must devote an incredible amount of time and effort just to stay confused about what is going on.     

Immigrant fertility: an examination of social characteristics and assimilation

"This study compares the fertility patterns of foreign-born and native-born women in Canada and examines whether [the] same set of social characteristics accounts for differential fertility among both the groups. The study also assesses the importance of social characteristics and assimilation on immigrant fertility behavior. Two generations of currently married/cohabiting women with spouse present are analyzed using multiple regressions. The results reveal similar effects on fertility of social characteristics for foreign-born and native-born, while in the case of younger generations the effects are stronger."     

"The responsibility to inform, the power to act": a conference for New England college newspaper editors on the role of the campus press in addressing substance use issues.

College newspapers are a powerful but underutilized medium for educating students on health issues, including those related to drug and alcohol use on campus. Editors of these publications are in a position to wield significant influence among their readers. In addition to communicating factual information about the prevalence and impact of substance use among college students, editors can use the press to advocate changes in students' attitudes and behaviors and in college or community policies that affect substance use. A pilot conference was held to help New England college newspaper editors perceive the importance of their role in educating their peers about substance use and other health-related issues, and to offer concrete suggestions as to how they can incorporate these topics into an "activist" campus press.     

Socialization to dying: social determinants of death acknowledgement and treatment among terminally ill geriatric patients.

Although the vast majority of deaths occur among terminally ill geriatric patients, little is known about the etiology of these patients' death acknowledgement and ultimate type of treatment. Based on interviews with 76 triads composed of physicians, terminally ill patients, and primary caregivers, this study uses the socialization perspective to identify the actors and actions that most strongly affect the patient's death acknowledgment and receipt of exclusively palliative care (i.e., socialization to the dying role). Whereas patient preferences and sociodemographic characteristics do not influence significantly the patient's odds of death acknowledgment, these odds are increased if their primary caregivers accept death, their physicians are not affiliated with a teaching hospital, and the terminal prognosis is disclosed to them and disclosed "matter-of-factly." Patients who acknowledge death, whose agents value pain alleviation over life-prolongation, and whose physicians are not affiliated with a teaching hospital, are substantially more likely to receive exclusively palliative rather than curative terminal treatment.     

Migration research and immigration policy

The author briefly reviews the impact of migration research on U.S. immigration policy over the period 1964-1992. Consideration is given to legal and illegal migrants and refugees.     

Small populations of the north: their problems and how to solve them

The authors examine the present conditions of 26 small, isolated populations living in the north of Russia. The total size of the population under consideration is 181,600, according to the 1989 Soviet census. The conclusion is that these populations are under severe threat of extinction and that there is no consensus about how to resolve their present predicament.