The quest for quality at Philips

All over the western world during the last few years companies have been introducing total quality programmes. Their objective is to regain or maintain market leadership. Top management understands the importance of company-wide quality for strategic positioning and actively leads the companies in these excellence movements. All aim at improving performance through top management leadership, total involvement of all members of the organization, rebuilding organizational and management practices and systematic, deep, long-term change strategies. At Philips such a movement started company-wide 3 years ago. This article describes the background to the programme, gives some of the results achieved so far and looks ahead to possible future developments.     

Mothers and children alone: The stamp of poverty

The contributions from a variety of potential sources of emotional and economic support are evaluated as well as their impact on female-headed households in a university community. A qualitative, in-depth interview investigation of 36 single mothers is summarized; illustrative quotations and marginal tabulations are provided.The single mothers considered in this study report great difficulty in balancing their own needs for a social life with the needs of their children. These low-income mothers are well educated; their life situations can only be described by the word struggle. Same-sex friends offer considerable support, but economic and child care needs stand out strongly as needs that are often unmet. Their dependency on the welfare system is determined to be an interim need. Mothers in this sample were trying to find work, go to school, and parent while maintaining some social life for themselves and for their children. Coping strategies are discussed, as are the strengths of mother-headed families.Barbara Goldfarb is a social worker at Victim Services Agency, New York, New York, and Roger W. Libby is a professor at the Center for the Family, Division of Home Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. A University of Massachusetts Faculty Research Grant to Roger W. Libby supported this study.     

The Flow Shop Scheduling Polyhedron with Setup Times

This paper addresses the problem of improving the polyhedral representation of a certain class of machine scheduling problems. Despite the poor polyhedral representation of many such problems in general, it is shown that notably tighter linear programming representations can be obtained for many important models. In particular, we study the polyhedral structure of two different mixed-integer programming formulations of the flow shop scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times, denoted by SDST flow shop. The first is related to the asymmetric traveling salesman problem (ATSP) polytope. The second is less common and is derived from a model proposed by Srikar and Ghosh based on the linear ordering problem (LOP) polytope. The main contribution of this work is the proof that any facet-defining inequality (facet) of either of these polytopes (ATSP and LOP) induces a facet for the corresponding SDST flow shop polyhedron. The immediate benefit of this result is that all developments to date on facets and valid inequalities for both the ATSP and the LOP can be applied directly to the machine scheduling polytope. In addition, valid mixed-integer inequalities based on variable upper-bound flow inequalities for either model are developed as well. The derived cuts are evaluated within a branch-and-cut framework.     

A Probabilistic Model for the Failure Frequency of Underground Gas Pipelines

A model is constructed for the failure frequency of underground pipelines per kilometer year, as a function of pipe and environmental characteristics. The parameters in the model were quantified, with uncertainty, using historical data and structured expert judgment. Fifteen experts from institutes in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and Canada participated in the study.     

Out of the Closet and into the Classroom: A Survey of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Educators' Classroom Strategies and Experiences in Colleges and Universities

Higher education has made great progress in creating open classroom and organizational environments for diverse populations. However, little research has been published on the experiences of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGB) in college and university classrooms. The primary purpose of this study is to identify the strategies used by LGB educators to incorporate LGB issues, concerns, and experiences into college and university classrooms. To provide a context for these efforts, the secondary purpose of this study is to examine educators' experiences as LGBs in the classroom and within higher education in general. Toward these ends, the study presents the results of a survey that examined specific classroom strategies used by LGB educators and administrators and their experiences in the classroom and within departments in college and university settings. The survey revealed that LGBs are actively working to enhance classroom environments through a variety of empowerment strategies; they also encounter positive experiences within the classroom and within academic organizations as a whole.     

Social Capital,Place Meanings,and Perceived Resilience to Climate Change*

This research analyzes individuals' perceived resilience to changing climatic conditions. Specifically, we suggest individual resilience is composed of an awareness of localized risks created because of climate change, a willingness to learn about, and plan for, the potential impacts of altered environmental conditions, and general appraisals of personal adaptive capacities. We hypothesize that resilience is influenced by the characteristics of individuals' social networks and also by their social-psychological dependence on local environments. Using data collected in three resource-associated communities within the southeastern United States, our analysis suggests bonding ties may limit individuals' willingness to seek new information about the potential impacts of climate change. Conversely, the data suggest the use of a diverse array of bridging ties is positively associated with information-seeking behavior. The data also support our hypothesis that individuals' social psychological dependencies on the local environment influences their perceived resilience to changing climatic conditions. By gaining a clearer understanding of how individuals' social networks and social-psychological dependencies affect their perceived ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions, decision makers can focus on policy solutions that increase adaptive capacities and build social resilience.     

The management of development— The next decade

In this article the author argues that the last decade of development has proved to be a myth. He suggests that the poor countries have probably been exploited during this period. He believes that ‘aid’ programmes have badly misfired. However he is constructively critical and puts forward guidelines for planning and action. While he acknowledges that the task is huge he believes that we have the potential, given the desire to achieve success.