Editorial

Citation

Heap, T.B.a.J. (2014), "Editorial", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 63 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-07-2014-0115

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Volume 63, Issue 7

After two special issues, each on a specific theme (Third Sector and Lean Practice), we return with a regular issue covering a wide range of topics. The six standard papers and one reflective piece comprising this issue include topics from sustainability, supply chains, and the public sector. Our contributing authors are drawn from Australia, China, India, Pakistan and the UK.

The sponsor of our journal, the World Confederation of Productivity Science, is eager to develop a broad concept of productivity that encompasses sustainability. In the first paper authors Sodhi and Yatskovskaya respond to that sustainability agenda by reporting on their work to develop an index to measure how companies are responsibly using a key resource of the planet, namely water. They pilot a set of questions that enables a company to self-assess their sustainable use of water and they try it out on a substantial data set. The work is in its early stages but given the impetus needed behind moves to save the planet, we look forward to hearing more about this and similar work.

Our second paper also connects to the sustainability agenda. Road freight transportation is a key contributor to CO2 emissions and so improving its efficiency is integral to improving sustainability in our society. In this paper Sanchez Rodrigues, Cowburn, Potter, Naim, and Whiteing concentrate on how to evaluate the performance of road freight transport by developing a metric for the extra distance travelled as a result of disruptions in the supply chain. They apply their measurement approach to four case studies in the fast-moving consumer goods sector and demonstrate the approach's usefulness to distribution management in highlighting resource wastage.

Joshua and Varghese, in the next paper, revisit the journal's roots by concentrating on a work study topic (for those who weren’t aware of this, the journal in its earlier days was called Work Study). Notwithstanding the long history of the subject, the paper brings the topic of work (or activity) sampling up to date with its focus on modern technology to automate the work of the work study practitioner or, to use the terms current in many parts of the world, the industrial engineer. The study focuses on manual work and captures data on the movement of the worker via accelerometers worn by the worker. The accelerometer-based data is divided in to a sequence of short, in this case six-second, segments of activity. The segments are analysed by software algorithms that classify each segment as one of a set of various activity types that are then used in the activity sampling evaluation. The research study focuses on manual work in construction since in construction projects the cost of such work is a significant proportion of overall expenditure. Although construction is the context of the study, its aim is to improve the productivity of the productivity analyst.

The fourth paper by Wang, Zhao, Song, Caciolatti, Zhang, Sausman, and Fu focuses on one of the more popular topics of today, namely supply chains. One of the often-repeated phrases in the literature is about how the future will be about “supply chain competing against supply chain”. Using an economic approach they investigate how different supply chain structures (decentralised vs integrated) perform in the face of differing levels of product substitutability. They assert that their results differ from conventional wisdom and show that decentralised supply chains can outperform integrated ones in particular circumstances. This paper demonstrates one of the reasons why research can be extremely important – when it challenges conventional wisdom and gives the practitioner a stronger steer on the best practice to adopt.

The fifth paper by Choong is a review of the literature on performance measurement systems – which prompts the question “do we need another review of the literature on this topic?” The answer from your editors, and the reviewers of this paper, is yes. (By the way we are always looking for knowledgeable reviewers who are willing to give their time voluntarily to help ensure that the journal's papers are of the right quality and of interest to our readers. If you think you can help why not get in touch?) In this paper the author's systematic review identifies a number of gaps where further research would not go amiss.

“Red tape” (extreme bureaucracy), by its nature, is something that is seen as a drag on all organisations; public sector as well as private. In large public sector organisations such as a government's civil service, red tape can be corrosive of employee morale and motivation. In the sixth paper Yousaf, Zafar and Ellahi study the relationship between red tape, employee motivation, and job satisfaction in the Pakistan civil service. Through a replication study the authors find that the situation there differs somewhat from that in a more developed economy (Switzerland). As in Switzerland, red tape in Pakistan does influence job satisfaction, the higher the red tape then the more dissatisfied the employee. However, the motivation of the public sector employee does have a moderating impact on this relationship, i.e. different motives can exacerbate or mitigate the negative influence of red tape. However, in this respect the types of motivations and their impacts differ in Pakistan from Switzerland. The study shows that we have to be careful with theory and question its application to contexts other than the one in which the theory was developed.

In the last paper – a reflective practice piece – Crouzet, Parker and Pathak consider resistance to change within the context of a productivity-increasing intervention. Based on an extensive literature review of resistance to change, the authors consider current knowledge on resistance and how managers can and should respond to such opposition. One of the interesting points they highlight is that from certain perspectives, resistance can be seen as a positive phenomenon that can be harnessed by the adept manager to increase the probability of achieving success in the change process. Certainly this is a change from the mantra that “resistance is futile”.

Tom Burgess and John Heap