Provides an overview of the uses and benefits in product development of early supplier involvement. Via a case study covers issues such as timing, identifying suppliers and…
Abstract
Provides an overview of the uses and benefits in product development of early supplier involvement. Via a case study covers issues such as timing, identifying suppliers and tackling problems.
Details
Keywords
Mehmet Ali Koseoglu, Issaka Lawerh Tetteh and Brian King
The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive analysis of contributions to scholarly research on decision tools.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive analysis of contributions to scholarly research on decision tools.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review was used to collect data from 47 articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals between 1980 and 2017. Co-citation analysis was adopted to analyse recent trends in research on decision tools and recommend a framework that places such research into three categories: mature, intermediate and nascent.
Findings
The research revealed that a majority of the studies on decision tools describe decision tool implementation in a single company or setting. It also provided a clear presentation of recent trends in the decision tools literature by categorising and comparing papers according to various salient features. The study of decision tools is classified into four macro clusters: conceptualising and defining decision tools; exploring the implementation of decision tools; understanding the relationship between decision tools and other disciplines/approaches/initiatives; and discovering the outcomes of decision tools. Furthermore, the framework proposed in this paper will help scholars identify issues that merit additional theory-building and/or theory-testing research.
Originality/value
To the authors’ awareness, this is the first paper to have adopted both a systematic literature review and co-citation analysis to identify the dominant trends and significant gaps in the field of decision tools research.
Details
Keywords
Brian Cooper, Tracey Shea, Julie W. Cox, Naomi Stead and Jonathan Robberts
This study aims to investigate which resources and sources of support are related to employee adaptability to work-related change during the COVID-19 pandemic, with implications…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate which resources and sources of support are related to employee adaptability to work-related change during the COVID-19 pandemic, with implications for human resource management (HRM).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analysed a survey of 1,619 employees working in architectural practice and allied fields in Australia in 2020.
Findings
Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors asked whether workers would be more adaptable to change during COVID-19 if they were able to draw on a combination or bundle of supports, known as resource caravans. Hierarchical multiple regression and relative importance analysis showed that confidence in personal support networks during the pandemic was the most important predictor assisting workers to adapt to change, followed by concrete (practical, technical) organizational support for remote work. No evidence was found to corroborate this study's hypotheses that these resources provide support in bundles, challenging the notion of resource caravans in this research context.
Originality/value
The authors argue that COR theory has been too broadly applied to the workplace and that boundary conditions should apply to its emphasis on resource caravans. In practical terms, HRM supports to promote employee adaptability should be carefully targeted in extreme circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Details
Keywords
Erica French and Brian Delahaye
Argues that it is both pertinent and timely that investigations be made into the dynamics of individual change. Much of the literature refers to change as a societal/cultural…
Abstract
Argues that it is both pertinent and timely that investigations be made into the dynamics of individual change. Much of the literature refers to change as a societal/cultural issue or an organization issue. Moreover, the approaches to managing complex change have been developed at a group or a systems level, seldom recognizing that it is the individual who confronts and solves the problems of change and ultimately accepts or rejects the change. Provides a literature review of the current models of individual change transition and identifies several assumptions on which they are built. Explores evidence that refutes these assumptions, which encourages the construction of a new model of individual change transition. This new model identifies four phases through which individuals pass to regain their own level of security. Suggests that the proposed new model offers managers, change agents, researchers and individuals alike a valuable way of describing and understanding individual change transition, as well as identifying avenues for intervention in the process.
Details
Keywords
Ambridge residents live with extended kin and non-family members much more often than the population of the United Kingdom as a whole. This chapter explores cultural norms…
Abstract
Ambridge residents live with extended kin and non-family members much more often than the population of the United Kingdom as a whole. This chapter explores cultural norms, economic need, and family and health care to explain patterns of coresidence in the village of Ambridge. In landed families, filial obligation and inheritance norms bind multigenerational families to a common dwelling, while scarcity of affordable rural housing inhibits residential independence and forces reliance on access to social networks and chance to find a home among the landless. Across the socioeconomic spectrum, coresidence wards off loneliness among unpartnered adults. Finally, for Archers listeners, extended kin and non-kin coresidence creates a private space where dialogue gives added dimensionality and depth to characters who would otherwise be known only through their interactions in public spaces.
Details
Keywords
The government agency at the centre of the study is concerned with public welfare. Its appraisal system is based on a “performance management system”, the purpose being to ensure…
Abstract
The government agency at the centre of the study is concerned with public welfare. Its appraisal system is based on a “performance management system”, the purpose being to ensure that employees work in the most effective way possible to deliver the agency’s business. Individuals are assessed on how well they have met the behaviour characteristics for selected competencies. A survey of middle management shows that whilst the agency attempts to use its appraisal system as part of a performance management system, the model is to some extent faulted. All the elements of the system are present but they do not necessarily link together as intended. The role of appraisal and the cultural expectation of appraisal are well managed by the performance management system, although the link to competence is weakened by the difficulties middle managers have in relating competence to training and performance. The link to change and learning is shown to be single loop and change that is effected tends to be of a minor nature.
Details
Keywords
Brian Ilbery, Paul Courtney, James Kirwan and Damian Maye
The purpose of this paper is to examine the proportion and distribution of organic produce sold through different marketing channels by a sample of organic farmers in three “core”…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the proportion and distribution of organic produce sold through different marketing channels by a sample of organic farmers in three “core” areas of organic farming in England and Wales. More specifically, it conducts a quantitative analysis of marketing concentration and geographical dispersion within different travel time zones.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative database was constructed on the marketing channels and travel time zones used by 61 organic farmers to sell their produce and purchase necessary inputs. Indices of marketing concentration and geographical dispersion (outputs and inputs) were then calculated for each farm and region.
Findings
Results indicate a high level of marketing concentration, dominated by marketing cooperatives, direct marketing and abattoir/processors. Similar levels of concentration are recorded for the indices of geographical dispersion (especially outputs). Results vary significantly between the three regions, but it is clear that organic farmers in each region make use of different combinations of marketing channels, both local and national, in increasingly hybridised and individualised supply chains.
Research limitations/implications
Many organic farmers are developing hybridised supply chains, including both local and more conventional marketing channels, and further research is needed into the identified regional differences and the reasons for developing what are often very individualised marketing chains.
Originality/value
This is the first attempt to calculate indices of marketing concentration and geographical dispersion for organic farms in different regions of England and Wales. The paper also contributes to debates on the potential impact of organic farming on rural development and the local economy.
Details
Keywords
He has been with the company, as personnel manager, since 1982. The new position of manager — customer services, will encompass spares and service, installation and commissioning…
Abstract
He has been with the company, as personnel manager, since 1982. The new position of manager — customer services, will encompass spares and service, installation and commissioning, rebuild and refurbishing and customer training.