Jeff Guinot, Dustin Evans and M. Affan Badar
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of costs of quality on the present worth (PW) of a new product launch at a North American automobile manufacturer.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of costs of quality on the present worth (PW) of a new product launch at a North American automobile manufacturer.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on the examination of various cash flows associated with a new product launch within an automobile manufacturer. Standard cash flows and a PW analysis were examined and compared to non-standard cash flows which take into consideration post-launch cost of quality (CoQ). A sensitivity analysis was used to determine if any CoQ factors affected the integrity of the product launch.
Findings
The paper concludes that there is an impact on the PW of a program when CoQ is considered as a cash flow element. CoQ should be considered in a product launch PW analysis preceding any commitment to invest.
Research limitations/implications
This study suggests that, given data on the costs that will accrue assuming standard quality concerns following product launch, and the occurrence of special cause issues, the business case can establish a better estimate of the costs a program will face under varying levels of post-launch quality. An understanding of the potential cost consequences of quality issues can shape the understanding of the risks in a planned project.
Practical implications
The paper shows that CoQ can have a significant impact on a PW analysis. CoQ concerns should be considered during pre-launch planning of a new product.
Originality/value
The paper satisfies the need to study when a manufacturer considers investment in the launch of a new product with CoQ concerns.
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Dustin Miller, Shantanu Tilak, Marvin Evans and Michael Glassman
School leaders work in a fast-paced job that requires critical decision-making, often without the luxury of time. Additionally, problems may be new and leave school leaders…
Abstract
Purpose
School leaders work in a fast-paced job that requires critical decision-making, often without the luxury of time. Additionally, problems may be new and leave school leaders feeling isolated and ill-equipped to adequately address situations. To that end, this study introduced the use of Reddit, a social media platform, to connect school leaders with colleagues who can provide real time support when pressing issues arise.
Design/methodology/approach
This mixed methods study used hierarchical regressions, linguistic analysis of online discussions and qualitative analysis of focus group interviews to understand if online collective efficacy led to higher technology acceptance and principal efficacy for school leaders when discussing work-related and sociocultural issues online.
Findings
Findings revealed that (1) school leaders build collective efficacy among their peers and are willing to engage more freely in online communities, (2) school leaders are willing to embrace the use of technology if provided time and exposure to such communities and (3) seasoned school leaders are more likely to interact openly with colleagues in online discussions versus their less-experienced peers on how online communities can support school leaders in challenging, ever-changing aspects of their work.
Originality/value
We recommend both school district and educational leadership professional associations consider creating easily accessible online communities as spaces where school leaders have opportunities to engage confidentially with their colleagues over important work-related issues. Future studies should also continue to investigate the impact of school leader online communities through both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
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Following the ‘Sarkozy’ era (2007–2012), France has engaged in ‘zero-tolerance’ policies, which have brought an increasing number of people into the criminal justice system (CJS)…
Abstract
Following the ‘Sarkozy’ era (2007–2012), France has engaged in ‘zero-tolerance’ policies, which have brought an increasing number of people into the criminal justice system (CJS). In an already extremely impoverished CJS, these policies have led to serious financial problems and have made an already existing prison overcrowding problem worse. Consequently, the CJS has gradually opted for a McDonald (Ritzer, 2019; Robinson, 2019) type of offender processing, whether in prosecutor-led procedures (representing roughly half of all penal procedures: Ministry of Justice, 2019) or in the sentencing phase (Danet, 2013). A similar trend has been found in probation and in prisoner release (in French: ‘sentences’ management).
The prison and probation services, which merged in 1999, have since then been in a position to benefit from the 1958 French Republic Constitution, which places the executive in a dominant position and notably allows it to draft the bills presented to a rather passive legislative power (Rousseau, 2007) and even to enjoy its own set of normative powers (‘autonomous decrees’ – Hamon & Troper, 2019). By way of law reforming (2009, 2014, and 2019 laws), the prison and probation services have thus embraced the McDonaldisation ethos. Their main obsession has been to early release as many prisoners as possible in order to free space and to accommodate more sentenced people. To do so, the prison services have created a series of so-called ‘simplified’ early release procedures, where prisoners are neither prepared for nor supported through release, where they are deprived of agency and where due process and attorney advice are removed. Behind a pretend rehabilitative discourse, the executive is only interested in efficiently flushing people out of prison; not about re-entry efficacy. As Ritzer (2019) points out, McDonaldisation often leads to counter-productive or absurd consequences. In the case of early release, the stubborn reality is that one cannot bypass actually doing the rehabilitative and re-entry work. I shall additionally argue that not everything truly qualifies as an early release measure (Ostermann, 2013). Only measures which respect prisoners’ agency prepare them for their release, which support them once they are in the community, which address their socio-psychological and criminogenic needs, and which are pronounced in the context of due process and defence rights truly qualify as such. As it is, French ‘simplified’ release procedures amount to McRe-entry and mass nothingness.
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Graham H. Lowman, Peter D. Harms and Dustin Wood
Central to the fit concept is that congruence between individual and environmental attributes leads to improved outcomes. However, when discussing fit, researchers often describe…
Abstract
Purpose
Central to the fit concept is that congruence between individual and environmental attributes leads to improved outcomes. However, when discussing fit, researchers often describe congruence as alignment between distinctive or unique individual and environmental attributes. We suggest that current approaches to examining fit do not adequately account for this assumption of distinctiveness because they fail to consider normative expectations and preferences. As such, we propose an alternative theoretical and methodological approach to conceptualizing and measuring fit.
Design/methodology/approach
We introduce the normative theory of fit, outline how researchers can decompose fit into distinctive and normative components and identify areas for future research.
Findings
Management researchers have largely ignored the importance of decomposing fit into distinctive and normative components. This shortcoming necessitates additional research to ensure a more accurate understanding of fit and its relationship with outcomes.
Originality/value
We provide a clarification and critical examination of a pervasive construct in the field of management by introducing the normative theory of fit, identifying areas where researchers can employ this theoretical lens and suggesting a reevaluation of the importance placed on differentiation that is traditionally employed in practice.
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Anne Mäkikangas, Taru Feldt, Ulla Kinnunen and Saija Mauno
In the context of occupational health psychology, personality has usually been depicted from the perspective of single traits, dispositions, or their combinations. However, there…
Abstract
In the context of occupational health psychology, personality has usually been depicted from the perspective of single traits, dispositions, or their combinations. However, there is a clear need to better understand personality as a whole. For this reason, an integrative framework of personality is presented in order to give a more comprehensive and cohesive picture of how the different personality constructs relate to each other. In recent years, several holistic models of human personality have been presented. For example, such models have been formulated by Dan McAdams (1995), Brian Little (2007), Robert McCrae and Paul Costa Jr. (1999), and Brent Roberts and Dustin Wood (2006). In this chapter, we briefly introduce one of these models, that is, the three-tiered conceptual framework of personality by McAdams and his colleagues (McAdams, 1995; McAdams & Adler, 2006; McAdams & Olson, 2010; McAdams & Pals, 2006). This comprehensive and multifaceted model conceptualizes human personality via a developing pattern of (1) dispositional traits, (2) characteristic adaptations, and (3) constructive life narratives (see Fig. 1). Each of these three levels possesses its own characteristics for describing and understanding personality.
To explore what suffering is, how suffering is embedded within the sociology of sport literature, and what suffering can do to athletes in sport. In addition, to discuss the value…
Abstract
Purpose
To explore what suffering is, how suffering is embedded within the sociology of sport literature, and what suffering can do to athletes in sport. In addition, to discuss the value of an interdisciplinary approach and co-presence when researching athletes in suffering.
Approach
In the first part of the chapter, the concepts of pain, violence, and suffering are separated, and a justification for the study of suffering in sport is given. The second part of the chapter details sport and social problems, and the suffering body in sport is discussed, pulling from interdisciplinary theories and methodologies of suffering external to the sociology of sport.
Findings
Social inequalities and hidden forms of suffering may be reproduced in sport. Sport is questioned as a force of social mobility for vulnerable people. The context of sport can offer ‘healing’ properties for people in suffering. The impact of using an interdisciplinary approach and considering co-presence and relational suffering when researching suffering is discussed.
Implications
The difficulties understanding the complex, multi-dimensional nature of suffering are shared. New ways of engaging within the research act and specific theoretical approaches are suggested for improving the understanding of suffering within sport.