This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb027836. When citing the article, please…
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb027836. When citing the article, please cite: Frank Kirkman, (1984), “The Quality of Working Life, Robotics and the Professional Engineer”, Management Research News, Vol. 7 Iss: 1, pp. 6 - 11.
The discussion on quality of working life begins with job design. This is clearly a field where engineers must be involved: to design the workplace according to the best ergonomic…
Abstract
The discussion on quality of working life begins with job design. This is clearly a field where engineers must be involved: to design the workplace according to the best ergonomic principles and keep the technical options open to facilitate the humanisation of work. Ergonomics and social science are essential in training professional engineers to enable them to contribute to the quality of working life.
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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
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Management is not an exact science. The engineer or accountant becomes a good manager not only by acquiring specialised knowledge to add to their professional expertise but by…
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Management is not an exact science. The engineer or accountant becomes a good manager not only by acquiring specialised knowledge to add to their professional expertise but by learning to exploit instinctive creative skills.
There is now a very extensive literature on the subject of professions. There is, moreover, the frantic activity of members of those occupations concerned with production, such as…
Abstract
There is now a very extensive literature on the subject of professions. There is, moreover, the frantic activity of members of those occupations concerned with production, such as production engineering and work study, to lay claim to the title — professional. Yet no one seems to have examined in any detail whether production would benefit or not if such occupations were professionalised. This paper offers some preliminary thoughts on the problem. First the nature of professions is examined; secondly, the field of production; thirdly changing trends in the world of work, within which production and those associated with production are located; finally some conclusions on the place of the professions in production are offered.
In the last 15 years increasing attention has been paid to what has become known as the “quality of working life”. Job design, sometimes known as work design, work organisation or…
Abstract
In the last 15 years increasing attention has been paid to what has become known as the “quality of working life”. Job design, sometimes known as work design, work organisation or the humanisation of work, has emerged as a recognisable area of study. There are now innumerable articles which include such terms in their titles and a number of books which deal with the development and dimensions of the subject area. What are the chances that a discipline will develop? How likely is it that the discipline will be applied in practice? The answer to these questions rests upon the answer to the four main questions examined in this paper.
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains…
Abstract
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.
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Frank M. Horwitz, Desmond Bravington and Ulrik Silvis
The aim of the investigation is to identify enabling and disenabling factors in the development and operation of virtual teams; to evaluate the importance of factors such as team…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the investigation is to identify enabling and disenabling factors in the development and operation of virtual teams; to evaluate the importance of factors such as team development, cross‐cultural variables, leadership, communication and social cohesion as contributors to virtual team effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 115 employees in virtual teams using an on‐line survey contributed a 55 per cent response rate. An on‐line survey combining both quantitative Likert scale and qualitative explanatory questions measured the following variables in addition to those above: team member roles and responsibilities, relationships and trust and team dynamics.
Findings
Results indicated that cross‐cultural communication improvement, managerial and leadership communication, goal and role clarification, and relationship building are most important to virtual team performance.
Research limitations/implications
Further research focusing on particular sectors such as knowledge‐ intensive firms (KIF), including information and telecommunications, and research and development is needed to provide in‐depth insights into virtual team operations. In addition this research highlights potential issues in cross‐cultural composition of virtual teams and the need for further work on appropriate team training, selection factors in comprising virtual teams and communications.
Originality/value
While there is a growing body of research on knowledge and information economy issues and the changing sociology of work for example in the ICT sector and in tele‐remote work and call centres, empirical work specifically on virtual team operation is embryonic. This exploratory research begins to add to the understanding of variables important in the operational effectiveness of virtual teams.