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Herbert S. Robinson, Patricia M. Carrillo, Chimay J. Anumba and Ahmed M. Al‐Ghassani
This paper aims to investigate how large UK construction organisations manage their knowledge assets. It then proposes STEPS, a mechanism for benchmarking organisation's knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how large UK construction organisations manage their knowledge assets. It then proposes STEPS, a mechanism for benchmarking organisation's knowledge management maturity.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a case study methodology using four large UK construction organisations.
Findings
The investigation shows that the UK‐based companies with international operations are ahead of their national counterparts in their KM implementation efforts. The paper concludes that construction organisations are likely to be successful in implementing KM if appropriate considerations are given to strategy formulation, implementation issues addressed and the link between KM and business strategy is strengthened.
Originality/value
The paper proposes a mechanism, entitled STEPS, for benchmarking the maturity of large construction organisations' knowledge management practices. It then uses case study organisations to demonstrate how the STEPS model should be used.
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Herbert S. Robinson, Chimay J. Anumba, Patricia M. Carrillo and Ahmed M. Al‐Ghassani
The need for performance improvement has led to the implementation of industry‐specific key performance indicators (KPIs) and greater awareness of the benefits of measurement in…
Abstract
Purpose
The need for performance improvement has led to the implementation of industry‐specific key performance indicators (KPIs) and greater awareness of the benefits of measurement in construction engineering organisations. This paper aims to present and discuss the findings of a survey based on the practical experiences of leading UK construction engineering organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a questionnaire survey, the findings of which are discussed and analysed. The survey focused on establishing current industry practice and forms part of a larger study, which involved detailed case studies and led to the development of an innovative framework for links knowledge management initiatives with business performance measurement.
Findings
The survey shows that a significant proportion of organisations are now using a range of financial and non‐financial measures to assess business performance, and a growing number are adopting the excellence model and/or the balanced scorecard to facilitate a structured approach to implementing continuous improvement strategies. The paper identifies the barriers to the use of performance measurement models and discusses the differences between the practices in smaller and larger construction engineering firms.
Originality/value
The paper concludes with some practical considerations for implementing performance measurement models, which will be of value to business improvement managers and other senior managers in construction and other project‐based industries.
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The management of children′s literature is a search for value andsuitability. Effective policies in library and educational work arebased firmly on knowledge of materials, and on…
Abstract
The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.
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Herbert Goelzner, Abraham Stefanidis and Moshe Banai
This study aims to generalize the research findings about the impact of individualism-collectivism, ethical idealism and inter-personal trust on ethically questionable negotiation…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to generalize the research findings about the impact of individualism-collectivism, ethical idealism and inter-personal trust on ethically questionable negotiation tactics, such as pretending, deceiving and lying, in a Germanic culture, namely, that of Austria.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey questionnaires translated from English to German were collected from 304 respondents. A regression analysis was used to test the contribution of the independent variables to the explanation of negotiators’ attitudes towards questionable negotiation tactics.
Findings
The research empirically corroborated a classification of three groups of negotiation tactics, namely, pretending, deceiving and lying, in Austria. Austrian negotiators who scored high on vertical individualism tended to score high on the endorsement of the pretending tactic; those who scored high on horizontal collectivism tended to score low on the endorsement of the deceiving and lying tactics; those who scored high on vertical collectivism tended to score high on the endorsement of the deceiving and lying tactics; and those who scored high on inter-personal trust tended to score low on the endorsement of the pretending negotiation tactic. Idealistic negotiators tended not to endorse the use of pretending, deceiving and lying negotiation tactics.
Research limitations/implications
The study investigated the respondents’ perceptions, rather than their actual negotiation behavior. Findings are limited to Germanic culture.
Practical implications
The study provides negotiators in Austria with a tool that has the potential to predict the extent to which Austrian negotiators would use various ethically questionable negotiation tactics.
Originality/value
This is the first study to present a model of the antecedents of negotiation tactics in a Germanic cultural context, where negotiation studies are limited. This study validates in Austria three questionable negotiation tactics groups of varying severity, which had previously been studied only in non-Germanic cultures. This research significantly contributes to the generalization of a model of the antecedents of the endorsement of questionable tactics across cultures.
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Thomas C. Powell, Noushi Rahman and William H. Starbuck
This chapter explores the origins of the theme of competitive advantage in 19th and early 20th century economics. This theme, which forms the core of modern Strategic Management…
Abstract
This chapter explores the origins of the theme of competitive advantage in 19th and early 20th century economics. This theme, which forms the core of modern Strategic Management, was a battleground for debates about the value of abstract theory versus observations about real-life events. Intellectual genealogies, citations, and other sources show the central roles played by the University of Vienna and Harvard University. These two institutions strongly influenced the theory of monopolistic competition as well as all three modern views of competitive advantage – the industrial as expressed by Porter, the resource-based as expressed by Penrose, and the evolutionary as expressed by Schumpeter.
The following is a brief outline of what seem to us the main points of the Act:—
Chemistry as an applied science suffers from the fact that its necessarily close connection with various branches of industry is ill defined and generally very unsatisfactory in…
Abstract
Chemistry as an applied science suffers from the fact that its necessarily close connection with various branches of industry is ill defined and generally very unsatisfactory in character. One result of this is that those who have made chemistry their profession find themselves more often than not in the position of having to subordinate their professional instincts to the temporary exigencies of some particular branch of trade and to find their professional status called in question and criticised by those who are not in the profession itself and who have no right to criticise.
With reference to the report of the Annual General Meeting of the Pure Food and Health Society of Great Britain, which was published in the February issue of THE BRITISH FOOD…
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With reference to the report of the Annual General Meeting of the Pure Food and Health Society of Great Britain, which was published in the February issue of THE BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL, and to the speech delivered by MR. GOSLIN upon the proper handling and purveying of meat, an article which has subsequently appeared in The Standard is of considerable interest. It is pointed out that no one who gives the matter serious consideration can approve of the present methods. “Many years ago Oxford made its protest against carcasses or joints being exposed in open‐fronted shops. It is just possible that when the powers that were objected to and forbade this proceeding they thought more of the æsthetics than the science of it, but they most certainly did a good thing when they took flesh foods away from the contamination of street dust and the variations of temperature that are dependent on every gust of wind or every moment of sunlight or shadow.”