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Process mapping is used to articulate the activities and procedures of business entities in a graphical way as pictorial images readily convey considerable information. The objective of this research is to provide evidence and a methodology to assist organizations in evaluating the early stages of their process mapping efforts.

A review of literature identifies key characteristics of transparency (process visibility) related to process mapping. Quizzes and surveys are used to study the impact of process mapping on transparency in an employee training session.

The paper finds that process mapping increases transparency between 5 percent and 27 percent for the applications discussed in this paper.

The research presumes that better understanding and recall of the company's business processes equates to higher transparency. This research study is limited to one field test, organization, and process mapping methodology. These limitations should be considered when extrapolating the results to other organizations.

The methodology outlined in this paper provides a way to measure the impact that formalizing (mapping) an organization's business processes and then using these maps to communicate the organization's business processes has on an individual employee's understanding and recall of those business processes. This methodology may help other organizations evaluate the early stages of their process mapping efforts.

A measurable definition of transparency is developed. A field study provides evidence that process mapping increases transparency and a methodology is shared for others to study the impacts of their process mapping efforts.

In the continuing endeavour to work towards ever better management, the project manager has a crucial role to play. This monograph assesses the requirements of project management in terms of training and experience, demonstrates what sort of person the project manager should be, and also the role that should be played by the project team. In order to illustrate the manner in which the essential qualities in both the project manager and his team are displayed in action a number of completed projects worldwide are reviewed. Both successful projects and disastrous projects are used to demonstrate the way in which the problems encountered in real life can be met and overcome. In conclusion both the prospects and the problems that the future may hold for the project manager are assessed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a deep learning approach can impact the construction industry.

The objectives of this paper were to investigate: the awareness of people dealing with sustainability in their daily working environment; how much training and information construction industry workers have had in the topic of sustainability; and if a deep learning approach to sustainability teaching can make an impact on everyday practise in the industry. With these objectives, following a literature review, a questionnaire survey has been applied to 133 office and site‐based construction workers. In total, 50 office‐based workers and 50 site‐based workers participated.

The findings reveal that deep learning can be a possible opportunity and that the Government and the construction industry should explore it when training their staff. Although there are agencies which specifically deal with green issues, they are not widely embraced and workers currently just use them as a way to meet criteria and not to fully grasp the concept and incorporate it into their everyday practice. If deep learning can be embraced it can lead to a continuous improvement in green practice.

With the UK government recently setting new targets for sustainability, it is important that the construction industry takes actions to reduce its carbon footprint. The construction industry needs to improve its ability to train and teach its staff about the importance of green issues and environmentally‐friendly practices. This paper presents the results of research which may contribute to meeting the government targets and can be useful for practitioners and researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to determine and describe the effect of oil degradation on the engine of a 20-ton class excavator operating in Latin America.

The research parameters include: a specific engine class and equipment, the John Deere PowerTech Plus 6068 Tier 3 diesel engine that powers the 20-ton class excavator; identical OSA3 oil analysis laboratory equipment in 11 target countries in Latin America was employed to analyze oil samples; and the same sampling scope and method were followed for each oil sample.

The research results indicated that at 500 h of use, 73.4 percent of the oil sample results indicated that soot accumulation was a significant problem. When associating the engine oil contamination with the environment risk drivers: altitude and diesel quality have the greatest impact on iron readings; bio-diesel impacts copper; and precipitation and poor diesel quality are associated with silicon levels.

Due to diverse machine operating conditions, research offers an accurate global representation. Because there is an exponential count of particles as oil use approaches 250 h, the interval of engine maintenance (oil change) for machinery operating under similar conditions should not exceed 250 h of use.

The main contribution of this paper will help machinery final users and manufacturers to implement mitigation strategies to improve engine durability in countries with similar operating conditions.

It all began a very long time ago, sometime before 1876, that annus mirabilis of librarianship during which the American Library Association was founded, Library Journal debuted, and Samuel Green published in its pages the first article about reference librarianship. And it continues today. In April 1994, an unidentified library school student from the State University of New York at Buffalo queried the participants of the LIBREFL listserv, asking them, “Can you give a summary of the ‘hot’ library reference issues of the week? I'm working on a project for my Reference course, and would like to find out what is REALLY vital to refernce (sic) librarians out there today.” I was tempted to reply that all of that week's “hot” issues were identified in Green's 1876 article. In that article describing the phenomenon we today call reference service, Green touched on issues such as the librarian's obligation to provide information without injecting personal values, the inability of any librarian to know everything, the need sometimes to refer a patron to another information agency, SDI services, the value of proactive rather than passive service, the challenges of the reference interview, and, of course, what has come to be called the “information versus instruction debate.”

Blockchains used by e-commerce consortia are a novel form of governance that facilitates coordination and collaboration among the numerous organisations that comprise e-commerce supply chains. Despite the increasing prevalence of consortium blockchain networks for e-commerce, there is a limited understanding of the economic and social dynamics that influence the behaviour of blockchain consortium members. By utilising transaction cost theory and social exchange theory, this research investigates the interplay between blockchain transaction-specific investment (BTSI), trust, adaptive collaboration (ADC) and the overall performance of supply chains in consortium blockchains

A quantitative research approach was employed to collect data from a representative sample of blockchain organisations affiliated with e-commerce consortium blockchains worldwide. Following this, the data obtained from 361 participants were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results of our study indicate that BTSI has a substantial impact on trust. Furthermore, trust plays a pivotal role in shaping ADC, and ADC, in turn, acts as a mediator in the relationship between trust and performance outcomes.

This study underlines these economic and social dynamics in the evolving context of consortium blockchain networks, offering insights into their significance within a technology-driven environment.

This paper seeks to develop a theoretical explanation of conflicts and incompatible interpretations of events between agents of multinational corporations (MNCs) and actors present in certain host countries. It aims to situate the argument in comparative economic systems as a part of a broader social system. The socio‐economic system can be modeled using institutional theory, particularly using Scott's three pillars and the concept of formal and informal institutions. Within different socio‐economic systems a dominant logic is developed, and this becomes internalized among actors and agents as behavioral scripts.

The paper uses a multi‐level and multi‐disciplinary conceptual analysis, developing a model of dominant logic and behavioral scripts with MNC agents and traditional emerging economy actors.

MNC agents and traditional emerging economy actors have difficulty comprehending the logic of the other, creating a fertile context for conflict.

An ideal type template is developed that can be used for empirical investigations focusing on situations where disagreement and conflict occur when MNCs operate in traditional emerging economies.

By integrating the authors' conceptualization into training for expatriate managers, the potential for conflict can be reduced.

This multi‐level and multi‐disciplinary model allows grounded development of understanding of conflicts or potential conflicts in the MNC agent‐traditional emerging economy actor context.

Issues such as “the triple bottom line”, which focuses on company profit performance being balanced by demonstrated performance on delivering value to society while improving the ecological environment, have recently emerged as a pressing, indeed crucial management issue. The 1998 Shell Report raised interesting challenges to the management teams of those companies that operate today and wish to do so into the third millennium. Apart from financial accounting, which has developed agreed, if not wholly supported, standards, two other standards of accountability have been identified to demonstrate sustainable business practices. These are environmental accounting and social and ethical accounting. Takes a construction industry perspective and argues that taking a wider view of the customer that encompasses stakeholders, indeed those in the community who are directly affected by projects, makes good marketing and business sense. Provides examples of construction firms taking this approach. Uses a short case study of an Australian project to illustrate how perceptions of the client/customer has shifted from “the paying customer” to “the stakeholder”. Offers some implications for practice and further research.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 and its amendment – the Trade and Competitive Act of 1988 – are unique not only in the history of the accounting and auditing profession, but also in international law. The Acts raised awareness of the need for efficient and adequate internal control systems to prevent illegal acts such as the bribery of foreign officials, political parties and governments to secure or maintain contracts overseas. Its uniqueness is also due to the fact that the USA is the first country to pioneer such a legislation that impacted foreign trade, international law and codes of ethics. The research traces the history of the FCPA before and after its enactment, the role played by the various branches of the United States Government – Congress, Department of Justice, Securities Exchange commission (SEC), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); the contributions made by professional associations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICFA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the American Bar Association (ABA); and, finally, the role played by various international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). A cultural, ethical and legalistic background will give a better understanding of the FCPA as wll as the rationale for its controversy.

The new frontier: Go East, young man. Go East. Searching for business opportunities in Eastern Europe. In the March issue of The Intelligent Enterprise, John Ainslie predicts that the 90s will be a decade of disaster for the new democracies of Eastern Europe. The fledgling governments could be hit by up to 50 million Soviet economic refugees, according to Czech President Vaclav Havel, and Ainslie wonders if their fragile economies will be able to handle the strain.