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The iterative nature of the industrial engineering (IE) process requires that it be given managerial direction. This can be achieved through the development of IE policies as an integral component of corporate policies. Not only does this render perspective to IE policies, but it also serves as a motivating force in their implementation. Implementation is essentially a change process and this approach to the analysis of the function is to treat the organisation as an information processing unit in which both the formal and informal channels of organisational communication are utilised to transmit the substance of policy. Further, the relationship thus established between the needs of the organisation and those of its employees can lead to a better understanding and a greater probability of acceptance of policy.

Success lies in striking a balance between financial criteria and others.

This paper aims to consider the legacy of Octavia Hill in the UK, one of the early pioneers of what is now called social housing.

The paper sets out the background of Octavia Hill, and the context in which she operated before moving on to a discussion about the current relevance of her work.

In the centenary year (2012) of the death of Octavia Hill her work has come under some criticism. The authors consider this and seek to defend her reputation, pointing to the many ways in which her work and thinking anticipated the lessons still being learned today in the management of social housing.

The paper gives an account of the achievements of Octavia Hill and evidences their relevance to modern social housing.

The purpose of this study is to provide relevant information for non‐Chinese hoteliers and caterers who plan to engage in the Chinese food service industry within or beyond China’s boundaries. A total of 152 Chinese restaurant managers working in Hong Kong hotels were surveyed. Factor analysis revealed five underlying dimensions: congenial job context, desirable job content, job status and prospects, self‐fulfilment and accountability, and Confucian work dynamism. Chinese restaurant managers were found to value secure employment, pleasant physical working conditions, high earning and good co‐operation with superiors and peers. Recommendations are made to the concerned government and hotel senior management including: the gender diversity for managerial workforce; managerial competence enhancement for female managers; adoption of unified strategies and plans for the joint ventures or wholly owned foreign hotel companies; introduction of formal vocational education and technical training system for Chinese food service personnel; and, restoration of Chinese ethics through public education and hotel internal training programs.

Work enthusiasm and organizational socialization (Training, Understanding, Coworker Support, and Future Prospects) were compared in two predominantly Chinese regions, i.e., Macau (a former Portuguese territory in China) and Zhuhai in the People’s Republic of China. Data were collected from 276 (96 Macau and 180 Zhuhai) full‐time, line‐level, ethnic Chinese employees in the two regions. Results revealed the Zhuhai employees to be much more enthusiastic at work. The Zhuhai employees also evaluated Training, Understanding, and Future Prospects more highly than did the Macau employees (no differences were found for Coworker Support). Regression analyses revealed Future Prospects to be the strongest predictor of work enthusiasm in Zhuhai, while education and years on the job explained most of the variance for work enthusiasm in Macau. The results of the comparisons are discussed in terms of the similarities and differences in the cultures and economic development of the regions.

This study aims to examine the relation between a client’s relative economic importance to its auditor and the number of key audit matters (KAMs) reported in the expanded audit report.

The authors measure a client’s economic importance at the audit firm level as well as the audit partner level using the ratio of a client’s total fees to an auditor’s total fees earned from its listed clients and the ratio of a client’s audit fees to an auditor’s total audit fees from its listed clients. The authors estimate a multivariate regression model using a sample of New Zealand-listed company-years from 2017 to 2019.

Results reveal a positive relation between client importance to auditor and the number of KAMs disclosed. Furthermore, the positive association between client importance and the number of KAMs reported is more pronounced for clients audited by the Big 4 auditors and less experienced audit partners. These findings suggest that auditors’ incentive to protect against potential losses from important client engagements outweighs any impairment to auditor independence and leads to a higher number of KAMs reported for the economically more important clients. Overall, the results suggest that auditors report KAMs strategically to mitigate engagement risks.

This study provides the first evidence on how client economic importance relates to the disclosure in the expanded audit report and contributes to the dialogue on auditors’ reporting of KAMs in the Asia-Pacific region.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of gender diversity in the composition of engagement auditors on the disclosure of key audit matters (KAMs) in a dual-signature environment.

The authors used the unique institutional setup of Taiwan, where the law requires that audit reports be signed by two audit partners. The authors examined the effect of gender diversity composition among engagement auditors on KAM disclosure, considering behavioral differences between female and male auditors.

The empirical results indicate that gender diversity composition in the dual-signature environment is associated with the number of disclosed KAM items (KAMIT) and the length of the explanations for each KAMIT. Furthermore, the authors found that gender diversity composition, particularly when led by female audit partners, has a more pronounced impact on the explanation of each KAMIT rather than on the disclosure of KAMIT. The authors also noted that the moderating effect of audit firm specialization does not influence the gender diversity composition of audit partners in disclosing KAMs.

This study’s empirical findings demonstrate that the interaction between different gender compositions in a dual-signature environment influences KAM disclosure.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of effectuation when used by small suppliers within key account management (KAM) relationships.

An exploratory longitudinal case study approach was used to examine a single small supplier operating in the snack foods sector of the UK foods industry, as it entered into a new KAM relationship with a major retailer and undertook four new product development projects.

Findings suggest effectuation may positively moderate the ability of a small supplier to enter into a KAM relationship by enabling it to obtain resources and limit risk. However, once within the relationship, the use of effectuation may negatively impact success by increasing the potential for failure to co-create new product development, leading to sub-optimal products, impacting buyer confidence and trust. Furthermore, a failed KAM relationship may impact other customers through attempts to recover revenues by selling these products, which may promote short-term success but, in the long-term, lead to cascading sales failure.

It cannot be claimed that the findings of just one case study represent all small suppliers or KAM relationships. Furthermore, the case presented specifically concerns buyer-supplier relationships within the food sector.

This study appears to suggest caution be exercised when applying effectuation to enter into a KAM relationship, as reliance on effectual means to garner required resources may lead to the production of sub-optimal products, which are rejected by the customer. Additionally, a large customer considering entering into a KAM relationship with a small supplier should take care to ensure their chosen partner has all resources needed to successfully deliver as required or be prepared to provide sufficient support to avoid the production of sub-optimal products.

Findings suggest the use of effectuation within a KAM relationship has the potential to develop a dark side within business-to-business buyer-supplier relationships through unintentional breaches of trust by the selling party.

This paper aims to ask whether the implementation of the expanded auditor’s report, which included a requirement to disclose key audit matters (KAMs) in Thailand since 2016, has improved audit quality.

To answer this question, the authors examined audit quality two years before and two years after its adoption by analysing 1,519 firm-year observations obtained from 312 companies. The authors applied logistic regression analyses to the firm-year observations.

The authors found some weak evidence that KAMs disclosure improved audit quality because of auditors putting more effort into their audits and audits being performed thoroughly after the implementation of KAMs. Interestingly, the number of disclosed KAMs and the most common types of disclosed KAMs are not associated with audit quality. Only disclosed KAMs related to acquisitions are more informative because the presence of this type of disclosed KAMs signals the greater likelihood of financial restatements being made in a later year.

Unlike previous studies on the impact of KAMs disclosure on audit quality, which used discretionary accruals as proxy for audit quality, this study used the occurrence of financial restatements.

This study examines the effects of key audit matter (KAM) disclosures in auditors' reports on auditor liability in cases of fraud and error misstatements using evaluators with audit experience.

The experiment is conducted using 174 professional auditors as participants.

The participating auditors assess higher auditor liability when misstatements are related to errors rather than when they are related to fraud. In addition, the results also demonstrate that KAM disclosures reduce auditor liability only in cases of fraud and not in cases of errors. Together, the results support the view that KAM reduces the negative affective reactions of evaluators, which in turn, reduce the assessed auditor liability.

This study did not analyze the setting in which auditors who act as peer evaluators had an opportunity to discuss the case among their peers, which may have affected their judgments.

The results of KAM disclosures on auditor liability in cases of error and fraud misstatements inform auditors that, different from the auditors' concern that disclosing KAM may increase auditors' legal risk, it tends to decrease or at least have no impact on the liability judgment.

This study contributes to the accounting literature by adding findings on another aspect of KAM in different audit settings, particularly, in the Thai legal environment with different types of undetected misstatements. The current conflicting results on how KAM disclosures affect auditor liability warrant further investigation of this issue in other audit contexts in different countries.