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Argues that many organizations, particularly large ones, such as banks, insurance companies, telephone companies, and local utilities, are making a mistake in their application of digital technology, namely the electronic customer interface. Describes the trend toward using information technology to depopulate the customer interface and reduce the costs of managing customer relations, with many companies building a “digital moat” around their organizations. Warns of the psychological and cultural downside – the more “wired” human beings become, the more isolated they will feel. A severing of personal connections to real communities will cause psychological stress and a sense of “connected anonymity”. Argues that the “digital society” is a concept embraced and promoted mostly by people with a particular psychosocial orientation, i.e. the “loner” personality, and that to counter this the majority of people will very likely opt for “enclaves of humanity”, i.e. places and cirmcumstances to which they can turn for a genuine sense of contact and community.

Proposes an effective customer satisfaction program. Demonstrates that successful services companies have service packages, such as minimum service requirements and value added services that distinguish them from competitors. Offers five steps to greater customer satisfaction that focuses on satisfaction audits, service strategy development, employee relations, implementing tactics, and maintenance and feedback. Concludes that marketers must ultimately have a good understanding of the marketplace.

Total quality management (TQM) was adopted in Australia in the 1980s. One of the few service, as distinct from manufacturing, organizations to take it up, Price Waterhouse, encountered a number of problems. These were particularly to do with the difficulty of measuring results and outcomes. A group in the USA, applying TQM to service industries, developed a hybrid called total quality service (TQS). One of the leading proponents of TQS is Karl Albrecht. Explains Albrecht’s propositions and compares and contrasts TQM and TQS.

The need for a strategic shift in senior management philosophy which encourages and promotes a culture of total employee involvement towards the attainment of service quality is one of the major competitive challenges facing the Australian banking industry in the 1990s. Some of these issues are addressed through a case‐study analysis of the origin, rationale and implementation of a quality service programme in the State Bank of South Australia. In examining these changes a historical outline of the State Bank of South Australia and an account of the research methodology used in the study form the introduction. This is followed by an analysis of the design and development of a programme of change and an identification of the key factors shaping the implementation of total quality management. In conclusion an assessment of the opportunities and constraints for the successful implementation of service‐quality delivery programmes in the Australian banking industry is given.

States that the TQM approach to quality is going out of fashion, takes as evidence of this the fact that examiners for the Baldrige Award are looking for evidence of customer focus and effective leadership rather than merely a rigid application of TQM methods. Compares the decline of TQM to that experienced by management by objectives in the past.

To provide a concise briefing on the most topical issues and relevant implications from the top 400 management publications in the world.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the argument in context.

In “Take TIME for effective learning”, Albrecht puts forward a theory that the best training should contain four specific elements – theory, instruction, modeling and experience. Albrecht explains the reasoning behind his claims for each of the four elements, and shows how they can be effective. The TIME model is said to be adaptable in line with the level of knowledge of the trainees and their learning styles. The article finishes by illustrating how the benefits of training can be transferred to the workplace, and then providing examples of how to use the TIME model in practice. Heather Johnson's article describes how Lucent Technologies has increased participation in training by 400 percent in 18 months. She argues that Lucent's success is a result of linking training with a particular business objective. Johnson also draws attention to the mistake Lucent made in switching to mostly Web‐based training, and how the company has recognized and rectified this bad move. Finally, the article affirms that this training program has been successful, with increased profits and attained targets. “Sales training bags the results for Cleanaway” describes a new sales training initiative that helped Cleanaway significantly boost profits. In 2002, high new targets meant the focus of the company and the attitudes of the sales team had to be redeveloped. Landale explains how external training specialists STC were hired to develop and deliver a tailor‐made training program that responded to the firm's objectives. The article argues that STC's work was successful because it was supported by one‐to‐one executive coaching for managers as well as motivation and confidence classes for the whole sales team. Cleanaway has achieved more than double the previous number of sales visits, and big increases in written contracts.

Provides implementable strategies and practical thinking that has influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

Examines the background to TQM, principally from the perspective of the Deming method. Closes with a brief comment about the application of TQM in McDonnell’s home territory of Australia – a topic which will be pursued in greater detail in a subsequent article.

New empirical research is presented on the human resource management implications of introducing a service excellence programme into an Australian optometry company. The case study is used to demonstrate the difficulties of changing employee behaviour and illustrates how the rhetorical hype behind the quality initiative has done little to improve employee relations at work. Company shifts between the “softer” and “harder” aspects of quality are also examined and the more recent market‐driven push for companies to comply with an expanding raft of bureaucratic procedures is questioned. The article concludes by calling for further critical research to offset the quality campaigns of vested interests which often mask the commercial downside associated with some elements of the “quality revolution”.

Provides an overview of the literature on public sector reform, total quality management (TQM) and strategic planning. Traces the change efforts and road to privatization of Asset Services, which is a maintenance contractor with about 2,000 staff and a business unit of a large Australian government department. Describes how, during the period 1989‐1996, Asset Services undertook a process which illustrates the integration of customer focus, quality principles and strategic business planning. Introduces the concept of the business improvement leader, and discusses some of the many TQM and business planning activities undertaken to the point of being fully commercialized. Identifies a number of factors influencing the success of this business unit.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible relationship between knowledge management infrastructures (KMI) and organizational intelligence (OI) in two country-wide research centers dependent to Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, namely, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IRIIST) and Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS).

The research is a survey in a descriptive manner. Using two validated questionnaires related to KMI and OI, the research was conducted among 175 faculty members and staffs of the two research centers. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures, collected data were then analyzed by software SPSS and partial least squares.

Factor analysis showed a high factor loading related to the two main variables and all of the items indicated goodness of fit (GoF) related to the questions. The variance-mean ratio between two variables was higher than 0.5 indicating a high convergent validity. R² for OI showed fitness of SEM. The GoF for IRIIST was 0.642 lower than IHCS with 0.645. Also, path analysis indicated a significant relationship between two variables by 95 percent degree of confidence accepting the two research hypothesis.

By comparison, KMI was more correlated with OI in IHCS than IRIIST. KMI in IRIIST predicted OI by 0.826 percent while in the IHCS by 0.848 percent.