We describe a special education teacher and a history teacher who, together, gave specific learning disabled (SLD) and emotionally disabled (ED) students the opportunity to make…
Abstract
We describe a special education teacher and a history teacher who, together, gave specific learning disabled (SLD) and emotionally disabled (ED) students the opportunity to make historical documentaries in a self-contained special education classroom. Students were diverse in race, gender and disability. Findings indicated documentary making yielded positive outcomes for students as well as for the teachers. By selectively appropriating desktop documentary making technology, teachers engaged students in a technology-based project. Documentary making also opened opportunities for teachers’ close interaction with students, while still managing a potentially disruptive classroom. Students, who struggled with reading and writing, completed an engaging, lengthy, complex history project and exercised historical thinking skills. This study has implications for using documentary making technologies for engaging and refining students’ historical thinking skills.
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In the past few years, many Australian organisations have either undergone or been planning a change from a hierarchical bureaucratic culture to a team‐based one. Much faith in…
Abstract
In the past few years, many Australian organisations have either undergone or been planning a change from a hierarchical bureaucratic culture to a team‐based one. Much faith in the potential success of this kind of change appears to have been based on stories of transformations which worked well in overseas organisations, notably Japanese and American companies. One important issue for Australian organisational leaders was to come to terms with how the cultures of local and overseas companies were similar to or different from each other. For example, if the value systems of both local and overseas organisations tended to converge rather than diverge, the probability of developing a team‐based culture in Australian companies was relatively high. This paper critically examines stories of Australian organisations which are moving to a team‐based culture, from an adult communication management perspective. In particular, the paper aims to identify communication management variables which contribute to the successful implementation of teams in those organisations. Finally, conclusions and implications are drawn for maintaining high performance in team‐based organisations through effective communication management practices. ‘The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order’ — Alfred North Whitehead.
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S.J. Estrop, M.M. Kaye and T.G. Nevell
A manufacturing process quality model for investigating the operation of a manufacturing unit has been developed incorporating the failure mechanism of instantaneous assignable…
Abstract
A manufacturing process quality model for investigating the operation of a manufacturing unit has been developed incorporating the failure mechanism of instantaneous assignable cause, mean drift and standard deviation drift. Describes an illustrative example, showing how the new model can be used in conjunction with simulation to optimize the control of a manufacturing process from a cost‐quality perspective.
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Michael M. Kaye and Marilyn D. Dyason
The authors address the failure of companies to reach a sufficiently mature stage of quality required to be truly competitive and to exhibit the characteristics of so‐called…
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The authors address the failure of companies to reach a sufficiently mature stage of quality required to be truly competitive and to exhibit the characteristics of so‐called “excellent companies”. The authors set out to answer some hard questions identified during their research: for instance, why is it that companies know what they should be doing but fail to do it? Why is it that barriers to progress fail to be overcome? Why is there such a large gap between management theory and practice? Five themes emerge which offer a means of exploring these issues in greater depth in order to develop a way of resolving them: competitiveness ‐ the challenges faced by industry today; current “state of the art” strategic quality management ‐ where are we?; the learning organisation; the role of self‐assessment frameworks; performance management system approaches.
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Jie Ma, Zhibin Lin and Chi Keung Lau
The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of how Sino-Japanese joint ventures implemented the three Japanese improvement methods, i.e. Kaizen, Kaikaku and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of how Sino-Japanese joint ventures implemented the three Japanese improvement methods, i.e. Kaizen, Kaikaku and Kaizen Blitz. The specific objectives of this study are to identify the key enablers for the three improvement methods; and to identify the most selected improvement method.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to pairwise-compare the three improvement methods. Data are collected from 28 industry experts from Sino-Japanese joint ventures. The study then adopts extent analysis approach for pairwise comparisons and extent analysis to obtain synthetic extent values for priority weights.
Findings
The results of the study indicate that personnel (humanware) factor enablers are the most important factor for Kaizen, whilst software factor enablers (essential rules, policies and institutional arrangements) weight second and hardware factor enablers (physical, measurable hard facts or resources) weight last. The study also reviews that Kaizen is the most selected improvement method among the three.
Research limitations/implications
The sample of this study is limited to Sino-Japanese ventures in Guangzhou, China. This study only identifies the key improvement enablers based on interviews with shop floor managers and improvement experts.
Practical implications
Practical implications are threefold: the improvement implementations should be based on factors such as regular training, incentives for motivations and shop floor management; improvement methods are transferable and standard operations may only have small effects on collecting improvement ideas; and Kaizen is the appropriate method to support long-term and process-oriented improvements.
Originality/value
This study is the first to specifically pairwise-compare the three Japanese improvement methods and to identify priorities of their key enablers in Sino-Japanese joint ventures.
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Nick Forster, Martin Cebis, Sol Majteles, Anurag Mathur, Roy Morgan, Janet Preuss, Vinod Tiwari and Des Wilkinson
The importance of story‐telling in organizational life has often been overlooked in contemporary organizational and leadership literature. Throughout history, leaders ‐ political…
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The importance of story‐telling in organizational life has often been overlooked in contemporary organizational and leadership literature. Throughout history, leaders ‐ political and religious ‐ have used story‐telling as a powerful motivational tool, particularly during times of uncertainty, change and upheaval or in response to crises. This article looks at the role of story‐telling as an integral part of the human experience and at its applications in modern organizational life. The article concludes by suggesting that the art of story‐telling is still, despite recent advances in communication technologies, an essential managerial skill ‐ particularly for leaders of organizations.
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Jiju Antony, Michael Hughes and Mike Kaye
Experimental design is a powerful technique for understanding a process, studying the impact of potential variables affecting a process and providing spontaneous insight for…
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Experimental design is a powerful technique for understanding a process, studying the impact of potential variables affecting a process and providing spontaneous insight for continuous quality improvement possibilities. It has proved to be very effective for improving the process yield, process performance and reducing process variability. A number of successful applications of the experimental design technique for process optimisation have been reported by both US and European manufacturers over the last ten years. This paper illustrates an application of Taguchi methods (TM) in an industrial setting for identifying the critical factors affecting a certain process and subsequently reducing process variability. Both the analysis of variance (ANOVA) on mean response and the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) have been carried out for determining the optimal condition of the process. A significant improvement in the process performance was observed in terms of variation reduction.
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Fernando Ruiz-Pérez, Álvaro Lleó, Elisabeth Viles and Daniel Jurburg
This paper unifies previous research literature on employee participation in continuous improvement (CI) activities through the development and validation of a conceptual model…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper unifies previous research literature on employee participation in continuous improvement (CI) activities through the development and validation of a conceptual model. The purpose of this model is to illustrate how organizational drivers foster organizational and individual enablers which, in turn, strengthen employee participation in CI. The article also discusses the results and managerial implications.
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, the article introduces the main variables affecting employee participation in CI, looking at the different possible relationships proposed in existing literature. In accordance with the Kaye and Anderson (1999) framework, these variables are categorized into organizational drivers, organizational and individual enablers and individual outcomes. Based on these categories, a model was put forward and empirically validated using data collected from three Spanish companies (n = 483) and using partial least squares structural equations modelling (PLS–SEM).
Findings
A model was put forward, proposing PIRK systems (power, information, rewards, knowledge) as the main organizational driver of employee participation in CI activities. PIRK impacts positively on social influence (organizational enabler), self-efficacy and job satisfaction (individual enablers). These enablers, together with employee intention of participating, help determine employee participation in CI activities.
Practical implications
Organizations with CI programmes should develop systems based on employee empowerment, information, rewards and knowledge in order to foster their self-efficacy and seek out a culture where social influence may help to improve job satisfaction. By suitably managing these organizational drivers, managers can help to further develop certain organizational and individual enablers responsible for fostering employee participation in CI activities.
Originality/value
By unifying different behavioural and CI-related frameworks, this paper carries out an in-depth study into the process of fostering employee participation as the key aspect in helping organizations sustain CI programmes. This paper shows the importance of managing PIRK organizational drivers as levers in the process of developing certain organizational and individual enablers, which are responsible for enhancing employee participation in CI.
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This chapter attempts to uncover the decision code of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, based on 12 decisions he made concerning the Middle East during his third term as president…
Abstract
This chapter attempts to uncover the decision code of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, based on 12 decisions he made concerning the Middle East during his third term as president, from 2012 until October 2015.
The study was carried out to understand Putin’s line of thought and decision-making, in light of Putin’s increasing importance throughout the last decade, globally and in the Middle East, in particular. After understanding the decision calculus of Putin, it might also be possible to predict his future decisions concerning the region.
Decision rules can be inferred by analyzing a set of decisions. Analysis of such decisions is made in this chapter using the Applied Decision Analysis (ADA) method that uncovers historic decisions, and aims to peer into the mind of the decision-maker.
The results show the main decision rule for each of Putin’s decisions. The work proves that when it comes to foreign issues, the decision code which leads Putin in his decisions is rational. The results also reveal Putin’s strong desire to promote Russia and himself, while using holistic, maximizing, and compensatory processing, as long as his political survival is not compromised.