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Clear alignment between business and individual performance together with reinforcement of core values is the optimal route to operational effectiveness. Nortel's fixed wireless access division's system of aligning performance measures incorporates behaviour into the process.

Measurement of customer satisfaction is integral to a culture of continuous improvement. But Nortel, the telecommunications multinational has taken it a step further in developing a practical process and tool kit for the enhancement of customer loyalty through customer value management for competitive advantage.

Describes, utilising practical examples/results, how Nortel Wireless Networks initially recognised the need to enhance the existing emphasis on purely customer satisfaction to that of an evolving focus on customer loyalty, i.e. retaining customers and generating repeat orders. It also highlights how the business evolved the existing customer satisfaction process taking into account global customer base requirements such as language, culture and respondent influence within the recipient organisation, the process by which this was enacted, and the rationale behind the evolution from a customer satisfaction strategy to that of a customer value management methodology leading towards increased customer loyalty. Details the current process by which customer value management is being rolled out through the organisation.

ADDITIVES today are important ingredients in lubricating compositions whose efficiency they enhance by an improvement in certain desired characteristics. The inclusion of such substances in lubricating mixtures has therefore occupied the attention of both the engineer and chemist.

The net effect of the discussion on business process re‐engineering and total quality management has been to focus attention on cross‐functional business flows‐the processes by which organizations actually function. The relative success or failure of an organization can therefore be seen in terms of the relative robustness of its business processes to the dynamics of both its internal and external environments. The increasing use of cross‐functional and multidisciplinary teams to identify and manage process improvement opportunities is a characteristic of the increasing need for an integrated management approach to successful process management. In recent years, the European Quality Award (EQA) model has been used increasingly by organizations to undertake self‐assessments of their business and organizational performance. Describes the framework of the EQA model, and how organizations can use self‐assessment against the EQA model as a strategic tool to build process robustness and achieve integrated management.

LONG before man learnt to make fire by the friction of wood, he experienced the burden of friction in dragging home his kill. Perhaps it is not too fanciful to suppose that the torn sides of his beast gave the first solid lubricant. Blood and mutton fat were seriously recommended as lubricants for church bell trunnions as recently as the 17th century. Indoed we still reckon fatty acids the best of all boundary lubricants. The range of man's activities has increased enormously in the present century, and particularly in the last few decades. Men have circled the earth in space; a space ship is on its way to examine another planet; terrestrial man is boring to the bottom of the earth's crust; others have descended to the depths of the ocean, and oven established a home on the floor of the Mediterranean, Speeds have increased by factors of thousands, temperatures range from near absolute zero to thousands of degrees; and a new environment of high‐intensity nuclear radiation has been created. Still, objects must move over and along each other in these exotic conditions; and to a large extent solid lubricants can provide the answer to the frictional problems.

This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework to explore the link between strategic human resource management (SHRM) and firm performance of the coal mining companies in Central Queensland (CQ), Australia.

The paper reviews literature relating to the process and issues of transforming human resource practices and industrial relations of the coal industry in Australia for the past decade. Theoretical development and empirical studies on the SHRM‐performance linkage are discussed. Based on the literature review, the paper develops an integrated model for testing the relationship between SHRM and firm performance in the context of CQ's coalmines and proposes a number of research propositions.

Three perceivable outcomes are likely derived from application of this framework in the field. First, a testing of the linkage between strategic HRM and firm performance in the coal industry, using an integrated approach, would complement the empirical deficiency of treatments on the prior SHRM models. Second, data at firm level could be collected to develop a better understanding of how the adoption of strategic HRM practices in coal companies can affect firm performance. Third, the extent of flexibility practices, use of contractors and associated management practices could be identified.

The coal industry is central to economic development of regional Queensland. The industry contributes substantially to GDP via employment, investment and product export. An exploration of the impact of SHRM on the coal industry will likely result in identifying some best practices that could be potentially adopted in the wider business community to foster regional economic development in Australia and worldwide.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the requirements of accounting graduates in relation to generic attributes. Employers have consistently maintained that graduates are deficient in this area. This Australia‐wide, all‐sector study addresses the issue by examining what employers mean when they make demands for universities and academics to deliver work‐ready graduates.

Interviews (recorded, transcribed and analysed with NVivo) with employers, and accounting professional bodies were conducted to ascertain their views of their needs of accounting graduates into the future.

Employers held the generic attributes of communication, team work and self‐management to be the most critical for graduates in the three areas of recruitment, training and ongoing employment. Demands on universities to deliver work‐ready graduates are not homogeneous. Employers in different sectors construe the meaning of generic attributes in line with their specific needs.

The study was an original piece of work that gauged the opinions of professional accounting bodies and employers of accounting graduates across Australia and in all sectors of the accounting profession. The value of the study is to inform academics as to the ranked importance of generic attributes but also alert them to the different meanings that are assigned to these skills by employers in different sectors.

The aim of this paper is to set a research agenda which will explore the link between strategic human resource management (HRM) and business performance of the coal industry in Central Queensland, Australia.

Key performance indicators of coalmines are collected from official statistics and other publicly available records. A survey instrument is to be designed and used to collect data related to experiences and perceptions of managers and employees in coalmines. Statistical tools are used to test interrelationships between key variables.

The research will be the first empirical study of the link between strategic HRM and business performance of the coal industry. The research outcomes will contribute to the body of knowledge concerning the relationship between strategic HRM and business performance. Studying people management practices in the coal industry enables us to paint a clearer picture of the key HRM issues currently faced by the industry. As management educators, we may be more able, as a result of this study, to provide solutions to some identified problems in the industry.

The coal industry is very important to sustainable regional economic development. An analysis of the impact of people management approaches to business performance is likely to lead to identifying some best practices that can be potentially adopted in the wider regional business community.

This study considers the impact of an experiential visual-based learning pedagogy on students undertaking a business start-up module. The current undergraduate student is different with a dependency culture on a range of electronic media (e.g. mobile phone, laptop, tablets) underpinning their existence. The term ‘digitally demanding’ has been coined to describe such individuals. Such individuals think and act in a different way expecting immediate personal solutions to problems they encounter. Thus, there is a need to challenge their mindsets and thought processes to think in a creative and innovative manner to identify appropriate decisions. Educational pedagogy requires a significant mind shift to create enterprising and creative individuals for the modern organisation. The focus of this study is upon enabling students to develop a valid and robust business idea through use of visual learning methods that is described here as ‘rapid entrepreneurial action’.