Developing a collection of compact disc sound recordings is beginning to emerge as a goal for many libraries, yet the commitment of resources and energy involved in this effort is…
Abstract
Developing a collection of compact disc sound recordings is beginning to emerge as a goal for many libraries, yet the commitment of resources and energy involved in this effort is not to be taken lightly. In addition to the inevitable practical problems to be solved, there is the rare responsibility of constructing a collection from the ground up, an enterprise particularly challenging with a new medium. Satisfying both patron needs and staff requirements is seldom easy; the task of choosing CD's therefore requires careful thought, planning, and monitoring.
Claretha Hughes, Lionel Robert, Kristin Frady and Adam Arroyos
Claretha Hughes, Lionel Robert, Kristin Frady and Adam Arroyos
This chapter seeks to identify the challenges faced by virtual teams and offers solutions to meet those challenges. Basic underlining concepts behind virtual teams are provided…
Abstract
This chapter seeks to identify the challenges faced by virtual teams and offers solutions to meet those challenges. Basic underlining concepts behind virtual teams are provided along with the most popular forms of virtual teams. Organizational, crowdsourcing, and peer production/online communities are the most common forms of virtual teams. Understanding these basic concepts will help HRD and HRM professionals to develop virtual teams that are suitable for middle- and low-skilled workers. The chapter also presents the various types of communication technologies used in virtual along with the pros and cons associated with each type.
Shitao Yang, Curtis P. McLaughlin, Robert W. Vaughan and John J. Aluise
Uses a professional services setting to study the concept offactory focus. The rapid growth in the US of ambulatory surgery centres(surgicentres) provides an evolving illustration…
Abstract
Uses a professional services setting to study the concept of factory focus. The rapid growth in the US of ambulatory surgery centres (surgicentres) provides an evolving illustration of focused factories in services. Because of the pressures of cost containment, most hospitals have segmented their surgical market, but have adapted their operations in a variety of ways. Some keep the inpatient and outpatient survery integrated in the same facility, while others choose a plant‐with‐a‐plant or a separate facility. Information concerning costs, organizational structure, achievement of the advantages and disadvantages of differentiation from inpatient surgery, service times, waiting times, customer services offered, and future plans were provided by 54 hospital‐owned ambulatory surgery centres. Despite a variety of structural arrangements, the responses were effectively classified by whether or not they shared operating rooms with inpatient surgery. Those who shared operating rooms reported significantly less achievement of the advantages and avoidance of the disadvantages of outpatient surgery. The shared facilities also reported longer waiting times, less patient contact and higher average facility charges, despite no significant differences in length of procedure nor volume of the seven most frequent procedures. Among the centre directors is the OR group, and 53 per cent favoured separation of the two surgical settings. All the directors with separated facilities favoured continued separation. The reasons given to justify integration emphasized economies of scale and safety, while those given for separation were customer‐service‐oriented.
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Carol J. Johnson, Curtis M. Grimm and Valdis Blome
The goal of this research is to identify which service activities contribute most to customer satisfaction in the technical wholesale industry in the Baltic States.
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this research is to identify which service activities contribute most to customer satisfaction in the technical wholesale industry in the Baltic States.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to obtain an understanding of customer service in the countries of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, a mail survey was done to investigate customer service obtained by 184 customers of a large technical wholesale firm doing business in the Baltic States.
Findings
The overall results of this research indicate that in the technical wholesale industry of the Baltic countries customer service contributes to customer satisfaction. Of the six dimensions tested, all of the relationships were in the expected direction. Only one did not contribute significantly to customer satisfaction. In order of importance to customer satisfaction the dimensions are: process quality, product quality, delivery quality, communication, availability and product support.
Research limitations/implications
To obtain more generalizable results, future research areas should include investigating the model using other firms within the same industry, and testing the model in additional industries within the Baltics. Additional research may include testing the model in other countries in Northern and Central Europe such as the well‐developed Scandinavian countries, and the lesser developed countries of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland as well as other areas of the world. This model was tested using data from the technical wholesale industry and additional research may focus on testing the model across different industries in different countries as well.
Practical implications
The results are of relevance to practitioners, in particular for firms expanding to the Baltic area. In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that the level and number of customer service activities provided by technical services firms in the Baltic area of Northern Europe are based solely on management judgment or practices borrowed from competitors without considering the impact of service provision on customer satisfaction. Instead practitioners should consider the process used to deliver services and products.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical work measuring the impact of customer service dimensions on customer satisfaction using data from the Baltic States.
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Although it was ordained in the Beginning, we are told, that mankind should have dominion over the fish of the sea, it is only within comparatively recent times that the ocean has…
Abstract
Although it was ordained in the Beginning, we are told, that mankind should have dominion over the fish of the sea, it is only within comparatively recent times that the ocean has provided man with that very substantial proportion of his food supply now deriving from this source. More and still greater weights of fish are taken from the sea each year, but the food requirements of a hungry world are increasing too, at a rate that is a persistent source of alarm to many, so that any design or device that may decrease wastage and thus expand the quantities of food available, must be given careful thought and consideration. The case for utilising aureomycin or some other antibiotic to reduce fish spoilage has a not unreasonable aspect, but at this year's conference of the Public Health Inspectors' Association, Mr. John D. Syme, who is Chief Port Health Inspector at Grimsby, and should therefore know something about the fishing industry, came out fairly strongly against the idea; he feared it might cause a lowering of standards of hygiene on fishing vessels, and although the duration of voyages could be lengthened, he doubted whether in the long run the condition of the fish on landing would show any improvement. He regarded the step proposed as retrograde and contrary to the generally accepted trend of recent years toward the production of purer food and the elimination of preservatives as far as possible.
The latest report of its Preservatives Sub‐Committee to the Food Standards Committee, which deals with the use of emulsifying and stabilising agents in foods and whose…
Abstract
The latest report of its Preservatives Sub‐Committee to the Food Standards Committee, which deals with the use of emulsifying and stabilising agents in foods and whose recommendations are summarised on another page of this journal, presents to the public analyst what must seem a most formidable prospect. There is a list of eleven organic substances or classes of substances, some of whose names, presumably, may in due course be seen on labels among the ingredients of our foods and whose detection and estimation will consequently sooner or later need to be undertaken in analytical laboratories concerned with quality control. Of the substances recommended for official approval, we are not sure if the assay of any one in a mixed foodstuff could be carried out with any degree of confidence by the average food analyst. The Committee are only too well aware of the technical difficulties they are raising, but quite rightly have not shrunk from suggesting standards or limitations that at present might be regarded as presenting almost insoluble problems of enforcement.
Patrick Lo, Robert Sutherland, Wei-En Hsu and Russ Girsberger
Tarila Zuofa and Edward G. Ochieng
This paper aims to extend the extant knowledge on virtual teams by examining the challenges of virtual project teams in organisations in Nigeria.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to extend the extant knowledge on virtual teams by examining the challenges of virtual project teams in organisations in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Totally, 20 interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed. Validity and reliability were achieved by first assessing the plausibility in terms of already existing knowledge on some of the virtual project team issues identified by participants.
Findings
The findings from this study confirmed the growing relevance of virtual project teams in highly competitive global business environments. It emerged that some of the challenges identified in the study had some level of congruence with those previously identified from similar studies from other geographical locations. The findings also suggested that challenges in virtual project teams can be linked to the organisation, the project team and the virtual environment or even a combination of all.
Practical implications
The present study corroborates the position that managing virtual project teams requires additional efforts to attain their objectives through effective communications and the adoption of appropriate technology.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in its exploration of virtual project team challenges in a sub-Saharan Africa country (Nigeria). By identifying the challenges associated with virtual project teams, stakeholders will be better able to successfully establish and manage virtual project teams better.