Like quality management, personalising the service is about changing the organisational culture. Experience of Trent Health′s Personal Service Initiative has identified subtle but…
Abstract
Like quality management, personalising the service is about changing the organisational culture. Experience of Trent Health′s Personal Service Initiative has identified subtle but crucially important changes in the ways in which staff and managers think and act. This may not in itself be culture change but action of this kind is seen as an important step along this road. The lessons of successful personal service are identical to the principles of quality management. The strength of the regionwide initiative is that these lessons have been learned through action. Our personal service experience is now underpinning the work which units are doing on quality. The personal service message is important in communicating commitment to quality achievement. It is a simple common goal for the whole organisation which generates the level of enthusiasm and action which turns quality into reality.
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Explores the history of quality management, commenting on the work of many of the quality “gurus”. Considers the relationship between quality management and the management science…
Abstract
Explores the history of quality management, commenting on the work of many of the quality “gurus”. Considers the relationship between quality management and the management science of operational research.
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Safety precautions in the use of raw materials, in manufacturing and processing, marketing and enforcement of food and drug law on purity and quality may appear nowadays to be…
Abstract
Safety precautions in the use of raw materials, in manufacturing and processing, marketing and enforcement of food and drug law on purity and quality may appear nowadays to be largely a matter of routine, with manufacturers as much involved and interested in maintaining a more or less settled equilibrium as the enforcement agencies. Occasionally the peace is shattered, eg, a search and recovery operation of canned goods of doubtful bacterial purity or containing excess metal contamination, seen very much as an isolated incident; or the recent very large enforcement enterprise in the marketing of horseflesh (and other substitutions) for beef. The nationwide sale and distribution of meat on such a vast scale, only possible by reason of marketing methods — frozen blocks of boneless meat, which even after thawing out is not easily distinguishable from the genuine even in the eye of the expert; this is in effect only a fraud always around in the long ago years built up into a massive illicit trade.
Julian N. Marewski, Konstantinos V. Katsikopoulos and Simone Guercini
Are there smart ways to find heuristics? What are the common principles behind heuristics? We propose an integrative definition of heuristics, based on insights that apply to all…
Abstract
Purpose
Are there smart ways to find heuristics? What are the common principles behind heuristics? We propose an integrative definition of heuristics, based on insights that apply to all heuristics, and put forward meta-heuristics for discovering heuristics.
Design/methodology/approach
We employ Herbert Simon’s metaphor that human behavior is shaped by the scissors of the mind and its environment. We present heuristics from different domains and multiple sources, including scholarly literature, practitioner-reports and ancient texts.
Findings
Heuristics are simple, actionable principles for behavior that can take different forms, including that of computational algorithms and qualitative rules-of-thumb, cast into proverbs or folk-wisdom. We introduce heuristics for tasks ranging from management to writing and warfare. We report 13 meta-heuristics for discovering new heuristics and identify four principles behind them and all other heuristics: Those principles concern the (1) plurality, (2) correspondence, (3) connectedness of heuristics and environments and (4) the interdisciplinary nature of the scissors’ blades with respect to research fields and methodology.
Originality/value
We take a fresh look at Simon’s scissors-metaphor and employ it to derive an integrative perspective that includes a study of meta-heuristics.
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Abel Duarte Alonso and Martin A. O'Neill
Winery operators and viticulturalists alike face many challenges in their daily and annual work cycle; not least the challenge of producing annually a consistent quality product…
Abstract
Purpose
Winery operators and viticulturalists alike face many challenges in their daily and annual work cycle; not least the challenge of producing annually a consistent quality product and getting that product to the market in an ever competitive marketplace. While climate has always been a factor when it comes to meeting this challenge, it has become all the more pronounced recently due to the effects of global climatic change. Against this background, this paper aims to explore the effects of climate change from the perspective of winery operators in three prominent Spanish wine producing regions.
Design/methodology/approach
Wineries in La Mancha, La Rioja and Penedès, totalling 570, were contacted electronically and invited to participate in an online survey. Of these businesses, 94 participated, a 16.5 per cent response rate.
Findings
While it was found that generally climate change is not among growers' main challenges, three distinct groups emerged from this study: the “unbelievers,” the cautiously sceptical and the “believers”. This last and largest group of respondents (41.5 per cent) not only acknowledges changes due to climate change, but also strategies already in place to minimise the effects of climate change, suggesting the severity of the problem.
Research limitations/implications
Comparisons among the three participating wine regions were not possible due to the low number of respondents from one of the regions. Also, the total number of respondents does not allow for making the study's findings generalisable.
Practical implications
The wine industry, its stakeholders and government agencies need to work together to monitor any changes and find ways to address negative effects of climate change that may result in increased water usage, pesticides or changes in labour demand.
Originality/value
The study provides new insights into climate change according to winery operators' perspectives, an area that to date has received very limited attention from researchers.
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Dirk De Clercq and George Saridakis
The purpose of this paper is to examine the hitherto unexplored relationship between employees’ perceptions of informational injustice with respect to change and their negative…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the hitherto unexplored relationship between employees’ perceptions of informational injustice with respect to change and their negative workplace emotions, as well as how this relationship might be mitigated by structural and relational features of the organizational context.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on quantitative data collected through the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Survey. The hypotheses are tested with ordered probit analysis using random effects.
Findings
The findings show that informational injustice enhances the development of negative workplace emotions, yet this effect is attenuated at higher levels of job influence, reward interdependence, trust, and organizational commitment.
Research limitations/implications
The findings contribute by identifying several contingencies that attenuate the harmful effect of informational injustice with respect to change on negative workplace emotions. The limitations of the study include the lack of data on change-specific outcomes and the reliance on the same respondents to assess the focal variables.
Practical implications
The study suggests that organizations facing the challenge of sharing complete information about internal changes can counter the employee stress that comes with limited information provision by creating appropriate internal environments.
Originality/value
The study adds to research on organizational change by providing a better understanding of an unexplored driver of negative workplace emotions (i.e. informational injustice with respect to change) and explicating when such informational injustice is more or less likely to enhance these emotions.
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This paper aims to test the hypothesized concave relationship between disorganization and individual financial performance using UK Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to test the hypothesized concave relationship between disorganization and individual financial performance using UK Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS) datasets. Given there are no prior studies measuring disorganization we start with using scale items from currently validated scales, WERS, and try to determine the extent to which the current scales are applicable for measuring disorganization and subsequently highlight the limitations of current measures.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on the UK Workplace Employment Relations study (WERS) datasets of 2011 which is the largest publicly accessible dataset available. The datasets used were the financial performance survey (FPS) data and the management survey (MS) data with 545 unique records. Polynomial Regression was used to test the hypotheses. An aggregated index for disorganization (IV) was developed, and a production function was used to determine the individual financial performance per worker (DV).
Findings
A significant linear relationship between disorganization and individual financial performance was discovered. However, this relationship was linear and did not exhibit the theorized concave relationship. The findings further indicated the need for more refined measures of disorganization and limitations of the current measures.
Originality/value
While the study is exploratory in nature, this is the first study to date which attempts to measure disorganization in an applied setting. Thus, the work presented here is foundational to any future empirical studies on the topic. The limitations uncovered are of particular importance.
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Som Sekhar Bhattacharyya, Nikhil Kewalkrishna Mehta and Sumi Jha
The purpose of this study is to comprehend how individuals analysed organisational initiatives while responding to the COVID-19 crisis through corporate social responsibility…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to comprehend how individuals analysed organisational initiatives while responding to the COVID-19 crisis through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives through both in-kind and in cash (funding-based) forms. CSR actions manifested finally towards the achievement of organisational reputational and economic egoism.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted on 331 respondents during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown in India. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Two models were tested. The research models were tested using a statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and AMOS.
Findings
This study considered the evaluation of the in cash (funding-based) and in-kind CSR types of CSR initiatives by individuals with personal cultural characteristics of independence, interdependence and altruism. The results of the first model indicated a significant positive relationship between independence, utilitarian thinking (UT) and organisational economic egoism (OEE). The mediating effect of UT between the independence-OEE relationship was significant. The results of the second model also found a significant relationship between interdependence, deontological thinking (DT) and organisational reputational egoism (ORE). Similarly, there was a significant positive relationship between altruism, DT and ORE. The mediation effect of DT was significant for both the relationships. The moderated mediation relationship of both the first and second model has been found to be significant.
Research limitations/implications
In the research integrated models were developed associating individual personal cultural characteristics of independence, interdependence and altruism with UT and DT and subsequently to organisational economic and reputational egoism.
Practical implications
Managers undertaking CSR initiatives through both in-kind and in cash (funding-based) would be better able to understand based upon these study insights what nature of CSR initiatives (in-kind or in cash) are more appropriate for what kind of individual context (independence, interdependence and altruism) in decision-making (UT and DT) with organisational context (organisational economic and reputational egoism).
Social implications
In the trying realities of the COVID-19 context, firms were contributing to society through CSR initiatives which were both in-kind and in cash (funding-based) in nature. This study emphasised what kind of CSR initiative was more appropriate for what kind of context for both enhanced social good and increased organisational gains.
Originality/value
This was one of the first studies in the context of CSR initiatives during COVID-19 times that analysed evaluation of in cash (funding-based) and in-kind CSR actions. CSR initiatives by individuals with personal cultural characteristics of independence, interdependence and altruism were related to UT and DT and finally manifested towards organisational economic and reputational egoism.