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Article
Publication date: 13 November 2017

Hadi Ghaderi, Stephen Cahoon and Hong-Oanh Nguyen

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to empirically evaluate the key impediments to the competitiveness of the rail sector in Australia; and second, to provide relevant…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to empirically evaluate the key impediments to the competitiveness of the rail sector in Australia; and second, to provide relevant transport management and policy recommendations for enhanced competitiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper has adopted an empirical approach. A survey was developed and distributed among rail stakeholders in Australia. Accordingly, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to evaluate the key impeding areas.

Findings

This paper found four areas that are impeding rail development, these being infrastructure management, shortage of freight data and poor information sharing, service delivery and organisational and commercial interactions.

Research limitations/implications

The theoretical approach of this thesis can be applied to any freight market where competition exists between different transport modes. However, the specific strategies provided in this research in terms of transportation management, infrastructure planning and policy were made according to the specific market condition, infrastructure quality and regulation that exist in Australia.

Practical implications

The findings provide important implications for both industry and government in terms of making transport planning and policy decisions, but also useful insights by identifying the weak parts of the rail sector and directions to target them.

Originality/value

The notion of the rail stakeholder does not appear to have been previously defined in the literature. Therefore, this research takes a broader view of rail stakeholders to include various interest groups within the rail sector and its operational environment.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. 29 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-5855

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Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 7 June 2021

Sonia Sadeghian Esfahani, Stephen Cahoon, Shu-Ling Chen, Hilary Pateman and Seyed Mojtaba Sajadi

This paper aims to examine 12 factors influencing environmental activity adoption by Australian logistics companies.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine 12 factors influencing environmental activity adoption by Australian logistics companies.

Design/methodology/approach

After a literature review and collect the major factors influencing environmental activity adoption, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Friedman test are used to cluster and prioritize these factors through a Web survey.

Findings

The results of EFA show that these factors belong to three main groups including social and economic, pressure and governmental factors. The results of a Friedman test prioritizes 12 factors to find which factors have the greatest importance toward the adoption of environmental activity by managers of Australian logistics companies and reveals that governmental regulation, fuel and energy prices and the potential for achieving a competitive advantage, had the first to third ranking, respectively. Some new influencing factors in implementing environmental activities are found such as the willingness to be the market leader, responsibility and risk mitigation.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the new factors influencing environmental adoption.

Practical implications

Australian logistics managers can use the results of this paper in developing their strategies and public policymakers can also use these results to improve sustainable development.

Originality/value

This is the first paper that clusters and prioritizes factors influencing environmental adoption in the Australian logistics industry.

Details

Maritime Business Review, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2397-3757

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Article
Publication date: 12 January 2015

Hadi Ghaderi, Jiangang Fei and Stephen Cahoon

– The purpose of this paper is to identify current impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in the Australian non-bulk freight market.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify current impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in the Australian non-bulk freight market.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review was adapted to identify the impediments and challenge themes from 1,081 studies available on the Australian rail industry. To select the studies relevant to the research question, a tollgate criterion was then deployed. Impediments were identified by a structured data synthesis process and a heuristic algorithm was developed to explore the possible relationships between the impediments and challenges.

Findings

Four major themes are apparent, each of which presents the rail industry with challenges in the non-bulk freight market. “Infrastructural inefficiencies and the need for further integration” was ranked as the main rail industry challenge, while “environmental concerns and the associated costs of externalities” was the least. In addition, across the four themes data synthesis identified 43 impediments from purely policy related to technical and operational aspects.

Research limitations/implications

The major implication of this review is the identification of impediments that have no linkage to the four industry challenges as revealed by stakeholders in the literature. That means that the rail industry has been dealing with a number of issues that have not been explored and studied in depth either by practitioners or academics. The underlying elements of impediments in this group are perceived as managerial, organisational and leadership factors. The rail industry has failed to manage its organisational ties across the system, both horizontally and vertically. This issue has been intensified as the result of complex interactions between different transport modes and operators associated with the non-bulk freight sector.

Originality/value

For the first time in the Australian context, this study provides an en masse and summarised picture of impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in the non-bulk freight market by systematically reviewing the reports generated by different stakeholders in the last ten years. The outcomes will assist the rail industry and government to understand impediments impacting on the quality of rail freight services that may lead to collaboration on decision-making and investment strategies.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-5855

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Article
Publication date: 30 August 2011

Vinh V. Thai, Stephen Cahoon and Hai T. Tran

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current profile of skills and knowledge of Australian logistics professionals and identify important requirements for the future.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current profile of skills and knowledge of Australian logistics professionals and identify important requirements for the future.

Design/methodology/approach

The study targeted the population of 1,300 professional members of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Australia, employing the triangulation of both mail survey and in‐depth interview techniques. A total of 147 usable questionnaires were returned and seven interviews conducted. Data were analysed using the SPSS 13.0 software and thematic analysis technique.

Findings

It is found that all proposed business‐, logistics‐ and management‐related skills and knowledge are important for logistics professionals. Logistics‐related skill and knowledge set was found to be the area that educational and training institution in Australia should particularly aim at to further equip local logistics workforce with substantial skills and knowledge to perform their job successfully. In addition, universities and other training institutions should focus on developing and providing specific courses, especially professional development courses, to prepare logistics professionals with a broader skill set for the future.

Research limitations/implications

The major limitation of this research is that the revised BLM framework has just been tested only in Australia. Future research direction is desired, e.g. conducting the study using the same instruments in other countries to increase the reliability and validity of the proposed revised framework.

Originality/value

Although this study was designed on the BLM framework, it has gone further to elaborate the framework and incorporated a number of additional skills and knowledge which are considered to be critical in the contemporary business environment, and thus it helps to enrich the contemporary literature on logistics knowledge and skill set for logistics professionals. This study is also of benefit to managers in logistics firms as they can identify important skills and knowledge to improve on, while policy makers and educational and training bodies can also use the findings from this research to design and implement courses which are necessary to facilitate skill and knowledge development for logistics workforce.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-5855

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Book part
Publication date: 17 October 2022

Heather McLaughlin and Colm Fearon

Although female participation in the labour market has increased significantly over the last 50 years, transport remains a male dominated sector and maritime transport in

Abstract

Although female participation in the labour market has increased significantly over the last 50 years, transport remains a male dominated sector and maritime transport in particular appears to lag behind other modes. It is important to recognise that maritime careers struggle to recruit more generally. This chapter considers the gender gap in the maritime industry and asks what would make the maritime industry more attractive to women. It explores the literature through the lenses of career-decision, career decidedness and career self-efficacy in order to present a conceptual model to explain the persistent gap and consider what could be done to address it. Career choices, development and performance are affected by contextual variables, both personal and environmental, which can promote or hinder career development outcomes. In maritime transport, career perception, workplace culture, social capital and development opportunities still play a major part in the decision-making process and deter women from engaging with the maritime profession. This chapter proposes four interventions to effect much-needed change.

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Article
Publication date: 1 July 1993

Steven H. Appelbaum and Barbara T. Shapiro

While some women have emerged as leaders within contemporaryorganizations, they occupy one‐third of managerial and professorialpositions in Canada while composing approximately…

1262

Abstract

While some women have emerged as leaders within contemporary organizations, they occupy one‐third of managerial and professorial positions in Canada while composing approximately one‐half of the workforce. At top managerial levels, they occupy less than 5 per cent of senior positions. Earlier research identified “female deficiencies” as a reason why few women have made it to the top. Other findings have indicated that following a masculine model has both advantages and disadvantages for aspiring women managers. Developmental differences between both sexes has helped to explain some of the problems for leaders and followers. Interactive leadership styles utilized by women have been beneficial in moving both genders towards a solution insofar as this style involves four factors: encouraging participation; sharing power and information; enhancing self‐worth of others and finally, energizing others. The use of an androgynous leadership model has not yielded significant findings but there are common characteristics of successful leaders combining both the masculine and feminine models. Organizations and their top leaders need to expand their definition of effective leadership so that an interactive style can be valued, allowing these organizations to be flexible in surviving within an increasingly competitive and diverse environment.

Details

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 14 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7739

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 1992

In this section we look at flexible working practices for women returners; dual‐career families; gender differences in management; dependant care in the USA; and stress in married…

45

Abstract

In this section we look at flexible working practices for women returners; dual‐career families; gender differences in management; dependant care in the USA; and stress in married professional women.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 13 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 September 2021

Yamini Meduri

This study aims to explain the importance of human resources and attempts to identify the competencies required by the personnel involved in disaster management operations.

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explain the importance of human resources and attempts to identify the competencies required by the personnel involved in disaster management operations.

Design/methodology/approach

The research uses a qualitative methodology to explore the competencies required by the relief workers using a content analysis approach to analyze the disaster literature and the job advertisements. The data for the content analysis was developed with the help of 23 independent coders, and exploratory inferences were drawn.

Findings

A detailed review of the literature highlighted the importance of competent personnel in disaster relief organizations. The analysis listed 34 mutually exclusive competencies and their relative importance, which were further divided into four competency clusters. The study also creates a competency dictionary that defines the competencies with the expected behaviors.

Practical implications

Deploying the right resources in the acute time frame during a disaster event can make a difference, and with lives at stake, such deployment acquires prime importance. In addition to contributing to humanitarian logistics literature, the competency model developed will also help forecast the future requirements and help the organization choose “the right person for the right job.”

Originality/value

The inferences drawn in the study are based on disaster management areas, unlike earlier research which also considered business logistics research.

Details

RAUSP Management Journal, vol. 56 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2531-0488

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Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2009

Kevin C. Wooten

Changes in the traditional values, institutional context, and choice of change programs are currently shaping the postmodern science and practice of organization development (OD)…

Abstract

Changes in the traditional values, institutional context, and choice of change programs are currently shaping the postmodern science and practice of organization development (OD). These changes manifest themselves in powerful new value orientations, intervention frameworks, and practices that challenge OD's long-held beliefs in ethical and justice-based treatment. In this effort, traditional and new paradigm ethical dilemmas are explored, as well as their relationship to four postmodern practices and five emergent intervention techniques. Components of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice are explained relative to change management programs generally, and to emergent techniques specifically. Published case illustrations are used to depict new paradigm ethical dilemmas and opportunities to create a “just change.”

Details

Research in Organizational Change and Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-547-1

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Article
Publication date: 8 January 2018

Rameshwar Dubey, Angappa Gunasekaran, Stephen J. Childe and Thanos Papadopoulos

A shortage of skills is recognized as a major source of risk in supply chain networks. This study uses two independent organizational theories to explain how to build applicable…

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Abstract

Purpose

A shortage of skills is recognized as a major source of risk in supply chain networks. This study uses two independent organizational theories to explain how to build applicable skills for continuous availability of appropriate supply chain talents. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated framework that links human agency theory, social capital theory and supply chain skill.

Design/methodology/approach

This framework is analyzed in third party logistics (3PL) organizations by confirmatory factor analysis and tested using a survey. After pre-testing by six academics and six practitioners, and following the total design method, the data were collected from 183 3PL organizations in India. Data were checked to ensure no non-response bias. Research hypotheses were tested using WarpPLS-structural equation modeling.

Findings

A primary finding offers guidance to 3PL managers. Their driving role and mediating role of access to information and access to resources facilitate building supply chain skill. Leaders who invest in library, acquiring e-resources, offer financial support and create trust among employees are enablers of building supply chain skill.

Originality/value

This study classified 14 supply chain skills into three categories as: managerial skill, quantitative skill and supply chain core skill. The study could be extended to similar companies in other developing countries.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 56 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

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