An education and training framework for disaster risk management in banks

Banks are the most significant financial institutions operating within nation-state and the global financial system. These institutions are exposed to a wide range of operational risks. Disaster risk management is a critical component of the wider operational risk management. The Bank for International Settlements, in conjunction with nation-state prudential regulators, is introducing measures that will require banks to identify, measure and manage operational risks within the context of new capital adequacy requirements. An essential part of any risk management process is education and training. This paper presents a structured education and training framework that will support the achievement of banks’ disaster risk management objectives. The education and training framework comprises three specific programs: (1) an induction/awareness program targeted to all personnel, (2) a contingency planning program – a specialist program for disaster risk management personnel, and (3) an executive program designed for senior management, directors and strategic decision makers.

Critical success factors for the requirements engineering process, with reference to quality management of information systems development

Preliminary research into the critical factors associated with software development/implementation identified three dimensions for successful implementation based on alignment of the requirements engineering process with business needs, change management process and quality of the implementation process. Research results demonstrate the link between the conceptual model for process quality and the process management attributes determined during the research.

Diffusing knowledge-based core competencies for leveraging innovation strategies: modelling outsourcing to knowledge process organizations (KPOs) in pharmaceutical networks

As pharmaceutical firms try to market their products and reduce costs, vertically integrated structureshamper innovation processes. Yet, pharmaceutical firms must innovate to compete. Outsourcing knowledgeintensive activities to knowledge process organizations (KPOs) serves to reduce innovation process obstacles.Grounded in diffusion theory and strategic management literature, this conceptual paper explores fourinterrelated strategic concepts: core competencies, economies of scale and scope, knowledge sharing,and learning. This paper claims that (a) accumulated core competencies of multinational pharmaceuticalcompanies (MPCs) erode over time and these companies become dependent on KPOs (b) MPCs mustunderstand how KPOs manage core competencies (c) economies of scope benefit KPOs enabling them tosustain competitive advantages for their MPC partners, meanwhile the benefits from economies of both scaleand scope shift from MPCs to KPOs (d) KPOs need to monitor their rate of learning to remain competitive.The paper identifies implications for industrial managers and directions for future research.

Agency theory, national culture and management Control Systems

Management control system of an organization is the structured facet of management, the formal vehicle by which the management process is executed. In most organizations, systems exist for planning, organizing, directing, controlling and motivating. Depending on the level of appropriateness and quality of the management control systems, the task of management is either facilitated or hindered. The end goal of a management control system is achieving organizational objectives. Because employees (agents) do not always give their best efforts for achieving organizational objectives, management control systems need to strive for aligning goals of agents (e.g., employees, subordinates) with that of principals (e.g., senior management, owners). Agency theory and its extension, principal agent model, provide insights to the problem of goal congruence and suggest remedies, at least in the Western cultural context. Whether the agency theory presumptions, predictions and prescriptions are universally applicable is an important issue in management. Their validity in different cultural contexts is largely unknown. The available literature to date indicates the possibility that agency theory may not be valid in non-western cultures. However, further empirical research is needed in non-western cultures to shed more light to this issue.

International strategy: is it meeting the challenge?

The paper proposes an IS process model comprising inputs, development, outputs and a feedback loop based on performance measurement and its interpretation. The feedback impacts on the inputs and development components. Inputs are comprised of market information. human resources, diversity, value creation and host country environmental factors. Development includes preparation and learning. planning and scrutinising partnerships. anticipating impacts of globalisation and experience effects. Outputs comprise structure, scope of operations, target countries. facility location and positioning. Performance interpretation explains rapid and major changes in IS outputs, such as structure and business unit portfolios, whilst process complexity explains observed output similarities for organisations reacting to similar inputs and suggests an evolutionary approach in their determination.

The 10th Greek Festival of Sydney : a stakeholder analysis

In response to the demand for the adoption of a corporate culture by not-for-profit festivals, festival organizations increasingly identify strategic planning process and stakeholder management as crucial components for successful events. The purpose of this article is to present a framework developed for categorizing ethnic festivals stakeholders from a functional role (i.e., marketing, administration, and production) and an ethnic origin (i.e., Greek, Greek-Australian, and non-Greek origin) orientated perspective. The proposed framework was developed and applied to the 20th Greek Festival of Sydney (GFS), which was held in 2002, by identifying, categorizing, and examining the role of its stakeholders in the management and delivery of the event. The identification of the type of stakeholders, the ways they influence the GFS organization, and the strategic implications that derived from their involvement are addressed. The methodology utilized to develop the stakeholder framework was qualitative in nature. It combined triangulated data that derived from a number of interviews with representatives from the GFS administration, participant observations, and content analysis of internal documents and reports. The GFS stakeholder analysis offered an understanding of the several marketing-, administration-, and production-related strategic implications to the organization and running of the festival, such as the impact on its content, participants, and future development. The proposed framework derives from the GFS case study, yet it has the potential to be used for the examination of stakeholders' strategic implications to other ethnic festivals.

Views from the executive suite : lessons from the introduction of performance management

Performance management introduced to the senior health executive levels in the New South Wales public health care system included the senior executive service in 1989 and, as a key element of that service, performance agreements in 1990. This is the first qualitative study examining senior health executives' personal experiences of these changes. In consideration of what has been learnt from the most relevant literature and this study, this paper concludes that the introduction and implementation performance management is a continuous process. This process includes the key steps of planning, measuring, monitoring and evaluating. It can be used as a means to achieve overall effective organisation performance by bringing in a two way management process for the organisation and its senior health executives.

A survey of management accounting practices in South Africa

This paper reports on a survey of management accounting practices in 52 South African firms. The survey was conducted in 2001 between January and April. The changes that have taken place in the field of management accounting and the factors that may have prompted management accounting change are also documented. Our findings indicate an increased use of most of the management accounting practices advocated in management accounting literature, in the sampled firms. Modern management accounting techniques such as activity based costing and balanced scorecard type performance measures are used together with the traditional management techniques such as budgeting and standard costing. Further, our survey revealed a significant change occurring in management accounting practices in South Africa in recent years. Such a change is mainly attributed to the opening up of the South African economy in the early 1990s.

Integration of an internet-driven supply chain for a medium-size e-commerce company

This research aimed at discovering the benefits and challenges of integration across a company's e-supply chain. The research involved a single case study of an Australian e-commerce company. In our work, we first formed a framework of benefits and challenges for e-supply chain integration, which was based on the beliefs held by management consultants. After conducting interviews with various organisational stakeholders of an e-commerce company, we found that although some of the elicited opinions matched those expressed by consultants, others provided their refinement in respect to a medium size, rapidly evolving, start-up company. We also discovered challenges, seemingly ignored by the consultants, which concerned changing market conditions and limited economies of scale perceived as seriously impeding SCM integration. Also, the ability to develop and maintain scalable and effective information systems was found to impact the capacity to integrate services across the e-supply chain. The case study's single most important contribution was to bring to our attention the importance of organisational and environmental maturity in the strategic planning of the supply chain management process.

The never-ending quest : effective strategy-making and change management for high-performing VET organisations

This report summarises the evaluation of projects undertaken in 2001-02 as part of Reframing the Future's sub-program on Strategic Management and Change Management. It argues every Registered Training Organisation (RTO) in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia needs managers who can design effective strategies.

From efficiency to effectiveness :a new management model of social inclusion

This paper challenges the tendency in the contemporary management literature to conceptualize management within a micro-framework that focuses on short-term efficiency and privatized economic gain. Based on a literature review of social-relation theories, we propose a new management model of social inclusion for general management across contexts with a particular concern for profit-for organizations. The model conceptualizes management within a systemic societal framework where its effectiveness is demonstrated for society, organizations, groups and individuals.  We suggest that management based on the collectivistic values of shared humanity and social inclusion (not only organization) is expected to reduce management-led systematic marginalization in the workplace and social whole. For the purpose of this paper, we define management as “mutually interdependent activities that add value to individuals’, groups’, organizations’ and societal wellbeing by ensuring social inclusion at each of these dimensions.” We term this management process ‘Management Process of Social Inclusion’ as it extends management perspectives to not only organizational effectiveness but societal effectiveness. The paper concludes by proposing several propositions and implications for future research.

Supply chain management security : the weak link of Australian critical infrastructure protection

Secure management of Australia’s commercial Critical Infrastructure presents ongoing challenges to both the owners of this infrastructure as well as to the Australian Federal government. The security management process is currently managed through high-level information sharing via collaboration, but does this situation suit the commercial sector? One of the issues facing Australia is that the majority of critical infrastructure resides under the control of the business sector and certain aspects such of the critical infrastructure such as Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems are distributed entities that span a number of commercial organisations. Another issue is that these SCM systems can be used for the transportation of varied items, such as retail items or food. This paper will explore the security issue related to food SCM systems and their relationship to critical infrastructure. The paper will focuses upon the security and risk issues associated with SCM system protection within the realms of critical infrastructure protection. The paper will review the security standard ISO 28000 - Supply Chain Security Management Standard. The paper will propose a new conceptual security risk analysis approach that will form the basis of a future Security Risk Analysis approach. This new approach will be aimed at protecting SCM systems.

An overview of previous studies in stakeholder management and its implications for construction industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of previous studies in the field of stakeholder management, and propose implications for the construction industry.

Design/methodology/approach – Three major databases are searched: ABI, EI CompendexWeb, and ISI web of knowledge. Papers are searched on topic by using the keywords of “stakeholder management”, “management of stakeholders” and “management of stakeholder”. A brief review of the abstracts and conclusions of these papers is conducted to filter out the irrelevant and/or duplicate papers. After filtering, 159 articles with content relevant to stakeholder management are selected for analysis.

Findings – An overview of previous studies reveals that research interest in stakeholder management has turned to the descriptive approach. Through a critical review of stakeholder management process, three main problems of previous studies are identified: very few methods and tools are available to identify all stakeholders and their interests; limited studies involve the change management about the stakeholders' influence and relationship; and few studies are capable of reflecting the influence of the entire relationship network in practice.

Research limitations/implications – Two implications for the construction industry are suggested: establish a practical framework for managing stakeholders; and apply social network theory (SNT) in developing a stakeholder relationship model.

Originality/value – The overview and implications lead to new knowledge and an improved understanding of the management of multiple stakeholders in construction projects. The perspective of SNT avoids the deficiency of Freeman's dyadic ties model, and the project managers can make decisions in response to the stakeholder behaviours according to the entire relationship.

Communicating the ethos of corporate codes of ethics in the UK and the USA

Business ethics has been a consideration for corporations in the USA since at least the early 1960s, whilst in the UK this interest in business ethics appears to be just over 20 years old. In a survey of the top 500 companies operating in the private sector in the UK and the USA, it would appear that corporations operating in the UK have embraced the ethos of codes of ethics differently to their USA counterparts and that this difference may well be in line with their different adoption rates over the last 50 years of the need for business ethics in organizations. The USA seems to lead the UK in most areas, except when it comes to ethical audits and incorporating the ethics code into the strategic planning process. Could this omission in respect to strategic planning be the Achilles Heel of US business?