Relationship management, the web and organisation performance in Australasia

Relationship management practices, both traditional and employing the Web, were investigated and hypotheses tested concerning the influence of such practices on organisational performance. The reported study, conducted with a sample of Australasian organisations, finds that traditional and online relationship management constructs are discrete, and finds no significant direct influence of the use of relationship management on organisational performance, regardless of whether traditional means of relationship management are employed or the Web is used. It is also reported that environmental turbulence does not moderate this relationship.

International comparisons of construction industry performance: further investigations

While there have been many attempts at comparisons of construction performance over the past 50 years, the results have generally been inconclusive and/or contradictory.

Such comparisons are of great interest to industry, governments and theorists alike but there is little agreement as to how they are best done. A variety of methodologies have been used, however, the lack of satisfactory outcomes has been due largely to one factor, the lack of a truly reliable method for comparing construction costs in different currencies

Exchange rates are recognised as being unsuitable, and while purchasing power parity (PPP) has a long history, the method still has many critics. In addition, the nature of the building industry and its products makes the establishment of reliable construction PPPs very difficult. Both the UN’s International Comparison Program (ICP) and the European Union gather data for the production of construction-specific PPP indices, but neither body publishes them, as there is too much doubt about their reliability.

New approaches are being developed and some are soon to be trialled. This paper looks at the problems, describes and discusses some new approaches, and assesses their potential.

Reflexive and critical views of leadership performance in corporate accomplishment : framework and illustration

Purpose – This paper intends to shed some light on the relationship between leadership performance and corporate accomplishment through the aid of complexity sciences. The objective is to describe leadership performance in corporate accomplishment using different teleological approaches.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the underlying criteria of the relationship between leadership performance and corporate accomplishment. Case illustration and narrative analogy are also provided.

Findings – The authors believe that the discussion highlights a potential downside of leadership performance in corporate accomplishment and its precision rarely highlighted in practice and literature.

Research limitations/implications – There is a reigning assumption in management practice that is based on the belief that a top-down approach of leadership performance in management and business practices is superior to the bottom-up approach. It proffers the assumed importance of strategic management issues, but neglects the knowledge, experience, competence and awareness inherent among employees at tactical and operational levels of business practices. It also proffers a mechanical view of employee performance and ignores the worth of the generation of ideas from subordinates in management and business practices that contribute to corporate achievements. Furthermore, it neglects the fact that it is not possible to know the future nor it is predictable.

Practical implications – The paper contends that the importance of top management tends to be inflated in respect to corporate achievements in the management/leadership literature. It also contends that it should be questioned as to whether the top management of corporations are largely responsible for the corporate results on which they attempt to justify their salaries and other benefits. Furthermore, the paper contends that it also should be questioned as to what extent corporate accomplishment may be derived from the performance of the top management in organizations.

Originality/value – The paper strives to contribute to the ongoing discussion of leadership performance in corporate accomplishment in various ways. The principal contributions are: a set of teleological sub-processes of leadership performance and a case illustration and narrative analogies of teleological leadership performance patterns, in respect to corporate accomplishment in management and business practices. These contributions provide theoretical and managerial ideas and insights to anticipate and avoid deficient or erroneous grounds of leadership performance evaluation in corporate accomplishment.

Managers' trust, reliance on control mechanisms and performance of subordinates

Many organisational scholars claim that interpersonal trust between managers and subordinates will bring about a number of positive organisational outcomes including enhanced job performance in subordinates. Recent management accounting literature implies that the trust's positive effect on performance is achieved by using trust-based controls such as 'social control'. While the former indicates a direct positive relationship between trust and performance, the latter indicates an indirect positive relationship between trust and performance through controls. Whether the trust's relationship with performance is direct or indirect is particularly important issue for management accountants because of the possible implications of the nature of the relationship for the design and exercise of management control in organisations.

An industrial organisation economic supply chain approach for the construction industry : a review

Understanding industries in terms of the concepts of chains, clusters and networks is becoming increasingly important in economies around the world. Supply chain management for an individual organization is an
emerging field of research in the construction management discipline, but less attention has been devoted to investigating the nature of the construction supply chains and their industrial organizational economic environment. This selected review of construction and mainstream management supply chain literature is organized around four themes; distribution, production, strategic procurement management and industrial
organization economics, and highlights the need to develop an industrial organization economic supply chain framework for construction. The merging of the supply chain concept with the industrial organization model
as a methodology for understanding firm conduct and industry structure and performance is an important contribution to both construction supply chain and construction economic theory. Much of the industrial organization supply chain literature has tended to focus upon manufacturing industries, where typically firms are permanent organizations. This raises issues as to the differences between industries founded upon temporary compared with permanent organizations. There is potential for the development of an industrial organization methodology applicable to the project based industry. Ultimately industrial organization research seeks to have direct implications for industry performance and government policies.

Examination of the relationship between advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) and workforce development activities : implications for organisational performance

This study examines the relationship among organisational performance, advanced manufacturing technologies and workforce development activities. A model of this relationship is proposed with the workplace needs acting as a mediator between technology and workforce development activities. This survey examined the technology and developmental practices of manufacturing companies in Hong Kong.

A critical review of performance measurement methods for healthcare facilities management

This paper aims to define the tools used for performance measurement in Healthcare Facilities Management. The research analyses relevant literature on various tools of performance measurement for healthcare facilities. Contributions made from the literature will be divided into three attributes namely soft performance measurement, hard performance measurement and a hybrid performance measurement. The findings discussed in this paper may give valuable insights to service providers with regards to the incorporation of both soft and hard attributes of performance measurement to strategically manage facilities. The organisation business strategy will eventually gain the benefits by cost saving of non-core activities.

Effect of company size on occupational health and safety

It is mandatory in all Australian jurisdictions for construction companies to provide a safe working environment for their workers and sub-contractors. Consequently, occupational health and safety (OHS) is a major issue for construction companies mainly due to the fear of prosecution. The introduction of zero tolerance by the Victorian government “WorkCover Authority” in 1999 provided increased legislative OHS standards for the construction industry. This has placed an increased burden on construction companies especially small firms that are not in a position of financial strength. This research is based on benchmarking study of OHS performance of 44 construction companies in
Victoria, Australia. The results show that the size of the company is a major contributing factor to their OHS performance. Small companies employing less than 25 employees have comparatively low levels of OHS performance compared to larger firms. Company size is a limiting factor that impacts on the ability of small firms to implement comprehensive OHS plans. This research calls into question that notion that increasing legislative requirements will improve OHS outcomes.

Construction capital productivity measurement using a data envelopment analysis

During the past few decades, the construction industry has experienced a series of changes including the innovation of construction technologies and the enhancement of management strategies. These improvements should have had a considerable effect on industrial efficiency and productivity performance, but research is needed to address whether the capital productivity levels of the construction industry have in fact shown such a huge improvement. This paper aims to develop an analysis procedure to measure capital productivity changes and to reasonably quantify factors affecting productivity levels in the construction industry. Based on the data envelopment analysis method, this research has developed a novel model measuring capital productivity and has applied it to the Australian construction industry. The numerical results indicate that the average annual capital productivity levels of the construction industry are slowly growing in all the Australian states and territories except for Queensland and Western Australia. In addition, construction technologies are shown to have a close relationship with the changes in capital productivity according to the temporal-spatial comparisons of productivity indices. The research findings are expected to be beneficial for making policy and strategic decisions to improve the capital productivity performance.

Strategic facilities management system in relation with building performance; the significance and relationship

Healthcare design frequently involves complex concepts that are difficult to measure and evaluate because the building require a modern, quality, functional and therapeutic environment. For this specific reason, facilities management has become a very important support system to ensure smoothness in healthcare business. Facilities management in healthcare building is a complicated system involving multiple layers of administrative division and sub-divisions. Building performance such as building impact, function and quality prove to have significant impact on strategic facilities management. This paper will do an extensive review of strategic healthcare business management as a holistic approach and examine how facilities management can effectively manage their division with consideration and understanding of building performance. The correlation between strategic facilities management and building performance will be identified and a framework for strategic FM system with regards to building performance will be developed.

Management perspective for TQM solution

Quality management is an important research topical in construction industry. The aim of this paper is to review and investigate, via extensive literature reviews, the management perspectives when construction organization implementing total quality management (TQM). If it is successfully operated, competitive advantage will be enhanced that may lead to eight beneficial areas [improve quality and environmental performance; broaden business opportunities; benefit the community; increase market share; improve finance situation; enhance organizational effectiveness; streamline response to legal issues and lessen insurance budget] which favour commercial viability. However, there are challenges in doing so which include inexperience, resources and administrative constraints, inadequate management skill, and cultural differences. Therefore, in order to foster quality culture, it needs four management directions, namely construction management (CM), knowledge management (KM), project management (PM) and human resources management (HRM). One can reasonably conclude that the quality improvements by TQM are going to create long term commercial advantages.

Australian construction SME : management implication of TQM implementation

SME play a major role in the economies and TQM is important in construction industry. The aim of this paper is to investigate, via extensive literature reviews, the management implication of Australian construction SME implementing TQM. In summary, there are four management perspectives: construction management, knowledge management, supply chain management and marketing management to enhance competitive advantage that may favour commercial viability. One can reasonably conclude that the quality improvements will greatly help to create long term commercial advantages.

The mediating role of work climate perceptions in the relationship between personality and performance

Although past research has demonstrated a link between personality and job performance, potential enabling factors of this relationship have yet to be explored comprehensively. We hypothesized that perceptions of work climate, specifically relationship dimensions—cohesion, supervisor support, and job involvement—might be the mechanism through which the relationship between personality and job performance can be explained. Two hundred and thirty Australian employees completed an online survey measuring personality, relationship dimensions of work climate (job involvement, coworker cohesion, and supervisor support) and job performance. Results revealed that the relationship dimensions of work climate fully mediated the relationship between agreeableness and job performance, and extraversion and job performance, while the relationship between neuroticism and job performance was partially mediated by relationship dimensions of work climate. Supervisor support primarily accounted for this mediated effect for the neuroticism–job performance relationship, whereas for extraversion only job involvement explained significant unique variance. Our findings suggest that the relationship of agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism with job performance is indirect, and perceptions of the work environment itself play a role in this relationship. This implies that organizations should consider the work environment, in addition to personality during selection procedures. Future research should examine whether different levels of work environment dimensions, foster greater job performance in employees.

Developing customer-focused public sector rewards schemes : evidence from the Botswana government's performance based reward system (PBRS)

Purpose – Governmental agencies are interested in improving the quality of their service delivery. One tool that has been used to manage their performance is performance based reward schemes (PBRS). The aim of this paper is to examine the degree to which a sample of these plans, used within the Botswana public sector, is customer-focused. Being more customer-focused should deliver improved public sector service quality.

Design/methodology/approach – This study carried out an evaluation of a sample of Botswana PBRS plans, using multidimensional content analysis undertaken by four expert “evaluators”, to identify the degree to which the PBRS were customer-focused.

Findings – Classifying PBRS plans as being customer-focused was difficult, as the plans had few objectives related to customer experiences or outcomes. Those that did had poorly defined performance objectives, their targets were not specific, or there was limited explicit role responsibility. Thus, PBRS plans seemed not to focus on improving customer outcomes.

Research limitations/implications – The PBRS evaluated do not appear to be customer-focused and, thus, would have limited ability to improve customer experiences (i.e. public sector quality). Further research is needed in other countries to see whether these results are generalisable, and whether service levels vary with more customer-focused PBRS plans.

Practical implications – The results suggest improvements that could be adopted by organisations seeking to make their PBRS schemes customer-focused.

Originality/value – Extensive research suggests that PBRS plans can be used to improve service quality. Most of the studies have focused on the employees' perspectives and have not looked at the degree of customer orientation within the plans.

I can see clearly now the moderating effects of role clarity on subordinate responses to ethical leadership

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose – Although there is growing research on the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate work behaviors, limited research has examined the boundary conditions under which ethical leadership is more or less effective. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether subordinate perceptions of role clarity in their job role influence the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate work behaviors. Drawing on both social exchange and social learning theories, the authors predict that in contexts where subordinates perceive low levels of role clarity, the relationship between ethical leadership behavior and subordinate helping and deviant behaviors will be weaker. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 239 employees in the Chinese public sector completed surveys across three separate time points. Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings – Analyses provided support for the hypothesized relationships. When subordinates perceived higher levels of role clarity the positive relationship between ethical leadership and helping behavior was stronger, and the negative relationship between ethical leadership and deviant behavior was stronger. Research limitations/implications – As with all research the findings of this study need to be viewed in light of its limitations. First, the use of data from a single set of respondents opens up the possibility of common method bias. Second, given the study used of a sample of public sector employees from one part of China, there would be value in future research examining whether the findings from the present study are generalizable to other industrial and cultural contexts. Practical implications – This research has a number of practical implications. Given that the authors found a significant positive relationship between ethical leadership and helping behavior, and a significant negative relationship between ethical leadership and deviant behavior, it is crucial for organizations to include ethical training as an essential part of leadership development programs. However, the findings also suggest at the same time as facilitating the development of ethical leadership behaviors amongst supervisory employees, it is important for organizations to also provide employees with clarity over what is expected of them in their jobs, and the means they should employ to facilitate goal achievement. Originality/value – This study responds to recent calls for more research to identify factors which may strengthen or mitigate the influence of ethical leadership in the workplace.