Une simple amélioration ou une modernisation radicale? La réforme de l'administration de la Commission Européenne

If the need for change and improvement in the Commission’s ways of working became evident as of 1979, the reform process began with the Santer Commission. Although the public management reform seems to focus on reducing personnel and expenses, it goes further in the sense of modernization: budgetary reforms aim at budgeting results and performance; emphasis is put on individual responsibility and evaluation and on a more flexible approach to personnel management, strategic planning, and transfer of authority.

Cadburys' new factory system, 1879-1919

This thesis examines the reasons for Cadburys' move from a city centre site to a greenfield site in Bournville in 1879 and the subsequent development of the factory and the Bournville community. The founding of the Bournville Village Trust by George Cadbury is discussed in relation to the Garden City movement. The welfare and personnel management policies which Cadburys adopted in the 1900s are considered in relation to welfarism in general, especially in the United States. The extent to which the idea of a `Quaker employer' can explain Cadburys policies is questioned both methodologically and empirically. The early use of scientific management at Bournville is described and related to Edward Cadbury's writings on the subject. Finally, the institution of a Works Council Scheme in 1918 is described and its uses are discussed. It is concluded that Cadburys instituted a new factory system in this period which consisted of a synthesis of ideas borrowed from elsewhere and that for a variety of reasons Cadburys was an appropriate site for their implementation.

Facility closure management:the case of Vauxhall Motors Luton

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to present the findings of a study of factory closure management. It details the sequence and the results of the key strategic manufacturing management decisions made from the time of the announcement of the plant closure to the cessation of operations. The paper also includes an analysis of the human resource management (HRM) actions taken during this same time period and their consequences upon all those involved in the closure management process. Design/methodology/approach – The case study methodology consisted of two initial site visits to monitor closure management effectiveness (adherence to plan and the types and frequency of closure management communications). During these visits, documentary evidence of the impact of the closure decision upon production performance was also collected (manufacturing output and quality performance data). Following plant closure, interviews were held with senior business, production and HRM managers and production personnel. A total of 12 interviews were carried out. Findings – The case study findings have informed the development of a conceptual model of facility closure management. Information obtained from the interviews suggests that the facility closure management process consists of five key management activities. The unexpected announcement of a factory closure can cause behavioural changes similar to those of bereavement, particularly by those employees who are its survivors. In addition, similar reactions to the closure announcement may be displayed by those who choose to remain employed by the factory owner throughout the phased closure of the plant. Originality/value – Facility closure management is an insufficiently researched strategic operations management activity. This paper details a recommended procedure for its management. A conceptual model has also been developed to illustrate the links between the key facility closure management tasks and the range of employee changes of behaviour that can be induced by their execution.

Information systems management positions - a market perspective

Information systems (IS) managers have become key senior executives for organising the IT resources for delivering support to businesses. Understanding characteristics of IS managers’ employment positions is hence an increasingly important topic in computer personnel research. An investigation in Singapore that included a job advertisement analysis, surveys and case studies was thus conducted to investigate such aspects. This article presents the findings of the job advertisement analysis concerning what kinds of IS managers the market is seeking and what are the basic conditions for such management positions. The literature in this area asserts that job advertisements represent firms’ wishes and the nature of the conditions required of different IS personnel. The results of this analysis therefore reflect a collective market perspective about the changing IS managerial workplace. The results of the analysis benefit both firms and IS employees in formulating personnel development plans and actions, and raise issues for further research.

Analysing organisational culture : a critical ethnography of public relations and personnel specialists in a state bureaucracy

Following an introductory chapter, I examine (i) typologies which have differentiated the literature on organisational culture and symbolism (Chapter 2), (ii) the contribution of organisation theory to organisation culture (Chapter 3), and (iii) recent literature on organisational culture and symbolism (Chapter 4). Within these chapters, I adopt Habermas' (1972) notion of knowledge-constitutive interests, assessing the contrubutions to understanding organisational culture made by literature guided by technical, practical and emancipatory cognitive interests. In doing so, I suggest that more critical studies on organisational culture and symbolism have been comparatively neglected. Lamenting this neglect, I suggest that Giddens' theory of structuration can be employed to advance the development of a critical, emancipatory conceptualisation of organisational culture. In particular, I argue that this Giddensian analysis, by penetrating the existential, poltical and material processes of cultural reproduction (Chapter 5), is able to disclose some of the more contradictory features of organisation culture. The remainder of the thesis comprises of a critical ethnography of the work cultures of public relations and personnel specialists located in a state bureaucracy. I begin the ethnography with a dicussion of my research methods (Chapter 6) and an overview of the departments studied (Chapter 7): I then examine (i) the work cultures of the specialists (Chapter 8), (ii) the specialists' management of the relationships with the hosts bureaucracy (Chapter 9); and, (iii) opportunities the specialists had for developing an emancipatory praxis (Chapter 10). Finally, in a concluding section, I offer some critical reflections on the contributions of the thesis and suggest areas for future research.

An investigation of managerial skills:Implications for personnel policy

This research explores the conceptual basis in adopting a skills approach to management development. The literature reveals a number of development approaches but only a limited appreciation of how the manager does his job i.e. of the skills that he needs. An investigation of managerial skills was conducted with 10 manager s mainly occupying middle and senior positions. The principal source of evidence was the manager's thoughts on what he did and how he did it, although the interviews were supplemented by formal and informal observation. There was also a dialectic value from discussions with other analysts/managers and empathy between analyst and practitioner also played a part. Each manager was invited to comment upon his own skills analysis as a check upon validity. The study supports the view that the manager similar to other skilled practitioners, is conceptually a model builder and operationally a navigator (Singleton 1978b) . The manager variously holds enactive, pictorial, symbolic and hybrid models that enable him to understand his world and act in it. The universal managerial function is decision making and the study presents a preliminary nomenclature in classifying decision processes or perceptual skills. Managerial skills are also reflected in interpersonal interaction where the hallmark is mutual construction and attribution and in 'self-management’ where the requirement is to cope with the inner rather than the outer world. Differences between the managers are most evident in perceptual skills, the more senior manager requiring increasing ability to process abstract information and take account of environmental uncertainty. He will also make greater use of 'off- line’ information. The practical purpose in studying managerial skills is to facilitate the improvement of managerial performance and the implications of the research for training, selection and appraisal are explored.

A heat metering system for energy management on an industrial site

Faced with a future of rising energy costs there is a need for industry to manage energy more carefully in order to meet its economic objectives. A problem besetting the growth of energy conservation in the UK is that a large proportion of energy consumption is used in a low intensive manner in organisations where they would be responsibility for energy efficiency is spread over a large number of personnel who each see only small energy costs. In relation to this problem in the non-energy intensive industrial sector, an application of an energy management technique known as monitoring and targeting (M & T) has been installed at the Whetstone site of the General Electric Company Limited in an attempt to prove it as a means for motivating line management and personnel to save energy. The objective energy saving for which the M & T was devised is very specific. During early energy conservation work at the site there had been a change from continuous to intermittent heating but the maintenance of the strategy was receiving a poor level of commitment from line management and performance was some 5% - 10% less than expected. The M & T is concerned therefore with heat for space heating for which a heat metering system was required. Metering of the site high pressure hot water system posed technical difficulties and expenditure was also limited. This led to a ‘tin-house' design being installed for a price less than the commercial equivalent. The timespan of work to achieve an operational heat metering system was 3 years which meant that energy saving results from the scheme were not observed during the study. If successful the replication potential is the larger non energy intensive sites from which some 30 PT savings could be expected in the UK.

Budgeting, budgetary control and management information in the highways departments

The need for an adequate information system for the Highways Departments in the United Kingdom has been recognised by the report of a committee presented to the Minister of Transport in 1970, (The Marshall Report). This research aims to present a comprehensive information system on a sound theoretical basis which should enable the different levels of management to execute their work adequately. The suggested system presented in this research covers the different functions of the Highways Department, and presents a suggested solution for problems which may occur during the planning and controlling of work in the different locations of the Highways Department. The information system consists of:- 1. A coding system covering the cost units, cost centres and cost elements. 2. Cost accounting records for the cost units and cost centres. 3. A budgeting and budgetary control system covering, the different planning methods and procedures which are required for preparing the capital expenditure budget, the improvement and maintenance operation flexible budgets and programme of work, the plant budget, the administration budget, and the purchasing budget. 4. A reporting system which ensures that the different levels of management are receiving relevant and timely information. 5. The flow of documents which covers the relationship between the prime documents, the cost accounting records, budgets, reports and their relation to the different sections and offices within the department. A comprehensive cost units, cost centres, and cost elements codes together with a number of examples demonstrating the results of the survey, and examples of the application and procedures of the suggested information system have been illustrated separately as appendices. The emphasis is on the information required for internal control by management personnel within the County Council.

Leadership propensity and sales performance among sales personnel and managers in a speciality retail store setting

We propose that specialty store managers, as well as outside sales personnel attached to the store, have selling responsibilities. In addition, we propose that sales personnel, as well as store managers, should have a propensity for leadership, which reflects an individual's enduring disposition to exhibit leadership within the context of his or her organizational roles. In two studies, we develop a new individual difference measure of propensity to lead and investigate its nomological validity within a specialty retail store environment. As predicted, leadership propensity was predictive of self-rated sales performance and a proclivity to identify prospects through cold calls to close sales, to reveal customer orientation, and to exhibit organizational citizenship behavior. We found that propensity to lead did not differ between salespeople and retail store managers, but we found that the respondent's role moderated the relationship between propensity to lead and supervisor performance ratings. Study limitations and managerial implications of this heretofore unidentified trait of salespeople are discussed.

Introduction : Islam and human resource management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue on Islam and human resource management (HRM). Design/methodology/approach – The paper introduces the papers in this special issue, which further current understanding of the association between Islam and HRM, and HRM practices in Islamic countries. The papers debate whether it makes sense to talk about an Islamic HRM, and try to identify the key features of an Islamic HRM model that is substantially distinctive from existing normative models of HRM. Findings – The papers examine the impact of Islamic values on HRM practices and organisational outcomes, but more research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of the role Islam plays at the work place, and specifically how Islamic ideals, culture, values and norms are used in practice and implications thereof on workplace environment and overall organisational performance. Originality/value – The paper introduces the concept of Islam and human resource management.

Mobile case-based decision support for intelligent patient knowledge management

Hospitals everywhere are integrating health data using electronic health record (EHR) systems, and disparate and multimedia patient data can be input by different caregivers at different locations as encapsulated patient profiles. Healthcare institutions are also using the flexibility and speed of wireless computing to improve quality and reduce costs. We are developing a mobile application that allows doctors to efficiently record and access complete and accurate real-time patient information. The system integrates medical imagery with textual patient profiles as well as expert interactions by healthcare personnel using knowledge management and case-based reasoning techniques. The application can assist other caregivers in searching large repositories of previous patient cases. Patients' symptoms can be input to a portable device and the application can quickly retrieve similar profiles which can be used to support effective diagnoses and prognoses by comparing symptoms, treatments, diagnosis, test results and other patient information. © 2007 Sage Publications.

Integrating skills profiling and purchasing portfolio management:an opportunity for building purchasing capability

Kralijc’s (1983) purchasing portfolio approach holds that different types of purchases need different sourcing strategies, underpinned by distinct sets of resources and practices. The approach is widely deployed in business and extensively researched, and yet little research has been conducted on how knowledge and skills vary across a portfolio of purchases. This study extends the body of knowledge on purchasing portfolio management, and its application in the strategic development of purchasing in an organization, and on human resource management in the purchasing function. A novel approach to profiling purchasing skills is proposed, which is well suited to dynamic environments which require flexibility. In a survey, experienced purchasing personnel described a specific purchase and profiled the skills required for effective performance in purchasing that item. Purchases were categorized according to their importance to the organization (internally-oriented evaluation of cost and production factors) and to the supply market (externally-oriented evaluation of commercial risk and uncertainty). Through cluster analysis three key types of purchase situations were identified. The skills required for effective purchasing vary significantly across the three clusters (for 22 skills, p<0.01). Prior research shows that global organizations use the purchasing portfolio approach to develop sourcing strategies, but also aggregate analyses to inform the design of purchasing arrangements (local vs global) and to develop their improvement plans. Such organizations would also benefit from profiling skills by purchase type. We demonstrate how the survey can be adapted to provide a management tool for global firms seeking to improve procurement capability, flexibility and performance.

Integrating risk management with performance management

This article argues that, post Enron, governance reforms around the world have served to raise the profile of risk management, and emphasise the need for a corporate wide approach to internal control that is overseen by the Board of Directors. In the US, this is most clearly demonstrated by the emergence of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), defined as 'a process, effected by an entity's board of directors, management and other personnel, applied in strategy setting across the enterprise, designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of entity objectives.' (COSO, 2004, p.2). In practical terms, however, the introduction of an enterprise wide holistic risk management system poses a big challenge to all but the smallest of organisations. The financial crisis has clearly shown that enterprise wide risk management remains a dream rather than a reality for even the world's largest and once highly respected companies.

Better queue management in a busy public hospital of a developing country without appointment system::an application using data envelopment analysis

Queuing is a key efficiency criterion in any service industry, including Healthcare. Almost all queue management studies are dedicated to improving an existing Appointment System. In developing countries such as Pakistan, there are no Appointment Systems for outpatients, resulting in excessive wait times. Additionally, excessive overloading, limited resources and cumbersome procedures lead to over-whelming queues. Despite numerous Healthcare applications, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has not been applied for queue assessment. The current study aims to extend DEA modelling and demonstrate its usefulness by evaluating the queue system of a busy public hospital in a developing country, Pakistan, where all outpatients are walk-in; along with construction of a dynamic framework dedicated towards the implementation of the model. The inadequate allocation of doctors/personnel was observed as the most critical issue for long queues. Hence, the Queuing-DEA model has been developed such that it determines the ‘required’ number of doctors/personnel. The results indicated that given extensive wait times or length of queue, or both, led to high target values for doctors/personnel. Hence, this crucial information allows the administrators to ensure optimal staff utilization and controlling the queue pre-emptively, minimizing wait times. The dynamic framework constructed, specifically targets practical implementation of the Queuing-DEA model in resource-poor public hospitals of developing countries such as Pakistan; to continuously monitor rapidly changing queue situation and display latest required personnel. Consequently, the wait times of subsequent patients can be minimized, along with dynamic staff scheduling in the absence of appointments. This dynamic framework has been designed in Excel, requiring minimal training and work for users and automatic update features, with complex technical aspects running in the background. The proposed model and the dynamic framework has the potential to be applied in similar public hospitals, even in other developing countries, where appointment systems for outpatients are non-existent.