Business education in operations management

This paper examines trends in the practice of Operations Management and in teaching the field in major Business Schools. Operations Management has been defined as the design and management of transformation processes that create value for society. The operations function is the one function directly involved in that transformation, and hence is directly responsible for the activities that justify the existence of the firm, both economically and as a value-creating organization in society. The top rated schools in Operations Management are the top-rated research-intensive Business Schools in the world. Operations Management is an area that has been undergoing rapid change in response to changes in business practices worldwide. It is at the heart of changes of which the AACSB report Management Education at Risk, August 2002 (p 20), comments of Business Schools in general: ‘With regard to global relevance (of Business Schools), the complex opportunities and challenges that emanate from the world scope of operations, outsourcing, supply chains, partnerships, and financial and consumer markets – all linked in real time through the Internet – are not reflected adequately in curricula and learning approaches.’ Products, and even services, depend increasingly on advanced technology. This is true globally and especially so for countries in South East and East Asia, from which Australian Universities draw a significant number of students. Services operations management has become much more important, while there are both educational and industrial needs in management science or operations research.

Benchmarking for information systems management using issues framework studies:cContent and methodology

As a means of benchmarking their position and assisting with anticipating an uncertain future, the identification of critical information systems (IS) management issues frameworks is becoming an increasingly important research task for both academics and industrialists. This paper provides a description and summary of previous work on identifying IS issues frameworks by reviewing 20 research investigations in terms of what they studied and how they were conducted. It also suggests some possible directions and methodologies for future research. The summary and suggestions for further work are applicable for issues framework research in the IS management field as well as in other business and management areas.

Management and management education in a less developed economy: the case of Malawi

Malawi is seen as a society in transition, and as a consequence, it is argued, Malawian managers face particular problems where traditional and Western values intersect. The role of the Polytechnic of Malawi as a provider of management education in this environment is thus problematical. The thesis begins with a description of the Malawian business environment in its geographical, historical, political, cultural, economic and institutional forms, and then goes on to examine the problems practising managers themselves feel they face, and attempts to explain these problems in terms of the environmental factors described, and the environmental changes taking place. It is concluded, from the analysis conducted, that the environmental features discussed interact in a complex way to make Malawian managers averse to exercising initiative and taking decisions. The question of what the Polytechnic can do to help overcome this aversion is addressed. The field research was conducted in Malawi in the seven months January to July, 1980, during which time 207 questionnaires were administered to junior and middle managers working in all sectors of the economy at levels equivalent to Polytechnic graduate entry. In addition, a number of senior managers (both Malawian and expatriate) were interviewed, a case study was conducted in a manufacturing organisation, and a second questionnaire was administered to all business students at the Polytechnic. Extensive use of official statistics was also made where appropriate.

A soft-computing-based method for the automatic discovery of fuzzy rules in databases:uses for academic research and management support in marketing

The study here highlights the potential that analytical methods based on Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) methodologies have to aid both the resolution of unstructured marketing/business problems and the process of scholarly knowledge discovery. The authors present and discuss the application of KDD in these situations prior to the presentation of an analytical method based on fuzzy logic and evolutionary algorithms, developed to analyze marketing databases and uncover relationships among variables. A detailed implementation on a pre-existing data set illustrates the method. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Sustainability, epistemology, ecocentric business and marketing strategy:ideology, reality and vision

This conceptual article examines the relationship between marketing and sustainability through the dual lenses of anthropocentric and ecocentric epistemology. Using the current anthropocentric epistemology and its associated dominant social paradigm, corporate ecological sustainability in commercial practice and business school research and teaching is difficult to achieve. However, adopting an ecocentric epistemology enables the development of an alternative business and marketing approach that places equal importance on nature, the planet, and ecological sustainability as the source of human and other species' well-being, as well as the source of all products and services. This article examines ecocentric, transformational business, and marketing strategies epistemologically, conceptually and practically and thereby proposes six ecocentric, transformational, strategic marketing universal premises as part of a vision of and solution to current global un-sustainability. Finally, this article outlines several opportunities for management practice and further research. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Advancing theory and research and the British journal of management

In an ecosystem of management journals dominated by US heavyweights, the British Journal of Management (BJM) assumes a unique role. There is no other European business and management journal of the standing and stature of this journal that seeks both to be multidisciplinary and to appeal to a general readership of business and management scholars. This is a tribute to the efforts of previous editorial teams. At the same time, the journal faces the challenge of remaining relevant both to the immediate British Academy of Management community and to the wider scholarly one, while raising its own game in pioneering and leading debates, and in global esteem. © 2014 British Academy of Management.

Performance management and high performance work practices in emerging markets

In this chapter, we discuss performance management systems (PMSs) and high performance work systems (HPWSs) in emerging economies. We start by discussing PMSs, with specific emphasis on PMSs in global organizations. We follow this up with an introduction of HPWSs, and then discuss PMSs and HPWSs in emerging economies. While the list of emerging economies keeps changing, and is rather long, as one might expect, in this chapter we have concentrated on five key emerging economies – China, India, Mexico, South Korea, and Turkey. Performance management is the process through which organizations set goals, determine standards, assign and evaluate work, coach and give feedback, and distribute rewards (Fletcher, 2001). In this connection, organizations all over the world face the challenge of how best to manage performance, including finding ways to motivate employees to sustain high levels of performance. In other words, organizations must develop and implement PMSs that are appropriate for their environment in such a way that high levels of performance can be achieved and sustained over time (DeNisi, Varma and Budhwar, 2008). While all organizations need to address these issues, the way a firm decides to go about addressing these issues is dependent on its location and context. In other words, differences in local norms, culture, law, and technology, make it critical that organizations develop and/or adapt techniques, policies and practices that are appropriate to the setting (see for example, Hofstede, 1993).

Human resource management in China and India

The first decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed further growth in emerging markets, which is significantly influencing the global economic landscape. For the first time in almost two hundred years, it is in this decade that the emerging economies have caught up with, and raced ahead of, the developed ones in terms of gross domestic product. This is a trend that is likely to continue for some time as many of the developed economies struggle to recover from the global financial crisis. In particular, China and India as two fast growing economies are significantly contributing to the world economic growth and are the flag bearers of this transformation. Acknowledged as favourite destinations for global manufacturing (China) and services (India) related outsourcing, both nations offer huge growth opportunities in most products and services. However, in order to sustain their phenomenal economic growth of the past decades, both countries are facing a number of challenges to their human resource management (HRM). From a macro perspective, these issues tend to appear similar (e.g., attraction and retention of talent), but given the significant sociocultural, institutional, political, legal and other differences between the two nations, the logics underpinning the approaches to managing human resources issues appear somewhat different. This chapter therefore aims to highlight the key forces determining the nature of HRM in China and India. The chapter consists of three main sections, in addition to the Introduction and Conclusions.