Agencification in Latin countries: Portugal

This chapter provides a broad look at the Portuguese process of agencification in the last two decades. As with most of the remaining chapters in this book, we cover the basics by describing the administrative landscape, its changes in organizational make-up, the delicate balance between control and autonomy in the ministry-agency relationship, perceptual changes in efficiency and performance measurement in public management, based on a comprehensive survey (COBRA survey of the CRIPO research group) sent to all public-sector organizations under public law with some degree of autonomy (see Chapter 1, Table 1.1). Portugal is undergoing the most pervasive politico-economic crisis in its short democratic history. The administrative mapping conducted in 2007 which served as the basis for the administration of the COBRA survey is already undergoing change.

Importância da avaliação de desempenho nas organizações: estudo de caso numa empresa portuguesa no sector alimentar

Dissertação de Mestrado em Finanças Empresariais

Planeamento estratégico através da implementação da metodologia Balanced Scorecard numa empresa de construção

Atualmente, existe uma constante necessidade de inovação tecnológica e organizacional das empresas, face às exigências do mercado e ao aumento constante da competitividade. No contexto da economia atual, e para contrariar a falta de investimento dos últimos anos, as empresas concentram-se no desenvolvimento de negócios bem estruturados e organizados, que satisfaçam as exigências de cada cliente. Revela-se, assim, muito importante a avaliação de desempenho para o alcance do seu sucesso, permitindo alinhar as atividades operacionais com a visão organizacional, fomentar a comunicação da estratégia e gerir o seu desempenho. É neste contexto que ganha importância o Balanced Scorecard, um instrumento que permite avaliar o desempenho organizacional, funcionando também como uma ferramenta de gestão. Tem, portanto, como principais objetivos definir claramente uma estratégia, definir objetivos, indicadores e medidas estratégicas, planear e estabelecer metas e melhorar continuamente os resultados obtidos. Esta ferramenta analisa a organização em quatro diferentes perspetivas: financeira, clientes, processos internos e apendizagem e crescimento. Cada uma delas deve estrututrar os seus próprios objetivos, indicadores, metas e iniciativas de forma a contribuir para o desenvolvimento da estratégia da organização e avaliar o seu desempenho. O desafio deste relatório é adaptar esta metodologia durante a realização de um estágio curricular na empresa Bysteel, que tem por base a implementação de um processo de gestão estratégica nas suas empreitadas, através do Balanced Scorecard. Este planemamento surge como um dos principais requisitos para uma gestão eficaz de custos e de tempo planeados para cada empreitada da Bysteel. Este processo torna-se bastante complexo dado que cada obra apresenta diferentes particularidades. A implementação desta metodologia numa empresa desta dimensão é um fator muito motivador, tornando-se ainda mais interessante pelo facto de se tratar de uma implementação numa nova vertente.

How to monitor and improve Unilever JM Supply Chain processes to become the best of Portugal’s sector in 2015?

Unilever Jerónimo Martins is a Portuguese joint-venture leading firm in what concerns the supply chain industry of fast-moving consumer goods in Portugal. The scope of analysis of this Work Project is focusing on Unilever-JM operations and services in the Portuguese market regarding quality, efficiency and effectiveness over B2B customers. It will be analysed the possibility of development and implementation of a performance measurement system, Tableau de Bord, which will be crucial for the identification of potential opportunities of improvement with impact in the supply chain processes. This will be completed through the establishment of KPI’s to monitor and manage periodically logistics, planning and customer service processes’ performance, which are the ones where the bottlenecks are impacting more in the supply chain. In this work project the nexus causality for the problems will also be discussed and some recommendations will be prepared to tackle the inefficiencies found through the monitoring of the previous core processes, in order to improve efficacy and quality service of the supply chain.

How to increase reach efficiency and effectiveness of MEO’s digital marketing campaigns?

Field lab: Business project

Os desafios da comunicação integrada no grupo dst: fazer negócios a falar de cultura

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Ciências da Comunicação (área de especialização em Publicidade e Relações Públicas)

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) : A pedagogical guide for decision makers in the public sector

This guide introduces Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a performance measurement technique, in such a way as to be appropriate to decision makers with little or no background in economics and operational research. The use of mathematics is kept to a minimum. This guide therefore adopts a strong practical approach in order to allow decision makers to conduct their own efficiency analysis and to easily interpret results. DEA helps decision makers for the following reasons: - By calculating an efficiency score, it indicates if a firm is efficient or has capacity for improvement. - By setting target values for input and output, it calculates how much input must be decreased or output increased in order to become efficient. - By identifying the nature of returns to scale, it indicates if a firm has to decrease or increase its scale (or size) in order to minimize the average cost. - By identifying a set of benchmarks, it specifies which other firms' processes need to be analysed in order to improve its own practices.

Behavioral aspects of investment fund's markets: are good managers lucky or skilled?

It is generally accepted that financial markets are efficient in the long run a lthough there may be some deviations in the short run. It is also accepted that a good portfolio manager is the one who beats the market persistently along time, this type of manager could not exist if markets were perfectly efficient According to this in a pure efficient market we should find that managers know that they can not beat the market so they would undertake only pure passive management strategies. Assuming a certain degree of inefficiency in the short run, a market may show some managers who tr y to beat the market by undertaking active strategies. From Fama’s efficient markets theory we can state that these active managers may beat the market occasionally although they will not be able to enhance significantly their performance in the long run. On the other hand, in an inefficient market it would be expected to find a higher level of activity related with the higher probability of beating the market. In this paper we follow two objectives: first, we set a basis to analyse the level of efficiency in an asset invest- ment funds market by measuring performance, strategies activity and it’s persistence for a certain group of funds during the period of study. Second, we analyse individual performance persistence in order to determine the existence of skilled managers. The CAPM model is taken as theoretical background and the use of the Sharpe’s ratio as a suitable performance measure in a limited information environment leads to a group performance measurement proposal. The empiri- cal study takes quarterly data from 1999-2007 period, for the whole population of the Spanish asset investment funds market, provided by the CNMV (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores). This period of study has been chosen to ensure a wide enough range of efficient market observation so it would allow us to set a proper basis to compare with the following period. As a result we develop a model that allows us to measure efficiency in a given asset mutual funds market, based on the level of strategy’s activity undertaken by managers. We also observe persistence in individual performance for a certain group of funds

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This contribution introduces Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a performance measurement technique. DEA helps decision makers for the following reasons: (1) By calculating an efficiency score, it indicates if a firm is efficient or has capacity for improvement; (2) By setting target values for input and output, it calculates how much input must be decreased or output increased in order to become efficient; (3) By identifying the nature of returns to scale, it indicates if a firm has to decrease or increase its scale (or size) in order to minimise the average total cost; (4) By identifying a set of benchmarks, it specifies which other firms' processes need to be analysed in order to improve its own practices. This contribution presents the essentials about DEA, alongside a case study to intuitively understand its application. It also introduces Win4DEAP, a software package that conducts efficiency analysis based on DEA methodology. The methodical background of DEA is presented for more demanding readers. Finally, four advanced topics of DEA are treated: adjustment to the environment, preferences, sensitivity analysis and time series data.

Aggregation and errors in management accounting

Il est important pour les entreprises de compresser les informations détaillées dans des sets d'information plus compréhensibles. Au chapitre 1, je résume et structure la littérature sur le sujet « agrégation d'informations » en contrôle de gestion. Je récapitule l'analyse coûts-bénéfices que les comptables internes doivent considérer quand ils décident des niveaux optimaux d'agrégation d'informations. Au-delà de la perspective fondamentale du contenu d'information, les entreprises doivent aussi prendre en considération des perspectives cogni- tives et comportementales. Je développe ces aspects en faisant la part entre la comptabilité analytique, les budgets et plans, et la mesure de la performance. Au chapitre 2, je focalise sur un biais spécifique qui se crée lorsque les informations incertaines sont agrégées. Pour les budgets et plans, des entreprises doivent estimer les espérances des coûts et des durées des projets, car l'espérance est la seule mesure de tendance centrale qui est linéaire. A la différence de l'espérance, des mesures comme le mode ou la médiane ne peuvent pas être simplement additionnés. En considérant la forme spécifique de distributions des coûts et des durées, l'addition des modes ou des médianes résultera en une sous-estimation. Par le biais de deux expériences, je remarque que les participants tendent à estimer le mode au lieu de l'espérance résultant en une distorsion énorme de l'estimati¬on des coûts et des durées des projets. Je présente également une stratégie afin d'atténuer partiellement ce biais. Au chapitre 3, j'effectue une étude expérimentale pour comparer deux approches d'esti¬mation du temps qui sont utilisées en comptabilité analytique, spécifiquement « coûts basés sur les activités (ABC) traditionnelles » et « time driven ABC » (TD-ABC). Au contraire des affirmations soutenues par les défenseurs de l'approche TD-ABC, je constate que cette dernière n'est pas nécessairement appropriée pour les calculs de capacité. Par contre, je démontre que le TD-ABC est plus approprié pour les allocations de coûts que l'approche ABC traditionnelle. - It is essential for organizations to compress detailed sets of information into more comprehensi¬ve sets, thereby, establishing sharp data compression and good decision-making. In chapter 1, I review and structure the literature on information aggregation in management accounting research. I outline the cost-benefit trade-off that management accountants need to consider when they decide on the optimal levels of information aggregation. Beyond the fundamental information content perspective, organizations also have to account for cognitive and behavi¬oral perspectives. I elaborate on these aspects differentiating between research in cost accounti¬ng, budgeting and planning, and performance measurement. In chapter 2, I focus on a specific bias that arises when probabilistic information is aggregated. In budgeting and planning, for example, organizations need to estimate mean costs and durations of projects, as the mean is the only measure of central tendency that is linear. Different from the mean, measures such as the mode or median cannot simply be added up. Given the specific shape of cost and duration distributions, estimating mode or median values will result in underestimations of total project costs and durations. In two experiments, I find that participants tend to estimate mode values rather than mean values resulting in large distortions of estimates for total project costs and durations. I also provide a strategy that partly mitigates this bias. In the third chapter, I conduct an experimental study to compare two approaches to time estimation for cost accounting, i.e., traditional activity-based costing (ABC) and time-driven ABC (TD-ABC). Contrary to claims made by proponents of TD-ABC, I find that TD-ABC is not necessarily suitable for capacity computations. However, I also provide evidence that TD-ABC seems better suitable for cost allocations than traditional ABC.

Evaluation of Deicing Materials and Corrosion Reducing Treatments for Deicing Salts, TR-471, 2007

Effective winter maintenance makes use of freezing-point-depressant chemicals (also known as ice-control products) to prevent the formation of the bond between snow and ice and the highway pavement. In performing such winter maintenance, the selection of appropriate ice-control products for the bond prevention task involves consideration of a number of factors, as indicated in Nixon and Williams (2001). The factors are in essence performance measurements of the ice-control products, and as such can be easily incorporated into a specification document to allow for selection of the best ice-control products for a given agency to use in its winter maintenance activities. Once performance measures for de-icing or anti-icing chemicals have been specified, this allows the creation of a quality control program for the acceptance of those chemicals. This study presents a series of performance measurement tests for ice-control products, and discusses the role that they can play in such a quality control program. Some tests are simple and rapid enough that they can be performed on every load of icecontrol products received, while for others, a sampling technique must be used. An appropriate sampling technique is presented. Further, each test is categorized as to whether it should be applied to every load of ice-control products or on a sampling basis. The study includes a detailed literature review that considers the performance of ice-control products in three areas: temperature related performance, product consistency, and negative side effects. The negative side effects are further broken down into three areas, namely operational side effects (such as chemical slipperiness), environmental side effects, and infrastructural side effects (such as corrosion of vehicles and damage to concrete). The review indicated that in the area of side effects the field performance of ice-control products is currently so difficult to model in the laboratory that no particular specification tests can be recommended at this time. A study of the impact of ice-control products on concrete was performed by Professor Wang of Iowa State University as a sub-contract to this study, and has been presented to the Iowa Highway Research Board prior to this report.

Suorituskyvyn menestyksellinen ohjaaminen organisaatiossa

Henkilöstö on yrityksen yksi tärkeimmistä menestystekijöistä ja siksi on tärkeää, että työntekijät ovat sitoutuneita, motivoituneita ja toimivat tehokkaasti. Työn tavoitteena on kehittää organisaatioiden käyttöön suorituskyvyn menestyksellisen ohjaamisen työkalu, jolla voidaan mitata työmotivaation ja toiminnan tehokkuuden taustalla olevia tekijöitä. Kirjallisuudesta, aiemmista tutkimuksista ja haastatteluista selvisi viisi osa-aluetta, jotka vaikuttavat positiivisesti henkilöstön toiminnan tehokkuuteen, työmotivaation ja sitoutumiseen. Osa-alueet ovat tavoitteiden asettaminen, viestintä, henkilöstön vaikutusmahdollisuudet, palkitseminen ja motivointi sekä koulutukseen ja työympäristöön liittyvät tekijät. Jokaisen osa-alueen alle on kerätty kysymyksiä, jotka ovat jaettu kahteen osaan: avainkysymykset ja omavalinnaiset kysymykset. Avainkysymykset ovat sellaisia, joita suositellaan otettavaksi mukaan mittaukseen ja omavalinnaisten kysymysten valinta jää organisaation itsensä päätettäväksi. Näin saadaan organisaatioille mahdollisuus räätälöidä työkalu tarpeisiinsa ja strategiaan sopiviksi. Tutkimukseen empiirinen aineisto kerättiin haastattelemalla. Osallistuneista organisaatioista kaksi oli julkiselta sektorilta ja kuusi yksityiseltä sektorilta. Yksityisen sektorin yritykset koostuvat pienistä, keskisuurista ja suurista yrityksistä. Haastatteluilla kerättiin tietoa työkalun toteutusta ja sisältöä varten. SUMO-kartoituksesta saatuja mittaustuloksia organisaatio voi hyödyntää monella eri tavalla. Esimerkiksi organisaatio voi nähdä osa-alueiden ja toiminnan tehokkuuden kehitystarpeita sekä kuinka henkilöstön toimintaa voidaan tehostaa. Suorituskyvyn mittausjärjestelmän käytöllä on myös positiivisia vaikutuksia mittausosa-alueisiin.

Container Handling Equipment Monitoring System, case: Steveco Oy

Container Handling Equipment Monitoring System (CHEMS) is a system developed by Savcor One Oy. CHEMS measures important information for container ports performance and produces performance indicators. The aim of this thesis was to clarify performance measurement contents to Savcor and to develop, as an example, performance measures to Steveco Oy's container operations. The theoretical part of the thesis clarifies performance measurement and which of its components are important to container port. Performance measurement and measures are presented from the operational level's point of view, in which CHEMS is planned to aim. The theory of development process of performance measures is introduced at the end of the theoretical part. To make sure that performance measures are efficiently used, Steveco Oy's performance measures are developed in cooperation with the users. The measurement in operational level is continuous and the results must be reacted asquickly as possible. CHEMS is very suitable to continuous measurement and to produce real time-measures of container operations which are hard to get any otherway.

Suorituskyvyn johtamisen asiantuntijapalvelun tuotteistaminen

Aiempien tutkimusten mukaan suorituskyvyn mittauksella on selvä vaikutus henkilöstön työmotivaatioon ja toiminnan tehokkuuteen. Tämän vaikutuksen taustalla ovat tavoitteiden ymmärtäminen, viestinnän onnistuminen, vaikutusmahdollisuudet, palkitseminenja motivointi sekä koulutus ja työympäristö. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tutkia suorituskyvyn johtamisen asiantuntijapalvelun tuotteistamista. Tutkimuksessa perehdytään ensin asiantuntijapalvelun tuotteistamiseen kirjallisuuden perusteella,jonka jälkeen tätä teoriaa testataan käytännössä tuotteistamalla case-tapauksena oleva suorituskyvyn johtamisen asiantuntijapalvelu. Asiantuntijapalvelut ovat kaikkein abstrakteimpia palveluja, joten niiden tuotteistaminen on vaikeaa, mutta myös samalla erityisen tärkeää. Ne ovat monesti täysin asiakaskohtaisesti räätälöityjä, joka tekee muun muassa niiden hinnoittelusta ja myynnistä vaikeaa. Tuotteistamalla saadaan esimerkiksi asiantuntijapalveluiden tuottamisprosessit ja hinnat vakioitua, jolloin niiden kannattava myynti helpottuu. Tutkimuksen empiria-osassa tuotteistettiin case-tapaus ja tuotteistuksessa seurattiin erästä kirjallisuudessa esitettyä tuotteistusprosessimallia. Tutkimuksessa selvisi, että asiantuntijapalvelun tuotteistusprosessi sisältää useita eri vaiheita, joiden käsittelyyn on varattava aikaa. Lisäksi on tärkeää tutustua asiantuntijapalveluiden tuotteistamiseen jo ennen tuotteistamisen aloittamista. Suorituskyvyn johtamisen asiantuntijapalveluiden tuotteistamisessa voidaan hyvin käyttää yleisiä asiantuntijapalvelun tuotteistamisen teorioita. Tutkimuksesta saatuja tuloksia voidaan käyttää hyväksi suunniteltaessa ja valmisteltaessa asiantuntijapalvelun tuotteistamista ja tutkimus tarjoaa myös neuvoja tuotteistuksen toteutukseen.

Aineettoman pääoman mittaaminen ja tietämyksen hallinnan kehittäminen metsäteollisuusyrityksessä

Tieto on aina ollut yksi yrityksen tärkeimmistä resursseista, mutta vasta nyt siihen on alettu kiinnittää enemmän huomiota. Tiedonjohtaminen ja tietämyksen hallinta ovat haastavia ja osin hankaliakin toimintoja, koska on vaikeaa johtaa sellaista, mitä ei voi kuvata. Tietojohtamista voidaan kuitenkin ajatella prosessina, joka koostuu useammasta alaprosessista, kuten tiedon hankinta, tiedon luominen, tiedon varastointi, tiedon jakaminen ja tiedon soveltaminen. Kun ongelma-alue pilkotaan pienempiin kokonaisuuksiin, on siihen helpompi vaikuttaa. Tässä diplomityössä kehitettiin Stora Enso Publication Papers Oy Ltd Varkauden tehtaalle toimivia työkaluja/-menetelmiä tiedonjohtamisen ja tietämyksen hallinnan tueksi. Työssä luotiin yrityksen tarpeita vastaava mittaristomalli ja keskityttiin siinä erityisesti aineettomaan pääomaan liittyviin mittareihin. Jotta voidaan mitata jotain, on se ensin pystyttävä kuvaamaan. Siksi työssä käsiteltiin myös prosessijohtamista ja analysoitiin hieman yrityksen prosesseja sekä kehitettiin yritykselle uusi "tietojohtaminen" -prosessi. Mittariston ja prosessin luomisen lisäksi työssä esitettiin muutamia toimivia työkaluja/ menetelmiä tiedonjohtamisen ja tietämyksen hallinnan avuksi. Työn teoriaosuudessa tutustuttiin ensin prosessijohtamisen yleisimpiin teorioihin ja tarvittaviin käsitteisiin. Tämän jälkeen luotiin teoriapohja mittariston rakentamiseksi määrittelemällä käsitteet tieto ja aineeton pääoma sekä käsittelemällä muutamia mittaristomalleja, mittariston rakentamista ja aineettoman pääoman mittaamista. Tutkimuksen empiirisessä osassaanalysoitiin yrityksen johtamismalleja sekä määriteltiin prosessijohtamisessa käytetyt termit teorian pohjalta. Pääpaino työssä oli mittariston rakentamisessa ja tiedonjohtamisen sekä tietämyksen hallinnan tehostamisessa. Mittaristomalli luotiin useamman teorian pohjalta painottuen kuitenkinselvästi Balanced Scorecard -menetelmään. Työn tuloksena oli kattava mittaristomalli, aineettoman pääoman mittareita sekä uusia työkaluja/-menetelmiä tiedonjohtamiseen ja tietämyksen hallintaan.