Annual report of the Division of Apprenticeship.

Report year ends June 30.

Rethinking management theory and practice for the Indian context:an international management perspective

The Indian economy characterized variously as a slumbering giant, powerful tiger, and the most promising market has witnessed a slowdown, occasional disturbances in the industrial relations space, and attention of the world in the last five years. In this special issue, we raise pertinent questions and present research on multiple dimensions of the dynamic and rapidly changing business environment of India. The suitability of management models and frameworks developed in the North American contexts in emerging markets like India and China is questioned. One example of how the well-established models in the literature on success of international joint ventures were insufficient to explain the success of three international joint ventures in the insurance space in India is presented as case in point. Finally, the nine papers that materially contribute to the theme of this special issue are introduced. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Work, class and conflict: a comparative study of three Cork factories, incorporating oral testimony

This dissertation presents a comparative study of three factories in Cork Harbour area, Sunbeam Wolsey (1927-90), Irish Steel (1939-2001) and the Ford Marina Plant (1917-84). All three factories were significant industrial employers in both a domestic (Irish) and a local (Cork) context and are broadly representative of the Irish manufacturing industry that was developed under the policies of tariff protection introduced in the 1930s and gradually phased out between the late 1950s and the mid-1980s. Sunbeam Wolsey was a textile and clothing concern located on the north side of Cork City that possessed a borderline monopoly within its economic sector and was among the largest private employers of female labour in twentieth century Ireland. Irish Steel was the country’s only steel mill, located on Haulbowline island, a brief ferry-ride from the seaside town of Cobh, and was unusual in being one of the few manufacturing concerns operated as a nationalised industry under the auspices of the state. The Ford Marina plant predated the introduction of protectionism by more than a decade and began as the centre of the Ford empire’s tractor manufacturing business, before switching to the production of private motor vehicles for the Irish market in 1932. All three industries were closed or sold off when the state withdrew support, either in the form of tariff protection (Ford, Sunbeam) or direct funding (Irish Steel). While devoting much attention to the three firms, the central concern of this dissertation is not the companies themselves (though the economic history portion of the dissertation is substantial), but the workers they employed, examining the lives of these individuals both as members of the Irish working class, and, more specifically, as employees of the three factories under consideration. The project can be best described as a comparative factory study, comparing and contrasting the three workforces, focusing primarily on industrial relation and the experience of work. This dissertation utilises both documentary evidence and a significant quantity of oral testimony, breaking new ground by making the workplace the central focus of its investigation. The principal aims of the study are: 1. To document the lives of those who worked in these factories, capturing through oral testimony their subjective experiences of social class and factory life, as well as differences among narrators in terms of gender and status. In achieving this aim, the study will provide a broader social context for its detailed analysis of work and industrial relations in each firm. 2. To analyse the three workplaces and determine how and why each developed such distinct systems of industrial relations at the factory level, as well as to compare and contrast these systems. 3. To examine the nature of work in each factory and to determine how work and industrial relations in each firm developed over time, relating these changes both to internal and external factors. Additionally, the project will provide a comparative analysis of these changes.

Lo que los trabajadores quieren vs. lo que las empresas necesitan. Implementación de las anclas de carrera de Edgar Schein en un contact centre

El compromiso laboral entre los trabajadores y las organizaciones es uno de los activos con mayor poder explicativo para consolidar un alto desempeño e incrementar la productividad. Para lograr eso es fundamental conocer cuáles son las vocaciones de los trabajadores actuales y futuros y de qué manera estas motivaciones de carrera encuentran articulación con la misión y la visión de la compañía. El problema es que las empresas fallan sistemáticamente en este proceso. El modelo de anclas de carrera (ac) de Edgar Schein es una metodología que permite conocer cuáles son las motivaciones de carrera de los individuos. Este documento tiene como propósito establecer un vínculo entre las ac y los procesos de selección, vinculación, y retención del capital humano en un contact centre que se desempeña en Bogotá, Colombia. Para alcanzar este propósito, se implementó el modelo de ac en una muestra de 116 trabajadores del área de gestión de esta compañía. El informe presenta el análisis de resultados y las propuestas sugeridas por los autores a la gerencia de la compañía.

Diferencias regionales en las estructuras de ingresos laborales en Colombia

Dada la persistencia de las diferencias en ingresos laborales por regiones en Colombia, el presente artículo propone cuantificar la magnitud de este diferencial que es atribuida a la diferencia en estructuras de mercado laboral, entendiendo esta última como la diferencia en los retornos a las características de la fuerza laboral. Para ello se propone el uso de un método de descomposición del tipo Oaxaca- Blinder y se compara a Bogotá –la ciudad con mayores ingresos laborales- con otras ciudades principales. Los resultados obtenidos al conducir el ejercicio de descomposición muestran que las diferencias en estructura están a favor de Bogotá y que estas explican más de la mitad de la diferencia total, indicando que si se quieren reducir las disparidades de ingresos laborales entre ciudades no es suficiente con calificar la fuerza laboral y que es necesario indagar por las causas que hacen que los retornos a las características difieran entre ciudades.

Supply chain integration model: practices and customer values

Dissertation to obtain PhD in Industrial Engineering

Prácticas comunicativas forenses: Las relaciones intertextuales en el examen de testigos. Forensic communicative practices: intertextual relations in examination of witnesses.

Inscripto en el análisis del discurso interaccional de tradición angloamericana y optando por un abordaje metodológico etnográfico, este proyecto plantea investigar las relaciones entre textos orales y entre textos orales y escritos vinculados en cadenas textuales en un acontecimiento comunicativo institucional en el que tales relaciones tienen consecuencias directas en la confiabilidad de la información e intervienen en la construcción del conocimiento oficial. La situación comunicativa elegida es el examen y el contraexamen de testigos comunes durante procesos penales orales, de formato común no abreviado, en la jurisdicción de Córdoba capital. En las interacciones verbales con litigantes y jueces en las que emerge el testimonio se ponen en juego otros textos orales (en forma de citas de lo dicho antes por el mismo testigo u otras personas, referencias a rumores u opiniones colectivas, etc.) y textos escritos (actas de secuestro, informes periciales, actas de las declaraciones testimoniales en la etapa de instrucción, etc.). El foco de atención son las prácticas asociadas a la intertextualidad puesto que condicionan el carácter de la prueba testimonial producida ante el juzgador. Postulamos que los litigantes despliegan tácticas locales y estrategias globales reconocibles y recurrentes vinculadas al tratamiento de diversas categorías de textos previos. Además, planteamos averiguar si la participación de los jueces en interacción con los testigos es de suficiente injerencia como para ser un modo importante de generación de prueba testimonial. El enfoque metodológico general es etnográfico y analíticodiscursivo. Se seleccionará una causa por delito grave, se presenciará el debate en la cámara y se registrará el audio de todas las audiencias. Los datos a analizar serán los segmentos en las interacciones en los que se incorpora la lectura o se cita las actas de las declaraciones indagatorias o testimoniales anteriores, y los segmentos en los que se requiere, en calidad de prueba testimonial, la reproducción de dichos. Se procederá a partir de los detalles de la superficie textual y la pragmática de los intercambios y aprovechando el valor heurístico del concepto de voz, buscando identificar patrones recurrentes y los mecanismos generales que los rigen. Sobre esa base, se considerarán los intercambios verbales como interacción social que emerge moldeada por condiciones situacionales e institucionales y otros factores, tales como la incidencia de la pertenencia a grupos sociales o profesionales. Con el estudio se obtendrá una visión de prácticas cotidianas asociadas a la intertextualidad que son de crucial importancia para el carácter de la prueba testimonial producida ante el juzgador. Este paso nos acercará a conocer cómo se lleva a cabo efectivamente la administración de justicia penal y permitirá valorar los patrones de conducta a la luz de las normas procesales. In line with the Anglo-American tradition of situated discourse analysis, this project aims at tracing the links between oral texts and between oral and written texts related in textual chains which are present in an institutional event in which such relations have a direct consequence on the reliability of the information given and have an impact on the construction of what counts as official knowledge. The communicative situation under study is that of the direct and cross-examination of lay witnesses during a criminal trial in the city of Córdoba. During the face-to-face interactions between trial lawyers and judges in which the testimony takes place, other oral texts and written texts get incorporated. The focus of this research is centered on practices of intertextuality as they condition the nature of the oral evidence produced. It is argued that trial lawyers use recurrent local tactics and global strategies that are related to the treatment given to different categories of previous texts. Another aim of this study is to examine if judge’s interventions have an impact on the generation of the oral evidence. The data will come from a criminal trial that will be audio-taped in its entirety. Ethnographic observations of a criminal trial will be made. The focus of analysis will be on segments of interactions in which previous texts are read aloud or incorporated as quotes. After carrying out a detailed analysis of the surface of texts and the pragmatics of the exchanges, recurrent patterns and the general mechanisms that condition their emergence will be described. In this way, verbal exchanges will be considered social interactions that unfold conditioned by situational, institutional and social factors. This study will examine the relationship between intertextuality and the institutional practice of providing oral evidence. This will help understand how justice is actually administered and how patterns of behavior are valued according to institutional norms.

Improving demand forecasting practices in the industrial context

Demand forecasting is one of the fundamental managerial tasks. Most companies do not know their future demands, so they have to make plans based on demand forecasts. The literature offers many methods and approaches for producing forecasts. When selecting the forecasting approach, companies need to estimate the benefits provided by particular methods, as well as the resources that applying the methods call for. Former literature points out that even though many forecasting methods are available, selecting a suitable approach and implementing and managing it is a complex cross-functional matter. However, research that focuses on the managerial side of forecasting is relatively rare. This thesis explores the managerial problems that are involved when demand forecasting methods are applied in a context where a company produces products for other manufacturing companies. Industrial companies have some characteristics that differ from consumer companies, e.g. typically a lower number of customers and closer relationships with customers than in consumer companies. The research questions of this thesis are: 1. What kind of challenges are there in organizing an adequate forecasting process in the industrial context? 2. What kind of tools of analysis can be utilized to support the improvement of the forecasting process? The main methodological approach in this study is design science, where the main objective is to develop tentative solutions to real-life problems. The research data has been collected from two organizations. Managerial problems in organizing demand forecasting can be found in four interlinked areas: 1. defining the operational environment for forecasting, 2. defining the forecasting methods, 3. defining the organizational responsibilities, and 4. defining the forecasting performance measurement process. In all these areas, examples of managerial problems are described, and approaches for mitigating these problems are outlined.

Purchasing Process of Industrial Solutions – Added Value, Difficulties and Good Practices

Purpose of this study is to clarify the industrial solutions purchasing process from purchaser companies’ point of view. Also customer’s view on value generating aspects and difficulties in purchases will be discussed as well as different purchas-ing entities where customers have ended up in their solution purchases. Current solution literature is mainly concentrated in supplier views and customer perspec-tive has been left without adequate attention. However, knowledge of the customer and the identification of customer need are at the core of a successful solution business. The focus of this thesis is on Finnish companies’ solution purchases that have been realized during last five years. Industrial solutions in this case are facto-ries or other large industrial plants. Industrial solutions’ purchasing process will be opened all the way from discovering the need until the start-up of the plant. Of in-terest is the customer experience of the success of the acquisition and the pur-chaser’s view on good practices allowing a successful procurement project.

Studies on fish waste management practices in Aroor Seafood Industrial Belt, Kerala and conversion of seafood waste into a liquid plant growth supplement

This study was materialized to analyze the management issues regarding the seafood processing waste generated including its impact on the coastal community in one of the important seafood hubs of India Aroor Seafood Industrial Belt Alappuzha District Kerala The area has witnessed serious pollution issues related to seafood waste and seldom has any action been implemented by either the polluters or the preventers Further this study is also intended to suggest a low cost eco friendly method for utilizing the bulk quantity of seafood solid waste generated in the area for the promotion of organic farming The high nutritional value of seafood enables the subsequent offal to be considered as an excellent source for plant nutrition The liquid silage accepted worldwide as the cheapest and practical solution for rendering fish waste in bulk for production of livestock feed is adopted in this study to develop foliar fertilizer formulations from various seafood waste The effect of seafood foliar sprays is demonstrated by field studies on two plant varieties such as Okra and Amaranthus

Visual practices and the objects of design

Recent interest in material objects - the things of everyday interaction - has led to articulations of their role in the literature on organizational knowledge and learning. What is missing is a sense of how the use of these 'things' is patterned across both industrial settings and time. This research addresses this gap with a particular emphasis on visual materials. Practices are analysed in two contrasting design settings: a capital goods manufacturer and an architectural firm. Materials are observed to be treated both as frozen, and hence unavailable for change; and as fluid, open and dynamic. In each setting temporal patterns of unfreezing and refreezing are associated with the different types of materials used. The research suggests that these differing patterns or rhythms of visual practice are important in the evolution of knowledge and in structuring social relations for delivery. Hence, to improve their performance practitioners should not only consider the types of media they use, but also reflect on the pace and style of their interactions.

Institutional legacies and capabilities: work practices and employment relations in Portugal and Mozambique

This is a study of institutional change and continuity, comparing the trajectories followed by Mozambique and its formal colonial power Portugal in HRM, based on two surveys of firm level practices. The colonial power sought to extend the institutions of the metropole in the closing years of its rule, and despite all the adjustments and shocks that have accompanied Mozambique’s post-independence years, the country continues to retain institutional features and associated practices from the past. This suggests that there is a post-colonial impact on human resource management. The implications for HRM theory are that ambitious attempts at institutional substitution may have less dramatic effects than is commonly assumed. Indeed, we encountered remarkable similarities between the two countries in HRM practices, implying that features of supposedly fluid or less mature institutional frameworks (whether in Africa or the Mediterranean world) may be sustained for protracted periods of time, pressures to reform notwithstanding. This highlights the complexities of continuities which transcend formal rules; as post-colonial theories alert us, informal conventions and embedded discourse may result in the persistence of informal power and subordination, despite political and legal changes.

Best practices for the implantation of ISO 14001 norms: a study of change management in two industrial companies in the Midwest region of the state of São Paulo - Brazil

Among the difficulties found in the implementation of ISO 14001 systems, resistance to change can always be found. It is mainly a consequence of the hurry to change, loss of focus, concentration of decision making at the level of top management, arbitrary imposition of objectives and results, faulty communication, and the absence of motivational and financial incentive for change.Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to present best practices with respect to the management of organizational change due to the implementation of ISO 14001 norms in two industrial companies in the Midwest region of the State of São Paulo - Brazil. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.