Acumulação de competências tecnológicas e suas implicações para o aprimoramento da performance técnico-econômica em operadoras e telecomunicações fixas: a experiência da Telemar Norte Leste S.A.

Esta dissertação examina as implicações do processo de acumulação de competências tecnológicas para a melhoria da performance técnico-econômica. Este relacionamento foi examinado na Telemar Norte Leste, empresa prestadora de serviços de telefonia fixa, durante o período de 1998 a 2002. O exame da acumulação de competências é feito tendo como base uma estrutura descritiva existente na literatura e adaptada especificamente para o setor de telefonia fixa. A aplicação de estruturas descritivas para examinar as implicações da acumulação de competências tecnológicas sobre o aprimoramento da performance técnico-econômica, em empresas do setor de telecomunicações no Brasil, ainda é escassa. Esta dissertação realiza essa análise, baseada num estudo de caso individual e fundamenta-se em evidências empíricas qualitativas e quantitativas, obtidas através de entrevistas, observação direta e documentação interna. A acumulação de competências tecnológicas foi estudada em duas funções: "desenvolvimento de processos comerciais, produtos e serviços" e "desenvolvimento de sistemas de telecomunicações e processos operacionais". O exame do aprimoramento de performance está baseado num conjunto de indicadores técnico-econômicos, típicos desse setor. A análise realizada na Telemar identificou que esta desenvolveu esforços que lhe possibilitaram acumular competências inovadoras nestas funções, considerando a estrutura analítica adaptada nesta dissertação, alcançando o Nível 5 ou Intermediário, numa escala de sete níveis. Foram ainda encontradas evidências de influencias positivas para o aprimoramento da performance de vinte e nove indicadores de desempenho analisados, representativos das funções analisadas. Alinhando-se a outros estudos recentes na literatura de empresas localizadas em países em desenvolvimento, as evidências encontradas nesta dissertação sugerem que a acumulação de competências para adaptar, modificar ou criar novas tecnologias é essencial para a sobrevivência e o desempenho competitivo das firmas, exercendo papel fundamental no aprimoramento de seus indicadores de performance. Outros fatores, internos e externos, podem também influenciar a evolução das empresas. Esta dissertação comenta somente a crise mundial do setor de telecomunicações. Provocada pela drástica reversão dos investimentos vinculados à nova economia, desde 2001 tem provocado uma revisão no processo de gestão dos prestadores de serviços de telecomunicações, afetando o desempenho organizacional. Este contexto, no entanto, dada a complexidade de suas implicações, não foram aqui examinados.

Performance and economic indicators of a large scale fish farming in Mato Grosso, Brazil

Performance and economic indicators of a large scale fish farm that produces round fish, located in Mato Grosso State, Brazil, were evaluated. The 130.8 ha-water surface area was distributed in 30 ponds. Average total production costs and the following economic indicators were calculated: gross income (GI), gross margin (GM), gross margin index (GMI), profitability index (PI) and profit (P) for the farm as a whole and for ten ponds individually. Production performance indicators were also obtained, such as: production cycle (PC), apparent feed conversion (FC), average biomass storage (ABS), survival index (SI) and final average weight (FAW). The average costs to produce an average 2.971 kg.ha-1 per year were: R$ 2.43, R$ 0.72 and R$ 3.15 as average variable, fixed and total costs, respectively. Gross margin and profit per year per hectare of water surface were R$ 2,316.91 and R$ 180.98, respectively. The individual evaluation of the ponds showed that the best pond performance was obtained for PI 38%, FC 1.7, ABS 0.980 kg.m-2, TS 56%, FAW 1.873 kg with PC of 12.3 months. The worst PI was obtained for the pond that displayed losses of 138%, FC 2.6, ABS 0.110 kg.m-2, SI 16% and FAW 1.811 kg. However, large scale production of round-fish in farms is economically feasible. The studied farm displays favorable conditions to improve performance and economic indicators, but it is necessary to reproduce the breeding techniques and performance indicators achieved in few ponds to the entire farm.

Leading Safety Indicators: Proactively Monitoring Safety Performance

Traditional measures or indicators of workplace safety performance reflect unrecognized hazards, unsafe conditions, reckless behavior, and other safety program shortcomings only after a worker is injured or falls ill. In contrast to traditional or lagging indicators, leading indicators can predict poor safety performance to ensure that safety program failings are addressed before an occupational injury or illness actually occurs. This Capstone Project identified a variety of proactive safety management practices, policies, and activities shown to have a positive impact on workplace safety as leading safety indicators. The end result is a comprehensive framework of leading safety indicators that employers can use to proactively gauge safety program performance and address unrecognized hazards, unsafe conditions, reckless behavior, and other safety program deficiencies.

Does land fragmentation affect farm performance? A case study from Brittany. Factor Markets Working Paper No. 40, April 2013

Agricultural land fragmentation is widespread and may affect farmers’ decisions and impact farm performance, either negatively or positively. The authors investigated this impact for the western region of Brittany, France, in 2007, regressing a set of performance indicators on a set of fragmentation descriptors. The performance indicators (production costs, yields, revenue, profitability, technical and scale efficiency) were calculated at the farm level using Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data, while the fragmentation descriptors were calculated at the municipality level using data from the cartographic field pattern registry (RPG). The various fragmentation descriptors enabled the authors to account for not only the traditional number and average size of plots, but also their geographical scattering. They found that farms experienced higher costs of production, lower crop yields and lower profitability where land fragmentation (LF) was more pronounced. Total technical efficiency was not found to be significantly related to any of the municipality LF descriptors used, while scale efficiency was lower where the average distance to the nearest neighbouring plot was greater. Pure technical efficiency was found to be negatively related to the average number of plots in the municipality, with the unexpected result that it was also positively related to the average distance to the nearest neighbouring plot. By simulating the impact of hypothetical consolidation programmes on average pre-tax profits and wheat yield, the study also showed that the marginal benefits of reducing fragmentation may differ with respect to the improved LF dimension and the performance indicator considered. The analysis therefore shows that the measures of land fragmentation usually used in the literature do not reveal the full set of significant relationships with farm performance and that, in particular, measures accounting for distance should be considered more systematically.

Community college faculty commitment to Florida performance -based funding indicators for academic programs

In 1996, the State of Florida implemented a performance-based funding program for the Associate in Arts degree offered by community colleges. Additional funds are allocated for distribution among public community colleges based on performance indicators. The indicators are comprised of 10 performance goals that refer to productivity indexed by overall degree completions as well as subgroups: special disadvantaged populations, transfers, job placements, and education acceleration. ^ This study examined the level of self-reported commitment of community college faculty to the 10 Florida performance-based funding indicators for academic programs. Also examined were the relationships between commitment and (a) self-efficacy in contributing to the achievement of the indicators and (b) personal financial reward expectation for contributing to the achievement of the indicators. The relationships between commitment and (a) gender, (b) academic rank, and (c) types of courses taught were analyzed based on secondary analyses. ^ The participants were 303 full-time faculty members of Miami-Dade Community College who taught courses taken by students pursuing the Associate in Arts degree. A questionnaire was developed to measure commitment, self-efficacy, and expectation of financial reward for each of the 10 indicators. ^ The mean composite commitment score for faculty members who responded to the survey was 4.07 in a scale of 1 to 5. Greater commitment was reported for indicators closely related to the traditional mission of community colleges (i.e., facilitating progress of special groups in earning the AA degree in preparation for transferring to a four-year university). Lower commitment was reported for indicators oriented to State priorities such as education acceleration mechanisms and job placements. Commitment was correlated with three variables: self-efficacy, expectation of financial reward, and types of courses taught. However, commitment was not related to gender and academic rank. Although a cause-effect relationship cannot be inferred from this study, the findings depict a positive relationship between faculty commitment to performance-based funding indicators and faculty self-efficacy to contribute to the achievement of the indicators. ^

Performance and economic indicators of a large scale fish farming in Mato Grosso, Brazil

Performance and economic indicators of a large scale fish farm that produces round fish, located in Mato Grosso State, Brazil, were evaluated. The 130.8 ha-water surface area was distributed in 30 ponds. Average total production costs and the following economic indicators were calculated: gross income (GI), gross margin (GM), gross margin index (GMI), profitability index (PI) and profit (P) for the farm as a whole and for ten ponds individually. Production performance indicators were also obtained, such as: production cycle (PC), apparent feed conversion (FC), average biomass storage (ABS), survival index (SI) and final average weight (FAW). The average costs to produce an average 2.971 kg.ha-1 per year were: R$ 2.43, R$ 0.72 and R$ 3.15 as average variable, fixed and total costs, respectively. Gross margin and profit per year per hectare of water surface were R$ 2,316.91 and R$ 180.98, respectively. The individual evaluation of the ponds showed that the best pond performance was obtained for PI 38%, FC 1.7, ABS 0.980 kg.m-2, TS 56%, FAW 1.873 kg with PC of 12.3 months. The worst PI was obtained for the pond that displayed losses of 138%, FC 2.6, ABS 0.110 kg.m-2, SI 16% and FAW 1.811 kg. However, large scale production of round-fish in farms is economically feasible. The studied farm displays favorable conditions to improve performance and economic indicators, but it is necessary to reproduce the breeding techniques and performance indicators achieved in few ponds to the entire farm.

Trade unions and the economic performance of brazilian establishments

Este artigo analisa, pela primeira vez na literatura, o impacto dos sindicatos de trabalhadores em vários indicadores de desempenho econômico de firmas industriais brasileiras. Realizou-se uma pesquisa retrospectiva sobre a densidade sindical de 1000 estabelecimentos industriais brasileiros e seus resultados foram combinados aos indicadores de desempenho econômico da Pesquisa Industrial Anual (PIA) de 1990 a 2000. Os resultados indicam que a relação entre a densidade sindical na firma e seus salários, emprego e produtividade, é não-linear, ou seja, um aumento no grau de sindicalização leva a um melhor desempenho, porém a taxas decrescentes. Observou-se, também, uma relação negativa entre sindicalização e rentabilidade. Finalmente, estabelecimentos que introduziram mecanismos de 'participação nos lucros' aumentaram sua produtividade e rentabilidade no período e pagaram maiores salários nas firmas onde o grau de sindicalização era maior.

A model for heterogeneous networks management and Performance evaluation

In general, modern networks are analysed by taking several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) into account, their proper balance being required in order to guarantee a desired Quality of Service (QoS), particularly, cellular wireless heterogeneous networks. A model to integrate a set of KPIs into a single one is presented, by using a Cost Function that includes these KPIs, providing for each network node a single evaluation parameter as output, and reflecting network conditions and common radio resource management strategies performance. The proposed model enables the implementation of different network management policies, by manipulating KPIs according to users' or operators' perspectives, allowing for a better QoS. Results show that different policies can in fact be established, with a different impact on the network, e.g., with median values ranging by a factor higher than two.

Performance evaluation of hospitals that provide care in the public health system, Brazil

OBJECTIVE To analyze if size, administrative level, legal status, type of unit and educational activity influence the hospital network performance in providing services to the Brazilian Unified Health System.METHODS This cross-sectional study evaluated data from the Hospital Information System and the Cadastro Nacional de Estabelecimentos de Saúde (National Registry of Health Facilities), 2012, in Sao Paulo, Southeastern Brazil. We calculated performance indicators, such as: the ratio of hospital employees per bed; mean amount paid for admission; bed occupancy rate; average length of stay; bed turnover index and hospital mortality rate. Data were expressed as mean and standard deviation. The groups were compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni correction.RESULTS The hospital occupancy rate in small hospitals was lower than in medium, big and special-sized hospitals. Higher hospital occupancy rate and bed turnover index were observed in hospitals that include education in their activities. The hospital mortality rate was lower in specialized hospitals compared to general ones, despite their higher proportion of highly complex admissions. We found no differences between hospitals in the direct and indirect administration for most of the indicators analyzed.CONCLUSIONS The study indicated the importance of the scale effect on efficiency, and larger hospitals had a higher performance. Hospitals that include education in their activities had a higher operating performance, albeit with associated importance of using human resources and highly complex structures. Specialized hospitals had a significantly lower rate of mortality than general hospitals, indicating the positive effect of the volume of procedures and technology used on clinical outcomes. The analysis related to the administrative level and legal status did not show any significant performance differences between the categories of public hospitals.

The state of environmental performance evaluation in the public sector: the case of the Portuguese defence sector

Journal of Cleaner Production, nº 17, p. 36-52

Definição Preliminar das Afluências Indevidas ao Subsistema de Gaia Litoral

O problema das afluências indevidas exerce um impacto considerável, não apenas sobre os sistemas de drenagem de águas residuais, mas também sobre o meio ambiente e as populações e infraestruturas presentes nas áreas de influência. Trata-se de um problema com consequências de dimensões técnica/estrutural, ambiental, social, económico-financeira e de saúde pública. Assim, a minimização das afluências indevidas deve constituir uma preocupação da gestão dos sistemas, visto que a mesma permite que a capacidade de transporte e tratamento instalada seja utilizada para as funções inicialmente planeadas (drenagem e tratamento das águas residuais domésticas) e inclui os benefícios de diminuir os custos associados, melhorar a eficiência dos serviços prestados e rentabilizar as infraestruturas existentes. Do ponto de vista económico, há a possibilidade de intervenção nos casos em que o custo de transporte e/ou tratamento do caudal associado às afluências indevidas é superior ao custo da sua eliminação. Neste sentido, um dos objetivos a atingir pela entidade gestora deverá ser o da redução gradual de afluências indevidas, numa perspetiva de custo-benefício. Neste contexto, o objetivo do presente trabalho - a definição preliminar das afluências indevidas ao Subsistema de Gaia Litoral (incluindo a estimativa dos custos associados) - assume uma importância elevada no controlo e redução dos caudais em excesso, visto que a mesma é parte integrante do plano de minimização de afluências indevidas. No decorrer do trabalho, foram implementados os métodos mais adequados ao tipo e natureza da informação utilizada, de forma a cumprir os objetivos estabelecidos inicialmente. Os resultados obtidos permitiram formular uma definição das afluências indevidas assente em volumes em excesso e seus custos, parâmetros de avaliação e indicadores de desempenho.

Designing and implementing a performance: The case of Estomeo – Dental Industry

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

NAV Portugal's performance within the single European Sky Initiative

NAV Portugal is the Air Navigation Service Provider in Portugal, providing air traffic control services in the airspace under the country’s responsibility. Recently, the company has been included in an initiative launched by the European Commission, called the Single European Sky. This aims for a unification of the European airspace, improving it in four main pillars: safety, capacity, environment, and cost-efficiency. To each of them, Key Performance Indicators need to be computed and monitored, all having pre-defined targets. The presented work project will be analyzing how NAV Portugal is doing in the pillar of capacity, proving suggestions if needed.

Influence on screening performance of second reading strategies in two lowvolume programs

BACKGROUND: The European Guidelines specify a minimum of 5,000 screening cases to be read yearly by radiologists carrying out second reading in non-centralized programs. This professional requirement is difficult to reach and/or to implement in regional programs covering a sparse population with a high number of participating radiology units, so that alternative blind double reading strategies must be devised. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect on breast cancer screening performances of two second reading strategies used in non-centralized, low-volume programs. METHODS: Reading performances in two Swiss regional breast cancer screening programs (cantons of Wallis and Vaud), covering female populations, aged 50-69, of about 31'000 and 72'000 inhabitants were computed and compared. Both programs had similar screening regimens and organizations, but differed with respect to second reading. One setting applied a selective strategy whereby only experienced radiologists performed second reading; the other elicited not to restrict second readers on the basis of their individual screening activity. Analysis included some 140,000 mammograms performed between 1999 and 2005. RESULTS: Overall, screening performances improved with increasing total volume of reading, albeit not in a linear fashion. Regardless of setting, radiologists attained a higher level of screening accuracy when performing second rather than first readings, and incident rather than prevalent screening cases. The effect of a selective, small group of second readers appeared to impact favorably on the false-positive rate and other indicators of screening quality. As the learning curve depends on the number of mammograms read, these distinct strategies may bear different outcome in the long run. Implications and practical issues for low-volume programs are discussed.

Personality traits and virtual reality performance.

BACKGROUND: Surgeons' personalities have been described as different from those of the general population, but this was based on small descriptive studies limited by the choice of evaluation instrument. Furthermore, although the importance of the human factor in team performance has been recognized, the effect of personality traits on technical performance is unknown. This study aimed to compare surgical residents' personality traits with those of the general population and to evaluate whether an association exists between their personality traits and technical performance using a virtual reality (VR) laparoscopy simulator. METHODS: In this study, 95 participants (54 residents with basic, 29 with intermediate laparoscopic experience, and 12 students) underwent personality assessment using the NEO-Five Factor Inventory and performed five VR tasks of the Lap Mentor? basic tasks module. The residents' personality traits were compared with those of the general population, and the association between VR performance and personality traits was investigated. RESULTS: Surgical residents showed personality traits different from those of the general population, demonstrating lower neuroticism, higher extraversion and conscientiousness, and male residents showed greater openness. In the multivariable analysis, adjusted for gender and surgical experience, none of the personality traits was found to be an independent predictor of technical performance. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical residents present distinct personality traits that differ from those of the general population. These traits were not found to be associated with technical performance in a virtual environment. The traits may, however, play an important role in team performance, which in turn is highly relevant for optimal surgical performance.