Examining the role of human resource management in continuous improvement

The objective of this paper is to take a first step in developing a theoretical framework describing the role of HRM in successful CI, based on the current literature from both fields. To this end, elements from the CI Maturity Model and a framework depicting the role of HRM in innovation serve as a foundation for examining how specific bundles of HRM practices utilised during different phases of the CI implementation process may contribute to sustained organisational and enhanced operational performance. The primary contribution of this paper is theoretical; however, the framework has practical value in that it suggests important relationships between HRM practices and behaviours necessary for successful CI. A preliminary test of the framework in an empirical setting is summarised at the conclusion of this paper, where a number of possible research avenues are also suggested.

Complexity and learning behaviors in product innovation

Successful product innovation and the ability of companies to continuously improve their innovation processes are rapidly becoming essential requirements for competitive advantage and long-term growth in both manufacturing and service industries. It is now recognized that companies must develop innovation capabilities across all stages of the product development, manufacture, and distribution cycle. These Continuous Product Innovation (CPI) capabilities are closely associated with a company’s knowledge management systems and processes. Companies must develop mechanisms to continuously improve these capabilities over time. Using results of an international survey on CPI practices, sets of companies are identified by similarities in specific contingencies related to their complexity of product, process, technological, and customer interface. Differences between the learning behaviors found present in the company groups and in the levers used to develop and support these behaviors are identified and discussed. This paper also discusses appropriate mechanisms for firms with similar complexities, and some approaches they can use to improve their organizational learning and product innovation.

Innovation in clinical learning for the acute hospital environment : nursing grand rounds

The literature reports that workload factors affect nurses' ability to fully engage in continuing professional development. Hence the work environment in acute care calls for innovative approaches to achieve continuous development of nursing practice and work satisfaction. This study employs a one group pre-test post-test design to test the effectiveness of nursing grand rounds on nursing worklife satisfaction and work environment in an acute surgical ward. The effect of nursing grand rounds was measured using the Nursing Worklife Satisfaction Scale and the Practice Environment Scale. There was no change between pre- and post-test on these measures but trends were evident in some component scores. Statistical results were inconclusive but observational data indicated that nursing grand rounds was found to be feasible, well attended with tested processes for implementation in an acute care environment.

Landcorp Farming Limited : cultivating livestock, ideas and innovation

In 1987 Landcorp was corporatised as a state-owned enterprise under New Zealand's public sector reforms and began operating as a collection of farms located throughout the country. Twenty years later, Landcorp had established a record of careful land management, productivity growth and solid financial returns, transforming from a fledgling company into one of the country's largest farmers. Landcorp was a major agribusiness with assets of more than $1.4 billion, built on a culture of continuous improvement and an innovative approach to business. The challenge going forward was to continue growth without increasing land ownership : cultivating ideas to grow in less conventional ways. This case study examines the operations, development and innovative approach to business undertaken by Landcorp Farming Limited, concentrating on the challenges faced by the company to maintain profits and growth, and its strategic direction for the future.

Continuous passive motion applied to whole joints stimulates chondrocyte blosynthesis of PRG4

Continuous passive motion (CPM) is currently a part of patient rehabilitation regimens after a variety of orthopedic surgical procedures. While CPM can enhance the joint healing process, the direct effects of CPM on cartilage metabolism remain unknown. Recent in vivo and in vitro observations suggest that mechanical stimuli can regulate articular cartilage metabolism of proteoglycan 4 (PRG4), a putative lubricating and chondroprotective molecule found in synovial fluid and at the articular cartilage surface. ----- ----- Objectives: (1) Determine the topographical variation in intrinsic cartilage PRG4 secretion. (2) Apply a CPM device to whole joints in bioreactors and assess effects of CPM on PRG4 biosynthesis.----- ----- Methods: A bioreactor was developed to apply CPM to bovine stifle joints in vitro. Effects of 24 h of CPM on PRG4 biosynthesis were determined.----- ----- Results: PRG4 secretion rate varied markedly over the joint surface. Rehabilitative joint motion applied in the form of CPM regulated PRG4 biosynthesis, in a manner dependent on the duty cycle of cartilage sliding against opposing tissues. Specifically, in certain regions of the femoral condyle that were continuously or intermittently sliding against meniscus and tibial cartilage during CPM, chondrocyte PRG4 synthesis was higher with CPM than without.----- ----- Conclusions: Rehabilitative joint motion, applied in the form of CPM, stimulates chondrocyte PRG4 metabolism. The stimulation of PRG4 synthesis is one mechanism by which CPM may benefit cartilage and joint health in post-operative rehabilitation. (C) 2006 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oral intake and serum levels of ascorbic acid in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients

Oral intake of ascorbic acid is essential for optimum health in human beings. Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients have an increased need for ascorbic acid, because of increased loss through dialysate, reduced intake owing to nausea and loss of appetite, and increased oxidative stress. However, optimum intake is still controversial. We studied 50 clinically stable patients to determine the relationship between oral ascorbic acid intake and serum ascorbic acid (SAA) level. Total oral intake ranged from 28 mg daily to 412 mg daily. Only one patient had an oral intake of ascorbic acid below 60 mg per day. The SAA levels ranged from 1 mg/L to 36.17 mg/L. Although a strong correlation existed between intake and SAA (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.47), the variation in SAA at any given intake level was wide. Of the studied patients, 62% had an SAA < 8.7 mg/L, 40% had an SAA < 5.1 mg/L (below the level in a healthy population), and 12% had a level below 2 mg/L (scorbutic). None of the patients demonstrated clinical manifestations of scurvy. Our results show that, in CAPD patients, ascorbic acid deficiency can be reliably detected only with SAA measurements, and oral intake may influence SAA level. To maintain ascorbic acid in the normal range for healthy adults, daily oral intake needs to be increased above the U.S. recommended dietary allowance to 80-140 mg.

The role of cross-functional teams on the alignment between technology innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness

Organisations are increasingly investing in complex technological innovations, such as enterprise information systems, with the aim of improving the operation of the business, and in this way gaining competitive advantage. However, the implementation of technological innovations tends to have an excessive focus on either technology innovation effectiveness, or the resulting operational effectiveness. Focusing on either one of them is detrimental to long-term performance. Cross-functional teams have been used by many organisations as a way of involving expertise from different functional areas in the implementation of technologies. The role of boundary spanning actors is discussed as they bring a common language to the cross-functional teams. Multiple regression analysis has been used to identify the structural relationships and provide an explanation for the influence of cross-functional teams, technology innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness in the continuous improvement of operational performance. The findings indicate that cross functional teams have an indirect influence on continuous improvement of operational performance through the alignment between technology innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness.

Motivational Interviewing (MINT) improves Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) acceptance and adherence : a randomised controlled trial

Objective: Adherence to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy (CPAP) for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) is poor. We assessed the effectiveness of a motivational interviewing intervention (MINT) in addition to best practice standard care to improve acceptance and adherence to CPAP therapy in people with a new diagnosis of OSA. Method: 106 Australian adults (69% male) with a new diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea and clinical recommendation for CPAP treatment were recruited from a tertiary sleep disorders centre. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either three sessions of a motivational interviewing intervention ‘MINT’ (n=53; mean age=55.4 years), or no intervention ‘Control’ (n=53; mean age=57.74). The primary outcome was the difference between the groups in objective CPAP adherence at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months and 12 months follow-up. Results: Fifty (94%) participants in the MINT group and 50 (94%) of participants in the control group met all inclusion and exclusion criteria and were included in the primary analysis. The hours of CPAP use per night in the MINT group at 3 months was 4.63 hours and 3.16 hours in the control group (p=0.005). This represents almost 50% better adherence in the MINT group relative to the control group. Patients in the MINT group were substantially more likely to accept CPAP treatment. Conclusions: MINT is a brief, manualized, effective intervention which improves CPAP acceptance and objective adherence rates as compared to standard care alone.

Validation of a new hand-held electronic data capture method for continuous monitoring of subjective appetite sensations

Background When large scale trials are investigating the effects of interventions on appetite, it is paramount to efficiently monitor large amounts of human data. The original hand-held Electronic Appetite Ratings System (EARS) was designed to facilitate the administering and data management of visual analogue scales (VAS) of subjective appetite sensations. The purpose of this study was to validate a novel hand-held method (EARS II (HP® iPAQ)) against the standard Pen and Paper (P&P) method and the previously validated EARS. Methods Twelve participants (5 male, 7 female, aged 18-40) were involved in a fully repeated measures design. Participants were randomly assigned in a crossover design, to either high fat (>48% fat) or low fat (<28% fat) meal days, one week apart and completed ratings using the three data capture methods ordered according to Latin Square. The first set of appetite sensations was completed in a fasted state, immediately before a fixed breakfast. Thereafter, appetite sensations were completed every thirty minutes for 4h. An ad libitum lunch was provided immediately before completing a final set of appetite sensations. Results Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted for ratings of hunger, fullness and desire to eat. There were no significant differences between P&P compared with either EARS or EARS II (p > 0.05). Correlation coefficients between P&P and EARS II, controlling for age and gender, were performed on Area Under the Curve ratings. R2 for Hunger (0.89), Fullness (0.96) and Desire to Eat (0.95) were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusions EARS II was sensitive to the impact of a meal and recovery of appetite during the postprandial period and is therefore an effective device for monitoring appetite sensations. This study provides evidence and support for further validation of the novel EARS II method for monitoring appetite sensations during large scale studies. The added versatility means that future uses of the system provides the potential to monitor a range of other behavioural and physiological measures often important in clinical and free living trials.

Business planning, innovation and performance in nascent firms

Debate about the relationships between business planning and performance has been active for decades (Bhidé, 2000; Mintzberg, 1994). While results have been inconclusive, this topic still strongly divides the research community (Brinckmann et al., 2010; Chwolka & Raith, 2011; Delmar & Shane, 2004; Frese, 2009; Gruber, 2007; Honig & Karlsson, 2004). Previous research explored the relationships between innovation and the venture creation process (Amason et al., 2006, Dewar & Dutton, 1986; Jennings et al., 2009). However, the relationships between business planning and innovation have mostly been invoked indirectly in the strategy and entrepreneurship literatures through the notion of uncertainty surrounding the development of innovation. Some posited that planning may be irrelevant due to the iterative process, the numerous changes innovation development entails and the need to be flexible (Brews & Hunt, 1999). Others suggested that planning may facilitate the achievement of goals and overcoming of obstacles (Locke and Latham, 2000), guide the venture in its allocation of resources (Delmar and Shane, 2003) and help to foster the communication about the innovation being developed (Liao & Welsh, 2008). However, the nature and extents of the relationships between business planning, innovation and performance are still largely unknown. Moreover, if the reasons why ventures should engage (Frese, 2009) –or not- (Honig, 2004) in business planning have been investigated quite extensively (Brinckmann et al., 2010), the specific value of business planning for nascent firms developing innovation is still unclear. The objective of this paper is to shed some light on these important aspects by investigating the two following questions on a large sample of random nascent firms: 1) how is business planning use over time by new ventures developing different types and degrees of innovation? 2) how do business planning and innovation impact the performance of the nascent firms? Methods & Key propositions This PSED-type study draws its data from the first three waves of the CAUSEE project where 30,105 Australian households were randomly contacted by phone using a methodology to capture emerging firms (Davidsson, Steffens, Gordon, Reynolds, 2008). This screening led to the identification of 594 nascent ventures (i.e., firms that were not operating yet at the time of the identification) that were willing to participate in the study. Comprehensive phone interviews were conducted with these 594 ventures. Likewise, two comprehensive follow-ups were organised 12 months and 24 months later where 80% of the eligible cases of the previous wave completed the interview. The questionnaire contains specific sections investigating business plans such as: presence or absence, degree of formality and updates of the plan. Four types of innovation are measured along three degrees of intensity to produce a comprehensive continuous measure ranging from 0 to 12 (Dahlqvist & Wiklund, 2011). Other sections informing on the gestation activities, industry and different types of experiences will be used as controls to measure the relationships and the impacts of business planning and innovation on the performance of nascent firms overtime. Results from two rounds of pre-testing informed the design of the instrument included in the main survey. The three waves of data are used to first test and compare the use of planning amongst nascent firms by their degrees of innovation and then to examine their impact on performance overtime through regression analyses. Results and Implications Three waves of data collection have been completed. Preliminary results show that on average, innovative firms are more likely to have a business plans than their low innovative counterpart. They are also most likely to update their plan suggesting a more continuous use of the plan over time than previously thought. Further analyses regarding the relationships between business planning, innovation and performance are undergoing. This paper is expected to contribute to the literature on business planning and innovation by measuring quantitatively their impact on nascent firms activities and performance at different stages of their development. In addition, this study will shed a new light on the business planning-performance relationship by disentangling plans, types of nascent firms regarding their innovation degres and their performance over time. Finally, we expect to increase the understanding of the venture creation process by analysing those questions on nascent firms from a large longitudinal sample of randomly selected ventures. We acknowledge the results from this study will be preliminary and will have to be interpreted with caution as the business planning-performance is not a straightforward relationship (Brinckmann et al., 2010). Meanwhile, we believe that this study is important to the field of entrepreneurship as it provides some much needed insights on the processes used by nascent firms during their creation and early operating stages.

Technological innovation and operational effectiveness : their role in achieving performance improvements

The purpose of this article is to examine the role of the alignment between technological innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness after the implementation of enterprise information systems, and the impact of this alignment on the improvement in operational performance. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine structural relationships between the set of observed variables and the set of continuous latent variables. The findings from this research suggest that the dimensions stemming from technological innovation effectiveness such as system quality, information quality, service quality, user satisfaction and the performance objectives stemming from operational effectiveness such as cost, quality, reliability, flexibility and speed are important and significantly well-correlated factors. These factors promote the alignment between technological innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness and should be the focus for managers in achieving effective implementation of technological innovations. In addition, there is a significant and direct influence of this alignment on the improvement of operational performance. The principal limitation of this study is that the findings are based on investigation of small sample size.

Continuous positive air pressure treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea patients : effects on sleep quality and quantity as measured by actigraphy

Objectives Actigraphy can reliably assess sleep in healthy adults and be used to estimate total sleep time in suspected obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients. We compared sleep quality for Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) treated OSA patients and controls, evaluating the impact of stopping CPAP for one night. Methods 11 men, aged 51–75 years (m = 65.6 years), compliant CPAP users, treated for 1–19 years (m = 7.8 years) wore Cambridge Neurotechnology Ltd actiwatches for one night while using CPAP and for one night sleeping without CPAP. A control group of 11 healthy men, aged 63–74 years (m = 64.1 years) slept normally whilst wearing an actiwatch. Subsequent daytime sleepiness was recorded using Karolinska sleepiness scores (KSS). Results Actimetry showed no significant differences between actual sleep time, sleep efficiency, sleep disturbance index or number of wake bouts when comparing OSA participants using CPAP, with controls; there was no difference in subsequent daytime sleepiness, control KSS = 4.21, OSA KSS = 4.17. Without CPAP there was no significant difference in sleep length or sleep onset latency compared with using CPAP, but there was a significant impact on sleep quality as shown by: increased sleep disturbance index from 7.9 to 13.8 [t(10) = 3.510, P < 0.05], decreased percent of actual sleep from 92.05% to 86.15% [t(10) = 3.51, P < 0.05], decreased sleep efficiency from 86.6% to 81% [t(10) = 2.204, P < 0.05] and increased number of wake bouts from 29 to 42.5 [t(10) = 3.877, P < 0.05]. Daytime sleepiness became significantly worse increasing from KSS 4.17 to 6.27 [t(10) = )4.96, P < 0.05]. Conclusion There was no disparity in sleep quality or KSS scores between CPAP treated OSA patients and healthy controls of a similar age. Treated OSA patients obtained quality sleep with no elevated day time sleepiness. However, cessation of treatment for one night caused sleep quality to deteriorate despite a comparable sleep time; the deterioration in sleep quality could explain the increase in daytime sleepiness. OSA patients need to know that even short-term noncompliance with CPAP treatment significantly impairs sleep quality, leading to excessive sleepiness during monotonous tasks such as driving. Actigraphy successfully identified nights of non-compliance in treated OSA patients; but did not differentiate between the sleep of CPAP treated OSA patients and healthy controls.

Enterprise systems lifecycle-wide innovation readiness

Enterprise Systems have been touted as a key driver of delivering benefits through innovation in corporate Information Systems. The advent of such systems expects to deliver best practices that improve organizational performance. Yet, most Enterprise System installations struggle to see lifecycle-wide value of it. Considering that Enterprise Systems deliver lifecycle-wide innovation; we observe organizational readiness for lifecycle-wide Enterprise Systems innovation. The A VICTORY apriori model compares contributions of eight constructs for organizational readiness for continuous Enterprise Systems innovation. The model is tested responses of both client and implementation partner. Results indicate that six of the eight constructs of readiness make significant contributions to organizational readiness for Enterprise Systems innovation.

Enterprise system lifecycle-wide innovation - research in progress

Enterprise Systems purport to bring innovation to organizations. Yet, no past studies, neither from innovation nor from ES disciplines have merged their knowledge to understand how ES could facilitate lifecycle-wide innovation. Therefore, this study forms conceptual bridge between the two disciplines. In this research, we seek to understand how ES could facilitate innovation across its lifecycle phases. We associate classifications of innovation such as radical vs. incremental, administrative vs. technical innovation with the three phases of ES lifecycle. We introduce Continuous Restrained Innovation (CRI) as a new type of innovation specific to ES, considering restraints of technology, business processes and organization. Our empirical data collection at the implementation phase, using data from both the client and implementation partner, shows preliminary evidence of CRI. In addition, we state that both parties consider the implementation of ES as a radical innovation yet, are less interest in seeking further innovations through the system.